Celebration of 50 years of tokusatsu action catches the eye but also worried our mind.

As one of Japan’s smallest hamburger chains, Dom Dom Burger knows it needs to push the boundaries of burger-dom to stand out from its more famous rivals like McDonald’s and Mos Burger. So in the past, we’ve seen Dom Dom serve up burgers with some very unusual or luxurious ingredients, like its pear and maitake burgers.

But its newest offering might just be its most eye-catching ever: the Super Sentai Burger.

Super Sentai is the biggest tokusatsu action franchise in Japanese television history. It first rose to mainstream prominence in the west when 1992’s Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger was adapted into Mighty Morphin Power Rangers for English-speaking audiences, but in Japan Super Sentai’s roots go all the way back to 1975’s Himitsu Sentai Gorenger, and to mark its 50th anniversary, the Super Sentai Burger went on sale September 12.

While plot and character specifics vary from series to series, all Super Sentai iterations feature a team of rangers in brightly colored costumes to make the heroes easy to follow in fight scenes and action sequences, and it’s this visual aspect of the franchise that’s inspired Dom Dom’s new sandwich, which has elements corresponding to Himitsu Sentai Gorenger’s Red, Blue, Pink, Yellow and Green Rangers.

As we approached the restaurant for our taste test we took one more look at the promotional photo on the poster, and were filled with conflicting emotions. On the one hand, when actual food doesn’t look as advertised, it’s always kind of a disappointment, and would be especially so in this case. On the other hand, though, would a burger with such strange colors actually taste good?

There was only one way to know for sure, so we put in our order for a 890-yen (US$6) Super Sentai Burger, and after about a five-minute wait, we had it in our hands.

The wrapper promised this would be something special, and when we opened it up, we were amazed to see…

…that the bun was an even brighter shade of red than on the poster!

Lifting up the top half of the Red Ranger bun we found the Blue Ranger cheddar cheese waiting for us.

Directly underneath that is the Yellow Ranger fried egg, though Dom Dom doesn’t bill the Super Sentai Burger as a tsukimi/moon-viewing burger, perhaps because the egg is cooked enough that the yolk isn’t as gooey as it is in most tsukimi burgers.

The next Super Sentai nod comes with the Pink Ranger tomato sauce…

…and rounding out the Gorenger references is the Green Ranger Lettuce.

Of course, there are beef patties in the sandwich too, two of them to be precise, but with Gorenger having no Brown Ranger, they have no character theming.

OK, so the Super Sentai Burger is even more colorful than Dom Dom promised us it would be. But while it’s compellingly interesting to look at, we’d be lying if we said we didn’t feel a little trepidation at this prospect of putting this into our mouth.

And yet, in exchange for mastering our initial fear, our taste buds were rewarded with outstanding flavors. In particular, the Blue, Pink, and Yellow Rangers made for a fantastic trio, blending their rich creaminess and touch of herbal flavor in the sauce for a taste sequence every bit as satisfying as when a Super Sentai team forms a giant combining robot.

The two patties also ensured that we weren’t lacking for delicious meatiness, and by the time we were done, we were both very happy and very full.

So in the end, the Super Sentai Burger not only looks as good as promised, but it also tastes better than it looks like it would, making it another great reason to go out of your way to seek out a branch of Japan’s under-the-radar hamburger chain.

Related: Dom Dom Burger location list
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