Showing posts with label Shinkenger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shinkenger. Show all posts

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Sentai Character Talk 6: Mako Shiraishi/Shinken Pink

Okay we're back for another character talk. Let us talk this time about a Shinkenger, particularly Mako Shiraishi AKA Shinken Pink. Hey, if Sean can talk a lot about her, so can I (No hard feelings Sean, just that your favoritism to Mako is just so seen and acknowledgable)



This lady is Mako, descended from the Shiraishi clan, a clan in servtitude of the Shiba clan to seal the Gedoushuu, and she worked as a kindergarten teacher before the next battle with Gedoushuu began. She pretty much defines the 'big sister' archetype. Chiaki called her 'nee-san', Kotoha idolizes her so much she'd ignore one of her blatant flaws (which we'll talk about later) and even Takeru knows not to really be harsh on her. Sensible and mature, but also tough as heck, people may think she's a 'tomboyish' archetype like Yuuri of Timeranger or Sakura of Boukenger, but I'd say Mako is more of the 'nurturing, motherly type' which is pretty prevalent in the very old school Sentai shows.

Past

Mako... didn't have a good, normal past. When she's little, her mother, already crippled due to her previous battle with Gedoushuu, had to move away from home with her father, to Hawaii, leaving Mako to continue on the Shiraishi clan's samurai training from her grandma. Mako trained rigorously, even if she had to foresake her normal childhood. This was why she became a kindergarten teacher, she wanted to provide the children a good childhood that she never had.

Development

What Mako didn't know back then was that her mother's crippling was so bad she's paralyzed so she had to take medications in Hawaii, not because she's had enough of her child. This, at first, left Mako bitter about her parents a bit, but once she learned the truth, she became more respectful to them and her ending had her return to Hawaii... though probably returned just in time for Goseiger vs Shinkenger.

Aside of that, Mako was, admittedly, kind of static. She didn't improve much outside being less cold during that time she got hugged by Kotoha. She remains a good big sister figure for the Shinkengers.

In battle on the other hand, she seemed to be drawn with Usukawa Dayuu. When she got sucked into a dream world sharing with Dayuu, she ended up seeing her past and probably felt pity on her state, though Dayuu would take none of the pity. She ended up fighting her a lot and was quite sad when Dayuu sacrificed herself for Doukokuu. I think at that time Mako felt pity on Dayuu's fate and eventual death, regretting that she couldn't reach her out. But overall, they still held the same 'Girl-girl rivalry'.

Traits

If Mako lacked in development, she's already got a lot of traits to make up for it, though.

First off, her big sisterly figure means that she always had an urge to hug someone in need. Kids, adults, or even toy lanterns, if they feel depressed, she always had an urge to hug them out and comforting them. Of course, this doesn't mean she's ready for romantic commitment... as Ryuunosuke learned it the hard way. She hugged him not because she wanted to start a relationship, but she just thought his depressed self unsightly. Poor Ryuu-san didn't know that his default personality at that time was 'Annoying like hell' so it also ticked Mako off that he'd jump at her that instant. She'll cuddle as needed, not cuddle as long as she can. In other words, she values efficiency.

Being a kindergarten teacher also helps her for understanding many people's feelings. Including her teammates, she could sometimes understand how they were feeling, which led her to that one incident with Ryuunosuke (above), or how she tried comforting Kotoha when she felt lonely, topped with how she later attempts to sympathize with Takeru when he felt a bit too intense regarding his role. So it's not that she's tough and cold, she's a very understanding and nurturing lady.

But perhaps, her biggest trait is that... She's a horrid cook. And this is a frigging understatement. Takeru, the one who usually kept his cool, just freaked out at the prospect of her cooking (though less than that one haunted house). "Is that edible" indeed. And even the sight of her in an apron is just plain traumatizing for the Kurokos. She even uses her Shinkenmaru to 'murder' an onion, for Pete's sake! However, Mako is a hardworking girl, so she'd try her best to improve, although even until the end of Shinkenger, there's no progress at all... she'd try harder until she succeed. After all, her dream was to be a good wife, so cooking skill is a must. Then again, when your childhood is spent on training to be a samurai, who had the time for culinary training?

A rarely shown trait of Mako is that she seemed to have a hidden yearning for singing. Especially when that time she sang at the V-Cinema episode, it was in her dream that she becomes an idol singer. Of course, once everyone is back to the normal world, Mako would deny that she likes being an idol singer, but I'd just chalk it down that she's getting a bit flustered.

Pairings

I think I did tell about pairings of Shinkenger. Mako went along well with pretty much everyone. While initially refusing to Ryuunosuke, after that one incident, she's back to normal, professional relationship with Ryuunosuke, and if she shoves him off, it's because he's asking for it (like that one in the end of the soul-swap episode). There's also the one with Takeru, which is probably my favorite, just too bad it goes nowhere... and I think I can see rabid Kotoha fanboys glaring at me right now when I said that. Speaking of that, there's also Kotoha to consider pairing for, and I admit, Mako-Kotoha pair is a near-legendary one, up there with Jasmine-Umeko from Dekaranger. As of Chiaki, all I see is just about a sisterly respect view for Chiaki, calling her 'nee-san', probably why in Chiaki's dream in V-Cinema, Mako became the superior police for him. It's got a good start, better than Ryuunosuke even, I gotta admit. But then again, I shipped Chiaki with someone else -_-...

I dunno how much I'd value her pairing with Genta and Kaoru. Mako treats Genta the same way she treated Ryuunosuke, professionally. And she didn't get much time to interact with Kaoru.

In conclusion, that's Mako for you. She's admittedly static and just develops slightly, but she's got a lot of quirk and traits that makes her lovable. Perfect for you siscons out there. I think she helped a lot in reigniting my passion for Sentai after leaving it so long since the ages of Goggle V and Power Rangers. Of course she's not the only reason, but Mako pretty much gains my respect, and thus far, I think she's deserving her position as one of my fave ladies of Sentai...


Wait, what? YOU'RE COOKING NOW!? Oh dear, I hope my stomach is strong enough to endure. (Won't somebody please think of the poor little onions...!!)

Friday, May 21, 2010

Actors: From Hero To Villain - Contagious

An actor can play a hero one day, and play the villain next day. This holds true in the Super Sentai franchise as well. We've got some actors that played heroes in one installment, and next installment, they might be villains. However, I've also noticed that for Super Sentai, it may get a bit... contagious. If one installment featured a villain played by a hero of the previous installment's actor, one of the heroes of this installment's actors may play a villain in the future installment. Here's the list, or rather, the chain of this.



It started with Sayoko Hagiwara playing as Rei Tachibana/Dyna Pink in Kagaku Sentai Dynaman. Then, by Choushinsei Flashman, she played as Ley Nefel, one of the villains.




----------------------------------


Flashman features Kihachirou Uemura as Dai/Green Flash. Then in Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman, he plays the late-coming villain Chevalier.


------------------------


Fiveman also has Keiko Hayase who plays Remi Hoshikawa/Five Yellow. Later in Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, she ends up playing as one of the Flower Kunoichi Gang, Sakura.


(She's the center one)

-------------


While it might ended over there, there's one more from Kakuranger that follows. Hiroshi Tsuchida plays Saizou/Ninja Blue. And later on, on the latter installments of Super Sentai, he tends to guest star as the voice behind some monsters of the week.


(This one's from Shinkenger)

------

So basically, it's as if the contagiousness started out strong, but as time passed, they are used as a less 'prominent' thing. Ley Nefel was a villain that appeared from the start, Chevalier wasn't present in the initial lineup of Fiveman villains, the Flower Kunoichi Gang, while recurring, weren't such big guns in the ranks of Daimaou's army and don't have much of personalities to write home about, and... the ones voiced by Hiroshi Tsuchida are just monster of the weeks, except maybe the recurring one in Dekaranger (Hells), but he didn't last very long (though he did get one episode arc), and probably the rest of the monsters he voiced only lasts one episode. We do not know if this would mean that in future Sentai series, they may pick one of the casts of Shinkenger to be a villain or sort. Hey, it could happen.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Pairing Talk: Shinkenger

Okay, this is the first of my talk about how the pairings (or shipping, if you prefer) of characters in Super Sentai. I'll talk about possible hypothetical pairings if I can, but since I'm very much a straight guy, I'll probably avoid talking about same-sex pairings.

This post is purely opinion. You may or may not agree. If you don't, then I hope you don't gun me down with an uzi as vengeance. So without further ado, let's begin with our first subject.



Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, being one of the more popular Sentai series, is obviously attracting a lot of shipping enthusiast. Now let's take a look at the pairings available here.



Early episodes showed possible pairs of Ryuunosuke and Mako. He is the first 'victim' of her hug, and also the first one we know to eat her horrid cooking. Unfortunately for Ryuunosuke, he's still in the phase of 'being annoying'. Yes, I know, there's such time for Ryuunosuke to be considered 'really irritating' to the audience. So, after Mako restored his spirit from 'depressed' to 'overdramatically annoying', Mako immediately shoved him off. So there goes the Ryuunosuke X Mako ship. Over time, Ryuunosuke develops and becomes less annoying, and Mako is at least more accepting to him. Still, the damage is pretty much done, and they usually keep their relationship in a professional way, rather than mending their romantic relationship. Personally, while I don't ship them together, I'd say it's quite a waste of potential, for Ryuunosuke to eventually realize why Mako dumped him way back then after he develops. But then again, if he ever tried to be serious on that, we might not be seeing the overacting, spiritful Ryuunosuke we always know and love. Still, an okay shipping.



Then after that, comes Takeru X Mako. Oh boy, this is probably the most preferred pairings in the Shinkenger shipping, especially after the wedding episode. It's just a fake wedding, but dang, you gotta admit that both looked really good on their respective wedding suit & dress. That goes beyond it as well, as episodes passed, Mako showed much concern to Takeru and tried to counterbalance his aloof attitude. No matter how Takeru tried to distance himself, Mako still tried to understand him more. End result...? Well, they pretty much didn't develop their relationship further, just limiting with Mako as the usual 'Big Sister' figure. Much to the chargin of lots of shippers (including me. I'm pretty miffed...). Still, if it's about Shinkenger shipping, this is pretty much my fave.



(apologies for the choice of picture since I can't find a high-quality picture of similar thing for Takeru X Kotoha, if we compare with the other pictures I had before)

And then after Mako; Takeru often gets shipped with Kotoha. This is mostly after the butler episode where Takeru pretends to be Kotoha's butler and helps out a bit about her self-esteem. This feeling is mostly one-sided by Kotoha, but it's a rather popular pairing too. It's an okay pairing to me, though I don't quite see the basis other than the butler episode, and Kotoha was just acting with utmost loyalty that she'd give, given her sweet girl personality. Don't kill me, shippers, for just stating my opinion.



If not being with Takeru, Kotoha's other option is Chiaki. We don't know how much Kotoha reciprocates Chiaki's actions to her, but it's clear that Chiaki DOES have feelings to her and does his best to protect and impress him. This is shown when he carried her home on his back after she was fatigued fighting an Ayakashi that attacks people with insults (she's unaffected). Way to go from being normally a jerk who's more concerned in being better than Takeru. They also make a great team when fighting the soul-switching Ayakashi. Though the biggest evidence for this is when Kotoha got her soul sucked by an Ayakashi, Chiaki was visibly pissed off and was the first to try and gamble his humanity by entering the Gedoushuu's realm, just so he can save Kotoha. I'd say this could be my best bet for Kotoha's shipping.


Okay, Sean Akizuki's post inspired me to do this new phenomenon of Genta X Kaoru. So, what can I say about these two's chemistry? Well, I think fans just take things out of proportion. When Kaoru defended Takeru and his vassals, Genta admits that she's a good girl and willingly offered his help. That's it. And fans think that they could make a good couple. A good battle couple, maybe. But lovey-dopey couple? It's like Genta would eventually say, "All right, Take-chan! Now you can call me 'Papa'!". To me, that's... awkward. But that's how shipping community goes, sometimes they take the littlest slight of interaction as a reason of "They're a good couple!". That's just how it works in this crazy little world of ours. Final words? I'm... slightly against this coupling, but I'll not attack those who supports it.

Well that'd be all from me about Shinkenger pairings. If I do find out on something to say about other pairs like Ryuunosuke X Kotoha, Chiaki X Mako.

(Images taken from Kandou Erik's Super Sentai Images blog and Supersentai Time Capsule. You guys rock, man)