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Showing posts from November, 2013

My Confession of Super Sentai Hangovers, Tokusatsu Breaks and Sentai Snob Moments

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Like it or not, I do tend to suffer from Super Sentai hangovers which can turn me into a Super Sentai snob of sorts. While right now I'll admit my Toku vibe now isn't as strong as it used to (then it might return like it used to). I felt like I wanted to write this similar to Shougo B'Stard's confession of a Super Sentai snob. I could really admit this... I really started thinking like 80s-90s Super Sentai (or even Tokusatsu in general) are always the best and even today, in terms of storyline I think the older Super Sentai back then does it much better. As a kid, I watched Kamen Rider Black, Kamen Rider Black RX, Shaider and Gavan but Super Sentai was my top favorite Tokusatsu. In fact, from my first Super Sentai that was Chodenshi Bioman to my favorite that is Chojin Sentai Jetman, I did have some hangovers. I'll admit my childhood Super Sentai were Bioman, Maskman, Turboranger, Fiveman and Jetman. Jetman was the last Sentai series I'd see under awful dubs

The Unraveling of Doctor Man's Identity and Past in Bioman

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Doctor Man was probably not all that enigmatic in Bioman.  Maybe some people figured out he was a human being since day one (he is) though at that time, I assumed that the Big Three and Farrah Cat were human beings themselves.  But let's focus on the unraveling of Doctor Man's identity of who he was as a human. In Bioman episode 19, the title of the series was "My Father is Doctor Man" which was really a huge hint Doctor Man was a human being.  In that episode, he introduced Prince not as his creation but as his beloved son.  When he first appeared in that episode, Mason considered Prince's claims to be nonsense before he got that hilariously funny incident with Mettlzer with both returning to the Neograd Fortress in really bad shape, he was shocked to see Prince there.  Doctor Man called Prince his only son which made Mason say in his thoughts, "Wait, I didn't know Doctor Man was a human being." which made me think, why in the world does he thin

Emperor Zeba's Possible Character Planning and Eventual Development

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Well I've mentioned how I was surprised to find this earlier promotional shot of Zeba in Maskman so it seemed he was planned to be a human being or not.  However I thought that it was entirely scrapped in favor of the nightmare fuel behind his true identity.  So I guess the human face Zeba was scrapped off in favor of the more badass Zeba with the face mask that conceals his inhuman features except his eyes. Instead, they decided to remove the whole Zeba with a face to Zeba being your suspicious tyrant yet you don't dare question him why you never see his face because he'll torture you horribly before you can spill the truth out.  For starters, it's obvious he isn't your normal human being though you're probably kept wild mass guessing to what he is (I even speculated he was an alien from outer space or some demon) until you see more hints that lead towards his true identity.  Most of the plot pointed out to the possibility he could be the legendary monster

Dai Satan's Role in Zyuranger

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Dai Satan is the ultimate evil of the Zyuranger continuity.  Now let us analyze his role rather than just some weird floating head or okubi that we know as Lokar in MMPR. In the Zyuranger universe, Bandora is actually the big bad under the bigger bad that is Dai Satan.  It's not known immediately how she came under Dai Satan's servitude.  However what I find creepy is that Bandora was using some ritual to bring him back with some bizarre ritual.  To do, thirteen children were caught and being used to power him up.  Fortunately Noboru Sugimara didn't kill the children otherwise Zyuranger might even not pass the ratings for Super Sentai! The Ultimate Daizyujin was first formed to defeat Dai Satan.  Dai Satan was sent running away for now but he would return in the finale. What was revealed later towards the finale arc of Zyuranger was that Bandora was once a queen who had a son named Kai (no it's not Thrax but Kai) and we don't know who the father is.  Kai w

The Bioman Gear Power Up Arc

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So far, here's the Bioman power up arc.  I really thought there were some foreshadowing that Dr. Man was going to sooner or later upgrade his troops.  If Mika's death could somehow foreshadow Silver's arrival, remember in episode 18 of Bioman that Gear presented the first Mecha Giant made of super metal with an exposed weak spot.  The Metalmegas was also like that.  I guess Dr. Man was already figuring out to find stronger alloy and sources of power to power up his troops.  Sadly, Farrah Cat was never upgraded. The upgrade was introduced in the form of Metal Megas.  The destruction was kind of severe considering that Messerjuu and Aquagaiger were totally dismantled.  Juoh was seen standing before his body parts were separated but still left intact for reassembly. The power-up arc began in the last episode when Metalmegas was introduced as the new Mecha Giant which was now piloted by a member of the Big Three at the end of the episode.  The Bio Robo learned a new amazi

Just Some Confusion Over the Name "Power Rangers" I Encountered Decades Ago

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I guess another popular misconception by younger fans of Tokusatsu is the name "Power Rangers".  Let's just face it, there is also the logo that says "Saban's Power Rangers" to which can cause confusion except without doing any proper research.  Here's some misconceptions I had encountered a decade and a few years ago during my years as a teenage delinquent! The first was that if these people are ignorant about the term "Super Sentai", they might think Saban is guilty of copyright infringement because they think that Power Rangers came from Japan.  The idea is from Japan, the footage is from Japan but it was born as the child of Saban's company and Toei!  That is, the term "Super Sentai" tends to get overshadowed to the point that even if they do learn that Super Sentai came first, they might call it, "The original Power Rangers" or that "Saban should be sued for stealing the name Power Rangers from Toei."

Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger: Overrated or Underrated?

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Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger is one series I am pretty iffy whether or not it's overrated or underrated among fans of Super Sentai with many of them who also like Power Rangers. It was the series that Haim Saban legally franchised from Toei to produce the monster hit that was none other than Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Zyuranger as Overrated: Maybe for open-minded Power Rangers fans who watch Super Sentai, they actually do overrate it. My reasons are they may only thank the Super Sentai series that gave birth to their favorite franchises that is from Zyuranger and well up to Gokaiger since we are yet to see Gobusters and Kyoryuger getting adapted. Maybe it's because of Zyuranger they don't want to check out other great Super Sentai series so they're practically missing a good portion of the real deals or maybe some of them do check out the pre-Zyuranger series but can't help but like Zyuranger too much. I don't know but it seems to be Burai is made to

Wishful Thinking: Dairanger's Shadam

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I was watching Dairanger and well, I would say while Rintaro Nishi did a good job at Shadam but I felt like, it could have been better. In fact, here's who I really wished where acting as Shadam... Yup that's right Daisuke Tachi from Chojin Sentai Jetman! My reason would be that, Daisuke Tachi has the facial expression looking like he's really going to kill you plus he's got one gruff, scary voice even during his amnesia arc, he still sounds like he's about to kill someone! In fact, I felt like Shadam himself was also another noteworthy bastard and complete monster aside from Radiguet. Like Radiguet, Shadam overthrew his own master for power, betrayed his own comrades for power and doesn't even care about people. Heck, Shadam doesn't even care about his sons Kou and Akomaru and they also clashed with the red rangers! I just thought that Shadam was a great villain but he could have been really nightmare fuel that would even exceed the Gorma Emperor himsel

Super Sentai Series I Personally Think Gets Too Much Credit

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So okay I do love (or like) these series but this is just me hypothesizing on stuff. Now let's think about these series that might be very overrated: Chodenshi Bioman was very popular among the Filipino audience when it was shown with its rather super cheesy, super duper inaccurate horrid dubbing XP. For one, a lot of Filipinos may have seen this as their first Super Sentai if they were born in the 80s to 90s. I do like this series but when I say I really like it that much, nah. What might be often overlooked was that Bioman had its own fair share of problems like the Beastnoid concept tends to get boring since as a kid, I really asked to why those guys never died no matter how many times they were hit! Overall, it's still an interesting season but there's more to Sentai than this. Chojin Sentai Jetman is probably very overrated and I'm in that boat of people who give it too much credit. I still personally think that this is the best Super Sentai season ever. It h