Top 5 Super Sentai Openings
What's good Baka Fam.
Favine here once again to provide you with some light reading.
This time I'm combining a few of my loves, Tokusatsu and music. For those that don’t know, I have a background in Broadcasting and worked on a little podcast site called Rajio Nihon/Herotaku. My love for show openings was well known and it was not unheard of to hear me and some friends singing the DinoThunder theme song as we rushed down the stairs.
“There's a light in the distance. See them coming closer!” Yeah, it’s also fun at the Karaoke booth.
But today I’m here to share with you my 5 favorite Super Sentai Openings.
*Claps hands together.* Alright, line up and lets get this roll call going.
5. Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger: Performed by Psychic Lover
Dekaranger is a Galactic police based team on a mission to rid the world of evil. These feelings can be heard in the opening Lyrics of the theme song
“Hikari yo machi no tenshi-tachi ni todoke
Kagayaku yume wo kanaerareru yō ni
Sakebu sairen iza shutsudō da
Aku no nioi wo nogashi wa shinai”
Which translated to English is
“Oh, light, reach out for the angels of the city
Like you could make the brightest dreams come true
With the sirens’ wail, it is the time to dispatch
We will not let the stench of evil go free”
These words follow an intro of Sirens as the first bars of music begin to play.
It's a crazy way to start a song off, but as an intro to a show with a police theme, it’s perfect.
Redī tu go! Ginga no hate made oikakete yuku
English
Ready to go! Pursuing to the ends of the galaxy
Look, the Lyrics speak for themselves, it lets you know that they will go to the ends of the know universe to track down evil.
The DekaRanger opening helps to set the mode for the episode you are about to watch and lets you know that some bad monster of the week will get what's coming to it.
4. Engine Sentai Go-Onger: Preformed by Hideyuki Takahashi
Go-Onger is a vehicle themed Sentai, and the opening really nails this, with a fast beat, high up beat music and loads of vrooms and rubber meeting road.
Lyrics such as
Yume no pātsu wo awase
English:
Gather the parts of your dreams
Or
Ore-tachi hashitta sono ato nya
Reinbō heiwa no hana ga saku
English:
As long as we have run past it
The rainbow will harvest the flowers of peace
It really puts you into the mood to watch cars with large eyes race into action to stop the threat of the day. I leave you with this bit from the theme
Boom Boom, Bang Bang! Go-onger
Aim for a goal full of smiles
Engine Sentai Go-Onger
3. Hyakuju Sentai Gaoranger: Gaoranger Hoero!! Preformed by Yukio Yamagata
How could I not make a top 5 Sentai list, without putting Gaoranger on here. Hit me with that Gao Access, Summon the Spirits of the Earth, and throw in that “Where there is Life, there is a Roar of Justice!” Then have Yukio Yamagata hit you with that GAO, in that deep rich singing voice of his, and you know you are in for a crazy action pact time. Hell the theme alone is worth the time. One you will never skip, and always gives me chills when I hear it cause it’s so powerfully done.
This part of the song gives you everything you need to know.
“Kedakai otakebi wo agero!
Chikyū no inochi mamoru tame ni
Gao! Motto! Gao! Tsuyoku!
Hyakujū Sentai Gaorenjā
Ugāā! Hoero!!
English:
Let out a glorious roar!
To defend lives on the Earth
Roar! More! Roar! Stronger!
Hyakuju Sentai Gaoranger
Wraaahhh! Roar!!”
Let out that Glorious Roar, and Yukio does. I highly recommend you watch any of the Sentai Soul videos on Youtube, and find his part. Dude is a character and hits those GAO’s perfectly. It’s such a joy to watch.
Look, this one and the next two I highly recommend. Roar! Howl! Roar! Burn! GAORANGER.
2. Mirai Sentai Timeranger: Performed by Sasaki Kumi
Look, if Yukio Yamagata has powerful male vocals, then Sasaki Kumi is the female. When she hits you with that “Go Over Time and Space, and with that church Organ and choir backing her. You can take me now, it’s such a joy to the ears and this is only the first line of the theme.
The next one is “ Beyond the future, ride on the future Live on my dream, live on my soul.” OOF, I’m done, and I still have so much of the song left to listen to.
“Toki wo koe ride on the future
”Ima” wo ikiru, miraibito wa
Live on my dream, live on my soul
Hirakareta ashita e to
English:
Go beyond time, ride on the future
Live for the moment, people of the future
Live on my dream, live on my soul
On to the boundless tomorrow
”
This part tells you the theme of the show, a group of Time Travelers, sent back to stop a threat that threatens the people 1000 years in the future. We must go over time and space, to protect the people of the past to protect our dream of a peaceful future.
Look, Toei was on something when they aired this theme for Time Ranger, and only to follow it the next year with GaoRanger. This song should be my number 1, but it was barely pushed out by…
1. Gosei Sentai Dairanger: Performed by NEW JACK Takurō (Hirokazu Umeda)
What can I say about this opening theme besides TENSHIN DAAA! (WOH WOH WOH WOH) This song is perfection at its best. You get an off the chart synthesizer in the intro, no words, just music, then about 20 secs in you get the drop, give that drop about 7 secs to settle in then BOOM you are hit with that “TENSHIN DAAA!” and you know you are in for a treat.
Next, it gives you a great roll call of the team:
“Ryuurenjaa, Shishirenjaa,
Tenma, Kirin, Houourenjaa!
English:
RyuuRanger! ShishiRanger!
Tenma, Kirin, HououRanger!”
And the why he flows the roll call into the song then you get a few beats and followed quickly by a “Chi-power transformation! Ever-changing” I can’t rave on more and more about this song. Their are moments where there are no lyrics, but music still tells a story, a story of two old warring clans, and their fight for good and evil, where Good and evil can find common ground and stand as friends, where the actions of a master can hurt and also encourage his team and students.
There is a reason DaiRanger topped my Sentai list and is also topping this list. It’s hands down the best written Super Sentai Show out there, and the best show needs a banger of an opening. Dairanger gives you all that.
So get those Aura Changers out, Charge up that chi and TENSHIN DAA!
To end this, there is a common theme among all Sentai Openings, and that’s protecting the peace. It’s something we should be looking to do, even if we don’t have giant mechs or fight a monster once a week. We need to be ready to go, Engines revved up, roaring more roaring stronger, cause we need to go over time and space, and Keep on protecting our future.
This has been Favine, Shine into tomorrow, you five stars!