groundbreaking seasons of the Super Sentai franchise

[Dr Kain]

Jetman, ZyuRanger, DaiRanger, KakuRanger, and CarRanger. They all tried something different and did it well. They are five of the best series in the franchise.

 

[Solari]

For more recent 2000s shows, there's Gaoranger, Abaranger..

Gaoranger had all the Power Animals--> lots of collectible toys.
Abaranger introduced talking mecha! I think it was really refreshing.
Later series Go-onger and Go-busters had talking mecha as well.

 

[Lynxara]

Honestly, all but the absolute worst Sentai seasons are going to break some new ground, or at least attempt to experiment with certain things. Competent creators are going to realize that they need to do something, even if it's a small something, to set themselves apart from what came before. Some shows broke more new ground than others, but I find there's very few seasons that were truly massive leaps ahead of what came before.

The big groundbreakers I'd shout out were:

Gorenger: Well, duh. A lot of the basics of Sentai's formula are laid down here, but they're raw and crude. Gorenger's successors will work on elaborating these ideas, taking inspiration from other genres, experimenting with the franchise's look and feel.
Changeman: This is the show that cements a lot of the tone and feel of 80s Sentai. The heroes were a disciplined fighting force and the villains' schemes were played up as potentially apocalyptic events, no matter how superficially silly. There's a lot of stuff that Changeman doesn't, strictly speaking, do first... but the way Changeman did it became the gold standard.
Zyuranger: This show marks the first truly substantial change in tone for Sentai after Changeman set the 80s formula in place. It hearkened back to earlier works in the franchise, but married it to a high fantasy theme that Sentai had flirted with before, but not really embraced. I think it's very telling that no post-Zyuranger attempt at doing a Changeman-style show has achieved anything like Changeman's success.
Carranger: Comedy was always a part of Sentai, but prior to Carranger, fans expected that shows would largely take themselves seriously (or at least pretend like they did). Carranger defied all expectations by refusing to ever take itself entirely seriously. It's with this series that Sentai's creators and fans discover that when you laugh at and with characters, you can end up caring about them a lot. Carranger's influence on Sentai isn't as immediate as Zyuranger's, but the emphasis on comedy in modern Sentai can, I think, entirely be attributed to this show's influence.
Shinkenger: Prior to Shinkenger, Sentai goes through a long experimental phase (which arguably begins with Carranger) where you're seeing a lot of changes in format from year-to-year, and a lot of experimentation with using CG to replace practical effects. Shinkenger is the show where the modern Toei format comes together, with new cameras and (at long last) use of on-set audio. Toei finally figures out that people want solid robot suits, with CG assisting for things suits can't do. Post-Shinkenger shows have a far more consistent format and approach to effects than the ones that come before, even supposedly oddball shows like Go-Busters.

 

[Fantasy Leader]

Zyuranger: This show marks the first truly substantial change in tone for Sentai after Changeman set the 80s formula in place. It hearkened back to earlier works in the franchise, but married it to a high fantasy theme that Sentai had flirted with before, but not really embraced.

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But yeah, like Lynxara said, just about all the seasons break some sort of new ground, except for perhaps the small handful of absolute worst seasons (Bouken, Go-on, and Busters come to my mind). I do think Sentai breaks a little less ground starting with post-Timeranger (with exceptions like Aba and Deka), and breaks a lot less ground with post-Gekiranger (with exceptions like Shinkenger).

I do feel like Soda (Change, Flash, Mask, Live), Sugimura (Zyu, Dai, Kaku), and Takatera (Car, Mega, Ginga) are the three people that brought the most groundbreaking to Sentai in terms of concepts, storytelling, and imagination. Jetman, GoGoFive, Timeranger, and Abaranger I think also broke a lot of new ground in those areas too.

 

[HurricaneDragon]

But yeah, like Lynxara said, just about all the seasons break some sort of new ground, except for perhaps the small handful of absolute worst seasons (Bouken, Go-on, and Busters come to my mind). I do think Sentai breaks a little less ground starting with post-Timeranger (with exceptions like Aba and Deka), and breaks a lot less ground with post-Gekiranger (with exceptions like Shinkenger).

I haven't seen Boukenger yet, but how exactly were Go-Onger and Go-Busters the "absolute worst" Super Sentai ever?

I think most will agree the reason Go-Busters really "failed" was its lack of collectables and gimmicks in the toyline and show, and I can't think of anything that Go-Onger did wrong... except that godawful introductory arc for the Go-On Wings, maybe.

 

[Fantasy Leader]

I haven't seen Boukenger yet, but how exactly were Go-Onger and Go-Busters the "absolute worst" Super Sentai ever?

I think most will agree the reason Go-Busters really "failed" was its lack of collectables and gimmicks in the toyline and show, and I can't think of anything that Go-Onger did wrong... except that godawful introductory arc for the Go-On Wings, maybe.

I'm not talking about how Go-Busters did in terms of success or sales, I'm talking more about how I felt about what it presented in terms of concepts and storytelling. My big issue with Go-Busters was that I don't think a single one of it's stories was ever original, and copied a lot of plots that had already been done before. Now, I know just about every sentai does that, but lots of sentai would often try to put a unique twist on reused stories. The way Go-Busters handled this was that it's stories were a much more blatant copy of what had already been done before, but just wasn't as good or interesting.

Go-onger, my issue with this show was that it felt like a really badly written comedy. The show was trying to be fun and comedic, and I don't think Go-onger did a good job at executing that. I do think Gunpei, Sousuke, and Renn were fine, but I don't think they helped overshadow the bad writing of the show. It just felt like Carranger done wrong to me.

 

[live jetabare]

After reading so many opinions about "groundbreaking sentai seasons", it's time to give my own take on the topic.
Like Lynxara and Fantasy Leader said, a lot of sentai series did brought new stuff to the franchise. However, here are in my opinion, some key sentai series, which had a lot of influence on following series:
-Gorenger : of course, the first one , which has brought together most of the key aspects of the sentai franchise, with the colored heroes, the emphasis of teamwork with everyone being an important part.
- Battle Fever J: first series with the big robot and the giant fights
- Denziman: it was the first series where the team weren't part of a military like organization, but were ordinary people brought together by a mascot-like character (the dog form Planet Denzi): also, the first series wich depart from the "spy" theme towards a more sci-fi/ fantasy tone
- Sun Vulcan: introduction of animal themed heroes, and first robot being a "gattai" of several separate mechas
- Bioman: first series with several arcs which start early during the series, first series with two girls, and it's the key series which firmly introduced sci-fi themes into sentai
- Changeman : Even more arc driven than Bioman, and first series introducing complex and sympathetic villains, which motivations were beyond bringing chaos or merely Earth conquest
- Liveman : first animal mechas, first combining robots
- Zyuranger : very major series, with sentai becoming more of a fantasy show; first regular sixth ranger, with its individual mecha; more emphasis on the comedic side; first series with the mechas being sentient creatures (Daizyujin is a god)
- Kakuranger: the comedy becomes even more important and wacky, with focus on satire elements; first series with the heroes having their individual mechas for mor ethan the main robot
- Megaranger: it brought back the sci-fi tone, and that show would have an important influence on the series that came later, especially in the balance of focus between story and characters
- Abaranger: individual talking mechas which interact with the heroes as pretty equals
- Go-onger: decreased focus on complex storytelling

 

[Toku Girl 2009]

Dynaman- First Sentai to have spandex suites
Go-busters- First Fabric change in 36 years

 

[Shougo B'Stard]

I do feel like Soda (Change, Flash, Mask, Live), Sugimura (Zyu, Dai, Kaku), and Takatera (Car, Mega, Ginga) are the three people that brought the most groundbreaking to Sentai in terms of concepts, storytelling, and imagination.

I think Takeyuki Suzuki should be mentioned along with them. He oversaw Goggle V through Ohranger, and look how many noteworthy shows and moments come out of his run. He always wanted each show to do something different, and he was savvy enough to keep an eye on different trends that each show could put to use and stand out from one another. He was also smart in that he knew when something wasn't working -- he's the one who foresaw Sentai's possible demise after shows like Turboranger and Fiveman underperformed, so he took risks by scrapping that style and bringing in fresh blood on staff and helping bring in fresh concepts to try to make sure that the franchise keeps kicking, and he knew when to just get out of the way and let smart writers do their thing.

 

[RicardoCerdeira]

Dynaman created the villain vs villain conflict,

I think this primacy belongs to Denziman, with Banriki Maoh.