Sean Akizuki's Super Sentai Blog

I was noticing the trend of old school Super Sentai vs. new school Super Sentai. One may think of Super Sentai during the 80s to the 90s. Maybe some of those who have seen Zyuranger just recently may be shocked at the violence it has. Dairanger is also the bloodiest Super Sentai to date. One may consider the time Ohranger aired There was the Sarin gas incident back in 1995. This caused Ohranger to tone down, leading to some inconsistency ( read this post by Fantasy Leader ). For one, I would have done the same thing if I were in Toei's place. Now for reasons why I think Super Sentai violence toned down and I also got them from a private conversation with another person. The 9/11 Incident Nobody can forget Cobra's ahem Al Qaida's attack in 9/11 and it was global scale. People wouldn't want anything too depressing. Then again, Gaoranger aired BEFORE 9/11... Time Force was airing that time, and it was forced to tone down due to executive pressure. So why do I believe 9...

Here's a plaque of appreciation for Yasuko Kobayashi's lighter series ToQGer.  Now I was thinking if I can enjoy Kiva, I can definitely enjoy ToQGer's comic moments.  Now check out this one from Hero Shock  to where I got the picture.  Meanwhile let's take a look back at the first safety Sentai, Gogo V which is a more serious season compared to the colorful season of ToQGer.   Gogo V was a rescue team while being the second Super Sentai to become sibling-based.  It was also Junki Takegami's second headwriting work and Yasuko Kobayashi was one of its major writers.  While Kobayashi was writing mostly serious stuff for Gingaman and Timeranger as head writer while she was a secondary writer for Gogo V... note that she also wrote Shinkenger which was more on the balanced side.  

Lami for me is one character that was probably composite of some pre-Zyuranger villains. My wild guesses are she's inspired by the following characters: \ My first wild guess to Lami's inspiration was Jarmin. Now Jarmin only lasted up to episode 28 of Turboranger as episodes 27-29 wrote off Zimba, Jarmin and Rehda due to budget reasons (?). Jarmin was presented to be what I'd call a really bitchy woman. She also had a slight hint she was in a relationship with Zimba. In episode 27, Zimba volunteered to finish off the Turborangers protecting her from Ragorn's wrath. Like Lami, Jarmin revealed one thing, her human form was merely a disguise to her serpentine form. She managed to split herself into two during her final battle and was destroyed by the Turbo Rugger when she fused her soul into her other half. Perhaps her relationship with Zimba inspired the idea of Griforther being married to Lami. Another possible inspiration is Dordora from Fiveman. It wouldn't ...

Since it's October and well, I forgot it's Women's Month aside from Halloween, I'm willing to wear a pink ribbon to help fight against breast cancer too.  Now moving on, I'll do this character spotlight on Mei.  I have done a character spotlight for Mako , Momoko , Lin  and Sakura ... time to do on Mei who I believe deserves much spotlight here.   Before Erina Nakayama was born in 1995, Reiko Chiba was the moe of 1992.  Moving on... I'd love to talk about the Rishiya Princess Mei who is the arrow firing princess.  While appearing to be gentle, cute and sweet but beware, she knows how to fire arrows... and even if she's not as badass as Jun Yabuki or Megumi Mori... you can't deny that she fires them with extreme accuracy.  She may easily break into tears but those tears also empower her one way or another. One of my favorite moments of Mei was when she was poisoned by an apple.  Bandora knew that only her arrow can destroy the apple on Dora ...

Zeba's backstory in Hikari Sentai Maskman is one of the most well-written horror stories ever conceived in Tokusatsu for me. For one, you are kept guessing what he is and who he is and while it's obvious he's not human but you just can't guess what he is until later... and you realize he's not human so he must be some dark entity out of nowhere. He is always one horrible dictator that only thinks about himself. Doing anything to undermine his rule like demanding to ask where in the world he came from, you're dead either he sends you to the ice coffin or he will well, send you to be tortured for long periods of time and it's not a pleasant way to go away from this world. And I even think he's afraid of his identity being disclosed because... it also contains the secret of his downfall. In fact, I even dare believe he sent Baraba to his death hoping that his secret won't come out otherwise the Maskmen may exploit his greatest weakness! Maskman 35 RE...

Maskman was one series with surrealistic components.  Now I thought about Igam's masquerade as a woman, now I was wondering what could have happened behind the scenes of Prince Igam.  Now I want to throw in a speculation on Igam's character as a whole, not just that colorful masquerade of hers.  Now I wanted to think behind the scenes on what could have happened with Igam herself... while we know she was raised to be a man due to the absence of a male heir (which is STUPID but I guess they were all chauvinistic back then)... now what could have happened to her behind the scenes.  Why did she serve Emperor Zeba?  Now I'm just going to give my series of speculations backed up with some facts from the series to defend that speculation. Even until now, I don't know why in the world would she be so fiercely devoted to Zeba the Usurper.  She has even mentioned that the peace-loving Igam family does not exist anymore, all the while she has become hardened tow...

After seeing the Akibaranger episode where Bouken Red appeared to the Akibarangers, at the same time, you see they were DEAD DRUNK.In that episode, the Boukengers drank some liquor (by accident) and were trapped in a dimension where their delusions started to become real. Now I was thinking while doing some Boukenger rewatching, it looks like the Boukengers are alcoholics, even if you don't see them drinking liquor. Now for a few things WORTH noticing that might prove that the Boukengers are a group of drunkards. This is just me thinking they are a group of drunkards: First I would like to point out what I failed to notice in Satoru/Bouken Red. Episode one shows him signs that he's not a sober individual. For example, he just RECKLESSLY drives in and scoops both Bouken Black and Bouken Yellow IGNORING their welfare. I was even thinking about it- NO SOBER RED RANGER WOULD EVER THREATEN TO DROP ANYONE OFF INTO THE LAVA PIT! To be honest, I was thinking he was probably high o...