Municipal Force Daitenzin

The Daitenzin en route to battle.

Shiritsu Sentai Daitenzin (市立戦隊ダイテンジン, Shiritsu Sentai Daitenjin^?, Municipal Squadron Daitenzin) is an adult-only, sentai dōjinshi by Rikudo Koshi, also the author of Excel Saga. Essentially, it is the basis of Excel Saga: Many of the characters designs that appeared in Excel Saga originated from the dōjinshi. In fact, in an interview included with the extra material on the fourth DVD volume of ADV's release, Rikudo states that he created Excel Saga to explore the character of Excel. Municipal Force Daitenzin was later published as a normal manga series.

Doujinshi and manga

The overall series revolves around the Department of City Security and the overall characters personality traits are no different than the ones presented in the anime.

Differences between anime and manga

• Ropponmatsu is actually a single character instead of "One" and "Two". Pending on the situation, the Ropponmatsu core is either placed in the adult or child bodies.

In the Excel Saga anime

Episode 18 of Excel Saga bears the title Municipal Force Daitenzin, and in it we learn that Kabapu's entire Department of City Security was simply a front for his designs to create a group of masked heroes, akin to the Super Sentai (which were later adapted into Power Rangers).

Codenames

According to the ADV Vid-notes, the Daitenzins' codenames are all derived - if not taken outright - from department stores or other establishments in the Tenjin downtown area of Fukuoka. In the English version, the names have been changed perhaps because of the lack of knowledge of Japanese department stores and establishments. Kabapu names the Daitenzin in the following order (the colors of their suits in parentheses):

• Tooru Watanabe as "Daiten ISM" (blue), after a department store named IMS; (English: Daiten Macy's)
• Daimaru Sumiyoshi as "Daiten Aigan" (yellow), after an optical goods chain-store of the same name; (English: Daiten Cafeteria)
• Misaki Matsuya as "Daiten Ladies" (green), after the department store Matsuya Ladies; (English: Daiten Frederick's)
• Norikuni Iwata as "Daiten Core" (red), after the department store Tenjin Core; (English: Daiten S Mart)
• Ropponmatsu 1 and 2, respectively, as "Daiten Solaria 1 and 2" (purple and pink) after a hotel in the Tenjin district. (English: Daiten Twin Cinemas 1 and 2)

Powers and weapons

Although Ropponmatsu One's analyses can only detect "FRP, nylon fibres and vinyl chloride" as the constituent parts of the Daiten suits, they seem to endow the wearer with exceptional powers. In the manga we are told that the suits are made from some sort of ancient technology that Dr. Kabapu has held on to from his past. Some of their attacks in the anime are named: Giga Smash, Delta End, and Electric Sun. These are seemingly derived solely from the suits and the incantation of the attack's name. The Daitenzin also have powerful weaponry at their disposal: for instance, Iwata is able to use two pistol-like weapons for the Best Electron, and Watanabe can also fire the self-descriptive Megatron Bazooka. On the simpler side, however, is Sumiyoshi's Giga Paper Fan and the Double Giga Paper Fan. Daiten attacks seem to be destructive roughly in proportion to the number of syllables in their names. However, of all the observed Daiten weapons and attacks, the Giga Paper Fan attacks are perhaps most effective yet least destructive. Matsuya is armed with a single pistol, similar to Iwata's Best Electron. The Ropponmatsus do not seem to possess or need weapons apart from their inherent abilities (despite the fact they do have "weapons" in the eyecatch of the episode).