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...

Guise, Guise, Wink, Wink, Know What I Mean, Know What I Mean?

When girls wink, they look really cute. These are no exceptions in the heroines of Super Sentai. They may fight evil, but they are still human ladies beneath it all. So it should come of no surprise that sometimes they'd utilize such thing during battle. This usually happened when they use their usual disguise trait, and usually when the disguise is as a Cowgirl. Sometimes, the wink serve as a finishing touch, before the enemy fall in defeat. So, here's a list of when girls wink after beating up the enemy while disguised... mostly as cowgirls.


Akira Momoi from Denziman started it when the Denziman is fighting a television-based monster, where the team got re-outfitted into cowboy/cowgirl outfits.


Later on, Miki Momozono from Goggle V does this against enemy soldiers under a monster who fights like a cowboy/marksman. She even adds up a very cute "Ufuun~" sound in the end!


In Dynaman, this doesn't happen as a cowgirl disguise, but when Rei Tachibana shed her fencer disguise, she does this for good measure.


... On second thought, I was wrong. She does eventually disguised herself as a cowgirl and winked. AGAIN.


And then in Changeman, since one girl is not enough, so two girls would suffice. So, we have both Sayaka Nagisa and Mai Tsubasa winking at the enemy. Note that Sayaka's cowgirl outfit look similar to Miki's.


I haven't watched Go Go V or Timeranger, but I heard that during their teamup movie, such event happens. In this case, just like Sayaka & Mai; Matsuri Tatsumi (GoPink) and Yuuri (TimePink) combine their wink on their cowgirl outfits.

And that's what I have gathered so far on when girls make use of winks in the middle of battle. Please do tell me more if I missed something similar. Especially when they're disguised as cowgirls since that seems to be a recurring thing in the Super Sentai series.

(And yes, the title is based on a sketch by Monty Python... Know what I mean? Know what I mean? Nudge nudge, say no more, say no more...)

Sentai Character Talk 2: Miki Momozono/Goggle Pink

And here's the second character I'd talk about... a classic one, that is. Miki Momozono AKA Goggle Pink from Dai Sentai Goggle Five.



Considering this show is made during the 80's, Miki's background is kept simple: She's a 16 years old gymnast (and a pretty good one at that!). Not much is known about her family, which means she probably has learned how to live alone with maturity in tact even at such a young age. Anyway, her life as a gymnast (and a schoolgirl since she's probably at that age and I'd take that the gymnastic activity is probably her most preferred extracurricular/PE lesson) gets interrupted when she is approached by a girl named Akane, who took her to a telephone booth, drops her into the Future Science Lab, and then she learns about the world's peril. Just like the 3 strangers next to her, Miki possesses a strong sense of justice, thus she readily abandoned her normal life to become Goggle Pink, an ally of justice under the team Dai Sentai Goggle Five and starts her battle against the Deathdark Empire.

Pre-Production

Well, I don't know the details of it, but when Hirohisa Soda is assigned to write a Sentai season, Goggle Five was the first. Looking back at the previous entry, Sun Vulcan, I'd say that he noticed on how the main team has no women (as opposed to Battle Fever J and Denziman) and think "I want a female warrior back!". So that's how he starts to conceive the character Miki. Considering the target audience of the Super Sentai series (kids), he designed Miki to be a teenager, at the moment, the youngest Sentai character (or lady), maybe to invoke the image of 'Cool, reliable, strong big sister figure'. This kind of designing phase proves to be a success, that when Goggle Five gained popularity at its age, Miki becomes one of the more memorable heroines from the series.

Believe it or not, at one point they tried to have another actress to play as Miki, but judging from what's said in this site, that actress seemed too old, so it doesn't really capture Miki's image well. Well, eventually that role fell into Megumi Oogawa, and then the rest is history.

Trait

I'm gonna go ahead and go to the traits parts, since this is from an 80's show, character development hasn't been occurring very often. But a character doesn't always need to develop to be lovable. So here we go.

In a nutshell, Miki is quite the typical girl, she's kind, gentle, witty and has a tender heart. Probably by being the youngest one of the team, she could relate herself with children the most, making her the one who'd approach children more easily. Despite her age, she seems more mature than she looks, as said above.

However, it is without a doubt that despite being a capable fighter, Miki relies more on her brains and wits in battle, thus she might look like the most fragile member of the Goggle Five. Early on the episodes, she was hit with a bomb, which terribly wounded her and even casted doubts on her teammates whether she should continue being a fighter or not. Thankfully, Miki also has this one trait: to never give up. Which is why despite her wounds, she still dragged herself to fight against evil. Her refusal to submission is also highlighted in latter episodes whereas she gets trapped in a demon book, and the book was being burnt by Deathmark, while she's inside and worse of all, she's tied up and all her friends' efforts to help her get out prove useless. Thankfully for Miki, her trait to never give up eventually gives her the chance to break free and get out of the book on her own before it exploded with her inside. This, IMO, is the highest/greatest moment of Miki.

Her kindness is also shown several times. When she disguised herself as a doll to investigate several living dolls, she came to have a 'bond' with another doll, which eventually shields her from incoming bullet of death. Miki was able to feel the doll's sadness and desire to protect her beloved, thus one tear fell from her eyes, signifying the tenderness of her heart. This is also shown in the movie, when the usually evil Dr. Zazoriya gets chased for betraying Deathdark, Miki was the first to cover her and even pleads the team to listen to her, genuinely thinking that Zazoriya has repented. But that somehow is also a proof that she can sometimes be gullible, because it turns out to be an act by the Deathdark to hamper the team's progress. But, like usual, Miki isn't the type to let one mistake drag her down.

Arsenal

As Goggle Pink, Miki has a lot of options in battle. Her weapons include the Pink Ribbon, which utilizes a lot of her gymnastic skills (the first time we see her on screen, she's actually practicing with ribbons), and other than attacking, it could be used for other purposes like grabbing something from afar. Her personal skill with that ribbon is the Pink Senpuu/Whirlwind, in which by spinning her ribbon, she could generate winds to either blow the enemy away or form up a protective wind barrier from enemy attack. Her other attack is the Pink Ribbon Spark, which can be shared to other Goggles (losing the 'Pink' on name, but works the same), which basically latches the ribbon onto the enemy and sends out electric current to shock the enemy. Exclusive to Miki, however, is the Double Ribbon Spark, which is... exactly as it says, two Pink Ribbon Sparks used at once.

At one time, she uses the Pink Mirror, which I think is a nice shout out to the original Pink Ranger, Peggy Matsuyama/Momoranger from Himitsu Sentai Goranger. Her other most used technique is the Pink Heart Hypnosis, which uses her wiles to make enemy obey her, such as making the enemy dance around to her will, and have them drop down in the next second.

Which goes well with Miki's personal ability: costume switch. While this is a common skill amongst the ladies of Super Sentai, I would think that Miki's case is quite special, in this case, all she needs is just to spin around and her costume would change in a blink of eye. No explanation was given on how she could do it, so we may as well chalk it down as one of the powers that come with being Goggle Pink. But this could come in pretty handy as she can do quick costume changes without much hassle. She could even transform back to human form while being Goggle Pink, as shown in the battle against the Cactus Mozoo, after stunning it with the hypnosis, she just spun and in place of Goggle Pink is Miki dressed in a sexy flamenco dancer. Her costume change isn't limited on just female clothes only, she could also pass up as a prince with just a wig, though she still needs to work around with the her voice.

Pairing

I've talked quite a bit on it in a previous topic, so I think I'm not going to reiterate twice...

In Conclusion

Overall, since this is a 80's Sentai show, Miki's characteristics might look a bit lacking when compared to the Sentai series of these days. Still, for all she had, Miki is pretty lovable. She's both kind hearted and cute, but most of all, a very formidable, witty fighter. I do need to mention that since Goggle V is one of the first shows that I've seen in my life, while in other shows women are mostly less active in battle and serve as either moral support, or a damsel in distress that the hero must rescue; Miki is definitely one of the few most 'action-oriented' (as much as Sentai allows) female characters that I've known. Maybe I don't really pay much attention when I'm a kid, but as of now, it's safe to say that Miki is... pretty much my favorite female Super Sentai character.

I'll see you later in the next talk about Sentai characters.

My Top 6 Sentai Red Warriors

Here's my top 6 Sentai Red Warriors...

6. Banban Akaza/Deka Red (Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger)

Usually I like it better if the Red ranger is not very hyper, but I'd say that Ban is this kind of character done in a good way. He's hyper, but not in a really irritating way (when you compare with Gekiranger's Jan Kandou. OK, he's supposed to be a jungle boy, and while he's a pretty okay character, I find his childish hyperactivity a little annoying). He really lives up the 'Fireball' part for the team, being the one more likely to break the norms to ensure that justice prevails. While he has his share of bad luck and desire to be number 1, once he learnt the meaning of teamwork (after the boot camp), he becomes even more admirable... while not losing his hyperactivity or exaggerating it. So, yeah, Ban gets to be my #6 for those reasons.

5. Geki/Tyranno Ranger (Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger)

Yes, I still get vibes of seeing Jason of MMPR when I see Geki, even though they're different person. Still, overall, he's a great character on his own, even when Burai practically overshadows him in popularity. Geki is what happens if you give some conflict to your 'standard leader' type, and it works out well. He does make mistakes sometimes, but he'll eventually admit his mistake. His rivalry with Burai was fierce at first, but his feelings as a loving little brother eventually prevails, bringing forth one of the more heartwarming moments of the series, and he's the one who's most crushed when Burai died, but Geki still managed to push on and eventually led the team to victory, this speaks a lot for his character. His nostalgic factor to me may be less than Akama's (because that nostalgia came from his suit, which was used by Jason in MMPR), but still, with his other characteristic and story, Geki gets to be #5.

4. Riki Honoo/Red Turbo (Kousoku Sentai Turboranger)

Ah yeah, this is our first entry of actually hotblooded and rash red ranger (but not in a complete idiot manner, though). Overall, Riki's only problem is his grades in school, in actual battles, he can be pretty insightful in battles at times, thus he's smarter than how everyone looked at him. He's not really the likely leader (you'd thought it's the smart guy Daichi or 'Miss Perfect' Haruna who gets to be the leader), but deep down, he does show leadership and concern well. Most of all, he surprises us with his killing of Lagorn (even though just temporary)... ALONE. It does show that he's one of the more powerful red rangers. Hot blooded, rash, full of energy, yet still leads his team well; Riki is on the #4 place.

3. Takeru/Red Mask (Hikari Sentai Maskman)

Takeru might be, to some people, the trend-setter in Sentai where the Red warrior gets a lot of exclusive focus. But, overall, I think he's a pretty fun character. He's rash, but leads the team well enough. What makes him awesome is that he combines the 'serious' archetype with humors, thus you're more likely to see him getting the butt-end of jokes and teasings despite being the leader, as the time-travel episode shows (man, I still laughed at that). Still, the humors caused by him are less 'too pushed on' and more quite natural, so it all works out in the end. It's true that his plot with Mio/Iyal means that he's getting a lot of exclusive plots, but he plays his parts well, and his other 'side dishes' of humors makes Maskman still a great show to watch, thus Takeru gets the #3 spot.

2. Ryuu Tendou/Red Hawk (Choujin Sentai Jetman)

Oh God. Ryuu pretty much is one of the more conflicted Red warriors ever, along with one of the best one there is. At first, he's sometimes too stuck-up on the laws, which might get on some people's nerves (Even sometimes, I feel like siding with Gai to punch his face for his treatment to Kaori), but trust me, he REALLY gets better. His leadership do show off prominently when he tricked the team of defecting to the Vyram. His drama and suffering through his anguish of losing Rie gives a good shape of his character (and a lot more reasons for us to desire Radiguet's head on a platter), and although he has several times of trying to give up, Ryuu ultimately would never back down to protect those he loves. His conflicts and leadership gave him the #2 spot.

1. Takeru Shiba/Shinken Red (Samurai Sentai Shinkenger)

All right, this is the second Takeru to be put on the list. And yes, as much of the fanboys glamored, Takeru really is a great character. He's a silent, serious character, and sometimes funny situation gets in the way (which makes things even funnier)... and he takes it just as serious as he'd take on the demonic invaders. And I'm not kidding when I say he's just as bad ass as he gets. The arc about his inner struggles being the kagemusha of Kaoru was also a very well done arc that does great justice to Takeru's characters: He's an aloof jerk, but beneath it all, he's a compassionate, caring man... who needs a hug. I'll not talk about the pairings of him, since I talked about it before (and you know which one is my favorite Takeru shipping), but overall, Takeru plays part in re-invigorating my passion for Sentai. Combined with his badass fighting style, as well as personality I'm diggin', he pretty much becomes my #1 Sentai Red Warrior.

And so ends my top 6 Red Warriors list. I hope you had a good time reading. I'll see you later, then!

P.S: Once again, special thanks go to the actors; namely Tori Matsuzaka, Kotaro Tanaka, Ryosuke Kaizu, Kenta Satou, Yuuta Mochizuki and Ryuji Sainei. Awesome job, guys!

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.

Super Sentai S.O.B 1: Radiguet

I've seen several Sentai and I have to say, some are huge bastards who the world would be better without. Take, for example, Agent Abrellar from Dekaranger who'll happily cause genocidal wars for the sake of profit and moving on to other planets to repeat the process. Or maybe Fuuwa Juzou from Shinkenger, who, while not hugely destructive to humans, is deep down a complete bastard who only cares to kill the people he wants, ignoring his parents' wishes. But to me?

Those two are no match in sheer evilness when you compare to the one who faced the Jetman... Radiguet. Ladies and gentlemen, I present you the biggest S.O.B that is ever conceived by Toei in the Super Sentai franchise... Earl Radiguet of Vyram.


So, why do I think he's a complete bastard? Let's begin with how he started, shall we? The first thing we saw was openly declaring to humans that "We Vyrams are your God! Worship us or die!". That takes balls, but it's a pretty cookie-cutter Sentai villain standard. Blasting the Skyforce base seemed kind of standard, but it does cause our hero Ryuu Tendou to lose his girlfriend Rie Aoi, causing him lots of grief. But then, this eventually leads to the emergence of Maria, who turns out to be Rie brainwashed by Radiguet... JUST BECAUSE.

As the series progressed, it's clear that Radiguet, despite being a Vyram, has no loyalty but to himself only. He challenged the rest of his elites on who shall be their leader, in a competition of who can destroy the Jetman first. This came to a slight halt when Empress Juza appeared, and Radiguet, being her 'servant', had to bow to her... This only lasts a short while, because Radiguet's loyalty lie to him only, so his plan is naturally to usurp Juza's throne, be the supreme Vyram ruler and take over the universe for himself. However, Juza at the moment proves to be too powerful for him, and she didn't take traitors well... thus she punished him by turning him into human.

A girl named Saki found him and nursed him back to health. Without his memory, Radiguet lived as a human, uncaring of his background, even falling in love with Saki. When Saki was revealed to be deathly ill, he wished so hard she could be cured, triggering his Vyram powers which healed her. Further interaction showed that Radiguet was happy with his life as a human, and was ready to put any past he didn't remember behind. But this was just a beginning on just how much of a depraved monster he really is.

See, the battle between Juza and the Jetman eventually drew Radiguet's memory back to him and when he witnessed the battle, he remembers who he is and turned back into the Vyram elite. Teaming up with the Jetman so he can be rid of Juza quicker and steal her big plan (the larva form of Semimaru), Radiguet eventually managed to kill Juza. Despite witnessing his cruelty and brutality, Saki still pleaded him to return as a human. As proven, Radiguet IS able to love. He started giving second thoughts on living with Saki... then what is his decision?

"Fool! Do you think that I, Radiguet, am able to experience such disgusting thing called 'Love'!?"

And then, he killed Saki in cold blood, never once referring her again. This is pretty much Radiguet's first big step to make it clear to the audience that he is a complete bastard through and through and you'll want him to get grinded on a rusty axe thanks to what he did to poor Saki. And... he DOES NOT STOP THERE on doing evil things.

At one point, the plan he stole from Juza, the beast Semimaru, has come to its peak and it is proving to be more than a match for Jet Icarus. Then the Jet Garuda arrives, controlled by the 3 warriors of reverse Dimension: Ray, Kanna and Dan. They reveal that way before the Vyram attacks Earth, Radiguet has also destroyed the planet, so you get to know how much this bastard can be evil. He destroys and conquers planet like nobody's business, with no regards with the lives lost. While the three worked out to help the Jetman, Radiguet struck again and killed both Ray and Kanna in cold blood. Dan exploded in rage and tried attacking Radiguet, but he's killed too. Yet another victim of Radiguet that he killed on cold blood because they get in the way...

The next time, we find that yet another of survivor of Radiguet's planet-scale massacre arrive, and rather than just 'killing' them, Radiguet had one Bio Dimensional Beast to possess one of them and try to make the other one (his lover) kill him. This was pretty sadistic and shows just how much of a bastard he is, but thankfully the Jetman managed to stop the tragedy for now.

Later on, Tran morphed into Tranza and started displaying power that makes him win the bet, emerging as the leader of the Vyram, basically reducing Radiguet to servant AGAIN. This does not bode well for Radiguet, thus he did all he can to sabotage Tranza's success, no matter what. He even once again resorted to teaming up with the Jetman to eventually defeat Tranza and make him declare Radiguet as the Lord of Vyrams. It shows that Radiguet shows ZERO concern for his fellow Vyrams. For him, the world revolves around him and him only and anyone else are his playthings.

He also started developing quite the obsession on Maria/Rie. Thus, he turns her into a blood-thirsty vampire that yearns for more blood, becoming more monstrous each days and thus worthy of being by Radiguet's side. This action is so despicable that his fellow Vyram warrior Grey showed disgust. Now you know that you're messed up when even your friend think you're ****ed up to the head. Eventually, the Jetman managed to free Rie from brainwashing, although she decided that she's gone too far to be redeemed. Instead, she vented all her wish for vengeance to Radiguet by stabbing him from behind. He retaliates by killing her, but what makes him very depraved in doing so was not because he had to kill a traitor. His motivation is that if Rie betrays him, he'll NEVER let Ryuu have her, thus making his quest to save her a complete failure. And he succeeded, much to Ryuu's anguish... and much to our desire to slice the m*********er in two... ahem, sorry.

Consumed with desire for vengeance, Ryuu quits the Jetman force and challenged Radiguet to avenge Rie. Just to show how pissed off he was, he's willing to take Radiguet with him in death, though Radiguet couldn't care less. Thankfully for Ryuu, he still has friends, which made him change his mind about killing himself just so he can kill Radiguet. Thus began Jetman's final battle, whereas Radiguet is finally killed when Ryuu held him back and let the team, under the command of Gai Yuuki, stabbed Radiguet on the same spot where Rie stabbed him, which eventually killed him for good, while cursing that he'll have his vengeance soon... Now that might be a joyous day to Earth, but depending on your interpretation of what happens three years later, perhaps even Radiguet is having the last laugh.

Three years after the final battle, Ryuu married fellow Jetman Kaori Rokumeikan. Gai decided to visit the wedding, stopped a mugger in process, but for his troubles, the mugger stabbed him and even though he made it to the wedding and gave his blessing, Gai succumbed to his wounds and probably died. Now a lot of you probably would've thought of the theory about Radiguet surviving, becoming human again and now a mugger. While it's a plausible story, if we take the manga in continuity, I'd say that the mugger IS just a normal, nameless mugger, but Radiguet's spirit lived on and deciding to spit on the Jetman, never letting them having a happy ending, he possessed the thug and had him stab Gai. The thug was played by the suit actor of Black Condor, thus it can't be a reincarnated Radiguet. My other theory is when Gai looked away, Radiguet possessed the thug, thus giving him an urge to stab him, and he did. Once the deed is done, Radiguet's spirit left the thug, therefore, the thug felt a complete remorse about him stabbing Gai, and fled with a terrified look on his face rather than a confident "Take That!" look. Of course, Radiguet's restless spirit continued to haunt Jetman that it possessed the vegetable-state Tranza and even tried to possess Gai's replacement Jeffrey Kensaki. The combined power of the Jetman reunited as well as Tranza's spirit put an end to Radiguet's existence, and only then the world rejoiced that one more bastard has been erased from the world.

As said, Radiguet is a completely irredeemable sadistic monster. He is brutal to the humans, looks down on the humans, couldn't care less about his teammates and superiors, and wanted everything for himself. There are a lot of complete bastards in the Super Sentai franchise, but Radiguet tops them all... But then again, that's what makes him such a good villain. Because he's the type of villain you'll love to hate and you will cheer loudly when he finally bites the dust.

So? In the end, would you consider Radiguet the biggest S.O.B in Super Sentai? Or you know there's a bigger one? Well, you decide. But me? I'd say, yes, Radiguet is the biggest one there is.

My Top 6 Sentai Black Warriors

Here be my Top 6 Sentai Black Warriors...

6. Ryuu Hoshikawa/Dyna Black (Kagaku Sentai Dynaman)

All right, this is mostly on the earlier thoughts, but even when we take Dynaman's theme of science, Ryuu's design screams of unique. A ninja mixed with scientist, and still a badass fighter. That's a combo you'll less likely to see, and he's still great because of it. His personality is quite comical for a ninja, but I've seen other comical ninjas that could get annoying (but I still like it), so I can still excuse Ryuu's comical side and sometimes loud voice. Well, it helps that he's played by Junichi Haruta... At any rate, even if Dynaman is currently 'In Progress', I'd say Ryuu already secured the #6 slot.

5. Black Lion Rio (Juken Sentai Gekiranger)

Right, he's never officially called a Black warrior, but he DOES turn good in the end (or so I heard. Yes, I've been spoiled a lot, but I still watch the series anyway!), thus marking his place. If I would have the list of 'sympathetic villain', I'd say Rio takes cake. While he's evil, he has soft spots here and there and this proves vital in redeeming him, changing him from villain and such, without losing his badassery points. I'll not say anything about his relationship with Mele here, except I'd say it's quite a well-done dynamic between the two. Overall, Rio is the example of 'villain, badass, sympathetic in a way', thus he earns the #5 spot. And hey, Jan once tried calling him 'GekiBlack'. So... yeah.

4. Kanpei Kuroda/Goggle Black (Dai Sentai Goggle V)

And we go back to our classic faves. I'd say that while he's not going anywhere near Saburou or Miki in terms of favorite Goggle V character, Kanpei is pretty awesome on his own. Yes, being played by Junichi Haruta helps, but his vast array of techniques is quite the sight to behold. And he's not even a ninja, but a university president of chess club and a janitor part-time (Almighty Janitor, anyone?). They're right when they say 'If Goggle V looked silly, Kanpei is the one who keeps the line between complete silly and awesome' (though I don't think Goggle V is silly AT ALL). A great second-in-command as well, Kanpei earns the #4 spot (and yeah, nostalgia plays a factor here).

3. Doggie Kruger/Deka Master (Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger)

Doggie is probably one of my favorite 'commander' type character. It's just a guy in a big blue bipedal wolf suit, but DANG he's that badass. Not stealing the spotlight despite his mass power also adds up points that he's also wise, but when he's gotten into battle, asses shall be bitten. Tetsu Inada voiced a lot of furry characters, and I'd say Doggie stands amongst the most badasses of them. So, yes, this dog earns #3 spot, and watch out, if he wants to bite, he bites... HARD.

2. Jiraiya/Ninja Black (Ninja Sentai Kakuranger)

I'd say that Jiraiya is an awesome character kinda overshadowed in terms of spotlight. Kakuranger is mostly more about Tsuruhime, with Sasuke thrown in for good measure. Not that I'm complaining, but Jiraiya tends to fall flat in spotlight. Though for what little spotlight he has, he's REALLY awesome at those. His arc with Gali is considered one of the most tense arcs: Master/foster father and student square off against each other in a deadly battle, and Jiraiya doesn't even transform. It's good ol' plain beatdown showcasing the awesome martial arts actions of the Kosugi family. And those are combined with high tension drama. Aside of that, Jiraiya speaks perfect English at times, which is a good addition to his character, being an American ninja, and even with that, he's not like many overconfident Americans, he's actually pretty humble. Those are his qualities that makes him #2 of the list.

1. Gai Yuuki/Black Condor (Choujin Sentai Jetman)

And now, here's one of my favorite characters in Super Sentai history. Gai is the epitome of character development (even more so than Hoji!), starting out an obnoxious jerk and the least likely candidate to be a Super Sentai warrior, but deep down, he hid a heart of gold which he hid well for about half the season, and eventually it prevailed over his jerkass side, turning him to a bad ass second-in-command and actually treats Ryuu as a real friend, not some 'annoying goody two shoes guy'. Yeah, it's a great bummer that he has to die, but hey, look at the bright side... He died an accomplished man, with no regrets and all. Of course I know many would wish him to be alive, but with his death scene so ambiguous (which I'll talk about later), you may wonder if he's just hiding (if you count the manga non-canon anyway!). Yes, he fights dirty with groin squeezes at times, but that adds variety in Sentai fights and I always find it fun. His rivalry with Grey is also something impressive to watch. At any rate, so many great qualities, Gai pretty much sweeps the #1 spot, even if he has to die for it.

And that concludes my Top 6 Sentai Black Warriors. I do hope you enjoy the read...

I'll see you later!

P.S: Once again, my special thanks for the actors (and voice actor): Toshihide Wakamatsu, Kane Kosugi, Hideaki Kusaka & Tetsu Inada, Junichi Haruta and Hirofumi Araki. Awesome job, guys!