Super Sentai Humorous Moment 3: Dekaranger

We now return to yet another funny moment in Super Sentai. This time, about Dekaranger... featuring Umeko/Deka Pink.

This is seen in Episode 12.

So it starts out with Umeko enjoying her bath... when in a sudden, Doggie announces a strangeness that they needed to investigate. In disappointment, Umeko got out of her bath to dress up...

Doggie Kruger was proud with how the Dekarangers were hurrying to the crime scene diligently... until Umeko arrives, her hair not yet cleaned up and there's still the bubbles and shampoo on her hair. Doggie immediately becomes angry and asks what the hell happened to her head. Before Umeko could explain, she snooze... and the bubble on her head flew over to Doggie's mouth.

Umeko's expression was completely deadpan and she puts on her hair... 'hat'... whatever onto Doggie's mouth like it's a place where you hang your clothes for being dried by the sun and entered the tunnel to enter her Deka Machine, while Doggie just stared there doing nothing. She did transform inside and apologized.

And when she arrived at her Deka Machine, she snooze so hard her Deka Machine jumped and surprising Swan on how 'energetic' she was. And that's the last straw for Doggie as he yelled "UMEKOOOO!!!!" to her tunnel and Umeko gave out a hilarious "I'm sorryyyyy!"

The rest of the episode isn't much LOL worthy, but still, Umeko's antics with Doggie Kruger in this episode always crack me up.

Five Man Band: Dekaranger

All right, here we are in the first Five Man Band talk... in which we talk about... the Dekarangers


So let's get on with the breakdowns of the talk.

1. The Hero - Ban
By contrast, Ban really isn't giving out orders like he's the Leader of the group. However, he IS the Red Ranger and pretty much the team's 'fireball' and gives out inspiration to everyone. He's also the main protagonist of the series, thus he's this.

2. The Lancer - Houji
Houji is no leader, but in the same vein of Sean, yes he does have leadership qualities, as much as backfiring it was in the first try, but he has it, though he's no Kouichirou from Megaranger or Yuuri from Timeranger (where they're the technical leader). In contrast, since our Hero is Ban, Houji fits in Lancer position like a glove because of just how contrasting his personality with Ban. Indeed, they're the two that most likely would argue due to conflicting personalities. But hey, they also show great teamworks covering what they lack.

3. The Big Guy AND The Smart Guy - Sen-chan OR Jasmine
Okay, this is where I deviate from TV Tropes. Sen-chan is usually pegged as The Smart Guy due to his Thinking Pose, while Jasmine is pegged as The Big Guy because... she's a bishoujo type, the 'tougher' part of the duo with Umeko and the rest of the spots have been taken. However, let's look at the different perspective... in BATTLE, because those were really the perspective taken outside battle. When we look it at the Battle perspective, the role is reversed. Sen is the Big Guy because he held great power and when he fights, he goes straightforward pure power, remember that one episode where he kicks a chunk of rock and breaks it (or was it cutting it into two?)? On the other hand, Jasmine is instead The Smart Guy since she possesses the 'Mirage Dimension' ability which requires some creative mind and overall provides a more complex, tricky execution style, which is usually a trait for The Smart Guys.

So there we have it, up to you guys to decide which one is more Big and which one is more Smart.

4. The Chick - Umeko
Umeko is, put simply, the more emotional of the team. More emotional, however, doesn't mean to be the quiet one though, she's a different Chick because she's... well, loud and brash compared to Jasmine. But she's gotten her biggest 'Chick' credentials due to how her relationship with Sen came about, when after being tricked and nearly killed, she realized it sooner, shot her would-be killer, and broke down in tears.

5. Sixth Ranger - Tetsu (and Boss)
This is self-explanatory. Tetsu joins late, is 'different' than the rest (being that he's with the Tokkyou, and the rest are just SPD police officers). Sixth Rangers are supposed to be 'oddballs' amongst the team so he fits like a glue over there. And Boss may kind of count, but he takes more of the mentorship role...

And there we go about Dekaranger's Five Man Band formation. Tune in next time when I speak of another formation.

Super Sentai Crowning Moment Of Awesome 4: Dekaranger

Okay we're here for another Crowning Moment Of Awesome. I'm sure Sean has covered it, but I want to make a writeup on my own. Plus, I made a video out of it (how come this hasn't been in youtube??). Anyway, this is from Episode 26 of Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger.



What's on this episode: Houji investigates a night club and to do that, he had to participate in underground fight. Then he got trashed. At first. Then, he goes to a rigorous training session for close combat, especially in style of boxing. Then he goes back to the fight club for a second round and gets the upper hand. Then his enemy uses a power up drug, trashes Houji for several seconds... and then Houji proceeds to knock him out with just his boxing.

Reasons of Awesome: This is Houji you're talking about. He's the sniper of the group! Not much to say about close combat! But then, within just a few moments through rigorous training, he becomes quite the master of close combat, wipes the floor with an Alienizer that wiped the floor with him previously, unmorphed, just with boxing style, and he STILL wins even when the enemy uses a drug to increase his power. This is where Houji's power is showcased and why he's one of the best fighters in the Dekaranger. So, say it with me now to sum him up: "Super Cool. Perfect!"

I'll be back for more Crowning Moments.

Most Common Hottest Sentai Heroines

In Super Sentai, it's more common that the heroines are more properly dressed, while villainesses get more sexy dresses. Still, it doesn't stop that some heroines are still damn hot even without sexy dresses. I've observed quite on the Sentai fandom, and I would say that some heroines are more common to be called 'Hottie'. Maybe it's because of their pretty face, or beautiful hair, but... it doesn't quite matter. These are the heroines who I think to be more common to be called 'hot' by fans, mostly those who come from the Sentai series after the turn of the millenium (2000s and forward).

This does NOT portray my feelings on who's the hottest girl in my mind. In fact, I have a different list for my selected hotties.

1. Yuuri/Time Pink (Mirai Sentai Timeranger)

Well, what can I say about Yuuri. Considering that many people of the new millenia started the Sentai series in either Dekaranger, or this... They held her quite highly in attractiveness. It also helps that she is one of the few girls that take actual team leadership, and is a Tsundere, a popular character archetype. This probably contributes on why people consider her hot.

2. Nanami Nono/Hurricane Blue (Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger)

I... really haven't touched Hurricaneger at all. But, just one name from it would instill instant squee: Nanami Nono AKA Hurricane Blue. It's mostly thanks to her actress, Nao Nagasawa, who's quite popular amongst the fandom, and yes... I do have to admit that she's really pretty.

3. Marika 'Jasmine' Reimon/Deka Yellow (Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger)

Okay, as I said, Jasmine was my most favorite Yellow Sentai heroine. And yes, she's hot, precisely her actress Ayumi Kinoshita. She's quite the fan favorite amongst the team, considered really beautiful, and the fact that many people started on Sentai with Dekaranger (since it's the first to be subbed completely), Jasmine pretty much became quite the fan favorite and one considered hottest.

4. Sakura Nishinori/Bouken Pink (GoGo Sentai Boukenger)

This is also one of the great candidates of hottest Sentai babe ever. I mean, not only Haruka Suenaga (Sakura's actress) is REALLY a looker, she also gives a good portrayal of Sakura, a twist on the usually girly Pink Sentai warriors: tough as nails instead of cute and feminime, though she has some cute moments and when that happens, Haruka Suenaga usually makes that REALLY adorable.

5. Miu Sutou/Go-On Silver (Engine Sentai Go-Onger)

This is also one of the more popular choices of hottest Sentai babes. Miu gets her credit of hotness not just on her contrast towards the Go-ongers (more serious personality), or her actress (Yumi Sugimoto), but also the fact that she takes lessons in Tsundere department from Yuuri, making her much more hot in the eyes of fans.

I would add the Shinkenger, but right now I can't decide who qualifies more; Mako or Kotoha, both of them has quite the competiting fanbase that I can't pick both of them. We'll see. Also, I almost considered Mele from Gekiranger; but since she started out as a villainess, which means by default she gets her sexy wear, she's written out from this observation.

So anyway, that's my report on who are the most commonly revered as 'Hottest Sentai babe' as of today. And if you want me to do the 'cutest' instead? Well, I'll wait until later.

And this is just my observation, so there may be... mistakes. Correct me if I'm wrong. I'll see ya later!

Pairing Talk: Dekaranger

Okay, next in line of pairing talk is Dekaranger. Honestly, being a fanfic writer, I took a glimpse on the Dekaranger fanbase and it's FILLED with lots and lots of pairings, het and homo. So! Let's start with the pairings that seems very prominent.

Oh and, just this once, I'd talk about same-sex pairings because it's kinda fun to poke fun at.

1. Ban X Mari

Okay, this is just exclusive to the movie, but this gets carried over to Magiranger vs Dekaranger. It's just a normal 'I'll definitely protect you' moment at first, but this gets more forward and proves that Ban is interested of someone of different sex. We don't know if she'd play over to Ban when he becomes the Fire Squad member, but we never know. So let's just assume she did, otherwise Ban wouldn't keep her photo around in Magiranger vs Dekaranger. This is probably the most official coupling for Ban.

2. Sen X Umeko

(Apologies for the picture. I like it better if I use human form pictures, but I can't find any!)

Okay, this is also another official coupling, and as proven in Magiranger vs Dekaranger, they ARE going out together. I find it a bit rushed, since until the Sen-Umeko episode in late Dekaranger, there isn't much chemistry between both of them, except they ride their car together most of the time. But still, that one episode was quite the powerful episode that cements them together and shows that Sen DOES care about Umeko.

3. Doggie X Swan

You can't get more official than this coupling. Doggie and Swan are like completely matching pairs, even if they're of different species. The chemistries ARE there, even though they'd deny it. First off, Doggie risks his life to save Swan from his old enemy; he kinda had a denial about being in love when asked by Miyuki from Magiranger (anyone can see that coming!) and lastly, he gets pissed when he thinks an Alienizer is stalking Swan (even though it turns out to be Tetsu it's aiming). The proofs are there, Doggie, just be more than a man and admit it!

4. Hoji X Jasmine

As Sean Akizuki said, this one is not really an official pairing, but judging from their shared past, I'd say that there IS a reason behind this pairing. Plus, it's not like Hoji was uninterested with the person with different sex, he's shown that he has interest with that one woman that he had to break up because of killing her little brother. Their professional attitudes seem to match each other too, since between the SPD, both Hoji and Jasmine are the ones who are more likely to do straightforward, professional approaches. There's not much chemistries other than that, but if you ask me what my favorite ship for Hoji is... that's with Jasmine. Okay, I may be biased because both are my favorites, but... what can I say? They look great together!

5. Tetsu X Jasmine

Now before you raise your guns or whatever to shoot me, calm down and let me say one thing: I don't bash those who likes this pairing. In a way, as Sean said, I can see why people ship Tetsu with Jasmine. After Ban left to the Fire Squad, Tetsu basically replaces him and now shares car with Jasmine (it was previously Ban's seat), and he looked kinda crushed when Jasmine pursued Babon capturing Urara/Magi Blue, and ends up captured. That's it, really. Personally, I think that's not quite enough to make a couple, being that probably Tetsu was there just to replace Ban, as well as he'd do the same if someone else gets caught. But... they're not really a couple like Sen and Umeko, just professional pair (otherwise they'd be dating like them!). It's an okay pairing, but I just prefer other ships for Jasmine (above), and Tetsu (below)

6. Tetsu X Lisa

I'd say this would be the better pair for Tetsu, since they share more past, in the same way as Hoji and Jasmine. It's not unusual that we see 'teacher-student' pairing; and Tetsu-Lisa is no exception. The newer Lisa would have an easier time to accept Tetsu as well. However, this... seems to be a rather quickly-forgotten pairing because Lisa only appeared in one episode. Still, as much as quickly forgotten this is... yeah, I think I ship Tetsu with her.

7. Ban X Hoji

Okay, this is my first yaoi pair talk. Let me make it clear that I do not ship Yaois, but I acknowledge their existence. At any rate, it's obvious that for you Yaoi fans, Ban and Hoji are the most prominent pair, especially with their usual "I'm not your partner!" shtick, as well as that episode where Hoji thought of Ban dying and ended up genuinely crying. It goes even further that Hoji gets jealous of Ban declaring Kai/Magi Red his 'partner', while he gets demoted into 'ex-partner'. Still I'd say that's more like deep friendship, since as I said before, Ban and Hoji does have interest in people with different sex (as noted above).

8. Jasmine X Umeko

And balancing out between Ban and Hoji is Jasmine and Umeko, even though Umeko eventually ends up with Sen. Still you can't deny that before Sen-Umeko came to fruitition, Umeko spends more time with Jasmine, leading to many team-ups between them, showing off girl power prominently. This is a more prominent Yuri pair, as they're paired so often, perhaps as a couple or just partners. Overall, this is one girl-girl pairing that you won't be able to miss and is highly enjoyable.

And that's all I'll talk about the pairings today. I'll see you next time when I tackle other pairing eras... And I hope you won't flatten me with a hammer because my choice of shipping contradicts with yours...

Sentai Character Talk 1: Hoji Tomasu/Deka Blue

I'm more a character-driven guy, taking interests in characters more than how the story goes, and others. And in this blog, I'm gonna try to make a writeup on several Sentai characters. Okay, this is only limited to the ones I have watched, but just bear with me. I'll include not just informations you see everyday on the characters, but also what I think about the character.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS BELOW so you have been warned!

Today's character is Hoji Tomasu, AKA Deka Blue from Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger.


This is Hoji, a police of the SPD. A super serious, by the book cop who always shows a perfectionist attitude and likes handling things alone. This makes him argue with Ban, the wild fireball newcomer of the team, a lot, though I know all those slash fic writers are seeing it the other way around -_-. Basically, while Ban latches on him like a hyperactive guy, Hoji is completely irritated on him and often makes snide remarks on his apparent lack of usage of logic and brains, which Hoji prefers. Ban always called him 'aibou' (partner), but Hoji's response is always "Don't call me partner!". This gets repeated so often that if Hoji has a catch phrase, that might be it.

Past

Hoji has a fairly normal past, except one past that could make him flip out, turning him into a man full of rage. This past is shared with fellow Dekaranger Jasmine/Deka Yellow. SPD had a time when there wasn't any Deka Suits (Ranger suits) and they were just developing it. Hoji and Jasmine were investigating an Alienizer named Terry-X, but their inexperience caused defeat and they were captured. Thankfully, their senior Gyoku Rou saved them, but at cost of an injury that would cost him his career, or so they thought. Still, Hoji was pretty crushed on that event, since he respected Gyoku and think he ruined his career, and one of the reasons of his dislike to Ban is that he's far the opposite of Gyoku and when he heard Ban replaces him, naturally, Hoji didn't take it well. When Terry-X reappears, Hoji completely loses his cool and his fighting style becomes erratic to the point that he was easily beaten by Terry-X. Thankfully for him, Gyoku reappears and tells him to snap out of his rage, which he did and manages to defeat Terry-X, helped by Jasmine.


Development

Over time, Hoji learns more about friendship and depending on friends, especially after the incident where an Alienizer took over his body, and saw that even on the Alienizer's body, his friends still trusted him, enabling him to reclaim his body back. And beforehand, he learnt to stop being too perfectionist, after he screwed up big time and lost his spirit, but somewhat gets his spirit back after looking at how Ban keeps on going despite his inability to do what Hoji's doing (computers). He warms up to his friends, and eventually he starts warming up to Ban, first feeling extremely crushed when Ban looked as if he's dying (Ban comes back, though)... I know, I know, yet another slash fic bait. Later in the finale, he finally returns Ban's habit and called him Partner. Ban being Ban, he just replied with Hoji's usual catch phrase. This shows how much Hoji has developed and warmed up on him, though this gets worse in the Magiranger vs Dekaranger movie whereas Ban got a new Partner and Hoji gets demoted into 'ex-Partner'. Hoji gets jealous... all right, all right! We'll stop at the slash fic bait!

While Hoji has quite the normal past, he's not without some tragedies in life. In fact, I think in Dekaranger, Hoji is the one saddled with more tragedies in life, thanks to his attachment to the law. First off, there's his friend who gave up being good and forced Hoji to personally delete him before said friend could harm more innocent people. Another tragedy of his is when he did date a woman named Teresa. In the same time he's dating him, he's undergoing a test to be accepted as a Tokkyou, the same elite unit as Tetsu. The final test to be accepted turned out to be hunting down Teresa's brother, who's actually committing a serious crime. Torn between love and duty... Hoji chose the second and deleted the brother. That event crushed him big time, he really wasn't in the mood to say "Super Cool. Perfect" for another job well done since it comes with a high mental cost. Probably afterwards, he broke up with Teresa, and he even refused to be transferred to the Tokkyou due to his mental stress (and of course, bonds with his friendship) even when they said he passed.

Traits

Portraying his sharp mind and cool nature is his expertise on computers and guns. Hoji's personal weapon is the D-Sniper, which is exactly what it says, a sniper rifle. However, most of the time, he'd use his usual gun as well as sword to fight the Alienizers.

A trait of Hoji is his overuse of English phrases. And not a well-structured one. He usually favors the words "Super Cool" and "Perfect", usually after he personally deleted an Alienizer (or seeing something extraordinary). Or sometimes, "Oh My God" or "Unbelievable". Still, his English isn't really good English, but instead... it's what you'd call 'Engrish', reading English with how you speak as a Japanese. Compare with Jiraiya from Kakuranger, who actually speaks English well (but still with Japanese accent). Then again, Hoji's actor is not American-born, so maybe that's excusable.

A less-known trait of Hoji is about him being a 'genius at hard working'. At one point, he tried to sneak on an underground fighting ring, but in process, he has to fight as an underground fighter. He was beaten hard, but after his defeat, he proceeds to train himself in the style of boxing. He trained rigorously that in several days, he's back in action and proceeds to defeat the underground champion with just boxing. While he never uses the style again, he could definitely pick it up again.

Pairing

Well, it's no doubt that after much events, people would think Hoji is a bait for yaoi fics, especially with Ban. Although I'm not into it, I could see why. Just read the Development section. His other option for pairing would be Jasmine, not only because of their shared past; Jasmine is also one of the earlier SPD members alongside Hoji; as well as, as Sean Akizuki coined (and I agree), being one of the more straightforward professional member (Sen's headstand counts him out from being straightforward, he's more of a 'weird, but truly competent' officer). Overall, that's my fave pair for Hoji too. But we'll talk about pairing later.

So there you have it, a talk about one of my favorite characters in Dekaranger. Hoji has a lot of quirks and may look like a jerk who's all "I'm better than you" at first, but he quickly warms up, and he eventually becomes one of the most admirable characters in Dekaranger.