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Saturday, January 16, 2010

Poll Results: Which Finale was the best?/Would You Trust Zordon?


Which Finale Was the Best?


In Space 128 of 337 votes


RPM 96 votes

Time Force 20 votes

Lost Galaxy 18 votes

Wild Force 12 votes

Mystic Force 12 votes

Ninja Storm 11 votes

Turbo 10 of 337 votes

SPD 8 votes

Lightspeed 7 votes

Dino Thunder 6 votes

Jungle Fury 6 votes

Operation Overdrive 3 votes


Would You Trust Zordon?
For Sure! 101 of 139 votes
No Way! 15 votes
I would Faint 11 votes
Dissect Him 12 votes

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers 2010 - Different Drum & Food Fight

"Different Drum"
Rita sends down Gnarly Gnome to hypnotize Kimberly's dance aerobics students and kidnap them, luckily Kimberly's hearing-impaired friend Melissa helps them out. I always love this episode, let me let you guys on a little secret, my older sister is hearing-impaired herself, her kids and grand-child can hear. The whole family knows sign-language. This episode has not aired in many years, it did not air in ABC Family. For some reason, the Pink Ranger was silver in some scenes of the MMPR episode and how they called the weapons by different names (Cosmic Cannon, Battle Bow, Dino Daggers, Mighty Lance). And in a rare instance, the monster was both destroyed by the weapons and the zords, which commonly happens now but didn't much back in those days.


[Left] Original MMPR Episode "Differen Drum" with silver Kimberly. [Right] Original Zyuranger episode with Pink with no alteration.


[Left: Silver Kimberly remains in MMPR revision; Right: Only for one spot, Kimberly is completely Pink.]


In some parts, the silver is changed to pink but in some scenes, it still remains silver. The alternate names remain as well. I watched the original Zyuranger episode on YouTube today and the PteraRanger (pink) is not silver but pink, so it is some weird mystery. It could be that the Beta or VHS tape the Saban company got was damaged and all pink came out grey. In the end of the ep, Jason attempts signing, Kimberly says he says that her dog smells. But in reality, he says Pet smells. The sign of Dog is a pat at the hip and the calling command sign. But some of the ASL are different. There are about two or three different signs for stand, for example.







"Food Fight"
The school has a food festival inside the youth center, Rita sends the Pudgy Pig to eat everything. This episode first aired a Saturday a week after the first episode, two days before the first episode aired along with other episodes on weekdays. But in order, Food Fight is the sixth episode. Pudgy Pig is still pretty popular monster, even though he is the most ridiculous.


CUTS:

Establishing shots are cut out. The episode title was on one of these.


So the Episode Title was moved to this shot, which was not originally there. New commercial breaks were edited in as well.
Next week only one episode airs and it is "Big Sisters" and then on Saturday the 30th of January it is "Switching Places."

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Queer Eye For: Kamen Rider Accel and Vote!!!

Does Kamen Rider Accel (upcoming to Kamen Rider Double) look like a combo of a Battlizer and a Metal Hero? Sharivan below. I say battlizer because of the wheels on his boots. I am not knocking the look, he does look interesting. I like the suit, it is unlike any other Kamen Rider lately, except for maybe Hibiki. You vote!



Wednesday, January 13, 2010

What Constutes a Kamen Rider Costume?

Now that the Kamen Rider franchise has gotten older, with so many more and more Riders appear, they start not looking so uniformed. Some series they all have one matching element at least, but some of the Movie Riders look distinctly different. So some don't even look like the main Kamen Rider, so what counts?

Kamen Rider Silvra & Kamen Rider Goldra of the Kamen Rider Den-O/Decade movie, Cho Kamen Rider Den-O & Decade NEO Generations: The Onigashima Battleship. They look more armored and more like monsters than Riders.

Rey's bottom looks like a Kamen Rider but not so much his top, the furry parts remind me of Kamen Rider Imperer (Spear).

Kamen Rider Skull of Kamen Rider W really looks like a plain Kamen Rider, but with a fedora and scarf, some people say it is a lazy design. Could a Kamen Rider just be a guy in a skin-tight suit?

Now the ones that definitely don't look like Kamen Riders are Kamen Riders o the past but went out of the mold like Kamen Rider Amazon...

Kamen Rider Stronger with the big glob on his chest.

Kamen Rider Shin had his own movie but was the Rider that stepped out of the mold that most. He didn't even have a belt, which is the main piece of wardrobe that everyone thinks of it when they think of Kamen Rider. If we didn't know him or that he was a Kamen Rider, we'd think he was just a regular monster.

Homoerotism in Kamen Rider

As I did with Super Sentai and Power Rangers, I decided to mention a couple of cases of homoerotism in Kamen Rider. What that means is innuendo or hints at a character being same-sex orientated. I am sure there are a lot of people who pair other same-sex Riders but these are some that seem more 'out there' than others. And it would be only natural since there are more male Riders than female in the series.

Shinji Kido (Ryuki) and Ren Akiyama (Knight)
[Kamen Rider Ryuki]
Shinji was more like a puppy with Ren, very eager. But Ren tried and tried, to push Shinji away. In the end, when Shinji died, Ren couldn't shy away from his feelings anymore, about how he felt for him. I don't think it was overtly homoerotic but it had to have tinges in there, since they had a potential love triangle between them and Yuri. In the 13 Riders TV Special, Ren was the one who died and he believed in Shinji so much to give him the Knight deck.

Goro Yura and Shuichi Kitaoka (Kamen Rider Zolda)
[Kamen Rider Ryuki]
Shuichi was a lawyer and worked on a case for Goro, which caused him to miss an appointment or something dealing with his cancer, so Goro felt guilty. He agreed to be his assistant, but he was very loyal and the best assistant anyone could ask for. Back in 2002, I asked my friend if there were any gay characters in Kamen Rider and she said Goro was the closest thing, that they wouldn't say it specifically but Goro clearly loved Shuichi. Shuichi would even coerce Shuichi like a lover would. Goro had once wanted to run over Ohja but Shuichi stopped him, saying it was his business to do that and appreciated it. Shuichi of course had female love interests. But in the end, Shuichi died of cancer, Goro took his place and died as well.

Shun Kageyama (PunchHopper) and Sou Yaguruma (Kick Hopper)
[Kamen Rider Kabuto]

The younger Shun is Sou's very subservient, devoted, and faithful. He believes in Sou, and in turn, Sou clearly cares a lot for Shun. When Tendou caused Shun to be in the hospital, Sou's grudge for Tendou grew stronger. After Sou left Shadow, Shun becomes the new Kamen Rider TheBee and believed the traitor was Sou, and sets a trap for him. Even though he eventually found out that Sou was innocent, and Shun's attitude towards Sou was dire. He tells Sou there is no place in Shadow for him anymore. Shun becomes more ruthless and is loyal to ZECT instead. Eventually he loses TheBee and ZECT discard him. Sou returns as Kick Hopper. Shun is then about to lose his life to Worms and his former comrades, Sou returns to save him. Shun asks Sou to "come to hell" with him, and offers him a place as his "brother". Shun tells Sou that he's the only one who would even look at him.

Len (Wing Knight) and Kit Taylor (Dragon Knight)
[Kamen Rider Dragon Knight]
In the beginning of the series, even though there was some chemistry between Len and Maya and Kit and Maya; there was some unmistakable chemistry between teacher Len and student 'Little Kit Taylor' as Xaviax called him later on. Len convinced Kit to work together as a team. Later on, Len's anger towards Adam (Kit's duplicate) for betraying him felt like a jilted lover. Oh, and come on, when Kase came in the picture, Kit felt like his hero Len was over him, he felt like the third wheel, man out. Len oblivious to this, just saw Kit as a jealous punk that needed to calm down. Kit was hurt, so hurt that he had 'nightmares' of murdering the two. Come on, at the point Venting was like killing, in Kit's subconscious mind at least.

441 Mania interview between Stephen Lunsford and Matt Mullins:

TVO: For Stephen and Matt. Many fans have made note in the Japanese versions, there's sometimes a bit of a suggestive, homo-erotic element to the Kamen Rider duos. And then the fans saw that scene in the living room with Kit and Len, and Len is sleeping on the couch with Kit on the floor. And Len covers Kit with the jacket. Fans thought you were honoring the Japanese material. Or is it more like an older/younger brother thing?
SL: I would like to say its an older/younger brother thing. However there are some interesting aspects to the series because we made fun of one episode in particular that we called gay for pay on the set. And it's funny, its the episode where I'm like helping Len outside of Ventara. And I'm like holding onto Len outside of a junkyard. And he's like, "I have no place to go!" Because he's like a hobo.
MM: Yes, I am a hobo . . . that can kill people!
SL: I'm like holding on to him going, "You can crash at my place." And like we looked at the picture, a still from that--
MM: Oh, its so funny.
SL: Looking at that, its difficult to have a show like that where its like a duo and not have some type of thing like that. But I just laugh at that.
TVO: I thought him giving you the jacket was like a cool, Indiana Jones sort of thing.
SL: Yeah, I like that more than what everyone else is suggesting.

I am sure there is more, I just don't know them, let me know.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Kamen Rider Dragon Knight Toy Line Canceled

Because of the cancellation of Kamen Rider Dragon Knight on CW4Kids in America, Bandai America has canceled the rest of the toy line set to come out in 2010 (or December 2009). The Kamen Rider Dragon Knight subsite or sitelet is still online. The sweepstakes ended December 5, 2009. I am sad because I wanted an affordable 4 inch Kamen Rider Siren. We all knew this was going to happen, regardless the toy sales. I have yet to find Strike at my stores.

Source:
Toynews!.com

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Hero Profile: Suit Magne of Bioman


Sean Akizuki peaked my interest with his post on his blog about extra ranger prototypes. I had no idea about this guy. Yatori, a character introduce in Episode 35 & 36 and never mentioned again. He was a warrior who won over Jun (Yellow Four) & the bad guys experimented on with electro-shockwaves. He went against the team and turned back by Jun. Hikaru Kurosaki (thanks to Hawling, I badly translated the name), who at the time was 23 years old, played Yatori.






He was a goofy character, he was strong but was bumbling too. In the end of the episofe, he asked Jun to marry, which she refused but there seem signs she would later on. The episode is now available on YouTube but I dunno for how long, it is dubbed in English but by a foreign country. The other ones mentioned I knew about (plus he used my sites pictures!--which is fine, hes an ally). I would consider the Mask X-1 as a sixth ranger as the Super Sentai Encloypedia of 2006 did so.




グネ戦士 / 山守正太:黒崎輝

Related Topic:
Sean Akizukis Super Sentai Blog: Extra Ranger Prototypes?