Sean Akizuki's Super Sentai Blog

Super Sentai may be on hiatus, but I felt like still giving it the honors every now and then. This photo can be so sad, just thinking of how Yuka Motohashi (who played as Natsumi Shinohara in Gekisou Sentai Carranger ) left us so soon due to cancer. Carranger's 30th anniversary happened this year, and that show could've been the anniversary. Instead, there was the contender because Choriki Sentai Ohranger was actually the 20th anniversary of Himitsu Sentai Goranger . The references were hard to dismiss like the military trend with Goranger , Dengeki Sentai Changeman , and Ohranger . It was also on 1995 when Goranger became more recognized as the first true Super Sentai series! Apparently, there was some kind of identity crisis. Should a Super Sentai series celebrate its anniversary by year or by entry number ? Do the mathematics.  Ohranger was the 20th birthday of Goranger . Carranger was the 20th Super Sentai entry. There was some kind of crisis. Not to mention, Carranger also...

  Super Sentai and Power Rangers differ in a lot of things. There's always the cultural difference. It doesn't matter how much I dislike Power Rangers -- I understand that the show had to exist due to CULTURAL DIFFERENCE. Calling Power Rangers an "act of cultural erasure" or "ruined the precious material" is ABSURD. Choriki Sentai Ohranger started another almost yearly tradition -- the Super Sentai VS. Movies  tradition. However, one might notice the difference between how Super Sentai and Power Rangers handle crossovers . Super Sentai writes crossover films WITHOUT canon in mind. Power Rangers tries to put most of its entries into a singular timeline. However, some Power Rangers shows are self-contained, such as Power Rangers RPM and Power Rangers Dino Charge .  Choriki Sentai Ohranger had a crossover movie with Ninja Sentai Kakuranger on March 5, 1996, directly on home video. The short film featured a team-up between the Ohrangers and the Kakurangers. It w...

Bomber the Great was nothing more than a PLOT DEVICE. Bomber the Great only had seven episodes -- only to be a set-up device for Prince Buldont to become Kaiser Buldont. What amuses me more often is how the Baranoia Royfal Family showed detest for human emotions. However, Emperor Bacchushund showed that he was CAPABLE OF LOVE for both his wife and son. Bacchushund has a PERMANENT SHUTDOWN compared to King Mondo in Power Rangers Zeo . Buldont becomes Kaiser Buldont -- he's forced grown and he marries his cousin Maruchiwa. It gets even funnier to think these robots are operating LIKE HUMANS! Added is the royal incest -- something that screwed up many royal families into their own demise! Bomber the Great was nowhere near as great as Bio Hunter Silver from Chodenshi Bioman . Silver proved to be a REALLY CREDIBLE THREAT that worked his way to the finale. Rewatching some Bioman episodes made me say Bomber the Great was a plot device. Bio Hunter Silver was a robot programmed to destroy ...

It's no secret that I find Choriki Sentai Ohranger to be a messy toy commercial. Come on, no one can deny that throwing one Megazord after the other can derail the plot ! It's pretty much overworking the marketing department (and writing too), like what happened with the Buu Saga in Dragon Ball Z . Now, as messy as Ohranger was, I still find it more watchable than Power Rangers Zeo . Zeo tried to continue where Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers  Season 3 left off! I'm still SOURED UP until now over the Dear John letter that was presented in Zeo ! Now, I'd like to write a bit of a rant on Louie Kaboom (the Zeo  counterpart) and Bomber the Great! One of the reasons why I don't like Power Rangers is how often people have to watch previous entries just to understand another entry. Power Rangers Turbo ended with a cliffhanger, while Gekisou Sentai Carranger gave a proper conclusion. I have to watch Turbo to understand Power Rangers in Space ? Not even Tokyu Shirei Solbra...

As an adult, a lot of stuff either start to make me either cherish them or berate them. Ohranger became that massive toy commercial . The same goes as the Buu Saga went from 1994-1995 . It could be explained that the Sarin Gas incident caused the ratings to lower down. However, it turns out that Ohranger wasn't the show that NEARLY killed Super Sentai -- it was Fiveman . Fiveman still got Vindicated by History even when GoGoFive is miles better. Ohranger was really trying to stay afloat. The show had to go on and it's safe to assume everyone was in panic mode. The show starts off as normal. However, one could see that the show slowly gave tribute to the various Megazord combinations when the late Noboru Sugimura was the head writer. I couldn't help but point them out all the more when I discovered more of Super Sentai at 16 years old! I was fascinated by the Power Rangers Zeo toys for some time. Today, I'm going to think about how the toy overload affected Ohranger'...

Choriki Sentai Ohranger is no questions asked -- a series that was hit by a series of UNFORTUNATE EVENTS. The Sarin Gas Incident in 1995 was no joke. It felt appropriate to water things down BECAUSE people need to recover. Power Rangers Time Force also followed suit because of the September 11 terrorist attack. Before that, I could talk about the gimmicky characters that showed up duriong Ohranger . It's no secret that I watched Power Rangers ZEO before on Studio 23. TV was a form of escapism. I wasn't too surprised to learn of Ohranger either. There were some occasional joke characters. One that was introduced was the mad scientist Kotaro Henna (played by Shoichiro Akaboshi) -- the bald guy used as the top picture. The guy might be typical in some older cartoons with an eccentric scientist -- but given a Japanese twist. Kotaro showed up only in three episoses -- episodes 25, 29, and 30. All these episodes had some of that blatant silliness. Episode 25 was where Ohranger intro...

Yeah, this was downright silly Back then, there was the rumor that Choriki Sentai Ohranger almost killed Super Sentai . Instead, that "honor" went to Chikyu Sentai Fiveman -- a show that got Vindicated by History (eventually). I got skeptical when Fiveman got an official release -- because Kyukyu Sentai GoGoFive is so much better. Discotek releasing Tokkei Winspector didn't affect things either. I confess I wanted to blog like Shogo B'Stard on the Dengeki Sentai Changeman episodes. Now, Shogo B'Stard is blogging on Ohranger . So yeah, I feel like responding to his posts in this way. Ohranger was pretty much hit by Real Life Writes Plot. Shows that would've started off as more serious would tone down eventually. Who can remember how Power Rangers Time Force had a Downer Beginning, only for it to start to take things easy because of the September 11 attacks? Ohranger was hit by the Sarin Gas Incident in that same year. The earlier episodes were dark and gritty. ...

  Choriki Sentai Ohranger is often considered "too awful" or a near-Franchise Killer. It's amazing how Chikyu Sentai Fiveman had that label and five years later -- this show got the label too! The rumors that Gekisou Sentai Carranger were also disproven. I've met some people who still hold Power Rangers Zeo to be "better" (possibly due to nostalgia sauce) than anything else. However, comparing the main rangers to each other is apples and oranges. Zeo continued from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Season 3 .  The Ohranger cast are meant to be MILITARY members . Come on, the Himitsu Sentai Goranger vibes could be there. Shouldn't even the existence of Chief Counselor Naoyuki Miura be a hint? Casting Hiroshi Miyauchi as Miura might be because he was in Himitsu Sentai Goranger as Akira Shinmei or Aoranger. I remember watching Zeo on Studio 23 (part of ABiaS-CBN) and getting fascinated by the huge merchandise. It's pretty much familiarity breeds contem...