What martial arts are used in the Power Rangers?
In 1993, the Power Rangers aired for the first time in history and since then has gone on to become one of the most popular kids TV shows on earth. Inspired by similar Japanese shows, it followed a group of teenagers who would use their fighting powers to combat evil monsters from space. It’s perhaps this Japanese influence that meant that Power Rangers would always have its roots firmly embedded in martial arts culture.
As a result, the fight scenes were often choreographed in such a way to show fighting techniques. When you look at the 90s setting too, it’s no surprise that disciplines that were popular at the time were commonly used. As a disclaimer, it should be noted that many of these fight scenes are naturally over-exaggerated. The athletic ability of the Power Rangers was obviously enhanced to make the scenes more exciting. For instance, they would often use ropes to make jumps seem bigger and it was almost as if the Rangers were flying at times. Here’s a list of the martial arts used in the Power Rangers fight scenes.
Table of Contents
The Power Rangers use Karate
It’s no secret that the Power Rangers were big on Karate and this was probably the most used martial art on the show. In fact, the original Red Ranger Austin St. John is a Karate black belt who even had an instructional VHS tape on how to learn Karate back in the day. Whether he influenced the fight scenes is unknown – but what is known is that Karate was often used.
Here, the Rangers would use an array of athletic kicks, spins, arm blocks, and all sorts of Karate moves. This makes sense, considering Karate mania was in full swing during this point and when you take into account the show’s Japanese influences, it’s not surprising that Karate was often featured. As well, before and after fights – the Power Rangers would famously assume a Karate stance to show their preparedness for combat.
The Power Rangers use Capoeira
Capoeira is also commonly used during the Power Rangers fight scenes. It is arguably the perfect martial art to implement in a show like this too, seeing as it is very easy on the eye and looks slick. If you thought that the Karate used in Power Rangers was over the top at times, then the Capoeira is like Karate on steroids. That is, the Capoeira used is highly choreographed and made to appeal to the masses.
Here, viewers could expect to see multiple spins in mid-air before landing a roundhouse kick, summersaults, and all sorts of athletic, dynamic movements. Capoeira almost mimics dancing at times, and the same could be said for the Power Rangers fight scenes as they were very ahead of their time for the early 90s. This would involve people throwing massive kicks to the head, only to be dodged with a retaliatory strike of their own. Overall, it made for some very entertaining viewing for kids at the time.
The Power Rangers use Taekwondo
When looking at the Power Rangers, it’s pretty obvious that there was a lot of favoritism awarded to kicks. In fact, if you look through the fight scenes, the bulk used kicks instead of other forms of fighting. These scenes had almost zero grappling, little punches and it was almost exclusively kick-based at times.
This is why Taekwondo was often used to defeat the likes of the Putty Patrollers. For example, sometimes the Power Rangers would use split kicks whilst outnumbered, or front kicks to create distance between their enemies. If you are going to base the bulk of the fighting on kicks, then it would be stupid to ignore Taekwondo which has a massive curriculum based on kicks.
The Power Rangers use Aikido
Moving away from the Power Ranger’s fascination with kicks, they also used Aikido on occasion. The use of Aikido is probably the only other fighting style used, and is done to throw goons to the floor. For example, if someone gets in too close where kicks can’t be used, the Power Rangers will resort to wrist grabs to engage in flamboyant throws.
These may not be the most realistic throws, nor are they particularly sound fundamentally. Nonetheless, you have to remember that during the mid 90s, Aikido was still in full swing with the likes of Steven Seagal still being wildly popular.
The Power Rangers use Kenjutsu and Eskrima
Kenjutsu is the Japanese art of sword fighting, whilst Eskrima focuses more on daggers and smaller blades. If you’re aware of Power Rangers history, then you’ll understand that these weapons commonly feature in Power Rangers when other opponents are armed. Whether it’s yielding a long sword or a small hand dagger – the Power Rangers are not shy to use weapons when fighting.
These weapons include the dragon dagger and power swords. In fact, in some of the newer series, the Rangers even use guns and other weapons. However, for the sake of this article we’re mostly looking at the older series. The point remains, Power Rangers are good martial artists to begin with. Give them weapons and they’re even more overpowered.
Looking at the Power Rangers fighting style as a whole
Undoubtedly, the Power Rangers were a group of great fighters when it comes to kicks. If you got in range, the chances were that you’d take a kick to the head, or at least a powerful enough kick to put you down. With this said, they were great fighters in terms of flexibility and speed. Having said this, you could also argue that their fighting style was far too based on style over substance.
Of course, this was a show so the fight scenes were made for entertainment purposes. However, they do look suspiciously Hollywood at times as well. Basically, if we’re to be hyper critical, then the Power Rangers suffer in terms of realistic grappling, and also the likes of boxing wouldn’t hurt either. Overall, the Power Rangers are still incredibly difficult to defeat and are clearly experts at kick-based martial arts.
Because of their incredible flexibility, speed, and power – they are able to neglect certain other martial arts and still remain dominant during combat. As a result, they are certainly masters of their martial arts without being too well rounded.
