Dengeki Sentai Changeman

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Dengeki Sentai Changeman (Blitzkrieg Squadron Changeman) is the ninth Super Sentai series, running from 1985 to 1986. Until Goranger was retroactively included as a Super Sentai installment, it was also the longest with 55 episodes and two movies (both original works). It is also the last series (thus far) not to have a yellow warrior.

In order to save the world from threat of invasion by the Great Star League Gozma, a special force called the Earth Defense Force is set up. One day, the Gozma launch an attack on them and have them on the ropes. That is, until the Earth itself grants five officers the power of the Earth Force, which lets them become the Changemen.

The Changemen:

• Hiryū Tsurugi (Change Dragon): The Hero
• Shō Hayate (Change Griffin): The Lancer and resident Handsome Lech.
• Yūma Ōzora (Change Pegasus): Bumbling Big Eater who's good with Animals and kids. However, his idealism makes him mentally fragile.
• Sayaka Nagisa (Change Mermaid): The Chick, Smart Girl and Team Mom.
• Mai Tsubasa (Change Phoenix): The Big Guy/Action Girl.

Allies:

• Commander Ibuki: The Sergeant Rock, The Mentor, and more than meets the eye.
• Nana: A MacGuffin Girl

The Gozma:

• Star King Bazoo: the Big Bad, and a Planet Eater.
• Giluke: The Dragon and Bazoo's chief deputy Big Bad. After plotting against Bazoo for much of the series, he falls victim to Bazoo's wrath, only to come back with a vengeance.
• Booba: One of Giluke's own Dragons. A Master Swordsman and Hiryuu's Worthy Opponent.
• Shima: The other of Giluke's own Dragons. Literally talks like a man until her Heel Face Turn (also including some one-episode Laser-Guided Amnesia).
• Ahames: The Sixth Ranger, and Giluke's co-conspirator against Bazoo. She has a pet dragon named Jangeran.
• Gator: The Yes-Man and Butt Monkey.
• Gyodai: The one they call on to start the Monsters Vs Mecha fights.

Tropes used in Dengeki Sentai Changeman include:

Recurring Super Sentai tropes

• All Your Powers Combined: The Power Bazooka is notable for being the first Sentai finisher to be a combination of the team's weapons.
• By the Power of Greyskull: "Changeman!" or their individual codenames.
• Color Coded for Your Convenience: Notable for having the first female white ranger, substituting yellow in this case (later shows would have white as a substitute for pink instead). However, just like Sun Vulcan, the codenames are animal-based (specifically based on mythical creatures).
• Combination Attack: The Changemen have various team attacks with their side arms; the girls have their own set as well.
• Cool Airship: The Shuttlebase, which was actually a spaceship in addition to being their mecha carrier.
• Cool Bike: The Auto Changer bikes, the first time each ranger had an individual bike.
• Cool Car: The team's jeep, the Change Cruiser.
• Eyecatch: The eyecatch before the break shows the Changemen preparing the Change Bazooka. After the commercial break, the Change Robo is featured with its sword at the ready, close to the screen.
• Finishing Move
• Five-Man Band: There are two Smart Guys on the team.
  • The Hero: Hiryū
  • The Lancer: Shō
  • Kid Appeal Character: Yūma
  • The Chick: Sayaka
  • The Big Guy: Mai
• Home Base: The Dengeki Base, although the Shuttle Base also served this role in some episodes.
• Humongous Mecha: Once again there were three components, with an individual mecha for the red leader and two shared mechas for the rest of the team. This would also be the last time the heroes would have just one big robot.
  • Combining Mecha: Jet Changer 1 (Dragon) + Heli Changer 2 (Griffin and Mermaid) + Land Changer 3 (Pegasus and Phoenix) = Change Robo
• In the Name of the Moon: Simple. They just shout their individual names, and then their team name.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: Hiryū has a mental link with Nana.
• Make My Monster Grow: Gyodai's purpose on the show. Conveniently, Gyodai could only enlarge a monster once a day, since this power consumes too much of his strength, and by contrivance, he is also attracted to the energy discharge of the Power Bazooka, which serves as a sign as to when to use his powers.
  • There's a notable two-parter where the Gohzma try to engineer a way around Gyodai's "one monster per day" limit in a satisfying display of Genre Savvy.
• Monster of the Week: The Space Beast Warriors.
• Mooks: The Hidrer Soldiers who are probably the ugliest and creepest looking mooks in all of Super Sentai.
• The Movie: Two in fact.
• "On the Next Episode of..." Catchphrase: "Let's Change! Dengeki Sentai Changeman!"
• Supervillain Lair: The Gozmard.
• Theme Music Power-Up
• Transformation Trinket: Change Brace
• Transformation Name Announcement
• Two Girls to a Team: The second Sentai team to have two girls at the same time. However, instead of the now-traditional Pink and Yellow duo, this one had Pink and White. In later teams, White was more often used for female rangers as a substitute for Pink (not counting Magi Mother, who was an extra ranger). There is technically another Pink and White duo, which is the Gokaiger version of JAKQ.
• Weapon of Choice
  • Bifurcated Weapon: The Change Swords
  • BFG: The "Zooka" guns, one for each Changemen and named after each of their respective animal. Notable in that they are the first weapons of Sentai to use this trope.

Tropes specific to Dengeki Sentai Changeman:

• Acting for Two: Hiroko Nishimoto gets to voice one Monster of the Week who impersonates Sayaka, as well as playing as Prince Icarus' mother, since she bore a great similarity to Sayaka
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The second movie, called "Shuttle Base is in danger! Also, Ahames makes a suicide run that takes out the Dengeki base.
• Applied Phlebotinum: The Earth Force and Rigel Aura.
• Attack Its Weak Point: An old wound seals Giluke's fate. Meanwhile, the Hidrer Soldiers are weakened by hitting the red spot on their chests.
• Bad Boss: Bazoo doesn't give a damn what happens to his subordinates as long as the Changemen are destroyed. Not to mention his questionable recruiting methods.
• Breast Attack: In episode 20, a Gozma's large, huge-mouthed fish head minions fly to bite Change Mermaid's breasts, although they're not really visible through her suit.
  • Speaking of which, Change Mermaid's theme insignia is topless.
• Butt Monkey: In light-hearted moments, Hayate becomes this.
• The Danza: Mai Ooishi as Mai Tsubasa.
• Darker and Edgier: Along with Growing the Beard, this series is well known for being more serious than many previous series. Not to mention introducing perhaps the first truly despicable villain in sentai with Star King Bazoo.
• Earthshattering Kaboom: After discovering that Star King Bazoo is actually the planet they believed he was on, the Changemen use ChangeRobo to blow up the entire planet and kill him.
• Elemental Powers:
  • Shock and Awe: Hiryū and Yūma.
  • Dishing Out Dirt: Hayate
  • Making a Splash: Sayaka
  • Playing with Fire: Mai
• Heavy Sleeper: Gyodai; in fact, he is more than often wakened up when it's grow time.
• Heel Face Turn: Shima, Gator, and Gyodai survive to defect from Gozma.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Yuma Ozora is played by Shiro Izumi, later Burai in Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger.
  • Sho Hayate is played by Kazuoki Takahashi, who would go on to play Hakko Kita, the sidekick of another guy named Tsurugi.
  • Episode 45 has two future stars from Choushinsei Flashman: Yutaka Hirose (Ley Wanda, who would also go on to play later Super Sentai villains such as Dr. Kemp, Tranza, and Jin Matoba) as a military guard; and Yoko Nakamura (Sara/Yellow Flash) as Tsurugi's alien lady-friend Aila.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Shima's man-voice was played by Michiro Iida, who later voiced Metalder.
  • Star King Bazoo is voiced by Seizo Kato, who has been voicing numerous Tokusatsu villains since Alien Mephilas in Ultraman. His other roles include Emperor Zeba, General Jark, Dai Satan. He is also the dub voice of Disney's Shere Khan.
• Hollywood Tone Deaf: Used in one episode. A Gozma monster causes destruction by singing along with the people he hears; he can't stand bad singing, like Change Pegasus'.
• Kick the Dog: During one fight, Ahames's actions indirectly cause a school bus to crash. She really kicks the dog when she sends her monsters to try to thwart the Changemen from getting medical aid to the victims.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Mai and Yūma.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: The Changemen start channeling the Earth Force into the Power Bazooka when a trio of Ahames's best monsters put them on the ropes.
• Mythical Motifs
  • Our Dragons Are Different: Hiryū
  • Our Gryphons Are Different: Hayate
  • Pegasus: Yūma
  • Our Mermaids Are Different: Sayaka
  • The Phoenix: Mai
• Name's the Same: Change Griffon is not the main hero of the SNK game Savage Reign/Kizuna Encounter.
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up: The Changemen's ally, Nana, gets one once the Rigel Aura in her awakens.
• Pokémon-Speak: "Gyodai... GYOGYOGYOGYOGYOGYOGYOGYODAAAAAIII!!!!"
• Punny Name: Gyodai's name is a play on the word "kyodai" or "huge". Naturally, Gyodai's powers consists of making monsters grow.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: One episode dealt with Tsurugi being stucked in his Change Dragon form. Unlike in other instances where it is treated as a minor annoyance at best, here it is treated as a real threat.
• Ship Tease: Episode 19 is basically a huge tease for Tsurugi/Sayaka.
• The Speechless: The Gozma monsters, all of whom can talk (and sing!) on human scale, are suddenly reduced to growling beasts upon getting the enlarging ray.
• Spot the Imposter: A Gozma monster captures Sayaka and changes into her, however after failing nearly every security check in the base the Changemen prove to be quite on the ball and automatically assume something's wrong rather than constantly writing it off.
• Starfish Character: Jangeran near the finale.
• The Starscream: Giluke.
• Surprisingly Good English: The fake arrest orders for Yūma Ōzora in Episode 5 is written in English. Although they do make some odd translation choices ("Dengeki Sentai" is translated as "Lightning Party"), it's pretty comprehensible and grammatically correct for a one-scene prop that was written for a Japanese TV show.
• That's No Moon: Bazoo is revealed to be the planet they thought he was on.
• Theme Naming: The full names of each of the Changemen.
  • Change Dragon: Hiryu Tsurugi means "flying dragon" and "sword"
  • Change Griffon: Sho Hayate means "soar" and "hurricane"
  • Change Pegasus: Yuma Ozora means "courageous horse" and "great sky"
  • Change Mermaid: Sayaka Nagisa means "bright" and "beach"
  • Change Phoenix: Mai Tsubasa means "linen robe" and "wings"
• Theme Tune: Changeman was the first series to have a theme song sung by legendary anime/tokusatsu theme singer Hironobu Kageyama, who would later go on to do several songs for Dragonball Z.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Mai and Sayaka. Mai's extreme tomboyishness only lasts for the first 10 or so episodes though before she levels out a bit.
• Training from Hell: Commander Ibuki puts the future Changemen through this just as the Gozma first attack.
• Villainous Breakdown: Ahames loses her mind when she finds out that her home planet was destroyed all along.
  • Pretty much every other member of Gozma, apart from Bazoo and Super Giluke, goes through some sort of this towards the finale.
• What Could Have Been: The Working Title was "Uchū Sentai (Space Squadron) Cosmoman" and the show was originally going to have a space exploration motif. While it was changed to a military motif at the end, traces of the original motif are still evident in the design of the Change Robo and the Shuttlebase, not to mention the fact that the villains are space aliens.