Power Rangers SPD to be Dubbed in Japanese

TOEI just announced that they will dub Power Rangers SPD in Japanese. It will begin airing in August as part of the Sentai anniversary on the TOEI channel. All the original Dekaranger cast members will dub their SPD counterparts. Although I'm not a fan of dubbing, this I think will be interesting. I like both series and love the Dekaranger cast. It will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Sentai's Handling of Multiple Villain Groups

Note: Images from Super Sentai Images

One of the complaints that some Sentai fans have about Goseiger is the multiple villain groups. Personally, I don't have a problem with it nor with Bladeron staying throughout the season. It does keep the story fresh and moving. It's been done before in Sentai, actually. The problem is how they handled the use of the multiple villain groups. Here, I'll analyze how three different Sentai series, Magiranger, Boukenger, and Goseiger, handled having multiple villain groups.

Magiranger

Magiranger was arguably in this category, with three groups or commanders of Infershia: Branken, Meemy, and the Hades Gods of Infershia. Similarly to Goseiger, they all came one after another. After one was killed off, another would step to the plate. However, unlike Goseiger, all these villain groups belonged to the same organization, Infershia, under the control of N Ma. They all worked to revive N Ma to conquer the world. Also, Wolzard and Vancuria/Nae & Mae were constant throughout the season. Since the three different villainous groups/commanders in Magiranger belonged to the same organization and had an overarching villain, transitions from one villain or villain group was smooth and there was no early climax. Also, Wolzard imo is one of Sentai's best generals, and had an interesting rivalry with Kai. Among the three villain groups I thought Branken was ok. He wasn't a good villain or a bad villain, but descent enough to start out. Meemy I felt was the second most interesting villain in the series behind Wolzard. Meemy was a former Heavenly Saint who was also a traitor. I liked most of the Hades Gods, especially Sphinx and Titan. The only one I didn't really like all that much was Toad. So overall, all the villain groups in Magiranger were pretty solid. I think Magiranger handled the multiple villain groups really well.

Boukenger

Boukenger like Goseiger and unlike Magiranger had multiple villain groups that were not connected through the same organization nor had an overarching villain. However, unlike both Magiranger and Goseiger, these four villain groups didn't come one and go after another was defeated. Instead, they were all constant throughout the entire season. The Boukengers would fight them in separate episodes and sometimes these villain groups would team-up. None of them were killed early in the season and thus there weren't any early climaxes. The villain groups were the Gordom Civilization lead by Gaja, the Jaryuu Tribe led by Ryuoun, the Ashu/Questers, and Dark Shadow. What made it interesting is they all had different motives. Gaja and Ryuoun each wanted to conquer the world, the Questers were human hating demons, and Dark Shadow was a ninja clan that was more interested in making money off of the precious' they stoled. Among them, Gaja was probably my least favorite. He wasn't a bad villain he just felt kinda bland and stiff, and I felt it was anti-climatic in the final battle when he went back to sleep and seemingly gave up. Ryuoun was awesome and had an interesting backstory that really developed his character. The Questers were even more badass than Ryuoun and had a history with Eiji. Dark Shadow was refreshing because they weren't bent on conquering humanity like the other groups, they were money-driven instead. Yaiba was the most interesting of the group, eventually betraying Dark Shadow. Shizuka was the one in Dark Shadow that didn't have much backstory or development, but I kinda liked her somewhat childish behavior. What really made having multiple villain groups at once interesting was that all the Boukengers except for Natsuki had a villainous rival. Satoru's rival was Ryuoun. Eiji's rivals were the Questers, especially Gai who killed his father. Masumi's rival was Yaiba. Sakura and Souta were both rivals with Shizuka. Like Magiranger I felt Boukenger handled the multiple villain groups really well and arguably better than Magiranger.

Goseiger

Then we have Goseiger. Like Magiranger, Goseiger's three villain groups (Warstar, Yuumajuu Beast, and Matrintis Empire) all came one after the other was defeated. Unlike Magiranger, however, there was no overarching villain or organization connecting the three groups. However, there was one constant villain, Bladeron. Bladeron was the most interesting villain on Goseiger who like Meemy, was a traitor and a rogue Gosei Angel. One of the big problems with how the multiple villain groups were handled in Goseiger was early climaxes, with the most obvious example being Warstar. Through the first 11 episodes, Warstar does nothing and felt rather bland and boring. There were hints of a rivalry between Alata and Dereputa, but Dereputa was killed off initially in episode 12 and for good in episode 16. As a result the rivalry went nowhere and Dereputa came off as wasted potential. Similarly, Warstar's Big Bad Mons Drake also came off as wasted potential. After Dereputa was initially thought to be killed off in episode 12, Mons Drake got desperate and made the show interesting briefly. However, Mons Drake was killed off in episode 15, which was another early climax and a big disappointment. This also didn't help with audiences since there weren't hints of Goseiger having multiple villain groups after Mons Drake. However, the worst part was to come, with the Yuumajuu Beasts. The Yuumajuu Beasts are easily one of the worst villain groups in Sentai. The Yuumajuu Beasts were pollution-driven villains, which I really despise. I'm a bit biased here but having pollution driven villains imo really feels so anti-climatic, uninteresting, and non-threatening. This was made worst with a really preachy 6th ranger, Gosei Knight. Some fans complain that the Green Aesop in Go-Onger was overt and preachy, but it was nothing compared to the combination of the Yuumajuu Beast and Gosei Knight. Not to mention the designs I felt were terrible. The Yuumajuu Beasts were killed off after episode 32, but this time it didn't feel so rushed or like a premature climax. However, that's because you could naturally expect it to happen after Warstar being killed off so early in the season. Then finally the last villain group was the Matrintis Empire, a robotic empire that first appeared in Episode 33 after the change of producers. I actually liked the Matrintis Empire. Among the three Goseiger villain groups they were the most interesting and had the most effort put into them. They went back to the old conquering humanity motive, but I felt like they were the only legitimate villains in Goseiger besides Bladeron that felt like a threat. Unlike the other Goseiger villains (and many Sentai villains for that matter), they scouted the Goseigers, strategized, and collected data. They actually did their homework. Robogogu had a mildly interesting backstory of being a former mad scientist, while Metal-Alice felt like a throwback to Sphinx of Magiranger. However, she didn't feel so much like a throwback that she came off as a rip-off. She seemed interested in the idea of having comrades, but mostly because she was abused and unappreciated by Robogogu. And unlike Sphinx she didn't turn good in the end, but was killed off by Bladeron.

Having multiple villain groups without an overarching big bad could have worked in Goseiger if it was better handled. Overall, Goseiger's handling of the multiple villain groups was easily the worst. Transitions often felt rushed, and the Yuumajuu arc was really the jump the shark moment of Goseiger, even more disappointing because it covered the entire middle portion of the series and after it briefly became interesting for a few episodes. However, I think there's also a clear difference in the Matrintis Empire, who came right after the change of producers. I felt that wasn't a coincidence either.

Villain Decay in Power Rangers

Recently, Sean Akizuki covered a few incidents of villain decay in Super Sentai. In Power Rangers, MMPR was particularly notorious for this particularly in season 2 and 3. Here's some examples.



Goldar was the first example. He was Rita's second in command during season 1, and pretty badass. However, in season 2 starting with his loss to an unmorphed Tommy in Green No More, he was routinely beaten easily, usually by Tommy as the White Ranger. The amount of one on one fights between Tommy and Goldar during season 2 was overdone and way too much. By season 3, he was as much of a bumbling idiot if not more so than Rito. The reason for his villain decay is somewhat of a mystery.



Lord Zedd is the most notorious example of villain decay. The suit design along with excellent voice acting by Robert Axelrod made him a pretty fearsome character. However, parents complained to Saban and Fox Network that he was "too scary" for kids. Saban wilt under the pressure and dumbed down his personality to a more comical character after his wedding to Rita late in season 2 and for all of season 3. However, it can be argued that he had more success as a "decayed villain" than he did before the villain decay. Before the villain decay he simply drained away the Green Ranger powers. After the villain decay he destroyed the Thunder Zords, destroyed the Ninja Power Coins, captured Ninjor, the Falcon Zord and the Pink Power Coin, and also succeeded in destroying the Command Center.

At the moment, I can't really think of any other examples of villain decay in Power Rangers. Most of the villains after MMPR pretty much stayed the same, either being badass or just plain sucked from the beginning.

My Thoughts on Gokaiger 10 Episodes Through

A few weeks ago, I gave an analysis on Power Rangers Samurai through 10 episodes. Now I'm doing the same for Gokaiger after 10 episodes. Unlike Samurai, I think Gokaiger is on its way to being a pretty good season and has quite a bit of potential.

The Cast


The cast is overall pretty solid. They're much better actors than the Samurai cast. The former Sentai warriors appearing as guest stars and the pirate motif make for some very interesting character development. My favorite character so far is Joe. Besides being an awesome swordsman, I think he has the most interesting backstory and potential, with him being a former member of the Zangyach and the story about his teacher. It seems Gokai Silver may be connected to his past as well. I can't wait to see the two parter coming up that involves him and Kaoru/Shinken Red. My second favorite is Luka. Of course, there's the looks factor but I also think she's kinda funny and sneaky. Unlike the original rumors that described Marvelous as Jack Sparrow-like, I think Luka is the most like Jack-Sparrow. Captain Marvelous is a bit cocky, but in a good way. He's the brave, confident leader who takes everything in a grain of salt. Ahim is the atypical character of the group, being the sweetheart princess of a destroyed planet. She kinda feels like a throwback to Natsuki in a way. I think she works perfectly well to balance the other anti-hero characters of the group. Don I'm still a bit mixed over. Initially I didn't like his cowardness but in the recent episodes he's shown some cleaver fighting tactics such as having his gun tied to a rope ready for use or hiding behind a bush to attack the Gormin. I'm still interested to see how he'll turn out.

The Nostalgia



The nostalgia factor I think has been handled really well so far in Gokaiger. Among the anniversary seasons Gokaiger has dug the deepest into Sentai nostalgia by equipping the Gokaigers with all the powers of the previous Super Sentai warriors. The guest stars have been effective, not stealing the show but helping to develop the Gokaiger characters, such as the episode above with Jan training Doc and Ahim. I was a little bit dissapointed that Ban and Jasmine got such small roles in the Deka episode but it was still a good episode. My favorite of these guest star episodes so far was the recent one, with GaoRed appearing. Along the way, they're also increasing their arsenal by combining with old mechs such as GaoLion Gokai Oh, and doing it without having mecha overload problems, at least so far.

The Legendary War


With the story of the Legendary War I really hope they dwelve deeper into it. The series doesn't have to be about the Legendary War, but I hope they give some more background to it, like how it started and how it pertains to the Gokaigers. Specifically the relationship between AkaRed and Captain Marvelous. It seems they will go deeper into it with the movie. It was definitely a good move and made for a fantastic start to the season.

Pirate Motif

Initially I was skeptical rather or not the pirate motif was going to work. Was it going to be one of those really old and dumb pirate shows like Captain Hook or was it going to be something cool like Pirates of the Carribean. As it turns out, the Pirate motif works out really well. They're space pirates and all the characters except for Ahim are anti-heroes. Their anti-hero traits make for some really interesting character quirks like Luka helping Joe to cheat in a card game, grabbing an expensive ring from a family, or Captain Marvelous not neccessarily caring what happens to the earth. These quirks also make for some really interesting character development.

The Villains


The villains haven't done too much yet but it's too early to tell whether they're good villains or bad villains. A lot will rest on how Joe's history with the Zangyack develops. It will be pretty interesting to see what happens.

So far I think Gokaiger has been running really well. I don't want to over-hype it or speculate on how good it can get, but I really think Gokaiger has some excellent potential to be an awesome season. It has me excited to see what happens next.

Some Power Ranger Characters I Feel Mixed About

In my previous post, I mentioned some Sentai characters I feel mixed about. So now, I'll share a few Power Ranger characters I feel mixed about.

Cole Evans, Wild Force Red

Some fans tend to call Cole "The Scrappy" of Wild Force. Many fans didn't like his scene where he tried to connect with an org's heart in the beginning of Wild Force. Admittedly that scene is very stupid but it is just one scene. I actually felt Cole was the strongest of the Wild Force characters. He's essentially the only character with any originality to him, and the story about his parents being killed by Master Org/Dr. Adler I think is the highlight of the series. That being said, the problem with Cole is he's played by Ricardo Medina, who's a douchbag and a terrible actor. Granted Ricardo's acting has improved slightly in PR Samurai as Dekker, but when he played Cole his overacting tended to ruin most dramatic scenes.

Jack, SPD Red

Like Cole, I kinda like Jack's development over the course of one season. I liked how he started out as a Robin Hood type character, and was eventually molded into a leader after working on his flaws. That said, the way they handled him by trying to make him like Ban without being "too much" like Ban didn't really work out that well. Jack wasn't a "screaming red" like Ban (Cole was, however) but he had Ban's occasional ego problems. This IMO made him too stereotypical African American.

Gem and Gemma, RPM Gold and Silver

Admittedly, I do like their Go-Onger counterparts much better. They're initially annoying for the first 5 episodes that they appear in. However, I think this is blown out of proportion a bit by the fandom. After the episode "Three's A Crowd," they're toned down and aren't that bad. They have a couple good character episodes after Three's A Crowd, and have that awesome scene at the end where they shoot down the control tower that lands on Venjix. They're ok characters for me. Though I think among the wacky comic relief characters, Ziggy is a lot better and a lot more effective.

Some Sentai Characters That I Feel Mixed About

Among most Sentai characters, there's been many I've liked, some I feel are ok, some bland, and a few others that I disliked. However, there's a handful of characters that I don't know what to think about and generally have some mixed feelings about. Here they are.

Mei- Ptera Ranger


Generally, I think Mei is cute and some of Mei's focus episodes are pretty good (especially the punk episode with Dan). But other than Mei's "cuteness" and her rivalry with Lamie I feel she doesn't have much else to offer. She's really stereotypical of other pink senshi, granite she was one of the first kawaiiko's, and having a rivalry with one of the main villains is also pretty common among pink senshi. Also being the way Zyuranger is written, it feels often that the only two characters in Zyuranger that matter much to the story are Geki and Burai.

Naoto- Time Fire


Naoto is on both my mixed and dislike list. The reason why he makes my mixed list is from a story perspective, he works out perfectly well. I felt like the first half of Timeranger is kinda slow and episodic, but when Naoto arrives the pace of the story really picks up. He added the spice to the story and another dimension. The problem I have is with his character, and he's the only Timeranger character that I don't care much for. I know some others may like it but I feel his arrogance makes him too unlikable for my taste. To me he comes off as too much of a jerkass, and unlike many other of the jerk-like characters like Gai, Hoji, and the Go-On wings, Naoto's attitude doesn't change the slightest bit.

Yousuke- Hurricane Red


Yousuke really has me split. Sometimes I like him and other times I feel he's kinda bland. I really liked his rivalry and evolving relationship with Ikkou, but from a development and personality perspective there's not a lot to him. Especially when you compare Yousuke to many other red senshi. He's not a bad character, just that for a red senshi Yousuke feels like he's lacking.

Ran- Geki Yellow

Ran is probably the character I like the most on this list. She's kinda like the kawaiiko and the action girl rolled into one. She's cute, sweet, and tough, kinda like a mix between Sakura (Bouken Pink) and Saki (Go-On Yellow). I think some of her focus episodes during the first half of Gekiranger are some of the better ones IMO, specifically 11, 15, and 23 where she was named team captain. What I'm really mixed about is her lack of development, focus, and how her leadership was handled during the second half of the season. While I think the second half of Gekiranger improves quite a bit with the action, story, characters, and drama, it falls short with Ran's development. After episode 23, she only got a single focus episode (37). Being the team captain, I felt they should have figured out how to squeez in at least a couple more focus episodes for her. In short, I like her character and don't have a problem with the character herself, I just don't like how her character was poorly handled by the writers.

Jetman Series Review

Before I get to the review I'd like to apologize for the lack of activity in the last couple of weeks. Some really big family issues have come up that along with school will limit my activity here for the next few weeks, although I'll still try to post on this blog whenever I can.

Choujin Sentai Jetman (Birdman Squadron Jetman) (1991-92) was the 15th installment of Super Sentai. It's a tribute to a 1970's anime series, Gatchaman. The motif seems to be one of an air force squadron, and reminds me somewhat of the American tv show Pensacola: Wings of Gold. Jetman is a dark and very violent season, which came before they toned down the violence after Dairanger. Jetman is one of the more popular (if not the most popular) Sentai's around. It even received a sequel manga series.

The Good

Jetman is one of the more complete seasons of Sentai with a strong combination of excellent villains, good cast, and solid storyline. The Vyram may be the strongest set of villains ever in Sentai. Radiguet is pure badass, although I kinda like Rio and Wolzard more. Tranza and Maria are also excellent villains. What I really liked was the rivalry between Grey and Gai, especially the mutual respect they had for each other and the last fight between them. Among the cast members the most popular is Gai, and it's easy to see why with his strong character development. However, my favorite character was Ryuu. I liked the tragic aspects of his character, with his girlfriend Rie, and how it helps him grow throughout the series. Gai and Ryuu compliment each other really well. I also like Ako and Kaori as well, finding them both to be lively characters. I also love the opening theme song, one of my favorites among 90's sentais.

The Bad

Raita's development was kinda pushed aside in the mix of the Ryuu/Maria plot and the Ryuu/Kaori/Gai love triangle. The only real big gripe I have is how unrealistic the fight scenes are. I mean seriously, how many times is Ryuu going to get shot and not come away with a scratch, or how long it takes for them to henshin sometimes when they're clearly outmatched? Also, the ending with Gai being killed was out of the air and totally unnecessary, imo.

The Ugly

There's nothing terrible about this series.

My Rating

B+/A-: I'm kinda conflicted about this series, in a good way. On one hand I like Timeranger a little better among the dark and gritty seasons, but on the other hand I think this is one of the more well made seasons. Either way, it's still a great series.

The "my favorite episodes" section will have to wait a while. I saw the last 33 episodes a few months after watching the first 18, and I don't have an episode guide to follow. I'll edit this section after I rewatch it probably during the summer.

My Thoughts on Power Rangers Samurai through 8 (10) Episodes

I've been planning to give my thoughts on Samurai and Gokaiger at episode 10, but with Samurai, I couldn't hold out any longer. At the moment, I don't think Samurai is a good season, and here's why.

Bad Acting

Judging acting can be subjective, and I usually don't like debating who's a good actor or who's a bad actor because it's so subjective and at times hard to tell, but on Samurai the acting is so terrible that it can't be ignored. Power Ranger fans complain a lot about the bad acting in Wild Force, but Wild Force at least had a few actors that were passable. Here, almost everyone is terrible. Kevin overacts, Emily is awkward, Mia and Jayden are more wooden than Keanu Reeves. The voice actors (except for Dayuu) are equally terrible. It feels like the cast were selected for eye-candy fanservice instead of their acting abilities. The only descent actor so far is Mike. Above we have a child actor playing young Emily and another actor playing Emily's sister. Both of them put on better performances than Emily did that episode. It's pretty sad when your guest actors out-perform your lead actors.

Bad Dialog

I remember when the promos came out Fantasy Leader talked about the cheesy one liners and corny jokes. After watching 8 episodes of this, it has gotten on my nerves. Most of the bad dialog has come from corny jokes made by the MOTW. To be honest, I'm not really much of a fan of Power Ranger style humor (except for Bulk & Skull and RPM). Most of it is just lame corny puns that aren't really funny at all, which is also what I don't like about Ninja Storm, but that's off topic. Then there's that lame pun that the rangers always say (this. should. change. your. tune.). The rest of the dialog isn't always bad but occasionally we get some klunky dialog from over-translating the Sentai material, like Mia in one episode shouting "unforgivable." It sounds pretty strong in Japanese when you hear "yurusenai" but in English it just sounds wierd.

Handling of the Sentai Source Material

Generally, how they've handled the American fight footage as well as the Sentai fight footage has actually been pretty good. They're making good transitions from the American footage to the Sentai footage, which I partly credit to the location in New Zealand. However, the big issue I have is how they're handling the Shinkenger plots. I've never been a fan of copying Sentai plots and making them your own. To they're credit, at least in the opening credits they are citing the original writers from the Shinkenger episodes. The problem here is they dumb down the plots so much that they lose their effectiveness. For example, the first episode we saw (technically episode 3) Mike had to leave his friends behind to help serve the team. In the same Shinkenger episode, Chiaki had major discipline issues that were introduced as a character flaw. Another example is when Kevin gets the swordfish zord, he's helped by a random old man. In the same Shinkenger episode, Ryuunosuke was helped by a former Kuroku who screwed up in the past and realized he wants to help again.

Mega Mode

Many PR fans complain about the battlizers. I've never really cared for them but never really hated them. But this Mega Mode is absolutely stupid. At least the battlizers proved useful. The Mega Mode however, is never used for battle and only used when they're piloting their zords. Whats the damn point if they're not going to use it during battle? It's just another lame gimmick to sale toys.

The Characters are Dry

Lastly, the characters are just bland. This is partly due to trying to make them exact carbon copies of their Shinkenger counterparts, and also due to the poor acting. Just like the actors themselves, the only character that I do like is Mike. The rest of them are just boring.

From what I've seen so far and what I know about Shinkenger, I don't have a lot of hope for the rest of the season, unless they tone down the cheesiness, the acting gets better, or the writers come out with something completely original. Samurai isn't as bad as Operation Overdrive. Some of the episodes are actually watchable, but I'd give them 6/10 at best. Some are downright terrible like the Swordfish episode or the premier. At the moment, Samurai feels like Wild Force 2.0. Actually it's worst than Wild Force.

Gokaiger Episode 7 (Nikiniki Kempo Lesson) Review

Note: Photos are from Sean Akizuki's Super Sentai Blog and That Toku Blog

Warning: Spoilers Ahead





This episode starts out with Navi giving her usual prophicy of where to find treasure. Her prophicy is "the Tiger's child." The Gokaigers split up to look for the tiger's child. Marvelous looks in a zoo with a tiger present, meanwhile Ahim and Don find a mascot tiger, with a child suddenly running up to it, which they confused for its child. Joe and Luka look in a store, where one of the store's clerks dresses Joe in ridiculous leopard skin apparel which was pretty funny. Then they find a cat, confusing it for the tiger's child. The cat is really fond of Navi, much to her dismay. The Gokaigers then bring the cat back to Earth, and find the MOTW, Pachacamac, attacking the city. The Gokaigers transform and try to fight him off, but Pachacamac, using a magnet kempo, takes their weapons away and thoroughly defeat Don and Ahim. The others transform into Gaorangers and fend off Pachacamac, for now. Don and Ahim, feeling they slowed their team down, stumble upon Jan/GekiRed teaching a bunch of students GekiJyuKen. Ahim is anxious to learn after previously seeing Joe succeed with training. On the other hand, Don thinks its impossible and refuses to work with Ahim. Later that night, Don is outside on the ship where Luka spots several shooting stars, and tells Don that spotting shooting stars every night is what made her eyes so sharp. Later, Don stumbles upon a weight bracelet that Marvelous usually wears while practicing dart throwing. Don tries with the weight bracelet, but it is too heavy and he is only able to throw the dart a few inches. The next day, Don realizes he needs more practice and joins Ahim with Jan's training. However, they're interrupted and have to leave because the others are in danger, losing their fight against Pachacamac. They apologize to Jan that they have to leave and tell him they'll continue the training once they're done. Jan, however to their surprise, tells them he has nothing more to teach them. They learned everything they needed when they realized that they have to strive to continue to get better. Before they leave, Ahim asks Jan his name, which Jan tells them that he's "Kandou Jan, son of the Tigers," much to Ahim and Don's surprise. Don and Ahim arrive on sight, and together with the other Gokaigers they transform into Gekirangers, and defeat Pachacamac. After Pachacamac groes large, the Gokaigers unlock the powers of the Gekirangers, to defeat Pachacamac for good. The episode ends with Don telling Luka to learn the navigation system herself, and having Marvelous learn to cook the hotdogs, much to his dismay. Ahim tells Marvelous to look at it as training. Marvelous then burns his hand when he touches the pot.

My Thoughts:

I really liked that the episode displays Don's and Ahim's inexperience, and shows that everyone was a beginner once. When you think about it, this was how Jan was at first when he was recruited to be part of the Gekiranger team. Speaking of Jan, while I think the maturation of Ban and Kai really dumb downs their personalities, I like the mature Jan much better. Ahim looks really cute with her hair pinned up in a pony tail. I also like how Navi's prophecies are always vague and make the Gokaigers earn the work. Navi is quite a fun sidekick character. That being said, Don frustrates me with his cowardness at times. He's the only Gokaiger that I don't like to well so far, but I'm trying to hold back to see how he develops. I was also a bit disappointed that they didn't play the Gekiranger theme song during the fight. It's one of the more awesome Sentai themes. They played the Magiranger theme during episode 3, and the Dekiranger theme during episode 5, so why didn't they play the Geki theme here? Overall, it's a descent episode. Not as good as the premier, episode 4 or 6, but still pretty good. I give it 7/10.

Poll Results, Best Sentai of the 70's/80's and 90's,

First, I have to mention that for whatever reason, my polls screwed up towards the end. Originally there were over 100 votes for the best Sentai of the 90's and over 70 for the best Sentai of the 70's/80's. But since those results won't show up, I'm just going to stick with the results I already have.



Jetman won the poll for favorite Sentai of the 90's, with 48 votes. From what I've seen of it (the first 36 episodes) it's easy to see why. Good villains, descent cast, plenty of good drama and action as well. Dairanger got second with 35 votes, barely beating out Zyuranger which had 34. Megaranger got 4th with 29 votes. Perhaps MMPR and In Space nostalgia are influencing the Zyuranger and Megaranger votes. The least number of votes was Carranger, surprisingly, considering how popular its comedy was.



Maskman won the most votes for favorite Sentai of the 70's/80's, receiving 32 votes. Liveman was second with 28 votes, Turboranger was third with 24 votes, and Flashman was fourth with 22 votes. Sun Vulcan and Goggle V were dead last with 10 votes a piece.

Goseiger vs Shinkenger Review

Note: Image from Super Sentai Images

Yesterday a subbed version of Goseiger vs Shinkenger finally came out. I've watched it twice, once last night and then again today. I'm kinda mixed about the team-up. There were a lot of cool things about it on one hand, while on the other there were a few things that got on my nerves. I'll give some pros and cons about the team-up.

Pros:

* The action was pretty good, although not as good as the Shinkenger vs. Go-Onger team-up.

* There's some pretty good interaction between the teams, including them training together to perfect the Tensou and Mojikara as one unit. It really reminded me what I liked in Geki vs. Go-On when the teams trained together to save the Engines.

* Evil ShinkenRed was pretty cool and badass.

* The Gokaiger appearance was awesome, just like most Gokaiger fight scenes.

* The usually bland and boring Goseiger characters showed more personality in this team-up than they did in an entire season of Goseiger. However, this did have some other undesirable consequences that I'll discuss below.

* The ending, with the Goseigers imagining Alata as their "lord" like Takeru was actually pretty funny.

Cons:

* Nearly the entire first 15 minutes of the show. Besides the brief introduction of Takeru and Alata meeting each other, the first 15 minutes is filled with corny humor (like the Goseigers imitate samurais), and characters from both teams were annoying, particularly Eri, Moune, and Ryuunosuke, who aren't nearly as annoying in their respective series as they are here.

* The Gosei girls, Eri and Moune being star-struck by the Shinkengers was a little bit over the top.

* Ground Hyper Gosei Great was god awful to look at. Previous series have had their mecha overload problems, but this one was the worst. What's worst was that nearly every single component of it was a giant head.
* Kaoru not transforming into ShinkenRed was a bit of a disappointment, however I was happy that she at least got a role in the movie that was relevant to its plot.
* The GUIS subs are over-translated. They're not bad subs, but I think GUIS translated it so much that it lost its Japanese feel. For example, I think it suits the show better for the subs to say "Gedoshu" instead of "the Fallen" or "Takki-Chan" instead of just "Takki."

Despite the mix of good and bad, I actually did find the team-up somewhat enjoyable. Definitely not my favorite, but not the worst either. Overall, I give it a 7.5/10.

Crowning moment of Funny- Boukenger, Natsuki's Rampage

Earlier, ChrisX talked about an absolutely hilarious episode of Boukenger involving Satoru's bad luck. That is no doubt the most hilarious episode in Boukenger and one of the funniest moments ever in Sentai. It reminded me of another hilarious Boukenger moment that comes a very close second, episode 24 which involves "Natsuki's Rampage." The episode involved Natsuki searching for treasure for a boy on her own, much to Masumi's dismay. Meanwhile, the Boukengers were attacked by an illusion of Karths, the Jaryuu Tribe, and Dark Shadow created by a precious. Natsuki then launches DaiBouken to dig up her treasure. When she's done, she comes to the Boukengers rescue to defeat the illusionary karths, Jaryuu tribe, and Dark Shadow, in Ultimate DaiBouken to squash everything (including her friends in the mix of the battle) like bugs. I found a youtube video of the incident, and all I have to say is: there is no kill like overkill!!!