Over the past 20 years, anime and Japanese culture have thoroughly invaded the West. Our generation learned to love them by watching Pokémon, Sailor Moon, and Dragon Ball Z as kids. And by now, we’ve integrated Japan into our own culture with anime-influenced Western cartoons like Teen Titans and Avatar, as well as adding ramen shops and cat cafes to our cities.

But by far, one of the most bizarre shows to cross over into American culture was Power Rangers – or Super Sentai, as it’s known in its home country. It seems normal enough now, but a gang of rainbow-spangled superheroes fighting rubber-suit monsters by posing dramatically and smashing their vehicles together into a giant robot? That’s pretty weird. Where did the idea even come from? Today, we’ll answer that question by diving headfirst into the historied and hysterical tokusatsu genre!

This article was written for Honey's Anime, so please read it on their site.