Sentai manga

SUPER SENTAI: Himitsu Sentai Gorenger The Classic Manga Collection

SUPER SENTAI: Himitsu Sentai Gorenger – The Classic Manga Collection (English Edition)

Before he became an icon of live-action superheroics, Ishinomori was known for his career as a mangaka; an assistant and student of , his mentor’s style and kinetic artwork is keenly felt through Ishinomori’s superheroic work, from his early days illustrating and writing Cyborg 009 to his adaptive work bringing series like Kamen Rider, Himitsu Sentai Gorenger, Kikaider and more to the page after forging their legacies on the small screen. But what’s fascinating about revisiting Ishinomori’s Gorenger manga—written to tie in with the launch of the 1975 series but published last month in English for the first time by Seven Seas—is to not just see Ishinimori translate his work from one medium to another, but to do so twice, in very intriguingly different tones.

It’s particularly interesting to see this tale, rendered in such a way officially for the first time, as Sentai—now Super Sentai, having evolved into a much more explicitly superpowered franchise, of big team gimmicks and —celebrates its 45th anniversary with . Both manga present as easy parallels and roots for what the franchise would become on screen—this heady mix of over-the-top action and compelling, grounded heroes, everyday human beings given power rather than cybernetic experiments or magical aliens. And yet from the get go Ishinomori showed a fascinating balance between the superheroic and the human, whether on screen or on the page, that would secure Sentai’s status in decades to come as one of Japan’s most iconic hero franchises.

Himitsu Sentai GORENGER manga in its official Spanish edition of this classic manga published by Ooso Comics.