Sean Akizuki's Super Sentai Blog

I think while Zack Taylor was more of a reference to Battle Kenya while being a more original character, well Trini Kwan seems to blend in several past Sentai characters while having NONE of Boi's personality from Zyuranger whatsoever maybe due to gender differences. Here are some of those marks I can find. I think her first mark may be that she like Yuki Yajima (who sadly only appeared for nine episodes in Bioman) was chosen for having kick ass martial arts skills to play the part of Mika Koizumi. The character Trini Kwan was a gusty, aggressive lady with a love for nature. In the later part of the second season, she had salary disputes with Saban Entertainment just as Yuki Yajima had it with Japan Action Club, had enough and left the set. Both also had rather iconic fight scenes out of suit. Both actresses were rumored to have been fired. Another mark in Trini Kwan is the character Haruka from Maskman. There were times Trini Kwan was like less girlie in the show. Howev...

Here are the other poll results. What do you think of Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day together? From 42 votes, 4 voted for bad timing, 24 voted for it's okay and 14 voted for it's awesome. I'm with the crowd that thinks it's bad timing. Mako won for the Sentai's fairest lady in the poll. She's just plain hot! From 46 votes, 28 think that Takeru's return in Shinkenger has a lot of gray areas while 18 don't. I agree with those who think it has a lot of gray areas. From 144 votes, 86 think that Zordon Arc was the best overshadowing post-Zordon arc with only 47 votes and for Disney with only 11 votes. I'm not surprised that 89 out of 138 votes find Disney's remastered MMPR awful. I do too. I can't help but use a picture of the lovely Kimberly Hart to express it.

The fact is I've noticed that it has become a trend in Super Sentai to actually combine the prefix and the suffix in a rather unique way that makes them inseparable. In the past, we had a title Goranger which some spelled as Go Ranger by Sentai fans who also like Power Rangers or those who compared Super Sentai with Power Rangers. Ranger is more common than the suffix "man" with these counts: Count of Sentai using rangers in the past line: Goranger, Turboranger, Zyuranger, Dairanger, Kakuranger, Ohranger, Megaranger, Timeranger, Gaoranger, Abaranger, Dekaranger, Magiranger, Gekiranger, a total of thirteen as of late probably why some Sentai fans use the word "ranger" instead of "warrior" more. Count of Sentai using the suffix "man": Denziman, Dynaman, Bioman, Changeman, Maskman, Liveman, Fiveman, Jetman, Gingaman, a total of nine as of late Others: JAKQ, Battle Fever J, Sun Vulcan, Goggle V, Gogo V, Later on we have removed ...

Somehow classical music is added into Super Sentai, new or old at times. I can't recognize the sonata but I can remember a few Super Sentai where classical music was used as well. So far Super Sentai had managed to play a few classical music tunes right into some series. They are inserted into the scenery (rather than from the BGM collection) to portray intense of feelings of love, hate, happiness and regret, even death. Here's a few I can remember: In Bioman, Hikaru Katsuragi played the flute occasionally which I don't know what sonata she plays. I think it has something to do with her feelings. I can remember the feelings of sadness when it came to Ryo Asoka/X-1 Mask (who appeared only in episode 39) when he remembered his dead girlfriend. Another was in Maskman episode 40 where a lone survivor of a music tribe is a champion pianist. I think the most memorable has to be Jetman's Appassionata by Ludwig Van Beethoven which Rie Aoi played as her true self and her fa...

Here's a short clip of Megumi Mori singing Tokio Town somewhere in the nineties. Although I'm not much of a Liveman fan, I like the way she does her moves her and the way she sings. If you ask me, this performance is way too classic. Enjoy.

Since Jetman is loosely based on Gatchaman so there has to be some markings of Gatchaman in the show. We have the following "Gatchaman" marks in the show.  Toshiki Inoue must have gotten several elements from all three seasons to which he thought would work. The most obvious is the bird motif and fact that Black Condor is a motorcycling hero is a reference to Joe in Gatchaman. The power struggles that happen between Ryu Tendo and Guy Yuki is another mark- which is kind of similar to Ken and Joe in Gatchaman, both between polar opposites against each other.  Joe was sort of a playboy in Gatchaman. Ryta/Yellow Owl like Ryuu of Gatchaman are both the strongmen of the team, loves to eat and are country boys. He's a less dramatic version and more of a comedy relief like Bulk would be in MMPR but he's a ranger. Kaori/White Swan's attraction to Ryu/Red Hawk and her struggle of confused feelings with Gai/Black Condor is similar to Jun/G3 in Gatchaman but ...

Ah yes who can forget dear Hayato Tani that awesome commander in Maskman? Now I think it's time to present some of these photos before and after Maskman. Enjoy! This was the time he was much younger. Hayato Tani as a crook. Hayato Tani in "Dear Teacher". Some 1970s show- have no idea what this is! Hayato Tani's marriage to Kikkou Matsuoka. Shaking the hands of an unknown fan. I only recognize him in this photo. Hayato Tani with Kikkou Matsuoka and Hiroyuki Suzuki and son Yoriyuki Suzuki. Hayato Tani and his wife on vacation. Hayato Tani as a businessman.

Super Sentai had some fire swords which were kind of iconic. Now let's see how them. Note most of them used real flames. Gou Shirou/Red One had the flame sword which the scene used real flames during filming. Kakuranger's Muteki Daishogun used a flaming sword. In one episode, Sasuke/Ninja Red used a shrunken version of the sword to fight the enemies. The set used real flames NOT CGI. In Shinkenger, I believe they had to use CGI for one good reason as the sword was too big and the flames started while the sword was on Takeru/Shinken Red's shoulders. So I guess it's pretty excusable Shinkenger doesn't use real flames otherwise much injury may occur to the stuntman doing it or especially that swinging a flaming blade that big is TOO difficult with real flames. Strangely enough for Goseiger, the finishing move uses footage with CGI flames when the attack starts up but when it's time to finish the enemy then...real flames are used instead. Nice edit...

Super Sentai had some "evolution" in the visors. The following types of visors happened such as... Goranger's visors were not like the traditional ones. In fact, it was more like the one with tiny holes which was also used in JAKQ. Battle Fever J had "eye visors" instead of the visors from Goranger and JAKQ. Denziman started the "shades type" of visor which is the most prevalent today. Most of them come in slightly modified in shape visors. The Fivemen's visors had some "lines" on them. I wonder how it doesn't distract them. :-P The Ohrangers started the more uniquely shaped visors. And who can forget the colorful visors of Timeranger too? I think they were personally my favorite.

After all, Super Sentai didn't only fuel ideas for Power Rangers since Super Sentai is the original, Power Rangers being the altered version later fueled ideas for Super Sentai thus creating a circle of ideas for both shows. In episode two, we see the Gosei Head, who is the "commander" of the Goseigers. He is the leader of the Gosei World and the means of contact of the Goseigers to their world. Whether or not he has a human form still remains to be seen. Anyway I felt like Mr. Voice was a Zordon rip-off although he was an AI program created by Leona Giordana, the last known descendant of the Giordana line. How he reminded me of Zordon was whenever he showed through the monitor the danger spots the Boukengers had to go to in order to do their mission and how he was connected to the mecha. But anyway, Zordon's body was based on Zyuranger's Barza, that was way before he got caught in a time warp. Ha ha. Besides after Zyuranger, Barza no longer appeared in...