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Super Sentai

Japanese media franchise

  • 14 min read
  • 5 chapters

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The series entered a hiatus following the 49th season, No.1 Sentai Gozyuger, as clarified by Toei Head of Production Shin-ichiro Shirakura, with a new Toei tokusatsu franchise, Project R.E.D., taking its timeslot in 2026.

Series overview

In every Super Sentai series, the protagonists are a team of people who – using either wrist-worn or hand-held devices – transform into superheroes and gain superpowers – color-coded uniforms, signature weapons, sidearms, and fighting skills – to battle a group of otherworldly supervillains that threaten to take over the Earth. In a typical episode, the heroes thwart the enemies' plans and defeat an army of enemy soldiers and the monster of the week before an enlarged version of the monster confronts them, only to be defeated once again when the heroes fight it with their mecha.

Each Super Sentai is set within its own fictional universe. The fourth series, Denshi Sentai Denjiman, and the fifth series, Taiyo Sentai Sun Vulcan, are exceptional in that they share the same fictional universe, but there is only one cast member who appears in both works. However, on special occasions such as the Super Sentai VS series, where two Sentai teams appear together, or for some kind of memorial year project, previous Sentai teams will appear without being concerned about the consistency of the settings for each work.

It is common for teams to announce their names and titles both prior to and after transforming, often referred to as a "roll call". This is inspired by Shiranami Gonin Otoko, a kabuki play first performed in 1862. Elements of kabuki were carried over into 20th century television with the jidaigeki genre. Kazutoshi Takahashi, a stunt coordinator of Himitsu Sentai Gorenger, is credited with introducing the roll call to the first Super Sentai.

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