We’re used to having Toonami, Fox Kids, and Jetix grouping some of the best of the best in action together. As those all have fallen to the wayside, where do we look for the future in action?
Japan doesn’t have that problem. TV-Asahi, for the past few decades, have paired Kamen Rider and Super Sentai together in Super Hero Time. One of the rare occasions you see Rangers and Riders together, the one-hour block of tokusatsu usually has anime surrounding it. Currently, you can see Engine Sentai GoOnger and Kamen Rider Kiva alongside Yes! PreCure 5 GoGo! and Battle Spirits. Recently, the shows have done promotions (much like those old NBC theme nights), featuring GoOn Red doing yoga during another show’s credits, and Kiva and the others performing the GoOn roll call. Heck, in promotion for Kamen Rider Kiva: King Of Hell’s Castle, the Den-O cast did the GoOn roll call. Japan loves that roll call, apparently.
Starting off with the lovely Engrish of “SUPER HEERRRRRRRRRRROOOOO TIME…. STARTS NOW!”, the children of Japan know it’s time to rock. This video shows one intro from a few years ago (Boukenger and Kabuto airing), and one of the rare crossover scenes.
I’ve made my way through Godannar, finally. Great show if you’re into hot blooded mecha action and girls with ridiculous body types. Seems the animators or writers are fans of Super Sentai, as any time television was on in the background and not showing news or anything, two sentai shows were being shown. One, Dannaman, featured three heroes wearing red, yellow, and blue, and another show, featured seven years later, had red, green, blue, and pink. Obviously, both teams were inspired by Megaranger and JAKQ.
Obviously, Disney aims Power Rangers at young children. They try to keep things a little family friendly. At the same time, they have to expose the youths of America to multiculturalism. Every Ranger team has been multiracial, which makes families a little out of place. Still, it has happened. In the theme of being with the family this Thanksgiving, we’ll dive into the family tree of Rangerdom.
And no, I don’t know the source of Cosby Zordon, but it seems fitting.
Big Lots apparently sells a few Ultraman games, if you look at the right one. I’ve found Power Fighter, The Little Adventure, and The Ultimate Fighting.
… and they require Windows, which I temporarily do not have, so I can’t tell you jack about how they play.
In the second episode of Engine Sentai GoOnger, the set of Rangers almost doubles. GoOn Black and GoOn Green (tenatively known as “Wolf Ranger” and “Shark Ranger”, although technically it’s orca-themed) join the other three GoOngers. They have different morphers, and along with three sentient mecha, they can form GunBir-Oh. No idea what this will be called in America, as of yet.
In our ever-continuuing quest to give you quick looks into what we’re getting in the future, we’re gonna take some time today (”t’day”?) to explain a few things. As Power Rangers RPM takes source footage from Engine Sentai GoOnger, we’ve got a good idea about what’s coming down the pipe.
As things start in the sentai, we’ve got three Rangers. The action figure boxes call them the Eagle, Lion, and Shark Rangers, but for quick purposes, they are the Red, Blue, and Yellow RPM Rangers. Combining their three Zords, they form the (according to the Power Rangers CCG) Engine King. Notably, not Engine King Megazord, but it’s what we would traditionally call a Megazord. This could just be an early translation thing, as it’s Japanese name of “Engine-Oh” directly translates to “Engine King,” or it could just be the new crew in charge.
New crew, you ask? Bruce Kalish, the head of the show from SPD to Jungle Fury, has reportedly left the show.
You can see the Rangers and their Engine King in the footage after the jump that will most likely be shown all of once.
Gravion is a pretty fun mecha series, split up over two series (Gravion and Gravion Zwei). Masami Obari, noted lover of the female form (think Japanese Adam Hughes), created this mech series. I had seen the screencaps before, but now that I have finished Gravion Zwei, I had to share it with the world.
Dekared and Dekapink, Ban and Umeko, from Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, show up in the show in the background.
You should check out Henshin Justice Unlimited. Despite being competition when it comes to Toku news and all, they’re good guys and you should definitely check them out.
BUT… I won’t mind it’s owner getting punched by Mark Musashi, one of my man crushes and heroes of tokusatsu. He’s in GARO, he’s in Cutie Honey The Live, he’s doing stunts for Kamen Rider Dragon Knight… he’s all around awesome.
And I’m not talking about Kamen Rider Dragon Knight.
Fresh from Japan, what looks to be the first real image of Kamen Rider Decade. At a quick glance, you have “X” on the chest to siginfiy 10 years of modern Kamen Rider, and a gun that looks like it could hold cards like the rumored “card battle” theme. Also, I bet he can rotate the gun around and turn it into an axe/sword/whatever.
