Sean Akizuki's Super Sentai Blog

After initially thinking Magiranger would be better than Fiveman but I was so wrong.  Even if Fiveman might be considered as the weakest of Hirohisa Soda's seasons (and I am so looking forward to Gogo Five), I still felt like Fiveman is a better series than that of Magiranger.  Now it's time to compare the Hoshikawa Family to the Ozu Family. The siblings While Fiveman might be viewed as Soda's weakest season but I thought Fiveman has a way better sibling Super Sentai team.  I always thought regardless which Fiveman sibling it is, they are all a likable cast with Ken being my top favorite of the Hoshikawa siblings.  Even at his weakest, Soda was able to create a good cast of characters.  Magiranger tends to go exaggerated and if anybody brings the whole show down, it's HOUKA.  It's really something to see Houka is so unusually stupid she's even dumber than Natsuki for me.  I got to admit, I don't think I even have a favorite in Magiranger!  I...

I wrote a post on Jetman and the possible meanings behind the monsters-of-the-week , now I'd like to talk about the villains themselves. Count Radiguet... ah that big bastard of a complete monster right?  I always thought that since he was pretty much a live version of Gatchaman Fighter's Count Egobossler (who was human), he had always shown signs of immense cruelty.  He represents somehow the judgment of fallen humanity with his justification that "Humans are bastards." while he also represents hypocrisy, because his actions are no different than the very humans he hates.  I always thought he's also a hypocrite when it comes to keeping Maria around... and I felt creepy every time he touched her face or something, what was he thinking?  He may also be the the embodiment of treachery considering he got rid of Juuza and Tranza by betrayal.  Not to mention, every time he gets a chance to be redeemed, he just... throws it away!  He may also represent prog...

When Chevalier arrived in Fiveman as a game-changing villain, Garoa was in the risk of losing his position as captain.  I always thought that while Garoa did achieve something with the Franken Capsule or that, he isn't a total moron... however, here's one plot in Fiveman was probably really very crazy.  I took the images from Toku Monster . Garoa was trying to secure his position in the most moronic way possible.  He combines Eagle Gin and Gorilla Gin BACK TO BACK?  WTF!  I thought that the episode was pretty stupid (but entertaining) in its own way.  The two had disagreement problems which caused the monster to be ineffective. But I was wondering if the disagreement was also planned by Garoa so the two can generate such a strong wind against the Fivemen.  At first, it felt effective but the combined stupidity of the combined monsters managed to be Garoa's downfall in that episode.  I found the whole idea of beating a monster with flip cards...

After watching Abaranger and Shinkenger from start to end, I thought I might want to ramble on two characters namely Yukito Sanjo and Mako Shiraishi. Abaranger was written by Naruhisa Arakawa and Shinkenger was written by Yasuko Kobayashi. Which reminds me, too bad that Shinkenger couldn't get my dream team of Yasuko Kobayashi, Toshiki Inoue, Junki Takegami and Naruhisa Arakawa as its writers each with big portions of the show! Abaranger features Yukito as the anti-hero of the show. If you noticed, he did try to leave the Abarangers, Gai Yuki style and he's the show's version of Gai Yuki. Yeah, Abaranger had some Jetman elements in it. He is featured to have had created something really disastrous in episode 10 called Curry Sponge. What Yukito did was to simply mix fruit and curry in such a way. I do find it stupid how Bunds himself was able to eat the curry while Asuka gets indigestion in the process. I mean, Asuka was freaking knocked out by the curry sponge. The hum...

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 ...

Based on Another Imagination Station's Facebook page, GoGo V is getting subbed very soon .  So what's my real point?  Now that I have quit acting like an expert on the matter (which I did in the past) and instead, decided to be myself... I am looking forward to Gogo Five's subs.  The fan sub group was responsible for the reason why I was able to watch Abaranger from start to end (and yes, I was only making assumptions that Mikoto was brainwashed and crazy, when he wasn't). I will admit, the excitement is really practically "killing me".  I have seen some raw episodes of Gogo V but trying to understand from raw can be very annoying.  After the horror that is Magiranger (sorry for pretending to like it) and I am still wanting more Fiveman subs (I only saw it in Tagalog before), I am eager to actually see Gogo V with subs.  I'm thankful I haven't seen this series horribly murdered with awful Tagalog dubs! What I always wanted to joke was how the c...

Super Sentai can be known for serving generous portions of nice juicy ham.  To be hammy means, "Exaggerated and self-conscious theatrically."  I do admit how Super Sentai ends up with some ham in the performance.  Now for some of my favorite ham with all their grandiose performances which leads to a lot of comic reactions. Raita in Jetman for me was really ham.  Oh yeah, think he's fat, he's a geek and you get what I mean right?  Combined with the actor Tomite Naruse's excellent acting skills, it really creates the best comic relief and badass in one show.  You might think of how the whole show was a serious season yet it doesn't mean there's no room for comedy.  He really knows how to deliver comedy at the very right moment! I would say Zyuranger had lots and lots of ham with Bandora herself.  The late Soga Machiko is so much an excellent actress that she's able to deliver all that ham in juicy slices.  Bandora herself is a unique comb...

Super Sentai and Power Rangers both had crossovers for certain seasons. Some Super Sentai seasons had no crossovers, others had crossovers. Some Power Rangers had no crossover. I'll talk about the similarities and differences of the crossovers between both genres. I. Super Sentai vs. Super Sentai crossovers A Super Sentai vs. Super Sentai crossover event usually ends up as a post-series special. Seldom, the writers try to make it look like they take place in the same continuity (ex. Gingaman vs. Megaranger) but most of the time, like Ohranger vs. Kakuranger, insert events that don't happen within the continuity of the shows involved. In the case of Gokaiger, it's a season long crossover . Goranger and JAKQ was the first crossover but back then, Sentai was just called Sentai. Goranger and JAKQ were only added into the "Super Sentai" list during the year 1995 as part of the series. In Timeranger's post-series special (which was not in the show's conti...

While it was nice to have Toshihide Wakamatsu was in Gokaiger 28, which is a guest appearance for Gai Yuki.   Gai Yuki's death was verified by the Jetman Encyclopedia, the son of Ryu and Kaori is named after him.  While it was nice to have Gai Yuki appear again even as a ghost, I always got bothered by WTF went wrong with Gokaiger 28 .  However please note that Super Sentai usually has no continuity, Gokaiger is more of an alternate continuity for the last 34 seasons. Really, it still bothers me until now that Gai Ikari can't see Gai Yuki.  I mean, he did meet the ghosts of Mikoto, Naoto and Burai.  Some may think that he was only able to meet the ghosts because he really died then he was restored fully back to life or two, it was a near death experience.  So what was really wrong?  Wow, Gai Ikari can't see Gai Yuki?  I always thought that episode was pretty stupid until now.  Dang it, Toshiki Inoue!

Shinkenger's stray villain Juzo was played by Mitsuro Karahashi.  What I felt like this guy was so blunt and boring.  I mean we had Rintaro Nishi to voice Doukoku (he did a good job in doing Doukoku's scenes whether it was a serious scene or a minor comic relief scene), now why couldn't they go something with Juzo?  I felt the actor himself was just boring and that Juzo was a real killer.  While Shinkenger is a lighter and softer series, come on you still need a good actor to play Juzo! If one person really might be good for Juzo in Shinkenger is actually Takashi Hagino (the idea is Shogo's actually, not mine).  He played the hero in Changerion (haven't seen that series) and the villainous murderer Takeshi Asakura/Kamen Rider Ouja in Kamen Rider Ryuki.  What's my reason?  Think of how scary Takashi Hagino was when he was Ouja.  He was a genocidal maniac who trolled just almost everybody, he had no remorse with who he killed and Juzo is suppose...

Abaranger itself was an entertaining season with some cheesy Japanese humor (which I like a lot in Super Sentai)... for me one character pretty stood out between heroes and villains and it's Mikoto Nakadai.  In my opinion, he's really the most badass villain the show has ever had, perhaps he's the best villain that was ever created for Naruhisa Arakawa's Super Sentai works.  Okay, maybe he's not as cruel as the Grongi in Kuuga (still under Arakawa's headwriting) but he's definitely for me, top-tier than Basco (another favorite of mine) in Gokaiger.  I felt like this guy showed the idea of "Humans are bastards." to a whole new level. Now I can't help but think of at first, comparing Zyuranger and Abaranger .  What I felt about this guy was he's really a game-changing villain, with the shoutout that, "Hey let's play this game." but it's not all fun and games, all his games disregard the welfare of people around him.  The ...

Well it's time to discuss about one of my favorite rangers of all time, it's all about Jasmine herself.  Just like one of my lesser favorites Mako , Jasmine who is another lesser favorite becomes a subject to being loved by fans for shallow and pitiful reasons and two, both her and Mako aren't exactly my top-tier favorites considering that I think most of the rangers back in the 80s/90s were usually more kickass.  Moving on, I felt like it's time to really ramble on Jasmine because I suddenly remembered the silly club I used to join with peers who I felt had made her a goddess of sorts.  Considering Dekaranger has reached its 10th year months ago and a 10 years after special is coming out, I felt like writing about her. I would believe Jasmine is liked for shallow and pitiful reasons.  When I started telling my friends about Super Sentai (without telling them Power Rangers is fake since that's an outrageous lie), the age of Google had already awakened by then. ...