The Flowery Kunochi Team were a group of vicious cat-like ninjas serving the Youkai Army Corps who were major antagonists in Ninja Sentai Kakuranger. They served as the foils to the Kakurangers.
They were played by Maho Suzuki (Ayume episodes 15-20) and Miki Ikuma (Ayame episodes 35-53), Keiko Hayase (Sakura), Junko Honda (Suiren), Junko Noguchi (Yuri) and Chie Tanabe (Ran).
=Biographies[]
The Flowery Kunochi Team are cats turned into human ninjas by Gashadokuro to use as his personal team of enforcers. The Flowery Kunochi Team first make themselves known to the Kakurangers when Junior orders them to aid the Shuten Douji Brothers in killing the Kakurangers. The ninja are able to lure the Kakurangers into a forest where the Shuten Douji Brothers lie in wait, use special cat nip to make Nekomaru abandon them, and separate the Kakurangers to be taken out individually by the twin Youkai. They then isolate Seikai from the group using explosives and capture him and then Tsuruhime in a net when she tries to save a disguised Ayame. Later, after the Brothers are momentarily knocked down, Ayame and Sakura the Kunochi hold Tsuruhime hostage and force Saizou to drop his weapons which allows the Shuten Douji to defeat and capture him. During thier first battle, they are able to overwhelm the Kakurangers and seemingly send Sasuke falling to his death into a river at which point they withdraw.
Taking up residence in an abandoned cottage in the forest, the Brothers enjoy a round of sake before Ayame orders them to take out Sasuke and Jiraya as well which they happily accept as they want to drink thier blood as sake. Soon after, they attempt to murder the Kakurangers with shuriken but they survive with the Art of Escape and fight the Kunochi only to be overwhelmed and Jiraya teleported away. They prevent Sasuke from helping Jiraya and the leader runs after Jiraya pleads with him to do so only to be cornered and shot off of a bridge by thier Petal Gale. When they investigate though, tjeu find that they actually shot a straw dummy so they resume the search. However, he evades them by listening for thier footsteps and hiding under some leaves before following them back to the cottage. When the Kunochi later return from another search, Sasuke's voice booms from around them which lures them outside long enough for his friends to escape. They then morph and fight the Shuten Douji and Kunochil with the latter quickly retreating when they lose the upper-hand. Despite the Team’s complete failure, Junior doesn’t mind since he has many more powerful Youkai serving him.
After the defeat of Tsuchigumo, Gashadokuro once again sends the Flowery Kunochi Gang to murder Sasuke; this time aided by Professor Yugami who has invented a device designed to prevent the Kakurangers from morphing or communicating with each other. Even with these many advantages, the plan fails when Muteki Shogun gives Sasuke the Flaming Shogun Sword and only makes Junior angrier.
After Gashadokuro is killed and Daimaou takes command, the Flowery Kunochi Team serve him instead but are not initially active in the fight against the Kakurangers. As observed by the Announcer during his infiltration of the Youkai Mansion, they spend thier spare time time at the Mansion's pool lounging when not in battle.
The Flowery Kunochi Team re-emerge as a threat when Daimaou employs them as the muscle in an attack on the Kakurangers designed to capture Ninjaman. Although the Dorodoros are defeated, Ninjaman is lured out when Ayame takes a girl he was playing with hostage and Daradara is able to capture him for Daimaou. Later, Daimaou lays a trap for the Kakurangers and Hakamenro with the Flowery Kunochi Team who force them and Hakumenro into a trap by cutting them down and forcing them into a quarry where Daimaou confronts all six of them personally. After petrifying Hakamenro, Daimaou reveals a spell over the area that prevents the Kakurangers from morphing before initiating a battle which results in everyone but Sasuke being captured. As the Kakurangers are taken to be used as Daradara's power source, the Kunochi hunt down Sasuke and come close to killing him just to be stopped by Jiro and Jaro who save Sasuke. Disgraced, the Flowery Kunochi Team withdraw to the Yokai Mansion where they stand guard over the Kakurangers with Daimaou only for Sasuke to appear and attack Daimaou who severs his friends' connection with Daradara. They then fight and overwhelm the Kunochi before blasting them with the Kakuremaru Thunder Wave before the Flowery Kunochi Team are forced to flee when Daimaou grows giant and destroys the Yokai Mansion in rage.
Much later, Daimaou begins his end-game and orders Yama-uba to gather humanity's negative emotions to make the Yokai more powerful and resurrects Hakumenrou as a mindless statue to help. When Hakumenrou attacks the city, Yama-uba takes the Flowery Kunochi Team to help her. Yama-uba then reveals Tsuruhime's connection to Hakumenrou to the watching crowd which allows her and the Kunochi to turn the public against her by saying that Hakumenrou will continue destroying the area whilst Tsuruhime lives which causes thier negative emotions to form into a gigantic cloud of Yo Power. Later that evening, Yama-uba and the Flowery Kunochi Team prevent the other Kakurangers from reaching Tsuruhime as she prepares to kill Hakumenrou and they are able to successfully defeat the heroes. Before Yama-uba can kill them though, Jiro and Taro appear and overwhelm Yama-uba which allows the Kakurangers to overpower the Flowery Kunochi Team and Sasuke goes after Tsuruhime. Immediately after, Yama-uba grows giant so the Flowery Kunochi Team return to the Skull Palace.
Later, Daimaou summons the Flowery Kunochi Team to aid him in the final battle only for the Kakurangers to avoid them entirely and grapple Daimaou instead. All twelve combatants are then teleported to the island where the Seal Door lies by the Three God Generals who zap the Flowery Kunochi Team in order to prevent them from interfering with Daimaou's re-capture which turns them back into regular house cats.
Timeranger[]
Sixteen years later, the Timerangers embark on a journey to understand the previous Sentai teams by using the TimeJets to revisit thier battles. They arrive in the time of Kakuranger just in time to see the Flowery Kunochi Team being defeated and hit by the Kakuremaru Thunder Wave during the battle over Daradara.
Personalities[]
The Flowery Kunochi Team were vicious ninjas loyal only to the Yokai, willing to use extreme force and violence to achieve thier goals. They also had a creepy quality about them, laughing eerily when they were close to victory and not often speaking in battle.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Durability: The Flowery Kunochi Team were struck by Sasuke's variant on Muteki Shogun's Blazing Shogun Sword finisher and were later hit by the Kakuremaru Thunder Wave but both were only knocked down.
- Skilled Fighters: The Flowery Kunochi Team were excellent swords-women, able to overwhelm Sasuke and Jiraya in battle and later decimate them after Daimaou blocked thier powers.
- Teleportation: The Flowery Kunochi Team could teleport to any location at will be vanishing into thin air.
- Kidnapping Mist: Sakura and Ayame could fire mist by pressing thier palms together and thrusting them out in order to teleport thier enemies around. They did this to separate the Kakurangers for the Shuten Douji battle.
- Cat Transformation: The Flowery Kunochi Team could turn into tabby cats at will for espionage and surprise attacks.
- Battle Ninpo: The Flowery Kunochi Team had thier own unique form of ninja arts that granted them several special abilities;
- Battle Transformation: A technique that allowed them to fire sparkles from thier palms and transform into thier Ranger-like forms. This granted them an incredible boost to thier strength.
- Petal Gale: The Flowery Kunochi Team's signature attack where they could fire multi-coloured sparkles from thier palms to explode on the enemy. These were powerful enough to knock Sasuke off of a cliff and into the ocean with one hit.
Arsenal[]
- Katanas: All five members of the Flowery Kunochi Team were armed with katanas even when unmorphed.
- Cat Nip: The Flowery Kunochi Team used special cat nip to make Nekomaru abandon the Kakurangers.
- Scroll Bombs: The Kunochi could throw explosive scrolls to attack the Kakurangers from a distance.
Notes[]
- Although never made clear, the Flowery Kunochi Team were likely based upon the mythological Kaibyō; Youkai cats that are able to assume human form.
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 Villains
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Youkai Army Corps | ||