Sentai Character Talk 7: Satoru Akashi/Bouken Red

Just so I'm fair to both sexes, I'll talk about a male character now. Don't worry, I do plan to talk about more girls later, but this guy kinda stands out. Who? Satoru Akashi the Fiery Adventurer, AKA Bouken Red



This is the lead character of Boukenger, obviously the leader. He's a renowned adventurer known as 'Immortal Fang'. While he acts cool, when situation calls in, he's just as hot blooded as you can expect from the one calling himself 'Fiery Adventurer'. His favorite saying is 'Attack!', which is used to rile the Boukengers up to take action. He gets along well with his teammates, although he wasn't above tricking them if it was for the greater good. So let's dig in to this guy...

Attack.

Past

Satoru did have to claw his way out to become the 'Immortal Fang'. He was once a trio of adventurers with his friends to search for Precious. However, during one trip, there was a disaster and when he tried calling for help, the site where he ventured to caved in, killing his friends. Thus, Satoru has carried some sort of guilt complex by being the lone survivor from the event. However, he promised that he'd keep his adventure spirit intact to honor them.

Satoru is later recruited by SGS and becomes the first Boukenger. He went ahead and eventually recruited Sakura Nishihori and Souta Mogami, before eventually recruiting Masumi Inou and Natsuki Mamiya. He was very invested in his job and takes it well.

Development

Unlike Sakura, Satoru doesn't develop from his 'by the book' attitude. In fact, he's pretty open to breaking the rules sometimes. He remains the same throughout Boukenger, except maybe that time when the Questers had him hallucinate about his dead friend, causing him to doubt his worth as an adventurer. However, he eventually came to the conclusion that he ventures because he likes it rather than continuing his friends' legacy.

Satoru often gets into fight with Ryuuon. This is most likely intentional, in a way that Ryuuon was also an adventurer, but a darker take of Satoru. Ryuuon is what happened if Satoru wasn't surrounded with good friends and instead got bad friends who constantly humiliate him and eventually lost what's fun about adventuring and got a twisted take on it. You may say Ryuuon is Satoru's shadow that he managed to conquer, but as another man rather than something born of Satoru. And however a bastard Ryuuon was, Satoru still believed he could still see the light and offer him a chance of redemption... which was promptly shot down to hell by Ryuuon himself.

Traits

Satoru is a calm, cool leader, but as said above, he's hotblooded on the inside. His tendency to say 'Attack!' is also distinctive that his teammates teased about it or mimic it. He's also hellishly competitive, offering Masumi a lot of challenges, but mostly to teach him some good lessons.

However, one thing that makes Satoru stand out amongst Red Rangers is that he's got a big ego and was rather obsessive about it. He can't stand it if people laugh at him at his expense, and it's not like he never made any mistakes or embarrassment worth laughing at. How many times has it been that Satoru did something silly, his friends laugh at him and he yells "NO LAUGHIIINGG!!" to stop them for no avail? This is why Satoru is usually considered an example that "Just because you're the Red, doesn't mean you can't escape being treated like a joke for amusement."

About his ego further, there's also that incident when he tried enrolling to an Adventure school, but thought he failed, crushing him thoroughly and spent half the episode in a slight catatonic state (or in the terms of TV Tropes: Heroic BSOD), thinking that if you take adventure out of him, what will become of Akashi? Of course this was fixed soon and he's back on spirits.

He's also anti-superstition, which got him on a predicament when he's hit with extreme bad luck. Always thinking that it was only chance, the constant bad luck crushed his ego. With the support of his friends, he was able to reshape that ego, and STILL act like he's anti-superstition, only to be proved otherwise... for laughs.

And as much as hotblooded or calm he is, he's got a sensitive side. He was filling in the role of the 'grandma' for the Momotaro stand in, and he starts acting like it, giving soft treatments instead of Eiji's harsher treatment as the 'grandpa'. And when Momotaro left, Satoru was left bawling uncontrollably, like a mother who just saw her child off.

Pairings

It should be of no surprise here. While he treats Natsuki well, she's more involved with Masumi so Satoru is probably just another big brother figure for her. However, when it comes to Sakura, it is no doubt that they are the intended couple. Satoru wasn't really interested in love, but he appreciates Sakura very much, who held a crush on him. He was really concerned at her during Gekiranger vs Boukenger arc when Pachacamac XII possessed Sakura and forced him to do many atrocities. Satoru was really against it, but he had to do the dirty job to protect Sakura. Guess it shows that he cared... although he probably would do the same if it wasn't Sakura as well.

In conclusion, there we go about Satoru. Hot blooded, Calm, Sensitive, and again with the TV Tropes term, a Butt Monkey even if he's the leader. He's far from being a favorite of mine, but he's quirky enough to warrant being talked about here. I'll be seeing you soon for another talk!

Boukenger and Wikipedia

Well I recall when browsing on Wikipedia, the Boukengers are stated to be 'based on a previous Sentai hero'. It's probably a Wikipedia vandalism that will be deleted soon as the only thing Boukenger is basing on is previous Sentai mechas on their monsters and enemies. But it was interesting to note. So let's go with how they compare...

1. Satoru Akashi (Bouken Red) -> Tsuyoshi Kaijou (Aka Ranger)
Okay, so... what's their similarity again aside of they're the leader and they're reds? I haven't watched Goranger, but I can be sure as hell that Tsuyoshi wasn't as adventurous as Satoru, nor did the storywriter at times treat him like a joke at times. They're both virtuous, I'd say that, but I think that's where the similarities end. This may be fine, but that's like saying Satoru is based on other old school Sentai Reds, preferably earlier ones.

2. Inou Masumi (Bouken Black) -> Gai Yuuki (Black Condor)
Right, so this one is probably one I can see making sense a lot. Masumi and Gai are the rebels of the team, they wear black, they start the rivalry with Red. It's easy to say that Masumi is based on Gai. Although, Masumi didn't bite the dust like Gai, and he's not so lone-wolf as Gai. Plus, he never fell in love unlike Gai. Aside of that, those were good points in comparison.

3. Souta Mogami (Bouken Blue) -> Hayate Sho (Change Griffon)
The only similarity I see is that they're both playboys, but aside of that they're really different. Hayate can be cheerful, but not as big as Souta. Plus... Souta is the tech geek of the team, while Hayate leaves the techies geeking to Sayaka and sometimes Yuuma! The hell?

4. Natsuki Mamiya (Bouken Yellow) -> Ako Hayasaka (Blue Swallow)
Again, just like above, they're of different colors and this is the first that I'd say they have... nearly nothing in common aside of they're the cheerful youngsters. Ako is LESS naive than Natsuki and much more tomboyish and leers to athleticism (until the end though), and hell, she's sometimes naughtier too! Plus Ako's backstory is quite the basic one compared to Natsuki. I kinda think that this looked like a job by someone who's bent on pairing Gai with Ako, and thus when they say Masumi is based on Gai, they say Natsuki is based on Ako! Seriously!? .... No, I'm not talking about you, Sean, I know you didn't edit that! Moving on!

5. Sakura Nishiori (Bouken Pink) -> Peggy Matsuyama (Momo Ranger)
*sigh* Where did this come into aside of they're pinks? Has it ever been said that Peggy was an ice queen as much as Sakura was before? Did she come from a rich family at least? Was Peggy being Tsuyoshi's vice-leader... or did she have a crush on him? You do know that coupling in Sentai started in JAKQ Dengekitai, right?? Where's the basis of this? *sigh* Editors these days...

6. Eiji Takaoka (Bouken Silver) -> Burai (Dragon Ranger)
It's just here because they're the token Sixth Rangers... and if that is the only basis, then I can say that Eiji is based on... Kou, Riki (Kingranger), Yuusaku Hayakawa, Hyuuga, *insert any Sixth Ranger here*. Let's get this straight, Burai's backstory was heavily linked with the Red Ranger of Zyuranger (Geki), while Eiji's backstory has NO connection with Satoru's. How did they come up with this basing!?

I swear, those editors were probably high when editing. Now... you ask who I think is based on who? I think you'd better wait till next time for that. Until then, see you later!

P.S: These are just opinions.

Shameless Self Promotion: My Fanfiction

Okay as you all know, I run two blogs. First is this one blog and the other one is the Super Sentai vs Super Sentai blog. It's a massive fan fic (and conceived before Gokaiger was announced, now still going on). It even has two versions.

Thus far I'm getting quite the reviews in fanfiction.net, but... unfortunately, most of reviews come in form of not-so-much constructive reviews such as "Hey, insert this guy!" or "Awesome! I like this chapter! Can't wait for the next one!". It's all dandy, but I could appreciate it if there are someone who'll tell me if I did something wrong, whether I got the characterization on the right tracks or whether I'm making them OOC... Stuffs like that.

So there you have it. If you're reading my fic, I could appreciate some reviews that actually tells me if I'm on the right track of characterization or if I'm making them OOC... and why. It may be asking too much, but I really will appreciate it.

Thank you very much, and I hope you'll excuse this thinly-veiled self-promotion -_-

Thoughts so far on Gokaiger

Well everyone is crazy about Gokaiger now and I'm also seeing it. Not so much overhyped, but I am enjoying the show. So I'm gonna give my thoughts on the first 11 episodes thus far.

The Good part is that Nostalgia is handled well enough. The characters has gotten more interesting, but I'm getting to see why people like Joe enough, he's getting quite a lot of details especially in episodes 11 and the upcoming 12, I hope his conflict sticks and not forgotten thus far. Marvelous is a cocky bastard, but he has his moments of goodness at times. This Sentai seems to be not scared to make the heroes not to be squeaky clean-cut like the previous ones, but they draw the line where you can always be assured that they're the heroes of the story. I like that, really.

And I still think Ahim is really underrated. Her potential is just as big as Luka, and while I do respect Luka, I can see why she's getting a lot of attention, she reminds people a lot to Jasmine, a really popular lady of Sentai; assured, tough and sexy.

The story is pretty solid so far as well, pirates vs a real evil empire. While it's getting like a black morality (Zangyack) vs gray morality (Gokaiger), it draws the line enough that we are assured that we cheer on the good guys.

Now the bad ones (IMO). I think you may disagree with me, but I'm having a mixed feeling with Don. His nature is good, he provides comic relief, his heart is in the right place, but he's such a pacifist. It may not be a bad thing, but most of his transformations tend to be the 'number two' of the teams (In Five Man Band term, that'd be The Lancer), someone who'd look like the most badass or second most badass of the team, or team vice-leaders, such as Black Condor, Goggle Black, Shishi Ranger, Black Turbo, etc. Sometimes he pulled off fine, sometimes his comic-relief state kicks in and he makes these transformation look WIMPY in contrast to the original. It just gets kinda weird that for example, in Jetman, usually Black Condor look more badass than the rest of the team barring Red Hawk, but now... Blue Swallow and Yellow Owl looked as if they out-badassed Black Condor, because his transformation belonged to a pacifistic comic relief. It's just... weird to me. Of course you may disagree.

My next topic would be our enemies, the Zangyack Empire. Barizorg, Damaras and Insarn are pretty okay (Insarn especially, with the sexy voice of Kikuko Inoue). But what about our big bad, Oiles Gils? Well here's one word to say it... he's PATHETIC! I can't believe I've seen a Tokusatsu enemy as pathetic as he is! He's pretty much what happens when you put a spoiled brat of a prince into the position of 'Big Bad'. He's pretty much all talk, and I was really hoping that when in episode 11 he came down to Earth, I was hoping that he'd at least show that he is powerful to back all his talks. But noooo, he instead just orders more and hides behind the current Action Commander and Barizorg. And when his commanders usually get destroyed or failed him at times, he threw a tantrum rather than assessing where did he go wrong. A good example to showcase this is during the Gaoranger tribute ep, when Damaras took command, it got into quite the interesting take and perhaps the Zangyack COULD achieve something. But then Oiles Gils eventually barged in, pretty much said "Your strategy sucks! Use mine!" and ordered an all-out attack... and in turn gets the commander into disastrous result... and throw tantrum some more. Oiles Gils is like taking Prince Megiddo from Dynaman, but strip away things that made him at least a credible threat (possibility of being Dark Knight included), shower him with the mind of a spoiled tantrum-throwing pampered brat, then put him on Emperor Aton's position! I'm not saying that it's a bad move so far, since he spoke about his father so much, I'm expecting that Oiles Gils' father will show up one day and show his son how to be a commander in the battlefield AND a threatening Sentai villain. But man, Oiles Gils just wins the achievement of 'The Most Pathetic Sentai Villain EVER'. He's lucky he didn't have Radiguet as his underling, or else Radiguet would've killed him if he ever throws ANOTHER tantrum...

Ahem, sorry about the rant about Toilet -- er, Oiles Gils. I thought I'd rant a lot about Don, but Toilet -- ah screw it, from now on, I'm gonna call him 'Toilet Gils' -- Gils just trumps him in rant department. But overall, Gokaiger is still an enjoyable show, despite having the most pathetic villain like Toilet Gils leading the charge. I'm still taking account that at least Toilet Gils has the cruelty of most Sentai villains (such as how he made Barizorg, go see episode 11 yourself), but most of them are just really coated with patheticness...

I'm still looking forward for the movie and the rest of the season. Hope this doesn't get screwed like Kamen Rider Decade. I guess I'm fine with not seeing the majority of old school actors, but I'm fine. Get showy, Gokaiger! Good luck!

P.S: Pics coming soon!

Sentai Character Talk 7: Rei Tachibana/Dyna Pink

So yeah, you may be wondering why I deleted the previous post. I kinda felt it was rushed, kind of stupid and has no grounds. I should be such judges when I actually HAVE seen even ONE episode. But yeah, rather than looking like a stupid hypocrite, I think I'd delete that previous post.

Oh well, in place of that and celebrating the old school actors/actresses of Sentai in the Gokaiger movie, let's add up with something from what I recently finished... Rei Tachibana AKA Dyna Pink from Kagaku Sentai Dynaman.



Well, again, since Dynaman is in 1983... it was kept pretty simple. Rei is a 18 years old fencer, thus she's usually pretty handy with a rapier. Despite such physical affinity, she's actually an inventor, her dream is to create a device that enables people to communicate with animals (though she really has a long way to go if her flaw is not taken care of). This makes Rei actually a prodigy of her age, since the rest of the Dynaman are older than her. Anyway, being an inventor, she got invited into the Yumeno Research Center, but along the way met up with 4 fellow inventors (including a swimmer-inventor and ninja-inventor to name a few) and some weird creatures that attacked them all. They were cornered, thrown to sea, but survived and made it to the Yumeno Research Center. The Center's director, the aptly named Prof. Yumeno, reveals that the ones attacking them are the Jashinka Empire who were bent on conquering Earth once more. Again, like her predecessor in Sentai heroine business (Miki), Rei really had no doubt in turning into an ally of justice and when appointed to be one of the Dynaman, she accepted without asking further and began fighting with the Jashinka Empire along with her fellow Dynamen. The good thing? She can resume her research in the Yumeno Research Center.

Trait

Again, Rei is an 80's heroine where development wasn't as much. She acts like a typical Sentai heroine, relying more on wits, typically kind to children (but then again so is every Dynamen since the research center is under a kindergarten). One thing that stands out is that unlike Miki, it seems that Rei's character is designed to be more action-oriented, as proven with her fencing specialty.

She cares a lot about her friends, but has quite the sense of fun and humor as shown time to time, just like that time she devised a plan to lure the Slug Shinka. She goes on a naughty taunting-spree and sticking tongues a lot. Also at one time, she agreed to play a prank on Prof Yumeno by wearing the stolen clothes of her Jashinka rival Chimera, of course that backfired when she ended up getting a voodoo curse by Jashinka which quickly accelerated to affecting her friend. She ended up having to beg for the voodoo curse to stop until Ryuu Hoshikawa/Dyna Black saved the day, but it does show that she cared a lot about her friends and wouldn't want them to suffer from the prank she played (of course Ryuu was the one who accidentally stole it, but he probably apologized off-screen). Speaking of clothes, you may remember that one episode where she and Chimera fought off and strip each other until they're only in their lowest tier of swimsuits, showing off some naughty... bits.

She also seems to be quite into history/legends too as when she deduced how to beat a Jashinka monster that petrifies people with the head of Medusa... by repeating the feats of Perseus accurately.

But of course, one glaring trait she got was her phobia towards cat. There hasn't been any explanations why she feared cats, but the mere presence of cats, even if it's a lucky cat statue, was enough to send her into frenzy. This is pretty ironic, since she wanted to create a communicate-with-animal device, because like it or not, cats ARE animals. By the end of Dynaman, there's still no signs that she got over her fear. In this case, Rei should be lucky Super Sentai hasn't gotten an annual VS tradition, otherwise perhaps Deathdark Empire or Gear Empire can find out her weakness and purposely abuse it to cow her down (Jashinka's cat creature was created without knowing Rei's fear in mind).

Arsenal

Being a fencer, Rei usually carries a fencing saber wherever she goes. When transformed into Dyna Pink, her saber gets evolved into 'Rose Saber', and she gets a flowery shield called 'Rose Shield'. Her Dyna Rod attack is called 'Pink Shocking Melody' which sends out sound waves to attack the enemy. And with said sword she has a diving technique called 'Rose Finale'. It's a potent attack.

As par of the 'female warrior' schthick, she is also the person that would more likely to go into disguises. Unfortunately for Rei, she didn't have the 'spin and change costumes in a blink of an eye' like Miki, she'd need preparation times to pull it off. But when situation demands, she can disguise herself just fine.

Pairings

I'll... get back to this later when I make a Dynaman pairing topic.

In Conclusion

Again since this is a 80's pre-Changeman Sentai, I'd say that Rei was quite typical for the heroines of the age. But Rei probably kickstarted the trend of Sentai heroines that's tough as nails (even if she's the sole female and wasn't as tough compared to her male friends) and more action-oriented (which I have to admit, pretty good). Sayoko Hagiwara also portrayed her well despite, well, IMO, her voice a bit too deep for heroines, but she pulled it off just fine. I would put her as one of my favorites this way. And there we have it with Rei. You can look forward for her appearance in Gokaiger movie! (Albeit looking older)