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Five elements of the galaxy gather together!

The Starbeasts: They are mysterious animals who fight for the sake of defending harmony in the Milky Way!

Seijū Sentai Gingaman (Star Beast Squadron Gingamannote ) is the twenty-second installment in the Super Sentai series, running from 1998 to 1999. The title song was performed by Ryu Kisami.

3,000 years ago, the evil Space Pirates gang, the Balban, attempted to conquer Earth. They were foiled and imprisoned by the mystical Starbeasts and their human companions, the Gingamen of Ginga Forest. Since then, the mantle of the Gingamen was passed down through the generations of Ginga Forest. On the day of the appointment of the 133rd generation, an undersea earthquake releases the Balban from their imprisonment. In their attempt to kill the newest Gingamen, Hyūga, the appointed Ginga Red, is swallowed up in the Earth. Before he falls in, he passes on the duty to his brother, Ryōma. The Gingamen thus begin their mission to foil the Balban's scheme to revive Daitanix, the monster whose back houses the Balban's castle.

The series is free to stream on Shout! Factory TV.

Adapted as Power Rangers Lost Galaxy.


Recurring Super Sentai tropes:

  • Humongous Mecha:
    • A Mech by Any Other Name: The Star Beasts (Seijū) and its three categories: the Silver Star Beasts (Ginseijū, the components of Gingaioh), the Heavy Star Beast (Jūseijū, a category exclusive to Bulltaurus) and the Steel Star Beasts (Kōseijū, robots built from the remains of defeated Star Beasts, composed of Giga Bitus, Giga Phoenix and Giga Rhinos).
    • Animal Mecha: The Silver Star Beasts and the Bulltaurus. Subverted with the Giga Rhinos and Giga Phoenix, which were Star Beasts that were cursed into the form of humanoid mechas and are formed from the combination of five land-based vehicles and five air-based vehicles respectively. The Giga Bitus was a shark that was turned into a giant transforming mecha carrier, but still resembles a shark in one of its modes.
    • Mechanical Lifeforms: All the Star Beasts are living animals (or at least they were originally), while Jūkishi (Heavy Knight) is actually Kurokishi enlarged to giant size.
    • Combining Mecha: Notably, this marks the first occasion of having four combining robots at the same time. Uniquely, none of the mecha actually combine with one another, resulting in one of the least-complex mecha combination schemes in Sentai until Mahou Sentai Magiranger.
      • Gingaleon + Gingalcon + Gingarilla + Gingaverick + Gingat = Gingaioh
      • Jūkishi + Goutaurus = Bulltaurus
      • Giga Wheel 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = Giga Rhinos
      • Giga Wing 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = Giga Phoenix
    • Transforming Mecha: The Giga Bitus, a large-sized Steel Star Beast which transforms from a shark-shaped Cruiser Mode to a humanoid-shaped Scramble Mode.
    • Mecha Expansion Pack: Two in particular.
      • Chōsōkō ("Super Armor Shine") Gingaioh, although it isn't really a new combination as it is a Super Mode that is introduced when the actual team gets theirs.
      • Giga Bitus, which serves as a mecha carrier for the components of the Giga Rhinos and Giga Phoenix (a throwback to the mecha carriers from the 80s Sentai shows).
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Gingaman is the first Super Sentai to start naming their episode numbers, with every episode being called a "Chapter", while the episode name being written in a "X" of "Y"note  format.
  • In the Name of the Moon:
    Red: "Ginga Red: Ryōma!"
    Green: "Ginga Green: Hayate!"
    Blue: "Ginga Blue: Gōki!"
    Yellow: "Ginga Yellow: Hikaru!"
    Pink: "Ginga Pink: Saya!"
    Black: "Black Knight: Hyūga!"
    Red: "The legendary blade that slices through the galaxy! Seijū Sentai!"
    All: "Gingaman!"
  • Law of Chromatic Superiority: Ryōma receives the Galeopulsar, a mighty motorcycle, while his flame power proves essential to defeat the Earth Beast in the finale.
  • Make My Monster Grow: The Balban Majin drink from a flask of "Balban Extract" to grow to giant size and give the Gingamen trouble, necessitating the use of their mecha to fight them. The Balban Extract also slowly kills them, neatly explaining why they don't drink it until they're on the verge of death already.
  • Minidress of Power: Part of Ginga Pink's costume.
  • Monster of the Week: The Balban Majin, who are divided into several groups base don their generals.
  • Mooks: The Seamen Yartots.
  • No Ontological Inertia: Budoh's and Illness's Majin will have their effects instantly negated once they are either defeated or the object they're using get destroyed.
  • Orcus on His Throne: Balban Pirates Captain Zahab spends the majority of his time at his headquarters commanding his crew with the only times he gets out of it being the first episode and the final episode.
  • "On the Next Episode of..." Catch-Phrase: "And now, another page of the legend will be revealed."
  • Reset Button: Any damage Balban does to the city get undone after each episode. This is particularly noteworthy in episodes 16 and 17 where the Balban destroy large portions of the earth with earthquakes and blowing up multiple skyscrapers in the city respectively.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Only one girl again. From this point onward, Super Sentai would have only one female member per team for the next five years, forcing the Power Rangers adaptations of this show and the next three to have a gender flipped Yellow Ranger in order to maintain the two girl quota.
  • Super Mode: Properly introduced this trope to Super Sentai with the Beast Armor Shine.note 
  • Supervillain Lair: The Rowdy Invincible Castle, which is first situated atop Daitanix, and then on the Earth Beast.
  • Theme Music Power-Up: The show's theme usually plays over the Gingamen pulling all the stops to defeat the Majin of the week and winning.
  • Transformation Trinket: The Ginga Brace, which is activated by turning a dial to one's respective color. Meanwhile, the Kiba blades can also transform the Seijuu into GinSeijuu.
  • Villains Act, Heroes React: As is the norm for Super Sentai, we generally have the Balban sending out a MOTW with an Evil Plan Once an Episode, with our heroes then arriving on the scene to stop them.

Tropes specific to Seijuu Sentai Gingaman:

  • Achilles' Heel: Zahab possessed immortality thanks to the Star Soul Jewel where his heart should be. He later moved it to the wheel on his chest, where it (and eventually, him) were destroyed.
  • An Ice Person: Hierahiera, the Icy Archer of Illiess's group.
  • Animal-Themed Fighting Style: Each Ranger has a fighting style based on the individual animal their helmets and Starbeasts are based on.
  • Army of Thieves and Whores: The Balban are made up of various criminals and mercenaries
  • Artifact Title: The name of the BullTaurus mecha comes from a combination of Bull Black (the original Black Knight) and Giga Taurus. It loses its meaning once Hyuga becomes the new Black Knight.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: A Monster of the Week accidentally brings Saya up to giant-size. She doesn't take it that well.
  • Big Creepy-Crawlies: Sambash's Majin are modeled after various invertebrates.
  • Big Eater: Hikaru.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Gingaverick, while the spelling suggests a pun on "maverick", is also a pun on the similarly-pronounced-in-Japanese "wilk", the Polish word for wolf.
  • Body Horror: The process of mechanizing Ginga Rhinos and Ginga Phoenix involves dismembering them into five parts each when they are still alive.
  • Breast Attack: In Chapter 31, Shelinda was slashed on her breast by Hayate's Unstoppable Rage, believing that she killed Yuuta. She, of course, doesn't take it very well.
  • Catchphrase: Every of Budo's monsters will say "I will have the final roar!" before enlarging themselves with Balban Extract. Iliess' monsters go with "Iliess' Demon clan members are stubborn!", whereas Batobass' monsters go with "Change of plan!"
  • Chainmail Bikini: Shelinda literally wearing bikini.
  • Cool Horse: The Gingamen had their own horses.
  • Cool Mask: A recurring motif in Illies' Majin.
  • Cyborg: The Steel Starbeasts (Ginga Rhinos, Ginga Phoenix and Giga Bitus ended up being this, courtesy to Biznella.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Played with. The Balban finally succeed in reviving Daitanix, and it wipes the floor with Gingaman... only to find that three thousand years of dormancy have taken a toll on it. Daitanix's body is slowly rotting away, forcing the Balban to abandon it to die.
  • Deal with the Devil: Hyūga made one with Bucrates to save Gō Taurus which resulted him in losing his Earth power. This resulted in little tragedy: he got a Cool Axe, and ultimately his Earth Power back by the finale.
  • Dishing Out Dirt: Sort-of. A Monster of the Week uses a bag of explosive sand as his weapon.
  • Driven to Suicide: After Sambash fails to revive Daitanix for the umpteenth time, he drives himself off a cliff.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: In episode 4, the Gingaman, minus Hikaru, used unique personal weapons to fight the Balban; A blowgun for Hayate, a whip for Gouki, a slingshot for Saya, and a boomerang for Ryoma. These weapons were intended to be their main weapons while they are out of costume but, besides the blowgun, they are never used again. They also used a team technique where they changed the time of day from night to noon, which was never again used after this episode.
  • Eaten Alive: This is Battobas's final fate, devoured by the Earth Demon Beast after helping it to grow to full size.
  • Elemental Powers:
  • Fiery Lion: GingaLeon is able to breathe fire as his main form of attack.
  • Gang of Hats: The Balban generals' monsters all follow a specific theme. Sambash's are invertebrates who dress like Bikers, Budoh's are sea creatures in feudal Japanese attire, Iliess's are mythological magic users and Battobas' are soldiers modeled after weapons and warriors.
  • Gratuitous English: The opening theme has an English version. While Masato Shimon's English skills are a bit wonky (it should be noted he has a degree in English studies however), they aren't the worst out there. His accent makes some of the lines difficult to understand, however.
  • Greed: Justified since they're Space Pirates after all but Iliess's eventually lead to her arranging Budoh's death to gain both General Status and monetary award.
  • Immortality Immorality: Captain Zahab has Daitanix devour the cores of planets, converting them into Star Soul Jewels that keep he and his crew alive (barring being killed off).
  • Instrument of Murder: One Majin's shamisen can fire bullets, is effective as a bludgeoning weapon and is used to melt the ground to find the Lights of Ginga.
  • I Should Write a Book About This: One of the people closest to the Gingamen is Haruhiko Aoyama who is a children's book author. He sometimes makes drawings and writes about the adventures as they happen. He eventually published the Gingaman's story as a book for kids, which has become well known by the time of the vs movie.
  • It's Personal: The first Black Knight's brother died at the hands of the Balban eons ago, which motivates him to revenge.
  • Japanese Beetle Brothers: Tagredor and Torbador
  • Karmic Death:
    • Biznella is killed by Ginga Rhinos and Ginga Phoenix, the very Starbeasts he captured and mechanized 3,000 years ago.
    • Battobas brings the Earth Beast up to giant size, but it quickly devours him.
    • At the same time, Bucrates is killed by Shelinda for his part in causing the death of her crush, Budoh, and betraying Zahab.
  • Last Villain Stand: After his entire crew is wiped out and the Earth Beast is destroyed by the Gingaman, Zahab faces the Gingaman in one Final Battle. However, he makes it clear that even on his own, his ambitions would continue, as he stated his intent to destroy and corrupt the Earth to create a new monster after killing the Gingaman.
  • Legacy Character:
    • The Gingamen in the show are the 133rd Generation of the original warriors bearing the same name.
    • Hyuuga is the second Black Knight, the first being Bull Black.
  • Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: With Saya, the bubbly and cheerful as Light and Shelinda the cruel and devious one as Dark. Although both of them never see each other personally (Shelinda has rivalary with Hayate instead.), they still follow the dress code.
  • Limited Wardrobe: The Gingamen are always seen wearing the same clothes throughout the show. Hyuuga, however, gets a new set of threads after being released from Bull Black's control.
  • Made of Indestructium:
    • Bandai's DX GingaiOh is mostly made of die-cast metal and is very sturdy.
    • Sadly subverted for DX GigaPhoenix, which has been known to suffer from Gold Plastic Syndrome.
  • Mid-Season Upgrade: The Lights of Ginga armor for both the Gingamen and Gingaioh.
  • Mistaken Identity: When Hikaru catches a burglar snatching a purse at the beginning of Chapter 8, he gets caught by Shizuko, who mistakes him as the burglar and beats him. Luckily, the misunderstanding is cleared up.
  • Multi-Armed and Dangerous: A Monster of the Week modeled after Hindu Mythology can stretch these at will.
  • Musical Assassin: A Cicada Monster of the Week intended to use noise to awaken Daitanix, and used his speakers to deafen the Gingamen.
  • Mythology Gag
    • Several to Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman, the titular team named after the Galaxy Sentai Gingaman Quirky Miniboss Squad and their Juusoukou a homage to the Fivemen's Five Tector armor while the antagonists' base is also a world-destroying Kaiju. Both shows even have a female character named Saya.
    • Hyuuga's initial attire for the first half of the series resembles the clothing ensemble worn by Geki.
    • Many of the Balban generals are individually chosen to lead the charge until they die and get replaced, much like the higher-ranked Black Cross Army members in Himitsu Sentai Gorenger.
    • Giga Bitus is an homage to the old Super Sentai flying fortresses which carried the mecha—it's almost an updated version of the Jaguar Vulcan from Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan. It also emerges from a waterfall, akin to the Turbo Ranger carrier used by the Maskmen.
  • Narrator: Not just any narrator, but Norio Wakamoto himself.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Thanks to Iliess and Bucrates framing Budoh and sabotaging his attempt to get the Lights of Ginga, not only no do they ruin their best chance to revive the Daitanix, but the Gingamen end up getting it, making them an even tougher threat for the Balban.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The Balban are alien Space Pirates whose Majin are divided into 4 groups with a specific theme. See Gang of Hats above.
  • Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: This is (so far) the last Sentai series to have the suffix "-man" in its title, which was used in several seasons throughout the 80s and early 90s (from Denshi Sentai Denziman to Choujin Sentai Jetman) but fell out of usage in favor of "-ranger" following Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger.
  • Off-the-Shelf FX: In Chapter 29, Biznella kidnaps Hikaru and Hyuuga with a giant slinky.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: After receiving a scar on her forearm from Hayate in #10, Shelinda vows revenge on him.
  • Only One Name: Apparently, the tribe the Gingamen come from don't have surnames.
  • Planet Eater: Daitanix devours entire planets, transforming their essence into Star Soul Jewels that grant immortality.
  • Plot Armor: Happens a couple times:
    • In Episode 17 at the end, Ryōma gets dragged to the ground and blown up by over a dozen robotic humanoid bombs. Said robots have explosive power to demolish a skyscraper each. Ryōma survives the explosions by being saved Bull Black through unexplained means.
    • In Episode 47 The Gingaman (sans Hikaru) are held hostage by Biznella to be used in a trap for Hikaru to fall in by having a fake Earth Demon Beast lure him to his team and blows them up. He succeeds with this trap, but the Gingaman survive the explosion with no explanation given as to how they survived it.
  • Poisonous Person: The Earth Demon Beast. It grows by feeding on the Earth's lifeforce, and spits a poison slime that kills plant life.
  • Primal Stance: The Gingamen pose like their respective animals.
  • Pushy Gun-Toting Villain: Gun Boss Sambash is a particular big example, he's a trigger-happy gun-wielding general serving Captain Zahab and leader of the Sambash Majin Gang who often is at odds with the eldest member of the pirates, Bucrates, for his trigger-happy and reckless attitude. He is defined by loving to kill others for fun and is quick to resort to using his guns with lethal intent when angered. Furthermore he's also selfish, cowardly and dishonorable in stark contrast to the other villains of the show, going as far as plotting against his fellow villains when he encounters a chest that may contain the Lights of the Galaxy which he believes would make him invincible. (and while the latter part also applies to Illies, she at least has some care for her family).
  • Rookie Red Ranger: Perhaps the first obvious example in Sentai: Ryōma only joined the team after Hyūga, the first choice as Ginga Red, passed his powers to him.
  • Scary Scorpions: Kolshizer, the first Monster of the Week the Gingamen face, is based on a scorpion.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: The Space Pirates Balban were sealed under the ocean for three thousand years by the previous team of Gingaman, but the seal is broken by an earthquake in the modern day.
  • Shark Man: The Ninja-themed Onimaru and Yamimaru.
  • Shirtless Scene: In the Beach Episode, #21, Ryōma, Hayate, and Hikaru.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Ryouma and Hyuuga are both named after Ryuu-oh Ryouma and Ten-oh Hyuuga, the younger brother and his namesake both possessing a flame attribute.
    • The three Steel Star Beasts (Giga Rhinos, Bitus and Phoenix) are based on the three great beasts of Jewish mythology: the Behemoth, Leviathan and Ziz, respectively. They are also Kaiju versions of Showa Era Kamen Riders, being forcefully turned into cyborgs by villians whom they later oppose.
  • Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Balban is actually made up of four different factions who in the first chapter are assigned the order they get to appear — this is enforced by Zahab, who remembers how the constant infighting of the Balban caused their imprisonment by the original Gingamen, and sought to prevent it this go-round. Incredibly conveniently, this totally random assignment starts with the weakest group and the next one in line is always a bit stronger than the one before it. Iliess' impatience with this trope leads her to successfully plot against Budoh with Bucrates.
  • Take Up My Sword: Ryōma gets his powers this way from Hyūga, who in turn, gets the powers of Bull Black this way as well.
  • Taken for Granite:
    • Ginga Forest. It does get better in the end.
    • Some Majin killed by Super Armor Shine Gingaioh:
    • Also, attempted by the Monster Of The Week on people in Chapter 31.
  • Technicolor Fire: How Barukibaruki was summoned through green flames
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Hikaru and doughnuts.
  • Viewers Are Goldfish: Every episode when a monster grows, the narrator always gives the same explanation on how Balban Extract works. The detail of the monster losing some of their lifespan when drinking it is never relevant in any episode, making half of the explanation completely pointless.
  • Villainous Breakdown: When Sambash fails in his last scheme, he loses all composure and tries to run Ryōma over before driving off a cliff.
  • Would Hurt a Child: The original Black Knight and the Balban are guilty of such.
  • You Can't Thwart Stage One: The Gingamen fail to stop Daitanix's revival.

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