Fukumi Kuroda : on screen, the villainous Queen Ahames in Changeman ; a real Changeman in real life

     The Changeman (left), their friends ... and some former enemies : humans and aliens together

                                         The evil Queen Ahames, played by Fukumi Kuroda

The real Fukumi Kuroda (center) in April 2013,  as she receives a plaque of appointment as a tourism ambassador of Gyeonggi province in South Korea, with Gyeonggi governor Kim Moon-soo (right) and Gyeonggi Tourism Organization chief executive Hwang Joon-kee.




1) Changeman : a sentai series about war which goes beyond good vs evil. 

 Dengeki Sentai Changeman is the ninth series in the Super Sentai franchise, and shows the fight of the Changeman and their allies from the Earth Defense Force against the evil Gozma, aliens who want to conquer Earth. However, Hirohisa Soda wisely avoided a simplistic plot with Humans = Good, Aliens= Evil. In several episodes, Changeman show aliens who are shown not to be evil (notably, in episodes 11, 16,  23, 26, 45), with a best example being the Rigelian Nana, who became a recurring character  as an ally of the Changeman. More importantly, most of the Gozma themselves were in fact shown to be forced to fight for Star King Bazoo. Some Monsters of the week were shown to be either victims of Bazoo, often forced to fight the Changeman for him (like Taro in episode 7, the tragic case of Prince Icaros in episode 41, and even the sadistic Pain in episode 28). More importantly, even most of the main generals of Gozma were in fact shown to be coerced into fighting for Bazoo with the hope that they will be rewarded with their own planet's restoration, like  Shima, Giluke and Ahames. While they were cruel, they fought for the same reason the Changeman were fighting : to protect their home planet. Gator was working with Bazoo because he was very afraid of him, even if deep down, he wished nothing more but to be with his family. Even Gyodai, the monster involved in making the Space Beast Warriors grow was nothing but an innocent animal which feels very lonely.
As such, the Changeman quickly realized that not all aliens were evil, that they had to learn a lot about the universe and the people and creatures living far away from Earth, and they often showed friendship feelings and compassion towards the many aliens who became victims of Bazoo's cruelty.
They even started to feel compassionate feelings for their enemies, like in episode 24 with Gyodai, or with Gator and his family when Gator's wife and kid started to appear on Earth, and even Shima once Tsurugi discovered her hidden sweet self in episode 46. More than ever, they realized that the evil of Bazoo was the real responsible of all the suffering, even for other aliens, even for enemies, and a climactic reveal was the fact that their own mentor, Ibuki (shown in the right of the picture above) was himself an alien. But the Changeman knew already how aliens and humans weren't that differnet, and they still trusted him. At the end, humans and aliens worked together to defeat Bazoo and start a new area of peace. Shima, Gator and Gyodai became the first sentai villains who not  managed to find redemption, and survived the fight against the heroes, becoming their allies at the very end.
A big message of Changeman is that war destroys every side, not just your own, and that understanding your opponent, even if he's different from you, is very important.

However, while aliens are still sci-fi material, war is unfortunately a real life issue, which can strain a lot relationship between people from different countries

2) Japan and South Korea : a tormented history 

As neighbouring countries, Japan and Korea have a long and tormented history between them. One of the darkest eras of Japan and Korea's long relationship was the annexion of the Korean peninsule by the Japanese Empire in 1910, which followed the Japan-Korean treaty of 1905 which had made Korea a Japanese protectorate. Japanese rule over Korea lasted 35 years, and stopped with the Japanese capitulation at the end of World War 2. Japanese during that era ruled Korea like a colony, with the ownership of land and of most of the large scale firms being under Japanese leadership, and, especially the later years, started a policy of cultural assimilation. Opposition to Japanese rule was strongly repressed. Of course, the Japanese rule over Korea took its worst turn during World War II, with the conscription of Korean men into the Japanese army, hundred of thousands male laborers being forced to be sent in Japan to help in the war industry, and of course, the thousands of Korean women forced to become "comfort women" (in other words, "sex slaves").  During the war, thousands of Korean laborers died.
After the war, Korea became a sovereign country again, with in 1948, the division of Korea into North (allied with USSR) and South (allied with the US) Koreas. While North Korea became the appaling dictatorship under the Kim dynasty, South Korea became with time a developed country and one of the "Four Dragons" of the Far East. Resentment between South Korea and Japan was very high, and the two countries only started having economic and diplomatic relations in 1965, twenty years after the end of the war. Since then, South Korea and Japan have become very important economic partners, and they even hosted together the FIFA (Soccer)  World Cup in 2002. However, anti-Japanese feeling is still very present in South Korea, and several issues (territorial disputes, historical issues) sour the relationship between the two countries. During a long time, Japanese cultural products (music, movies, anime, mangas, TV shows) were banned in South Korea, with the ban starting to be lifted only at the end of the 1990'. Moreover, prejudices against South Korea, usually fueled bu ignorance exist also in Japan.

3) Fukumi Kuroda : a lifelong project of bringing Japan and South Korea closer. 

Fukumi Kuroda is known by the toku fandom as the actress who played Queen Ahames in Changeman. Years after the show ended, she is still happy of her involvement in the show, and still loved her role as Ahames. However, Mrs Kuroda has had a very long career as an actress, and she's still active as of 2014. Born in July the 21th 1956, she had a career starting in the 70' and has been involved in many movies and TV shows.

However, a turning point in her life started in the mid 80's when, after becoming infatuated with South Korea volleyball player Kang Man-soo, she started discovering South Korea. She learnt the Korean language and visited plenty of places in South Korea, of course the big cities like Seoul, but also the rurals areas, meeting  Korean people, learning about their daily lives and of course, started to like them. She wrote a book  in 1988 about her experiences in Korea, Seoul My Heart. After discovering South Korea and their people, and realizing with anger about the discrimination the Korean minority suffered in Japan, she understood that it was very important for Japanese people to know more about Korea, the country, the people and their culture.  She really wants to show the kindness of Korean people to other Japanese.
During the Seoul Olympic Games, as the only actress able to speak Korean and thus, being able to talk with Korean locals, she did broadcasts for Fuji TV in South Korea. A few years later, in 1994, she wrote a South Korea guidebook,  Seoul no Tetsujin, which became a big hit, and she wrote updated versions in 1997 and 2001. Her guidebooks focused mostly on places with plenty of activity, such as marketplaces, which allowed to discover more about Korean daily life. Because of her involvement in bridging Japan and South Korea, she even managed to become a director of the Japan Organizing Committee of the FIFA World Cup, despite knowing nothing about soccer. In 2004, Kuroda was among the cast of the Korean series "Stained Glass". Of course, during the "Korean Wave" when Japanese people discovered a lot about Korean pop culture, Kuroda did her best to make Japanese people know more about Korea. For example, she spoke to Japanese audiences about her trips on Korea, and the people there (an example shown in a link below).
The years 2010' showed once again how Kuroda was important in bringing together Korea and Japan. In 2010, she was amember of an executive committee at a Korea-Japan exchange festival in Tokyo.  She was named honorary ambassador for the Yeosu expo in 2012. And in 2013, as shown in the picture above , Kuroda has been designated a tourism ambassador of Gyeonggi Province for two years.
Her efforts to make Korea be known to Japanese people have been appreciated by both Japanese and Korean people and Kuroda has become a major voice in making Japanese and Korean people understand each other.

4)  A controversial memorial

However, as warmy as her efforts about making Japanese and Korean people understand each other better have been received, one of her initiatives unfortunately became controversial. In 2008, she proposed and paid for a memorial for a Korean kamikaze who died in World War II in the young man's hometown, because she felt that despite fighting for Japan, he was also a victim of war, and wanted to make his soul rest. However, while the memorial has been built, it couldn't be unveiled because of the anger of Korean people who mostly saw those kamikazes as traitors who collaborated with the Japan colonizer. It showed that, despite her efforts, there is still a lot to do to heal the wounds of war.
That episode is very interesting because of her role as Ahames, since Ahames herself died in a kamikaze attack in the Changeman headquarters, destroying them. She sacrificed herself hoping that her planet could be restored, in a desperate move towards the one she initially fought against, but ended up obeying, because she felt she had no other choice. Ahames was much more than a classical toku villainess, but a woman who had a noble goal in mind, even if she did very evil and cruel deeds. She was a proud and arrogant woman, but at the same time, showed a very submissive attitude towards bazoo, because she realized she felt powerless against him. it's no wonder that Kuroda was attracted to a role who was very dfferent from classical female roles.  And Ahames's death is another element showing Changeman's strong theme about how the evil of war hurt and destroy all sides involved, and how it is important to try to heal those wounds to get a better future.
However, in real life, wounds take a lot of time to heal, and there are still plenty of steps before South Korea and Japan have normal relations. But Mrs Kuroda has brought a very important contribution in making the people of both countries wanting to know more about each other and overcome prejudices. And isn't that a theme that Hirohisa Soda explored in Changeman? Kuroda is probably a true real life Changeman in that regard.


Links about Kuroda and Korea :
http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Fukumi-Kuroda/174266525
http://books.publishing.monash.edu/apps/bookworm/view/Complicated+Currents/122/xhtml/chapter2.html
http://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Culture/view?articleId=100624
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/10/08/2010100800282.html
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20130415000689
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2008/05/09/controversy-over-proposed-memorial-for-korean-kamikaze-pilots/

Thanks for Shougo's Changeman's website for the photo of the Changeman cast.

My thoughts on Super Megaforce Silver and Super Megaforce so far

Since Super Megaforce is going on summer break, I figured it was time to do this now that the silver ranger is part of the team as well. Getting right to the point, I'll start with him and then move on to the rest of the show.

Orion: His two-part premier was alright. Personality-wise, they wanted to give him a tragic back-story that oddly makes him feel like a bit like Tyzon from Overdrive at the moment. They did an alright job of keeping his identity secret in the first half of the two parter but sadly they gave it away at the end of the first part. That is something I really think they should have saved for part two. Having the rangers arrive with the enemy already defeated in the first part was a nice touch as it was a decent indicator of his strength despite not seeing him fight on screen during those instances.

As for the rest of the show, it has been meh so far with most of the episodes feeling like rehashed Gokaiger episodes only with bad editing and build up problems. The copy and paste episodes have been ok for the most part except in the case of the Blue Saber Saga episode but I'll get to that one in a minute. To simplify things, I'll only go into detail about the best and worst tribute episodes so far.

Worst tribute episode: That goes to the Blue Saber Saga for now. It earned that title for the simple reason that the script is not only a straight-up copy and paste of the Shinkenger tribute from Gokaiger plot-wise, but it feels like it was written solely with adapting Joe from Gokaiger in mind, not written for Noah's actual character. It was a major out-of-character moment for Noah as he is more of the thinker/nerd character type.

There was no reason for him to get depressed at all after losing the sword fight, nor did he play into his already established character so far. They should have had him try to out-think the monster. I would've cut them some slack if they had at least played up his sword training in more of a strategic manner with him using his nerd side to somewhat predict the attacks, finding a blind-spot in the attack, or have him training so he can calculate the angle of the attacks as a counter-measure. Instead he immediately thinks "Well I lost so I've got to train with a sword more." and all he really learns from the encounter is that he can use more than one sword at once. I know they were somewhat limited in their options thanks to stock footage but I think they would've been able to come up with something more in character for him.

Best tribute episode: Ironically, the best episode so far is a tribute to a PR season that I don't like, that being Jungle Fury. Granted I'm using the word "best" loosely there. It also features the return of Casey who in my opinion is the blandest red ranger in the franchise, next to Troy of course. Now going by all of that I should dislike the episode but it was executed decently. It kept relatively close to Jungle Fury's continuity aspects and the scenes with Emma and Jake training flowed really well. Though Casey was a little too on-the-nose when he guess their animal spirits. Granted they did use the word "spirit" a little too much for my taste but overall it was better done than most of the episodes outside of the season premier.

Main problems: Well one of my problems is the lack of a plot other than "protect the city" and the first half sort of had the same problem. Granted while most of the PR seasons' plots centered around protecting the city, we at least got some sub-plots to help spice things up. With this, it just feels far too episodic with the characters not being interesting enough to make up for it. The rangers also seriously need to tone down the talking during the fights as there is far too much banter going on, even by PR standards. Its a bit distracting constantly hearing bad jokes in the middle of a fight.

The concept of older rangers showing up in the context of adapting the source material does sound like a good idea but it doesn't really make that much sense to me for one simple reason: A lot of the veteran rangers STILL have their powers yet chose to sit back and watch instead of helping the current team. In Gokaiger, they at least had a valid reason for being unable to help during the show since they were basically powerless. To make it more illogical, the Megaforce city is the only city shown being attacked and no other city is hinted at being attacked. It just makes the veterans look bad. When Jayden said "we're watching you.", I wanted to punch him and ask where the veterans were during the attack. I get it, we're meant to assume that they're fighting the Armada in other parts of the world but that hasn't really been shown or even hinted at as of yet. It would've made much more sense from a story telling perspective had the Legend War been done at the end of the Megaforce half instead of saved for the end of Super Megaforce. Other-wise the veterans showing up just feels tacked on for the sake of nostalgia. The fact that they still have their powers while the ranger keys exist also violates a piece of continuity from the MMPR era. That condition being that there can never be two of the same power at one time other-wise it can be very dangerous for the morphing grid. The ranger keys in PR would technically count as duplicate powers. So they just shot themselves in the foot since a lot of the veterans still presumably have their powers.

Pre-Zyu suits showing up: I'll have a post where I go into more detail up later. For now, I'll just say that the suits really have no reason to be in there if they're not going to properly explain why they're there. They've basically blown a hole in their continuity without giving an in-show explanation for it. It just makes the editing department look lazy when they can easily cut out the five second clips they've shown of those suits. It also makes the writers look lazy when all they need to do is write a two-second line saying "These powers are from other planets.". Writing them off as new powers accessible by Super Mega mode can only stretch so far. Granted Zordon did say there were rangers from other planets back in MMPR but here is the problem, most of their target audience today wouldn't know that bit of continuity. People are trying to come up with fan theories to explain why those suits are showing up, and while that is a valiant effort, it is ridiculous for it to be left to the fans to do so. When a company alters a franchise's continuity, the burden of explanation rests squarely on the shoulders of the company, not the fans. I give the Dairanger suits a bit of a pass since they are post-Zyu and they did technically have a presence in the franchise thanks to Kibaranger being used as the MMPR white ranger. I'll be keeping a count of the non-PR suits showing up until we get some sort of explanation.

Overall, it has been a meh show with hints of laziness on the production side so far. However, I can tell they are making some effort here and there which is more than I can say for the first half of the show.

My thoughts on Kamen Rider Gaim so far

Well since Gaim is just about at the halfway point, I figured it was time to do this. Here are my thoughts on what I've seen from Gaim so far. There will be some spoilers here since its hard to talk about these characters and their motives without spoiling anything, especially in DJ Sagara's case.

The first seven episodes struck a small nerve with me because it felt like it was sort of pumping out riders just to introduce toys with some characterization for each new rider so I won't label these episodes as filler. It sort of gave me flashbacks of Wizard's Dragon Style arc given how quickly the new riders showed up. Those episodes lacked plot development but thinking back on them, the characterization more than made up for that. The show also had a habit of flip-flopping tones during these episodes but the show started picking a tone in episode 8 when we get Kaito's motivation. Urobochi has definitely hit his stride now as the last 16 episodes have been all plot and have done rather well in keeping my interest. Though I still say Urobochi could've kicked the plot into gear before episode 8.

The suits for the most part have been alright with their biggest problem being the shoulder pads as those look far too large and tended to flop around too much during the fight scenes early in the show with Pine Arms being the worst offender in that category. It seems they've fixed the floppy shoulder pad problem though as I haven't noticed it in a while. My favorite suit is Ryugen's as the shoulder pads strangely work in its favor. However, the worst suit design so far has to be Suika Arms because its physical suit is just a big green fist and a box for Gaim's head since its purely a CGI form. It is some of the worst CGI I've ever seen as at certain times it looks like someone just drew on the film.

No one should have okay-ed this...at all!

It is a form that definitely should've been slimmed down and made into a human-sized suit for the suit actor or made to act as an independent robot for a non-rider character like Powerdizer from Fourze. Can't speak much for its design, its just a big watermelon themed mech suit. Thought the weapon for it changes depending on the rider using it which is a nice touch. The Jinba forms are interesting because even though they have the same weapon, each Jinba form makes up for that by increasing a certain aspect of Gaim's natural abilities such as strength, speed, and hearing. I can only guess what Jinba Melon will increase. I like Kachidoki Arms' design as it looks like an upgraded version of Orange Arms. It looks nicely balanced and the helmet and chest-plate are nicely detailed. A really nice touch is that the flags on its back can double as weapons which makes the flags a great choice on the designer's part. The red, yellow, orange, and black goes really well with the silver bolts on the suit. Its weird to think that this isn't even his final form since it looks like it could be.

Originally, it looked like the suit actors were having trouble adjusting to their weapons but they've definitely gotten used to them now. Baron's suit actor still sort of uses Banana Arms' lance like a sword but that works rather well when he fights in a corridor or enclosed space. Gaim's suit actor has finally gotten used to Strawberry Arms' daggers and has begun using them in a reverse-grip style which flows more naturally in a fight than the way he was holding them before.

A cool thing about the show is how it handles the form changes. Certain forms are actively being used to counter specific types of Invess. Pine and Mango are used mostly to combat armored enemies. Strawberry Arms is mostly used on flying Invess and Suika Arms is used to counter larger than normal Invess. It really shows that the characters have gotten used to how their powers work and are actively applying strategy in terms of form changing. It also means they don't have to keep constantly spamming their newest form to win each fight. The characters have also grown more comfortable with their weapons and it shows they're growing as fighters. Though Kouta does still act like an amateur at times and ends up flailing his sword around. I'm not complaining there as it shows that they are still basically untrained kids' fighting each other.

There are a lot of characters to cover so I'll start with the seemingly neutral ones, specifically a character that struck a severe nerve with me early on. Thats right, its the seeming fan favorite Oren Pierre Alfonso aka Kamen Rider Bravo. His comedy aggravated me early on as he is a trained soldier yet his comedic antics originally made it hard for me to take him seriously. Thankfully, he has gotten a bit more tolerable now that he has a punching bag for his comedic antics, that being Jonouchi. He has also begun showing more of his professional fighting side and he has actually somewhat grown on my to the point where I don't find him annoying anymore. We haven't seen him since episode 18 so I can't help but wonder what he has been up to.

Speaking of Gridon, I can't help but think he'll end up being the more strategic of the riders as he seems more than willing to use others for his own goals and toss them aside once they are of no further use. Jonouchi has some decent potential and I'm really interested in what they'll do with him once he gets done using Oren. Hase was an alright character and I really felt bad for him near the end. His death was sad and it helped show the gravity of the situation. It also showed there was more to fear from Helheim than just the Invess.

One of the most intriguing things about Gaim so far is the various ideologies the characters subscribe to. I like Kouta because of his optimistic outlook on things and his drive to change the world without compromising his morals. Micchi's dilemma is interesting since he is now pretty much working for Yggdrasil but he clearly cares about his friends even if he knows he might have to stab them in the back in order to protect them. He has even semi-adopted his brother's way of lying to people so they can keep clinging to their happiness. It will be interesting to see how that works out for him since the secret will inevitably get out. Kaito's take on power is interesting given his background with Yggdrasil and even though he has semi-partnered with Ryoma, I can't help but think there is more to it than him simply seeking out the Overlord Invess to test his might. It will be interesting when all their various ideologies and motivations come to a boiling point.

The Yggdrasil riders are honestly some of the more threatening Kamen Rider villains I've seen. I'm actually hesitant to call Takakora a villain since he is legitimately doing what he thinks is right. He is a man who will do whatever needs to be done to protect humanity's future and he follows the ideology that nothing in the world comes without sacrifice. He is completely at odds with Kouta's ideology which has lead to some great fights between the two so far. I like Ryoma because you can easily tell that he is one of those smart, scheming, devious, villains from the first moment he appeared on-screen. Every time the man is on-screen, part of me hopes that he tips his hand while part of me hopes he doesn't because I like the suspense. The man is even able to make Takatora think he is on his side. As for Sid, the guy is clearly a cold, callous type of villain who is more than willing to dirty his hands to achieve his goals. He seemed to take some joy in using the Beat Riders and even had this deliciously evil smirk on his face when he killed Hase. Yoko/Marika is honestly the most terrifying of the Yggdrasil riders mostly due to her mannerisms when she moves and speaks. Even when she is smiling and talking calmly, you get the sense that she would strangle you if you turned your back on her. She legitimately sends a chill down my spine every time she speaks. Her being Marika's suit actress as well as her actual actress works pretty well and the fight scenes really get kicked up when she fights both in and out of suit. Unlike the main riders' suits, the shoulder pads for the Yggdrasil riders actually look quite nice and the single shoulder pad look works great for them.

Finally, I get to DJ Sagara. In all honesty, the guy kind of scares me because we don't exactly know what his goal is. He is more than willing to push Kouta deeper and deeper into the fight for some unknown reason and even told him to remake the world with his own hands. I'm actually wondering why he is so interested in Kouta. He seems to be more of a neutral party at present and he definitely isn't human given that he created the Kachidoki lockseed. He seems to have some connection to the Mai-lookalike and even wanted to know why she took such an interest in Kouta. I'm curious to see what Urobochi will do with him.

The show's take on heroes and villains is a rather interesting one as not everyone is straight-up good or outright evil. Most of the characters' motives can arguably be seen as right  and a justified solution to the problem, even if I happen to disagree with them. It really helps to show that under dire circumstances that what is right and what is wrong really only depends on your perspective. Anyway, those are my thoughts on Gaim so far and I'm curious to see where Urobochi will take the show now. It is just might end up taking my number 3 spot from Kamen Rider W.

Re: Why Sentai Purists Don't (Often) Blame Toei For Power Rangers's Existence

Today I read an article vilifying 'Sentai purists' for not recognizing Toei's involvement in Power Rangers, and calling the general Sentai fandom a few choice adjectives for the ignorant actions of some who had threatened the well being of Haim Saban. There also seemed to be an underlying tone that Saban Brands can have a pass for the interpretation they offer of the Sentai series and unapologetically half-commit to their work. 

Here is the article mentioned: http://www.jefusion.com/2014/03/why-sentai-purists-dont-often-blame.html

My response, though straying a bit away from the intended message of the initial post, is presented here:

While it's true that the implied threats to the well-being of Haim Saban are those of ignorance within the Sentai fandom, that does not mean that Power Rangers is necessarily a good show or doing well by its progenitor, Super Sentai.

The reasons many thoughtful Sentai fans have issue with PR are not wholly superficial.

If I hand you two films with the same premise, let's say the classic Jurassic Park and a Sci-Fi (now SyFy) Original interpretation of said film, it would not be unjustified to believe the latter might have poorer writing, lower production values, less talented actors, less inspired score/soundtrack, and so on. This is the same mindset the healthy Sentai fan has between something like Gokaiger versus Super Megaforce.

While the demographic is roughly the same between the two series, a focus on young children (with a further focus on males in the US), the messages laid forth for American audiences are often sub-par generalized themes that offer no substance, where the Sentai predecessor using the flavor of the year can often offer great messages and opportunities for the children's (and often the adults watching beside them) growth as individuals. The importance of discipline, family, imagination, justice, and a slew of any number of lessons are more aptly displayed with Sentai episodes and series than the generic 'good guys do good thing/Goofus and Gallant' stories that are offered by PR.

And note the depth of villain characters and stories in Sentai, how they have evolved as time has gone on to offer personality and story arcs. The US equivalent is often no more than a caricature by comparison. I'll use the example of Bandora of Zyuranger vs. Rita Repulsa of MMPR: while the early Bandora may have herself seemed a caricature, the series slowly releases that the reason behind her wanted to harm children then control Earth is her grieving at her son being killed by dinosaurs and not forgiving others for having their children still. Rita Repulsa was just 'Conquer Earth, Conquer Earth, Conquer Earth", never having more reason than that. Even though the intended audience for these shows are young children, that doesn't mean they have to be stunted by poor characterization and a missed opportunity at understanding the working of people and the world.

So yes, Toei does have its hand in PR and has since before MMPR. But it also relies on Saban and other North American staff to decide on how to adapt their shows. Until Toei sees the currency not coming as steadily as they'd like or a dramatic drop in viewership, they have no reason to truly meddle in the outcome.

And just to further support that Saban's hands are strangling the potential of the show, the Disney years of PR, though not wholly better, at least attempted to work storylines that offered more growth than Saban had done before or since, actually offered developed characters (we don't talk about OO), and made regular acknowledgement of their Sentai equivalent with attempts to bring them into viewers' knowledge or using similar episodes or overall arcing storylines of the series. Examples to note: Dino Thunder's romantic tension between Dino Black and Elsa or the 'Lost and Found in Translation' episode are blatant examples, but the bulk of episodes in the aforementioned era often adapted Sentai episodes into PR ones.

The point I guess I'm trying to make is that no one should be threatening the life of Haim Saban or the people involved in any iteration of the Power Rangers franchise. That's ignorant and cruel. And Sentai fans need to recognize that Toei gave Saban Brands the okay to use Sentai for PR, whether we may be happy with the outcome or not. But that doesn't mean the opinion that PR is a weaker series to Sentai is invalid, and is as much an opinion with points to be made as the preference toward PR.

~TokuMaster

ToQger First Impressions

Well I've seen the premiere of ToQger and yes this is a bit late, but better late than never. Its time to get down to business. Based on the information that was released early on, it was clear that this show was seemingly going for a light tone. What did I think of it? You'll find out soon enough.

The episode opens with a nice bit of narration about the importance of imagination. We see a train from the Shadow Line abducting children and surprisingly there is an adult on board. Suddenly we see the dark train being chased down by 5 trains from the Rainbow Line. After a battle between the trains, the dark train is driven to a dead stop and we're shortly introduced to our heroes: The ToQgers, well 4 of them anyway as Right doesn't join until later in the episode.

The dark train's design is decent enough with a nice looking albeit very generic skull on the front. It should also be noted that the miniatures for the show look fantastic. I'm a bit mixed on the theme song. It is decently exciting but it might get rather annoying at some point. As for the ToQgers, the color scheme is about what would be expected with the colors being red, blue, yellow, green, and pink. Though it is nice that they went with a nice bright shade of green instead of the usual shade. The color swapping however could use some work. In the premiere it just gets played off as a flashy way for them to simply switch weapons and it really doesn't affect their fighting ability in any way.

I was expecting each color to be linked to a specific ability and by assuming that color, a ToQger could gain access to that ability. The cast seems interesting enough and imagination being the source of their power is a cool idea. Its really interesting that Kagura can use her own imagination to augment her physical abilities and I'm wondering if the other ToQgers can do something like that as well. Her signature weapon is also a bit twisted in a sense as she used it to shrink some foot soldiers and began literally crushing them like ants. However it is an interesting idea for a weapon regardless. Personality-wise, I don't mind Right at the moment, for now he is just a reckless guy. He even went so far as to jump onto a moving train before grabbing his henshin device.

That just might be my favorite gag in the premiere.

The design for ToQ-Oh is just massive and way too bulky though I will give the designers some points for going with full-size trains and instead of just giving each ToQger an individual train car. ToQ-Oh actually moved a lot better than its design would imply. Given its overly bulky design, it definitely wouldn't be the most agile mecha so it was a great idea to have it fight on tracks. The villains' designs are interesting though the premiere didn't give us much insight into their personalities.

In terms of the comedy, it had a little too much slapstick from my tastes but it was still enjoyable. I just hope it won't sink to the level of relying too much on the slapstick to get the comedic tone across.

Well those are my thoughts on the premiere. Overall, it was a decent premiere and it looks like the show will be fun. I'm not going to set my hopes too high. All I can hope now is that the show will be entertaining and not rely on padding as much as Kyoryuger did because that can really hurt the show.

Super Megaforce First Impressions

Given the Megaforce review, you no doubt know I didn't care much for it and now the first episode of Super Megaforce has come and gone. What did I think of it? Well just read on and see.

The episode opens with a recap of the finale of the first half when the Messenger is destroyed and Vrak goes into hiding. We then get introduced to Vrak's brother Prince Vekar as the Armada begins the assault on Earth. I like his voice, it has a sort of royal undertone to it though he and the other villains do sound a somewhat muffled but that will probably get fixed in later episodes. Another thing of note is that while the theme song is the same as the first half, the opening sequence strangely has more energy to it and it is a bit more exciting.

It was a good choice not to have them recalled to the Command Center to get the new mode immediately after the invasion begins. We get a nice scene or two of Emma and Noah actually fighting off the grunts to protect civilians. By doing it that way, they managed to provide some decent tension. Seeing everyone but Troy limping into the Command Center with suits scuffed and slightly burned from battle is a decent sight.

With that said, the acting and the voice acting on the rangers' part is about on par with the first half. Their voice acting sounds a bit dry and dull. Troy still sounded a bit bored while Emma still sounded a little too cheery considering they were watching the city get destroyed in beginning. I do like that they made the keys the same size as the ones in Gokaiger. I was actually expecting them to use the smaller and mis-proportioned Bandai of America keys instead. My biggest complaint with the episode is that they just went on and on about how great their new powers were.

The name legendary red ranger mode is redundant since its called legendary mode.

Its fine if they think that their Super Mega mode (geez that is a terrible name) is cool and they are excited to be able to use it but after a while it got annoying.  I almost shouted "Ok I get it! You love your new powers, just stop talking about it already!". Banter between the rangers is a normal part of  PR but this seemed a little much. The fight scenes would've been cooler if they had just toned down the talking. The color puns during the legendary red ranger change were annoying and really only helped push the point home that they rangers needed to shut up about their new powers. They made a really weird choice after the legendary red ranger fight. They did a blatantly obvious photo-shop/green screen effect to put Overdrive Red's suit in the scene where they were walking away from the explosion. I thought for sure that was something they would've re-shot. The difference is really noticeable because in the shot, Overdrive Red's suit is a lot brighter than the others.

Other than that, the action was just the standard Gokaiger stuff involving team swapping but using each team's morphing phrase was a nice touch. They even went so far as doing a roll call when they changed into Mystic Force. With that being said, the names of all their equipment and zords need work because adding the words "super mega" to everything is just lazy. You could call that knit-picking but it got annoying hearing "super mega" this and "super mega" that when ever they did something.

The episode does a nice call back to a question the teacher asked in first episode of Megaforce and Troy's answer that if humanity works together, they can overcome even the greatest odds. It was actually a very fitting call back given the start of the episode. It is also kind of nice to see that Roboknight might not be outright forgotten in this half. Those are my overall thoughts on the episode. Was the episode terrible? No. Was it spectacular? Not even close. Overall, it was just an ok episode. They really have a lot to make up for after the first half.

Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places

    

     Since today is all about love, I thought why not take a look at some couples in Tokusatsu.  What’s that you are wondering why my title seems to indicate something negative?  Well the explanation is simple…I am full of negativity.  There are just some couples out there in the Toku universe that make you scratch your head, scream “What the hell!”, and just pull out your hair.  With that let’s take a look at 3 couples I didn't really like in a segment I like to call “Looking for love in all the wrong places.” (P.S. Spoilers will be involved)

1.) Daigo “King” and Amy- Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger

     

     Granted this is a more recent couple and there are worse couples out there but I just wanted it know that I think this couple is bad.  One problem with this couple is how last minute it felt.  Sure there was that one episode where Amy was jealous with Yayoi and unsure if she liked Daigo, but that was about it from what I remember.  Not only that she resolved the issue herself saying “Whatever, I just won’t think about at the moment” which is perfectly fine, until we get to the later episodes where that mindset of her and Daigo returns.  The D returns episode was just more about Mikoto (Meeko) and Daigo and Yayou talking love and the relationship with Daigo.  Amy is more shocked than anything else. Then we have the last three episodes where all the sudden Amy is like “Daigo-kun, let’s eat dessert together!”  

     As for Daigo’s perspective, he is treated like a generic shounen protagonist where he loves all his friends and is oblivious to people romantically interested in him.  And then we get the finale where he makes the statement that Amy and him are two of a kind.  Where did that come from, when did Daigo suddenly realize he liked Amy?  He never gave any rhyme or reason for it so why the sudden, “I will protect Amy because you are the most important person to me.” Come from?  And that is what a lot of fandom was saying, it just came out of nowhere and the writing never indicated that such an event would occur.  Not to say Yayoi or Meeko would have been any better because either woman would have resulted in the same complaint from me as bad couples but at least there was some kind of history and attraction from Meeko and Yayoi at least we knew she liked Daigo.  Also Daigo said "We're two of a kind" to Amy, where did he get that idea, throughout most of the series Amy is written as the token and generic girl of the group and didn't really do anything to have Daigo say this.  Again just bad writing and bad execution.

     If you want a comparison of Daigo, Amy, Yayoi, and Meeko love thing, it’s basically like Naruto.  Daigo is Naruto, Amy is Sakura, Yayoi is Hinata, and Meeko is Shion from the 1st Shippuden movie.  

So I guess that makes Riku Sanjo a Naruto and Sakura shipper?

(Would of been a better result lol)

     Another issue the lack of chemistry performers Ryo Ryusei and Ayuri Konno had.  Whenever they are interacting with each other it lacks very little dynamics and the image of them being together is hard to believe.  It also didn’t help that I thought the performers were bad to begin with but the lack of chesmistry hurt any kind of legitimacy that the two could have been together.  Want a good example of good chemistry and a relationship written by Riku Sanjo, watch Kamen Rider W, Ryu (Kamen Rider Accel) and Akiko.  

With the story not really handling the relationship well, the performers not doing a good job, and the fact that I don’t like either character as well, Daigo and Amy’s relationship is one of the worse I have seen in Sentai.

2.) Keisuke Nago and Megumi- Kamen Rider Kiva

     Yeah this one, I don’t even think Kiva fans understand.  I know Nate Strazor a huge Kiva fan didn’t understand it.  Kiva had a lot of problems and was a mess; one of those problems is its handling of love stories and romance.  In fact I could make an entire post about Kiva’s romance and how terrible they were but I want to focus on this in particular because it is just unexplainable.  Like Daigo and Amy the two performers Keisuke Kato and Nana Yanagisawa weren’t exactly good and also they lacked chemistry, but one of the main problems with these two is that they quite literally hated each throughout most of the series and then in the finale they get married.  What…why? It makes no sense, how can these two characters that are constantly at each other’s throats get married in the end?  Are they both into this kind of thing, is just out of desperation, or is because no one else will take, because those reason I can think to get these two married.

(Can't you see since we argue so much that means we are in Love!)

      I mean I like love-hate relationships but for that to work there has to be a give and take.  You have to show that they do care for one another even though they argue marry like a married couple.  Kiva did not do that, there was a lot more hate and anger both characters had towards one another but rarely any kind of care.  More often they were trying to one up each other than actually forming a bond.  The relationship would have been at least better had it only gone the friendship route and more about the two characters hating each to mutually respecting one another.

     It is just so forced and out of left field more so than Daigo and Amy and the show doesn’t even explain why this happen they just want you to accept and move on.  Well maybe if the writing built the relationship bette than maybe I can move on, but to go from “Idiot I hate” “Megumi you are not worthy of Ixa” to “I do!” Well you got a problem here.  

(More legit of a relationship. Thanks Takebe!)

     Kiva was a mess of a series and the marriage and forced romance of Nago and Megumi is just one of those issues.  

3.) Ryu and Kaori- Chojin Sentai Jetman

     Now this one may surprise some people but I personally didn’t exactly like that in the end of Jetman that the two characters that got married were Ryu (Red Hawk) and Kaori (White Swan).  This one like the two couples I mentioned before just comes nowhere and feels very forced.  Granted three years past and so something could of happened that brought these two together but really even if that was the case it just feels unnecessary.  But then again the epilogue portion of Jetman’s finale is another topic for another day.

     Again like many problems of couples I mentioned before is that while Rika Kishida was decent, Kotaro Tanaka on the other hand I don’t think did a good job as Ryu.  I am not saying he’s the worst red actor in Sentai he just wasn’t one of the best I’ve seen.  With that I felt the two lacked the sort dynamic to make them look like a couple.  So when you see the two together it isn’t like you instantly think “Yeah these two together.”  

(Sorry I just can't buy it.)

     The real connecting moment the two had was when Kaori was helping Ryu over his grief of the death of Rie at the hands of Radiguet.  Now I personally did not see as some sort of romantic gesture but more in the line of a friend helping another who was feeling down.  Which would make sense in Jetman since that was one of its themes (Listen to the ending theme- Kokoro Wa Tamago).  But for that moment to spark a romance is quite insulting to the audience since that means that if a woman helps you through your grief she must love you romantically, not love and car for you as friend.  

     Plus I always felt Kaori should have been with Gai because she was kind of the balancing force that changed him for the better but I would been okay if that didn’t happen either.

 I think them being close friends with strong bonds is how Jetman should of approached it, and in the end it only gave us a forced marriage from forced romance.

     Jetman was a great series and I love it to death but Ryu with Kaori in the end was something I was not a big fan of.

     So that was the first year of my segment called “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places” I hoped you’ve enjoyed my little rants on love in Tokusatsu and if you liked I may do another one next year because there are a lot times when love in Tokusatsu isn’t handled very well, so watch out bad couples because just because I didn’t talk about you this year doesn’t mean I won’t next year.  So again thank you for reading and please comment with your thoughts on the article and some of the Tokusatsu couples that you didn’t like.  Thank you all and take care and remember I love you all.