Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

We are introduced to three big baddies who were the main enemies of Gavan, Sharivan, and Shaider.  They have different methods in their quest to take over the Universe. It's unknown whether or not they battled for some time, but here they are, those stuck in the wall villains: Don Horror of Ucchu Keiji Gavan Gavan's foe was the Space Crime Organization Makuu. Don Horror was pretty much well... WALLPAPER! He was the background character that kept barking orders. It's never explained how Don Horror became the way he is. Did Don Horror get paralyzed or what? Is he a Dark Lord Under Life Support? It's a typical 1980s show, so don't expect too much from this Orcus on the Throne! He's pretty much like Horde Prime in She-Ra: Princess of Power in some way.  I found Hunter Killer to be rather generic. Instead, things got better when San Dorva and his wife, Witch Kiba came along. Witch Kiba is an old hag -- suggesting that Don Horror is also an OLD MAN. However, I must wo...

  I guess Marvel does have a huge cycle, right? A bit of research will tell us Toei Ltd. once had a Marvel license, later Haim Saban acquired a Marvel license before getting a license from Toei, Disney later bought Marvel and later the Power Rangers brand, and then it's a weird cycle. Nothing's really completely original at all. I could go ahead and praise Haim Saban for doing Knights of Tir Na Nog though it's clearly not all that original. Heck, Toei Ltd. does seem to have a habit of making fun of a lot of stuff. One such case was when Japanese Spider-Man  or Supaida-Man was created. Sure, I expected it to be somewhat alike yet different. Instead, it's very different. The hero Yamashiro Takuya meets an alien who's the last of his kind. Yamashiro loses his father to the Iron Cross Army. Later, Shinji meets a Garian who gives him spider powers. Shinji Todo was famous for playing several villains such as General Hedder from Denji Sentai Denziman and God Neros' hum...

Toku has a lot of weird logic going on. While trying to enjoy the rather boring (at least for me) Showa era Riders - I do end up thinking of some badass scenes. Kamen Rider Stronger and later Kamen Rider Skyrider featured both Megazord-sized foes in the form of the Great Leader's two decoys. The Great Leader used a rock giant in Stronger and a dragon form in Skyrider which both could've easily been defeated by a giant Megazord driven by either a Super Sentai team or a Power Rangers team but would have easily crushed the Kamen Riders. What's so badass about it? I really think about it that Kamen Rider wasn't a show meant to fight giant monsters. The monsters are all human-sized yet there's the occasion when they are given problems too big for them to handle and emerge victorious in the end. I really find it funny (or stupid) to why we had these scenes. Are they trying to show off how great the Kamen Riders have become at the end to handle a Megazord-sized problem t...

Well, I finally finished Jiban and I'm thankful I gave it a chance. I wasn't really such a fan and sometimes -- rewatching something can be good. It's like how I decided to rewatch ToQGer to finally give me the, "Well, it's got its own charm like the way I can appreciate Fiveman." I think Jiban is probably one of those shows that get eclipsed. After Jiban -- Winspector finally came which was a totally different type of Metal Hero series. Jiban was loosely based on Robocop. Then in 1993, we would have Janperson who, unlike Jiban, is a fully mechanical version of Robocop. So what's with Jiban? I thought that the show would be the first time the late Noboru Sugimura would work with Tokusatsu. Only that, I think I'd probably still watch Zyuranger any day over Jiban. But on its own -- Jiban still has its charm as a little bit more child-friendly Robocop despite the later tragedies that the show would have. The loss of both Harry Boy and Seiichi Yanagida ...

Like it or not -- some 90s children may have remembered the late 80s show Jiban on its re-runs. Okay, I don't like IBC-13 for being such a douche with replaying shows all over again -- though I still cherish these shows in part. Now, there may be some stuff you never noticed in Jiban while growing up! I remembered how I never noticed Dr. Giba's actor was actually a white man voiced over by Shozo Iizuka. I never noticed the lips didn't really match either. I wonder why Toei decided to get a white man to act as Dr. Giba when they could still get a Japanese actor to do the job. Then maybe, another one you may have missed is this one... Yes, Scorpina (that's Lami in Zyuranger) herself was in Jiban as one of Dr. Giba's secretaries namely Karsha (the one in red). I guess back then children just cheered at Mighty Morphin' without thinking much. They may have never noticed that Rita Repulsa was a guest star in Maskman (as Baraba's mother) or Gavan (as Honey M...

It's no secret that I don't like or usually I don't care about most of the Showa era Kamen Riders  for many reasons. I always have it in my mind that Showa era Kamen Rider is lesser in quality than Showa era Super Sentai. So now I'm watching Skyrider and I've been into at least 14 episodes as of present. I'm watching it at what I'd call at a slow pace? It's said that it's called "Skyrider" by the fans because it was only called "Kamen Rider" -- perhaps to avoid confusion with the very early 70s the first Kamen Rider. The enemy is the newly reorganized Shocker known as "Neo Shocker" and the series was released four years after Kamen Rider Stronger ended in 1975. I admit I do love the action scenes but I always felt like that watching through old school Kamen Rider tends to bore me more often than not. I also wonder if Toei could try to make a new school Kamen Rider whose powers will include temporary flight after the...

Ah yes! It's back to the 90s and I thought about it that what didn't surprise me was that Superhuman Samurai (and I DO NOT see the Samurai element) Syber Squad was based on Hyper Agent Gridman. Gridman was a series that lasted for only 39 episodes, the fact that the hero Gridman (or Servo) looks like an Ultraman is because of the Tsubaraya license. It was back when Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers allowed Toei to reach the american market. Tsubaraya tried reaching the American market by allowing DiC (the same company that created that AWFUL Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills show) to create Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad from their very own Gridman. I've decided to watch Gridman and I admit that I don't find it miles better than Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad. I would like to talk about how I think the secondary villain Takeshi is flat out and boring while Malcolm Frink had more personality. Takeshi felt like a darker, brooding version of Point Dext...

I was thinking about a series of my preferences between old school and new school. I want to enjoy the best of both though not all of the Toku classics get my attention. The same can be said about Kamen Rider. I may have started with Kamen Rider Black and Black RX -- but I just don't find myself enjoying most old school Kamen Riders. No, I won't blame the primitive special effects -- most of my favorite Super Sentai were still using stop motion for their mecha or lesser forms of CGI. I think it has to do with the plotline or writing.  What old school Kamen Riders have I watched aside from Black and Black RX? I watched Amazon, Stronger, Super-1 and some episodes of the first Kamen Rider. I remembered just how I found myself watching them before I wanted to criticize them. I finished them and just didn't find them enjoyable. Doing some Google -- I found out that there's a five to six year hiatus between Super-1 and Kamen Rider Black. Wow, talk about hiatuses. Then I...

Is it me or do I miss the time when Tokusatsu was more action-oriented and much less of a toy commercial? This time, I'm watching Exceedraft which was FINALLY subbed by Sailor Otaku (also alternatively known as Weeaboo Shogun). It's time to get into the first episode of the show. This was supposed to take in a different continuity than Winspector and Solbrain but later added as part of the Rescue Police Trilogy. Last year was its 25th anniversary and I was very disappointed as to why it didn't surface after that. The first two members are introduced as Kosuko and Ken who are Blues and Keace. Kosaku seems to be the dandy one while Ken is the joker of the group. Unlike the first two series, they are using this jeep compared to Winspector and Solbrain using cars. Quite interestingly, the GoGoFive siblings drove around a jeep when they were in civilian form. This is well-equipped with equipment to put out fire. We are introduced to the mentors of Exceedraft. We hav...

I gave a thought on how much of the Kamen Rider of the Heisei era I've watched but not in their proper order. I even remembered how I got so stuck with Super Sentai that nothing else mattered IMO. Now it's time for me to talk about the Showa era of Kamen Rider. I started with Kamen Rider Black and Kamen Rider Black RX. I watched several of the Showa era but not in their chronological order. I watched Kamen Rider Den-O then Kamen Rider Decade then I went backwards and forwards. Officially, I've seen everything from Kamen Rider Kuuga up to Kamen Rider EX-AID even if I never saw them in their chronological order. Now it's time to talk about the Showa era. I remembered getting a fascination at it like every other child. I went WOAH when I saw a Kamen Rider Black toy with the picture of the 11 Riders on the box. I remembered collecting some Kamen Rider cards in the late 90s without dreaming something could change. Then something happened: I started having a different m...

Watching some classic Metal Hero series before they declined into the state of being too "kiddie" (with Kabutack and Robotack), I thought another series I want to try watching with subtitles is Exceedraft. Sailor Otaku has brought in a series that I originally didn't like as a child but like as an adult namely Solbrain as well as Winspector before it. But right now, Sailor Otaku is on hiatus (for probably very valid reasons) and there's not a single Exceedraft episode. I just hope there'll be an Exceedraft fan sub for the older audience. =P

I've officially finished Solbrain. I admit, it's gotten in the way with my plan to rewatch GoGoFive and Dekaranger. I thought about the meaning of Solbrain from the final episode of Winspector. Captain Shunsuke Masaki mentioned about saving the soul and the brain or alternatively the heart and the brain of criminals. But there could be a deeper meaning that producers wanted us to guess for ourselves. When Solbrain was formed two years and some months after Winspector moved to Paris, the whole show focused on more complicated criminal cases. Not all the criminals in Solbrain are pure evil. Some of them are simply misguided and can still be set to the right path in society. But it seems that the objective of Solbrain is more than just saving the soul and brain of misguided people. It's also how to operate as a police officer.

I didn't think I would touch another old school Kamen Rider again. I didn't enjoy much of Kamen Rider Amazon apart from the choreography and Kamen Rider Stronger's kinda "too old" for me. But Kamen Rider Super-1? Well Super-1 enters the 80s era of Tokusatsu where things got better for the old school era when writing and production started to get better. But again, it took six years before Kamen Rider Black succeeded this show. The Showa Rider era must have been not that good. What's my thoughts? Kazuya Oki's character of being an astronaut turned cyborg was a cool idea except that there was no space theme done. Instead, our hero fights against the Dogma Kingdom which seeks to create a Darwinian utopia on Earth. I thought that the action scenes were nice though the five gloves gimmick could have used a little bit more of "introduce it slowly". Fortunately, Toei managed to innovate around that concept in the Heisei era like how they dealt with Kam...

Tokusatsu has had a series of mentors now and then. I have my extreme favoritism for Commander Aya Odagiri from Jetman, Commander Naoyuki Miura from Ohranger, Miki Masaki in Gekiranger, Sanjoru Sugata from Maskman. There are also others like Commander Stanton from Lost Galaxy and Captain Mitchel from Lightspeed Rescue who are also worth commending. But I really have one Tokusatsu mentor that I tend to have my current attention on. It's the one and only Captain Shunsuke Masaki. It's not just about Hiroshi Miyauchi the true legend that kicks Jason David Frank's ass in several levels. It's all about how he's been written and how he's that commander you can't mess with. He's been involved with two teams namely Winspector and Solbrain to help combat sophisticated crime. At the same time, he's the kind of chief who looks at the root case to why these sophisticated crimes happen. That's been the theme of Winspector and Solbrain under his watch.

I'm a fan of Black RX myself. Maybe it's because well out of bias because, "Kamen Rider Black RX is miles better than Saban's Masked Rider!" Granted, I'd really watch Black RX over Kamen Rider Decade any time which I think Decade is best called as a pseudo-sequel to Saban's Masked Rider. So what's with Black RX? I personally think it's one innovative series though it just wasn't ready or that there were some issues that I could point out. I personally felt that some of the series' plots were just stupid such as Shadow Moon's return wasn't all that well done (he could have allied himself with Crisis or provided a threat to Crisis and RX), Kotaro became too much of a goofball, Tasmader was quickly written off as a host body for Grand Lord Crisis, Crisis Empire's officers are nothing special with their typical stupid plans for world domination,  the 10 other senior Riders didn't get much of an important part during the finale....

As a child, I used to like Tommy a lot. Maybe it was because of how "cool" I thought he was or was it because of the Tommy/Kimberly ship that Dougie Boy sank for no good reason ? That letter is best known as Doug Sloan forged Kimberly's signature into it! Okay, be ready for a lot of my personal biases because I'm mostly neutral with Power Rangers. But there are good Power Rangers seasons, there are some good actors who can really do what they do like Mike Chaturantabut is an accomplished martial artist or that Amy Jo Johnson plays a good Kimberly. But let's focus on Tommy who's nothing more than an overrated, self-glorified character like Hercule in Dragon Ball Z. Plus, Jason David Frank isn't really pleasing anymore either. So what's my issues with Tommy? I would talk more about the post-Zeo era. Power Rangers managed to create some decent seasons. During Wild Force's "Forever Red", it bothers me why Tommy and not Jason was the leader...

I admit that while eye candy doesn't stop me (but it does DELAY me from ever bashing a bad show) but it can help me overrate a good show. I couldn't forget how I overpraised Shinkenger over Mako or just any good Tokusatsu series with a hot girl in it. Stupid huh? The same happened during Winspector and I do have an immature reason to say it's better than GoGoFive or any rescue related show. She's really hot and she's one cool action lady so why didn't they make her another suit? Not that she's useless without it. She's proven herself to be able to fight without the need of enhancements and she's a necessary force in Winspector. I think Reiko in Solbrain's more utilized since she goes out and helps her partner Daiki. Ryoma's just confined with two robots while Junko knows better. Come on, why didn't they give Junko a power suit? She does look qualified to wear that suit. I think she could endure wearing that kind of suit. I guess this o...

I had finished Winspector and it's time to watch Solbrain (as subbed by Sailor Otaku) but it's still the very first episode . I could give a few thoughts on the episodes. I remembered dropping this show as a toddler but as an adult, I admit that I regret dropping it. The plot follows that one year after the Winspector cast graduates to Paris, the new team called Solbrain enters with newer, better technology. The new heroes are Daiki Nishio and Reiko Higuchi. During Winspector, only Ryoma Kagawa wore the upgrade suit. In Solbrain, the two work together since crimes have become more rampant. Junko Fujino herself could have used a suit given how badass she was but then again, no other character neither male nor female wore a power suit in Winspector. Ryoma had Accel and Biker to help him. At this point, Daiki has Reiko help him out in the more dangerous missions. The organization has been upgraded with more personnel. Winspector was pretty much the start. One year later,...