Super Sentai has a simple enough concept: Live-Action series styled like anime about multicolored heroes in spandex with numerous weapons, including Humongous Combining Mecha, against an army of goons in rubber suits. However, just because it's campy doesn't mean you have to make it dumb. You can still make it work.
With that being said, let's get busy.
Necessary Tropes
Color-Coded Characters: You're gonna need to be able to tell each member apart somehow. How you do it is up to you, most Super Sentai shows have the entire suit in that colour bar a few other bits but in Tomica Hero Rescue Force they all wore orange with trim depending on the colours.
This usually also applies to their pre-henshin state, but as Chouriki Sentai Ohranger showed, you don't have to do that necessarily. It just helps. If they work for some form of group and have uniforms that they wear before transforming (See Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger) then it's slightly more likely that they'll have colour co-ordinated uniforms outside of battle.
Law of Chromatic Superiority: Red Is Heroic, so The Hero wears it; end of discussion. He usually gets the best stuff, the primary focus, etc. Don't sideline the others, though. However, the Red Ranger doesn't have to be the leader, nor does he have to be the most experienced. The law was briefly broken by Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger with the White (actually Rainbow) Ranger being the leader and the main character, as well as being The Hero; but he still had prominent red markings on his suit.
Spandex, Latex, or Leather: Chances are, you're gonna be going with spandex; as much as some people deny it. Latex armor and leather-like materials aren't unheard-of, though. If the series has an additional, non-Ranger heroic ally, he'll probably have latex.
The Power of Friendship: Teamwork is a staple of the genre. It makes the kids happy, after all.
BFG: You're gonna need something to blow up the monster before you summon the...
Humongous Mecha: Specifically, Combining Mecha. The main weapon tends to be a sword for these ones. They are always Super Robots. Be sure to include a lot of them, you'll make some good money out of their toys.
Choices, Choices
Motif: Each season has some kind of overlaying motif to it. This motif is the inspiration for the heroes' costumes, their mecha, and sometimes even their weapons. Don't worry about repeating a motif that's already been done. After all, there have been a bunch of vehicle-themed seasons,note four dinosaur-themed seasons,note three ninja-themed seasons,note and plenty more where that came from. Give the motif a chance to rest before you dig it up again. 5 to 15 years sounds about right.- While this isn't always the case, most seasons also give the villains a motif, be it one shared with the heroes or a unique one of their own. In either case, it'll need to reliably provide the Monster of the Week for a year's worth of episodes without getting stale, so make sure you pick one that offers plenty of variety.
Central Theme: While the motif largely deals with the visual aspects of the season, you've also got to tell a story with it. What message do you want the audience to come away with? Courage, friendship, and family some of the more common ones; just keep it idealistic.
Tone: Do you want it to be a dark drama? Or a wacky comedy? Or even a ridiculous parody? This decision will affect how things look.
Number of Heroes: The minimum to a team is three members, and one of those members is going to be a girl.
The most common configuration is to have five members. You don't have to have Two Girls to a Team, but you can if you want. Chances are, the guys adapting your series will want to turn the one that isn't pink/white into a girl for the sake of feminism, though.
Of course, just because you start out with three/five doesn't mean you have to have that many for the whole series. Choujuu Sentai Liveman introduced the concept of having two additional members join a three-member team, and Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger introduced the concept of a permanent Sixth Ranger joining the team later. If the concept of a Sixth Ranger just doesn't cut it, you can always bring in an Extra Hero that fits the theme of the show, but with a radically different costume. Heck, you can add as many members as you like (budget permitting, of course): several series have extra allied Rangers join the team at the end of the series or for special events like tie-in movies; Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger had recurring Guest Fighter Rangers appear for a total team size of ten (plus an eleventh enemy Ranger appearing in a movie), and Uchu Sentai Kyuranger grew to twelve Rangers, all of which were regular cast members.
Colors: All Sentai series have a Red, a Blue Ranger, and usually a Yellow Ranger (there are only six shows that don't have yellownote ). If you're starting with three members then those are probably going to be their colors right there. That said, a red/blue/pink trio is slowly becoming more common.note
For a Five-Man Band, the other two members after red, blue, and yellow are usually two of the four following colors: pink, green, white, and black (most of the time, one is either black or green and the other is pink, but it's not a hard-and-fast rule). As stated above, red is generally reserved for The Hero, while pink is almost exclusively worn by women; all other colors are rather flexible as to who wears them (yellow is gender-neutral overall, having shifted from mostly-male to mostly-female over time; white tends to be used with women on a core team but with men for Sixth Rangers; blue and green are primarily male but there are cases of women wearing them;note and there has yet to be a female Black Ranger).
For the Sixth Ranger(s), gold and silver have become the defaults, but you can also use whatever core team colors aren't taken already (except for pink due to the whole "girls only" thing). Timeranger and Kyuranger also show that you can repeat the red color for the Sixth, but make sure to give him a different title and costume to differentiate him from the Red Ranger you already have.
And if you're going for a big roster a la Kyoryuger or Kyuranger, you'll need more colors; options that have been used in those series include purple, orange, grey, and cyan (aka "aqua" or "skyblue", this color has also been used for regular Blue Rangers in place of the usual darker shade on occasion).
Pitfalls
- Avoid going overboard with Stuff Blowing Up during the fight scenes. Chances are, your audience will be more impressed by your actors' martial arts skills than the huge explosions constantly happening behind the heroes and villans. A much better use for huge explosions is to have one happen just after the rangers morph at the start of a critical battle or a team-up, because Awesomeness Is Volatile.
- Many of the best fight scenes involve interacting with scenery, such as Improvised Weapon and No OSHA Compliance environments.
- While Sentai is Merchandise-Driven,note don't make it too blatant. It's a lot easier to get away with a lot more merchandise in a series with a collectible (i.e., keys, batteries, globes), but even then, it's still possible to go overboard with merchandise (see Tensou Sentai Goseiger, which had a card gimmick that was mainly to promote an arcade game, as an example). Consider how useful the collectible is as a way to determine how many times it should show up - a collectible that can allow the user to swim rapidly probably isn't gonna have much use if you're writing a series that takes place mostly on dry land, in the air, or in space, whereas a collectible that allows the user to generate a shield should appear multiple times. Same goes for the mecha - if you're going to include mecha, be sure to use the mechs you introduce a lot (for an example of how this can go wrong, look at Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman, which went so wrong that had it not been for Choujin Sentai Jetman being a huge success, it would've ended the franchise).
- Although there is no limit to how many Rangers you can have on your team, the more Rangers you have, the less focus each individual Ranger gets - although Kyoryuger and Kyuranger have more Rangers (and the Reds got a large amount of the focus), Ninninger is an example of where one Ranger getting too much focus derailed the show, to the point where Takaharu is used as the go-to example of how not to do a Red Ranger.
- Villain Decay can happen when Villains become too scary for children and the producers push for a more kid friendly villain. Additionally if a villain isn't allowed to win from time to time they lose their threat. As such many a good villain will be able to grasp victory from defeat or plan a Xanatos Gambit. In Go-Busters, Enter's robots would be destroyed by the Go-Busters every time so he would use attacks as distractions in order to complete other objectives, such as stealing data and zord materials.
Potential Subversions
- You don't have to include Black-and-White Morality. Feel free to make the heroes somewhat morally questionable or your villains not that evil. But regardless of a scenario it's best to give the viewer a reason to root for the protagonist and not fall into Too Bleak, Stopped Caring or make the protagonist bland enough that the viewer ends up Rooting for the Empire. While making sure that your protagonist still has some heroic qualities so that he or she doesn't risk becoming a Designated Hero. (The actual franchise attempted this idea in Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger.)
- Explore the consequences of the existence of monsters and aliens existing. How much of an impact it can make? How involved will the military be now that monsters and aliens roam the planet?
- Mix up the colors: Use a nonstandard color like purple or orange.note Let the Red Ranger be a woman, or the Pink Ranger be a man. Have The Hero wear something other than red. Put Gold and/or Silver Rangers on the core team instead of being Sixth Rangers. The franchise has flirted with all of these over the years, so nothing is really off-limits.note
- You don't have to have a show set in the present. Many shows try to do 20 Minutes into the Future, but few have gone beyond that. Timeranger/Time Force set itself in the present, but the characters were originally from 1000 years in the future. But RPM is so far the only Power Rangers series to have a drastically different setting, that being post-apocalyptic. And so far no Sentai or Power Rangers season has been set in the past.
Writers' Lounge
Suggested Themes and Aesops
Justice. Resolve. Traffic safety. Keep it optimistic, even in the worst of times.
Potential Motifs
It all depends on the theme. Popular ones include dinosaurs, cars, police squadrons, ninja, and especially animals. When all else fails, go with a neutral vehicle theme.
Suggested Plots
Chances are, most of your episodes are gonna follow a similar formula: Monster attacks civilians, team faces off against monster but fails, focus member does something relevant to the episode, round two, heroes win, monster vs. robo, scene with group.
There are a series of plots that happen often, though:
- The Red Ranger learns a lesson on leadership.
- A monster might attack brides, forcing the heroes to go undercover as a couple getting married.
- A monster might make Evil Knockoffs of the heroes.
- Alternatively, the villains will bring in a team of evil rangers. Said team does not have to be human, and usually lasts for an arc.
- A monster might not want to hurt anyone, but the team will usually end up having to blow him up anyway.
- In seasons with Two Girls to a Team, a Girl's Night Out Episode that focuses on the women working together (usually to rescue the male Rangers).
For the end of the season, raid the heroes' base, Trash the Set, and start blowing up mecha. Do anything to make the heroes' second wind awe-inspiring. Just don't go overboard.
Departments
Set Designer / Location Scout
There's a lot of places you can re-use. A city, a quarry, a grassy field, or other locations around Japan work great for regular-size battles, and there are specific sets for mecha battles.
Props Department
Well, there's the Transformation Trinket. The most common ones these days are wrist-mounted or cell phones.
A set of weapons that each member has, usually a gun, a sword, or gun that can turn into a sword are also a must.
Each member should have a unique weapon of their own. Red usually has a sword, the others you can vary. These weapons can most commonly combine into one BFG.
Tie everything around a central collectible item that can be plugged into the other equipment somehow. It should also be incorporated into the mecha designs.
All the props (especially the collectibles) can be turned into toys, the real source of your money.
Costume Design
Spandex is generally what you'll be using for the heroes' costumes when transformed. Everything else that isn't human will generally be rubber. Some female villains, however, will tend to have visible faces.
Casting Director
Start off with the Five-Man Band or Power Trio characterization and work your way from there. Your cast needs to slowly grow as characters over the course of the series. They need to be friendly towards each other.
The villains will usually be played by actors in suits, but that doesn't make them inconsequential. The monster can benefit with a quirky personality.
Child actors are optional, but they work good as support members or heroes. In at least one case, a child was even one of the villains!
Voice actors can also be counted on to do some roles for the series.
Also, it's a good idea to have a few scenes every now and then featuring the rangers removing their helmets or otherwise showing their faces while they're still morphed. It'll help build the illusion that it's really the characters inside the suits and not random stuntmen.
Stunt Department
Martial arts are the real draw of the series. Each member of the team needs to be a skilled fighter, and they need to look good. When all else fails, however, throw some wires in.
Extra Credit
Let's say you're not writing a Super Sentai series. Let's say you're adapting a Super Sentai show into a Power Rangers series. What are you going to do? It all depends on a few factors.
Factor one is Budget. You will probably have a reduced budget compared to Sentai. This will determine what you'll be able to add. Save most of your budget for blending the Sentai footage with your American actors. The good thing about adapting Super Sentai is that most of your work is done for you. You'll most likely have access to the most important costumes, like the Ranger suits or the suits for the main villains. If you have a good enough budget, you can add a Battlizer for the Red Ranger or some other vehicle. Don't go overboard with additions, though, or you'll be reduced to reverse-angle Stock Footage. The kids aren't that stupid. They can tell when they've seen something over and over. They can also tell when the foam shield is replaced by a cloth shield.
Factor two is Footage. You will be limited by a combination of what suits you have and what footage you use. However, don't think this is an excuse to just repeat the plot of the Sentai. The kids (and Linkara) won't notice, but the older fans will have access to the original Sentai a year or more before you adapt it, and they will notice, and only once has this type of adaptation been a fan favorite season. And they will let you know that they noticed. Loudly. Instead, think of the Sentai footage as sort of a guideline, a suggestion more than a rule. A nature-themed Sentai can just as easily be adapted into a space opera. A wacky comedy, with enough work, can be repurposed into a post-apocalyptic drama, but this can also be messed up. Simply cut the footage you can't use and make good use of the footage you can. And remember that if the footage you have doesn't work for a scene you want, you can always film your own - but keep in mind that there's a budget limit to how much you original footage you can make.
Other notes for adapting to Power Rangers:
Casting Department: You'll want Two Girls to a Team, even if the original Sentai didn't have it. You usually don't need to stress too much about the fact that the Stock Footage has a male. If the Sentai starts with only a Power Trio, though, you're free to ignore this.
You'll also want a Five-Token Band to make sure your cast isn't too monochromatic. It doesn't really matter which races are used or what roles they take, just make sure they're there. In a pinch; Xander, Flynn, Antonio, and Chase are evidence that you should never underestimate the power of an accent (and with production stationed in New Zealand these days, most of your cast will be faking American accents anyway).
Props Department: You'll usually be able to make your own additions to the arsenal used in Sentai, but keep in mind that you'll need to film new footage involving the additions or otherwise work around its absence in the original Stock Footage. A Super Mode for the Red Ranger (complete with its own Transformation Trinket) is a popular choice, as is a Cool Bike or some other vehicle. A Canon Immigrant Sixth Ranger is possible, but the lack of Stock Footage starts to become a glaring problem at this point. A new mecha is probably ill-advised; besides the same Stock Footage issues an original Sixth Ranger would face, you likely won't have access to a miniature set to film mecha battles on. That being said, you are more than welcome to link an original Sixth Ranger to an already existing mecha if you are willing to reshoot the cockpit footage.
- One workaround that has been catching on in recent years is that the Rangers' new gear — sets of armor, a weapon, or both — is tied to piloting the mecha. That way only the cockpit footage has to be reshot (and you might have already decided to replace those bits anyway).
- On the other hand, keep in mind that you don't have to use everything present in the source material - if there's a mech that you fear would alienate the viewers, and said mech's appearances can be counted on one hand, feel free to cut it.
Subversions:
- Make your Power Ranger characters adults rather than teenagers. It helps reduce the possibility of your series involving child soldiers fighting the empire.
- Make the team of Rangers a family - while this has happened before in a few Sentai series (Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman, Kyu Kyu Sentai Go Go V, Mahou Sentai Magiranger, and Shuriken Sentai Ninninger), it has never happened in Power Rangers - at most, only two Rangers on a team have been related to each other. However, the Sixth Ranger(s) doesn't need to be related to the rest of the team.
- Have the rangers go out of their way to search for and become rangers - traditionally, the rangers either are called by the team's mentor, start off as rangers, or are chosen by the powers.
