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kamenstranger · 4 months ago

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Ninja Sentai Kakuranger Review

I mentioned waaay back at the end of my Dairanger review that the final episode leaned hard into the comedy, inferring a sign of things to come. Indeed, the follow up series Kakuranger is far more comedic than Dairanger was.

However, one of the things that came as a bit of a surprise is how subdued Kakuranger's absurdity was compared to the impression the osmosis had given me. Oh, sure, it's laden with jokes and it gets bonkers with things like the infamous burger transformation, the Snowman fight, or a bull fighing a ninja cowboy. The show rarely takes itself completely seriously. I mean they have onomatopoeia effects like Batman '66 for cryin' out-loud. But on the whole? It's not that far off from most other Sentai of the era. I would argue Ohranger was WAY more goofy (and tonally dissonant) than Kakuranger ever was. Heck, it wouldn't be inaccurate to just say it's Dairanger's tone reversed. Kakuranger has moments of stentorian gravitas, they're simply spread out in much the same way the comedy episodes of Dairanger were. Honestly? I think that's about perfect.

But I've talked enough around the show, let's dive into the story proper.

400 years ago a war between the Yokai and the human came to a close when a team of ninjas along with three gods came together and sealed the vast majority of the creatures away. But not all the Yokai were trapped. In the contemporary era of 1994, two descendants of those legendary Ninjas are tricked by a Kappa into undoing the seal, unleashing all but the most powerful Yokai upon Japan. It then falls to them and 3 others to unite and harness their ninja abilities to defeat and reseal the Yokai.

Sasuke/NinjaRed Teruaki Ogawa

Of all the members, Sasuke is perhaps the one to have the most growth from where he starts. At first he's this sorta slacker with a gulible bend to him and maybe even a tad selfish (it's a love of money that leads him to unwittingly unleash the yokai.) He's not a bad person, but certainly different from where he ends up by the midway point as a more mature and reliable member of the team.

Saizo/NinjaBlue Hiroshi Tsuchida

Saizo is good friends with Sasuke and is even more troublesome than he is. He's incredibly boastful and a tad full of himself to the point of greatly overestimating his abilities, though there is some truth in that he's arguably the best swordsman on the team. Ironically, despite his skilled nature he's a bit lazy and has a great tendency to overreact and panic, most likely due to having the absolute worst luck of any one else of the team.

Tsuruhime/NinjaWhite Satomi Hirose

Tsuruhime is initially the most informed and mature of the members, a fact made all the more humorous given she's the youngest member at a scant 15 years of age. Yet she holds her own against the buffoonery of her compatriots and reining in their antics. After all, she is the true leader of the Kakuranger and the only one whose family has kept up their lineage.

Of all the characters, Tsuruhime is the one I find most compelling because of that dynamic of a young teenage girl leading a unit of 20 something jackasses. I have to give praise to Hirose in the role. She was actually 15 at the time and she is fantastic, on par with her much older co-stars. She would also become one of the more developed characters, being almost as prominent as Sasuke in terms of character focused episodes-- with a few caveats I'll get to later.

Seikai/NinjaYellow Shu Kawai

Seikai likes food, women, and sleeping. I relate to him most of all. Jokes aside, I do like Seikai. He's a nice complement to Sasuke and Saizo's antics. As time goes on, Seikai and Saizo would become fast friends and the defacto trouble makers, often paired together in the later episodes to comedic effect. They're sort of the refined versions of Dan and Boi from Zyuranger and the prototypical 90s slacker dumbass pairing.

Jiraiya/NinjaBlack Kane Kosugi

The thing that stands out most about Jiraiya is also the thing the stands out most about his actor; he's American. Kane Kosugi is the son of famous Ninjasploitation actor, Sho Kosugi. Kane is from California and didn't speak a lick of Japanese when he took the role, but in a weirdly meta narrative they made Jiraiya this stereotypical cowboy from California who couldn't speak Japanese. And that's kinda funny, right? Even putting aside the stuff with Kane, just the idea of this descendant of a legendary ninja warrior being so far removed from the original culture is a fun if not original idea. Kinda of a shame they don't do a whole lot with it beyond having Jiraya be good with revolvers, though.

Which I should note as the series goes on Jiraiya starts to speak more Japanese, sometimes just repeating obvious phonetics given just before filming, but eventually proper sentences-- I presume as Kane himself began to learn. What's interesting to me is that Kane's English delivery sounds… odd at first, but the Japanese dialogue sounds natural once he gets the hang of it. I gotta wonder if that's just a direction thing as a result of the language or if it's just the language barrier on my end. Does his Japanese sound stiff to that audience? Curious to know.

Which, I've spent more time talking about the meta aspect than on the character himself, and that's because "Guy from California is cowboy" is kinda all Jiraiya has for a while. Although you will probably be surprised by how good his character focused episodes are, which have a surprising amount of heart.

Announcer Enjoh Sanyutei

This is an interesting character because he simultaneously exists as a fourth wall breaking narrator mostly to provide the origins and folklore around Yokai and sometimes providing commentary to the episodes; while also still being a character in the show itself. He only appears in 25 episodes, the first 24 plus ep 39, but he leaves a hell of an impression as Senyutei was a professional rokugoka.

Sandayuu Momochi Akira Sakamoto Sandayuu is your prototypical mystery sensei, which I guess is to be expected give his namesake. He shows up out of nowhere to impart some cryptic wisdom in antiquated speech, and occasionally assists in a pinch. He clearly knows far more than he's letting on at any given time and seems to have his own agenda, but one that's always helpful with the best intentions in the end.

Muteki Shogun. VA:Tomoyuki Horita

Technically a character although just barely. Muteki Shogun is one of the gods that fought alongside the Kakuranger's ancestors 400 years ago and is the only one currently active from the start of the series. In his alternate mode he's a Japanese Castle, the "Wind Illusion Castle." which serves as a safe haven when things get too tough.

Kakuranger was Written by the late Noboru Sugimura and this is his third entry to the franchise, so these opening episodes should feel familiar by now; establishing the character dynamics, the initial conflicts, a couple of the members being a bit irresponsible; even a few parallels to Journey West characters (albeit more downplayed than Dairanger) and the big robo being a god. There's also a few surprises, like the main team coming together slowly over 3 episodes rather than being pre-established like Zyuranger or assembled in one go as in Dairanger. Heck, they even address the need for money by having the team sell crepes from a food truck and living a nomadic lifestyle. Modern day traveling ninjas.

The food truck is also a Yokai named Nekomaru.

If that didn't clue you in, Kakuranger has a heavy emphasis on the Japanese folklore, but often in a contemporary fashion. The vast majority are of course cribbing from mythology, but many of them are twisted into a more unique interpretations. Oboroguruma was an Ox cart with a humanoid face upon it, but in Kakuranger it's a humanoid taxi cab. Makes sense. Other times they get a bit more creatively radical, such as Mokumokuren, a yokai made up of eyes the lives in torn shoji. Well, in Kakuranger they mixed that with another Yokai, Hyakume, resulting in a flesh homunculus with a skin overcoat lined with eyes. Or Ōmukade, literally just a Giant centipede. In Kauranger it's an American football playing centipede that sabotages Christmas presents.

Like I said, creative.

While a lot of the story elements are familiar by now, Sugimura had a talent for meshing different archetypes and having them play off each other, which Kakuranger is still great with. The first half of the series also shares a lot of structural similarities to Sugimura's Rescue series entries; Villains tend to appear early, some take two episodes to defeat while introducing another near the end, and a very select few will stick around for narrative purposes. Such as Professor Yugami, you're typical mad scientist.

A Few episodes later we're introduced to our first major General of the series: Young Noble Junior (Kenichi Endo) later revealed to be the Gashadokuro Yokai. Junior is this punky unruly force. Kenichi Endo's vocal performance in particular elevates the character to such a fun chaotic villain. That said, Junior never exhibits the qualities of a big bad, he certainly feels closer to an underlining-- and he is, as we'll soon learn. Still, he's a lot more clever than his strongheaded persona let's on. Junior is able to unite the Yokai under a single banner to oppose the Kakuranger with further plans to eradicate humanity. It's these mid teen episodes that really kick off Kakuranger and firmly establish an ongoing story. In practice it doesn't change that much from the day to day skirmishes we were getting beforehand, but there is a more sound structure to the Yokai attacks, a more outright malevolent intention as opposed to some of the earlier yokai losing their cool at arrogant humans encounters.

Additionally, Dr. Yagumi would work on modifying or creating new adversaries for the Kakuranger to face, the greatest of these being the Flowery Kunoichi Team, an all female ninja counterpart to Kakuranger created from...cats.

That's YellowFour there in the light pink.

They are fantastic. Not character-wise (hell, they're not even archetypes) but they're a major threat and they help deliver what I believe to be our first truly fantastic episode of Kakurange: episode 15. It's the first time the team goes up against such overwhelmingly skilled opponents. Compounding matters is it's not just the Kunoichi, but the Shuten Douji Brothers as our monsters of the week. The episode builds up the brothers as these amazing swordsman, but they're still no match for Saizou, who single-handedly gets both on the ropes… until Tsuruhime is overwhelmed by the Kunoichi, turning the tide. After Saizou falls, the rest are no match. Sasuke is wounded by the Kunoichi and barely escapes.

This leads into what I mentioned earlier about Sasuke's growth. The follow up is simply a good character focused episode for him, placing him in the roughest scenario yet by rescuing the team solo. We see him in a lot more serious light than prior, showing his reliability as second in command. When push comes to shove he can put aside the buffoonery handle the situation.

Our next major entry is in the two-parters ep 23: Blitzkrieg!! The Strange White Bird and ep. 24: Ah, It's All Over.

Here the groundwork begins to be laid for a new arc, with Junior beginning a ritual to break open the Door of Seals and free the greatest Yokai of all, Daimaou. Children are turned to stone and their life drained, the Kakuranger seemingly powerless to stop it. Even Muteki Shogun falls in battle, only for the second of the heavenly trio, Tsubasamaru, to swoop in to save the day by forming Super Muteki Shogun.

This however was a one off from Sandayuu. He warns that the Kakuranger are no match for Junior/Gashadokuro. Regardless the team heads into battle to stop the ritual, even besting the Flowery Kunichi for the first time in an all out fight.

Gashadokuro is on a completely different level. He barely lifts a finger before completely wrecking the Kakuranger. Gashadokuro continues the ritural, lifting a chunk of the city into the air as even more people, even adults, are turned to stone. In one months time the Ritual will be complete and Daimaou freed.

The team, defeated, is whisked away to the Illusion Castle. Sandayuu tells them the story of the Three Heavenly Generals. 2,000 years ago they fought the yokai as the 3 sages, sealing them and their leader Daimaou. The sages would transmogrify into the Three Heavenly Generals; Muteki Shogun, Tsubasamaru, and Kakure Daishogun, continuing to fight the yokai and prevent Daimaou's resurrection along side the Kakuranger's ancestors 400 years ago.

If the team is to stand a chance against Gashadokuro, they must master heart, body, and technique, only then will they be able to freely wield the three generals. More to the point, the third god, Kakure Dashogun, is sealed in 5 shinobi scrolls, which scattered 2,000 years ago. They must not only find the scrolls, but surpass trials to gain them. With only a month and a vague map giving a broad general location, the team must for the first time separate to track down the scrolls within the time frame.

This concludes Act 1 With episode 25 we begin Act 2: Youth Battle Saga.

From 25-29 we see the group separating to track down mystical scrolls for new -toys- powers. This gives the show an opportunity to do character centric stories on each member. For the sake of brevity I won't spend too much on these. Sasuke gets a decent solo episode, while Seikai and Saizo get a fun comedic episode. But it's Tsuruhime's and Jiraiya's which are the highlights.

Tsuruhime's delves into her backstory; how her two adopted brothers, Taro and Jiro, disappeared when she was still young; her secret life as a rich girl, which plays a part in the pressure she feels to not allow herself to be carried through life. To say nothing of her father's death always looming because of her inherited role as leader.

She also struggles with her headstrong personality and overcoming what she views as inadequacies-- yet at the same time that lack of trust in the team or her ability to rein them in is perhaps revealing a deeper issue; that she doesn't have confidence in herself. I think this plays out nicely as a contrast to Sasuke's episode where he had to rescue the team by himself. That balance of needing to operate both individually and as a unit. (Although it's not lost on me that this particular framing likely would not have been applied to Sasuke if the roles were reversed.)

Of course she's now flying solo and is having great difficulties working alone. Sandayuu comes along with some magical assistance in the form of mechanical doll copies of the other Kakurangers. We're also introduced to a new child character named Bun, along with two German Shepherds, who help Sandayuu. Bun be important later.

But there's another much harsher lesson to be gleaned from this than simply accepting help, which is seeing the dolls killed off one by one as they protect Tsuruhime. Even though they are ultimately objects, the visualization is still very much her friends and she has to keep reminding herself they're basically toys. All the same, the lesson it clear: that death in their mission is a possibly.

Admittedly, that's not entirely the main point of this. I mean, it kinda is that. But, that's almost overshadowed by her showing compassion for the "dying" doll Sasuke and refusing to leave his side instead of taking the scroll, which was a test of compassion by the Scroll. Had she simply taken the scroll she would've been shocked, according to Sandayuu, who knew full well Tsubuhime's greatest strength as a woman was her care for others. Ughhhh… Did Sho Kosugi catch wind of a female Ninja and start having input on this?

I'll be honest, this last minute reveal is well intended but frustrating. I know what this episode was trying to get across, it's trying to giving strength to our Female lead by means beyond just purely physical. And sure, I can get behind that-- but honestly it kinda fumbles it. Sailor Moon this is not. And beyond that, the reason they "die" is because of the Yokai attacking and trying to claim to scroll for themselves. That wasn't some construct cooked up as a test by the scroll, it's outside interference. So what exactly would've happened if she did do this solo or the Yokai weren't there? How is this even a test of the scroll? What kills me is you could've done this same episode with just the change of having Tsuruhime not know the dolls are constructs. Maybe Sandayuu tricks her into thinking the Dolls are real so the emotions are harsher and more genuine. Be kinda scummy, sure, but still in line for his character.

While the actual plot gets worse the more you think about it, there are some great character bits for Tsuruhime which at least softens the blow and prevents the episode from being completely undermined. Again, Hirose is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

This episode also foreshadows events that will occur just a few episodes from here-- more on that in a bit.

The other episodes I wanted to highlight here are Jiraiya's. He gets the only two parter of this mini arc and it's quite a doozy with Jiraiya facing off against his former teacher, Gali, who is revealed to have killed Jiraiya's father after making a Faustian pact with a Yokai to save his own child. The best thing about this is he's played by Kane's father, Sho Kosugi. You thought I was just joking with that Ninja III reference, didn't you? This is pretty great for anyone that enjoyed Cannon or Transworld entertainment films.

A big reason for bringing these episodes up is because of his guest appearance. And while I don't want to distill Sho Kosugi as a novelty, it is kinda fun seeing the man who had a major roll in jump starting the ninjaboom. There's a giddy charm to it in much the same way as Sonny Chiba appearing in Gavan. Not to mention we get a damn great fight out of it.

The story itself is also classically heartfelt with Gali raising Jiraiya as a warrior in the hopes that one day he would die by his hand, knowing that he could never atone for his sins. There's also an unintentionally funny bit with an 6 year old Jiraiya in the middle of L.A. during a thunderstorm finding his dad's corpse beside his patrol car-- I have no idea why he was there. It's the kinda hamfisted thing you see in, well, a Cannon film.

Oh and if you're wondering where the scroll is in all this, it kinda just shows up during Jiraiya's confrontation with the Yokai that manipulated Gali, Nue. But whatever, it's fine. We get a reunion of the Kakuranger and a showcase of their Ninja Beasts, though only a small tease for what's to come.

While I do have my issues here and there, this arc for Kakuranger is an incredibly good string of episodes which builds a good story around the biggest and final upgrade of the series. Handling upgrades in toku is rarely nuanced. When you boil it down, most shows either try to work in the upgrades as part of the story or they just throw them in. How extreme those two aspects are varies series to series (and in some cases you get both, like Ryuki) But otherwise one is more predominate over the other. I generally prefer working them into the story. It doesn't have to be much and it should never interfere with more interesting developments, but it's nice when they do something instead of just having them appear with little rhyme or reason. Sugimura typically did either two-parters or mini archs. Zyuranger had a number of episodes like that, from the legendary weapons to the Thunder slingers, while Dairanger went as far as having one of the mechs be a character in their own right. Kakaurangers go is slightly less consistent by comparison, mostly due to the sheer volume and redundancy (Like the beast generals, which are just unarmored version of Muteki Shogun's limbs while also the Kakurangers themselves. Don't ask.) But the scroll segment is solid and the best the series does with the concept.

That brings us to episode 30: Reunion with a Traitorous Father and 31: Behold, new Shogun!!

With all 5 scrolls in hand, the Kakuranger are finally ready to take on Junior, and this fight goes a lot better than the last. The Kakuranger are relentless in their new Ninja Beasts, giving quite the beatdown to Junior. It's only with the intervention of a new powerful foe do they finally have pause.

This silver clad enemy is Hakumenro (Played by Vul Eagle 2 himself, Takayuki Godai) In this encounter, his mask is felled, revealing that man behind to be Tsuruhime's presumed dead father, Yoshiteru. He warns the Kakuranger that Daimaou's return is inevitable and they should leave-- departing in explosive fashion.

Tsuruhime is in complete disbelief, but Sandayuu confirms it to be him. 10 years ago, knowing the danger Daimaou posed, he sought to defeat the infernal king by traveling to the underworld itself. He went missing along with Tsuruhime's adopted older brothers, Taro and Jiro. But Yoshiteru, in exchanged for his life being sparred, became a loyal servant to the king.

Throughout the episode there's more going on than the team realizes. Sandayuu is clearly keeping more details hidden and the reappearance of Bun hints at more going on. We're even privy to Sandayuu and Hakumenro having a brief and unhostile encounter.

The rest of the episode deals with Tsuruhime's personal struggles with her father and his relentlessness in hunting down the Kakuranger in the latter half, sending four over a cliff side to the raging rapids, leaving a one of one fight with Tsuruhime. It's only thanks to Sandayuu's intervention that Tsuruhime escapes with her life. But they're not safe, as the pair are set upon by Junior, accusing Sandayuu of conspiring with Hakumenro and engaging him in combat. An already weakened and badly beaten Tsuruhime can only watch in horror as Junior stabs Sandayuu with his own Katana.

The other four Kakurangers, having been rescued by Bun, arrive to confront Junior. Eventually the fight leads into a giant battle and the debut of Kakure Daishogun.

The fight itself is doing what it should, be awesome and sell you hard to buy the DX toy. But this is also noteworthy because Kakure Daishogun from here on out becomes the defacto robo, the first time a secondary has completely usurped the original. And there's good reason for that. You may have noticed I've not mentioned Muteki Shogun outside of story elements and that's because it's kind of a mess. Muteki is one of my favorite designs in Sentai, but there's no getting around that the suit itself is horrifically impractical. It's not clear how bad it is until you witness Muteki next to Kakure Daishogun and Muteki is a good half meter taller, not to mention absurdly wide by comparison. They would use Muteki in episodes going forward, though only for big moments or instances where Muteki wouldn't have to do much-- which frankly it wasn't capable of anyway. Oh, by the way, Muteki Shogun was seemingly killed off unceremoniously in episode 27 to really drive home that they're getting a new robo. He comes back in ep. 37 with barely a blerb from Tsuruhime mentioning he's alive. This is never explained.

Anyway, Kakure Daishogun by comparison is a much more traditional design. The colors of the team pop, it's sleeker, it can even fly with Tsubasamaru. They are going completely ham with all the things this can do that Muteki cannot, both in show and on a meta level. This practical shots are probably some of the best of this era, from the flight formation, the individual components and finishers. Some of the optical shots on the other hand are pretty dated and honestly even jank for the time. But there is still a bit of charm to that cheap look.

Throughout it all they're just laying into Junior. The guy is basically getting what will become every stockfootage attack going forward, so it's no surprise that Junior is not only defeated by Daishogun but flat-out killed. (I know what some of you are thinking, but for this series, he's dead)

To cap it off, the door is destroyed, freeing those turned to stone and also killing professor Yagumi in the process.

But there's still the matter of Sandayuu. Unfortunately, it's too late. He says his final goodbyes to the team, lamenting that Hakumenro did betray humanity and the team should tread carefully, as they were only spared for being weak. In his final moments, Sandayuu catches an overlooking Hakumenro, wondering if this is how his former master wished for things to play out.

In a cruel twist, the door of reforms and Daimaou emerges all the same. It's not clear how or why-- personally I think Junior's death acted as a final push. Or maybe he gained enough power to not need the full ritual. Regardless, Daimaou makes his presence known, swearing to slaughter the Kakuranger in due time.

Episode 31 overall feels like a massive refresh for the series. An ally gained, a mentor lost, a foe defeated, a new dynamic, and a villain reborn.

As much as I enjoyed Kenichi Endo as Junior, having the great Hidekatsu Shibata as Daimaou is nothing to scoff at. I'm getting ahead of myself when I say he's less unique compared to Junior, but he fills the role of a sentai villain much better, if albeit feeling more familiar and safe.

On the flip side, Hakumenrou/Lord Yoshiteru instantly has an incredibly engaging dynamic simply by virtue of making him Tsuruhime's father. Likewise, it's a familiar riff, but it will eventually go places and pay off in ways that you don't necessarily always see.

That being said, Kakuranger is back to a more episodic format. While that may be kinda disappointing after the build up to Daimaou as this great new threat, the show has been story heavy and is in need of a break.

It wouldn't be too long before we got back to the main story, but I would be remiss if I didn't highlight episode 35 The Three Punishment Sailor Sisters. If you're familiar with Yugen Jikkou Sisters Chouchoutrian, then you know what we're getting into. If you don't, well this episode will probably be a little bit odd because it's winking at the audience quite a bit. Toei had a long running comedy franchise called the Toei Fushigi Comedy Series, which is an umbrella for a number of series, among them Robot 8-chan and Masquée Poitrine. MercuryFalcon has a very good video covering the entirety of the series, should you be so inclined. The 14th and final entry was the aforementioned Sisters Chouchoutrian, a magical girl series which featured Satomi Hirose as one of 3 sisters, Hanako. So she's essentially reuniting with her co-stars while playing up that she's totally not Hanako, but rather that Tsuruhime is just old friends with these two.

Even putting aside all that, the episode itself is a standout and legit fun, just a classic late Showa "this school has been taken over by a monster" plot. Although I do think you'll get the most out of it if you're familiar with the source and meta aspects. That Sailor Moon line is fun, but it also has a extra layer given that reportedly Chouchoutrian was crushed in sales by Sailor Moon which pretty much killed not only it but the Fushigi Comedy Series, despite strong ratings and even a extra order of episodes.

Thus far, Kakuranger had been a fun ride. From the Shuten doujin brothers, to Flowery Kinoichi, Scrolls arc, Junior's death, the revelations with Hakumenrou, etc. But there was still this nagging feeling that Kakuranger was missing something, some sort of reoccurring element as we cross further into the next half of the show.

Oh! Ninjaman! That's right, in episode 36 we finally get our extra ranger.

I don't have much to say about his debut episode itself beyond just being a fun time. Plot relevancy is minimum beyond showing Hakumenrou has an agenda that at the bare minimum might be putting sand in Daimaou's plans by sending an anonymous message to the Kakurangers, informing them of Ninjaman's arrival.

The backstory with Ninjaman is surprisingly tragic. 1,000 years ago Daimaou tricked the impulsive Ninjaman into attacking humans, thinking they were Yokai in disguise. As punishment, the three god sealed Ninjaman in a jar and cast him into space. Having arrived back on earth, the jar can only be broken by someone in Tsuruhime's family, hence a race between the Kakuranger and the Yokai to obtain it, less Daimaou gain control through Hakumenrou. Spoiler: Tsuruhime frees him.

As a character Ninjaman is essentially a delinquent. He's unruly, hot tempered and an unpredictable dumbass of great power who will bulldoze anything along his one track mind. Kind of a shame we never saw him square off with Junior. I love Ninjaman in part because of that jackassery making for great gags, but also because he's as much of a liability as he is a boon. Despite his rambunctiousness, he has a good heart and cares deeply for people. Like a lot of extra rangers he's not a constant member of the team and his persona is quite different from the rest of the group which makes him unique. It offers storylines you wouldn't get otherwise. I would argue he's the most singular fun part of the show.

He does suffer from a bit of being a win card in some episodes, falling into the routine of joining the fight, powers up, defeats monster. In this case Ninjaman turn into his true form as Samuraiman and immediately defeats the monster with a finisher. Not all of them are like that and we get proper fights with Samuraiman, but it certainly is a common enough occurrence.

As a last addendum, I would recommend episode 38 as my favorite episode with Ninjaman. Written by the secondary writer on the series, Sentai Veteran Hirohisa Soda, Soda zones in on the backstory with Ninjaman in almost a contemporary retelling of it. I don't know any other way to describe it than to say they make Ninjaman a wooby and it's kind of adorable.

Speaking of Ninjaman, he's a focal point of our next story episodes, a whopping 3 parter.

42:The Plundered Ninja Power 43:The Last Day of the Three God Generals 44: The Wound-Filled Great Reversal Daimaou births a clone of himself, Daradara, with the ability to absorb and take powers as his own. He captures Ninjaman, steals his powers and has the clone go on a rampage to draw out the Heavenly Trio. Consequently, any damage done to Daradara transfers to Ninjaman. The hesitation allows Daradara to get the upper hand over the Kakuranger, even bringing the three Gods to their knees. But before Daradara can absorb their powers the trio use the last of their strength to retreat to the Illusionary castle, bringing the team along. We get the revelation that Tsukuhime's father is a spy and that Bun can lead them to a location to contact him. This will be their only chance to save Ninjaman, otherwise they'll have no choice but to kill him to protect the world.

Of course, things aren't so simple. The Kunoichi attack both the Kakuranger and Hakumenrou, despite his attempts to keep face. Daimaou has known of Hakumenrou's deception this entire time, merely keeping him around as leverage to exploit against Tsuruhime in this very instance. Daimaou binds Hakumenrou, taunting him and seemingly obliterating him-- but not before he can throw a shuriken into the distance. To make matters worse, the Kakuranger are incapable of transforming because of a barrier. One by one they are captured by the Kunoichi, Sasuke once again being the only one to escape, albeit over a cliff side. The rest of the team are absorbed of their powers, making Daradara even stronger while Sasuke continues his ever increasingly dire escape.

It's only thanks to the intervention of Bun and two mysterious ninjas that Sasuke is able to break free of the Kunoichi's pursuit. The Ninjas turn out to be Taro and Jiro. In their mission with Hakumenrou, or rather Yoshiteru, the two were trapped by Daimaou. Yoshiteru swore loyalty in exhange not for his life, but for Taro and Jiro's, which Daimaou accepted with the caveate of turning the two into dogs. Eventually Yoshiteru would help the two escape along with a friendly Yokai, Bun. While they're able to temporarily turn human, it's at great cost and next time will ultimately kill them. With their time short, they give Sasuke the thrown Shuriken containing a message and details on how to defeat Daradara. They give one final request to Sasuke; let Tsuruhime know they still think of her as their little sister an they'll be watching over her; the two reverting back to canines and heading off with Bun.

Meanwhile, Daradara rampages through the city by filling it with toxic sluge and slowly killing the populace, forcing the hand of the Heavenly Trio to intervene. Now it's up to Sasuke and infiltrate Daimaou's palace and rescue the team before either they or the gods fall in battle. Fighting his way solo through even the Kunoichi, Sasuke reaches the inner dominion and strikes at Daimaou disrupting the connection to his clone and-- go figure, hurting the clone.

What follows is an all out battle between the Kakuranger and Kunoichi until Daimaou has enough and grows right there, destroying his entire palace and leading to a two on four fight between Daimaou, Daradara, Daishogun, Muteki Shogun, Samuraiman and Tsubasumaru. A tag team of Samuraiman and Muteki take down Daradara, but Daimaou is another matter. This Infernal King withstands both Muteki and Daishogun's most powerful attacks, but it's enough to make him retreat and end the suffering he's caused.

Crawling to a backup hideaway, we discover Hakumenrou is still very much alive. Daimaou curses him figuratively and literally, turning the man into stone for future plans, as he takes off in his nifty new Skull Castle.

We end on a slightly bittersweet note as Sasuke informs Tsuruhime of her brothers, but she takes solace in the fact that she's not without family thanks to her friends and teammates, snow beginning to fall on the holiday season.

These three episodes are outstanding. They're arguably the best episodes of Kakuranger by far and do an amazing job escalating the tension with each new revelation. Things get so dire that it feels more like the lead up to a finale than something with 10 more episodes to go. Which if I'm being real, I don't have much to say for most of those episodes. Ep. 46 The New Year's Manga Hell is perhaps the most notable for having the "Today is Friday, in California." bit. Although if you're watching the Shout relates it's going to be "Fine day."

The only other episode really worth noting is Episode 50, although the only thing pertinent you need to know is Daimaou's outcast siblings Yamanba and Daidarabocchi are introduced, the latter dying so Daimarou can use his sisters rage to mutate and empower her in the following episode.

51: Hero Elimination 52: Finale!! Father and Daughter

Having seemingly purged Hakumenro's body of his soul, Daimaou sends the golem like being to attack the city and cause chaos and despair, in the process generating a great deal of negative energy for Daimaou to harness. Yamanba appears before Tsuruhime with an opportunity to kill Hakumenro with a special sword, as doing so is the only way to stop his rampage. He'll be in a catatonic state for a short time in a cave, leaving Tsuruhime little time to make a decision before even more destruction and suffering is brought upon the city. Of course this is suspect as hell, but even so, there's no getting around the fact a lot of innocent people are caught in the crossfire. A fire must be extinguished and frankly the easiest solution seems to be killing Hakumenro before anymore fall victim.

The heavenly trio appear before the Kakuranger (Sans Tsuruhime) and warn them of her impending patricide to stop Hakumenro, which is merely a ruse to add greatly to the sorrow and anger being collected in the dark clouds.

And the Gods don't tell Tsuruhime this directly because… And the rest of the team don't use their Doron Changers phone capabilities to contact her because… Yeahhh we're just gonna have to deal with that so the team is forced to track her down in a race against time.

On the flip side, Tsuruhime gets a lot of focus in the first half and Hirose gives it her all as someone wrestling with what is an incredibly horrifying scenario.

We also get a fantastic fight sequence with the Kunoichi and Yamanba hindering the four Kakurangers from reaching Tsuruhime. It's pretty rough on the Kakuranger as the opposition is heavily powered up by the power collected. Sasuke, unsurprisingly, manages to slip by and get to Tsuruhime to slap some sense into her, as well as provide a shoulder to cry on. Unfortunately, Hakumenro awakes and attacks, zoning in on Tsuruhime and chasing her to a cliff side. She's saved by the intervention of Taro and Jiro, who take Hakumenro over the cliff side.

Tsuruhime isn't afforded a chance to process the shock before a giant Yamanba attacks, prompting the team to face her head-on with Daishogun and soon followed by Muteki, Tsubasmaru and even Ninjaman.

As one sided as this fight appears, Yamanba is immensely powerful thanks to the dark clouds. Every time she's struck down she rises one again at full power, eventually wearing down the Kakurangers.

It only through the encouragement of the three gods that the team is able to see the good that exists in the world and reignite the hope within. It's corny, it's cheesy, perhaps even flat out sappy, and it's a lot of what I love about Sentai.

The team rises one again, banishing the dark clouds and finally taking Yamanba down one final time.

Victory is shortlived as the team hurries to where Taro, Jiro, and Hakumenro fell. Taro and Jiro managed to survive, but not for long due to the curse inflicted upon them. They share a tearful goodbye with Tsuruhime, having no regrets and telling her to cherish her father. In an ironic and defiant last act, the two brothers sacrifice their already dwindling lives to lift Hakumenro's curse, fading away into stardust.

Cute touch with Sasuke comforting Tsuruhime here.

The Waterworks keep rolling as Tsuruhime reunites with her father at last. Even the whole team begins tearing up as Hakumenro apologizes for all the trouble, despite most of it it being quite literally out of his control. The happy reunion is interrupted by Daimaou, taunting this display of human affection and divebombing his ENTIRE SKULL CASTLE INTO THE TEAM.

Now that's a cliffhanger.

ep, 53: Sealing!!

Kakuranger's finale is shockingly simple and straightforward. Seriously, there is not a lot to cover here. The team survives the attack and confronts Daimaou, we're ramping up with the music kicking in and the Team transforming aaaaand the Heavenly trio stops them from stiking him down. Daimaou taunts them, heads to the city and splits off into three different beings that only the Kakuranger can see, causing them to split up and go after each entity. Daimaou does incredibly cartoonish villain tropes, from pushing an old lady over a railing, to a runaway baby carriage. … And then he blows up an entire skyscraper.

Finally merged back into one, the team confronts Daimaou again, only to once again be interrupted. The trio just spells it out directly by stating Daimaou is both a literal and figurative being. The figurative side is the embodiment of human hatred itself. It's something that cannot be destroyed but can be spread-- hence why attacking him is a bad idea. But it can also be contained. Ostensibly the Kakuranger have to seal their hearts to the rage and contain Daimau metaphorically, while also still literally stuffing him into the door of seals. The Heavenly trio probably should've mentioned all that before the skyscraper thing.

If I give this episode anything, it's got to be one of the more interesting finales, actively choosing not to have a battle with the big bad but one really long wrestling match. He even grows and is wrestled by the trio and Ninjaman. The Kunoichi also show up, but they're zapped by Daishogun and turned back into their premutated form as cats. Probably could've done that 30 episodes ago.

But with all that effort, Daimaou is trapped and the Kakurangers seal the door by giving up their Doron Changers. At long last the battle with the Yokai is over and the team free of their duties. the five celebrate and the Heavenly Trio and Ninjaman bid them farewell. The team unites with Bun and Hakumenro, Hakumenro saying he'll be waiting for Tsuruhime at home. The Five board Nekomarou and head off on the road once again, as the second half of the opening theme plays along with interspurced clips of each members greatest moments from across the series. An incredibly appropriate send off.

That concludes Ninja Sentai Kakuranger. I greatly enjoyed my time with the series, but I have a few more thing to cover before giving my final thoughts.

First and foremost the Subs are unfortunately… a mixed bag, no matter what you choose. For Shout!'s there's nothing flat out atrocious, but it's unpolished, as you might expect. I don't think anything will top MillCreek's slop with Ultra Q, but Shout gardnered notority over their sentai releases for good reason. The translation itself is fine for the most part, but it's flat and not uncommon to see weird dialogue choices or terms being incorrectly applied. For example, a pretty common choice in subbing is to take "Onii-chan" and simplify it to just be the character's name in question. That's perfectly fine, it's been done by everyone for years, offical and fansubs alike. But in episode 20, we have one of the Kunoichi saying Sasuke's name outright… and they put Onii-Chan. I've never seen that before. And the rest of the episode has a kid saying Onii-chan, subbed as Sasuke. It's like some wires got crossed. Infact, ep. 20 is a perfect microcosm of all the subbing issues in one episode.

The timing is off in several places leaving characters speaking after the subtitles have since left the screen. For what it's worth, the subs are at least on screen long enough to read, but it's still distracting having them dissappear mid speech. It's unprofessional looking no matter how you cut it. Futher more it's an issue the fan subs do not have.

The second half of the series is a bit better about all that… for a few episodes. Sub timing is still off more often than not, but it is improved and nothing is as bad as episode 20. There's more personality injected into the dialogue, making for a more pleasant reading experience. Granted, part of that might simply be Ninjaman's bombastic personality, but overall I felt the choices were more expressive once you get into the 30s. That said, it still ain't perfect. Some sentences are questions which lack question marks, others are overly wordy for what's being stated (ie turning "I'm back" to "I've somehow returned to where I was" despite bevety within the Japanese) and there's whatever the hell this is:

I swear, every time I think something is ironed out I see something like this. Ironically, this reminds me of the awkard sounding fansubs for Rider '71 before Shout did their nice polished up version. While this isn't the worst from Shout's sentai subs, there's no denying that the lack of polish bogs down the viewing experience unfairly. Now you may be considering the GUIS Fansub STL, and franky I think it's worth looking into. However, there are still some caveates. For what it's worth they're better timed than Shout. Subs rarely linger or appear too late and the dialogue flows well. Although, if I'm being completely honest, I do have my about as many critiques. Sentai is translated as Squad, which I never like; the phrasing on the opening and ending tracks aren't as good as the Shout version (Floodlights, really?) Likewise, they zig where Shout zags on wordy dialogue, and they translate Daimaou as "Infernal King" which I get, but I'm also not crazy about because it doesn't really flow like a name in the same way Daimaou can. Kinda feels like translating Daizyujin to me.

The robos, however, get it the worst. They call Saruder "Simidar," Kark is "Craan" Logan is "Lugan" Kumard is "Usardo" and freaking Gammer is "Ranna". They're essitally localizing the names. So instead of Saru (Monkey) for Saruder, they're using Simian. Likewise Ursa for Bear, Lupis for wolf and so forth. That is wholey unnecesary, misguided, and incredibly distracting in my eyes. I'm willing to give Fansubs more leeway since they're things made for free in the spare time of incredibly dedicated fans. But I consider that an objectionable creative liberty. That is just… no.

Still, they went through the effort of proper timing and even subbed the credits for writers, directors, and guest stars on individual episodes. That's pretty damn nice and very handy for folks like me. At the end of the day, sub timing, personality, and consistancey is more important to me. But this is something of a pick your poison scenario, there are things that bug the hell out of me in both options.

The Shout version is of course free to watch on Pluto/Tubi/ShoutTV so that will be the most readily accesable and easy to approach version.

On a tangentally related note, the streaming version has an audio quirk where the opening starts rather low and gets progressively louder until leveling off after 40 seconds. Every episode is like this and it's only on steaming, regardless of browser or the various apps. The DVD doesn't do it. I hurt my ears a couple of times because of this, so be careful.

While we're still on the subject, I do want to point out another quirk that isn't an issue with the subs per se but could be mistaken as such, which is that Kakuranger can't keep their timeline stright and it makes things confusing.

In episode 24 they state Daimaou and the yokai were sealed away 2,000 years ago by the three sages, who later became the three heavenly Generals. But in episode 37 they state Daimaou is 1,200 years old. I guess you could argue maybe it didn't count the time he was sealed away. Buuuut in episode 1 they say the Yokai were sealed away again 400 years ago, and in Episode 39 they say Kakuranger's story started 1,000 years ago. It's like this on both the Shout and Fansub versions.

Again, that's not a sub error, they're saying 千年前 Sen-nen-mae, which is a millinium ago. There seems to be confusion that there were multiple battles, one 2,000 years ago with the 3 sages, 1,000 years ago in which Ninjaman was involved with the heavenly kings, and 400 years ago where the Kakuranger's ansestors were involved sealing the yokai. Also didn't Kakure Daishogun disappear 2,000 years years ago? Like stricky speaking it's just the scrolls that went missing but presumebly he can't appear without them so wouldn't that mean Ninjaman never met them? But he was sealed by the trio which is after Kakure would've went missing.

You know this was supposed to be pointing out the subs not getting the source wrong, but it's now ended up pointing out why a series bible can be of importance to avoid this kinda mess.

Which I guess brings me to the more critical part of the review; Kakuranger has a lot of clunky bits. It's not horrendius, there's no one huge thing unless you really care about the timeline, but rather numerious contrivanaces and misbegotten narrative threads. Some of Sugiyama's worst habbits have a tendency to crop up, particuarly with the gods. Even putting aside the timeline, it almost feels like repeating some of the hits with Daizyujin, albeit not as bad, yet less consistent. They're far less dickish and manipulative than Daizyujin. But it's not uncommon for them to be mysterious for no good reason so the story of any given episode can happen, or things simply don't get addressed. Why does Muteki allow the team to think he's dead and show back up 10 episodes later? Or the stuff with Tsuruhime and her father. I get not wanting her or any of the team to faulter when facing him since that's the point of a spy, but it's weird it never angers Tsuruhime that this is kept from her, particuarly with Sandayuu dying. More than anything, Kakuranger is a good series I have a very speific frustration with because it's so close to be a great series, yet it's held back by a bunch of small annoying things like forgetting your henshin device works as a phone, or the gods only telling 4/5th of the team important information. This has always being the crux with Sugimura. Which if you're a Resident Evil fan, you know how it can be when the fine details start to muck it all up. He works great on a macro level, he has good ideas and plays around with themematics. But he also makes choices which can be baffling or lack the full impact of their potential because it's really obvious when he's figuring it out as he goes along. Not in a tradtional sense, but laying the tracks down as the speeding train passes over it sorta way. That's how you end up with stuff like the timeline. Oh shit, Bandai introduced a new toy? I guess there's three gods now.

I suppose if there was one thing that embodies this dicheotomeny it's Tsukuhime; a character I both adore and wish was more. She's by far in a way the most captivating of the team, but it's hard to not just sigh and go, "yup, this is the caveate for being a female sentai leader in the early 90s." She is the leader, but the writing doesn't treat her as one. Sasuke is almost always front and center unless it's a character focused episode. Sasuke is the one that gets the special sword to call in Daishogun; Sasuke is the one that gets away and rescues the team when things get dire-- a plot they use twice ffs.

And don't get me wrong I love Sasuke's episodes and they are great at giving him challenges to struggle and overcome. But that's just it. Sasuke is treated like any other red while Tsuruhime is more of a secendary despite technically being the leader and having ties to a major villain.

BUT- If I give some degree of lenancy it at least makes sense for why she doesn't get to show more leadership given her age. She is already bolstering a heavy burden, so Sasuke would end up picking up the slack. And there's also the comparison to be made to prior Sentai girls. It's hard to call Tsuruhime particuarly deep in the broader scheme of things, even to other Japanese kids shows of the era. But compared to anything Sentai from before? Oh that's a whole other ballgame. I love me some action girl quick change episodes, but even Rin wasn't exactly pushing the envelope. Hell, even something as critically lauded as Jetman has a female character with little more depth than a soap opera. Whether or not you like Jetman or can contexturalize it for what it did, I think it's fair to say Kaori is treated far worse by the narrative than Tsuruhime is. Even if Tsuruhime isn't utiliize to her full potentinal or as nuanced as she could've been, she's miles ahead of her contemporaries. Her dynamic with her father actually gives her a character, struggles and motivation. I can't say that for most sentai heroines up to that point. Hell I can't even say it for some Female Kamen Rider's decades after.

There's still a part of me the wonders what an episode by a guest writer like Yōji Enokido could've given us with Tsuruhime. But I also can't deny what's here is quite possibly the best female team member the franchise had up to that point. And that's kinda my feelings towards Kakuranger as a whole. Could it be better? Sure. Is it still incredibly good? Absolutely.

I can easily see why this would be someone's favorite sentai. There is so much to enjoy that if you can look beyond the rough edges it very well may become a favorite of yours. Personally, I'm going to need more time to stew on it, but I think it might be up there for me, at least for the 90s series. I'll fully admit to getting misty-eyed when the series concluded because I had a great time with these characters, and that ain't nothing.

But I'm not done with Kakuranger. In August of 2024 we got a 30th anniversary special from the Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club: Act 3: Middle-Aged Struggles, which I'll be taking a look at next time.

#review #tokusatsu #super sentai #kakuranger #toei

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