Sentai Seasons with Asian Themes

For some reason, I would like to consider Hikari Sentai Maskman as the first Asian-themed Sentai. Why? Well the whole theme focused on Asian martial arts. It mixed both Chinese and Japanese fighting styles. This was pretty popular among Filipino fans, which has caused many Filipinos to demand Super Sentai back.

Gosei Sentai Dairanger instead of using Japanese themes, used Chinese themes in almost all the stuff from suits to mecha to the enemies instead of Japanese themes for some reason. In fact, Ryou is the first Sentai red ranger to be half-Chinese seeing that his father was Zhang Liao and his mother was a Japanese woman. Some of its footage was used for MMPR Season 2. It somewhat paid tribute to Maskman with chi power and extreme martial arts. Also, it was the first show in Super Sentai to feature a child ranger in Kou. I think that Chinese themes were used because of the popularity of Hong Kong cinema.

Ninja Sentai Kakuranger used Japanese themes instead of Chinese themes. It also battled the supernatural based on Japanese myths as well. Footage from this show was used during MMPR Season 3 and for the mini-series Alien Rangers which was part of MMPR Season 3.

Ninpou Sentai Hurricanger is the second ninja-themed Super Sentai. It was for me a fusion of Kakuranger and Liveman. Liveman in a sense of the first three members, betrayal, redemption and mecha. It also got its ninja theme from Kakuranger but that was just it. This was adapted into the lighthearted Power Rangers Ninja Storm where an Asian sensei trains Americans to be ninjas.

Juken Sentai Gekiranger was the second to use Chinese themes, this time to even pay tribute to famous Hong Kong stars with the Sky Fist Saints. Unlike Dairanger, this show wasn't that serious while keeping itself realistic. Unfortunately its American adaptation Jungle Fury suffered from bad writing from Bruce Kalish who's better off with writing other cartoons that he did well.

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger is the latest Asian themed Super Sentai and first to be samurai-themed and second to focus on Japanese myths. While this was said to be unadaptable by many, they IGNORE the other shows above. How will the PR adaptation turn out? Looks like I'll just have to wait. This show IMO also gave me Maskman nostalgia.

Commentary courtesy of Sean Akizuki's Sentai Blog.