#according to gaoranger at least

[nugulover69]

That man? Santa Claus

[himitsusentaiblog]

In Vietnam the biggest and most memorable Sentai to us (or at least children growing through the early 00s) is Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger, for it is also the first one to be dubbed Vietnamese. But I wonder how popular was it at its release, and how is it now? What is the fandom's opinion of it? And how do you think of it?

Hyakujyuu Sentai Gaoranger was REALLY popular when it first came out.  According to the sales figures I can find, the toys sold fantastically well (which is really how you can tell a Super Sentai series is succeeding). It has 11 Billions Yen in toy sales when it was out, which was a HUGE boost from the 6.4 billion of the series before it, Mirai Sentai Timeranger.

Today, I think it’s faded a bit in popularity as there have been series that came after with greater sales and ratings but it is far from forgotten.  After all it. had it’s own game on the original Playstation:

created the first massive crossover to include ALL previous Sentai series including Himitsu Sentai Goranger and J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai:

and one of its main villains, Tsue Tsue consistently makes the list (including mine) of favorite female antagonists in Super Sentai!

It was also super important because while the CG hasn’t really held up very well, it was one of the first to make heavy use of it for the robot battles and to animate the robots themselves.  There were still suits and props of course but a lot of the dynamic fighting was done with CG, lending it a fluidity that the bulkier costumes could never achieve. This is not a total defense of CG of course, I always prefer practical effects but there are some things that just -can’t- be done practically on a TV budget.

In addition, it really brought in the multiple, multiple mecha idea with different combinations for different situations. This would later leave to what I refer to as cluster mechs like the final combined mecha from Engine Sentai Go-Onger and Samurai Sentai Shinkenger.

So, while the triumphant roar of Hyakujyuu Sentai Gaoranger may have faded, its echoes can still be felt today.

Thank you for the question and also, thanks for letting me know this was the first series dubbed into Vietnamese!  I love to find out about firsts in other countries!