Behold! Denshi Sentai! Denziman!
Denshi Sentai Denziman (Electro-Squadron Denzimannote ) was the fourth Super Sentai series, lasting from 1980-1981. It was the first Sentai series where the rangers wore the trademark black visors. Ken Narita sang the Title Theme Tune.
The evil Vader Clan, led by Queen Hedrian, decides to refit Earth to suit their twisted ideals of beauty. And for Vader, that involves sending their minions to pollute the world. They had previously laid waste to another planet, Denzi Star 3,000 years ago. Now, IC the Denzidog, a survivor of Denzi Star, awakens to recruit five young people from all walks of life to gain the powers of the only force that can fight Vader: the Denzimen!
Recurring Super Sentai tropes:
- All Your Powers Combined: Denzi Boomerang, the team's main finisher, which combines their Denzi Sticks into a five-pointed boomerang weapon that explodes on command.
- By the Power of Grayskull!: "Denzi Spark!"
- Calling Your Attacks: All over the place. “Denzi Spark” is just the beginning.
- Color Character: The first Sentai team to use the team's prefix as a head word for its codenames, followed by the English names of each member's corresponding color as the tail word.
- Cool Airship: The Denzi Tiger, where the Denzi Fighter is stored.
- Cool Car: The Denzi Buggy for the rest of the team.
- Cool Helmet: The Denziman helmets are distinguished by both the shape of their visors and their forehead Denzi Stones.
- Evil Will Fail: Banriki would start a trend of the villains destroying themselves from within. Banriki destroyed the remaining Vader morale almost immediately after joining before sabotaging Vader's ultimate attack in a failed coup, then activating a backup plan that ends up working. Unfortunately for him, everyone was still personally loyal to Hedrian, and the remaining infighting ultimately kills everyone in Vader except for Hedrian, and weakens Banriki enough for the heroes to kill.
- Eye Catch: Denziman's eye catch is similar to Battle Fever J, the eyecatch before the break features a still image of the Denziman team, while the eyecatch after the break features Daidenzin. The same sting as Battle Fever's eyecatch is used as well.
- Finishing Move: Electronic Lightning Fall, in which the Denzimen leap high in the air and drop down, then simultaneously strike the target with their Denzi Sticks.
- Humongous Mecha: The Daidenzin, which was the first transforming mecha in Super Sentai, as it changes from a flying jet called the Denzi Fighter. It would be five years before they thought of having another one.
- In the Name of the Moon: Everyone says their names, then say “Behold! Denshi Sentai Denziman.”
- Law of Chromatic Superiority: Out of the five Denzi Stones embedded on each Denziman's helmet, Denzi Red's is said to be the most powerful. On a minor note, he is also the only one with yellow accents on his helmet.
- Make My Monster Grow: Introduced this trope to Super Sentai, although the monsters could alter their size at any time. In fact, the first one debuted giant size. (In Battle Fever J, monsters called their "brothers", giant robot versions of themselves.)
- Mini Dress Of Power: Part of Denzi Pink's costume.
- Monster of the Week: The Vader Monsters, who are all numbered on their buckles. The first one is actually Monster No. 00 and all subsequent creatures are numbered in order of appearance, although some of them (particularly the ones in Episodes 18-20 and 24-26) show up in reverse order and Monster No. 37 does not exist at all (it skips from 36 to 38). The Vader Monster in the movie is the only one not numbered.
- The Movie: Premiered on the same date as Episode 24. From this point on, almost all of the Super Sentai movies were all original works, with the exception of the second Flashman movie.
- Regular Caller: Tatsuya’s female colleagues from his days in the police.
- Robot Buddy: IC the Denzi Dog, a robot dog from planet Denzi sent to Earth to protect Denzi Land and the technology within. He was the one who called the five heroes to Denzi Land and gave them their transformation devices and other equipment.
- The Smurfette Principle: Denzi Pink, who did not even want to be part of the team at first.
- Supervillain Lair: A flying castle
- Theme Music Power-Up: Every other fight scene.
- Transformation Trinket: Introduced this trope to Super Sentai with the Denzi Rings. The next one would introduce the wrist worn trinkets.
- Villains Act, Heroes React: As is the norm for Super Sentai, we generally have the Vader Clan 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 Denshi Sentai Denziman
- 10-Minute Retirement: Akira set the trend of some people refusing to fight evil due to other personal commitment despite already having A Taste of Power in the first battle (followed later by Mika Koizumi and Gai Yuki). In her case, she wanted to follow her coach's footsteps and last words in competing in the Olympics, since the last time she saw him, he was being burnt to death right in front of her due to Vader clan's arrival. One episode later, after the Vader clan still targetted her anyways, she relented and committed herself to fight evil for good.
- Air-Vent Passageway: Done by Ippei in episode 40 into Vader's latest hideout.
- Bare-Handed Blade Block: Demon King Banriki does this, easily stopping the Daidenzin's sword finisher. Denzi Green also does this when fighting an enemy disguised as a samurai in episode 49
- Baseball Episode: Episode 17.
- Bewitched Amphibians: A variation in episode 19. The Vader Clan sends a frog monster who disguises himself as a human looking prince to trick Narumi into giving access to her brother's work.
- Bittersweet Ending: Yeah, we know Vader Clan falls, but the Team Pet dies and Queen Hedrian is still out there.
- The Boxing Episode: Episode 40.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Happens to Paul in episode 29 after the Vader Clan gets him.
- Celebrity Star: Ryūsei Nakao guests as a singer who sings a song connected to the Denzi Star in episode 26.
- Colorful Theme Naming: The heroes' last names include their colors; Akaki, Omenote , Kiyama, Midorikawa and Momoi.
- Enemy Civil War: Happens in the last 4 episodes, when Banriki attempted to usurp command of the Vader Clan, only for Queen Hedrian and her loyal followers to fight back.
- Evil Doppelgänger: The Monster Of The Week in episode 6 takes the form of a little girl and wrecking havoc while pretending to be her.
- Also done to several kids in episode 12.
- Exorcist Head: Karakurilar spins his head all the way round after revealing his true form to Denzi Pink in episode 49. He does it again after getting knocked over by General Hedrer and ends up with his head stuck on backwards.
- Fairest of Them All: Queen Hedrian uses the Mirror servant lady turn into a magic mirror for this purpose a couple of times.
- Genie in a Bottle: One shows up in front of Daigorou in episode 44. Of course it's really a Vader Monster.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In the last episode, Daidenjin is broken and can't be repaired. IC then sacrifices himself and uses his robot parts to get Daidenjin moving again for the team.
- Hollywood Voodoo: In episode 4, the Monster Of The Week takes pictures of beautiful women, delivers them back to Queen Hedorian. Hedorian destroys the pictures causing the same type of damage to kill the real woman.
- Derringer does this against the Denzimen in episode 28.
- Queen Hedrian was doing this some more in episode 39.
- Identical Stranger: In episode 45, the rangers find a woman named Yuko who is identical to Princess Denzi. Despite the rangers thinking she is the Princess or a reincarnation of her, it turns out she's completely unrelated.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: Some Monsters Of The Week can become very tiny to escape the rangers. And a few times the giant robot fight ends up having the monster shrink back to human sized and the rangers kill it off at that height.
- Lost Technology: The Daidenzin, created by the scientists of planet Denzi as their ultimate secret weapon against the attacking Vader Monster Umitsular. When they failed to complete it in time, the scientists sent it, along with the massive Denzi Land fortress, to Earth in order to protect that world when the Vader Clan inevitably went after it.
- Marilyn Maneuver: During the below mentioned disguise episode Akira, dressed in homage to Marilyn herself strategically uses this by letting the tail of her dress blow into the face of a mook trying to capture her blinding him and letting her get away.
- Master of Disguise: Akira wears a lot of disguises in episode 43.
- Mirror and Keller also do this a lot. It’s a wonder no-one recognises them after the first time.
- Meaningful Name: Hedorian is derived from Hedoro, meaning sludge.
- Mind Manipulation: Episode 42 has a monster sneaking into people's bodies and controlling them.
- Mythology Gag: After JAKQ and Battle Fever got experimental, this Five-Man Band returns to the color scheme of Goranger.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In episode 18, the Vader Clan turned 4 people into sea creatures they are descended from. They tell 3 of them to go destroy a power plant. Instead, the people instantly die in the water because the water is too polluted for them to survive in.
- Off with His Head!: Musasabilar, the first Monster of the Week, is beheaded by the Denzi Sword's Electric Full-Moon Cut before falling to the ground dead and exploding.
- Opening Shout-Out: Episode 40 has Akagi boxing a black man and punching him out cold, like in his shot of the opening. Even better, it’s the same black guy.
- Police Are Useless: The police are doubtlessly a Red Shirt Army in the first episode when they faced a giant Vader Monster on their own.
- Rapid Aging: The Monster Of The Week in episode 8 does this to Daigorou and some kids.
- Really 700 Years Old: In episode 40, General Hedrer says the boxing match will be seen by Queen Hedrian for her 7,600th birthday.
- Recap Episode: Some of episode 29.
- Also some of The Movie, but only about 8 episodes had aired so far.
- Riddle Me This: The Riddle based monster in episode 28.
- Riddle of the Sphinx: Is asked in episode 28 by the Monster Of The Week, but he claims the answer of a human is wrong.
- Road-Sign Reversal: The Vader Mooks do this to hurt the rangers ability to find Daigoro and the kids in the mountains in episode 46.
- Saw a Woman in Half: In episode 31, Vader tries to blackmail the magician Mari into murdering Daigoro during a saw a person in half trick. Eventually it seems like she gives in but she and Daigoro instead use this as an opportunity to fake Daigoro's death to lure the Vader out. In episode 49, General Hedrer dresses as a magician and threatens to saw Denzi Green in half.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Part of the ranger outfit.
- Secret-Keeper: Officer Chieko becomes this to the Denziman in a way. She quickly figures Denzi Green out, and realizes the other 4 people he often hangs out with must be the other 4 and confronts him about it but he plays dumb yet knows full well he's not really fooling her. So there's sort of an unspoken understanding that she knows and they know she knows but never really openly state it to the point where Chieko often slips them intel and Akira doesn't even try to hide her identity from her when she rescues her in episode 43.
- Sequel Hook: Rather than being totally defeated, Hedrian is merely frozen, which provides an opening for her return in Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan.
- Shirtless Scene: When the group is on the beach in The Movie.
- Ippei in the boxing match in episode 40.
- Shout-Out: Hedrian resembles Hela from Marvel Comics.
- Likewise, Commander Hedder resembles Baron Zemo.
- Sneeze Cut: In episode 43, the Vader Clan are trying to kidnap beauty pageant winners. Eventually the villains say we might need to lower our standards. The scene cuts to Officer Chieko sneezing, and saying she thinks someone is talking about her. And she does end up kidnapped.
- Solar-Powered Magnifying Glass: In episode 27, the monster hides as a tree trunk. The two boys are searching for more beetles in it. When they can't find any one uses a magnifying glass to look closer. The Monster Of The Week drops it's camouflage because it's jumping around in agony over the heat the magnifying glass did on it.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Daigorou just has to get his anpan.
- The Unfought: Queen Hedrian leaves and plots a comeback, and was never in a battle.
- Villainous Crush: Derringer could've defeated the rangers in episode 28 if he wasn't busy trying to get Akira's love.
- You Killed My Father: Tatsuya's father died at the hands of Vader minions in the first episode.
