Sean Akizuki's Super Sentai Blog

Super Sentai may be on hiatus, but I felt like still giving it the honors every now and then. This photo can be so sad, just thinking of how Yuka Motohashi (who played as Natsumi Shinohara in Gekisou Sentai Carranger ) left us so soon due to cancer. Carranger's 30th anniversary happened this year, and that show could've been the anniversary. Instead, there was the contender because Choriki Sentai Ohranger was actually the 20th anniversary of Himitsu Sentai Goranger . The references were hard to dismiss like the military trend with Goranger , Dengeki Sentai Changeman , and Ohranger . It was also on 1995 when Goranger became more recognized as the first true Super Sentai series! Apparently, there was some kind of identity crisis. Should a Super Sentai series celebrate its anniversary by year or by entry number ? Do the mathematics.  Ohranger was the 20th birthday of Goranger . Carranger was the 20th Super Sentai entry. There was some kind of crisis. Not to mention, Carranger also...

It feels kinda sad, really, to think that it's 2026 and it could've been the 50th entry for Super Sentai . Instead, we have Gavan Infinity ,  which may ultimately replace Super Sentai as the franchise had ran for too long. Super Sentai had its FIVE-YEAR CEREMONIAL FINALE , which started in 2021 with Kikou Sentai Zenkaiger and finally wrapped up with No. 1 Sentai Gozyuger .  I had a feeling that there's an "anniversary curse" That didn't happen with Hyajakuu Sentai Gaoranger (which felt more like a REBOOT ) for the 25th season. Neither did it happen with 30th season is Gougou Sentai Boukenger . Gaoranger had the Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai non-canon film but the main series was still self-contained. Boukenger vs. Super Sentai was obviously another what-if movie. The Super Sentai Encyclopedia in Boukenger was never meant to be part of the show canon. Boukenger carried over designs that mimicked past Zords in Super Sentai with various Monsters-of-the-Week (MOTWs) ...

Super Sentai is practically Toei's LONGEST-running show, ending its broadcast yesterday. Yes, the No. 1 Sentai Gozyuger finale happened. It happened after  Super Sentai had a series of "reboots" , not relying on Nostalgia Goggles ( which sadly happened with Power Rangers more often than not ), and every step of the way was to keep the series fresher than usual. Of course, there would be a LIMIT to how long creative thinking goes. Innovation keeps a product living longer. It made me think of how Super Sentai managed to go on from the 2000s and the 2010s, but FAILED to complete the cycle in the 2020s as we're having Gavan Infinity instead. I remember asking myself, "How long CAN Super Sentai last in the 2010s? Perhaps until 40?" It was because we've had significant milestones. I felt that its 30th anniversary Gougou Sentai Boukenger was more of an Easter Egg hunt and acknowledgement. That would be five years after Hyajakku Sentai Gaoranger . There was no...

I once thought that Universe Heroes was a renaming of the Super Sentai franchise, but I later realized it was a hiatus . Instead, since last year, it was announced that Universe Heroes is taking over the Super Sentai franchise since last year. Even the very way No. 1 Sentai Gozyuger  may have had a dead giveaway. Megazord Graveyard at the beginning was just the beginning. Celebrating Super Sentai's 50th birthday instead of the 50th entry? Those were crazy signs that I felt weren't  I already thought that the  Super Sentai franchise needed a break ever since the end of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. The post- Gokaiger era had its creative direction's ups and downs . It was a rollercoaster ride for me (but I never rode a rollercoaster, weak stomach) when I was critical about Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger after Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters . It took me some time to appreciate Ressha Sentai ToQGer given that I had an overload . The series had its ups and downs. In fact, I even remember...

This is one post I couldn't write immediately. It's hard for me NOT to connect the GREED and No. 1 Sentai Gozyuger . Next year should've been the 50th Super Sentai series. What may have NEVER surprised me was that there would be no Super Sentai series in line -- or the first time from 1979 up to 2025! After all, there was a ONE-YEAR hiatus between Dengekitai JAKQ (which rushed everything in just 35 episodes and Battle Fever J (where Super Sentai became the annual tradition). I'm still watching Gozyuger,  but there's a nagging thought -- there wouldn't be Super Sentai next year. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a clearance sale for some Super Sentai items now to recover from losses! At first, I thought that  Universe Heroes  was merely a rebranding. However, I had a mixture of relief and anxiety.   Instead, we're getting  Project RED: Super Space Sheriff Gavan Infinity . Instead, Universe Heroes is a new franchise! This reminds me of what went on wh...

It's already known I don't like Power Rangers . I'm not GOING TO KEEP PRETENDING that I like it. However, Power Rangers was born out of a NEED because the American market is WAY DIFFERENT than the Japanese market . That's what I wrote in JEFusion before I decided to leave it while still endorsing it!  It's like a certain group of people who talk like a certain cop (warning: LOTS OF CRAZY STUFF).  Here are Shirakura's words, regardless of how I feel about Power Rangers : Shirakura observed that he joined Toei in 1990, when the company was planning the 1992 series Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger. The staff back then thought that it might be the final Sentai entry. So, the younger staffers wanted to try something different, and introduced a sixth regular member mid-story for the first time in the franchise. Shirakura mused that Zyuranger becoming the loose basis for the global phenomenon Power Rangers was divine intervention (literally, "kamikaze") that led to ...