Sean Akizuki's Super Sentai Blog

  Last year, I made a post where I mentioned how Dengeki Sentai Changeman made me see Power Rangers in Space as an overrated gamble . Super Sentai being off-air made me think that my IBC-13 post should've been the "swan song" of this blog . However, Super Sentai's hiatus is the standard of "never forgotten" even if the franchise had its closure with No. 1 Sentai Gozyuger . However, Shogo B'Stard's current Chikyu Sentai Fiveman marathon made me want to do some random rants. I wanted to do a Flashman marathon with my own crazy twists. Instead, I decided to do a crazy rambling to talk about what can be an unpopular opinion. Power Rangers Lost Galaxy is widely praised by the Power Rangers community. However, I'd like to share my own post (with some spoilers) how I felt Flashman , a show from 1986, made me feel like Lost Galaxy was overrated clutter. I. The Lost Galaxy theme was played into Flashman's storyline better IMHO Lost Galaxy was hyped in...

  I remembered years ago - there was the rumor that Power Rangers Lost Galaxy was supposedly more popular than Seijuu Sentai Gingaman in Japan. Turns out that according to Sentai Bandicoot (back when he was the Fantasy Leader) - it's a big lie made by stuck-up Power Rangers fans on Rangerboard. The idea then later inspired me to write this iffy post. Hmmm... while it's best to dismiss the claim that Lost Galaxy was more popular than Gingaman but was Choshinsei Flashman truly more popular than Hikari Sentai Maskman ? So far, I don't have any real data to prove it. I'm just left to speculation. So far, I've seen Maskman first (as a child) and Flashman only as an ADULT. So, almost every source I hear is from the Internet. I mean, I even had to watch Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger in order to figure out who the legends behind Super Sentai such as Kazuo Niibori! I heard from Thems Fightin' Words that Maskman is probably one of the most underrated or as some said, it...

I've always had this thing going on that there are times older school Super Sentai series tend to please me than the most recent entries -- that is in the area of storytelling. Perhaps the popularity of the military-space theme of Dengeki Sentai Changeman resulted that next year should still be a space season in its own way. We ended up having the series Choshinsei Flashman way back in 1986. Yup, I just love to say it that before Power Rangers Lost Galaxy -- there was Choshinsei Flashman ! It's all because I can't stop thinking about Lost Galaxy (even if Seijuu Sentai Gingaman is its source) while watching this show! It's still the 1980s when CGI was still in its infancy . Yet, Super Sentai had to evolve or even go beyond its time in order to survive. Flashman was really doing that with its space theme even if most of the effects were still using portraits, lower technology CGI, and the like. While I did enjoy Ucchu Sentai Kyuranger along with other space-themed Toku...

Before Kazunori Inaba would become Red Mask -- he did have a guest role in Flashman with a person known as Ryu Wakasa, a boxer who runs a ramen shop. Flashman was a year before Maskman. He would have a reunion with Blue Flash's actor Yasuhiro Ishiwata when the said actor would play as a monster in Maskman episode 34. The episode had him side by side with Kihachiro Uemura (Dai/Green Flash) who would later play as Fiveman's later arrival villain Chevalier. Dai himself was interested in learning boxing. It was almost a preview of Maskman's one technique known as the God hand fist -- something that Maskman didn't use that much probably because it was too cheesy and powerful! I love how the two did some training scenes. Was it that the writers wanted to test Inaba on whether or not he was worthy of becoming their next red ranger in Maskman? His role here was that he was temporarily changed into a monster but lived to tell the tale about it. That's strange cons...

The 1980s era of Super Sentai may get you to realize that there's a lot of guest-starring for stars who'd appear in the next season or from a previous season. You can think of how Kazunori Inaba appeared in Flashman episode 27 -- way before he'd become my first favorite red ranger Takeru! Episode 40 did prepare one actress namely Mina Asami for her next role as the Igam twins -- both Prince/Princess Igam and Princess Ial. Strangely, the episode has her character known as Shibel help out the red ranger Jin! Shibel's guest role was as a traitor in Mess. She was raised with the Alien Hunters. It's not stated where she comes from in the lost galaxy of Flashman. Sir Kaura finds a book (which belongs to Jin) and tosses it. We also see a flashback of who could be Jin's mother -- sadly she was never fleshed out and only Sara found out her family. Jin sees that book which is a familiar story called The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde. So how did aliens even learn to re...

I usually don't feel like saying or even agreeing with statements like " Lost Galaxy is better than Gingaman ." or even " Gingaman is better than Lost Galaxy ." -- I just felt like wanting to write this ramble regarding Flashman and Lost Galaxy  after some time. I did remember getting fascinated by Lost Galaxy's actually daring direction (before I decided to drop Power Rangers off my leisure list due to circumstances behind it, especially with the Disney and Neo-Saban fiascos) as the series doesn't take place on Earth. Then I thought one series that took place in 1986 actually started to get my attention more, namely Choshinsei Flashman . I still remember my Old Shame fanfiction where I just kept writing stupid stuff while relying on some synopses and summaries over the Internet (many of which contain factual errors). Boy, did I get a lot of stuff wrong about Flashman too! Lost Galaxy on its own can be a fun series for some viewers. Talk about Powe...

Kyuranger has ended, I enjoyed it a lot but I still feel like my head's still in space while Lupinranger vs. Patranger is enjoyable with its new concept. But I'd like to do a throwback challenge once more. After I did the Arsene Lupin challenge  then let's take the challenge to space shall we? So I'll give what I've seen and I hope you can give your own stand. I lost the Lupin challenge and I wonder if I've won this challenge. The Space Sheriff Trilogy would be where I'm most familiar with though I have barely saw Sharivan. Yup, I'm more familiar with Gavan and Shaider. Gavan was dubbed as Sky Ranger Gavan in the Philippines -- it was only years later did I discover that it was not Sky Ranger but Space Sheriff and that some of the guest actors were big time stars. I'd say Shaider is probably my least favorite. I didn't like it that much as a child and my mind hasn't changed about it as an adult. Strangely, I didn't like Solbrain as ...

If there's the Power Rangers snob rumor mill then there should be the Super Sentai snob rumor mill. Then again they're not the only rumor mills in the Tokusatsu community. There's the possibility that somebody right now who likes both Super Sentai and Power Rangers prefers Lost Galaxy over Gingaman. There was the now disproven rumor that Lost Galaxy is more popular than Gingaman in Japan. There might  be the rumor that Flashman was supposed to be named Gingaman. There's really no proof and maybe this is really far from believable. With Kyuranger being space-themed and a possible Gingaman DVD release is coming soon I decided to write this speculative entry. The plot of Flashman was where five children were kidnapped by Alien Hunters. The spaceship crashed and the five babies grew up in another solar system or some distant "lost galaxy". They were trained on Planet Flash and its four satellites. That alone could have probably given it a better justification...

While Grown Ups In Spandex is subbing Changeman and Flashman, I felt like the popularity of space-based science fiction like Star Trek, Star Wars and maybe some Marvel Comics series have inspired some characters. Then we had Power Rangers in Space and Power Rangers Lost Galaxy which took Power Rangers into space. Taking Super Sentai into space during the 80s...  Dengeki Sentai Changeman Some Super Sentai powers were taken from alien sources like Denziman and Bioman. Denziman was the start of space themes, Bioman was more on the science theme while having extraterrestrial technology. Changeman then had both space technology and military hardware at their disposal. Their mission is to stop Star King Bazoo from making Earth its next target. Bazoo has a "united alliance of evil" from different planets whom he rules over with an iron fist. The Changemen's severe training soon awakened the Earth Force. The five survivors of the Gozma's initial attack managed...

As part of the tribute that Zyuohger is the 40th Super Sentai series (though each decade of Super Sentai gets some major changes), I thought these characters or at least their designs or concepts could've been used into later seasons of Power Rangers. Maybe they could have tried to create a suit for Emperor Grumm based on Fuehrer Hell Saturn instead of Vulgar from the Dekaranger movie. Both were controlled by the "Magnificence" as the literal brain behind their organizations. Of course, keep Omni as it is due to being the improved version of the Black Sun God in Sun Vulcan. I wish Mora's grown-up form could have used a modified version of Amazon Killer for Power Rangers SPD.

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....

Well here's some Flashman photos for all you Flashman lovers.  Hee hee hee, it's been some time! Touta Tarumi Kihachiro Uemara Yasuhiro Ishiwata

Somehow this has crossed my mind today that there have been troopers who were monster-enlarging agents in Super Sentai. They range from those who are "just sent" to those who play a more important position. Just sent to do the job: Gyodai in Changeman- He would appear when the Change Bazooka made its move to enlarge the defeated monster of the Gozma. However he ended up befriending the Changemen. Kuragen- A giant jellyfish monster that shrinks itself when it enlarges the monster. Gender unknown. Okerampa- As great as Maskman as a series was, Okerampa was a pretty underdeveloped character. He had no backstory or anything nor did he participate in any battles. Those with a role: Guardnoid Gash of Liveman was more than just a monster enlarger, he was actually Dr. Bias' loyal bodyguard. In Turboranger, the generals themselves were the monster enlarging agents. Rehda used his magic flute, Zimba used a tornado, Jarmin breathed out a serpent-shaped fire out ...