Sean Akizuki's Super Sentai Blog

Thanks to Fantasy Leader, I kind of want to write about Liveman marks in Hurricanger such as: The first three members Yusuke, Kouta and Nanami are colored as red, yellow and blue respectively with the same gender arrangements as Liveman. Even their mecha are falcon, lion and dolphin respectively. They were chosen as the most unlikely heroes in the ninja academy the day they got attacked by the evil Tao Zanto. Both Jakanja and Volt are in outer space although both groups are kind of different. The similarity is that they look down at humanity with much contempt and they worship their leaders as gods. They attacked the school, presumably with some reason of rivalry. Rather than being too sci-fi, they somewhat combined scientific and supernatural powers like aliens in a Japanese myth. Sargain is kind of a tribute to Gash being an android who uses his bazooka to enlarge monsters although he wasn't the only person who does the job. Also he perished at the hands of Sandaru. ...

Now for more poll results. Which Sentai was more lighthearted? Go-onger won by 37/54 votes. I agree. It's more lighthearted. Carranger had a more serious touch. Was Go-onger totally nonsense? It was a close battle really. 32/61 think it is, 29/61 think not at all. I think it's not total nonsense. If you want total nonsense, just watch parody Sentai not the real thing which I believe is part of Toei. Do apocalyptic finales ruin lighthearted Sentai? 34/57 said yes, 23/57 said no. But I think it does because Go-onger is supposedly funny so why add so much gloom?

I guess Goseiger Epic 7's focus on Agri/Gosei Black makes so much sense. Why? To think about it, Agri is short for agriculture (and I have an aunt who engages in that kind of business too as she sells seeds). To protect Eri's/Gosei Pink's good name, gets it a competition with an old pervert who reminds me of somebody I know who's passed away long, long ago already. The gardening task is plain HILARIOUS. :-P Ha ha. The monster of the week Abauta of the Research shows up and kidnaps Eri. And the thing is, the gardening task does pay off in the challenge of beating Abauta of the Research. It's almost like Jan buffing the floors which later was helpful in defeating a bull-themed monster from Gekiranger. Only this time, it's a black ranger that's doing the job. I kind of got reminded of the Bioman episode where Gear sought to create exploding flowers, Shingo/Green Two doing some gardening all because of the gardening theme.

I've written on why I think some Power Rangers fans bash Super Sentai , I guess it's about time to show the other way around. :-P It's a matter of culture. Yup it is. I mean I've read about how oppressive the older generation of Japanese were against Chinese and Koreans and for some time, closed Japan's doors from the West. For some Filipinos, I even find them murmuring about not having Super Sentai on TV or yelling, "Hey PR was so bad." Admit, I've been there too. Right now, I have to admit that I'm attracted to Western girls and even had a fling with one or two in my College days. Sadly many westerners are also discriminated by Asians. Hmmm... full circle! Anyway, I kind of thought about it that my own family is against me dating an American girl simply because of biased thinking. I mean it's as if all Western people were responsible for destruction. What about the Chinese having a HUGE percentage being hostile towards other races...

Perhaps I'd like to really also include the ever iconic Jason Lee Scott, the original red ranger who I felt wasn't meant to be the first red ranger at first decision of the writers. In fact, I'd like to show some pre-PR Sentai characters that may have inspired his creation as he was hardly close to his Zyuranger/Dairanger counterparts Geki/Tyrano Ranger and Ryu/Ryu Ranger: For some reason, Jason Lee Scott reminds me of Kenta/Black Mask from Maskman although he was no playboy. I bet it was more on his leadership skills. In fact, I kind of thought sometimes before that Kenta not Takeru should've leader. Likewise Jason reminded me of this guy. Another character that crosses into my mind is Daichi Yamagata/Black Turbo of Turboranger with the leadership skills and not to mention the dramatic yells that both characters do. In fact I kind of thought that Tommy and Jason were contrast characters- one leaps before he looks, the other does the opposite. Anyway I think he is ...

Trini Kwan and Tommy Oliver aren't the only ones I felt that weren't that close that somehow hand pre-PR Sentai marks. The lovely and iconic Kimberly Hart is one too. Here are some: Okay this may not be the first to be noticed but Miki Monozono/Goggle Pink is a gymnast like Kimberly Hart is. I think the first noticeable one for Filipinos would be Hikaru Katsuragi/Pink Five in Bioman. Why? Well in the English dub, Hikaru Katsuragi was called Kimberly . Both of them were less skilled in combat and more on subtle tactics plus they were the show babes. I think Haruna Morikawa is another mark in the lovely Kimberly Hart. Both of them are kind of witty, prone to disasters and not to mention, can show valley girl attitudes to some extent. Also not to mention, both fight evildoers while being high school students.

In Goseiger epic 6 we finally see the emergence of Dereputa into battle where a rivalry between him and Alata/Gosei Red develops along the way. I just hope Rikiya Koyama does appear in the flesh as a disguise that Dereputa will take, and I hope for a suitless battle too for Kamen Rider Black RX fans. Also in this episode, the newest monster Hidou has super speed and Alata's weakness as a red ranger shows up. Alata is in really bad shape to the point his transformation suit wears off. He tries to do his best but ends up being beaten. It was awesome though. The emergence of Landick Gosei Great is better (for me) than Seaick Gosei Great. It was the only thing that could counter the monster Hidou's incredible speed. BTW I kind of think if anybody who was stupid enough not to cross the street on a monster battle got squashed?

It's a belated birthday (her birthday was last March 18) to one of our dearest Sentai departed (RIP) Soga Machiko who died from the same disease that claimed the life of my aunt who looked like Chinese actress Patricia Lam Fung (and strangely they were born in the same year too). I could never forget the time she was Bandora in Zyuranger and the less nasty Rita Repulsa in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Before that, she was also Hedrian in Denziman and Sun Vulcan as well as Pandora in the Metal Hero series Spielban on the regular basis. Her last role was a minor one, as Magiel in Magiranger, who in Mystic Force was one and the same character with Rita Repulsa. And honestly speaking, she plays a big role to the childhood of many Power Rangers and Super Sentai fans alike (in extension to the left unfinished VR Troopers because Spielban footage was carried over for that episode) and she was the best evil queen ever for me!

I kind of thought about it way back then, there was the debate among children to which Yellow Four was better. I just want to compare them both. The first Yellow 4 (and the first female yellow ranger in Sentai) was Mika Koizumi (acted by Yuki Yajima) a gutsy photographer who tried to run away from her destiny. She was a strong-willed woman who tried to conquer anything she feared, she even had her awesome fight scene with Farrah Cat (played by Yukari Oshima) in episode two, which many consider the best fight scene in the show including me. Sadly she was killed in episode 10 when she gave her life to save the others from the Bio Killer Gun which contained the dreaded anti-bio particles and was blown off by Psygorn. It was because the actress left the set for salary issues I think. Jun Yabuki (acted by Sumiko Tanaka) was her replacement in episode 11 who was a newbie so she tended to act like a little girl but despite that, she was more gutsy and aggressive. She placed herself in to...

I was thinking though that I haven't noticed it quite yet but there are some similarities between the couples Yamimaru and Kirika in Turboranger as well as Rio and Melee in Gekiranger though both shows hardly have parallelisms except fighting against ancient enemies and these two. Yamimaru was a villain introduced to be opposing both the Turborangers and Ragorn at first. When the three generals Zimba, Jarmin and Rehda were killed by the Turborangers midway in the series, Kirika joined in as an outcast student who like Yamimaru, was born out of the union of bouma and human resulting in another Nagare Bouma. The two feigned allegiance with Ragorn as they planned to betray him to the extent of using Riki Honoo to carry out the plan. They temporarily took over the operations until Ragorn's return in another body. In the end, they were able to live their lives peacefully in their human identities, among a few villains that were redeemable. In Gekiranger, a similar tandem happene...

The fact is the Bioman English dub was filled with so much differences I think I can name some after finding a sub version of Bioman on Youtube. Gou is Kenny, Shingo is Sammy, Ryuuta is Frankie, Mika is Casey and Hikaru is Kimberly from the Biomen.  Jun never got her name changed and remained as Jun.  What was weird was that in the dub, Peebo's gender got changed from male to female. New Empire Gear is simply known as the Neo Empire and Monster is renamed Vargo, Meserjuu is renamed Falconoid, Mettlzer is renamed Plasmanoid, Aquagaiger is renamed Aquanoid and Juuoh is renamed as Zeroid. Also the name of Dr. Man's son is not Miki in the original but Shuichi and Dr. Man's real name in Japanese is Hideo Kageyama. The Biomen in Japanese say, "1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 - Chodenshi Bioman" while in English they say, "Red One, Green Two, Blue Three, Yellow 4, Pink 5 - Bio Team Fight, Bioman." When calling for the team attack, the Biomen say, "Bio Electron...

Goseiger epic 5 has the battle against the Uchuseruzo which has a very well hidden weak spot. I kind of find the episode kind of scary with the idea of converting smart students into Bibis (I wonder if Power Rangers Super Legends' non-canon plot of Lord Zedd attempting to convert everyone into Z-Putties inspired this?!) which the Goseigers couldn't harm them. How did it happen you ask? Well it was through a deadly flu virus that hit the students which mutates them into Bibis, I believe so Warstar can easily conquer Earth. He was one incredibly tough monster due to his armor. I believe his deployment may have something to do with the idea, "Well humans walk to self-destruction daily and most do evil to get their way. Why not turn their children into bibis rather than let them follow the right and the Goseigers will lose their will to fight." Hee hee. Just a thought. The whole episode was focused on Gosei Blue thus makes sense why Seaick Goseigreat also made its...

Although these rangers/characters didn't have any PR counterparts, I think they did however inspire the creation of Tommy in Power Rangers. When Tommy shifted from green ranger to white ranger at the same time usurped the red ranger's position as leader, it was kind of like in JAKQ when Big One arrived as an additional hero of the team of four and replaced the red ranger Spade Ace as the leader. I count Big One as the first white ranger. Tommy kind of got as cocky as he was. In fact, both characters are mascots of their own respective franchise despite the huge time lapse. I think Takeru of Maskman seems to have inspired Tommy in some way. Both are that devoted to karate and tend to get cocky at times. When Tommy became the red ranger in Power Rangers Zeo, I felt like he had a little of Takeru in him. Strangely the actor Ryosuke Kaizu who played Takeru appeared in episode one of Ohranger but sadly not the commander. Jason was nowhere near this guy. In fact, I felt like ...

Here are the results of that poll that I allowed selection of multiple answers to rank them: Cultural biases between east and west became the first reason got 39/54 votes. I agree. As an oriental, I've experienced bullying from people who believed that the west was the best. However for Saban's era, it seems that the non-whites kept overshadowing the whites like how blacks and Asians display rather cool moves that the others don't. The American superiority mentality got 30/54 votes. Can't help but use Syd as a portrait for that negative value. Hated her really. Some cool stuff exclusive to PR got 22/54 votes in total. A tie for: Amy Jo Johnson was really gorgeous got nine votes. I agree with this one but it didn't make me overshadow one with the other that time. Hee hee. Anyway I decided to watch other shows she was in than MMPR and I still can't help but think I want a gf that looks like her. :-P Children can be so shallow minded back then. :-P Also wa...