Sentai and Robots

[Black Fang]

This is something I've been meaning to ask: what is it with Sentai and robots? I've noticed that in shows that feature only one or two robot villains, or where just the grunts are robots, said robots have some good designs.

Gash, Grey, and Gien to name a few. Now these are pretty cool designs! But when it comes to shows where all the villains are robots or machine-themed, like Ohranger and Go-Onger, the designs range from lackluster to downright awful. Modeling a monster from a mechanical appliance (in Go-On's case) is fine and all, but for God's sake that's the best they can do?? -___-"

Metal Hero and even KR Black RX did a great job with robot MOTWs in the years they were on. (Spielban had a robot monster based off a wheel for crying out loud, and even that looked better than most of the BankiJuu.) I don't know why Toei/PLEX can't do the same with Sentai, whenever it dabs at the theme.

 

[Tsubasa Dragon]

Go-ongers villians supposed to look like they're born from the scrapheap because the whole earth polution and stuff.

As for Ohranger i really don't know. i think it depends on how they're handeling the series you know what kind of theme and what the story is about.

 

[arnoldmcguire335]

Another thing I noticed: the three enemy mechs have a G at the start of their names.

 

[Chronotia Archzenom]

Yeah Arnie. They do have G as the start of their names.

 

[Undrave]

The BankiJyu weren't really highly advanced robots... they were closer to living machines like the Engines. It was part of the design goal to make them ugly as far as I can tell.

 

[Tanuki]

Ohranger was a mix of imperialism and robots, so that might be part of the problem.
they were cartooning the villains.

The series with one or so robots had a much more diverse cast, which implies more creativity than you're going to get with a singular theme

 

[Synch]

they had two robot guards on geki rangers I think around the very end which had inall honesty sweet designs that just went to waste ...

 

[Kivat]

I thought the machine family in Ohranger themselves look pretty sick. but yeah everything else was meh.

ahh grey from Jetman, the lighter in his finger was a nice touch too.

 

[Tanuki]

One of the few times where trying to make a live action aime worked

 

[EndFighter]

As far as I understand (and I talked about with a friend in Japan), Robots are considered a bit higher on the sci-fi ladder when compared to other themes. As such, it's automatically considered a more mature theme, and is given to 'more mature' tokusatsu show than Super Sentai.

This is not to say that robots are exclusive to more mature shows, nor does this mean more mature shows always contain robots. High technology just strikes more of a chord with young adults than it does to whimsical children.

Again, this is based on a few discussions with a friend out in town (Naha, Okinawa to be exact). He directs henshin hero stage shows (my side job), and is quite a bit of a nerd himself, so I trust him on this topic.