Denshi Sentai Denziman

Miro!^[1] Denshi Sentai! Denziman!

Denshi Sentai Denziman (Electronic Squadron Denziman) was the fourth Super Sentai series, lasting from 1980-1981. It was the first Sentai series where the heroes wore the trademark visors.

The evil Vader Clan, led by Queen Hedrian, decides to refit Earth to suit their 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 to gain the powers of the only force that can fight Vader: the Denzimen!

The Heroes:

• Ippei Akaki / Denzi Red: The main man of Denziman; a Martial Pacifist who teaches Karate to the kids at the athletic club.
• Daigorō Oume / Denzi Blue: A laid-back acrobat with an addiction to anpan buns; as DenziBlue, he knows how to apply his speed against the foe.
• Jun Kiyama / Denzi Yellow: A researcher and inventor who fights with great strength as DenziYellow.
• Tatsuya Midorikawa / Denzi Green: A private eye whose father died at the hands of Vader. The "cool guy" on the team.
• Akira Momoi / Denzi Pink: The one girl on the Denziman team. She had a Ten-Minute Retirement at the end of episode one, but rejoined an episode later. Teaches swimming to kids.
• IC: The Team Pet and Talking Animal, albeit robot dog. The Mentor.

The Villains (Vader Clan):

• Queen Hedrian: Big Bad, Dimension Lord
• General Hedrer: The Dragon
• Demon King Banriki: The Starscream - Unlike most Starscreams, he actually succeeds in taking over in leading the villain group, making Hedrian his servant.
• Mirror & Keller: Those Two Bad Guys

Tropes used in Denshi Sentai Denziman include:

Recurring Super Sentai tropes:

• All Your Powers Combined: The Denzi Boomerang.
• By the Power of Greyskull: "Denzi Spark!"
• Calling Your Attacks:
• Color Coded for Your Convenience: 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 Bike: Denzi Red's Denzi Machine
• Cool Car: The Denzi Buggy for the rest of the team.
• Eyecatch: 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!
• Five-Man Band:
  • The Hero: Ippei
  • Kid Appeal Character: Daigorō
  • The Big Smart Guy: Jun
  • The Lancer: Tatsuya
  • The Chick: Akira
  • Team Pet: IC (also The Mentor.)
• Home Base: Denzi Land
• 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.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming:
• In the Name of the Moon:
• 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.
• Mecha-Mooks: Dustlers.
• 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.
  • 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.)
• Mookmobile: The Vader Fighter jets.
• The Movie: From this point on, almost all of the Super Sentai movies were all original works, with the exception of the second Flashman movie.
• "On the Next Episode of..." Catchphrase:
• Regular Caller
• Robot Buddy: IC the Denzi Dog
• The Smurfette Principle: Denzi Pink, who didn't even want to be part of the team at first.
• Supervillain Lair:
• Theme Music Power-Up:
• Transformation Trinket: Introduced this trope to Super Sentai with the Denzi Rings. The next one would introduce the wrist worn trinkets.
• Weapon of Choice
  • Simple Staff: The Denzi Sticks. They actually resemble short swords.

Tropes specific to Denshi Sentai Denziman

• Bittersweet Ending - Yeah, we know Vader Clan falls, but the Team Pet dies and Queen Hedrian is still alive.
• Celebrity Star - Ryusei Nakao guests as a singer who sings a song connected to the Denzi Star in one episode.
• Colorful Theme Naming- The heroes' last names include their colors; Akaki, Ome ^[2] , Kiyama, Midorikawa and Momoi.
• Enemy Civil War
• Hey, It's That Guy! - Machiko Soga, the Queen of tokusatsu villains, makes her starring debut here as Queen Hedrian. She's better known to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fans as the original Rita Repulsa (via the use of stock footage of her role as Bandra the Witch in Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger).
  • Shinji Todo (Takuya Yamashiro from the Japanese Spider-Man series, the titular character no less) plays General Hedrer.
  • Kenji Ohba as Daigorou/Denzi Blue. Beforehand, he's Battle Kenya. Then he gets his own show.
  • Hirohisa Nakata (Mason from Choudenshi Bioman) plays Count Delinger in Episode 28.
  • Narimitsu Kurachi (Kyosuke Shida/Battle France from Battle Fever J) plays a psychic detective in Episode 29.
  • Takao Yamada (who later played Sukehachi the cook in Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan) played a thief in Episode 30.
  • Kin'ya Sugi (Kin'ya Samejima/Vul Shark from Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan) plays a saxophone player in Episode 33.
  • Junichi Haruta (Kampei Kuroda in Dai Sentai Goggle Five and Ryu Hoshikawa in Kagaku Sentai Dynaman) plays a boxer in Episode 40.
  • Real-life illusionist Mariko Itakura aka Princess Tenko guested in one episode as... you guessed it, a magician.
• Hey It's That Guy's Voice- Naoya Uchida (Soichiro Yagami, among others) as Denzi Green.
  • IC's voiced by Hisako Kyoda.
  • And Takeshi Watabe is the Denzi Computer.
  • If Midorikawa's singer friend from Episode 26 sounds a lot like Freeza, that's because he was played by Ryusei Nakao.
• Lost Technology - The Daidenzin
• Master of Illusion - Mirror and Keller.
• Meaningful Name - Hedorian is derived from Hedoro, meaning sludge.
• Sequel Hook- Rather than being totally defeated, Hedrian is merely frozen, which provides an opening for her return in Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan.
• Trademark Favourite Food - Daigorou just has to get his anpan.
• You Killed My Father: Tatsuya's father died at the hands of Vader minions.

1. ↑ Behold!
2. ↑ The Kanji is "Ao"/"Blue".