Thursday, December 16, 2010

My Favorite Sentai opening theme songs

The one thing I haven't done a whole lot of is focus on the music of Sentai and Power Rangers. I'll start here with a list of some of my favorite Sentai intros and opening themes. As you can tell, I'm not much of a fan of pre-2000's Sentai music, but 3 90's theme songs still manage to make my list. Enjoy.




Jetman's theme song is pretty cool. The song fits well with both the intro and the fighting songs.

I like Zyuranger's opening theme song, a lot better than its ending theme. It's not quite as cool as Go Go Power Rangers or some of Sentai's other theme songs, but it's still a pretty descent song.



Megaranger's opening theme is by far my favorite 90's Sentai theme song. The song starts out kinda slow but it still has a fun beat.




I like the Timeranger theme song a whole lot better than the Power Rangers Time Force theme song. It has a strong beat, it's fast pace, and goes quite well with the intro. It's a pretty intense song for a pretty intense season.




Dekaranger's opening theme is awesome. It's by Psychic Lover, and just about every song by Psychic Lover is awesome. By far my favorite Sentai theme song and I often catch myself singing along with it. It also surpasses all of my favorite Power Rangers theme songs.



The Gekiranger theme song is also pretty awesome. Like Deka's theme, I often find myself singing along to it and it fits the intro quite well. The intro is also pretty awesome with all the martial arts action, except for some parts in the early part of the intro where the foot soldiers look more like they're dancing instead of fighting.



Go-Onger's theme song is also quite catchy and fun. Much like the series is. Not quite as awesome as the Dekaranger, Gekiranger, or the Shinkenger theme song, but still fits the series quite well.



Shinkenger's theme song is another totally awesome song. It's a collaboration between Psychic Lover and Project R. Catchy and energetic. It's my second favorite Sentai theme behind Dekaranger's. The intro is pretty cool as well.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Happy Birthday Ayumi Kinoshita

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Today Ayumi Kinoshita (Jasmine/DekaYellow) turns 28. Three days from now, another Deka alumni, Mika Kikuchi will be celebrating her birthday as well. Happy birthday to both girls.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Executive Meddling, Power Ranger Seasons That Were Screwed by the Network

While Power Rangers has been a successful show, lasting for 18 seasons, there's been times where some of its seasons could have been more successful than they were. Here's a few examples.


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Initially, the first half of Lost Galaxy was very successful. At the time, it had the highest ratings ever for a Power Rangers season. However, the ratings during the second half of the season went downhill a bit, not because the second half was bad, but because of some of the behind the scenes moves. The second half aired four months after the first half, which was common for PR seasons at the time. However, advertisement and promotion of the second half of Lost Galaxy was shunned by Saban in favor of promoting Digimon. Also, on set, Danny Slavin (Leo), had a fall out with the production crew and there was the contract dispute with Patricia Ja Lee (Cassie) who was set to replace Kendrix after Valarie Varone left the set due to having leukemia.



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Power Rangers SPD also suffered a bit from executive meddling, regarding the Omega Ranger scenario. Disney didn't want an extra actor hanging around on set, so eventually the character Sam (the Omega Ranger) was written as a CGI ball of light whenever he was unmorphed due to time travel. This alienated many fans. Though strangely, Disney did nothing on RPM when there were even more actors on set than SPD.


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Power Rangers RPM received an even worst treatment than Lost Galaxy did. Disney thought RPM was going to be the lame duck last season of Power Rangers, so they switched it from Toon Disney to ABC. RPM was also given terrible time slots, such as airing at 5am in some places and other places being subject to ABC's college football broadcast. In fact, in some cities RPM didn't even air. To top it off, promotion and advertisement was poor at best. As a result, RPM had the lowest ratings ever for a PR season, until MMPR v2 came out the next year.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Ideas That Power Rangers and Sentai Borrowed from Each Other

A few weeks ago, Sean Akizuki requested me to do a post on what ideas Power Rangers borrowed from Sentai or vise versa. I haven't had time to post on my blog that much during the last couple months because of school, but now that I'm off for winter break I decided to follow up on his request. So here are some of the ideas that I feel that Power Rangers and Sentai borrowed from each other. For similar posts, check Sean's blog.



Power Rangers borrowing from Sentai

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The most obvious would be changing the cast, suits, stories, themes, and series every year. Changing the suits wasn't done until Zeo, while changing the cast annually started with Lost Galaxy but wasn't completely decided on until after Lost Galaxy was done. The original cast of Lost Galaxy had a two year contract. Every since Lost Galaxy, the franchise has tried to make each season as stand alone as possible.


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Another idea taken from Sentai was the annual team-up episodes with the previous year's team. This was first done in Power Rangers Zeo with the two part episode Rangers from Two Worlds when the Zeo rangers teamed up with the Alien rangers. This however, wasn't fully implemented until Lost Galaxy teamed up with In Space during the episodes To the Tenth Power and The Power of Pink. However, when Lost Galaxy came out, originally there were no planned team-ups with In Space. But when actress Valarie Varone (Kendrix/Lost Galaxy Pink) was diagnosed with Leukemia, she had to be replaced quickly. The plan was to have a team up with In Space, kill her character off, and have Cassie (Turbo/In Space Pink) replace her. After the team-up, Patricia Ja Lee filmed one additional episode but then left due to a contract dispute. Despite this, the production crew was still able to use the team-up, and eventually replaced Kendrix with Karone, the former villain Astronema. After lost Galaxy, annual team-ups became a yearly occurence.

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Anniversary team-ups such as Forever Red and Once A Ranger were borrowed concepts respectively from Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai and Boukenger vs. Super Sentai respectively. While the plots in each episodes are completely original, the idea of having all red rangers team up, for example, was borrowed from Gaoranger vs SS. The same goes for Once A Ranger.

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As mentioned in a previous post, Power Rangers RPM had a very Sentai-like cast with many characters being similar to previous Sentai characters. This includes Dillion being similar to Gai from Jetman, Summer being similar to Ran/Gekiyellow, and hyperactive comic relief power rangers such as Ziggy, Gem, and Gemma that while are pretty common in Sentai, are pretty rare in Power Rangers.

Sentai Borrowing from Power Rangers

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Magiranger vs Dekaranger introduced the canon immigrant, literally. Sentai borrowed the red ranger battlizer from Power Rangers SPD to give Ban/DekaRed a new weapon from the Fire Squad that he was promoted to.


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Head or floating head like characters such as Mr. Voice from Boukenger and Master Head from Goseiger are likely partly inspired by Zordon.


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Jan/GekiRed seems to be inspired by Cole, from Power Rangers Wild Force. Both characters have essentially the same story. Both being red rangers, both being newbies to their teams after growing up in the jungle. Both had their parents killed by their series respective main villains (though the stories are slightly different). Both also tend to overact at times, and both characters were on beast-themed seasons.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Yuri/Time Pink, The Last True Female Leader

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While there have been a couple female leaders in Sentai in recent years, Yuri is perhaps the last true full-time leader. Ran/Gekiyellow was chosen as the captain of the Gekirangers but rarely did anything that remotely resembled a leader. Kaoru (female Shinkenred) took over leadership responsibilities from Takeru and actually did lead the Shinkengers, but she was present for only 6 episodes. Yuri, however, was leader from day one with her team. It can be argued that the team moved with Tatsuya or that her and Tatsuya were co-leaders, but for the sake of arguement, I consider Yuri the leader of the Timerangers because she led them in battle and recruited Tatsuya.

Yuri is everything you would want a leader to be. She's tough, serious, strict, and has good leadership skills. In fact, she's one of the more serious pink rangers ever along with Sakura/Bouken Pink, though she doesn't have the smiling issues that Sakura has and can lighten up. She started out as a by the book leader, but eventually loosen up a bit by warming up to Tatsuya and eventually seemed like she didn't care that Domon and Honami were dating (at first she saw Honami as a threat to their mission). Eventually Tatsuya falls for Yuri but they were unable to be together because of the large time difference.

The reason why Yuri was serious and strict with her team was because she felt like she had a mission to accomplish. In the year 3000 she was a cop in the same anti-mafia division that her father was in. Her father and her family were murdered by a Londarz family criminal, who at the time was ordered by Don Dorunero. After Don Dorunero escaped to the year 2000, Yuri volunteered to go after him. Yuri felt that bringing Dorunero back to justice was her chance at redemption for her family. When she was unable to bring him back alive, Yuri felt that she had failed her mission.

Yuri is one of the more well developed pink sentai warriors ever. Given her families past, her sense of a mission to accomplish, and how she eventually warms up to Tatsuya and her team, especially since she's the only girl on her team.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Hurricanger Series Review

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Ninpuu Sentai Hurricanger (English translation Ninja Arts Squadron Hurricanger) (2002-03) was the 26th installment of Super Sentai. It was also the second Sentai season to use a ninja motif. Despite the ninja motif, there wasn't a whole lot of martial arts as its theme would suggest, however, it focused a lot on the stealthness of ninjas. Some fans see it as one of the darker seasons of Sentai, while others see it as one of the lighter Sentais. Personally, while it had many lighthearted moments, overall I felt the story was pretty dark. It had many dark themes including the backstories of the Goraijers, Shurikenger, Gozen-Sama, and the final battle. Among 2000's Sentai's, I would rank only Timeranger and maybe Gekiranger as being darker than Hurricanger. It's a season much like Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, not really popular among the fandom but not really hated either, yet vastly underrated. Personally, Hurricanger is one of my favorite Sentai's, and ranks up there with some of my other favorites such as Dekaranger, Shinkenger, and Timeranger.

The Good
The story I felt is one of the best, with lots of intense drama. The story surrounding the Goraijers and their father I felt was particularly good, as well as the story between Shurikenger and Gozen-Sama. The fight scenes were also pretty solid. While the cast is certainly not the best, it is underrated with many solid characters such as the Goraijers, Shurikenger, and Nanami. All these characters grow and develop really well during the series, especially the Goraijers. While the series did have a few weak villains, it had a few solid villains such as Manmaruba, Sandaru, and Ikki Kasumi (the Goraijer's father). The team-up with Gaoranger was pretty good, especially seeing the Gaoranger mecha's combining with the Hurricanger mechas. The movie was descent as well, though not the best. The intro theme song is pretty descent as well, although I've heard better.

The Bad
While most of the main characters were solid, Kouta I felt is one of the blandest Sentai warriors ever. Yousuke was a bit better than Kouta, but was fairly average at best, especially for a red warrior. Some of the villains are rather so-so as well. Tao Zanto is one of the least interesting main villains in Sentai. The team-up with Abaranger was also kinda bland. I also wish they had went futher than they did with the Isshu-Nanami relationship.

The Ugly
There was nothing really ugly about this series.

My Rating
8.5/10 B+. Despite not having very many impressive villains, this series is awesome. It managed to have a great plot that was dark, had plenty of drama, and still had some good humor in it.

My Favorite Episodes/Arcs
Episode 3- This one is technically a filler episode, but we learn about Nanami wanting to be a star and a singer.
Episodes 7-10- This is where the Goraijers finally enter the battle against the Hurricangers, and they're badass. The Goraigers whip the Hurricanger's tails everytime they fight.
Episodes 15-18- After a hanfull of filler episodes, the Goraijers' story progresses. After they learn the secret about "that" and their father, they losely join the Hurricangers in the fight against Jakanja.
Episode 26- Technically a filler episode but a funny one, involving a monster who puts everyone under love spells including Isshu. It also established that Nanami and Isshu had feelings for each other.
Episode 30- Gave Nanami some good character development after she was betrayed by Furabijou, and then Nanami gets really pissed.
Episodes 31-33- Ikkou is practically on his deathbead and is saved by Yousuke who risked his life for Ikkou. This is also where the Goraijers finally fully warm-up to the Hurricangers.
Episodes 36-37- Further develops the new bond between the Goraijers and the Hurricangers when the weakened Hurricangers risk everything to save the Goraijers.
Episodes 42-44- Part of one bigger story arc. This part establishes Shurikenger's bond with the others and also introduces the Gozen-Sama character.
Episode 47- Reveals Gozen-Sama's sad past.
Episodes 48-51- The final battle, in which everything that had happened up to this point was all tied together and came full circle. Also showed the bond between Shurikenger and Gozen-Sama.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Dark Seasons of Power Rangers

Inspired by Sean Akizuki's blog entry, Sentai Seasons Labeled as Dark Seasons, so I decided to do one for dark seasons of Power Rangers.

MMPR S2
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MMPR S2 started out as a dark season. At least, that's the direction it looked like it was going during the first 10-15 episodes. Season 2 had a very dark villain, Lord Zedd (who had a dark theme song as well), and when the green ranger powers slowly drained away it seemed like the rangers were heading for defeat. However, the tone shifted during the second half of the season and became much lighter as the season went along. This was due to the white ranger saga, the cast change, and the villain decay of Lord Zedd from his dark nature to a more comical character. This was due to parents complaining that Lord Zedd was too scary for children. By the end, season 2 wasn't that dark at all.

Power Rangers Turbo
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Power Rangers Turbo originally tried to be dark. Head writer Douglass Sloan originally wanted Turbo to be a dark, apocalyptic season. However, Turbo failed miserably due to poor handling of the Carranger footage, which Carranger was a light hearted Sentai known for slapstick comedy. Another reason why the writers failed to make Turbo a dark season was due to having some very poor villains during this season.

Power Rangers In Space
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Some fans consider Power Rangers In Space to be a dark season due to some of the story elements such as the Psycho Rangers, Astronema, the main villain, being Andros the red ranger's sister, the capture of Zordon, and the fact that all the villains from the previous seasons have formed an alliance which will attempt to take over the universe. This season also featured an apocalyptic final battle, Countdown to Destruction, and the first good-side casualty ever, with the death of Zordon. Some of the villains during In Space were very dark, such as Darconda and Dark Spector. This is a season that I would consider to be semi-dark. There are some dark elements to In Space, but some of the seasons that follow will be much darker.

Power Rangers Lost Galaxy
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Lost Galaxy IMO is definitely a season that is very dark. This season had the Magna Defender, who was morally questionable, as well as a dark main villain in Trakeena. This season also had a higher death count than its Sentai counterpart, Gingaman, and arguably the highest death count ever for a Power Rangers series (that is if you don't count all the off screen deaths in SPD and RPM). It was also the first and arguably the only PR season to feature the death of a ranger, Kendrix, when she sacrificed herself in the team up with In Space to save Cassie.

Power Rangers Time Force
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At the time that Time Force aired it was easily the darkest season ever of Power Rangers. Like MMPR S2, it had a very dark lead villain, Ransik. It also featured dark elements such as death, terrorism, and destruction. It also is arguably the second Power Ranger season to involve the death of a ranger, Alex, but that depends on what story you believe and if it really counts as a death. The latter half of the season, however, had to be toned down due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks that happened while this series was airing.

Power Rangers Wild Force
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Some fans consider Wild Force to be a dark season. It involved a story of war, as well as the death of Cole's parents. Wild Force was also the first and so far only season to feature the death of a child on-screen. However, I don't consider this season to be that dark. I compare it to Zyuranger, having some dark elements but overall being rather cheesy and kiddy. Wild Force had some lighthearted themes such as the story of Animarium being read through a childrens book and having a narrator.

Power Rangers Dino Thunder
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Dino Thunder as I see it wasn't really a dark season, but it had a few dark elements such as a dark lead villain, Mesogog, the story of Anton Mercer's failed experiment that turned him into a split personality with Mesogog (and being Trent's father), as well as Zeltrax being a former colleague of Tommy's who wanted revenge.

Power Rangers SPD
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SPD is another season that like Dino Thunder isn't really that dark but does deserve mentioning because it has a few dark elements. These elements includes the murder of Sky's father who was a former power ranger, and Doggie Crugar's home planet being destroyed and his wife being kidnapped.

Power Rangers RPM
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RPM is easily the darkest Power Rangers season ever and even darker than most Sentai seasons. RPM succeeded where Turbo failed. RPM turned a lighthearted, comical Sentai series (Go-Onger) into a very dark Power Rangers series. To do this, RPM used less Sentai footage than perhaps any season since MMPR S3, and had a very dark story that was lacking in Turbo. RPM is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the villains have won and the last bastion of free humanity lies in the domed city of Corinth. This season has several flashback episodes that involve death and the events of what was happening during the war with Venjix.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Are Longer or Shorter Seasons Better?

Recent seasons of Power Rangers, from Mystic Force to RPM, have often been labeled as too short. Each of these seasons are only 32 episodes long. However, when looking at the bigger picture, I personally prefer shorter seasons.

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The first two seasons of Super Sentai, Goranger and JAKQ, were Sentai's longest and shortest seasons respectively. Goranger was the longest with 84 episodes while JAKQ had 35. Since then, Sentai seasons had consistently had roughly around 50 episodes, give or take 1 or 2 episodes. Most Sentai seasons are typically longer than most Power Ranger seasons, with the exception of the first two seasons of MMPR and Zeo, which I will get to in a minute. While some long seasons can be enjoyable (especially with a good cast), sometimes they can have a side effect of having too many filler episodes or the story moving at a slow pace. These seasons can also be episodic, though if you ask me that's not necessarily a bad thing. I've seen this with both Sentai and Power Rangers.


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MMPR S1 was PR's longest season with 60 episodes. Originally MMPR S1 was planned to be only 40 episodes long, ending at Doomsday. MMPR was also expected to be a one season flick like Kamen Rider Dragon Knight was. However, MMPR experienced unprecedented popularity, which forced Saban to ask TOEI to produce more Zyuranger footage (known as Zyu2). This extended MMPR S1 by about 20 episodes and the Zyu2 footage would also make up the bulk of the first half of S2's ranger footage. MMPR S1 did have symptoms of a long season, such as having many filler episodes and being largely episodic. However, IMO, many of the filler episodes were rather enjoyable due to the good cast that MMPR S1 had. MMPR S2 and Zeo were also 50+ episodes long. Eventually under the Saban Era, Power Rangers would be reduced to 40 episodes.

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One comparison I'll make is Timeranger and Time Force, which I'll admit I'm somewhat schizophrenic over the two. Timeranger was 10 episodes longer than Time Force. For me, the first half of Timeranger suffered from the symptoms I mentioned above, moving at a slow pace. For example, Naoto and the City Guardians don't show up until episode 27, while their PR counterparts, Eric and the Silver Guardians show up in episode 11 or 12 of Time Force I think. However, despite the slower pace in Timeranger, it did a lot better job with character development than Time Force. All of Timeranger's major characters were well developed, while Time Force felt like there were only 3 characters that really mattered, Eric, Jen, and Wes, while Trip, Lucas, and Katie were kinda just there. Perhaps the stronger character development in Timeranger was due to having a longer season.

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After the Disney buyout, Ninja Storm-SPD had 38 episodes. This was a slight cut from the 40 episodes that Lightspeed Rescue, Time Force, and Wild Force had. Because of the slight difference it's not really noticeable and therefore, Ninja Storm, Dino Thunder, and SPD are rarely ridiculed for being too short.


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Starting with Mystic Force and lasting through RPM, the episode count on Power Rangers was cut to 32. This was likely due to a lower budget from Disney, and a move to cut cost. Many fans have complained that these seasons are "too short" and feel rushed. Personally, I think it's more of a problem with Bruce Kalish's writing than the number of episodes each season has. These seasons also lacked in character development in comparison to RPM.

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Like Mystic Force- Jungle Fury, RPM has 32 episodes. I personally liked the shorter season. RPM had much better writing than the Kalish seasons did, thanks to Eddie Guzelian and Judd Lynn. There's a lot fewer filler episodes in RPM than most PR seasons, and the characters were all well developed early on. For me, RPM moved at a fast but steady pace, and keeps me more interested than a long, dragged out season like MMPR S3 for example.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Another Ayumi Kinoshita/Mika Kikuchi Pic

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You can never get enough pics of the Twin Cam Angel girls (Jasmine and Umeko). Here's one where it looks like they're having plenty of fun, and Mika maybe having a little too much fun with Ayumi. :P This sorta makes me jealous lol.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Remembering Bulk and Skull, the Dynamic Duo

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One of the main reasons why MMPR and the Zordon Era is so popular among Power Ranger fans is the characters of Bulk and Skull. While Turbo was airing, Fox Kids was experimenting with a spin-off Bulk and Skull TV series, but this project never left the writing board. Bulk and Skull were comic relief characters that developed from bullies to good nature bumblers and eventually to heroes. The humor involving these two was often campy and cheesy, but fans still loved it. Every year they were on the show there was a new theme for these two. For example, in MMPR S1 they were bullies, S2 they tried to reveal the identity of the Power Rangers, and S3 they became cops, and so on. However, being on the show for 6+ years, over time they would develop out of their one dimensional characteristics.

The two were actually written off at the end of Zeo when Skull's actor, Jason Narvy, wanted to leave the show. However, Bulk's actor Paul Schrier, convinced Narvy to stay on for two more years. Despite this, no adequate explanation was given to why them and Lieutenant Stone were back in the police force at the beginning of Turbo, especially given that they were fired from the force in Zeo and that Bulk and Skull would quit on Lieutenant Stone at the end of the season.

Despite their popularity for the comic relief they provided, some of the most popular Bulk and Skull moments are their most serious ones. These include the episodes When is a Ranger Not a Ranger from MMPR S2, Instrument of Destruction from Zeo, and Countdown to Destruction during In Space.

My personal favorite is Instrument of Destruction, when it revealed that Skull is a very good pianist. Bulk had dismissed classical music during the entire episode but came to terms with it and recognized Skull's musical talents. This episode did two things to develop these characters. Pretty much every episode before Instrument of Destruction portrayed Bulk and Skull as one-dimensional dummies with little or no talents. This episode however, showed that Skull was more than a one dimensional dummy, and did have some talent. The other thing it developed was how deep their bond was. Even though Bulk hated classical music, he cared more about Skull and came to recognize his talent.

Perhaps the most popular Bulk and Skull moment occurs simultaneously during Countdown to Destruction, which happens to be the most popular final battle ever in Power Rangers. After it appeared the rangers were defeated, Bulk and Skull reenacted the "I Am Spartacus" scene, each claiming to be a fellow power ranger. The citizens of Angel Grove would follow their lead. Later on after the Rangers morphed, Bulk and Skull led the charge to fight off the Quantitrons and to protect the rangers. This was a fitting end to their story, and for that matter, Countdown to Destruction would have been a fitting end to Power Rangers if it had ended there, which we know didn't happen.

Bulk showed up sparingly during Lost Galexy, while Skull made a cameo during the season premier. Both of them would make a cameo in the episode Forever Red, much to the delight of the PR faithful. At that time Bulk owned a cafe and called it "Bulkmeyers." Tommy happened to be there, and it seemed they knew his identity as a former power ranger by then.

Through it all, it's safe to say that Bulk and Skull are the most popular comic relief characters in Power Rangers. Dino Thunder tried to duplicate these two with Cassidy and Devin. Power Rangers Samurai will also try to parody these two, with Fat Jack and Spike. Though, it's unclear how it will turn out.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Patricia Ja Lee in Extreme Challenge




For anyone who's a Cassie fan (Turbo/In Space Pink) she plays the lead female role in Extreme Challenge. It's a Hong Kong film centered around this martial arts competition. She enters the competition and goes pretty far, meanwhile she develops a bit of a romance with one of the other main fighters. I own the movie. The version I have isn't that good. It is dubbed in English by completely different actors, which doesn't make much sense because virtually all the actors in the movie are English speakers. You can tell because it is clearly not Patricia Ja Lee's voice. The voice dubbing is also terrible, and doesn't match the emotions displayed by the actors. Yes, I've made it clear before that I hate listening to dubbing, however, this is the worst dubbing I've ever heard. Not because of inaccurate translation, which is actually pretty good, but because of terrible voice acting. However, there are two plus sides to watching it. One it has Patricia Ja Lee in it. The other is it has some awesome fight scenes that are well choreographed, as you can see above. So despite the terrible English dubbing that wasn't needed, if you're a big fan of Cassie I recommend checking it out.

Friday, October 22, 2010

MMPR S3 Review

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MMPR S3 (1995-96) continued MMPR S1 and S2's story and used footage mostly from Kakuranger, with a touch of Zyu2 and Dairanger footage. This season came off a moderately successful movie (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie) and used a ninja motif. This season starts similar to the movie in that the rangers lose their powers and their zords, and then go on a quest to get new powers and zords. There are a few new characters added to this season, such as Rito Revolto and Master Vile, as well as a new army of foot soldiers, the Tenga Warriors. The rangers also have a powerful ally, Ninjor, who's like the team's 7th ranger. Leaving the show during mid-season was Kimberly because her actress Amy Jo Johnson wanted to pursue other career opportunities. Replacing her was Katherine, a tall, blond Australian girl. This season tends to have mixed reactions, with MMPR old faithful fans still loving this season. Still, this season gets it's criticism for Kimberly's departure, villain decay, having too many multi-part episodes, and for the Alien Ranger arc. This season had the most American footage of any season, and relied less on Sentai footage.

The Good
This seaason still has much of the likable cast that it had the previous two years. Some of the characters that received little development the previous season, like Rocky and Aisha, got some development here. Kimberly's departure was handled perfectly, and is IMO the best story arc during this season. The writing and the acting is also much better in this season than it was in the previous seasons. Also, unlike the second half of S2 that felt more like "Tommy and his sidekicks," the other characters got a fair amount of attention and we saw the rangers working together as a team. The zords are cool, cooler than season 2's zords IMO.

The Bad
This season was the worst of all MMPR seasons in terms of villains. Yes they were the same villains as the previous two seasons, but they suffered massive decay during this season. It had already begun with Lord Zedd and Goldar towards the end of season 2, but this was an entire season of it. Meanwhile, Master Vile is suppose to be "the supreme evil of the universe" but yet he gives up after like what, 7 episodes? Also, this season dropped nearly all the cool music it had in season 1 and 2, although they did keep the extended version of Go Go Power Rangers. The American ranger footage during this season was terrible, and there's lots of it without Sentai footage. While many fans don't like the Alien Ranger arc, I actually liked it better than most of the rest of this season because I hated watching the awful American footage. Also what was awful were the ultrazord combinations using the toy zords.

The Ugly
While Kimberly's departure was well handled, Aisha's departure at the very end of this season was terrible.

My Rating
6/10 (Grade C-). Ok, this season isn't all that bad, but it is a season that bugs me and by far my least favorite season of MMPR.

My Favorite Episodes
Episode 10 (Wizard for a Day)- This one gives Rocky some development and helps him to mature some, when he learns that being a teacher isn't that easy. It's a good life-learning episode.
Episode 11 (Fourth Down and Long)- One of only two episodes in Power Rangers that I can remember involving football. The other one in season 1 is better, but this one is alright.
Episodes 12-13 (Stop the Hate Master)- A descent two-parter that gives Aisha more development than she had in all of season 2.
Episodes 18-20 (Changing of the Zords)- A well written three parter that involves Kimberly losing her powers, being kidnapped, Tommy fighting Lord Zedd one on one and getting owned, and the introduction of the Shogun Zords.
Episode 21 (Follow That Cab)- A filler episode but a good one in which Bulk and Skull actually do some good, by catching a car theif.
Episodes 22-24 (A Different Shade of Pink)- The arc that involves Kimberly's departure, and IMO the best story arc during this season.
Episodes 41-42 (Hogday Afternoon)- While Aisha's send-off during this two parter is terrible, it is a good final battle for the Alien Rangers arc and ends MMPR with the command center completely waisted.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Edited Series Reviews, With Additional Features.

I've went back and edited all of my series reviews thus far. I've also added some new features, such as my rating for the series I'm reviewing, and a list of my 10 favorite episodes/story arcs in the particular series. I feel this gives a little more depth to my opinion about each series. Keep in mind that some of my favorite episodes in each include story arcs that are several episodes long. Instead of listing the episodes separately, I included all the episodes in a story arc into one on my list. As for the ratings system, I'm using two different ratings systems. The first is on a scale of 1 to 10. The second would be a letter grade, with A+ being the highest and the lowest being an F. Usually in America, letter grades are given A if it's 90% or higher, B for 80-89%, C for 70-79%, D for 60-69%, and F for anything below 59%. I do not have such a grading scale for my grades, as you'll notice a couple series I gave both a 7.5/10 and a B-. Anyways, here's a list of all my newly edited series reviews. More will come shortly. Enjoy. :)

Sunday, October 17, 2010

A Recent Ayumi Kinoshita/Mika Kikuchi Picture

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Here's a recent picture of Ayumi Kinoshita and Mika Kikuchi. They've changed quite a bit. Mika looks older and a bit more pale. Her hair has grown longer as well. Ayumi looks as hot as ever.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Gedoush, Demons of the Sanzu River

Next to Gekiranger, Shinkenger IMO has the second best set of villains among any 2000's Sentais. Many of them are not only evil and fearsome, but quite deeply developed, though not as well developed as the Gekiranger villains. Here's a look at some of my favorite Shinkenger villains.

Doukoku
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Doukoku is the big bad in Shinkenger, and he's just a badass. Sealed temporarily by the Shiba Clan's 17th lord, he came back approximately 17 years later to reek havoc on humanity. He has more of a tough guy, fearsome, intolerant attitude in comparison to many recent Sentai villains. He's also one of Sentai's biggest drunks and is seen regularly drinking Sake. Despite being short tempered and usually in a state of rage, he has a soft spot for Dayuu and the music she plays on her shamisen. Ultimately, when he fights the Shinkengers the first time, he just beats the crap out of them. The only thing that stopped him was that he quickly ran out of water.

Dayu

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Dayu is perhaps the most well developed villain in Shinkenger. She is half human, half gedoushu. Originally, she was full human and obsessively in love with Shinza, a man that never loved her back. Eventually finding out that Shinza loved another woman, she killed Shinza and his love interest. This led to her soul falling to Gedoushu. Shinza's soul was trapped in her Shamisen, and often Dayu would play sad music on it. She later developed feelings for Juzo, but couldn't give up Shinza because it would end her existence. She developed a rivalry with Mako/Shinken Pink, who sympathized for her after seeing a vision of Dayu's past in the dream world. Ultimately, she was sacrificed to give Doukoku human life, which made the sealing character useless against him.

Juzo

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Juzo is a menacing, cold-blooded figure. Like Dayu, he's half human and was formerly full human. But unlike Dayu, Juzo can still switch from human to Gedoushu form. In his human life he was a master swordsman who ultimately ended up killing his opponents for pleasure. When he became sick, he entered the Shanzu River which cured him which also turned him into half Gedoushu. He then discarded the last bit of goodness he had in him. He's a stray gedoushu, a bit of a lone wolf. He yerns to fight a swordsman of equal skill level to fight. These fights are pleasurable for him. He would find his opponent in Takeru/Shinken Red, which initially angered Doukoku because Takeru was at the time thought to be the head of the Shiba clan. Juzo had two major sword battles with Takeru, one in episode 26 and one starting at the end of episode 45 and lasting through episode 47. These two sword fights are awesome, among some of the best swords fights in Sentai. His katana, Urasama, is made with the souls of his deceased family members.

Super Sentai Episodes Available on Super Sentai Planet

As many of you know, a lot of Sentai episodes are being deleted off of youtube. Luckily, you can still watch and download these episodes on Super Sentai Planet. This includes all Sentai episodes that have either been subbed or dubbed in English. Some of the subbing on some Sentai series aren't very good, but they're still watchable.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Jetman Dance

I found a video of the Jetman dance. The embedding is disabled so you'll have to click the link. Personally, I don't really like the dance that much, but Kaori is unmorphed, teaching the audience how to do the dance. She's pretty and lovely as always. I also like the Jetman theme song and there's one really funny part when Yellow Owl falls on his ass while attempting one of the dance moves.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Agent Abrera, the Evil Crime Lord

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Agent Abrera (actual name Rain Seijin Abrera) was the main antagonist in Dekaranger and the only recurring villain in the series. He is voiced by Ryusei Nakao, who's notable for voicing many Dragon Ball Z animes and video games. Agent Abrera's voice can be quite chilling. He's truely an evil, menacing figure that wanted to see crime overrun the earth and the universe. His name is a pun off of the word umbrella. Unlike other Sentai main villains, he did not lead an army and didn't actually lead the alienizers in battle. Instead of the alienizers working for him (like most Sentai monsters working for the main villain), Agent Abrera worked for the alienizers. He provided weapons to the alienizers through the black market. He hid mostly in the shadows until he revealed himself to the Dekarangers in Episode 30 when one alien he hired to do a transport job, instead decided to steal from Abrera. At first, the Dekarangers don't know much about him but they eventually find out that Agent Abrera started intersteller wars that wiped out several galaxies. After a series of failed projects, Abrera became fed up with the Dekarangers and decided to attack their base with an army of Androids and other alienizers. He was successful, demorphing the Deka's and attacked the city using Dekabase Robo. Little did the Deka's know that this was intended as a trap to wipe out the rest of the space police. He put a shield around the earth that would destroy the SPD academy on impact.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Gekiranger Villains, a Level in Badass.

I've decided that I haven't given enough focus on my blog on Power Ranger and Sentai villains. Since I already started with Ikki Kasumi yesterday, I'll try to make my entire blog focus this week on villains, though it will be difficult because I have a midterm on Thursday. To start, I decided there's no better place than to look at the Gekiranger villains. Why? Because they are some of the most well developed, and some of the most cruel villains in Sentai. In fact, it's one of the few Sentais to give equal character development to the villains and the good guys. These villains are just badass. Two of them become good in the end, and the plot centered around them is pretty good as well.

Long

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Long is the manipulative bastard of the group. Long plays a similar role to Captain Ryuuya of Timeranger, but his role is a bit more extensive. He doesn't appear until episode 23, but had already done his fare share of damage before he appeared in the series. Long is an immortal, indestructible dragon that can take human form. Being immortal, he found life boring so he decided that he wanted to destroy the world just for the fun of it. He was initially responsible for Maku creating RinJyuKen, the evil school of JyuKen. But this was only the beginning. It was also revealed that he destroyed Jan/GekiRed's village, as well as killing both of his parents (it was initially thought Rio had killed Jan's father Dan but Rio couldn't make sense of the wounds Dan had). The shock of this event would eventually cause Jan to lose his memory. However, his most evil deed was still underway, which is where Rio comes in.

Rio

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Rio is the badass of the series. tvtropes.org describes Rio as a walking, talking, CMoA tanker, and he truly is. I remember debating on youtube who would win between Rio and Dokouku, my pick was Rio. I think Rio was intended to be romanized as Lio (close to Leo) because that's a common name given to lions, which is his beast power in this series. As a young boy, Rio was adopted and raised by Master Shafu after his parents were killed on a rainy night in a forest. This drove him to an unquenchable desire to become stronger, and led to him developing a rivalry with Dan, Jan's father. This led to Rio wanting to surpass Dan, by any means, even if it meant using RinJyuKen to do it. This is exactly what he did, and he killed Dan, or so he thought. Eventually, it was revealed that Long was the person who actually killed his parents and manipulated Rio so he could become the "God of Destruction" due to his desire to continually seek strength. Eventually, after saving Mele and finally returning her affection, Rio joined the Gekirangers in an attempt to defeat Long. After it appeared that they had defeated Long the first time, he and Mele wanted to face Ran and Retsu in the Confrontational Beast Hall in an attempt to replenish their sins. However, this was used more as an excuse so Rio and Mele could die instead. However, they were interrupted by Long, and in a heroic sacrifice, Rio and Mele sacrificed their lives to save the Gekirangers from death. In a dream, Rio, Mele, and a hand full of defeated RinJyuKen generals showed the Gekirangers how they could defeat Long.

Mele

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Several years before Gekiranger took place, Mele fought for the RinJyuKen side and died during battle. She was later revived by Rio and Mele loved him ever since. She was fiercely loyal to Rio, and would fight to prove her love, even willing to die to protect him. Mele was also the first to recognize that Long had mischievous plans for Rio, and when Rio did briefly become the God of Destruction, it was Mele's voice that stopped him. After recognizing Rio had been manipulated his hole life by Long, Mele attempted to fight Long one on one, but was ultimately captured and tortured. After Rio and the Gekirangers rescued her, Mele, along with Rio, joined the Gekirangers attempting to defeat Long. As mentioned above, Mele along with Rio would sacrifice themselves to save the Gekirangers from certain death. Mele was the first, shielding the Gekirangers from Long's jaws (in his dragon form).

Besides the development and the story behind these villains, the romance between Rio and Mele is quite interesting as well, even though it's one-sided for most of the series. This romance is also a key plot point in the series.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Ikki Kasumi, Father of the Goraijers.

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Ikki Kasumi, the father of the the Goraijers, is perhaps one of the most overlooked and cold blooded villains in Sentai. Perhaps this is due to him appearing sparingly during Hurricanger. He played a role similar to that of Ryuuya of Timeranger and Long of Gekiranger, though he wasn't the main culprit of Hurricanger like the other two were of their series. Ikki was considered such a dangerous man that his own ninja school, the Ikazuchi Ninja School, didn't trust him. While rampaging in Egypt, he discovered a meteor shower. This meteor shower provided a message on how "that" could be born. Ikki trained his sons, Ikkou and Isshu, to fight with emotions such as hate and rage. Years later, Ikkou and Isshu became the Goraijers. The Goraijers were initially as cold blooded as their father. They didn't care what happened to the earth or its people. They saw it as their duty to defeat the Hurricangers and to ensure that "that" was born. This was until they discovered that in order for "that" to be born, the Goraijers had to fight each other until one of them died. This meant that their father could care less if one of his son's died. Ikki cared more about "that" being born and didn't care at all for his son's lives. What exactly was "that"? Towards the end of the series it was revealed that "that" was a massive black hole, powered by an evil force, that was big enough to swallow the entire universe. Though seldom seen in the series, Ikki Kasumi is one of the main culprits of the series and a downright cruel, SOB.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

What Type of Fan I Am

Sean Akizuki and the Henshin Grid have each made their own posts about the different types of Super Sentai and Power Ranger fans, so I decided to describe myself. As you can guess from this blog, I'm a Power Rangers and a Super Sentai fan. For Power Rangers, I'm mostly a Zordon Era fan, though I still like a good share of PR seasons after the Zordon Era such as Lost Galaxy, Dino Thunder, and RPM. I think other series such as Time Force, Ninja Storm, and SPD are descent as well. As for Sentai, mostly what I've seen are 2000's Sentais, because they're mostly the ones that are subbed. I have however, watched about half of Zyuranger and am in the process of watching Jetman.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Top 10 Worst Moves During Power Rangers History

Despite many good moments, Power Rangers has had its share of bad moments. Here's my list of the worst moves during PR's history.

10. Aisha's Departure at the end of MMPR- Admittedly, I don't care much for Aisha, but her departure from the show was so poorly handled. When Kimberly left she had a nine episode story arc that was so well written. When Aisha left, it took her but 1 or 2 crappy episodes to write her off.

9. MMPR Villain Decay- One of the reasons why I don't like MMPR S3 that well is because of the villain decay that Lord Zedd and Goldar received. It had already started during season two but we got an entire season of it during season three. Parents complained to Fox that Lord Zedd was too scary. He's a villain, he's suppose to be scary. Though some people will argue that Lord Zedd and Rita did more after the villain decay, I would still argue that they still shouldn't have toned down Lord Zedd, and Goldar who became a joke.

8. The Dear John Letter- As much as I like Zeo, the Dear John Letter sent by Kimberly and the subsequent relationship between Kat and Tommy was the low point of the series. Many fans felt that this relationship was forced upon them as the writers were trying to replace Kimberly.

7. Wild Force Acting- It's already bad enough that Wild Force is basically Gaoranger's clone, but what's worst is the acting. This series had some of the worst acting ever for a Power Rangers series, as well as a douche bag that played the red ranger (Ricardo Medina).

6. The Omega Ranger CGI Ball of Light- This one I blame more on Disney than Bruce Kalish. Disney refused to give Power Rangers the budget it needed to hire a full-time actor to play the Omega Ranger. What happened instead? The Omega Ranger was a lame CGI ball of light. This is where SPD really falls apart.

5. Disney's handling of RPM- Speaking of executive meddling from Disney, what was worst was the way Disney handled RPM. Despite being an awesome show, RPM had some of the worst ratings ever for a PR season. Why? Because Disney moved RPM from Toon Disney to ABC, and gave it a terrible time slot on Saturday mornings where it would air in some parts of the country at 5 in the morning and other parts would be subject to ABC's college football broadcast. On top of that, there was poor advertisement and didn't even air in some cities.

4. Bruce Kalish- Bruce Kalish started out strong with the first 1/3rd of SPD, then everything fell apart. What's worst were the following seasons, Mystic Force, Operation Overdrive, and Jungle Fury. All of these seasons had terrible writing, lacked dialog, overuse of explosions, as well as some bad acting. No wonder why so many fans call this PR's "dork age."

3. The first cast change during Turbo- It was already a dumb idea to replace Rocky with Justin, a kid, but don't forget what else was included in this early cast change. Replacing Zordon and Alpha 5 with Dimitria and Alpha 6. Dimitria and Alpha 6 were as annoying as hell. No wonder why Turbo became such a ratings bomb and nearly killed the franchise.

2. Operation Overdrive- This season is just simply, awful. It had the whole package to make it a terrible season. Bad writing, bad acting, bad dialog, and a terrible cast. It's hard to imagine anything that can be worst, until we see what makes #1 on my list...

1. MMPR S1 Remastered- As bad as Operation Overdrive was, MMPR S1 remastered was worst. Disney completely butchered MMPR S1 (my childhood favorite). The comic book strips and the terrible special effects added, all for Disney to make a cheap buck off of MMPR and not have to produce another Power Rangers season. Thankfully Saban is back at the helm.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Psychic Lover, Sentai's Crowning Music of Awesome

What Linkara describes in his History of Power Rangers as the "Ron Wasserman Factor," is the ability to make the most boring show watchable (or a good show even better) because of awesome music. I'll talk about Ron Wasserman later on this week, but first I'd like to talk about Sentai's own awesome band, Psychic Lover. Psychic Lover composed several songs on the Dekaranger soundtrack, including the Dekaranger theme song, Dekaranger Action, and Swat On Dekaranger. Part of the reason why I love Dekaranger is the music, and for me, music plays a big part in how much I like a particular series. However, Psychic Lover didn't limit themselves to just the Dekaranger series, they also composed the Boukenger ending theme (Adventures on the Road) and the Shinkenger opening theme song as well, both of which are just as awesome as the songs they contributed to the Dekaranger soundtrack. Psychic Lover has also composed songs for the Transformers and the Yu-Gi-Oh series as well.

Here's an interview with Psychic Lover on Rangercast. Interview takes place at 41:19

And some of Psychic Lover's Sentai work.





Monday, September 27, 2010

Sentai Influences I See in RPM

In a post about a month and a half ago, I talked about various influences that certain hollywood movies as well as PR and Sentai seasons had on RPM. When taking a closer look, many of RPM's characters are Sentai like. It's clear that writer Eddie Guzelian had seen his fair share of Sentai before producing RPM, or perhaps it's just a coincidence. Anyways, here are some of the influences I see.

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Perhaps Dillon is a tribute to Gai (Black Condor, Jetman). Besides both of them being black rangers, Dillon, like Gai, is the brooding, rebel bad boy of the group. Also like Gai, Dillon has a rivalry with the red ranger, often mocking him.



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As I've mentioned before, Summer has practically the same back story as Ran, GekiYellow. Their personalities are pretty much the same as well.

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And last but certainly not least, the use of hyperactive, comic relief rangers, which Sentai loves to use a lot but is rarely seen in Power Rangers. Ziggy is similar to his counterpart Hanto in terms of personality, but he's even funnier thanks to some great acting. In fact, I think Ziggy is the funniest ranger ever in Power Rangers.

Gem and Gemma are very hyperactive, and finish each other's sentences (perhaps a wink at Nai and Mare). They're the complete opposite of their Sentai counterparts, Miu and Hiroto. Gem and Gemma get criticized by PR and Sentai fans alike for their hyperactiveness. Admittedly, they can be annoying, especially the first four or five episodes they appear in. Afterwards, they're toned down a bit and are tolerable. Personally, I like their Go-Onger counterparts better, but at the same time I think some of the criticism that Gem and Gemma receive (especially from Sentai fans, which I won't go into) is ridiculous since they're no different than how Sentai portrays some of its own characters, like Ban, Jan, Kai, Sousuke, and Genta.