Sean Akizuki's Super Sentai Blog

Them eyes.... and them wrenches!

While watching Carranger with subs and in a more sequential order, I also wanted to at least watch rewatch the first nine episodes of Bioman again. So what's up with comparing Mika Koizumi to Natsumi Kinohara? While Mika was pretty short-lived no thanks to the actress Yuki Yajima leaving the set so abruptly, fortunately the actress Yuka Motohashi didn't leave the set all so soon and she stayed from episode one up to the very end. Got to admit, this isn't really my idea to start with since I got the idea from Fantasy Leader (now Sentai Bandicoot) so long ago and somehow, I really can't change my opinion too much after watching Carranger.

I thought Mika's concept was a pretty interesting one with a snappy, sort-of a rebel type of lady who cares for her teammates. But unlike Mika, Natsumi didn't attempt to run away on her own but she had the whole team with her. I mean, none of the Carrangers wanted to accept their destiny. Even Ky…

Here's a similarity between Turboranger episode 11 and Carranger episode 9. The main difference was Kunio Fuji wrote the Turboranger episode and Yoshio Urasawa wrote the Carranger one. Now for the startling similarities. 
Turboranger had the story of the Ruffian Bouma who Zulten released into the modern day. Unknown to everyone in Ragorn's empire but Zulten, Ruffian Bouma had already defected away from the empire.  In that episode, Zulten tried to use Ruffian Bouma to defeat the Turborangers. When all else fails, Ragorn destroys Ruffian Bouma who is then enlarged by Zulten. After a giant robot battle, somehow Ruffian Bouma returns back to his senses. The Turbo Robo then flies into space then drops the dying monster there.  Ruffian Bouma becomes a star.

A similar plot was carried into Carranger. While Carranger is considerably what you'd call a very lighthearted season but you still have serious moments like these. In the story, Speed King Max was long missing as he was te…

Although I'm not a fan of either Kyoryuger or Dino Charge (and I'm just a passing by Super Sentai fan) because well, neither show click for my personal preferences, but I'll give credit to Indonesian actor Yoshi Sudarso (who I am not really a fan of) for going to Japan and meeting Toei's cast and doing a great service for the fans of shows that I'm not a fan of.  As said, as of late I'm NEUTRAL with Power Rangers, I don't like it but I don't hate it.  
Yoshi Sudarso and Robert Baldwin
Oh wait!  Now I'm warming up to him for posing near my favorite Boukenger, Masayuki Deai!  I'll give him more credit for that.

Gobusters is one season I think I'll always get mixed about.  Maybe it's because I didn't like Power Rangers RPM's concept (but I'll watch it start to end) and Gobusters is a pretty serious season having RPM references.  Don't get me wrong, I do like serious seasons like Maskman, Liveman, Jetman, Dairanger and Timeranger though if it gets too serious like Toshiki Inoue's Kamen Rider Faiz, I simply must say that it can be a big ruin but I'll share my own humble opinion.  I can like any atypical series like Timeranger or an atypical Kamen Rider season like Agito, but there's more than meets the eye.  I simply have my issues with Gobusters having stiff-faced cast and I thought that Yasuko Kobayashi just didn't get the right co-writers or sub-writers to help her out.  I mean, I thought they could have gotten Toshiki Inoue and Junki Takegami to help her out right?  Inoue might have actually created an episode to exploit Hiromu's weakness of chic…

Even if I am a Super Sentai fan who started out as that fool who pretended to know everything who also started out as a Super Sentai purist and somewhat a Power Rangers hater, I don't think I can reach the level of both Gai Ikari and Nobuo Akagi when it comes to my vibes.  Sure I started with Bioman and I didn't know much about Super Sentai.  Later, I would have my moments of Sentai hangovers, Toku breaks and Sentai snob moments which you can see, I really did abandon Super Sentai, decided to return to it and ended up being majorly wrong about it for some time and then I decided, "Gotta stop pretending to be an expert!"


One proof that I couldn't be considered a huge Super Sentai fan is that I even didn't know Kazuo Niibori back then until I saw Akibaranger.  Some may say something like, "How could you not know that guy!  You call yourself a Super Sentai fan?!"  I felt like that the stuntmen (in my view) had been treated like the Mecha Humans of Bio…

That moment I realized that... there is NO Super Sentai timeline!

Back then, I always thought that Super Sentai had its own timeline. Maybe I was just quite focused on Power Rangers where they would exist in one timeline. I always thought about this for once or twice anyway, or many times how I just kept forcing the idea of a Super Sentai timeline into Super Sentai. I always wanted to force them into one timeline when there is a huge difference between writing series with one single existent timeline vs. a self-contained series.

So at first, I just kept saying in my mind, "Like Power Rangers, Super Sentai must have a timeline!" Maybe it was because I was so used to Power Rangers having a timeline which again, I always thought that using one existent timeline can be a major creativity killer or two, it can produce a lot more plotholes than usual.

Timeranger did have a post-TV series special but like Turboranger's pre-TV show special, it does not include itself in the epis…

This might be the moment when I realized thatthere is NO such thing as the perfect Super Sentai...
Laugh, cry, scream, do whatever you want... but as said, there is really no perfect Super Sentai season! It's a problem by certain presumably hardcore Super Sentai fans to think that Super Sentai has no flaws, that Super Sentai gets better every year and the same goes for some presumably hardcore Power Rangers fans who think the same way about Power Rangers.
So why am I writing this? When I first started out this blog as a pretending to know it all and later realizing that I could practically destroy myself than I already did, I decided to finally to be myself and disclaim what I once claimed to be because it was a lie. In fact, events have convinced me to write the only series I watched from start to end and later, reconsider my actions as a writer. As said, the road to success is never always an upward path, you are destined to get critics of every kind... friendly, unfriendly, tr…

Well I decided to make this rather personal post on Super Sentai protagonist cast members I want to meet and why.  I am just basing the list below on my list of Super Sentai shows that I've watched from start to end as well as those I am currently watching.


Akito Osuga for Bioman

Considering he was my first favorite Sentai ranger, I think it'd be fair I'd pick him from Chodenshi Bioman.  Too bad that the very person I wanted to meet Munemaru Kouda has already died since I wanted to talk about Doctor Man's personality and how I can relate to it.  In the case of Osuga, I might really talk about a lot about my favorite Bioman, Blue Three!  I wish to also talk to him about his focus episodes especially the Prince Arc.


Kazunori Inaba for Maskman

For Maskman, no questions asked my favorite is Takeru/Red Mask.  I always wanted to try and meet the actor in person.  He appeared at the Henshin Con 2015 which I sadly didn't have the time to go to.  If there's anything I'…

Timeranger and Time Force are viewed as popular seasons and perhaps another source of debate. I'll admit that Timeranger and Time Force are pretty much some cultural differences. Although both kept the theme of time travel but there were also some differences between two series. Again, this is sort of a bit of contrast of similarities and differences with Judd Lynn and Yasuko Kobayashi. Now this has the "battle against fate" as the "main villain" of both series.

So I just did a Gingaman/Lost Galaxy ramblingon two well-loved seasons. I think Timeranger and Time Force also deserve the spotlight. I always felt like Judd Lynn and Yasuko Kobayashi are somewhat beloved by the fans of their respective franchises.

Warning spoilers ahead!

I have written about favorite rangers and villains, I would now write about my favorite Super Sentai mentors.  Now I'll just base it on series I'm still watching or those that I have watched from start to end.  Moving on...


Commander Ibuki

Although I haven't seen much of Changeman in subs and mostly either raw or bad dubs (in Brazilian), I always thought that he's a badass mentor with his seemingly SOB personality but he really cares about his subordinates.  He does everything to protect the Earth from suffering a similar fate as his planet Heath which was a later revelation to why he even organized the Changemen.


Director Sanjoru Sugata 

Although Bioman was my very first Super Sentai but I thought that Director Sugata was the very first Super Sentai mentor to impress me.  Best scenes of him usually involve in him performing martial arts scenes in the flashbacks or how he motivates the Maskmen.  Best flashback had to be him and Takeru's recruitment.  I always felt hi…

Signalman in Carranger is an obvious parody of Robocop. Considering that Carranger itself is really more focused on cars than Turboranger and that they fought the Bowzock gangster, so I guess the producers thought that maybe creating a Robocop parody would fit the show pretty well.


In 1993, Janperson was created as a fully robotic version of Robocop. For some reason, I want to believe that Robocop even if he was an American-made character, ended up getting a huge soar of popularity in Japan. Jiban was also a Robocop-inspired hero except that he defeated monsters of the week while Janperson was more true to the Robocop theme... except Janperson was never a human revived into a cyborg.