When Dirt was Young

In ancient times (1975 to 1977) the world was a different place. Hairstyles were disturbing and wrong. Earth tones prevailed in fashion. Pants had bottoms shaped like bells.

Civilization was pretty much a mess.

Out of Japan, a TV show came forth. It was called "Himitsu Sentai Goranger", or "Goranger".

"Go" is the Japanese word for the number five. So "Goranger" translated to "The Five Rangers". This is how the show aired on television in Honolulu back in those days.

And, as luck would have it, this is when I got to watch said show.

It was a new experience for me. I got to see over-done, corny martial arts, colorful costumes, funky gadgets, and rubber-suit monsters all while hearing horrific dubbing.

It set the tone for my later love of Godzilla and the like as well as innumerable martial arts action movies.

Fast forward many years. "Power Rangers" airs in the U.S. I see this advertised with a moderate sort of horror coupled with a disturbing flashback to "Goranger".

Yep. It's essentially the same show with the same five folks vs cartoonish villains.

Rinse and repeat over I-don't-even-want-to-know how many incarnations.

And then the Internet showed me this:



So apparently there's been a lot of incarnations by this point.

And it troubles me that I can pick out the original Goranger outfits among this horde of technicolor craziness.

I think it's time for my meds.