Like many people in the west my introduction to the world of Super Sentai was through the Power Rangers series, the American franchise that took footage from the various Super Sentai shows and edited into new footage to create their own show. As the quality of the American footage was pretty poor for the most part in those early seasons it was the brightly coloured heroes, the bold monsters, and the action that won me over and made me a lifelong fan.
Over the years I discovered more about the franchise and learnt about Super Sentai, and have since gone on to become a fan of that too, watching through several of the series that became Power Rangers shows thanks to their recent DVD releases. However, trying to watch older Sentai can prove to be difficult at times, so when I saw that there was going to be a release of the manga collection of Gorenger I was very excited to see what this first ever series of Super Sentai would have in store.
The book, rather than being a regular adaptation, or even stories that fit between the episodes, contains two completely different versions. Shotaro Ishinomori, the writer and artist on the book, created both series to run concurrently with the show as it aired, but aimed at two different audiences. The book has stories that were originally in the Weekly Shonen Sunday, and these follow the same story-line of the show, albeit with some slight differences. There is also monthly serial comics that were published in Shogaku Gonensei magazine. Whilst these two different types of stories do have slightly different tones, with the first ones having a more mature feel and a focus on the spy action whilst the latter ones feel more high adventure, they come together to make a pretty cohesive whole. As someone who has never seen Gorenger I feel like the book, with its different styles of story, give a pretty good insight into the different types of episodes, from the throwaway monster of the week to the more character driven ones that affect the plot more.
The first story in the collection tells the origins of the Gorengers, and introduces readers to Tsuyoshi, a young martial artist whose father is secretly part of the global military organisation EAGLE (Earth Guard League). EAGLE fights against the sinister Black Cross Army, a terrorist spy group who use stolen information to dominate the world. Tsuyoshi is asked to test out a specialised suit by his father, a suit that's able to enhance his natural abilities and make him into an even better fighter. It's revealed that this suit is one of five, and that those who wear it will become the Gorengers, a special team to fight the Black Cross Army.
At first Tsuyoshi is against becoming a part of this team, but when the Black Cross Army attacks his family home and kills his father he decides to join EAGLE and fight against the villains as Akarenger, the leader of the Gorengers.
The second story jumps forward in time somewhat, and we rejoin Tsuyoshi after he's become a part of the team. It's here that we meet the other members of the Gorengers, and get a bit of a sense of the different types of people they are. This story sees the team going into combat with the Black Cross Army when they go in investigate a sighting of them in the remote ghost town of Sangai Village. This turns out to be a trap, and the team have to fight against the Black Cross Army forces, as well as Warrior Mask; the second of the five original Black Cross Masked Monsters. This story not only sees the Gorengers having to fight against overwhelming odds, but has a deeply personal cost when Akira, the blue Gorenger, has to confront his best friend who betrayed them to the Black Cross Army, something that has a tragic conclusion.
After this story the book takes on a bit of a lighter tone and we get to see the Gorengers deal with a number of enemy threats, including a giant sea monster robot attacking the city, remote controlled flying pirate ships that kidnap a kid, a villain that uses mirrors to trap and trick the Gorengers, and a slightly different retelling of the first episode of Gorenger, that expands upon the one at the start of the book.
Overall the book has a lot of silly fun in it, as you'd expect from a Super Sentai manga. It leans into the ridiculous parts of the show and does all out in doing over the top and funny things with both the heroes and villains. That being said, the stories in the first half of the book aren't afraid to include some dark moments too, and these come along and really shock you out of the silliness the rest of the book has, making them all the more affecting.
One of the things that I really enjoyed about the book was that it game you a brief introduction to things too, where readers not only get to know about how the book came into being, but who Shotaro Ishinomori was. I had no idea that he was so prolific a comics creator; to the point where he holds the Guinness World Record for most comics published by one author. It made me curious to learn more about him and his work, and that's something I'm grateful for.
I hope that this isn't the last of these collections that we see, and that Seven Seas publishing will find some other Super Sentai Manga to bring to the west. I adored being able to learn about these old shows, to see these stories presented fresh and new, and the fact that it comes in a gorgeous hardcover volume just makes it even better. Even if you're not a huge Power Rangers or Super Sentai fan, this is a book worth checking out just for something different; and if you are a fan it'll look gorgeous on your shelf.
