Well, as im sure everyone might know, last weekend during
New York Comic Con, the first trailer for the movie reboot of the Power Rangers
debuted. And the response has been
surprisingly positive. In fact, I was a
little on the fence about it until I watched it with my sister and when it
ended, she smiled and said, “My childhood is happy.” Ive rewatched it a few times and have liked
what ive seen more and more: smart diversity, Kimberly is pretty, all I need to
see is Bryan Cranston show up as Zordon and declare, “RANGERS…it’s time to
cook.” Well thinking about this upcoming
nostalgia trip made me wonder about my favorite, Ranger like teams in Anime…and
then I realized I haven’t really seen many Anime with a Sentai team (theyre not
exactly rare, I just haven’t seen em.)
So for this weeks Top 5, I decided to take a look at my favorite Super
Teams. They don’t have to be Sentai,
they just have to be a regular rally of allies coming together to fight enemies
every week…you know like most Anime.
#5-Team Inuyasha
Ok so theyre not Sentai or whatever. What Team Inuyasha is, however, is a bad ass
collection of demon hunters and a very effective crew. Each has their own special set of skills:
Inuyasha-Demon with a big ass sword; Kagome-Preistess reincarnate who’s
practically Legolas with a bow; Miroku-Exorcist monk with a black hole in his
hand; Sango-Demon slayer descendant with a cute battle look and a giant
boomerang; and Shippo…yeah…ummmm…wow sorry even in a Top 5 I cant think of
anything positive to say about my least favorite character. As far as teams go, their series might’ve worn
a bit on me, but ive always admired this team for their skill in battle and
actual character development off the battlefield. They were the olden day Rangers of Feudal
Japan (seriously will the US ever consider a Power Rangers series set way back
when? That’s just missed opportunity right there)
#4-Team Urameshi
Once again, not your typical Power Rangers
association. But come on, just look at
these guys, they might as well have been sort of Sentai with their separate skills
and assortment of colored clothing. Between
Spirit Swords and regular swords, whips and Spirit Guns, this quartet of demons
and social misfits is pretty effective at dealing with demons. I never finished Yu Yu Hakusho, think I got
through Season 2 but im not sure. But
Yusuke Yurameshi, Kazundo Kuwabara, Kurama and Hiei didn’t need fancy
transformations to activate powers and get the job done…though they still
stayed color coordinated…hey whatever works, theyre awesome nonetheless.
#3-Ronin Warriors
Oh yeah, these are the true Ranger Samurai. Five young men with the ability to summon
mystical Samurai Armor to do battle against the evil Dynasty and the menacing
Lord Talpa…yeah this is about as Power Rangers a plot as an Anime can get. Ryo, Rowen, Sage, Cye and Kento even had
their own Zordon type mentor in “the Wise Man” (though Talpa being a floating
hologram head for much of the series made him more Zordon than anything). These guys basically made a kid friendly
Ninja Scroll with a Power Rangers type premise.
Ryo even got his own special edition White Armor for ultimate battles…kind
of like how a certain Green Ranger eventually got promoted to the even more bad
ass White Ranger status.
#2-Sailor Senshi
Color specific Sailor Uniforms (with criminally short
skirts), check. Special abilities
granted by the power of the solar system, check. Monsters of the week sent by a Rita Repulsa
type…only more confident and scary, double check. If Might Morphin Power Rangers seemed like a
boys game (even with it’s female leads becoming every kids first crush, oh
Kim), Sailor Moon was almost exclusively a girls gateway into getting into this
kind of genre. They might not have had a
giant monster or mecha to battle. But if
any creature showed up to threaten their city, Usagi, Rei, Ami, Makoto and
Minako would be there. And a lot like
later Power Ranger series, the Inner Senshi would be joined by the outer Senshi
(Haruka, Michuru, Setsuna and Hotaru), doubling their numbers to combat even
deadlier threats…and look damn good in the process.
#1-Voltron Force
“From days of long ago.
From the uncharted regions of the universe, comes a legend. The Legend of Voltron: Defender of the
Universe. Loved by good. Feared by evil. This is the story of the super force of space
explorers, specially trained and sent by the Alliance to bring back…VOLTRON:
DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE!!!”
Growing up, these guys in retrospect are the closest to
Power Rangers next to the Sailor Senshi.
Custom color battle armor, some martial arts training, and, most
importantly, five giant robot lions that united to form one bad ass mecha that
theyd use to fight other giant monsters (Robeasts). The spirit of this series and this team
continues to roll strong even in the latest adaptation: Voltron-Legendary
Defender. To be honest, I almost totally
overlooked this team until my sister gave me a deadpan stare and told me, “Uh,
Voltron anyone?” It always is a blessing
when your siblings are into Anime as well and can help you remember stuff you
might’ve missed. Thanks Sis.
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