5. Dr. Kemp (Liveman):
4. Dr. Mazenda (Liveman):
3. Basco (Gokaiger):
2. Wolzard (Magiranger):
1. Long (Gekiranger):
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
My top 5 Sentai villains
Throughout the entirety of the franchise, there have been many villains. Here is a list of the ones that have had a lasting effect on me. Note: This is my current list based on what I've seen so far, it mostly features more recent villains, and it will probably change once I watch more of the old school sentai series.
5. Dr. Kemp (Liveman):
A former friend of the main 3 Livemen. Even though I haven't finished Liveman yet, he quickly became one of my favorite villains, even if some of his plans border more along the lines of just trolling people (like the maze episode) instead of causing actual havoc. I've only seen about half of Liveman at the time of this post and I'm expecting a great show from him in the second half (his place on the list is most likely to change).
4. Dr. Mazenda (Liveman):
A former friend of the main 3 Livemen and Blue Dolphin's former roommate. She turned herself into a powerful machine yet retained her human form. While she creeped me out at first, I began to warm up to her. She is the star of my favorite arc in Liveman so far. It was a really emotional one that almost made me cry when she symbolically killed her human-self. Like Kemp, I'm expecting an excellent show from her in the second half of Liveman and her spot is probably going to change once I finish the series.
3. Basco (Gokaiger):
A former friend of Marvelous. He betrayed Marvelous and AkaRed and sold them out to the Zangyack just so he could take the ranger keys and claim the greatest treasure of the universe for himself. Armed with a trumpet that could bring ranger keys to life. He was the one who found the missing sixth ranger keys. He was hands down the biggest threat that the Gokaigers faced. His rivalry with Marvelous was excellent and thrilling with lots of action packed fight scenes. Seeing him get under Marvelous' skin made it even better. Deceitful and scheming, he even used the most powerful army in the universe as pawns so he could steal 5 grand powers while the Gokaigers were distracted.
2. Wolzard (Magiranger):
For the purposes of this list, I'm going to talk about the purple Wolzard, since he was technically a villain at that time. The father of the main five Magirangers. Blagel was put under N Ma's curse and forced to be solely obedient to him. Despite that, his concept of honor still shined through N Ma's dark magic. The discovery of his identity was a heart-wrenching discovery for the Magirangers, especially for Kai, who wasn't sure whether he should save his father or kill him. His relationship to the Magiranger's led for some truly gripping moments. While he wasn't as ruthless as N Ma's other generals, he still showed that he was a force to be reckoned with. An awesomely powerful and honorable villain.
1. Long (Gekiranger):
Deliciously evil and creepy as heck. His actor really ate up the role. Long is a villain who wanted nothing more than to destroy the world. However, he was also very patient. Waiting centuries to find the right person to turn into a god of destruction. Even going so far as to slaughter Rio's family in front of him to send Rio down the path of destruction. His entire motivation for this plan was because he was bored. He is the type of destruction villain that I admire the most. Cold, emotionless, calculating, and above all, patient. Not only was he powerful but his very presence was extremely unsettling, even to his allies. Constantly popping out of nowhere (which always made Mele jump), getting way too close for comfort, and doing all that with this cold, emotionless stare just to ratchet up the creepy factor. He seems have found a great balance between scary and creepy. I have yet to see a villain who terrifies me more. All in all, he is just really fun to watch on screen.
5. Dr. Kemp (Liveman):
4. Dr. Mazenda (Liveman):
3. Basco (Gokaiger):
2. Wolzard (Magiranger):
1. Long (Gekiranger):
Monday, August 12, 2013
Bleach Anime Rant: Sosuke Aizen, overpowered villain and a living inconsistency
You may not know this, but I'm also an anime fan as well as a toku fan. So here is my opinion on one of the most broken anime characters I've seen in a while. The war for Karakura arc has really soured me on the character but I will try to keep the swearing to a minimum. I am going to go into every issue I have with the character, his powers, and Kubo's decisions regarding the character so prepare for a long read. For anyone who hasn't seen Bleach or hasn't caught up yet: Read at your own risk! Massive spoilers ahead!
NOTE: This rant is talking about Aizen's stuff from the anime. I'm not reading the manga at the moment but from what I've heard, Aizen caused a whole mess of other overly complicated stuff in the manga that only serves to lower my opinion of him.
Let me just start by saying that I do not hate Bleach and I had no problem with Aizen until this arc. I'm just getting tired of the route Kubo is going with Aizen and how he keeps manipulating the rules of his universe to do some really stupid things. He tried to make this awesome, omnipotent villian but he did it in such a way that Aizen became too over the top and turned into an unbelievable villian. Aizen had a lot of potential to be a good villian but Kubo just went too far with him. Anyways, enough of that, its time to get down to business.
1. The Plan: Now where do I begin with Aizen? Lets start with how the anime pretty much admits that he was behind everything in the series up until now. He seemingly manipulated hundreds of years of events. He even butchered the Soul Society's government to make sure his plans went off without a hitch yet left the one person who could supposedly match his intelligence (Urahara) alive. Why not kill Urahara once he found Rukia so no one outside the Soul Society can stop him? You could argue that its his pride that keeps him from doing so and that he thinks he is smarter than Urahara, but to me thats just a cop out. To top it all off, his entire plan relied on Ichigo not letting Rukia die in the first episode, gaining Soul Reaper powers, losing his soul reaper powers only to get his soul reaper powers back along with hollow powers and not dying in the process, gaining Bankai, and not dying until this point. I take it back...Aizen isn't a genius, he is the luckiest villain I've ever seen. This kind of plan is by far one of the dumbest plot devices in existance because it relies on too many variables in order for it to work and it is the absolute worst way of getting a villain's intelligence across. It essentially equates to the writer saying "How do I make my new villian look like a genius? Oh I know, I'll make him the source of the entire plot and have him manipulate the hero to get to this point. They'll never see that coming!". Kubo pretty much expects us to believe that Aizen somehow foresaw hundreds of years of events. I can understand using this sort of thing for a short (1-13 episodes) or medium-length (13-26 and sometimes 50 episodes) anime, but doing this reveal after more than 200 episodes is absolutely stupid (yes I know that happened because the manga was so long and due to a lot of filler in the anime) and only re-enforces how unlikely this plan is to succeed as well as how lucky the villain is that it actually worked.
Seriously, I know its just a tv show and its supposed to have some degree of predictability and of course Ichigo was going to do all of that anyway, but for Aizen not to have any other alternative in case something screwed up is just stupid. He totally jumps the shark during this arc and pretty much "God Modes" all of his fights, meaning no matter what the heroes do he will most likely have an answer for it just because the plot says so. The Hogyoku only serves to make him worse (but thats another part of the rant entirely). The power imbalance between Aizen and the heroes is just ridiculous.
2. His Logic And Wasted Effort: Further more, I have to outright question his need to create the Espada with the Hogyoku for the sole purpose of being nothing but cannon fodder. He has admitted that he is at least 5 times stronger than most of the captains and even twice as strong as Ichigo hollowfied, so what was the point in doing that? Why did Aizen waste so much time and effort creating cannon fodder when he could have obliterated the Soul Society after gaining the Hogyoku and then create the Ohken (Royal Key)? Normally I admire strategic villains but Aizen is just too much and wastes so much effort for something that should be a simple feat for someone like him. Though I have to admit, I must give him credit for developing Wonderwiess the way he did. That was a stroke of brilliance on his part.
3. The Zanpakuto: Now for possibly the most broken thing about him and what leads to his inconsistent abilities, his zanpakuto Kyoka Suigetsu. It is just stupidly powerful. It can manipulate the five senses to make his opponents see, feel, hear, taste, or smell whatever Aizen wants them to. Anyone who sees the sword's released form is essentially under his control and he can regain control by releasing the sword again, with Ichigo being the only one who has a chance against him because he has never seen it before. I bring this up now because at one point Aizen tricks the Soul Reapers into thinking they are fighting him and when "he" gets impaled by Toshiro he reveals that it was Momo with Aizen disguised as Momo getting healed by Izuru, which makes the audience think that Momo was the Aizen they were fighting this entire time. I call BS on this because not once during the fight did Aizen ever release his zanpakuto. Furthermore Ichigo was fighting that Aizen at the beginning of the episode so why did he fall for it when he is supposed to be immune? The Momo Aizen even managed to wound the captains fighting him/her before the illusion was broken so how did those wounds still remain after the reveal? And how did Tosen die from the illusion Aizen's sword going through his skull? Illusions do not work like that. Furthermore, regardless of how convincing the illusion was, its still an illusion which makes the wounds remaining far more puzzling when you consider two more things: 1. Momo, no matter how good she may be, cannot fight on Aizen's level so she likely wouldn't be able to damage the captains. 2. Momo was supposedly unconcious for the last 10 episodes meaning it was the illusion that dealt the damage. His zanpakuto can only make you think the illusion is real, make you feel the pain from the illusion cutting you, and make you see a wound that isn't there. It does not make the victim's or the wielder's thoughts a reality!! No matter how convinced they are that they have been injured, the wounds should still vanish after the illusion was broken. As for how he used his zanpakuto's powers without releasing it, I suppose you could argue that Aizen's zanpakuto is like Ichigo's with it being a constant release zanpakuto (which contradicts what happened earlier in the series as he released it in the normal manner), but then that creates a plot-hole as Ichigo would've technically seen the released form during this fight (due to the captains telling him to keep his eyes on Aizen while they tried to make an opening for him to strike) which would mean he isn't immune anymore. So yeah, either Ichigo isn't immune or Kubo pulled some major BS with this reveal! I've heard some people say that all of this was explained in a panel of the manga but that was never shown in the anime.
4. The Broken Rule and The Last Straw: For Kubo to throw out one of the most basic rules for his show is just stupid, that rule being that in order for a zanpakuto's power to be released the soul reaper must say the release command for their sword as well as the sword's name (with Ichigo's being an exception since it is locked in shikai, Aizen however has no excuse as he was shown releasing it in the normal manner earlier in the series). It looks like Kubo only removed that restriction for Aizen simply to show how broken he is. It doesn't help that Aizen just had to use Momo for the decoy. What makes it more frustrating is that I would've been fine knowing that the Aizen they were fighting was just an illusion, I seriously could've accepted that revelation, but no...oh no, Kubo just HAD to have Momo be the one used as the decoy. Seriously why Momo? She is a character that hasn't done much thus far in the anime except get seriously hurt and her only notable role so far is that she is Toshiro's childhood friend. She does not deserve that. I absolutely hate it when writers do that just for shock value. Kubo seems to like using her for Aizen's punching bag or having her gravely wounded just to anger Toshiro. Whats worse is that nothing usually comes from it. Toshiro just gets mad only to have Aizen kick him around or take him out with one blow immediately afterwards.
I would've been fine knowing that entire fight was an illusion, but to throw Momo into it just to anger Toshiro is unacceptable. It serves no purpose other than to re-enforce that Aizen is a jerk, which is something anyone who has followed the anime already knows. What was the point in even using her for that?!! Momo being the decoy is the thing that pushed me over the edge and what made me decide to reflect back on everything I hate about Aizen for this rant.
You also don't get much of a feeling of Aizen being tough other than how the show exposites about his percieved strength, how the show says he caused everything in the show, and plot-convience that makes it happen. I'm going to draw a comparison to another anime that does the powerful villain idea better than Bleach: That anime would be Naruto. Naruto does villains like this so much better and doesn't bend the rules of its universe too much for villains. In Naruto, the villains actually show how strong they are instead of people just talking about how strong a villain is. Take Orochimaru's attack on the Hidden Leaf Village for example, the heroes were not shown to be outright incompetent and you have the Third Hokage admit that he probably won't survive this fight and he tries to take Orochimaru down with him and once he realizes that he can't, he does his best to disable Orochimaru for a while. Even Zabuza's arc showed that he wasn't all talk and could actually back up the characters' exposition without needing plot-convience to make it happen. Even in The Fourth Great Ninja war, the side characters don't just get walked all over by the villains. You shouldn't try to show that a villian is strong by making him able to overpower his opponents so easily.
5. The God Sphere: Now for the Hogyoku, oh I can't tell you how much I hate this thing right now.
Due to its abilities I have decided to call it the God Sphere (because that's essentially what it makes Aizen). It had potential, but its use has begun to aggravate me. Aizen fuses with it and it essentially gives him the ability to "evolve" into stronger forms (as well as faster healing abilities as shown when Ichigo cut him right before he revealed that he had fused with it). It also effectively puts him even further into god mode. I'd honestly be more shocked at how much stronger it made him if he had actually fought for an extended period before this arc. It makes it extremely hard to tell how much his power increases because every fight he has had before this arc has been a blowout with him either fighting soul reapers one-on-one and blowing them away with one swing or outright dominating all of the captains in a fight with Kyoka Suigetsu. We have nothing to compare his physical fighting power to until after he has already fused with the stupid thing and seemingly gained more power. The guy is basically able to juggle Yoruichi, Kisuke, and Isshin at once after the "evolution". All of whom have power that is above that of a captain class soul reaper. Why not at least show him struggling against them before forcing the evolution? Seriously, as soon as Kisuke shows up, Aizen evolves. You kill the suspense when you do that. When you raise a villain's power level like that without showing what he could do before the increase, it makes it look like you're just trying to create a god-like villain. His evolutions also pretty much grant him the death-touch for people with little to no spiritual pressure.
This next power is likely the most ridiculous thing I've seen in this arc: If the Hogyoku gets removed from his body, he can regenerate around the thing and it apparently forces another evolution. Normally, I wouldn't mind something like that if the Hogyoku's powers were spread around to multiple characters with each character only receiving one power from it, but its all being given to just one guy who was already insanely powerful thanks to Kyoka Suigetsu and its all done just to keep him important to the plot. It even makes him immortal even after it gets destroyed. Even without the stupid God Sphere, he can no longer be killed!! All that combined with his zanpakuto is just ridiculous! At this point, my suspension of disbelief is officially gone and I can no longer take Aizen seriously as a villain. Aizen could've been so much more interesting if they made him either insanely smart or insanely strong not both. He had potential but the route Kubo took him was just stupid. They didn't have to make him god-like. Since the Karakura arc is now over and Aizen is now defeated, I'll try not to let this color my perception of the anime's final seasons but at this point, my suspension of disbelief is gone and its going to take a while before I get it back for Bleach.
NOTE: This rant is talking about Aizen's stuff from the anime. I'm not reading the manga at the moment but from what I've heard, Aizen caused a whole mess of other overly complicated stuff in the manga that only serves to lower my opinion of him.
Let me just start by saying that I do not hate Bleach and I had no problem with Aizen until this arc. I'm just getting tired of the route Kubo is going with Aizen and how he keeps manipulating the rules of his universe to do some really stupid things. He tried to make this awesome, omnipotent villian but he did it in such a way that Aizen became too over the top and turned into an unbelievable villian. Aizen had a lot of potential to be a good villian but Kubo just went too far with him. Anyways, enough of that, its time to get down to business.
1. The Plan: Now where do I begin with Aizen? Lets start with how the anime pretty much admits that he was behind everything in the series up until now. He seemingly manipulated hundreds of years of events. He even butchered the Soul Society's government to make sure his plans went off without a hitch yet left the one person who could supposedly match his intelligence (Urahara) alive. Why not kill Urahara once he found Rukia so no one outside the Soul Society can stop him? You could argue that its his pride that keeps him from doing so and that he thinks he is smarter than Urahara, but to me thats just a cop out. To top it all off, his entire plan relied on Ichigo not letting Rukia die in the first episode, gaining Soul Reaper powers, losing his soul reaper powers only to get his soul reaper powers back along with hollow powers and not dying in the process, gaining Bankai, and not dying until this point. I take it back...Aizen isn't a genius, he is the luckiest villain I've ever seen. This kind of plan is by far one of the dumbest plot devices in existance because it relies on too many variables in order for it to work and it is the absolute worst way of getting a villain's intelligence across. It essentially equates to the writer saying "How do I make my new villian look like a genius? Oh I know, I'll make him the source of the entire plot and have him manipulate the hero to get to this point. They'll never see that coming!". Kubo pretty much expects us to believe that Aizen somehow foresaw hundreds of years of events. I can understand using this sort of thing for a short (1-13 episodes) or medium-length (13-26 and sometimes 50 episodes) anime, but doing this reveal after more than 200 episodes is absolutely stupid (yes I know that happened because the manga was so long and due to a lot of filler in the anime) and only re-enforces how unlikely this plan is to succeed as well as how lucky the villain is that it actually worked.
Seriously, I know its just a tv show and its supposed to have some degree of predictability and of course Ichigo was going to do all of that anyway, but for Aizen not to have any other alternative in case something screwed up is just stupid. He totally jumps the shark during this arc and pretty much "God Modes" all of his fights, meaning no matter what the heroes do he will most likely have an answer for it just because the plot says so. The Hogyoku only serves to make him worse (but thats another part of the rant entirely). The power imbalance between Aizen and the heroes is just ridiculous.
2. His Logic And Wasted Effort: Further more, I have to outright question his need to create the Espada with the Hogyoku for the sole purpose of being nothing but cannon fodder. He has admitted that he is at least 5 times stronger than most of the captains and even twice as strong as Ichigo hollowfied, so what was the point in doing that? Why did Aizen waste so much time and effort creating cannon fodder when he could have obliterated the Soul Society after gaining the Hogyoku and then create the Ohken (Royal Key)? Normally I admire strategic villains but Aizen is just too much and wastes so much effort for something that should be a simple feat for someone like him. Though I have to admit, I must give him credit for developing Wonderwiess the way he did. That was a stroke of brilliance on his part.
3. The Zanpakuto: Now for possibly the most broken thing about him and what leads to his inconsistent abilities, his zanpakuto Kyoka Suigetsu. It is just stupidly powerful. It can manipulate the five senses to make his opponents see, feel, hear, taste, or smell whatever Aizen wants them to. Anyone who sees the sword's released form is essentially under his control and he can regain control by releasing the sword again, with Ichigo being the only one who has a chance against him because he has never seen it before. I bring this up now because at one point Aizen tricks the Soul Reapers into thinking they are fighting him and when "he" gets impaled by Toshiro he reveals that it was Momo with Aizen disguised as Momo getting healed by Izuru, which makes the audience think that Momo was the Aizen they were fighting this entire time. I call BS on this because not once during the fight did Aizen ever release his zanpakuto. Furthermore Ichigo was fighting that Aizen at the beginning of the episode so why did he fall for it when he is supposed to be immune? The Momo Aizen even managed to wound the captains fighting him/her before the illusion was broken so how did those wounds still remain after the reveal? And how did Tosen die from the illusion Aizen's sword going through his skull? Illusions do not work like that. Furthermore, regardless of how convincing the illusion was, its still an illusion which makes the wounds remaining far more puzzling when you consider two more things: 1. Momo, no matter how good she may be, cannot fight on Aizen's level so she likely wouldn't be able to damage the captains. 2. Momo was supposedly unconcious for the last 10 episodes meaning it was the illusion that dealt the damage. His zanpakuto can only make you think the illusion is real, make you feel the pain from the illusion cutting you, and make you see a wound that isn't there. It does not make the victim's or the wielder's thoughts a reality!! No matter how convinced they are that they have been injured, the wounds should still vanish after the illusion was broken. As for how he used his zanpakuto's powers without releasing it, I suppose you could argue that Aizen's zanpakuto is like Ichigo's with it being a constant release zanpakuto (which contradicts what happened earlier in the series as he released it in the normal manner), but then that creates a plot-hole as Ichigo would've technically seen the released form during this fight (due to the captains telling him to keep his eyes on Aizen while they tried to make an opening for him to strike) which would mean he isn't immune anymore. So yeah, either Ichigo isn't immune or Kubo pulled some major BS with this reveal! I've heard some people say that all of this was explained in a panel of the manga but that was never shown in the anime.
4. The Broken Rule and The Last Straw: For Kubo to throw out one of the most basic rules for his show is just stupid, that rule being that in order for a zanpakuto's power to be released the soul reaper must say the release command for their sword as well as the sword's name (with Ichigo's being an exception since it is locked in shikai, Aizen however has no excuse as he was shown releasing it in the normal manner earlier in the series). It looks like Kubo only removed that restriction for Aizen simply to show how broken he is. It doesn't help that Aizen just had to use Momo for the decoy. What makes it more frustrating is that I would've been fine knowing that the Aizen they were fighting was just an illusion, I seriously could've accepted that revelation, but no...oh no, Kubo just HAD to have Momo be the one used as the decoy. Seriously why Momo? She is a character that hasn't done much thus far in the anime except get seriously hurt and her only notable role so far is that she is Toshiro's childhood friend. She does not deserve that. I absolutely hate it when writers do that just for shock value. Kubo seems to like using her for Aizen's punching bag or having her gravely wounded just to anger Toshiro. Whats worse is that nothing usually comes from it. Toshiro just gets mad only to have Aizen kick him around or take him out with one blow immediately afterwards.
I would've been fine knowing that entire fight was an illusion, but to throw Momo into it just to anger Toshiro is unacceptable. It serves no purpose other than to re-enforce that Aizen is a jerk, which is something anyone who has followed the anime already knows. What was the point in even using her for that?!! Momo being the decoy is the thing that pushed me over the edge and what made me decide to reflect back on everything I hate about Aizen for this rant.
You also don't get much of a feeling of Aizen being tough other than how the show exposites about his percieved strength, how the show says he caused everything in the show, and plot-convience that makes it happen. I'm going to draw a comparison to another anime that does the powerful villain idea better than Bleach: That anime would be Naruto. Naruto does villains like this so much better and doesn't bend the rules of its universe too much for villains. In Naruto, the villains actually show how strong they are instead of people just talking about how strong a villain is. Take Orochimaru's attack on the Hidden Leaf Village for example, the heroes were not shown to be outright incompetent and you have the Third Hokage admit that he probably won't survive this fight and he tries to take Orochimaru down with him and once he realizes that he can't, he does his best to disable Orochimaru for a while. Even Zabuza's arc showed that he wasn't all talk and could actually back up the characters' exposition without needing plot-convience to make it happen. Even in The Fourth Great Ninja war, the side characters don't just get walked all over by the villains. You shouldn't try to show that a villian is strong by making him able to overpower his opponents so easily.
5. The God Sphere: Now for the Hogyoku, oh I can't tell you how much I hate this thing right now.
Due to its abilities I have decided to call it the God Sphere (because that's essentially what it makes Aizen). It had potential, but its use has begun to aggravate me. Aizen fuses with it and it essentially gives him the ability to "evolve" into stronger forms (as well as faster healing abilities as shown when Ichigo cut him right before he revealed that he had fused with it). It also effectively puts him even further into god mode. I'd honestly be more shocked at how much stronger it made him if he had actually fought for an extended period before this arc. It makes it extremely hard to tell how much his power increases because every fight he has had before this arc has been a blowout with him either fighting soul reapers one-on-one and blowing them away with one swing or outright dominating all of the captains in a fight with Kyoka Suigetsu. We have nothing to compare his physical fighting power to until after he has already fused with the stupid thing and seemingly gained more power. The guy is basically able to juggle Yoruichi, Kisuke, and Isshin at once after the "evolution". All of whom have power that is above that of a captain class soul reaper. Why not at least show him struggling against them before forcing the evolution? Seriously, as soon as Kisuke shows up, Aizen evolves. You kill the suspense when you do that. When you raise a villain's power level like that without showing what he could do before the increase, it makes it look like you're just trying to create a god-like villain. His evolutions also pretty much grant him the death-touch for people with little to no spiritual pressure.
This next power is likely the most ridiculous thing I've seen in this arc: If the Hogyoku gets removed from his body, he can regenerate around the thing and it apparently forces another evolution. Normally, I wouldn't mind something like that if the Hogyoku's powers were spread around to multiple characters with each character only receiving one power from it, but its all being given to just one guy who was already insanely powerful thanks to Kyoka Suigetsu and its all done just to keep him important to the plot. It even makes him immortal even after it gets destroyed. Even without the stupid God Sphere, he can no longer be killed!! All that combined with his zanpakuto is just ridiculous! At this point, my suspension of disbelief is officially gone and I can no longer take Aizen seriously as a villain. Aizen could've been so much more interesting if they made him either insanely smart or insanely strong not both. He had potential but the route Kubo took him was just stupid. They didn't have to make him god-like. Since the Karakura arc is now over and Aizen is now defeated, I'll try not to let this color my perception of the anime's final seasons but at this point, my suspension of disbelief is gone and its going to take a while before I get it back for Bleach.
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Kyoryuger : an update
I had written weeks ago a first review of Kyoryuger after the first 18 episodes. Since then, 7 episodes have aired, and I'm gonna complete my review based on what has been seen since my last review.
I must admit that Kyoryuger has shown some interesting points since my last review, and that my opinion of the show is better now (even if I still think that Kyoryuger is a flawed series).
Let's see how I feel so :
- While episodes 19 and 20 were mostly fillers (except some potential new elements about Daigo's dad and his relationship with Torin (and likely a potential knwoledge about the Kyoryuger), the Kyoryuviolet arc was pretty well done, with several very interesting elements in it. Witl a length of four episodes, it allowed plenty of development.
It involved a big showdown with the Deboth, including a first glimpse of the Big Bad, Master Deboth. The return of the three main Debomonsters responsible for the dinosaurs's extinction allowed for some fun scenes, notably when they imitated a sentai team (more specifically, Sun Vulcan), and they were reasonably well used during the arc. The return of the monstruous Master Deboth was also a climactic moment, where the heroes have been really in trouble, and while they were able to stop the big monster, it wasn't an easy victory like before. However, it must be siad that Deboth's design isn't the best, and that he looked more silly than threatening at times. Still, it's obvious that Chaos wanted to start an huge attack against Earth and the Kyoryuger and he realy raised the stakes there?
The introduction of Kyoryuviolet was also interesting because it introduced some background about the items the team use for their fight, like the Gaburevolver and the Zyudenchi, which were created by Dr Ulshade/ Kyoryuviolet. We also learn more info about the Deboth before they came to Earth. Unfortunately, Dr Ulshade was a pretty annoying character because of his completely over the top personality (and the way Shigeru Shiba portrays him) and it's pretty difficult to take him seriously.
However, his granddaughter, Yayoi has shown some potential and her growth as a character is the highlight of the Kyoryuviolet arc. She's shown some competence as her grandfather's assistant, and since she's likely to be her grandfather's successor, she has the potential to become a useful technological helper for the team. More importantly, Yayoi has shown interesting character development during the Kyoryuviolet arc. At first, she was scared, completely unsure of herself, and while she was ready to help the team as much as she could, her self-confidence was deeply hurt when her first effort to upgrade Plesion were thwarted by Debovirus. We also see that she has a crush on Daigo, and that she relies a lot on his opinion of her. Thanks to Daigo's moral support, she was able to send her "Brave" (bravery) to Plesion, and thus, allow the Zyudenryu to awaken its full power and help the team win against the revived Deboth.
However it wasn't enough. Yayoi at that time relied too much on the opinion of others, especially Daigo. Because of his bad back, Dr Ulshade wasn't able anymore to be a reliable Kyoryuviolet, and he hoped to have Yayoi as his successor. However, Yayoi wasn't able to awaken Plesion's Zyudenchi and become Kyoryuviolet. When a revived DeboIceage appeared, Yayoi was still a scared young girl, unable to fight, because of her lack of self esteem. However , Amy helped her realize that she doesn't have to seek strength from others, but that she has to find her strength and courage from her own heart and own desires. Yayoi realized that she wanted to become Kyoryuviolet because she deeply admired them and wanted to follow their footsteps. As a result, she stopped crying and expexting to be saved by the heroes (notably Daigo) and decided to fight back, awakening the powers of Plesion's Zyudenchi and at last, became the second Kyoryuviolet (the first female violet warrior of the sentai franchise). Once she became Kyoryuviolet, she's shown to be a very competent and brave warrior against the Deboth, and she was a welcome addition into the team. In four episodes, Yayoi Ulshade has shown impressive growth as a character, and while she wasn't around in episode 25, it's shown she'll be back in episode 26, so she's likely to stay around, and become the second major female protagonist in the team, and it's gonna be interesting how she's gonna fit into the team in the long run.
A last few elements : thanks to Yayoi, we see more of Ian's playboy personality, and it's nice to see that this element of his character hasn't been forgotten. Moreover, there are some glimpses that his rivalry with Aigalon has shown a new development, with Aigalon pissed at him because he took his favorite gemstone. While Ian was pretty much a background character until now (except during his focus episodes and his arc involving his desire to avenge his slain friend). Episode 26 may add some additional development to Ian, since it seems that he's gonna have to act as a replacement leader for the team.
Episode 25 also allowed to see more of Souji, and it's nice to see his high school female friend coming back, because it adds some world building.
The Kyoryuviolet arc also allowed some focus on Amy. When at first, it was pretty annoying, because it looked she was gonna dislike Yayoi because of a potential rivalry about Daigo, fortunately, that element was forgotten, and Amy had a key role into making Yayoi find her inner strength and become Kyoryuviolet. Amy confirmed her role as the one who brings moral support for her teammates, as it was previously seen with Ramirez/Cyan and Utsusemimaru/Gold. While it's still pretty stereotypical role for a female ranger, it still allows Amy to have focus in a good way.
Episode 25 also confirmed that the Deboth are tougher than expected by the heroes, and Chaos is pretty determined to win against the team, even deciding to create a new warrior, Endolf, the Warrior of Regret to make the fight even more difficult for the heroes. It's gonna be interesting to see how Endolf is gonna change the dynamics in the villain team.
Since episode 18, Riku Sanjo has really done some nice storytelling, by introducing a long story arc, and introduce a very new dynamism in the Kyoryuger story. While Kyoryuger still has a lot of the issues mentioned in my earlier review, it has also undoubtely shown interesting development, both sttoryline wise and character wise, and it confirms Kyoryuger has a long running world building.
For all those reasons, I've decided to raise Kyoryuger's mark to 6.5/10 (up from 5.5/10) with the potential to raise even more, if Sanjo continues to build his world in an interesting way.
I must admit that Kyoryuger has shown some interesting points since my last review, and that my opinion of the show is better now (even if I still think that Kyoryuger is a flawed series).
Let's see how I feel so :
- While episodes 19 and 20 were mostly fillers (except some potential new elements about Daigo's dad and his relationship with Torin (and likely a potential knwoledge about the Kyoryuger), the Kyoryuviolet arc was pretty well done, with several very interesting elements in it. Witl a length of four episodes, it allowed plenty of development.
It involved a big showdown with the Deboth, including a first glimpse of the Big Bad, Master Deboth. The return of the three main Debomonsters responsible for the dinosaurs's extinction allowed for some fun scenes, notably when they imitated a sentai team (more specifically, Sun Vulcan), and they were reasonably well used during the arc. The return of the monstruous Master Deboth was also a climactic moment, where the heroes have been really in trouble, and while they were able to stop the big monster, it wasn't an easy victory like before. However, it must be siad that Deboth's design isn't the best, and that he looked more silly than threatening at times. Still, it's obvious that Chaos wanted to start an huge attack against Earth and the Kyoryuger and he realy raised the stakes there?
The introduction of Kyoryuviolet was also interesting because it introduced some background about the items the team use for their fight, like the Gaburevolver and the Zyudenchi, which were created by Dr Ulshade/ Kyoryuviolet. We also learn more info about the Deboth before they came to Earth. Unfortunately, Dr Ulshade was a pretty annoying character because of his completely over the top personality (and the way Shigeru Shiba portrays him) and it's pretty difficult to take him seriously.
However, his granddaughter, Yayoi has shown some potential and her growth as a character is the highlight of the Kyoryuviolet arc. She's shown some competence as her grandfather's assistant, and since she's likely to be her grandfather's successor, she has the potential to become a useful technological helper for the team. More importantly, Yayoi has shown interesting character development during the Kyoryuviolet arc. At first, she was scared, completely unsure of herself, and while she was ready to help the team as much as she could, her self-confidence was deeply hurt when her first effort to upgrade Plesion were thwarted by Debovirus. We also see that she has a crush on Daigo, and that she relies a lot on his opinion of her. Thanks to Daigo's moral support, she was able to send her "Brave" (bravery) to Plesion, and thus, allow the Zyudenryu to awaken its full power and help the team win against the revived Deboth.
However it wasn't enough. Yayoi at that time relied too much on the opinion of others, especially Daigo. Because of his bad back, Dr Ulshade wasn't able anymore to be a reliable Kyoryuviolet, and he hoped to have Yayoi as his successor. However, Yayoi wasn't able to awaken Plesion's Zyudenchi and become Kyoryuviolet. When a revived DeboIceage appeared, Yayoi was still a scared young girl, unable to fight, because of her lack of self esteem. However , Amy helped her realize that she doesn't have to seek strength from others, but that she has to find her strength and courage from her own heart and own desires. Yayoi realized that she wanted to become Kyoryuviolet because she deeply admired them and wanted to follow their footsteps. As a result, she stopped crying and expexting to be saved by the heroes (notably Daigo) and decided to fight back, awakening the powers of Plesion's Zyudenchi and at last, became the second Kyoryuviolet (the first female violet warrior of the sentai franchise). Once she became Kyoryuviolet, she's shown to be a very competent and brave warrior against the Deboth, and she was a welcome addition into the team. In four episodes, Yayoi Ulshade has shown impressive growth as a character, and while she wasn't around in episode 25, it's shown she'll be back in episode 26, so she's likely to stay around, and become the second major female protagonist in the team, and it's gonna be interesting how she's gonna fit into the team in the long run.
A last few elements : thanks to Yayoi, we see more of Ian's playboy personality, and it's nice to see that this element of his character hasn't been forgotten. Moreover, there are some glimpses that his rivalry with Aigalon has shown a new development, with Aigalon pissed at him because he took his favorite gemstone. While Ian was pretty much a background character until now (except during his focus episodes and his arc involving his desire to avenge his slain friend). Episode 26 may add some additional development to Ian, since it seems that he's gonna have to act as a replacement leader for the team.
Episode 25 also allowed to see more of Souji, and it's nice to see his high school female friend coming back, because it adds some world building.
The Kyoryuviolet arc also allowed some focus on Amy. When at first, it was pretty annoying, because it looked she was gonna dislike Yayoi because of a potential rivalry about Daigo, fortunately, that element was forgotten, and Amy had a key role into making Yayoi find her inner strength and become Kyoryuviolet. Amy confirmed her role as the one who brings moral support for her teammates, as it was previously seen with Ramirez/Cyan and Utsusemimaru/Gold. While it's still pretty stereotypical role for a female ranger, it still allows Amy to have focus in a good way.
Episode 25 also confirmed that the Deboth are tougher than expected by the heroes, and Chaos is pretty determined to win against the team, even deciding to create a new warrior, Endolf, the Warrior of Regret to make the fight even more difficult for the heroes. It's gonna be interesting to see how Endolf is gonna change the dynamics in the villain team.
Since episode 18, Riku Sanjo has really done some nice storytelling, by introducing a long story arc, and introduce a very new dynamism in the Kyoryuger story. While Kyoryuger still has a lot of the issues mentioned in my earlier review, it has also undoubtely shown interesting development, both sttoryline wise and character wise, and it confirms Kyoryuger has a long running world building.
For all those reasons, I've decided to raise Kyoryuger's mark to 6.5/10 (up from 5.5/10) with the potential to raise even more, if Sanjo continues to build his world in an interesting way.
Friday, August 2, 2013
MMPR Nostalgia: Is it holding the franchise and the fandom back? (MMPR Fanboy rant)
This is something I've wanted to post about for a while now, I just couldn't put it into words. I don't mean for this to sound harsh in anyway. Its just something that I feel needs to be said.
One of my main gripes with any franchise (not just MMPR) is its reliance on nostalgia to carry it through certain seasons. There is such a thing as too much nostalgia. I know Power Rangers MegaForce (the first half) is supposed to be an anniversary season and that its only had 9 episodes air at the time of this post, but I can't help but feel that its riding the MMPR nostalgia wave too much. It feels like a complete rehash of MMPR with hit or miss writing. As I said in my RoboKnight post a few months ago, writing like that is unacceptable when you have 19 seasons to guide you. Anyway, that's not exactly the point of this post. Time to show you all my thoughts on the section of the fanbase that treats MMPR like its the only season that matters.
I've had talks and debates with MMPR fanboys quite a few times and their arguments usually boil down to the same old tired things: "Its the best because its the original", "Because it started the whole thing", and variations of those reasons when the real answer is most likely "Because I grew up with it". I grew up with MMPR as well but even I can see that its not the best. Some fanboys even want the franchise to return to the MMPR formula completely and just carry over the cast and characters from season-to-season while only changing the suits, essentially pressing the reset button on the entire franchise. Don't get me wrong, nostalgia can be a good thing in small doses but sometimes I have to wonder if the franchise is beginning to rely too much on its past success. Lately it feels like Saban Brands is trying too much to recapture the glory days of MMPR. I get very irritated when I read cast interviews and all six rangers list MMPR as their favorite season (happened in a Power Rangers Samurai interview a couple years ago) when I highly doubt every one of them just stopped watching after MMPR. Especially when I read that one of them had seen up to Power Rangers Mystic Force a few weeks later. I'm not trying to say that their opinion is wrong but for all six to give the same answer just strikes me as odd. Sometimes it makes me wonder if Saban Brands is spoon-feeding them their answers and telling them to promote MMPR over any other season.
MMPR isn't bad but its certainly not the best. There have been far better seasons with better writing, more complex characters, better acting, and better story arcs. Sometimes I wonder if the die-hard MMPR fanboys have taken the time to look into each season or even watched something not MMPR related. Half of the arguments I've had with them sound like they're typing with nostalgia goggles on. Saban's insistence on constantly promoting MMPR as the best season isn't helping matters much either. I understand that promoting MMPR may indeed be a way for him to try and draw older fans back into the franchise as well as show little kids where it all started, but he runs the risk of alienating some of the older fans who like me get sick and tired of everything about Power Rangers being forcefully led back to MMPR. MMPR has had its time in the sun and nothing will ever make me forget the years I spent watching and I will always be grateful to MMPR for being my introduction to tokusatsu, but its time for the fans, Saban Brands, and the franchise to move past it. This also leads me back to a post I did a few months ago about fans complaining that some of the 90's era rangers wouldn't be coming back for Super MegaForce. If a lot of the actors have moved past their time on the show then its time that the fans do as well.
Over-reliance on nostalgia is a very bad thing for a long running franchise. When you basically only feed people nostalgia you risk alienating that part of your fanbase that wants to see something new, the ones who want to see the franchise move forward. It only serves to add fuel to the fire so people only see your past success and compare everything to your first work. It makes people think you're stuck in the past and that you have no intention of moving forward anytime soon. I'm not saying that you shouldn't like MMPR but you should look at the franchise as a whole without the nostalgia goggles clouding your vision/judgement. Otherwise your arguments come off as being heavily biased towards the past and they lose all merit. If your favorite season is MMPR, that's fine but at the very least acknowledge its flaws. While I may get some hate for this post from that section of the fanbase, it needed to be said. So I will end this post with a message to the MMPR fanboys: This over-reliance on nostalgia has to stop, otherwise the franchise and the fanbase risk getting stagnant. If you do not move forward you cannot evolve. I am actually fine with bringing the some of the MMPR feeling back into the franchise as long as they keep the advancement that the franchise has made. You must do it in a way that doesn't alienate the fans who want to see the franchise continue to grow.
One of my main gripes with any franchise (not just MMPR) is its reliance on nostalgia to carry it through certain seasons. There is such a thing as too much nostalgia. I know Power Rangers MegaForce (the first half) is supposed to be an anniversary season and that its only had 9 episodes air at the time of this post, but I can't help but feel that its riding the MMPR nostalgia wave too much. It feels like a complete rehash of MMPR with hit or miss writing. As I said in my RoboKnight post a few months ago, writing like that is unacceptable when you have 19 seasons to guide you. Anyway, that's not exactly the point of this post. Time to show you all my thoughts on the section of the fanbase that treats MMPR like its the only season that matters.
I've had talks and debates with MMPR fanboys quite a few times and their arguments usually boil down to the same old tired things: "Its the best because its the original", "Because it started the whole thing", and variations of those reasons when the real answer is most likely "Because I grew up with it". I grew up with MMPR as well but even I can see that its not the best. Some fanboys even want the franchise to return to the MMPR formula completely and just carry over the cast and characters from season-to-season while only changing the suits, essentially pressing the reset button on the entire franchise. Don't get me wrong, nostalgia can be a good thing in small doses but sometimes I have to wonder if the franchise is beginning to rely too much on its past success. Lately it feels like Saban Brands is trying too much to recapture the glory days of MMPR. I get very irritated when I read cast interviews and all six rangers list MMPR as their favorite season (happened in a Power Rangers Samurai interview a couple years ago) when I highly doubt every one of them just stopped watching after MMPR. Especially when I read that one of them had seen up to Power Rangers Mystic Force a few weeks later. I'm not trying to say that their opinion is wrong but for all six to give the same answer just strikes me as odd. Sometimes it makes me wonder if Saban Brands is spoon-feeding them their answers and telling them to promote MMPR over any other season.
MMPR isn't bad but its certainly not the best. There have been far better seasons with better writing, more complex characters, better acting, and better story arcs. Sometimes I wonder if the die-hard MMPR fanboys have taken the time to look into each season or even watched something not MMPR related. Half of the arguments I've had with them sound like they're typing with nostalgia goggles on. Saban's insistence on constantly promoting MMPR as the best season isn't helping matters much either. I understand that promoting MMPR may indeed be a way for him to try and draw older fans back into the franchise as well as show little kids where it all started, but he runs the risk of alienating some of the older fans who like me get sick and tired of everything about Power Rangers being forcefully led back to MMPR. MMPR has had its time in the sun and nothing will ever make me forget the years I spent watching and I will always be grateful to MMPR for being my introduction to tokusatsu, but its time for the fans, Saban Brands, and the franchise to move past it. This also leads me back to a post I did a few months ago about fans complaining that some of the 90's era rangers wouldn't be coming back for Super MegaForce. If a lot of the actors have moved past their time on the show then its time that the fans do as well.
Over-reliance on nostalgia is a very bad thing for a long running franchise. When you basically only feed people nostalgia you risk alienating that part of your fanbase that wants to see something new, the ones who want to see the franchise move forward. It only serves to add fuel to the fire so people only see your past success and compare everything to your first work. It makes people think you're stuck in the past and that you have no intention of moving forward anytime soon. I'm not saying that you shouldn't like MMPR but you should look at the franchise as a whole without the nostalgia goggles clouding your vision/judgement. Otherwise your arguments come off as being heavily biased towards the past and they lose all merit. If your favorite season is MMPR, that's fine but at the very least acknowledge its flaws. While I may get some hate for this post from that section of the fanbase, it needed to be said. So I will end this post with a message to the MMPR fanboys: This over-reliance on nostalgia has to stop, otherwise the franchise and the fanbase risk getting stagnant. If you do not move forward you cannot evolve. I am actually fine with bringing the some of the MMPR feeling back into the franchise as long as they keep the advancement that the franchise has made. You must do it in a way that doesn't alienate the fans who want to see the franchise continue to grow.
MMPR Nostalgia: Not only a property of Saban Brands
Everyone talks about Saban being in the past and trying to bring back the MMPR feeling into Power Rangers since he got it back in 2010. I'm ok with that. What it really annoys me is the fact that everyone seems to forget about Dino Thunder. Why is that? Why is DT the angel, the series which doesn't have any nostalgia feelings? It actually has that feeling too. Let's analyze the points.
1) The setting is in a school, much like mmpr. Truth be told, the numbers of the core members of the group differs. MMPR starting with 5 rangers while DT started with 3 rangers.
2) The characters have some similarities. Both Blue Rangers are genius with technology (though Billy is the one who has the techno babble). The Red Rangers are sportmen (Conner liking soccer while Jason is into martial arts). The Yellow Ranger seems to be a mixture of Kimberly and Trini (Kira shares the ranger color with Trini while her passion goes to Kimberly as a singer). And the White Ranger comes in later in the series first as the evil ranger. Then he switches sides and almost at the same time, he's cloned (Tommy was cloned way later *near the end of the second season* but still counts because there was a clone in both series). And let's not forget about Cassidy & Devin. They're the comic relief just like Bulk & Skull were. The DT duo even went into the quest of finding who the rangers were!
3) The Zords. Truth be told, that comes from Super Sentai...but still. The fact that the Red and Blue Zords were Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops is unquestionable. Another thing is Pteranodon being the only girl in the series' Zord (I know in mmpr the Yellow Ranger was a girl too but in Zyuranger the Yellow Ranger was a boy, that's why I said it). *I was surprised a Godzilla-like Zord wasn't given to the White Ranger imo*. And in both series, the Zords don't talk, another coincidence.
4) The episodes' plot. Most of the episodes in Dino Thunder felt like they were reused from MMPR. Let's see. The new kid in town (Trent) gets brainwashed and serves the forces of evil for a couple of episodes. Doesn't it sound like it's the story of Tommy again? The Pteranodon girl (Kimberly) falls in love with this new kid (Tommy). That's what the tv show hinted us with Kira and Trent. The core team had a member who didn't want the Power and only accepted his/her destiny after being attacked/kidnapped. This is what happened in the premiere episode of each series with Kira (DT) escaping from her kidnappers and the original rangers (MMPR) being attacked moments later leaving the Command Center after refusing (minus Jason) to believe what Zordon told them. The rangers get attacked in their dreams. 2 Rangers gets sucked into something one of the rangers' possession and meet a strange creature related to it (Kimberly and the Bookala and Ethan and the video game *episode 07 of DT*). *There are others too! You only need the summaries --if you don't want to watch the series-- of both series and your memory to find them*
5) Some of the episodes' plot happened at the same number. In the premiere episode, they get their powers and reject them. In episode 21, the evil ranger switches sides. Within the first couple of episodes after the new kid is introduced (while he's still evil), the future girlfriend finds out his civilian identity.*I can't think of anything else right now, but I'm sure there are other coincidences*.
I'm sure Megaforce has a lot more of these coincidences but let's not act as Megaforce is the only one resembling MMPR. Only because both series are Saban's, it doesn't make DT to be out of the field. The evidence is out there and it's outstanding....I can't remember others (Not counting JDF as part of the coincidences) but if you go back to watch both shows (especially MMPR season 1) and then compare both, you'll see the truth too.
This post is meant to actually make everyone to understand and finally shut up about their whining in the "Saban is the only one relying on nostalgia" argument. I don't know why they refuse to see the similarities between DT and MMPR. Do they think DT is out of the field because it was produced by Disney? Is that the reason? Or is it because they don't remember the similarities between those 2 series?
Super Sentai writers didn't think the overall plot and the episodes' plot for DT. That was Disney's hired writers. Those same writers thought of a way to give a twist to the already dinosaurs theme in existence to make it fresh and not looking as mmpr. The same happened with the writers in charge of Abaranger. They made a twist to the overall plot to don't look as Zyuranger. But the big difference between Abaranger and Zyuranger is that their plots don't share any similarities. In fact, both Sentai Series only share the theme, the 3 main mecha and its ability to talk. Something that for the most part (and only counting a couple of characteristics), Dino Thunder didn't achieve. Those characteristics are: 1) The villain being the alter-ego of a human being (Mesogog/Anton) 2) having especial episodes (number 4 with the video diary telling the "history" of the franchise up to that point, episode 19 "Lost & Found in Translation" and number 27 with Tommy facing almost all of his past powers while in coma--though this episode could be *depending on the viewer's opinion* another similarity with the episode "Return of an Old Friend" from mmpr season 1.) 3) maybe some episodes where the focus was on one of the core team (more notably episode 8 "Golden Boy, episode 18 "Bully for Ethan", episode 20 "It's a Mad Mad Mackerel", episode 26 "Disappearing Act", episode 29 "Isn't it Lava-ly", the team up two parter episodes with the Ninja Storm team, episode 35 "House of Cards" and some parts of episode 23 "A Star is Torn" and episode 38 "Thunder Struck Pt 2" *Maybe I'm forgetting others but that's mainly because it's been ages since I watched both series*). 4) Having a human knowing who the rangers really were since day 1.
I really hope that now everyone can see where I'm going and would recognize it. I apologize if someone was offended by this post. My only intention was to educate on the things I've noticed since 2006.
1) The setting is in a school, much like mmpr. Truth be told, the numbers of the core members of the group differs. MMPR starting with 5 rangers while DT started with 3 rangers.
2) The characters have some similarities. Both Blue Rangers are genius with technology (though Billy is the one who has the techno babble). The Red Rangers are sportmen (Conner liking soccer while Jason is into martial arts). The Yellow Ranger seems to be a mixture of Kimberly and Trini (Kira shares the ranger color with Trini while her passion goes to Kimberly as a singer). And the White Ranger comes in later in the series first as the evil ranger. Then he switches sides and almost at the same time, he's cloned (Tommy was cloned way later *near the end of the second season* but still counts because there was a clone in both series). And let's not forget about Cassidy & Devin. They're the comic relief just like Bulk & Skull were. The DT duo even went into the quest of finding who the rangers were!
3) The Zords. Truth be told, that comes from Super Sentai...but still. The fact that the Red and Blue Zords were Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops is unquestionable. Another thing is Pteranodon being the only girl in the series' Zord (I know in mmpr the Yellow Ranger was a girl too but in Zyuranger the Yellow Ranger was a boy, that's why I said it). *I was surprised a Godzilla-like Zord wasn't given to the White Ranger imo*. And in both series, the Zords don't talk, another coincidence.
4) The episodes' plot. Most of the episodes in Dino Thunder felt like they were reused from MMPR. Let's see. The new kid in town (Trent) gets brainwashed and serves the forces of evil for a couple of episodes. Doesn't it sound like it's the story of Tommy again? The Pteranodon girl (Kimberly) falls in love with this new kid (Tommy). That's what the tv show hinted us with Kira and Trent. The core team had a member who didn't want the Power and only accepted his/her destiny after being attacked/kidnapped. This is what happened in the premiere episode of each series with Kira (DT) escaping from her kidnappers and the original rangers (MMPR) being attacked moments later leaving the Command Center after refusing (minus Jason) to believe what Zordon told them. The rangers get attacked in their dreams. 2 Rangers gets sucked into something one of the rangers' possession and meet a strange creature related to it (Kimberly and the Bookala and Ethan and the video game *episode 07 of DT*). *There are others too! You only need the summaries --if you don't want to watch the series-- of both series and your memory to find them*
5) Some of the episodes' plot happened at the same number. In the premiere episode, they get their powers and reject them. In episode 21, the evil ranger switches sides. Within the first couple of episodes after the new kid is introduced (while he's still evil), the future girlfriend finds out his civilian identity.*I can't think of anything else right now, but I'm sure there are other coincidences*.
I'm sure Megaforce has a lot more of these coincidences but let's not act as Megaforce is the only one resembling MMPR. Only because both series are Saban's, it doesn't make DT to be out of the field. The evidence is out there and it's outstanding....I can't remember others (Not counting JDF as part of the coincidences) but if you go back to watch both shows (especially MMPR season 1) and then compare both, you'll see the truth too.
This post is meant to actually make everyone to understand and finally shut up about their whining in the "Saban is the only one relying on nostalgia" argument. I don't know why they refuse to see the similarities between DT and MMPR. Do they think DT is out of the field because it was produced by Disney? Is that the reason? Or is it because they don't remember the similarities between those 2 series?
Super Sentai writers didn't think the overall plot and the episodes' plot for DT. That was Disney's hired writers. Those same writers thought of a way to give a twist to the already dinosaurs theme in existence to make it fresh and not looking as mmpr. The same happened with the writers in charge of Abaranger. They made a twist to the overall plot to don't look as Zyuranger. But the big difference between Abaranger and Zyuranger is that their plots don't share any similarities. In fact, both Sentai Series only share the theme, the 3 main mecha and its ability to talk. Something that for the most part (and only counting a couple of characteristics), Dino Thunder didn't achieve. Those characteristics are: 1) The villain being the alter-ego of a human being (Mesogog/Anton) 2) having especial episodes (number 4 with the video diary telling the "history" of the franchise up to that point, episode 19 "Lost & Found in Translation" and number 27 with Tommy facing almost all of his past powers while in coma--though this episode could be *depending on the viewer's opinion* another similarity with the episode "Return of an Old Friend" from mmpr season 1.) 3) maybe some episodes where the focus was on one of the core team (more notably episode 8 "Golden Boy, episode 18 "Bully for Ethan", episode 20 "It's a Mad Mad Mackerel", episode 26 "Disappearing Act", episode 29 "Isn't it Lava-ly", the team up two parter episodes with the Ninja Storm team, episode 35 "House of Cards" and some parts of episode 23 "A Star is Torn" and episode 38 "Thunder Struck Pt 2" *Maybe I'm forgetting others but that's mainly because it's been ages since I watched both series*). 4) Having a human knowing who the rangers really were since day 1.
I really hope that now everyone can see where I'm going and would recognize it. I apologize if someone was offended by this post. My only intention was to educate on the things I've noticed since 2006.
My meaningful toku series
I've been watching toku series since I was a little kid, but only a couple of them turned out to be of a great importance to me. I'm gonna list them and say why. This post is meant to recount my experience with tokusatsu in order to encourage others to share which series have an special place in your heart and why.
This is the second series I got. I mainly got it because Hirose Yutaka was in it (remember what I wrote above? Well, with this series, I really love him *I mean, his way of acting and the splendid ways of appearing in the scene (especially when it seems he's flying)*). I really liked his story, shared with Ryou and Zaidos. But I also found Tommy's counterpart (I saw a video in youtube) and really loved Kou's story. The whole plot is so different from Mighty Morphin'! I didn't know a father would behave like Shaddam or Ryou's dad. Bit by bit, I started caring for some characters and I hoped they would end up differently. My heart hurts a lot when my fave character was shotgun down (to this day, I close my eyes and cover my ears when Jin jumps in the air *though I have no problems with the same scene in a total different franchise and with another actor*). Dairanger is also special because I finally could understand why 1) The White Ranger suit looked different to the 'original' core team when it was adapted. 2) Saban chose exactly that suit over the rest (it could very well have chosen the one from the Shishiranger). FYI, I think Saban chose Kibaranger's suit because it looked similar to the Dragon Ranger suit imo. I also discovered that depending on the series and who the character is teamed up, it becomes my fave character. I.E. I really like Kirinranger (his kenpo pose *seen above* drives me crazy, the fact he's always wearing a suit makes him outstand over the rest who merely use informal clothes.) And I love Ryou because 1) He's a badass fighter 2) He's paired with Hirose-san's character 3) He's stubborn and determined about his goals. Right before this series, I always liked one character only. I.E. Tommy from Power Rangers and Rita (for the villains) or Ako from Jetman team as well as Tranza (for the villains).
Liveman was my third series. I got it in an impass from Dairanger. I was surprised to see Gara's actress (from Dairanger) here. Just like Dairanger, I got it because Yutaka Hirose was in it. I really love this series because of the nature of the plot and the characters. I sympathized with each one of the characters (minus Arashi/Dr. Ashura who I found too annoying). I have to admit that I mainly was interested in the episode where Green Rhino got pregnant but the story overshadowed that reason. The plot, characters and world were well written that the series from the very first 10 minutes of the premiere episode takes you to its world and makes you alienate with one side. I alienated with Volt (because Bias was too intriguing as a character it got my attention picked :P). But there were times where I was cheering for the heroes. I even was left with my mouth open in a couple of ocassions (mainly because either the heroes' or the villains' actions). This series also brings the problem (at least to me) of choosing a fave ranger. For moments, I like Megumi's way of doing things. Another time, Yusuke's focus episodes are really impressive and finally Joh's determination and cheerful behavior are fun to watch. Tetsuya/Black Bison and Junichi/Green Rhino have so little focus episodes and by the time they show up, you're already bonded with the main 3 which turn them into being there and nothing more. Overall, Liveman opened my mind to a way of doing things that are not what we see nowadays such as the inner conflicts both groups (the Livemen and Volt) have.
Changerion only existed because Yutaka Hirose was in there. That was the only reason why I got a (almost complete) copy of the show. At first, I only watched the show for that reason. I even didn't like it at first because it felt too awkward in the dialogues, places, characters. It was not Super Sentai! It was not Kamen Rider either! The pace was slow which contributed to the feeling of awkwardness. There were only a couple of episodes which I liked that one hand was enough to count them. I didn't know the rest of the cast. I liked the finisher move but that was about it. The comedy was ok. The romance was one of the best parts. I didn't (and still need to) understand the final episode. Last year, I gave it a second try. After I watched it, I completely changed my mind. I take it for what it was: another way of doing toku. Honestly, I only watched 3 actors in other works. One of the bad guys was in Kiva and Agito--not Mr. Hirose lol. The ally and hero (the guy with an insignia in the pic above) was in 3 Kamen Rider Blade eps. His character was an Undead who was all peace and helpful. I really like him more in Changerion (physically speaking---that hairstyle looked awesome on him but I think he cut it because of being older in 2004 *Changerion was made in 1996*). The one above the Undead is Asakura/Kamen Rider Ohja in Kamen Rider Ryuki. Akira--not Asakura's brother lmao--is the completely opposite to Asakura. He's the cheerful, easy-going character. I'm really sad when I find out that only a minimal group of people watched this series, and even more when there's no group picking it up to be subbed. Truth be told, it's not an easy series to watch *most of the episodes has comedy in it and you really need to get past the impression of awkwardness it has for the duration of the entire series*. But it's not impossible either! You only need to don't compare it with the 3 main franchises (Rider, Sentai and Ultraman). Take it for what it is: another hero. I try my best to give the series publicity each time I can, especially because it's not a long series. It's only 4 episodes longer than Jakq Dengekitai.
Well, this is my toku history/experience. Thanks for reading.
List of Sentai and Kamen Rider Sites available by this fan: http://www.jillun.com/sentai/
Power Rangers Unlimited: http://pr-unlimited.net/ (now discontinued but u can see some contents such as the Jason Faunt interview or episodes transcripts or galleries of the characters)
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers:
As a 90's kid, and most important thing: an Argentinian girl, I grew up with them. Why did I say "Argentinian girl was important"? Because according to my memory, I watched the first season only. I don't remember if the tv channel responsible of broadcasting aired all the eps. I do remember the shock and confusion when I went to the cinema and saw 3 different people as Yellow, Black and Red. I have to admit that during the entire movie and for many years, I hated those 3. In 2006, I was surfing the net and arrived to one of the many power rangers fansite called Power Rangers Unlimited. At that time and thru that website, I got the opportunity to catch up with the franchise. When I watched how and why the movie only had 3 original characters (Tommy *yes, I consider him as part of the original rangers*, Kimberly and Billy) and 3 imposters (Rocky, Aisha and Adam), I finally reconciled with them and came up to accept them. The same happened with Kat (I found out about her because I bought a magazine with the last couple of episodes from MMPR season 3) and Tanya (I found about her when I watched Zeo on cable). Now you must be wondering why this series was important to me. Well, the answer are 1) I wanted to learn English as soon as I watched a couple of the first episodes. Something I achieved in 2002 (once I graduated from high school). And 2) This was my first toku experience. Prior to the arrival of Mighty Morphin', I had no idea what toku was. Not because of my age (liveman aired when I was 4 and very well we could have Sun Vulcan, Changeman or even Flashman) but because none of the tv channels were interested. Other parts of South America got lucky and experienced what Super Sentai was.
Choujin Sentai Jetman:
Choujin Sentai Jetman was my first Super Sentai Series ever. I met them back in 2007 when I was curious about a Power Rangers series and Super Sentai series crossover in the world of fanfic (knowing the worlds would never make a team up). Googling it as Power Rangers fanfics, I arrived to a website where I saw a couple of fanfics and opened the one called "Little Lost Ranger". I was awed by the descriptions of the characters (mainly Ako). After reading the story, I redirected to the page which had a lot of more info about the series. I also read the sequels of the fics which directly describes the first two seasons of Mighty Morphin'. Sadly, the fics by this author stopped before Kakuranger. I really wanted to know those characters unknown to me at that time! After I read my first glance on Radiguet & Cia. I went to see the episodes for myself. My first copy was a raw, bad quality (video talking), incomplete version. But it was enough to have a good taste of each character. I got impressed by an actor who came in later in the series as Tranza. I really sympathized with him and started liking his character and was sad when he was the first one to leave the series (I even suffered when Radiguet tortured him :p). I was shocked when I saw for the first time a ranger's death. I thought Super Sentai didn't do that unless it was necessary (read Burai). With all of these, I decided to try and see more of the original material. I had to wait for 2 years for me to actually be able to go for my second and third sentai series *which happened at the same time*.
Gosei Sentai Dairanger:
Choujuu Sentai Liveman:
Power Rangers Dino Thunder:
This incarnation is very especial to me for various reasons. 1) It brought me back to the franchise (I stopped watching with Turbo movie because I didn't have cable anymore and the aerial tv channels weren't broadcasting the franchise anymore). In 2006, I got cable again and one day, doing zapping, I came to one scene with Tommy. After I watched the rest of the episode, I went to the internet to find out everything about this new series. I learned it had 2 years old (at that time) and JDF was on the show again. I started watching it *Tommy was my crush when I was 8/9 years old* and by doing it, I realized it had a lot of MMPR nostalgia. Not only because Tommy was in it, but because of the episodes plot and characters. 2) Because of the infamous episode "Lost & Found in Translation." This was my first episode watching super sentai. I didn't mind the fact Disney parodied Abaranger. I took it for what it was: a recognition of the source material and a way to see the differences in the approach of the footage and plot. Truth be told, the essence of Abaranger was not completely there (resulting from choosing one of the silliest episodes the series had) but I was able to have a taste of the main characters. I had some opinions on the episode (things I didn't like as most of you) but those things didn't made my experience of enjoying watching the episode a bad one. 3) the plot. This is my first series which reused an already in existence theme and gave a twist to it. And I really think it worked out well taking in consideration what the Jurassic Park movies stated.
Hikari Sentai Maskman:
Maskman made my dream true. In 2012, for 5 months and because of certain circumstances, I decided to try to time a serie. I've been using as a guinea pig a serie (not related to toku). One day, when I felt 'confident about my work', I started saying to the fansub groups I knew how to time. Oh boy! None of them asked me to join and I really didn't feel bad for it. I mean, after all, it was only 1 month since I started timing when I went to say "I know how to time". Until one day, I got in real trouble. Shir, one of the translators for Guis, took it seriously and asked me to join G.U.I.S. At first, I was surprised by the invitation (because I reproached the group of some decisions they made to Liveman which I considered where misplaced.) But I said, heck! This is my opportunity to stop the fantasy (read the guinea pig) and be in the real deal. I accepted and you can't imagine my joy when I received my first script (it was episode 17). I helped in most of the series. I cried when I delivered my last episode...I couldn't believe it meant already done! I also embarrassed myself when they found out I was doing it wrong! I didn't know where to hide! Luckily, virus, Shir and Fort helped me. They gave me a quick intense lesson and I was back in action. Another thing is that I didn't touched the cards (monster's name or the title of the episode or the to be continued). Gladly, by practicing a lot, I started touching them...this is a Bioman success, *considering I was delivered at the same time scripts for both shows, I thought of talking a bit about it here*. I'm so happy to be part of Guis because ever since I started the adventure of timing a script, a lot of things happened. 1) I met wonderful people and 2) Now, I can really understand very well what it means when each fansub group says "It'd be out when it's done." All the work behind is really impressive (and not because of a flashy karaoke or being the first to take an episode out). It's: translation, translation check, timing, timing check, quality check (this is to see if the translation flows naturally or doesn't use too complicated words that everyone can understand), encoding and finally, after all this is done, it goes out for you to watch. To talk a bit about the series itself, I had fun watching Takeru/Red Mask and my fave ranger was Akira/Blue Mask. I loved Oyobu and hate Kiros. My fave character to time was Anagmas (because he had long speeches :D) My fave episode was the two parter arc: "Akira loses his eyesight! The mysterious spell" aka episode 43 and "Transform! Underground Empire Swordsman Akira" aka episode 44 because I love brainwashed characters. The overall plot is great and reminds me of Changerion with its romantic side. *Though technically Changerion used that aspect chronologically speaking*.
Samurai Sentai Shinkenger:
Shinkenger is in here because it got me interested in the culture of the country. They also are responsible of me surfing the net trying to find websites which teaches for free the language. Out of the kanjis I first got to imitate is the Tsuchi (土), Kotoha's symbol. After practicing a lot, I'm able to do Ki (木 )and Hi (火), Chiaki's and Takeru's respectively. I really like all the characters (villains, heroes and allies). They're so much fun to watch. I have a couple of fave episodes. What I really love of this series is the fact that is too Japanese. I can take a taste of what the bushido, samurai, lord, retainers and other things like that were like. The balance between comedy and drama is well done. I also love the fact that the summer movie is canon, something only done one time before. I think I can say the same thing for the Goseiger vs Shinkenger movie and the Shinkenger Returns. I love the plot and how the team is first shaken up when Shinken Gold first arrives but later, they depend on his abilities with Mojikara to keep going...and how the Shinkengers developed their personalities through the duration of the series.
Choukou Senshi Changerion:
Well, this is my toku history/experience. Thanks for reading.
Links:
Little Lost Ranger: http://www.jillun.com/sentai/jetman/llr.htmlList of Sentai and Kamen Rider Sites available by this fan: http://www.jillun.com/sentai/
Power Rangers Unlimited: http://pr-unlimited.net/ (now discontinued but u can see some contents such as the Jason Faunt interview or episodes transcripts or galleries of the characters)
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Sad News: The Passing of Tohru Hirayama
Today we are sad to announce that former Toei Producer, Tohru Hirayama has passed away at the age of 84 due to heart failure.
There will be a private funeral service for close relatives in the next few days. Tohru's eldest son, Mitsuru, will be the chief mourner.
For the Toku fans who don't know Tohru Hirayama began his career in Toei in 1954. Then in 1971 he got his first job as the Chief Producer of the first Kamen Rider series.
He also later on became the Chief Producer of the first Sentai series, Himitsu Sentai Goranger.
He also was Chief Producer of Kamen Rider V3, X, Amazon and Stronger
as well as most of Shotaro Ishinomori tokusatsu shows from the 70's
and in the 80's produced the Fushigi Comedies
From all of us here at Toku Warriors we are sad but also like to give thanks to Mr. Hirayama for the many contributions he made to the genre of Tokusatsu and is one of the reasons it is still going strong. Thank You Mr. Hirayama and God Bless.
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