Ninja Sentai Kakuranger



""Hiding from people and slashing evil! Ninja Sentai! Kakuranger, revealed!""

Ninja Sentai Kakuranger (Ninja Squadron Kakuranger ) is the eighteenth installment in the Super Sentai franchise, airing from 1994 to 1995.

400 years ago, a band of Yōkai battled a group of ninjas, led by the legendary Sarutobi Sasuke. He and four other ninjas sealed the Yōkai away behind a magical door. In the present day, the Yōkai are set free when two of those ninjas' descendants, Sasuke and Saizō, are tricked into opening the door. Now, they and the three descendants of the other ninjas must put the Yōkai away as the Kakurangers.

This is the first Super Sentai with a Ninja motif; its characters are also compared to the leads of Journey to The West. It was also the first Sentai to feature a female as its leader, and the first to have a non-human ally as a Sixth Ranger.

It was adapted into America as the third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Notably, the suits were used for the Aquitian Rangers, a separate team of Rangers that protected the Earth during the "Alien Rangers" story arc when the Mighty Morphin team were de-aged.

The Kakurangers are:

 * Sasuke / Ninja Red: The hot-blooded Hero of the story. Parallels to Sun Wukong.
 * Tsuruhime / Ninja White: The Chick and Smart Guy. She's technically the leader, but Sasuke's the P.O.V.-character. Parallels to Xuanzang.
 * Saizō / Ninja Blue: The Kid Appeal Character. He thinks he's all that (maybe). Parallels to Sha Wujing.
 * Seikai / Ninja Yellow: The Big Guy, Big Eater, and Heavy Sleeper. Parallels to Zhu Bajie.
 * Jiraiya / Ninja Black: The Lancer. American. Speaks Gratuitous English astoundingly well. Debuted as the Reverse Mole. Parallels to Yulong.
 * Ninjaman: Sixth Ranger, a disciple of the Sanshinshō who was imprisoned in a magic bottle after he was tricked into attacking humans. He can enlarge himself to fight giant Yokais and has the ability to transform into Samuraiman when angered.

The Sanshinshō

 * Muteki Shōgun : The first and largest of the three; he has a flaming BFS. Governs "body".
 * Tsubasamaru: A white bird that can give the other two more power. Governs "mind",
 * Kakure Daishōgun : The third and swiftest fighter of the three. Governs "skill".

The Yōkai

 * Daimaō: The Big Bad
 * Gashadokuro: The Dragon, and initial Big Bad.
 * Dr. Yugami: Evil Genius
 * Hana no Kunoichi Gumi : The Yōkai's All-Female band of fighters; their names are Ayame, Sakura, Suiren, Yuri, and Ran. They were once ordinary cats until transformed by Gashadokuro.

Recurring Super Sentai tropes:

 * All Your Powers Combined: One Yōkai, DaraDara, stole the powers of Ninjaman and most of the Rangers for great power.
 * By the Power of Greyskull: Super Henge ! Doron Changer!"
 * Cool Bike: The Shark Machines, much like the Goranger Machines and the Zaurer Machines, consisted of one solo bike for Red (the Shark Bridder) and two sidecar-equipped bikes for the rest of the team (Blue's Shark Slider shared with White, and Yellow's Shark Launcher shared with Black). They could be combined to form a Finishing Move called the Shark Driver.
 * Cool Car: The Nekomaru van, a sentient van with the face of cat.
 * Crossover: Super Sentai World, a short 3D film where the Kakuranger team fought alongside the four previous Sentai teams (Fiveman, Jetman, Zyuranger and Dairanger). The main giant robot of each team were also present. This short film served as a predecessor to the annual Versus movies that began the following year.
 * Eyecatch: The eyecatch before the break features a Kakuranger by a black background slashing the screen. All 5 Kakurangers are then seen in the open turning to the camera. After the break, the eyecatch features the Three God Generals.
 * Finishing Move: The Raiko Nami, an energy blast with the Kakuremaru.
 * Five-Man Band
 * The Hero: Sasuke
 * The Smart Chick: Tsuruhime Sasuke.
 * Kid Appeal Character: Saizō
 * The Big Guy: Seikai
 * The Lancer: Jiraiya
 * Sixth Ranger: Ninjaman
 * The Mentor: Sandayū Momochi
 * Home Base: The Nekomaru, a cat shaped van.
 * Humongous Mecha: The first Sentai series to feature two sets of combining mechas for the main team rather than just one. The team's Sixth Ranger also functioned as a third humanoid robot.
 * A Mech By Any Other Name: The Sanshinshō and their components, the Kyodai Jūshō and the Chōninjū . Tsubasamaru gets the unique classification of Seininjū.
 * Animal Mecha: The Kyodai Jūshō (and by proxy, the Jūshō Fighters) have humanoid forms with anthropomorphic characteristics, while the Chōninjū and Tsubasamaru are all animal-shaped. The name of each Kakuranger's mecha is a pun on the animal it's based on.
 * "Saruder" = saru (ape)
 * "Kark" = kaku (crane)
 * "Rogan" = garō (wolf)
 * "Kumard" = kuma (bear)
 * "Gammer" = gamagaeru (Japanese toad)
 * Combining Mecha: The Jūshō are the components of the Muteki Shōgun, while the Chōninjū are the ones for the Kakure Daishōgun.
 * Red Saruder + White Kark + Blue Rogan + Yellow Kumard + Black Gammer = Muteki Shōgun
 * God Saruder + God Kark + God Rogan + God Kumard + God Gammer = Kakure Daishōgun
 * Averted with the Jūshō Fighters, which are lightweight versions of the standard Jūshō that make up for their inability to combine with greater speed and flexibility.
 * Motion Capture Mecha: The Kakurangers could literally transform into their individualized Jūshō.
 * Mecha Expansion Pack: Tsubasamaru, a falcon-shaped mecha, served this function to either of the two Shōgun.
 * Muteki Shōgun + Tsubasamaru = Super Muteki Shōgun
 * Kakure Daishōgun + Tsubasamaru = Super Kakure Daishōgun
 * Mechanical Lifeform: The Sanshinshō are ancient deities, while Ninjaman is their disciple.
 * Transforming Mecha: Ninjaman, who can enlarge himself and transform into Samuraiman, counts as one.
 * Also, the Muteki Shogun could transform into a castle, but unfortunately the toy version is unable to replicate this feature due to the limited articulation endemic to all Deluxe Sentai robots.
 * In the Name of The Moon: "Hiding from the people and slashing evil! Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, revealed!"
 * Law of Chromatic Superiority: Sasuke is given the Hikarimaru sword by Sandayū that can be used to summon Tsubasamaru. He is also the first to get his Jūshō and Chōninjū. And his Journey to The West counterpart just happens to be the invincible Badass one.
 * Make My Monster Grow: The Yōkai absorb lightning made from depression and sadness to grow.
 * Monsters of the Week: The Yōkai were all based on actual Japanese mythology and folklores.
 * Mooks: Dorodoros.
 * The Movie
 * The Narrator: He actually appears on the screen.
 * Psycho Rangers: The Flower Kunoichi Gang, introduced in Episode 15, is an all-female variant.
 * The Smurfette Principle: Ninja White, who unlike previous girls, is actually the leader of the team (although Ninja Red is still the lead character).
 * Supervillain Lair: The Skull Castle, a flying ship used by Daimaō.
 * Transformation Trinket: The Doron Changers, the first ever handheld trinkets.
 * Weapon of Choice
 * Katanas Are Just Better: The Kakuremarus, the first use of katanas as sidearms.
 * Swiss Army Weapon: The Kakulasers, the other sidearm.
 * Power Fist: The Shinobi Knuckles; the Rangers' personal weapons are attachments to them. As the JuuShou, they get better versions of these weapons.
 * Improbable Weapon User: The Kakurangers later gain the Kakuranger Ball, a mighty football to finish off Yōkai with. Now, where have I heard that one before?
 * BFS: The rangers can later use Muteki Shogun's Blazing Shogun Sword for themselves.
 * Sasuke: Red Slicer. Later, he gains the Hikarimaru.
 * Tsuruhime: White Beak
 * Saizō: Blue Shot. As Blue Rogan, he gets the Rogan Shaft.
 * Seikai: Yellow Claw
 * Jiraiya: Black Bow
 * Ninjaman: Ninja Sword
 * Samuraiman: Samurai Javelin

Tropes specific to Ninja Sentai Kakuranger:
"(YOU CALLED ME) BLUE SQUIRT???!!! EXPLOSION OF ANGER!!!"
 * All Up to You: Sasuke escaped getting his powers siphoned by Daradara; so he saved the day.
 * The Atoner: Gali, Jiraiya's master,
 * Berserk Button: Don't call Ninjaman "Blue Squirt", or else you'll meet Samuraiman!

"Kappa: Oru-kay! Hai yew! Rook oba he-yah!"
 * Big Badass Wolf: The basis for Saizō's Humongous Mecha.
 * Big Damn Heroes: In mecha fights, sometimes Tsubasamaru, and later Muteki Shogun would show up out of nowhere.
 * Big Eater: Seikai.
 * Camp: Well for this Sentai, you've got a... super hammy Narrator, lots of "WHAM!!" comic effect and a Funny Foreigner to the boot. Is it good? Holy Ninja, Batman! IT IS!
 * Mood Whiplash: Midway of the series, however, the Narrator is gone, and the series started getting edgy and dramatic, particularly the episodes to get their final scrolls.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: See Saizō's entry in the Five-Man Band entry? Well, don't think he'll just end up an annoying moron. When push comes to shove, he's still a very competent ninja.
 * Dancing Mook Credits: The ending theme.
 * Dawson Casting: Slightly inverted. Satomi Hirose, playing Tsuruhime, was not yet 14 when filming began. When Tsuruhime is shown celebrating her birthday onscreen mid-series, her birthday cake can be seen holding 16 candles.
 * Distressed Dude: Seikai tends to get into trouble and captured first amongst the team. Sometimes, he COULD turn the table around, to be fair.
 * Elemental Powers
 * Playing With Fire: Sasuke
 * Blow You Away: Tsuruhime
 * Making a Splash: Saizō
 * Green Thumb: Seikai
 * Dishing Out Dirt: Jiraiya
 * Five Temperament Ensemble:
 * Sasuke: Phlegmatic (middle of the road variety)
 * Tsuruhime: Choleric
 * Saizō: Melancholic
 * Seikai: Sanguine
 * Jiraiya: Supine
 * Funny Foreigner: Jiraiya combines being this and a Badass
 * Frogs and Toads: The basis for Jiraiya's Humongous Mecha.
 * Gratuitous English: Averted by Jiraiya, played so straight that it hurts by Kappa and Rokurokubi.

"Yousuke: "Unknown to the people."
 * Heroic Lineage: The modern Kakurangers are descendents of the originals, some 24 generations down the line (in Tsuruhime's case). The modern ones all get to meet their ancestors when they get their Doron Changers - and we find out that the ancestors aren't exactly thrilled with their descendents' lifestyles.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!
 * First of all, Jiraiya is played by Kane Kosugi, a.k.a. the son of the legendary Sho Kosugi... who's playing Jiraiya's master Gali. Kane himself has since appeared in several Hollywood movies.
 * Reiko Chiba plays a nature loving female ninja named Reika in Episode 25 who wears an outfit similar to what Mei (Reiko's previous Sentai character) wore in Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger.
 * Reiko's former on-screen rival Ami Kawai (Lamie in Zyuranger) plays the human form of the monster Amikiri in Episode 17.
 * Masaki Tachi (Radiguet) plays a man who gets 'cursed' into Mokumokuren in Episodes 5-6.
 * Hakumenro (Tsuruhime's father) is played by Godai Takayuki, formerly the second Vul Eagle in Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan
 * As some of the previous show about 'previous heroes cast as villains', this time we had Remi Hoshikawa being one of the Flower Kunoichi Gang. This would have an effect below.
 * Tarō, one of the Dog Twins, was played by Keisuke Tsuchiya (Kazu/Kirin Ranger in Gosei Sentai Dairanger). The other twin, Jirō, was played by Keisuke's actual twin brother Daisuke, who played Kazu's evil twin in one episode of Dairanger, although he is much better known for being Takuya Kai/Blue Beet in Juukou B-Fighter (where Keisuke played his Evil Counterpart Black Beet).
 * Episode 35 is a Reunion Show where Satomi Hirose (Tsuruhime) teams up with her co-stars from Yugenjikko Sisters Chouchoutrian: Kei Ishibashi and Noriko Tanaka.
 * The reporter on episode 9 - Rika Kishida better known as Kaori Rokumeikan/White Swan.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: You might find yourself waiting for Ninjaman to yell YATTE YARUZE!!!
 * Thanks to the previous two entry, later on, Saizo's voice actor would voice various Super Sentai Monster of the Week in the future.
 * And later in the future, Teruaki Ogawa/Sasuke would play as Black Knight Hyuuga
 * Highly-Visible Ninja: The team goes out and fights monsters in BROAD DAYLIGHT, and summons giants to fight giant monsters. They have to be the most visible ninjas ever.
 * The Hit Flash: Of the Batman "POW!" "WHAM!" type. (In English, of course.) This is the likely reason why not much Kakuranger footage was used for Power Rangers.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: Guess what got added in to the 2010 reversion of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers?
 * Hot Dad:
 * Humanity Ensues: The Flower Kunoichi Gang were once cats. They change back later.
 * Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: One Yōkai, Zashiki-warashi, wished to make friends with humans, including Jiraiya, rather than kill them.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father:.
 * Massive Multiplayer Crossover: "Super Sentai World," which stars the Kakurangers and all-four of the previous Super Sentai.
 * McNinja: Jiraiya.
 * More Dakka: Super Muteki Shogun
 * Mythology Gag: The close-quote of the roll call in Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger is very reminding of this series'.

Nanami: "Unknown to the world."

Kouta: "Striking at evil from the midst of shadows!"

Yousuke: "Ninpuu Sentai..."

All: "Hurricanger!"

Yousuke : "... has arrived!""


 * At one point Junior performs a ritual to Zashiki-Warashi evil, with the incantation "Daichi no akuryou tachi yo. Ikeru momo no subete no ikari to nikushimi wo atsume, kono zashiki-warashi ni aku no chikara wo atae yo" This is very close to Bandora's Make My Monster Grow incantation in Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger, "Daichi ni nemuru akuryou-tachi yo. (monster's name) ni chikara wo atae yo."
 * Also when the Flower Kunoichi Gang posed as a teacher, they taught the children songs that was taught in the first episode of Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman by Five Yellow/Remi Hoshikawa. The 'gag' part? One of the Flower Kunoichi Gang members is played by the actress of Remi (Keiko Hayase)
 * Name's the Same: Toei used the name "Jiraiya" for a previous tokusatsu hero.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If only Sasuke and Saizō weren't such good citizens.
 * Ninja: They wouldn't be the last.
 * No Fourth Wall: Beginning with Episode 25 (following the departure of the narrator), the monsters begin to explain to the audience themselves the mythology behind them.
 * Only One Name: The Kakurangers are never given family names on the show.
 * Portmantitle: Kakuranger is a combination of kakure (the Japanese word for "hiding") and renja ("ranger").
 * Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: "Seibai!" Accompanied with a thumbs down.
 * Another bit of Hilarious in Hindsight here: "Seibai!" is also pronounced by the Shinkengers when using their IkaTenkuu Buster.
 * Prop Recycling: One of the various background Yōkai in #3 is in fact the Combined Four Deva Kings from Gosei Sentai Dairanger in a different outfit and given a red wash.
 * Real Life Relative: Jiraiya, played by Kane Kosugi, was the pupil of, Gali. In real life, Gali was played by Kosugi's father, Shou.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Shuten Douji Brothers.
 * Sealed Evil in A Can: Or, more precisely, Sealed Evil Behind the Door. This was where most of the Yōkai were when the show started,
 * Shout-Out: When the Kappa is brought back to life as a cyborg he has the legs of a Zaku and the right arm of a Zakrello.
 * Reika's participation in battle alongside Sasuke gives tribute to Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger battles. Reika herself is an homage to Mei (who was played by her actress), her twin daggers are a nod to Boi (that team's Yellow), and unlike the Kakurangers' attacks, her blows strike Sword Sparks off the Dorodoros. What may be another Zyuranger nod are the non-urban shots of the Super Stealth Beasts running together.
 * Episode 35, the one with the Punishment Sailor Sisters, is a shout-out to Sailor Moon. The villains' plot is Sailor Moon-esque compared to the other episodes, the girls' Sailor costumes (Tsuruhime also gets to wear one) are a blatant visual reference, Tsuruhime and the Sisters confront the episode's Yōkai with an In the Name of The Moon speech worded quite similarly to the Trope Namer's, and it's Tsuruhime (the female leader of the team and who is a colour match for Usagi more or less) who finishes off the Yōkai single-handedly.
 * Stock Super Powers: The Kakurangers each have a special Ninja Arts technique.
 * Doppelganger Attack: Sasuke
 * Voluntary Shapeshifter: Tsuruhime
 * Walk On Water: Saizō
 * Sizeshifter: Seikai
 * Fast Tunnelling: Jiraiya
 * Stock Ninja Weaponry: Shuriken show up, wielded by all of the rangers. Most are of them are small. Each ranger has unique shuriken which resemble their ranger symbol. NinjaRed also has a Fuuma Shuriken, with his first Humongous Mecha wielding a bigger version that it rolls at enemies to kill them. The rangers also use Caltrops on a few occasions. Each of them has a wakizashi in Ranger form, and finally NinjaRed's third Humongous Mecha wields a pair of ninja-to.
 * The Stoic: Jiraiya doesn't talk much since "He can't speak Japanese!" (he gets better later).
 * Surprisingly Good English: Jiraiya is played by American-born Kane Kosugi, so his English is free of the usual Japanese accent. This is most jarring in the roll call, where he pronounces "Ninja Black" in an American accent (specifically he has a Californian accent).
 * In episode 3, his introduction, he says a buttload of things in perfect English.
 * Most of his dialogue in that episode is in flawless English, and even later episodes have him slipping into it.
 * Synchronization: If Daradara is injured, Ninjaman is injured instead. He can only be injured instead if Daimaou is injured.
 * Team Pet: Nekomaru, their... bus. He even has its own theme song.
 * Theme Naming: Each Kakuranger is named after a ninja from actual Japanese folklore. Justified - they're all descended from said ninjas, and their names are taken from their ancestors.
 * Sasuke: Named after Sarutobi Sasuke.
 * Jiraiya: Named after the hero of the folktale Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari.
 * Saizō: Named after Kirigakure Saizō.
 * Seikai: Named after Miyoshi Seikai.
 * Tsuruhime: Named after Ōhōri Tsuruhime. (referred to as Shodai Tsuruhime)
 * Tuckerization: The one-shot character Reika is played by Reiko Chiba ( who played a Sentai warrior two years ago).
 * Youkai: The villains are all these. Every major one of them, sans Yugami and the Flower Kunoichi Gang, refers to a creature of Japanese myth.