Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Not Everything is a Shout-Out or Fan Service

Man, this post will piss people off...

I view Sentai and PR as two separate entities. Although if a season of PR is a blatant word-for-word adaptation of a Sentai season, that's different.

Toei and Sentai creators, as well as actors are aware that they have fans overseas, not just in America, but in Brazil, Indonesia, France, Thailand, Singapore, The Philippines, other parts of Europe, South Korea, and tons of more places. However, their target audience is the people of Japan. Series may be dubbed in certain countries (like in Brazil and in The Philippines or South Korea) but it's not like while writing the original series the writers

They don't write stuff for foreign fans, and they don't write stuff for PR fans. Although specials on Sentai have discussed PR, and they have dubbed a few of the series in Japanese, the main audience is Japanese children (and Japanese Sentai fans).

And Sentai series are written in advance before collaborating with Saban or Disney.

Don't act like a show owes you a shout-out. Because that's selfish.

And don't desperately scrounge each episode for something that might be a reference. Everyone's been trying to do that for Gokaiger.


If you see a Yellow Ranger in a skirt, especially if in PR they didn't have a skirt, they're not giving a shout out and saying "oh, in PR GoYellow and GaoYellow were girls, so we're having Gokaiyellow wear a skirt as GoYellow and GaoYellow because of that!" They are wearing skirts to make it more uniform-ic with what GokaiPink is wearing because essentially they are female versions of said warrior.




And wait until the subs come out before you jump to conclusions. I'll have to repeat myself again: Marvelous didn't know which key was ShinkenGold, and Gai told him it's the one with Kanji on it. KingRanger has Kanji on it for King. Then Gai said that it was the other one with Kanji on it, the shiny, sparkling one. It was a hilarious moment, but it was in no way a reference to the fact that in PR KingRanger was called Gold Ranger, and is no way referring to the fact that Saban has adapted Shinkenger into a PR series, and it is airing currently. In Japan, they are only vaguely publicizing it. They probably turned into Shinkenger because Shinkenger is a recent series, and they finally have ShinkenGold's Ranger Key and it is nice to see a whole team represented.

These moments are just coincidences. Not planned coincidences, but coincidences. And they can be what's called "hilarious in hindsight" but using this phrase (trope) to describe these certain nostalgic moments applies mainly to PR fans, unless it's referring to something else.

Using another TV Trope word, "Word of God" refers to something a creator, writer, director, producer, or actor on the show said, that is canon, or what will probably come up in the near future. If you are looking for PR references, then Koichi Sakamoto is God in this situation.


This is by far the only PR reference when Sakamoto (who was stunt coordinator and director on a lot of PR series, and is now directing some episodes of Gokaiger) said this on his blog.

And don't assume that Saban is going to adapt Gokaiger. A lot of the other bloggers have instead been saying "if Saban adapts it." which I like. But other people say that Saban will adapt it. Which, by the way PR Samurai is going, I hope they don't.

So, in conclusion, you can feel nostalgic about Gokaiger, with regards to either Sentai or PR, but don't try to scrounge for stuff you view as references and assume that Luka's purposely wearing a skirt as GingaYellow because Hikaru's counterpart was a female. Or if they turn into Zyuuranger it's not blatantly because Zyuuranger was the first series to be truly adapted in the US. The writers don't purposely do this as fan service. Don't think they owe you something, or be selfish.

And sorry if this offended some of you

Monday, June 27, 2011

The New Gai-Gokaiger Episode 18






No doubt, I think Gojyujin is an awesome mecha. It's a Drill, then it's a dinosaur, and then it's a humanoid mecha thingy. And it's from the year 3000! A nice tribute to Timeranger, Zyuranger, and Abaranger.




This was a nice episode. We learned about Gai's past. He's so altruistic...




And we see our favorite departed sixth rangers: DragonRanger, TimeFire, and AbareKiller. Mikoto still looks hot. And I liked how he still managed to seep in a bit of his character, "discussing excitement," along with being the guy who gives Gai his Gokai Cellular and Ranger Keys. And he compares Gai to "Another man he knew who would risk his life to save others."




Marvelous tests him, I think, but I also think he doesn't want Gai to fight against the Zangyack, because when you're against them, you're against the whole universe. I think Marvelous actually cares about people. And he finds Gai pretty amusing.



Joe's pretty aloof with him, but then again, that's how he usually is with most people who aren't on his crew.




Luka thinks he's cute, and got upset when he hugged Ahim. But then again, Luka seemed pretty excited with the fact that he unlocked three ultimate powers than the fact he was cute. Does she like him as a man, or as a tool to help her get the greatest treasure in the universe?


Don doesn't like him. Forgetting about him during that fantasy sequence, pwning him at being smart (realizing that the MOW in the last episode had his weak point highlighted purposely), and the straw that broke the camel's back: Calling him Don-san. And next week it's going to blow over.



Ahim is the nicest to him, and very caring.





An amazing fight. Especial the out-of-suit stuff. I love the whole kanji gag when he accidentally turns into Kingranger. "The other one with kanji on his face." And them all as silver was shiny and amazing.




I love Gai, and unlike the rest of the team, he wants to take on the Zangyack.





Next week, Gai gets his Gold Mode! Oh, and Don reaches his breaking point. It also looks like the MOW might make the rest of the team sleepy or something.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Better Late Than Never: My Thoughts on Gokai-Silver's Debut



I know, everyone is all like: "It's a Genta clone," but other than the fact he is hyper, I see no reason to compare Genta to Gai.



Gai is us. He is the all who have viewed sentai and have enjoyed it. He is a fan. He is the audience. He is all of us.



He's the ascended fanboy, and he is genre savvy, they need him.


The Gokai Spear is so cool. And he kicks butt!


I like his shoes...



And he's kind of cute.


Oh and he has a really cute giggle. I like him. And yeah, he could use some Ritalin...

Looks like Luka might have a thing for him.


Come on, Gokaigers, you aren't that stupid! The guy in silver shouldn't be an obese man in a silver jogging suit eating hot dogs.


The Gokaigers as sixth rangers were amazing. I thought Ahim as a female Aberrekiller looked the coolest.






I loved the scene where he imagined himself with the team. I don't know what was funnier, Marvelous saying happily that he's reckless, Joe saying that he likes baseball cheerfully, or Luka waving to the audience and asking them if they all said hi to their friends--all of this was hilariously out of character. What Ahim said could have been funnier though, like, "Tee-hee, I'm just a girl." or "I hope I didn't break a nail fighting." like totally purposely sexist. That would have been hilarious.



So, apparantly they unlocked, 11 powers in the movie. I'm kind of upset, because I wanted to see some of the warriors from those series in episodes.



Luka and Doc better not be hooking up. Blech! We get it, she punches him. Although he was pissed when Luka said that she thought Gai was cute. Either way, Doc probably has a thing for her, but it doesn't look like she reciprocates the feelings.



Next week we have ALL SILVER! And we find out about Gai's backstory, including everyone's favorite dead possibly anti-social doctor/abaranger Mikoto!

And I'm looking forward to seeing our friends in the Ginga Forest in two weeks! Teruaki Ogawa still looks hot as Hyuuga.

All and all, great episode, but I'm pissed because they unlocked a huge chunk of their powers in the movie, and I hope the series doesn't end like Kamen Rider Decade.

Quit taunting me Ahim! Some of us have to wait to see it!