Poll#7 has ended...

Yes, I apologize for the lack of updates. Tons of new games and such, and real life business. Anyway, we have our final batch of winners here.

GEKIRANGER (18 Votes)
Despite many's praises and such to my expected, despite some complains on some parts (especially loudness) about the eventual champion, Jan wins with 11 Votes! This certainly will make him feel wakiwaki than ujauja! And my predicted champion, Rio, is behind with 8 votes. Behind him are the two females, Ran and Mele with 7 votes. The Fukami bros (Retsu and Gou) are next with 6 votes, and the last place is Ken with 4 votes. Even so, this is quite the solid match, although it does make Jan feel REALLY wakiwaki.

GO-ONGER (18 Votes)
Another Red-winner, here being Sosuke with 10 votes. I guess with that and Jan, this disproves that loud reds are not that repulsed. And tailing behind is Miu with 8 votes, her twin Hiroto ties with Gunpei with 7 votes, while behind is Saki and Hanto with 6 votes with the last place being for Renn in 5 votes. A little more solid than the Gekiranger votes, but overall a strong standing for a humor Sentai.

SHINKENGER (24 Votes)
Of course this being a fan favorite Sentai, this gets a lot of vote. Regardless, winner goes to Takeru with 12 votes (well of course, he fits well on the stoic badass part). And behind him is the very moe Kotoha with 10 votes (I guess Kotoha fans can rejoice now). And following behind is Genta with 7 votes, Kaoru with 6 votes and then Mako in 5 votes. Unfortunately poor Ryuunosuke and Chiaki only got 2 votes, I'm starting to wonder if those are pity votes... This is kind of unbalanced, but results are results.

GOSEIGER (23 Votes)
Okay this is weird. For the first time, we got a 3-way tie for champion, between Alata, Eri and Moune for 11 votes! Wow! And behind is a tie between Hyde and Gosei Knight for 6 votes (I thought Gosei Knight would top here, seriously). And lastly, the last place goes to Agri with 5 votes. Right now I still wonder how in the hell there can be a 3-way tie for champ...

GOKAIGER (28 Votes)
I actually expected Marvelous to take the lead here, but the eventual winner turns out to be (much to my surprise and joy) is Ahim with 12 votes, beating Marvelous AND Luka by 1 vote! Woo-hoo! Go Ahim! <3... Wait, what? Oh, excuse me. Anyway, behind them is Gai for 10 votes and then followed by Joe by 8 votes, and finally Doc with 7 votes. This is quite balanced, yes, but for the moment, let me just bask in the victory of Ahim. Yay!

I'll post more, including pictures and plans with these winners, but for now, the poll ended. Thank you for voting and see you next time!

Winners of Poll#6 and Poll#7 begins!

It looks like we've got some surprising results, and lots of votes too! Better, I guess. Let me see....

 
HURRICANEGER (17 Votes)
Well, it looks like the stigmata of 'taking lead at first' means nothing. The winner this time is Ikkou with 11 votes! Followed behind by his brother Isshu with 9 votes! Whereas tailing just closely behind is the former 'take the lead' character Nanami with 8 votes! Really, I nearly expected her to win, but... yeah. Quite 'far' behind her is Shurikenger with 4 votes, while Yousuke and Kouta both only got 1 vote... It just seems a 'pity vote' to me, but I'm not one to complain.



ABARANGER (17 Votes)
Surprisingly, it's kinda balanced. And leading here would be Asuka with 14 votes. He's followed by Yukito in 11 votes, while Ryouga and Ranru tied in 10 votes. And... um... I guess people kinda dislike Mikoto in revelling on his evilness so much he only got 5 votes, I thought he could gather more, seriously. Yep, not one to complain here.



DEKARANGER (19 Votes)
Okay, now this is what I call utterly surprising. The winner is someone I totally didn't expect... Sen-chan with 13 votes! And closely followed by his girlfriend Umeko in 12 votes! Wow, totally didn't see it coming. My guesses, first Boss only got 10 votes, while the other one, Jasmine, only got 7 votes. My favorite, Hoji, only got 4 votes (T_T), followed by Ban with 3 votes, then followed by Tetsu in 2 votes, and finally Swan in 1 vote. Now THIS is what I call 'totally unexpected'.



MAGIRANGER (18 Votes)
This one's surprisingly solid and balanced. Winner goes to the big bro, Makito, in 12 votes. He's followed by mid bro Tsubasa in 11 votes, and tying in next place are lil' sis Urara, lil' bro Kai and mama Miyuki in 10 votes. 'Son in law' Hikaru is next with 9 votes and the last places, big sis Houka and papa Isamu held with 8 votes! Wow, even the last place got solid scores!



BOUKENGER (19 Votes)
Another 'imbalance' and a surprise entry to me. The winner here ends up in the Blow Knuckle of Souta with 12 votes! And behind him is Natsuki in 11 votes, followed by Eiji in 10 votes. While Satoru, Masumi and Sakura all tied in 5 votes, surprising because one of them would be the ones I expect to take the lead... And Zubaan is dead last with 1 vote... well one could get worse.

Next up is the last poll, I'll not make a Gobuster poll until it's finished. Enjoy!

Winners of Poll#5 and Poll#6 begins!

Well looks like Poll#5 ends like Poll#3, too small voters. What's wrong, people? Regardless, the winners are set.



MEGARANGER (8 Votes)
For some reason, the votings were even at first, but the eventual winner is Kenta with 5 votes, while the rest of the main rangers (Kouichirou, Shun, Chisato and Miku) all got fair 4 votes, and only one vote for Hayakawa. I wonder how it ends like this, though... was everyone (except Hayakawa) equally liked, and Kenta only manages for the top for his appearance in Gokaiger? Hmm...





GINGAMAN (9 Votes)
For this one, and after quite some time, we have two champs again, this time the brothers who would've been Ginga Red... Ryouma and Hyuuga! With 5 votes! Tailing behind them is Gouki with 4 votes (I think aside of his actor's popularity, his appearance in Gaoranger vs SS do help a lot), and next we have Saya with 3 votes. Hayate and Hikaru are last place with 2 votes, but... well considering the amount of voters... not a bad score, I suppose. Still, congratulations to the brothers!



GO GO V (8 Votes)
And like Megaranger we have a tough slightly fair battle, but in the end, winner goes to Matoi with 5 votes, while Nagare is last place with... 3 votes (well he fared better than Hayakawa, I guess). The rest (Sho, Daimon and Matsuri) are with 4 votes. I was actually quite sure that Matsuri could've taken the first place considering her appearance in Gokaiger and that she's usually pretty popular amongst Sentai heroines. Oh well, the eldest is taking the lead for now unlike Fiveman.



TIMERANGER (10 Votes)
Predictably, Yuuri takes the 'leaping' lead (leaping because the lack of votes) with 7 votes. Of course being one of the more developed female leader as well as being a Tsundere will immensely help her for victory. Second place are actually tied between Domon and Sion with 4 votes, while the rest (Tatsuya, Ayase and Naoto) are 3 votes... No complains really.





GAORANGER (10 Votes)
And we have another tied champions, this time leading in 5 votes... Kakeru and Gaku! Kakeru seems normal to me so I'm surprised he won, while I coulda expect Gaku taking the lead due to his development and his hilarious Engrish. But for Kakeru to tie with him? Impressive. Anyway, behind them is Sae with 4 votes. Aaand... the rest (Kai, Soutarou and Tsukumarou) are last with 2 votes... hmmm...

While the poll has very little voters, the matchup seemed really solid and there's not much leaping lead. I hope the next poll has more voters though! I can only hope.

Winners of Poll#4 and Poll#5 begins!

Again, these series of overnight working is taking the toll of my free time here, so here's the winners of the previous rounds... At least there are more votes for this batch.


ZYURANGER (21 Votes)
Well it's pretty obvious that Burai is gonna dominate, he leads with 16 votes. All I hope is that this is not largely due to him being a Tommy counterpart. Tailing behind is surprisingly Goushi with 8 votes. I wonder if it's because of his appearance in Gokaiger, or one of his PR 'successors' is Adam (who's played by the famous Johnny Yong Bosch)? Whatever. And behind them is a tie between Dan and Mei, 5 votes each. I'm not pissed, really. At any rate, Geki is next in line with 4 votes, and behind him is Boi with 3 votes. Regardless, all I say for this round is... Burai is DOMINATING.



DAIRANGER (21 Votes)
And leading up in the first place is Ryou for 17 votes. Yep, we're definitely amazed with his utter badass fighting scenes, not to mention going shirtless many times and shows us just how ripped his body and abs are (and it was glorious). And tailing behind him is Daigo with 13 votes, I suppose the Kujaku story arc help him give some edge. And behind him... Shouji with 7 votes, followed by Rin with 6 votes, then Kazu with 5 votes, and lastly Kou with 4 votes (I suppose the 'image of Tommy' did not help at this occasion...)



KAKURANGER (21 Votes)
We have another dominating vote, the one dominating today is Tsuruhime with 14 votes! Guess that shows why female leaders are things to make popularity. Behind her is a tie between Sasuke and Jiraiya with 9 votes. I'm not gonna guess who's more popular between those two. Behind them is... Ninjaman with 4 votes, Seikai with 3 votes and Saizou is the last with 2 votes! Wow, guess Ninjaman's appearance in Gokaiger do help out a lot.



OHRANGER (21 Votes)
This is a much closer battle. The winner this time is Gorou with 10 votes... in which he took the narrow victory from Momo who was at first leading heavily, but in the end could only amass 9 votes! Surprisingly, those two are the ones appearing in Gokaiger, but I do realize that Momo also had this darkhorse feel amongst many. Anyway, behind her was Juri for 7 votes, and a tie between Yuuji and Riki with 6 votes, and the last one being Shouhei at 5 votes. All in all, tight, solid voting for this one.



CARRANGER (22 Votes)
For once, a vote with number not 21 votes total! And it was quite the dominating battle too, with Kyousuke on the lead for 14 votes. And behind him is what would be another 'darkhorse' character that is Natsumi, but only for 8 votes. Followed by... Signalman for 6 votes, wow! Behind him is Naoki for 5 votes, Minoru for 3 votes and then Youko for 2 votes...

I realized that with the exception of Kou, the winners of these polls are the one who at least got to be Tommy Oliver's alter ego from Power Rangers original to Turbo. Does it influence what you vote, I wonder? Regardless, just enjoy the next batch! Later!

Trivia: Coincidence? Nana Mizuki & Nanami Nono

Okay, you may be totally shocked and said "Are you out of your mind, ChrisX!?" But this is one trivia I find REALLY funny and coincidental and could be a little awesome.

First off...

Folks, this is Nana Mizuki. You anime fans probably knew her as the seiyuu/voice actress of Naruto's Hinata Hyuuga, but ESPECIALLY Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha's Fate Testarossa, along with so many other roles. She's really famous too, even for a seiyuu she managed to be one of the top J-Pop idol singers today and winning many awards. Yes, I know, her songs are awesome. You might not believe it but she started her career as an enka singer at the age of five, and released her first single (enka) at 1993, when she's 13 years old.

Hmm... a former enka singer, who eventually exploded in popularity as an idol-singer and very talented at that. Where have we seen that before in the world of Toku?

Oh.

Maybe they're totally unrelated, but interestingly I find that Nanami's path of life as shown in Hurricaneger kinda looked like Nana Mizuki... just added with being a ninja. She guised herself as an enka singer, who eventually had a lot of trials of being an idol singer, and by the end of Hurricaneger, she's a full-fledged one and proved to be quite popular as well.

Not to mention, when you take Nanami's name (without Nono), it's like saying Nana Mizuki's name, just without the 'zuki'. And Nanami's stage name is... well... 'Nana'. This is one pure coincidence, I gotta say, because Toei couldn't have recognized or predicted Nana's eventual boom of popularity, when Hurricaneger aired, Nana was just gaining a 'darkhorse' fandom being Hinata of Naruto.

This is seriously just coincidence and nobody planned or based on Nana Mizuki. But this coincidence is something I kinda found out and thought it'd be kind of interesting to share between us Toku fans and Anime fans. Well, thanks for hearing my ramble, and I hope you had fun listening to it along with my silly discovery or sorts.

Winners of Poll#3 and Poll#4 begins!

For some reason, the number of voters here are really less than usual... But the score's pretty solid so far. Also apologies for the delay, the work in me is getting hectic. Here we go, though.


MASKMAN (10 Votes)
Akira won over for 8 votes. Man, I really could've expected this, since I think Akira is one of the most favored characters in Maskman I see everywhere. At any rate, second place is tied for both Takeru and Kenta for 5 votes, with Momoko tailing behind for 4 votes, and Haruka last place for 3 votes. Solid scores, I say.


LIVEMAN (10 Votes) 
And the winner is... Yuusuke with 7 votes! I suppose his appearance in Gaoranger vs Super Sentai really helps, I do admit he's a real badass over there. Second place is surprisingly Megumi, with 6 votes, beating Jou at 5 votes, even if Jou appeared in Gokaiger! While Jun'ichi at least got 2 votes... Tetsuya got zero. I wonder what could cause that...


TURBORANGER (9 Votes) 
The lowest vote from the batch. I do wonder how that came to be though. At any rate, obviously Riki leads with 6 votes. I'm more or less surprised on how Youhei got 5 votes. That certainly can't come from how I included him in my fic! And behind him is Haruna with 3 votes, while Daichi and Shunsuke tied for last with 2 votes. Well one could go worse...


FIVEMAN (13 Votes) 
Lots of votes for today... and once again we had a Yellow Domination, with Remi dominating on 11 votes! Gee, I really should see this coming as she's sometimes considered the darkhorse of Fiveman, plus appearing in Gokaiger. And far behind her is Gaku with 5 votes, followed by Ken with 3 votes, all while Kazumi and Fumiya were last in 2 votes. It's a bit lopsided, admittedly.


JETMAN (10 Votes)
For one lauded as one of the best oldie Sentais I'm surprised there's only 10 votes. And surprisingly, even if Gai expectedly leads with 7 votes, he's tailed closely by Ryuu with 6 votes rather than dominating like Remi before! Both Raita and Ako, meanwhile tied behind Ryuu for 4 votes, and there's only 1 vote for Kaori... Well, there's quite little I could say for this...

At any rate, the next batch is up. Happy voting!

Winners of Poll#2 and Poll#3 begins!

Sorry for a little late posting. Busy with work. Regardless, this batch has quite some surprise, and more votes.


GOGGLE V (23 Votes)
With happiness, I am proud to announce that Miki won with 14 votes! Aww yeah! Although the rest of the votes kinda surprised me. Akama was second place with 12 votes, while both Aoyama and Kijima ties in the third with 10 votes, and Kuroda, who was taking the lead in the first place, got last at 9 votes!? Come ON, I thought you all like him. Pity, I like him too and I don't feel he's that overrated. Oh well, results are results...



DYNAMAN (22 Votes)
Now this is also surprising. I really didn't expect the winner... Nangou with 10 votes! Wow, and I thought he's usually dismissed when mentioning Dynaman. Second place were both Hokuto and Hoshikawa with 9 votes, while Rei, the one who leads in the first place, was 3rd place with 8 votes... Shima only got 6 votes as last... But still, this is definitely a surprising result. I mean, who would expect Nangou when everyone talking about Dynaman were mostly (as far as I heard) about Hoshikawa and Rei?



BIOMAN (23 Votes)
This part is dominated by Jun Yabuki, who won with 17 votes total. The one that is second place are just Gou with 7 votes... that's some gap all right... Unfortunately the rest of the Bioman only got low votes, with Nanbara only 3 votes, both Hikaru and Mika 2 votes, and Shingo with only 1 vote... What is wrong with the Bioman cast if it's like this?

 

CHANGEMAN (25 Votes)
This is at least much more balanced, very similar to the Goggle V one. Leading in first place is Tsurugi with 15 votes, followed by Sayaka with 14 votes, then BOTH Mai and Oozora with 13 votes and Hayate... after leading in numbers for the first days, became the last in 11 votes... VERY similar to Kuroda. I guess early start doesn't speak for everything in this case...



FLASHMAN (28 Votes)
Most votes so far and I say the vote amounts are spread in good balance... sort of. Sara expectedly leads with 19 votes. Of course, one can only expect as such from the 'Ensemble Darkhorse' of Flashman. Jin tails behind with 17 votes, while Lou got 13 votes as the next place, Bun with 12 votes afterwards and Dai with 11 votes as the last. I suppose it is some sort of stigma that the one who leads in the first days are nearly doomed to be the last one.

Don't get your hopes down though, I'm sure it's just coincidence (it didn't happen to Bioman!). Regardless, let's see how the standing goes for the next poll, ranging from Maskman to Jetman!

(Pictures coming soon)

Winners of Poll #1 and Poll #2 begins!

The first five team favorites are in... Here are the scores and the winners:

GORANGER (11 Votes)
Both Tsuyoshi and Peggy won with both 7 votes! Well of course, THE original red and THE original pink would be the most popular. Tailing far behind them is Akira with 3 votes... surprising that even Hiroshi Miyauchi's popularity didn't help him much, but then again his popularity begins in the next series. Daita and Kenji got only 2 votes, while Daigorou got 0 (that was pretty sad, but then again when the replacement was just completely temporary, I guess it can't be helped)

JAKQ (12 Votes)
Soukichi takes a leaping lead with 10 votes! Oh boy... I guess it'd be expected that people know Big One more than the JAKQ and it didn't help that when Big One appears, he took over and beforehand, JAKQ's rating was failing. Regardless, Gorou and Karen are second place with 2 votes, I guess because they are responsible for the first instance of Sentai canon romance...

BATTLE FEVER J (15 Votes)
Shirou leads with 8 votes. Guess being played by Kenji Ohba totally helps, plus he reappears in Gokaiger. Tailing behind him is Kyousuke (6 votes) for... um, I'll leave it to his voters. Masao and Kensaku are 5 votes together, with Maria behind them for 4 votes, Makoto for 3 votes and 1 vote for Diane.

DENZIMAN (13 Votes)
And it's a tie between Daigorou and Tatsuya in 8 votes! I guess Daigorou for the Kenji Ohba factor, and Tatsuya for being the token 'cool loner guy'? Well, I wouldn't know. Jun goes second place with 4 votes, while Akira was surprisingly 2 votes... but then Ippei got 0 votes! My God, what's wrong with the Red of this series? Too standard? I'll never know I guess...

SUN VULCAN (13 Votes)
A very similar situation with JAKQ. Takayuki takes a leaping lead with 10 votes! With Asao just 3 votes, Kin'ya 2 votes... and Ryuusuke got no votes like Ippei. I suppose Takayuki just overshadowed his predecessor? Wonder how... but regardless, he won.

Images courtesy of Super Sentai Time Capsule.

Now enjoy the votes from Goggle V to Flashman!

Poll Result & New Polls

Welp, sorry for not updating the poll long after it's gone... at any rate,  the results are in.



The results of the poll about Goggle V is...

-Best. Sentai. Ever	1 (7%)
-I love it for real. Awesome! Even if there are newer Sentai, it's still high on my list!	2 (15%)
-It's good, but there's a lot better Sentais out there	8 (61%)
-Uh, what is Goggle V? I never watch, I never bother.	1 (7%)
-Bad... though I've seen worse	0 (0%)
-It sucks. ChrisX, what are you thinking, obsessing this?	1 (7%)

From a total of 13 votes. Well I guess my hunch is true that it's rather underrated. Many would call good, but too many new bloods, which also improves its formula is on the plate, and I really can't blame them. Oh well, I may as well just hold this nostalgia feeling and always appreciate the series as it is. Just as long as people don't constantly refer it as a team of gymnasts...
Anyway, didn't I say 'New Polls'? Yes. In a short time, I'll be making a series of polls of favorite characters in a Sentai team, to see who's the top 2 characters in each team. Then maybe each team will duke it out on the ultimate favorite. And I'm not going to limit to the ones I've watched only. Even the non-watched one (Goranger, for example) gets its place. Stay tuned!

Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger - First Impressions

Hello once again, people. At this moment, I'm suddenly starting up on watching Gaoranger.

First off, my impression is at least the fight scenes were pretty good from the 1st 2 episodes, the 'attack names' appearing when they attack is kind of similar, but less silly than the ones in Kakuranger. But I really could see shades of Gingaman when they fight. I mean, drag your enemy on the ground and smash them somewhere? Really reminds me of Ginga Yellow's style. Also, Gao White and her 'drop down from tree and scratch' REALLY reminds me of another style by Ginga Pink. Haja Hyakujuuken will be something different, though from what I heard, I probably would expect that they go back to the usual cannon finisher. But a giant sword finisher is a good concept.

As far as character goes, the characters I'll definitely watch out for would be mainly Gaku (Yellow) and Sae (White). From what I heard from that youtube video on Gaku's Engrish, his barrage of Engrish probably won't come until 21, but I'll have the chance to grasp on his other characteristics. I really have no say on Kai and Soutarou, or probably Kakeru, but I'm definitely checking them out.

Since I watched Linkara's HOPR and got to Wild Force, I actually smiled when I see Kakeru trying to 'speak with the Orgs, but fail because they have no heart', since it reminds me of that one section Cole attempted the same to WF Orgs. I'll stop comparing, but I'll know that some things similar would make me smile. No say on who's going to be better, but I've got decent expectation on Kakeru.

The music is... a mixed bag so far. I'm normal with the ending song, but I... don't like the opening. It's just... ugh, hard to describe on how it's like, but I don't like it. But it's stuck in my head like an ear worm! Gah, maybe it'll grow on me, like the Hurricaneger song? Whatever. But of course my favorite piece is whenever they do their role call, the one later used in Gao vs SS. It was TRULY the awesome piece from Gaoranger, and when I write my fic and it's time for role call, I put on that music for more epic feel. It's just THAT good.

I'll keep watching, and who knows, it can impress me very much and I may add further stuffs from Gaoranger in my fic.

Gao.

RIP Megaupload

Yeah, I am not kidding when I say this. Megaupload... is dead. The site used to host MANY RAW episodes of Sentai for us all to enjoy. But now it's dead, the founders arrested by US Department of Justice. And you know what's horrifying? This is before that SOPA passed. It happened at January 19th 2012.

This is a bleaky era for us internet user, with government waging war against us, and of course a very bleaky era for Toku fans like us...

Thoughts about Hurricaneger

Happy New Year! And just to open up New Year, I just finished Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger. Overall, my opinion is very positive about it, but I'll just detail over it anyway...

First off, I gotta question how the series is spelled. Is it Hurricaneger or Hurricanger? (no 'e' between the 'n' and 'g') Well I'm just gonna go with Wikipedia and call it the former. I'm not gonna go over the plot summary since I say everyone else did a good job in covering it.

At any rate, many call this a spiritual successor to Liveman. So yeah, not only we got Academy students, start out with three members, the blue one is a chick and appears to be the 'smartest' (Megumi was the top class student, Nanami got a grade up first than the rest even if she started out at the bottom like the rest), they're joined with two more members eventually, the villains has some evaluation system, etc. It managed to be different and not just a carbon copy with Liveman set on the new age. For instance, rather than focusing on brains and smarts, it's more on the ninja in Hurricaneger. Then, while in Volt, evaluation system is like a serious business, in Jakanja, only Furabijo did that and it wasn't taken seriously. And lastly, back then, Tetsuya and Jun'ichi were immediate allies and obviously good guys from the first time they met. Ikkou and Isshu were a lot more antagonistic at start, and weren't accepting at first, before they realize their destiny and be more friendly. So it's a lot different.

Plot-wise, there's quite a bit silly moments here and there, and many would say this could be lighter than the already dark Liveman. However, I do say that once the finale hit in, it took a dive in dark and edgy... seriously, allies dropping like flies and the reactions were really spot on. Especially when it comes to Shurikenger and his master (and later Ikkou and Isshu, even if it's rectified in the end), the reactions coming from the Hurricanegers were pretty spot on and conveys quite the emotion.

Now as of characters, Yosuke pretty much standardizes the 'idiot hero' we've seen quite a lot and the one thing he develops from is probably his skills. He is still the brash guy, just also heroic. Nothing much to say. Kouta has some familial stuffs which got him in trouble at times, sometimes with his grandma, sometimes with his sister, but I like it that he's pretty calm most of the time. But... well...

Then there's Nanami. My God, people hypes her like hell and my opinion says... she pretty much lives up to that hype. No I'm not talking about how hot her actress is (Nao Nagasawa, although I do admit she's pretty hot), but I do like that she really adds up the girly touch in the team, and her personality is kind of a cheery, bubbly girl done right, added with some badass moments AND funny ones (like that one time with her taking her cooking for Gozen-sama into serious business levels). I dunno, maybe it's her voice that got it good. Although this isn't touched on, I kinda liked on how she evolved from being a lowly enka singer into a full blown pop star idol. Unfortunately, we never get a filler to show her evolution into this, would be a delight to see. But well, too bad. Also I do say that when Hurricaneger takes levels in darkness in the end, I really got caught onto how Nanami got really sad and expressed her fears. But overall I could say that Nanami definitely has the right to be one of my favorite Blue senshi out there...

... Wait, there are more heroes? Oh! Right, we're getting into that.

Next we get into Ikkou and Isshu. They at first got their no-nonsense attitude, and I find their development really beautiful. Beginning Ikkou/Isshu were totally different with final Ikkou/Isshu, seriously. Their brotherly bond is great, and I can't help but pity them with their dad. My God, I think I get the feeling that Ikki (Their father) is a gigantic asshole... Though it bugs me that despite admitting that their dad is pathetic, Isshu still clinged onto his memory one more time (the Kirai Maru episode). Why cling to a man who is known to be pathetic? The Ikkou-Manmaruba rivalry also adds up to the seriousness factor, and I do say it's pretty good.

There's then Shurikenger, who seems to be hailed as a gigantic badass thanks to Engrish speaking, disguises, etc. However, I'm just normal with him. His Engrish can be hilarious and one way to detect him, but I do like his final moments when he really gets serious in facing Sundahl. Lots of emotions there, and not taken for hilarity.

Now villains. I do say that the villains may look typical, but most of them prove to be different under certain circumstances. Tauzant look normal type of 'overlord sitting on his throne too many times', but his cruelty does shine when he grafted that one gun to Satorakura. Chuuzubou is too short lived, but did his part well (and once again, RIP to his voice actor Daisuke Gouri who died at 2010). Sargain is a decent villain, and once again I hear a familiar voice of Yoshinori Okamoto (Buuba, Dr. Ashura) once again giving his recognizable "Onoreee!" or "Koshakunaaa!" yells. Manmaruba can be scary with his Space Scorpion skill, and that's all I'm gonna say. Satorakura is the hyena 'laugh-all-the-time' type which is decent, but Shimada Bin's trademark crazy laugh just sells it. Wendinu sounds alluring and her obsession with beauty can be hilarious. Sundahl presents himself as some sort of noble villain, but is also pretty quick to show that he is also a scumbag on his own level. Then there's Furabijo. Sorry to say, but I don't quite like her and find her rather annoying. If Linkara says Vypra of PR Lightspeed Rescue got emotionless actress, I really can say the same to Furabijo. She tried hard to be 'cute', but she ends up to be dry most of the time, the emotions in her voice sound kinda lacking emotion. While she sometimes get some effective moments, I think I feel that her voice just eclipsed it... ugh.

The battle is at times pretty okay, it was good, but I don't think there's something super spectacular to note. The music is something that grew on me. I recall that first time, I don't like the opening due to the "Shuushuu to Sanjou!" part, but overall it grew on me and I like it for real. The instrument helps too. The instrumental version when fighting were also pretty good, could be one of my favorite tracks after Flashman's battle themes. And lastly... the ending. Man, so kickass! Of course, it's by Hironobu Kageyama, and I like JAM Project.

Overall, it's not my top favorite or something, but Hurricaneger is a solid Sentai series and lived up the hype of many.

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!

How Super Sentai saved ChrisX

Okay, this is just a moment of outburst that would just last for the moment, but I feel like I wanna express my gratitude to the Sentai franchise for something. Just keep reading.



As I mentioned before, I'm troubled to what transpired in BlazBlue, about my favorite lady betraying the image I had for her. True, I'm slightly getting better and trying to understand. But the world of fiction isn't as merciful. It's like 'depression is the new trend'.



I lately bought the PS3 Mortal Kombat. Good game, a throwback to classic MKs. The Story Mode on the other hand... it's kind of bittersweet to the point of depression. I won't spoil you much as this is a recent game, but I will say that they really went out to make that world (Earthrealm) a crapsack one, with something horrible happening to many heroes and fan favorites, and even the God of Thunder Raiden committing mistakes after mistakes leading up to that horrible thing. It was really depressing, I never thought that 'gory fun' suddenly gets to 'gory seriousness'. Wasn't as bad as my problem with Litchi, but MK takes a new level in depression. You need to play it.



Then comes the PSN outage. Here and there, complains about Sony piled up, especially after the reveal that personal information have been leaked, and PSN is still down for uncertain time. I know it will return back one day, and I don't use Credit Cards, but all this time the complains have been piling up and even if Sony gets back up, it'll have to deal with the loss of reputations, now that many people dislike it for being untrustworthy on the security.

So I opened this blog of mine, looked at the top picture... and then...

OH MY GOD.

HOLY SHIT.

WTFBBQ!!!!!!!!!

Gokaiger movie info, Junichi Haruta, Sayoko Hagiwara and Kenta Satou returning for the movie... NOSTALGIA, HOOO!! (Well, not so much nostalgia when it comes to Dynaman since I just finished watching it the first time, but still it gave me a good appreciation to that show) It was such a wham announcement it made me forget the troubles I'm having in other places. You can bet your ass that when those three (ESPECIALLY Junichi Haruta) appear on screen, even if he's not I'm gonna yell in excitement, like how Nostalgia Critic reacted to 'Frying The Coke'.

I'm pretty sure Sean is psyched with the presence of Ryosuke Sakamoto since I'm pretty sure he's Filipino and Bioman is pretty big in Phillipines, kinda like Goggle V in Indonesia. I'm not quite surprised with the announcement of Naoya Makoto and Hiroshi Miyauchi, though, they're like a must-appear list so it was kind of expected, Akaranger led the Legend War, plus Big One is... well, Big One. Both of them are the biggest names of old school Sentai. Yes I do realize that there's also Keiichi Wada, Mika Kikuchi and Kenji Ohba to count but it's nostalgia we're talking about for the moment.

So yeah, I'd like to thank Sentai for keeping my optimism up. While the world of videogames seem hell bent to make the stories seem pessimistic (though not closed for future improvement), Sentai always kept the optimism, getting my hopes up. Thank you Toku and Sentai!

History of ChrisX And Super Sentai

Yeah, yeah, I'm just following the leaders (That Chick and Fantasy Leader). But hey, may as well!

Well it started on when I was a little boy, about 4 years old or 5... In the ages of VHS. In Indonesia, back then, Dai Sentai Goggle V was the big thing about Sentai. I only had few episodes of them, episodes 5 to 8, then jump to 37 to 40, then jump to the last 4. But I really enjoyed it, since well it doesn't really depend on storyline, but just how kickass the action scenes were. I did miss out when the actors of Goggle V visited Indonesia, but hell... this is why I still have great memories of Goggle V.

Time passed, and before there was Power Rangers, Indonesia have been enjoying some Sentai. Aside of Goggle V we had Hikari Sentai Maskman, which was aired in TV and has dubbings. And yes, I used to own the VHS only for a few episodes (already dubbed). But by that time, there's also the mind-blowingly popular Kamen Rider Black on TV (and again, in Indonesia, we used to call him 'Ksatria Baja Hitam'/'Black Iron Knight') so I suppose I wasn't as hyped as I was to Goggle V for Maskman, because there's Kamen Rider to occupy me. But even then, I held great memories for Maskman.

Kamen Rider Black and RX got me good on Toku, and along the way, I also enjoyed partials of TV airings of Liveman, Turboranger and Flashman, but not as much as Maskman or Goggle V. There's also Kamen Rider Super-1 on the air, but at that time I became rather caught in school business and such so my liking for Toku kinda wanes. Plus, you know, video games is my main hobby.

But aside of that, around that time, there's Power Rangers. To be honest, I was really cool with it, but for some reason, I mostly concentrated on parts on the first season. It was good, but by that time I got really swamped with school.

Skip on years later.

My brother returned from Singapore... he gave me some modern Sentais like Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, Mahou Sentai Magiranger and GoGo Sentai Boukenger (currently incomplete). I did like how Dekaranger turned out on the first episode, but again, I'm swamped with university business and gaming has been rather tight on me.

Then I graduated university. The year was 2008.

Years in university, plus Super Robot Wars got me quite into anime and I was thinking 'What kind of live action Japanese TV I could watch for the moment?' And after thinking, then I saw... Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, in promo. Hey, I like the concept of samurai, and I think this may be fun. So I got the first few episodes and... I'm hooked. Seriously. I watched Shinkenger from first to the end, got to see some Sentai openings to relive nostalgia and it would be around that time (I think) that I discovered a youtube account named 'Divaqueen' or something, who used to hold videos about her favorite Sentai warriors, etc, mostly image slides. It was also from her account that I saw some Sentai cutscene clips which made me want to hunt down some episodes of old school Sentai. I didn't care if it was RAW, I had to take what's given thus far. So I started with Goggle V, then moved on to other nostalgia pieces like Turboranger and Maskman, and eventually also new materials like Jetman and Zyuranger, and even my brother's given Sentai back then (Dekaranger). And yeah, that, along with Kamen Rider Decade, inspires my fic...

When I asked where Divaqueen got those images, she linked to the Super Sentai Images blog, in which it directed me to Sean's blog. And after seeing Sean's blog, I became more and more involved in Sentai business, and this blog is created.

So there we have it. It started big with Goggle V and Maskman, but education business caught me busy that it kinda waned out, even for Power Rangers... nearly revived with Dekaranger, and fully revived with Shinkenger. I hope it's been a good read.

P.S: Will add pictures later! Keep watching on this post, will ya?

Super Sentai: The Underrated and The Overrated

Okay, so Sean made up his list on who's overrated, who's underrated. Me? I think I'll just wrap mine in one post. Remember, this is all just opinion, you may think VERY differently. And these are all just gathering from my experience. To note: This doesn't mean about things I hate or love... it's just... well, you know!

Without further ado... let's go with...

Overrated Female

1. Peggy Matsuyama

Okay, I've got to give her credit that she is the first female ranger EVER. But still, the amount of attention she got seems kind of overwhelming. She may be a starter, but her style has been perfected by many, and yet when it comes to 'favorite old skool Sentai ladies', she tops.

2. Mika Koizumi

One, she's from Bioman (which I think is a very highly rated, near overrated in Philippines and many other countries), two, she has some intense fighting scenes, thus hailed as Badass, three... she bites the dust quicker, in the most tear-jerking way possible. But when you have Jun being completely tossed aside in favor of Mika even when the latter was less-involved... Perhaps I'll have to agree with Sean on this one.

3. Sara (Tokimura)

Yes, I realize she suddenly got overly popular and the one thing that stands out in Flashman. But while she does have some unique trait, I'd say she's pretty normal like the rest of the female Sentais, no more or no less than Lou. Maybe her sudden attention shower she got near the end of Flashman (and even be the one to shut Lee Keflen up instead of Jin) got her points. Plus she parades around showing her legs or her chest (not any of her boobs, though) gives the big fanservice factor. She's a good character and smart too, but I just find more smart characters in her vein underrated...

4. Remi Hoshikawa

She tends to get the awesome fight scenes and such, but most people overrate her merely on the spot of her drunken fist episode. Me? Saw it, nothing special. That alone wouldn't be enough to cement my favoritism on Remi, I'd have to dig more than that. But apparently, if there's one thing people talk about her, it's her Drunken Fist episode (I like the skirt-flip episode better though... Now stop looking at me like that!). This makes me view her overrated, if only because people were too quick to judge her since the early episodes.

5. Ako Hayasaka

Okay, Sean calls her underrated, but I say for the underrated-ness... she's overrated. Why? Because she pretty much overshadows Kaori, who by herself is quite underrated. I'm not saying that Ako is a bland character, she got her moments, but even Kaori got her and she got less attention. Maybe because she hooks up with Ryuu and Ako only gets teases with the overly popular Gai? Who knows.

6. Tsuruhime

I will agree with Sean that she is the first female leader, and she gets quite the focus in Kakuranger. Still, like Peggy, she just... codifies. There was nothing else that stands out, Sasuke is shown to be more active and technically is the most powerful, yet he gets mostly overshadowed by Tsuruhime. I don't hate her, no. Still, I think the movement to make her the first female leader, even by technicality, just worked too good.

7. Yuuri

I'd say Yuuri is one of the more overrated rangers... and this is not after taking account to PR Time Force and Jen! Reason? She is the first female ranger to be a full blown Tsundere archetype, which is a pretty popular archetype in the media. I know she has her reasons to be like the one she is right now, but the Tsundere factor really ups her fandom. Add that with the successor of Tsuruhime in terms of female leaders, and there you have it.

8. Nanami Nono

Two words: Nao Nagasawa. I have nothing against her, I think she's portraying Nanami well (in the few Hurricaneger episodes I did), and Nanami is a pretty good character. But several people that I know that likes Nanami mostly credits to how hot she is, etc. This is why she is in that 'Commonly Acknowledged As Hot Sentai Ladies of the Decade'. She's great, an okay character... but the fandom seems a bit too big on her compared to the rest of the Hurricanegers and Gouraigers...

9. Jasmine/Marika Reimon

Okay let's get this straight that I still like Jasmine, she's still my top female Yellow warriors. But she constantly tops favorite-type polls, is generally overly loved so much she overshadows Umeko. Maybe it's because Dekaranger is the first subbed Sentai series? Can't blame her character to be rather interesting, and her actress (Ayumi Kinoshita) to be that hot. But for a favorite of mine, she sure got her stuffs from high overrating.

10. Luka Millfy

Yep, Gokaiger is just out for a few eps, and most people are all heels for Luka, and I think the recent episode 6 just ups her fans with her maid outfit. Well I don't blame her for something, that episode shows she's a rather interesting fellow and I want to know how her gold-digging style got to her. But still, I kinda think she pretty much overshadows Ahim... and I dunno why.

Now before I go to the next parts, there's some things I'd like to say... Especially in regards of two near-obvious things I missed...

"What about Mako/Kotoha? Or Sakura??"

My answer is... they're NEITHER overrated, nor underrated. Sean may say Mako's overrated, but I've seen the same amount of rabid Kotoha fanboys (who's in for her moe-blob tendencies), so I guess that balances it out. Sakura herself is also balanced with Natsuki fanboys, which I say do balance out.

Now with that outta the way, let's go with the boys.

Overrated Male

1. Banba Soukichi

He's not the red ranger (but instead took leadership), but he becomes so popular he's the series mascot. I can see why though, his introduction is a saving throw to JAKQ which was plummeting due to an overly dark theme, and while it doesn't completely save it from cancellation, it stretches the series further. Plus, it's Hiroshi Miyauchi playing him. His persona and character himself, from the look of it, is a combo of style and badassery which does help, but he's got that overration quite. Funny that he didn't steal the leadership from Akaranger in the Legends War...

2. Takeru

Takeru, as much as I like him, started one trend that would be symbolize overration: Red Ranger gets too much focuses. This is quite blatant in Maskman, that for the Iyal plotline to move on, they just need Takeru. He does balance it out with some occasional humors on himself (especially THAT time travel episode), but this was also quite the cause of the imbalance of attention given to many characters. Although this doesn't exclude...

3. Akira

Yes, Maskman is the first series in this post to have two overrated (same sex at that!) characters. And mind you, I like Akira as well, he's a funny guy. Still, why did I say he's overrated? Outside all the Maskmen aside of Takeru, he's the only guy to get the subplot unique to himself only (Unas). This, combined with the fact he's the youngest guy, makes him be talked about a lot, leading to a rather overration. Not as severe as Takeru, maybe, but still...

4. Yuusuke Amamiya

(Yes I'm using his younger self picture. Don't ask.)

I think most of the people looked at Yuusuke thanks to Gaoranger vs Super Sentai and think of him highly from there... but I am wondering how many people rate Yuusuke for what he is in Liveman? Yes, he doesn't get disproportionate attention like Takeru, he's just as normal as Jou and Megumi went, but I think somewhat people make him more special than he is. And strangely, this doesn't seem to affect the other alumnus appearing in Gaoranger vs Super Sentai (Miku, Gouki and Daimon). I do wonder this sometimes...

5. Gai Yuuki

Take Mika, flip her gender, make her last through the entire season (but still dead by the end of it) and you get Gai. But it was this kind of characterization that makes Gai really popular. He's a jackass, the least likely guy you'd expect to be a ranger, but he pulls through and becomes a force of good by the end, showing a great case of development. Though like the case of Tsuruhime, I'd say the process of showing that proves TOO effective...

6. Burai

Okay, here it is. The big one (pun not intended). Burai is often cited as "The reason why Zyuranger is not teh suck". I mean it does make sense because his episodes has less stuffs about the 'Child of the Week' syndrome, and Burai has an intriguing story on his own. But he and the Dragon Caesar are not as invincible as people claimed him to be (there's one episode when even Dragon Caesar fails to destroy a Dora Monster and had to resort to Mei, of all people, to destroy it). Ontop of that, his Power Rangers counterpart is Tommy Oliver, the most popular of all Power Rangers. So it's like people credit Burai great because of nostalgia with Tommy, not who Burai is for himself. Of course I may be wrong on that one, but still... you also gotta remember why Burai survived longer than he did: Fan outcry. Yes, he was planned to be killed shortly after his summoning of Dragon Caesar, but the fans liked him enough that he stuck. Even so, Burai is still one of the more overrated rangers.

7. Mikoto Nakadai

I know he's unique for being an evil ranger in get go, and he's overpowered. And he's a complete asshole. But these are the reasons why people rate him so highly, he's an unique design. And hey, when his Burstosaur is voiced by the most famous seiyuu amongst the cast (Hikaru Midorikawa), it's bound to have that. But even Mikoto himself isn't totally invincible, as he's also suspectible of mishaps like that time he got sucked into Voffa's (or Mikela's, forgot which one) book. So... yeah, he's not that completely invincible... even with the Dezumoroya part in him.

8. Takeru Shiba

I'd say this is not more the fault of Takeru's character himself, but on how big the Shinkenger-craze was. He hits many things on spot: badass, stoic, nice underneath, at first quite the loner... which caused a big outrage when Kaoru was introduced (and it wasn't until Kaoru firmly established that she's nice that the outrage died down). But he's also mildly hit with the previous Takeru's problem: Overloaded with attention by plot, but with character like that, I knew he'd just attract fans like that. However, I wouldn't blame it on the characterization, he's actually pretty cool, just that his fandom just... err...

Okay enough with the overration, let's move on to underration!

Underrated Female

1. Karen Mizuki

It's true that she was a junior compared to Peggy. But I think she's quite overwhelmed with Peggy's seniority and the fact that she's in the same team with Big One. I haven't watched JAKQ, to be honest, but for one who introduced a canonical romance to Super Sentai... she really didn't get enough credits.

2. Miki Momozono

In fact I'd say Goggle Five is completely underrated. If you look at the polls in the nearby blogs, you can always guarantee that Goggle Five and its characters always hit last place. But enough about that for now, I suppose while Miki herself is the one most known in Goggle Five, in the general picture, she remained so underrated because Goggle Five is either unknown, or suffers due to bad publication in Brazil. As I said myself, she's awesome, smart, revives the trend that female warriors can still WORK... And yes, I do enjoy focus episodes that features her. Just that she just seemed virtually uncared in general... *sigh* Okay I'll stop ranting.

3. Rei Tachibana

Rei is pretty much toe-to-toe with Miki in terms of underration. She's the first attempt to show that girls aren't that defenseless (she's a hard-ass Fencer!) and in the same time is pretty cute and great. However, one thing that I felt bugged out was that... Sayoko Hagiwara's voice seemed a bit too deep for Rei (which makes her role as Ley Nefel felt a bit more natural I think), but it's still overall an enjoyable performance, underrated too. And maybe because Dynaman comes before Bioman and didn't touch much about stories that Rei also falls on underration.

4. Sayaka Nagisa

If anyone think of a smart girl in an old school Sentai, they go for Sara. Me? I'd think of Sayaka instead. She's out and out described as the 'brain' and she does prove it well enough at times. Her voice might be a little high pitched, but I can live with that. Changeman itself is claimed to be the turning point of Sentai, but from the look of it, more people see the turning point to be at either Bioman or Maskman, so I think the problem is that Sayaka is in a Sentai series not really noticed in overall (it IS successful in Brazil I think. CMIIW).

5. Momoko

If anyone suffers from the overly abundant attention given to Takeru and Akira, that'd be Momoko. She does have focus episodes here and there, but not as much as Haruka, making her a little less characterized or having good enough background and all. I do realize she's popular amongst the people because... well, her actress' hot. But I just think they could've squeezed out more characterization on her... and this is why I said she's underrated, as in... the STORY underrates her.

6. Haruna Morikawa

Well of course she's not bashed here and there, but for a heroine, she seemed to be cited less interesting than Kirika. But then again, same thing could be said to all Turborangers, they weren't cited that much unique and the unique things come from Yamimaru and Kirika (and even Riki is cited 'unique' just because his battle prowess rather than his character). I think Haruna had a lot of potential, she's a nice girl, great for acting, and her other characteristics could've been expanded further, such as her relations with Riki, or her love with animals or her technically pacifistic stance (which caused trouble ONLY AT THE END).

7. Kazumi Hoshikawa

Kazumi mostly got underrated because of the reasons I stated for Remi. When you get past Remi's action scenes and drunken fist, Kazumi isn't that bad, she actually balances out as being the brainy girl... and coming up with good plans as well, such as that episode when Gaku died. I don't have big opinions on her, but she really looked overshadowed by Remi and her action scenes.

8. Kaori Rokumeikan

Likewise on Kazumi above, Kaori is pretty much overshadowed by Ako. I dunno, but most of the time, Kaori also gets some awesome moments, like when she actually uses her rich status to snap Ako out of a berserker rage. It's also quite interesting seeing her being the subject of the love triangle between her, Ryuu and Gai, and Ryuu's pinning on Rie which ticked her off. It's quite dramatic and I say it also gives out the tension and entertainment in watching Jetman. Yes, Ako is the lovable sporty girl, but Kaori is also the lovable rich girl, I'd say.

9. Mei
(I had to change the picture, because the previous one is so moe it's killing me)

I've heard some people bashing Zyuranger characters to be bland and liked only for MMPR nostalgia. I don't think so. Each Zyurangers got their own things, and for this one, I'd say Mei really held her own. Maybe that overly high pitched voice turned you off, but not me, it makes her the sweeter. Aside of the lot of Zyuranger hater and Dairanger fanboys, which tends to claim Lin better than Mei (insert number here) times (I don't think so personally), I just say that Mei's underration comes from the fact that she's on the same team with Burai, and while she has a lot of plot ideas given to her, it wasn't used much, in favor of Burai. So call me in the minority here, but I'd say Mei is not overrated, and I like her better than Lin (Don't get me wrong, I like Lin too, but Mei just ranks higher.)

10. Saya

I think I remember Fantasy Leader saying that Saya is very comparable to Liveman's Megumi. But I think she just... gets less attention. As much as Gingaman appearing in Gaoranger vs Super Sentai, it is kind of an underrated one, it's not talked much. Maybe it's because PR Lost Galaxy overshadows it? I only watched Gingaman a little, and even haven't gotten to Saya's focus ep, but I get the feel that she'd be interesting... but she tends to get some forgettable treatments over here. Dunno why...

11. Ran Uzaki

She's a good female characters actually, but I think the reason why she's underrated was because while she's picked as a leader, the show didn't use that thing much and instead focuses more on Jan. Or Rio. Or Mele, who's often considered the better 'babe' of Gekiranger. Hey, you know I like Mele too, but Ran isn't that bad actually. Overshadowed is more like it.

12. Kaoru Shiba

Okay as I said in the Takeru entry, Kaoru got a lot of flaks when she debuts and even worse, she just quickly becomes inactive once her arc is done. There's so much potential for Kaoru, but not really used well. She just... interacts mostly with Takeru or the annoying retainer Tanba. And as said, she was often thought as a spoiled brat when she's actually a nice girl. It is a unique concept to have a female red ranger, just too bad that her entrance had to be mirred with rabid Takeru fanboys decrying her.

13. Eri

Haven't gotten far on Goseiger, and... yeah, I think reception over here for Goseiger is pretty bad... Still for the little I see of it, Eri seemed refreshing and great. She's cute, ditzy, but not over when compared with Alata. I wouldn't judge Goseiger as bland as many people here does, but overall I think Eri got a lot of potential. The reason why I think she's underrated was... well as I constantly said, Goseiger is often slapped with 'Bland Sentai' label thus Eri might be in danger of being slapped with such label too.

14. Ahim de Famille

And with the above stuff and I've said it earlier, I'm seeing more Luka fans that Ahim fans. I think she's pretty unique. True, her character is typical for Sentai characters, wanting to help people, good hearted, etc... but this is so atypical for Gokaigers, who were more of anti heroes who only look out for themselves. Plus she's cute. Maybe there are more who saw Ahim more of being the typical 'Pink' or 'Girly', but I think it's her charm. Won't blame on the Luka fandom, though.

Underrated Male

1. Kanpei Kuroda

Like above, Goggle Five seemed like super unknown, but for what it lacks in story development, it makes up for fight scenes and stunts... and the one to provide that is usually Kanpei. I liked how many times he tricked the enemies and having skills that provide that (such as the Black Shadow), it makes the fight much more innovative. There's a reason why Goggle Five is considered not too goofy, and that reason is him mainly (and I've got more reasons to call it NOT goofy). But like usual, he's nearly unknown because his series weren't really that known, or suffers bad publication.

2. Ryuu Hoshikawa

Take Kanpei (and his actor too), give him more humorous personality, ninja skills and you pretty much got Ryuu. Aand just like Rei, he wasn't that much mentioned because he's from an older series that hadn't really gotten the attention. For what he is and considering the show he's in, Ryuu is pretty awesome and one of the biggest factors why Dynaman can be entertaining. But... again, publication problems get in the way.

3. Ryuu Tendou

Another Ryuu! And yeah, as before, Ryuu gets to be underrated because he's not Gai, he's a clean-cut hero who drinks milk. But hey, for what he is, he still got his Hero thing well done and not really that boring since he got other things plaguing him (such as Rie), it makes him more interesting. Of course Gai kinda upstages him in the general things, but by himself, Ryuu is awesome. Because he also drinks milk. You know who else drinks milk?

...

...

Okay, enough of that guy's jokes, let's move on.

4. Gou Fukami

Gou may be a bit popular amongst the crowd, but like usual the Gekiranger fandom seem to go to Rio and Mele. And the plot wasn't even kind to him. Hyped to be Rio's rival, is a lone wolf etcetera... then Rio continuously own him, only for Jan to beat him. Then Long appears, he's also second fiddle for the main trio. Gou has got quite the potential but for some reason he just seem kinda underused by the show...

5. Ryuunosuke Ikenami

Okay bear with me. Ryuunosuke is a pretty popular blue warrior, but remember, his hyperactive attitude could get on the nerves on many people, especially in the early episodes (strangely this doesn't affect Genta much). Not only that, he suffers the most in terms of pairing, they got Mako to Takeru, and Kotoha to Chiaki. He's actually a pretty competent ranger despite being saddled for comic relief a lot, and he's a unique case about when the hero is super serious, the rival is a hyperactive happy hammy dude. Still his hyperactiveness tends to draw people away... for reasons unknown.

And that'd be all for the Overrated and Underrated characters from Super Sentai. Hope you had a good reading! Credits to Doug Walker/Nostalgia Critic for the awesome Chuck Norris joke (in particular the Sidekicks review).