Power Rangers fans often argue with other Power Rangers fans over what the best series is. Well, what if we told you that none of those series can hold a candle to the father series of Power Rangers, Super Sentai?
For those of you that don't know, Power Rangers is basically a westernized, U.S. adaptation of the Japanese tokusatsu series Super Sentai. While Power Rangers has many great series in its own right, it's the general consensus from fans of both series that Super Sentai is much better. We're here with a list to expand on why that mindset is so popular among the tokusatsu fans.
10 SUPER SENTAI HAS BETTER CHARACTER GROWTH
Super Sentai is generally a series that enjoys playing the long game. The characters usually come into the series acting one way and they go out acting another. This is because in Super Sentai the characters grow and evolve from episode to episode. This growth isn't just random either, nor is it forgotten in the following episodes afterward. It sticks with each character.
This isn't the case in Power Rangers unless you're a huge series character such as Tommy. In this show, characters can learn a lesson in ten minutes and then the growth is reverted in the next episode.
9 POWER RANGERS HAS BETTER UNSUITED BATTLES
Where Super Sentai has absolutely amazing fights and fight choreography, Power Rangers absolutely outshines that series when it comes to unsuited fights. This may be due to the fact that the series has a history of being plagued with a shoestring budget and has to find ways to shine other than the reused Sentai footage.
No matter how you knock it, the scenes from series like Jungle Fury are amazing and too many are much better than their Super Sentai counterparts. That's not to say Sentai doesn't have a few unsuited fights that are better however.
8 SUPER SENTAI HAS BETTER MUSIC
It's really hard to even think of a Power Rangers track that is superior to its Super Sentai counterpart. The Super Sentai insert songs are actually that good. If you don't believe us go and listen to the theme of Timefire from the Mirei Sentai Timeranger series.
On the other end, we have Power Rangers, whose insert tracks are usually just a bunch of bad rock tracks. While these are guilty pleasure tier songs they just don't hold a candle to those of Super Sentai. However, both the series' BGM tracks are a bit bland.
7 POWER RANGERS HAS EXCLUSIVE WEAPONS AND SUITS
Power Rangers isn't all just holdovers from old Super Sentai footage despite what many may say about it. The series constantly introduces its own pieces to the lore. These introduce a new dimension into a series that was once a clip by clip adaptation of Super Sentai for America, and also introduces a new toy to market to the intended audiences.
One of the most famous instances of these exclusive weapons and suits is the Red Ranger Battlizer upgrades. Like we said earlier, these awesome additions aren't holdovers from Sentai and are completely original.
6 SUPER SENTAI IS MORE MATURE
Super Sentai has a lot better storytelling than Power Rangers. So much so that sometimes you end up forgetting that it's a show aimed towards kids. This means you can truly sit down and enjoy a well-made show instead of constantly feeling like you're watching a half baked kids toy commercial (which both series are).
This is something that constantly plagues many of the Power Rangers series and is something that just about every season of Super Sentai constantly overcomes. That doesn't mean Sentai is flawless though.
5 POWER RANGERS HAS MORE DIVERSE CASTS
This isn't the fault of Super Sentai as it is a fully Japanese show made for Japan. Power Rangers being a show made for the west has a much more diverse audience and went the way of getting a much more diverse cast for each and every installment of their show. This is one thing many love about the show, despite the rocky first season when it came to race choices for each of the ranger colors and the stereotyping.
Power Rangers has always been and continues to be a great racially inclusive show.
4 SUPER SENTAI TEAMS FEEL MORE ORGANIC
In many of the Power Rangers series the team simply feels like a random group of kids thrown together and forced to work together. While this is the case there should at least be some growth after working together for so long but that's not always something that happens. However, Super Sentai does this much better.
In Super Sentai, while the characters may not initially be close-knit that changes throughout the series. You witness the characters becoming closer as the series progresses and characters grow and change.
3 POWER RANGERS HAS LESS CLIP SHOWS
If you don't know what a clip show is, it's an episode that basically serves as a flashback to a lot of important episodes that happened in the past. It's usually aired in order to commemorate the end of a season or the introduction of a new plot and help those that may have missed or forgotten a few beats catch up.
While these are seen over and over again in the Super Sentai series they are never used in Power Rangers. This keeps the show moving forward without being slogged back by these types of episodes.
2 SUPER SENTAI'S STAKES ARE HIGHER
We all remember those scenes in Power Rangers where a villain is running amok throughout the highly populated city and blasting everything in sight. Thankfully once the Power Rangers arrive the city is randomly evacuated and there were no innocent casualties right? Well Super Sentai, being a much more mature show changes things up in that department.
Instead of taking this road out, Super Sentai just lets us know that people were hurt, and even in past series we are alerted that lives were lost. This is one of the pieces of the show being more mature we were talking about.
1 POWER RANGERS HAS ADDED CREATIVITY
Since the start of the series Power Rangers has had the added barrier of having to operate past its shoestring budget. This means that the show has to find different ways to get things done which introduces an added layer of needed creativity to keep things moving.
This creativity involves using things such as unused suits from Super Sentai and reusing certain pieces of Super Sentai footage when needed. You have to admire what Power Rangers does with so little.