Holiday Review: HIMITSU SENTAI GORENGER

Let's kick things off with some old-school manga.  Seven Seas has been spoiling us a little with some of their recent announcements of classic manga, including works like this from a long-neglected creator.

SUPER SENTAI: HIMITSU SENTAI GORENGER by Shotaro Ishinomori.  First published in 1975 and first published in North America in 2021.

PLOT:

The Black Cross Army is a nefarious secret society that steals the political and technological secrets of the world for profit and to stoke discord and strife.  The only defense against their evil plans is EAGLE, who have brought together five young people and given them special battlesuits that allow them to fight whatever evil Black Cross can throw at them.

STORY:

Technically, this is not one series but two.  Ishinomori made two versions of Gorenger to run concurrently with the TV show of the same name: one in a shonen magazine, another in a children's magazine.  While each version has a different tone and approach to the story, both are compelling in their own way.

The first and longest portion of the story is from the shonen manga, and it's a lot more dramatic than I expected.  There's a lot of build-up early on as we watch future red ranger/team leader Tsuyoshi discover the truth about Black Cross and EAGLE, lose his family and dojo, and accept the mantle he once rejected.  We see something similar with the blue ranger Shinmei as he grapples with a traitorous friend.  While not all of them get such dramatic spotlights, everyone on the team gets a moment or two to shine.  There's also a strong environmental theme, as most of what Black Cross tries to steal are experimental forms of clean energy.  It's not only an idea that fits well with all this sci-fi tinged action, but also the growing ecological movement of the times.

The last third of the book is the kid-friendly version.  This feels a little closer to its TV counterpart in its villain-of-the-week structure and its greater emphasis on action and comedy over interpersonal drama and moodiness.  It's weirdly more violent than the shonen version and glosses over the backstory a lot more quickly, but it's no less readable.  I guess that's a testament to Ishinomori's skills in the end.

ART:

The art is where this omnibus truly shines.  Ishinomori got his start as one of Osamu Tezuka's assistants, something that's clearly obvious in the way he draws characters (particularly feet) and animals (even if they're purely mechanical), but I would argue that he was a far more ambitious artist than his mentor.  This is most obvious in the shonen manga version, where a lot of the panels are composed in a way to mimic cinematic scene editing.  There's also moments of artfulness, like the slow-motion montage of cement blocks being broken with a karate chop or the use of reflections as a substitute for Tsuyoshi's gaze.

That being said, he's fantastic at drawing action.  He was a master at using the swing of a punch, kick, or throw to direct the reader's eye across the page, using just the right amount of speedlines and SFX to emphasize the action without obscuring it.  He also knows how to perfectly time a two-page spread for maximum impact, no matter if it's showing off some impressive tech or a truly massive threat.  It's legitimately some impressive work.

PRESENTATION:

Credit to the Nibley sisters for their translation, especially since one team member's gimmick is telling riddles that all rely on wordplay for their answers.  I also have to give some credit for including a brief introduction to Shotaro Ishinomori, tokusatsu, and the history behind these particular manga at the start of the volume.  It's something I wish more classic manga release would (or could) do, as both toku and older manga tend to be rather niche interests.  

The only oddity I noticed was the insistence on rendering his name as "Ishinomori" all over the book.  I have to presume this is a licensor stipulation, one meant to point out how the 'no' was a later addition (as his real last name was Onodera and his early works were published under the name "Shotaro Ishimori.")

RATING:

Himitsu Sentai Gorenger is a fun action romp with skillful art and some interesting history behind it.  Ishinomori has been ignored by the English-language market for far too long and I hope that both this and the upcoming release of his original Kamen Rider manga do well enough that we'll see more of work in years to come.

This book is published by Seven Seas.  It is currently in print.

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