Sean Akizuki's Super Sentai Blog

Just when I thought that Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger wasn't milked enough with two VS short films  -- another crossover movie is COMING OUT. It's titled Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger IN SPACE . Yes, the title has a strange mix of Japanese and English. I'd prefer it if the official Japanese title was simply spelled out in purely Japanese. However, Toei decided to spell it out in two languages.  Here's the plot revealed by Orends Range : The main cast of the series, namely: Taisei Sakai (Gira Husty/Kuwagata Ohger), Aoto Watanabe (Yanma Gast/Tombo Ohger), Erica Murakami (Hymeno Ran/Kamakiri Ohger), Yuzuki Hirakawa (Rita Kaniska/Papillon Ohger), So Kaku (Kaguragi Dybowski/Hachi Ohger), and Masashi Ikeda (Jeramie Brasieri/Spider Kumonos) will all reprise their respective roles.  In this special, in order to protect peace not only in Chikyu, but throughout the universe, Hymeno met with Tsurugi Ohtori (role reprised by Keisuke Minami), the president of the Space Federation, and Rita c...

  It's obvious that I'm losing my Toku spark one way or another. I think I might want to exit it but at least leave a bit of a mark with some good memories of the franchise. I find myself not paying much attention to Zenkaiger when watching it. However, a new article from Henshin Grid discussed about the sci-fi influence with Power Rangers . Yeah, you know by now I dislike the franchise even when I acknowledge that Toei Ltd. is also part of it. This will be a pretty exhaustive post which I want to write because it's been five years since Kyuranger aired. With that, I decided to celebrate its fifth anniversary today with this post! The popularity of certain American franchises A bit of research may help you find out some of the popular movies and series that may have influenced Toei Ltd. 1977 was the birth of the Star Wars movies which The New Hope was the first film. The success spawned the rise of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi - all before Disney's ...

After The Rise of Skywalker premiered and Forbes gave it a rather bad review  - I thought I'd probably do a throwback post. Kyuranger was obviously a Super Sentai series with some popular Hollywood references like Star Wars (which has to be the most obvious) and Spaceballs . Then you also have the classic old school novel series Lucky Star . Lucky Star was the hero of Isaac Asimov'snovels and somehow some highly ambitious old school literature don't get adapted into the live screen until way later. Right now, I just think of Don Armage as a character who has multiple references. The most obvious reference has to be Emperor Palpatine. A hooded character who talks through holograms? Check! Then you may notice that the character also is hooded like the very first Super Sentai Big Bad namely the Black Cross Fuehrer from Goranger . It's no surprise that the Crux System Minister is a repainted Black Cross Fuehrer. Not to mention - Don Armage has turned people over to the d...

Is it me or is Disney ruining everything? Disney bought Power Rangers and most of the series are a downhill - especially with the Kalish era! Disney got Marvel and Marvel got worse. Heck, I wish Warner Bros. will get Marvel and reboot it entirely! Disney got Star Wars and the new canon just sucks! Star Wars hasn't been a bit pleasing since Episode VII: The Force Awakens and now we're getting a desperate " Palpatine please bail us out! " with Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. I hear some people tend to whine about how Kyuranger can be idiotic. I may be reading the blog Them's Fightin' Words but I heavily disagree with Shogo's views on Kyuranger and maybe Lupinranger vs. Patranger. But at least, he's being respectable with my opinions on certain shows! I would agree Lucky is an idiot. Lucky's idiotic behavior and relationship with Garu makes them both Lone Starr and Barf in spandex . Tsurugi is what I'd call that badly-needed Luke Skywalker f...

Just because I had been a longtime viewer of Super Sentai doesn't mean I won't be pointing out its weaknesses. I would want to think I'm showing tough love. I remembered writing a crazy rant about Power Rangers becoming beautifully pointless . Now, it's time for another crazy rant for the sake of a crazy rant from me. Just remember this is just my opinion, okay? How I felt Ninninger and Zyuohger were beautifully pointless I don't want to deny that my preferences with both old and new shifts a lot and I mean a LOT. Sometimes, the best is found in the old and sometimes the best is found in the new. So I don't care only if something is old school or new school. What I care about is if you can give me a good story. Sadly, I think these two seasons eventually start to sour up in my mind. The first one has to be Ninninger. I decided to check it out for myself. The real problem can be linked more to Kento Shimoyama and maybe Naomi Takebe. Takebe's n...

While I'm not too happy with Ryusoulger (due to the overuse of dinosaurs) but I've got to give credit to two shows that dared to be unique after Zyuohger. These two shows are Kyuranger and Lupinranger vs. Patranger. But let's get a crossover and challenge yourself to say this as many times as possible, "Kaito Sentai Lupinranger vs. Keisatsu Sentai Patranger vs. Ucchu Sentai Kyuranger" without slipping once. I've tried and I've failed a million times! This one does really respect the different multiverses . If you think about it -- Super Sentai seasons usually take place in different multiverses or that some events just can't coincide. Take Kyuranger's universe has to be different from the others. Take also that dinosaur extinction happens differently across many Super Sentai series which makes it impossible to just merge them all. You may need to examine how events between Hirohisa Soda's series really reveal the impossibility of them taking...

Maybe, maybe not you know this by now that my favorite Kyuranger is actually Tsurugi Ootori. I guess it has to do with the fact that actor Keisuke Minami is a J-Drama regular who has decided to take on a Toku role -- perhaps it's to understand the generation gap he shares with its regular cast considering he's an 80s baby and almost everyone he worked with are born in the 90s. Hmmm it's quite nearly the same scenario with actor Shiro Izumi who returned in 1992 to play as Burai in Zyuranger in his 30s. But I guess that's not entirely the reason why I feel like Tsurugi is my favorite Kyuranger -- aside from the obvious fact that my favorite Changeman is Hiryu Tsurugi ! I did remember how often I joked a lot during Kyuranger and how Lucky kept getting me critical (at times) of what direction the show would get. Lucky is well kinda happy-go-lucky and not everyone can easily appeal to his screaming "Yosha Lucky!" for almost every episode. If there was a need to ...

Well it's time for another throwback because it's Thursday. I admit, I've had more fun with Kyuranger last year than with Lupinranger vs. Patranger this year -- though this isn't saying I'm not watching this year but it's just that last year was more fun IMHO. What interests me is that while this year takes inspiration from Maurice Le Blanc's Arsene Lupin series (which in turn, inspired the comedic Lupin III Anime) -- maybe one old school popular culture reference that I didn't know or forgot way back is Isaac Asimov's hero called as Lucky Starr. Who is Lucky Starr? Asimov under the pen name "Paul French" wrote the hero Lucky Starr though his real name is supposedly David who was in honor of David Asimov -- the son of said writer. Okay, I admit I haven't read any of the books yet (but I'm actually planning to read at least one novel) but from what I know, the first book was called "David Starr, Space Ranger". The book ...

Well I haven't done a movie review for some time, haven't I? I think I do have some VS. Movie catching up to do such as Kyoryuger vs. ToQGer and ToQGer vs. Ninninger now that I'm somewhat out of the taste fatigue zone. Right now, I thought about the Space Squad movies  which started with Gavan vs. Dekaranger . Now it's time to link both universes (Kyuranger and Space Squad) in this movie where it's supposed to happen four years after the fall of Jark Matter. The whole movie somewhat gets its inspiration from Avengers: Civil War since one side defends Hammy (Lucky's side) and the other wants to arrest her (Tsurugi's side). The movie shows ups what could have become of the others such as Garu is now a family man, Spada is still running his restaurant and Stinger is still the commander. Tsurugi manages to become the president of the New Space Federation even if he was born in our time. I think this reality is actually the year 2322 if Jark Matter fell on 231...

I didn't want to write this post immediately but I decided that I may want to at least give my speculation to what happened. Remember this is partly speculative though I got said news from the Tokusatsu Network . Here's what's being said about the current standing between Kamen Rider and Super Sentai (and Ultraman is listed to) in terms of Bandai merchandise sales: First quarter sales in the current fiscal year associated with Kaito Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger posted the lowest first figures in recorded history for the franchise. Super Sentai is reported to have made 1.4 billion yen in the first quarter with forecasts of 3.0 billion yen in the first half and a full year forecast of 10.5 billion yen. Ultraman is reported as having made 0.7 billion yen in its first quarter with a forecast of 2.5 billion yen for the first half of the financial year, making it just the second time Ultraman will have outperformed a Super Sentai series. The current show, U...

Last year, producer Shinichiro Shirakura announced that he was pulling off the plug of the Super Hero Taisen movies . It was also in the year 2017 when Gavan vs. Dekaranger made its premiere (which also somehow tries to connect itself with Dekaranger: Ten Year After which happened last 2014)  and Chou Super Hero Taisen became the last movie. I admit, my feelings for the Super Hero Taisen films have been mixed -- I still tend to think that the concepts are better off placed in video games and Manga because an hour or two movie is NOT enough to contain such a huge plot. So did Super Hero Taisen's plug get pulled out in favor of Space Squad? It looks like it! So why do I think the plug out of Super Hero Taisen was removed last 2017? I guess it's all about budget and avoiding work overload. A certain degree of workload reduction can be very helpful to improve the quality of innovation. It takes well-rested minds and a healthy workforce to think good ideas and to make sure that...

After writing my wacky post where I called Lucky and Garu as Lone Starr and Barf in spandex  -- I decided to make another wacky post for where I'd like to imagine what if these two doofus villains Dark Helmet and Colonel Sandurz were actually employed by Don Armage as his henchmen. What if these guys were either in Kyuranger or at least had characters based on them. After all, if Lucky is Lone Starr in spandex then why don't we have Dark Helmet and Colonel Sandurz? Jark Matter actually took over the Universe 300 years before Kyuranger started. I could imagine if over the course of time Don Armage got overly complacent in some way and decided to hire two henchmen who would be similar to Dark Helmet and Col. Sandurz. I could remember some of the moments where Dark Helmet makes a fool out of himself or where Col. Sandurz is less bratty but still has a severe lack of common sense. So how would these guys fit into the Kyuranger universe or least have counterparts? What I cou...

Well it's time for a crazy nostalgia for last year's Super Sentai and I decided to do a crazy post yet again. If there's one thing that I can't get over is that I've actually said that Lucky is Lone Starr in red spandex . You can go ahead and think I'm actually watching too much Spaceballs though I haven't seen the short-lived Spaceballs cartoon. But I'm not going to stop with Lucky as I want to put Garu as Barf -- even if Barf is an anthropomorphic dog and Garu is an anthropomorphic wolf. I couldn't help but notice that series of events make me want to think about the friendship that these two managed to develop. At first, I thought about how they met and how they became partners. What I wanted to notice (at first) was how Lucky is what I'd call a really idiotic fellow who's the main character -- that would remind me of Lone Starr from the parody movie called Spaceballs. Lone Starr is a hapless, idiotic protagonist who just goes around w...

It's 2018 and Kyuranger already had its finale some time ago. But if there's one thing I want to confess right now -- it's the fact that somehow my mind is still stuck in outer space in some way. Just an interesting tidbit -- I've heard that astronauts undergo some physical therapy when they get back to Earth. It's because the change of gravity can be such a huge deal after spending some time in the lightness of space. After enjoying Kyuranger last year -- I just feel like I'm still undergoing some therapy sessions as I enjoy Lupinranger vs. Patranger this year. No, I didn't really go to outer space literally -- I'm just using a bit of an obvious joke, okay? I admit, Kyuranger has its flaws and no series is perfect but I can still enjoy them nonetheless. Some tend to point out about Lucky being a weakness or being the weakness of the show. He tends to come out as Lone Starr in red spandex  or the whole "YOSHA LUCKY!" can get in some people...

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 ...