Sep 5, 2023
Even though the Super Sentai tokusatsu series has quite a bit of worldwide popularity under the name of Power Rangers, very little Super Sentai manga has been translated into English. One of the few English-translated Super Sentai manga is the manga for the original Super Sentai series, Gorenger. Unlike the familiar Power Rangers setup where the enemy is an alien invader, the enemy in this manga is a corrupt Earth organization, the Black Cross Army. This is similar to Shocker in the original Kamen Rider series, another Shotaro Ishimori creation.
While this may seem to be a simple fighting manga, it does get into a
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bit of character depth, complexity, and more serious themes; however, the manga remains more action and plot oriented. The actual plots are fairly entertaining, if not simplistic, toku plots. If you were expecting mecha, there is very little of that in here, since the Rangers fight in their suits and travel in a cool retrofuturistic flying vehicle that's hidden underground and comes out of an ordinary smokestack! There is, however, a pretty cool dino mecha. I also found it interesting that there was a glutton character in this manga, similar to Musashi in Getter Robo. There was also a robot reminiscent of Robby the Robot from the 1956 film Forbidden Planet.
The character designs are good. The humans have typical 1970s manga character designs, which I enjoy, and the costume designs are nice as well. If you're familiar with Power Rangers, the costumes' design motifs will be familiar to you, and that's not a bad thing in my opinion.
As is the case with these older action manga, especially those intended to advertise a TV show, the ending may feel abrupt to some readers, with no real conclusion. However, if you view this as an anthology of Gorenger stories, the ending will make more sense.
This manga has good fights, cool retro designs, and interesting plots, with a bit of weightiness in terms of themes and characters to keep it grounded. It has no fanservice either. I highly recommend it if you enjoy tokusatsu or are curious about the genre, like action manga, or want a manga with no fanservice.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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