Sean Akizuki's Super Sentai Blog

Picture above taken from Them's Fightin' Words When it comes to producer Takaaki Utsunomiya - I can't help but think of the fact that he was responsible for Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, Kamen Rider Wizard and Ressha Sentai ToQGer. So I'll do this bit of sharing my views on his previous works and how it might affect the next Super Sentai series namely Doubotsu Sentai Zyuohger. I liked his first two shows but the rest left me pretty mixed. I'll share my personal opinions on how he has been as a producer for Toei Ltd. His first job as a head producer for Super Sentai was with Samurai Sentai Shinkenger which is easily my favorite of this list. After the Timeranger era, Super Sentai had a new formula of being close to TV-Y7-FV standards in America in terms of allowable violence while maintaining a certain degree of Japanese culture in the shows. That was the era that was focused on experimenting on different types of multi-gattai. The quality...

Considering Ninninger is already starting to come to an end and the first episode sort of took a bit of Shinkenger's first episode, I might write on ninjatos and katanas. I would admit in the past, I was confused between the difference of a ninjato and a samurai sword until I did some more research on the matter. If anybody has anything to add, just comment. The ninjato The type of swords used by the Kakurangers, Hurricangers and lately Ninningers are examples of the Ninjato or Ninjaken. It has this description that it has a straight-edged compared to the samurai. In history, these swords were used in a stabbing motion which required more stealth to get closer to the victims. What was interesting was that they were usually shorter while the scabbards were usually longer was for other reasons than combat. These swords could be used to be shoved into the earth or a wall all the way to its hilt to reach higher. The scabbards also carried other weapons like poisons and other small...

I just got news from Ukiyaseed  for more Zyuohger updates. Now based on Ukiyaseed's updates, I'm going to finally reveal the facts and react to them. The writer will be Junko Komura who was involved with Go-onger, Goseiger, Gokaiger and Akibaranger as a secondary writer while he's involved with Satria Garuda Bima-X as the head writer which might prove better than Kento Shimoyama's writing of Ninninger. The producer is Takaaki Utsunomiya who I'm now mixed that after he was the head producer of Shinkenger and Gokaiger, he was also behind two lesser series namely Kamen Rider Wizard and ToQGer. I think the bigger proble behind Wizard was Tyuyoshi Kida (and Kamen Rider Hibiki was one of the weaker Rider series) and ToQGer involved Yasuko Kobayashi who looked like she gave up trying to write a good story. The cast are as follows: Haruka Tateishi as Amu aka Zyuoh Tiger (she looks like Tammy Chen, don't you think) Shohei Nanba as Leo aka Zyuoh Lion Masaki ...

Since it's Christmas Eve, I thought I'd do some holiday rambling on Toei's holiday Christmas specials based on what I've observed. I'd be open to some comments on what I've missed. Note that I didn't include Metal Hero considering I've not seen any of their holiday specials except from Shaider. Also, I wished that Janperson had a holiday special instead of Jiban. Super Sentai Christmas specials The Super Sentai Christmas specials started in Gosei Sentai Dairanger which featured Kou's birthday on Christmas Eve from episodes 42-44. This would start the trend of having a two-three parter "Fight Before Christmas" which went on with Carranger, Megaranger, GogoFive, Timeranger, Magiranger, Go-onger, Shinkenger, Gobusters, Kyoryuger, ToQGer and as of recent Ninninger. The three parter specials usually focused on trying to save the world before Christmas. The enemy schemes were usually not related to just simply ruining Christmas but trying to...

While episode 44 was the "Christmas episode" but in this one, Hoji does learn a lesson. He may be my favorite Dekaranger but I thought I'd explore his flaws which makes me relate to him. These events happen in episodes 42-43 where a dangerous monster called the Bragoul (and later its twin) appears and two, a meteor will destroy Earth. Shades of Aliens and Armageddon anyone? Hoji seems to be a nice guy in denial, acting pompous and all towards Ban but deep within, he's really a nice guy as seen in many episodes. He's just a pro so that may be the reason why he doesn't want to openly call Ban as "partner". Hoji also learns to balance between his life and his family. Sometimes, one can easily neglect their families when there's duty. This reminded me of the scene in Kamen Rider Kuuga when Hikari Enokida was too stuck with her work to attend to her child. Apparently, Naruhisa Arakawa is among the writers who likes putting heroes in balance...

Image taken from Ukiya Seed , hopefully Orends Range will be back soon... Considering Super Sentai is going to have its 40th season and what was amazing was this... Gaoranger was the 25th season and we had an animal season. Zyuohger has its wild theme while having another color code. It fits the motif considering that Zyu means beast and Oh means king. If yo take a look at the color coding, it matches the non-canon Jetman Manga epilogue where the late Gai Yuki is replaced by Jeff Kensaki who is known as Green Eagle. The blue ranger is a female, not a male which reminds me of the female blue rangers in Super Sentai which I'll admit, I've wanted to see another female blue ranger in action. 

After watching some Christmas specials in today's Super Sentai which is usually one-parters or at times, two-parters and as for Ninninger, it's a three parter. This is definitely one Christmas trilogy that I'd say was indeed a real fight before Christmas. Reckless Dash Exhaus has prepared a diabolical, not funny scheme that could spell the end of the Carrangers. There's a lot of epic flavor in the battle which results to a lot of well-planned schemes. Zonette does get involved in trying to stop the scheme as her crush on Red Racer will ultimately lead to her redemption. 

Twas the fight before Christmas. This one takes place after that Santa Claus ahem monster tried to rob everyone of their wealth. Now it's time to really have a Christmas party with Kibaoni Mangetsu. This one also has a scene of people turned into peanuts but fortunately, nobody got eaten but other people have died off-screen. The first event is a kite battle. Yakumo manages to use his magic to win. I'm not really a fan of mounted archery... so I don't want to comment on this one.

Image above is taken from Morphinominal ... Remember this is a spoiler so don't read if you don't want to be spoiled... but if you do, then go ahead and read. Assuming there are some people who already saw Zyuranger start to end, I would really want to bring one plot that still made me think was, "This is a terrible idea." and Goushi shows it. And yes Goushi, I feel you, it's a terrible idea to give two dinosaurs to a child.

Ninninger's Christmas episode also reminded me of this Christmas episode in Gaoranger which was somewhat predictable, somewhat not predictable. At the start of the episode, we see a Chrsitmas Org (which looks like a badly done version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer) giving gifts to children. He does look harmless. At first, I expected that this Org would be like the Charcoal Org. Charcoal Org unlike the other Orgs was a good monster. I would admit that I was hoping it was a good monster.

After looking at Ninninger's last week's episode, I am reminded of the Abaranger Christmas episode.  The plot involved a Trinoid (disguised as an obviously fake Santa Claus) starts going around giving gifts to everyone. While he just looks like your friendly neighborhood promo guy but surprise, something is really going on. What is inside the box is not a pleasant thing. It forcibly turns humans into Barma soldier so the Evorian can conquer the world. 

This week's Ninninger is almost a public service announcement. Knowing it's the Christmas season, it's very easy to fall for dirty business, isn't it? And here's a bit of what went on... The first thing to happen was that this "Santa Claus" guy (actually the monster of the week) says there's this magic ring that brings wealth. Like every dodgy guy, the monster tells the yet to be victims to never tell anyone.  It was too predictable to have Birbougami disguise as Santa Claus. Abaranger had Reirannibisanta who was assigned to give gifts that would turn humans into Barma Hei. In this one, it promises wealth but the results are not pleasant. Like any real scam that promises wealth, the people become poorer and poorer instead. Many people get conned by several double your money scams during the holidays. I guess this week's message really showed a lesson not to fall for scam artists that promise easy money.

After the mission of completing the Bioman subs for the episodes (got to wait for the special feature), Grown Ups In Spandex  has now finished two classic 80s series. After watching some of them raw and some incomplete subs (hopefully, they will be done), the first episodes have been released. Sidenote, I still want to see Janperson fully subbed soon enough.  I have seen some raw episodes of these shows or have read some synopsis but as I learned it the hard way, it is not enough, I must watch these shows. Both of these shows happened the Takeyuki Suzuki era  (which I believe influenced both Super Sentai and Power Rangers in one way or another) with Hirohisa Soda as the head writer.  I have seen some episodes of Changeman but a lot of them are left unsubbed. After rewatching the first episode subbed, I couldn't still forget the cool military training scene, the "devilish commander" Ibuki and that they must defend the Earth from Gozma's incoming invasion....

With Bioman as my first childhood exposure to the world of Super Sentai , I have actually accomplished my mission of watching Bioman subs done by Grown Ups in Spandex  (there was a considerable amount of delay though) though I am yet to see the movie subbed. The entire experience of watching Bioman with the English subs had proven itself superior over the cheesy English dub done by Telesuccess Productions in the Philippines. Sure I have seen all the dubbed episodes but there's been a lot, I mean a lot of stuff that were left out or added. What always shocked me was to actually learn that the dubs actually had been exaggerated some stuff, they have actually removed some important plotlines or inconsistencies happened. Watching the subs started to make me amaze that a lot of stuff were really, really taken away and replaced by guesswork rather than careful research. The dub could have been good if accuracy were kept intact. After watching the subs, I felt like that a lot of stuff ...