After 50 Years, ‘Power Rangers’ Source Series ‘Super Sentai’ Coming To An End (Or Is It?)
After 50 years and almost as many teams of color-coded superheroes, it appears the iconic Japanese tokusatsu franchise Super Sentai, better known to Western readers as the source material from which Power Rangers is adapted, will officially be coming to a conclusive and definitive end – Or at least it might be, as contrary to popular consensus, there still exist a number of factors that call into question the exact nature of the series’ fate.
One such factor is that the franchise’s curtain call was first revealed not by its longtime production house Toei or its home network TV Asahi, but rather the Japanese news outlet Oricon News.
Another is that rather than being provided this information in any official capacity, Oricon News had instead gleaned it from supposed interviews with multiple, albeit unidentified, members of Super Sentai‘s production team.
Further, there’s also the curious fact that the outlet’s entire report amounted to two total sentences (as machine translated via DeepL):
“The TV Asahi-affiliated Super Sentai will conclude with its currently airing installment [No. 1 Sentai Gozyuger], sources familiar with the matter revealed on the 30th. The popular franchise, which began in 1975 with Himitsu Sentai Gorenger, will draw to a close after half a century.”
And finally, there’s the fact that as of this article’s publication almost 24 hours after Oricon News’ report (BIC’s delay coming in service of allowing for official channels to provide more information), both Toei and TV Asahi have yet to offer any public communications on the matter.
So, as to whether or not Super Sentai is truly signing off, the simple point of fact is that no one knows, as all the public has to go on are the supposed whispers of alleged insiders.
But let’s say, for a moment, that it was. That after 50 years nearly-straight on TV (the series took a single-year hiatus in 1979 as Toei opted to produce their tokusatsu Spider-Man series), one of the world’s most seminal super hero franchises was truly, actually coming to an end.
Even if that were true, it’s unlikely that its fate would be so simple.
In terms of both business and public sentiment, Super Sentai is just too popular and profitable of a franchise to so harshly snuff out, especially at a time when tokusatsu in general is making inroads with untapped, non-Japanese markets (the current Kamen Rider Zetz is the first of the franchise to not only be simulcast in America, but also made in the hopes of appealing to them).
As such, it’s more likely that rather than ending, Super Sentai will simply perform its own ‘Henshin’ and change into a different form, either taking a short break from air (each series, produced nearly back-to-back, runs for an average of 52 episodes and a pair of movies, a grueling schedule to say the least), or ‘refreshing’ various aspects of its identity, such as its name, core team make-up, or overall episode formula, ostensibly in the hopes of keeping the franchise ‘fresh’ in the face of an ever-changing media landscape.
Ultimately, while Oricon News’ report seems genuinely shocking on its face, there is simply not enough publicly available information to draw a conclusion either way.
But though Super Sentai may end, it won’t be happening any time in the near future, as the current series No. 1 Sentai Gozyuger still has about 17 episodes left to go.
