Sean Akizuki's Super Sentai Blog

Introduction Well I guess I won't be really responding to Shogo B'Stard's Turboranger posts -- where he's talking about episode by episode in contrast to what he did with Chojin Sentai Jetman and previously, Kamen Rider Black . I decided some Goggle V marathon right now -- yes, I'm doing it but it doesn't mean that gone will be the weekly Lupinranger vs. Patranger episode reviews (and DO NOT expect me to give magazine scans since I'd rather see Lupin-X/Pat-X in action first). Goggle V would the beginning of the Hirohisa Soda era -- while Fiveman would be its end -- both series have a "Five" in its title. It would also be the beginning of the era of Takeyuki Suzuki as a head producer for Super Sentai which lasted from 1982 up to 1995 -- a total of 14 installments! Soda wrote a total of nine series straight as its head writer where he inevitably started losing it during Turboranger and Fiveman was where things started looking dark -- until Cho...

Okay, I guess you know why Ginyu's picture is on top, right? I guess you get le joke behind it. It's because in this episode -- it reminds me of Dekaranger's 19th episode where Hoji switched bodies with Jinche. In this episode, le monster of le week -- Manta Bayarsh swaps bodies with Touma which ends up un a series of hilarious hijinks! Le episode opens with le Patrangers discussing about le boxes that make le Gangler monsters of le week grow. It turns that they are actually made some some unknown metal -- whether or not le metal will be named is NOT known. But I hope we get an explanation for it. Le Lupinrangers are doing some errands for Le Bistrot Jurer. However, a monster attack happens and they decide to fight. They're after le next Lupin Collection piece only to get stuck in a really tight situation. Le monster Manta Bayarsh can exchange bodies between two sentient beings. It reminds me of that Fiveman episode where a monster was busy exchanging le mi...

Here's an interesting Thursday Throwback. Gekiranger was known to have given tribute to the martial arts legends in the form of the Fist Saints . What slipped off me is why would a series that took place so much last 2007 give tribute to a 1978 film too? One film was called the Five Deadly Venoms by Shaw Brothers which is currently taken over by the Clear Water Bay Company. I haven't seen the film yet but it does look pretty interesting.  The film involves five main antagonists who also have the same motifs as the Gekiranger's Five Venom fists. They wore Mexican-wrestler type masks and their motifs are Gecko, Snake, Scorpion, Centipede and Toad. It involves the plot where the dying master of the Poison Clan sends its protagonist Yang Tieh against the rogue members of the clan -- who are causing havoc with their special powers.  Here's a rare English-dubbed scene (though I wish I can get its original audio with decent subs) where the master explains the fiv...

Well it's time for me to return to "responding" to Shogo B'Stard's Turboranger posts but I'm not going to really be in a debate this time. I'm just using him as part of my inspiration to write about one character who isn't just there to be there. I really thought about how she's not in every single episode yet she plays a very important part. She was first introduced as a Math teacher who was concerned for her students -- all the while she's somewhat stuck with her "archenemy" Professor Dazai in some scenarios who she believes is corrupting the five youth. I find the whole scene where she decides to help Riki out -- seeing that he's lost his powerful touch in baseball is devastating to her. She decides to directly intervene AND really does so. She does what every good teacher does -- suspend whatever activities may be coming in between the students and getting good grades! This also addresses Turboranger and the issue of...

Bonjour once again my readers! It's time for another Lupinranger vs. Patranger episode review after last week's cliffhanger . It's a pretty intense episode with a lot of policeman focus. Yes, from last week to this week -- we're having le Patrangers on the spotlight. As we've guessed it, Detective Zenigata errr Keiichiro has been hospitalized from his injuries. Le other two Patrangers are also admitted for some injuries too. Which also raises something... Commissioner Hilltop goes to Le Bistrot Jurer to get some french pastries for his patients. It's le first time he actually shows up at le restaurant. He brings in some treats for his not-so-injured subordinates. This makes Sakuya happy getting some items. Is it me or is he too lovestruck with Umika? At this point, I'm even speculating to what Commissioner Hilltop's reaction will be if they found out that le restaurant workers are indeed le Lupinrangers? Things don't look too good...

Turboranger episode screenshots are taken from Kamen Yaiba's Tumbr I did write in a previous entry that I'm a fan of Turboranger  and now I feel like responding to Shogo B'Stard's latest Turboranger post in a certain way. So this post will cover the first two official episodes of Turboranger (which is seldom counted as episodes 1-2 and instead of 2-3 if you don't include the clip show) as well as some of the concepts that were newly introduced at that time -- such as an earlier form of "car magic" (mixing magic with vehicles, something that got expanded upon in Gekisou Sentai Carranger) and "teenagers with attitude" just four years before Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and eight years before Denji Sentai Megaranger. So seriously why has Seelon decided to recruit a team of teenagers with attitude?  The first two episodes begin with the Turborangers in their Math class. Oh this reminds me of how much I actually hated doing arit...

I thought I'd actually end any possible friendly debates and exchanges with Shogo B'Stard. Then it happened -- after he wrote about Time Force. Now he's written about Turboranger and maybe, just maybe I'll be exchanging views and enter into yet another friendly debate with him -- all the while I'll focus on Lupinranger vs. Patranger episode reviews.  The series itself presented new innovative ideas such as the trope of "recruit teenagers with attitude" which makes one ask why in the world did Seelon decide to recruit teenagers showered with fairy energies? Why choose a bunch of teenagers given car magic powers to fight the thousand years worth of evil in the Violent Demon tribes? It was a new concept back then -- which was later strengthened in Carranger as another show that also suffered from rating problems since the ratings only increased from 4.4 to 4.8. It was Megaranger not Carranger that normalized ratings. But none of these performances ca...

I don't exactly know what to think after hearing from Ukiyaseed that Jetman is getting a DVD release alongside Gaoranger . This has me thinking that my personal favorite series is getting a DVD release? I don't know what to think. I could understand if Gaoranger will get a DVD release because Timeranger will get a DVD release but Jetman this September 25, 2018? I didn't see that coming but I'm glad it did. So much for my crazy suggestion of  alternate DVD releases  that Shout! Factory should be releasing Jetman instead of Timeranger (which is set for a July 31, 2018 release). Then why release just one classic when you can have BOTH of them? First, I could talk about the inevitable Gaoranger DVD release -- it was inevitable considering that after Timeranger there's Gaoranger. Gaoranger is praised while Power Rangers Wild Force is mocked. I guess most of the praise Gaoranger gets is mostly from the acting and not the writing. Forever Red had the potential to be be...

Shogo B'Stard finally presented his rather long Time Force-related post on the End of Time . I decide to reply to this "debate" (not really) with my thoughts on Timeranger's finale. I like to state it how Toshiki Inoue, Yasuko Kobayashi and I like to lump Judd Lynn with them tend to write weaker finales. I like Jetman but couldn't stand the way Inoue decided to give Gai Yuki a death unworthy of the gates of Valhalla -- then Kobayashi does the same to Naoto Takizawa. I did give out some details on the finale arc in the previous Timeranger entry  which will discuss the finale arc. But I may want to make it "more readable but with detail" -- or not. I really thought about Tatsuya's main concern. We've had the calm before the storm. Dolnero is good as dead. You think everything's okay? But you've got the Great Annihilation to think about which is about to happen in the Year 3001. Was it supposed to be a delayed "end of the world...

Bonjour everyone! Well I hope I can keep this habit of keeping le whole "French man act" minimal as to avoid making le weekly reviews not so readable. So I'll be using "le" in le place of "the" while keeping it more readable by using mostly English articles to avoid too much confusion like my previous posts. Anyway, let's get down to this rather Patranger focused episode.  There's some kind of investigation going on done by le Patrangers. They are wondering if there's a monster or something. Investigations are up to no luck which really takes us back to this flashback... Detective Zenigata errr Keiichiro has no luck with a child. Le child actually prefers le Lupinrangers over le Patrangers. I wonder how many people right now are arguing over which team is better? Anyway, he has no luck as children tend not to like him back. Meanwhile le Lupinrangers are told of Togeno who is a dangerous hitman. There's two treasures but t...