The Battle of Super Sentai Ham: Gai Ikari vs. Nobuo Akagi!

Picture above is taken from Shogo's blog Them's Fightin' Words

Gokaiger and Akibaranger seem to embody the Super Sentai fandom in some way with two characters. One is Gai Ikari, the other is Nobuo Akagi. I always felt these two might be viewed as two different fans. One came from an official Sentai called Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. The other came from the unofficial Sentai called Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger.


Gai Ikari

Gai Ikari in Gokaiger is a huge fan of Super Sentai who got his dream to come true. So I thought this was an interesting concept to have a Super Sentai fan become a Super Sentai ranger. In his case, he becomes the SILVER RANGER. Hmmm just a bit of notice we've had anniversary silvers namely Gaoranger and Boukenger, now we have it in Gokaiger. The first silver ranger was in Megaranger, a non-anniversary season namely Mega Silver. The joke of a silver ranger was also alluded in the closing scene of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie.

So how did Gai Ikari even begin his career? He supposedly died in a truck accident (although it's unclear if he really died in that scene) and he met the ghosts of Mikoto, Burai and Time Fire who granted himt he power to become Gokai Silver. Unlike the other Gokaigers, he's the only human on their team and two, he has three Greater Powers instead of one. He would have the power of Zyuranger, Abaranger and Timeranger... at the same time, it made me that did the fact he was chosen by three dead rangers start out the rumor he would die? Thankfully, he didn't leave us so soon like Gai Yuki did.


Nobuo Akagi

Nobuo Akagi on the other hand can be viewed as a reminder, you can be a Super Sentai fan but never a Super Sentai warrior. He is shown to be a delivery man who is in frequent daydreaming that he is a Super Sentai warrior when he isn't or two, he's got confidence issues. I felt like i could relate to this guy as I am a 30 year old guy and still a bachelor. While it felt like he was a red ranger only in his delusions, later episodes suggest otherwise that there was really a real-life enemy that the Akibarangers had to deal with which wasn't purely in their heads.

For this guy, I felt like that he was really much bigger ham considering Akibaranger is a parody or comedy season. Almost every turn he has at times, reminds me of how I might react if I were actually in person with the Super Sentai cast. I would probably have a happier than usual reaction if I were able to go to Henshin Con but I wasn't able to because I had some responsibilities to face. He has served juicier ham than Gai Ikari has for me.