Sentai producers: putting a face to the names

By request...

As was the case with the writers post, I'm covering only the chief producers, who are the real brains, anyway, when compared to the sub-producers and assistant producers. (I know there are people out there who like to credit, say, Shirakura for Dairanger, when he was just a sub-producer on that show, or credit Takebe for Megaranger when she was just an assistant producer.)

I didn't realize how awesome this guy was until putting this thing together.

All I'm trying to do is help you understand that Akibaranger is merely a blip on an otherwise uninterrupted downward trajectory.

Here's Mister "Girls are weak, which is why there's only one in my terrible, terrible show."

Sentai writers: putting a face to the names

There's all kinds of behind-the-scenes and making of featurettes on the Sentai DVDs, where they'll talk to various staff members like directors and producers and SFX people and stunt people and the people who choreograph the terrible credits dances and caterers and people who turn off the lights at the end of the day and so on. But they don't usually talk to the writers, which is odd when you're used to the featurettes on American DVDs -- where writers won't just be interviewed, but probably have a commentary track, too. Toku writers do give interviews in magazines and the special books devoted to their show, but since they're ignored in the video featurettes, I feel that makes them somewhat overlooked. Now, fans know which writer is who and will talk about them, but are they just names? Who are these people? What do they look like? Here's a breakdown of each Sentai main writer with a picture, so you can imagine who it was hunched over a typewriter/computer, creating your favorite show. (Or see the person behind your least favorite show and flip them the bird or print it out and place it on a dart board or something.)

If Takaku wasn't important to Battle Fever, they wouldn't have included him in Ohranger, in which the producers enlisted every series main writer to contribute to the series since it was the first big anniversary celebration.

I like a lot of his Metal Hero shows, so why did Hurricane turn out the way it did?

Kamen Rider needs your help again, Arakawa.

Don't be too happy with yourself, Sanjou -- W went limp in its second half and Kyoryuger is horrid.

Now, there's two people missing, you might be saying. Well, I haven't seen a picture of Junki Takegami (main writer of Megaranger, GoGoFive, Gaoranger and Go-onger) and couldn't find one doing a Google search, and there's not a picture of Michiko Yokote (main writer of Gekiranger and Goseiger) because Yokote isn't even a person -- it's a collective pseudonym for three people. That's right, Yokote consists of one person who's just the manager, one person who handles dialogue and one who handles the plots -- which is funny considering that Gekiranger and Goseiger are often harshly criticized for lacking characters and/or plot.

Soda and Inoue are my favorites, but I also really like Takaku. Who are your favorites?

Jiraiya: The Face of Dokusai

I recently finished rewatching Sekai Ninja Sen Jiraiya and hauled out some of my TV Magazines/TV Lands, looking for cool pics from it. (Turns out I don't have as many issues from '88 as I thought.) But in one of the issues there's a plain shot of the main villain, Dokusai, unmasked -- a scene that lasted only a split-second in the series, mostly keeping the actor in shadows.

Oni Ninja Dokusai is one of my favorite Metal Hero villains -- he's got the whole creepy oni design, and AFAIC, this is voice-actor Shozo Iizuka's best toku work; Iizuka just makes him nasty and vicious, and really displays the glee Dokusai can take when tormenting a character. It's unlike most of his other performances, he seems more restrained as Dokusai, more trying to sell that there's a man behind the mask. Dokusai's a character who was a fellow student of the Togakure Ninja style along with Touha/Jiraiya's (adoptive) dad, Tetsuzan. Like many of villains in a ninja/samurai/martial-arts show or movie, Dokusai rebelled and went to the dark side; not only is it hinted that he was jealous of Tetsuzan courting and marrying a woman he liked, Sanae, but his greed got the best of him, wanting to steal the Board leading to the hidden Pako treasure and the secrets it withheld. For most of the series, you're just wondering what's beneath that mask, and the show messes with the viewer, having Jiraiya crack Dokusai's mask a couple of times, where Dokusai disguises himself as Tetsuzan to mess with Jiraiya's head. It ends up revealed in the finale that there's really nothing behind the mask -- whoever Dokusai was became so corrupt, so evil, that he lost his human form. (Which doesn't really explain why you can see his fingers in those finger-less gloves, but...) When Jiraiya breaks his mask in the finale, what's revealed is something that just looks like a blackhole. I always thought it was kind of disappointing that Tetsuzan didn't get to kill Dokusai -- he was the one who knew him, plus Dokusai killed Sanae (Kei and Manabu's mother), so he had more investment. But the show wasn't called Sekai Ninja Sen Tetsuzan, so Jiraiya gets to do it...

Anyway, there's one flashback early on in the series that shows Tetsuzan fighting with Dokusai, where for a split second they show his face. And here in TV Magazine, they have a still...

Any JAC fan can tell you that that dude above is Satoshi Kurihara, probably best known as General Gaira in Sharivan. (He's also made appearances in some of Keita Amemiya's earlier movies.) Kurihara is mostly a face actor with the JAC and not a suit guy (Dokusai's suit-actor was Metal Hero regular Noriaki Kaneda), so it makes me wonder if by casting Kurihara that the show had bigger plans to get into Dokusai's background, but just decided to let it be more of a mystery. The text with the pic above just says "The Past Dokusai," but Kurihara's not even credited as that much in the episode, instead just being listed amongst the JAC names.

I just thought this was sort of neat. (Sorry the scan's not better; not only is it from the crappy, colorless back pages of a TV Magazine, but the picture is placed near the center of the magazine!)

IMDB -- Inaccurate Movie Database

Look, I know people should know by now not to trust the IMDB, especially when it comes to something niche like tokusatsu, but I have seen people repeat some of the information found there, even recently, so I think some things need to be cleared up.

-Kotaro Tanaka (Ryu/Red Hawk) is not married to Rika Kishida (Kaori/White Swan). This is a rumor started and perpetuated by the American fandom, as you'll find jackcrap if you Google it on the Japanese Google. (The rumor on the Japanese end, strangely enough, is that Tanaka dated Sayuri Uchida, aka Ako, which has also been debunked.) In a 2004 Jetman reunion in Toei Hero Max, it's said that Kishida is married to a businessman and they live in Shanghai due to his job.

-The kid who played Toran is not the kid who played Kai in Zyuranger. Solved by a simple Googling of actor names.

-Kei Mizutani was not in Jetman.
-Ryousuke "Umizu" was not in Jetman.
-Haruna Ikezawa has nothing to do with any toku that's not Voicelugger, yet someone places her name in every toku ever.
-Wakiko Kano (Gavan's Mimi) did not play Maria/Miss America.
-Keita Amemiya had nothing to do with Maskman or Liveman.

-Mitsuko Horie did not play Spielban's mother.
-Mika Katsumura (Yuuri/Time Pink) did not play young Diana.
-Masaru Nagai (Tatsuya/Time Red) did not play young Spielban.
-Rei Sato (Gaoranger's Tsuetsue) did not play young Helen. These last four really irk me, because all you need is your eyes and some brains to know it's BS. (Spielban's mom is a whitey, for starters.)

Where do people come up with this crap?!

And don't trust Wikipedia, either, kids.

Sixth hero follow-up: Jiku & Jiku Jienne

I had included these characters in my previous post, but figured I should remove them since I wasn't going to talk about characters like Ninjaman or Signalman. Because while nobody counts these two, I really like 'em. You know Bandai was obviously shitting bricks when they realized GoGoFive wouldn't be having six heroes ("They'd have to change their name to GoGoSix!"), but I thought the story was a bit crafty in how they approached the idea of a sixth. (I also have to give credit to Power Rangers for creating their own sixth since GoGoFive lacked one -- Titanium Ranger is pretty neat looking.)

I know some people think that Jiku doesn't fit in with GoGoFive, introducing an alien character, but I always preferred to look at Jiku as...not really being an alien from space, but maybe an angel from Heaven. (There also seems to be something angelic about the artwork of Jiku Jienne on the Laserdisc cover, emitting light.)

It's awesome enough that Keiichi Wada plays Jiku (and is reunited with Ryuu Ranger suit actor Naoki Oofuji), but the best part of this movie is that Kyoko's prayers are answered in that she gets to be a hero. Even if briefly, having her transformation be the centerpiece of this one-off movie special made it stand out, and she gets to help the GoGoFive, even getting to deliver the "Sword, show the light" line for Victory Robo. (What a difference an additional hero can make, what an impact they can have when their arrival isn't about selling toys, huh?) It's just too bad that this movie was made at a point when toku movies tended to be stand-alones, with events never affecting the actual series or continuity, so they never really care to match up with the show. I mean, it would have even been nice to show Kyoko in a later episode wearing the necklace made from Jiku's crystal. That's simple enough, why couldn't they even just do that!?

Nevertheless, the GoGoFive movie is one of the best Sentai movies, IMO, and worth checking out. (And worth jumping on the bandwagon of "Jiku is awesome, let's mention him whenever we talk about extra heroes.")

Phoenix Rises

Neat news for Changeman and JAC fans -- Kazuoki (Hayate/Change Griffin), who has been active on stage for the past several years, has said that he's going to be doing a play next month with Mai Ooishi (Mai/Change Phoenix). It's her first time acting since Changeman! (I was recently wondering why she quit acting after Changeman.) Hopefully this will lead to more roles for her.

It would also be cool if Haruki Hamada (Tsurugi/Change Dragon) attended and someone got a pic with the three of them together -- Changeman reunion!

The funniest thing you'll read all week...

Of Japanese Power Rangers fans (are there any?), someone supposedly said:

"Japanese Power Rangers fans seem to find the show much darker, cooler, and more complex than Super Sentai could ever manage."

BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even Go-onger seems like a Shane Carruth work compared to ANY Power Rangers series. C'mon! Who would even think... Evidently, I missed the season where the Power Rangers decided, instead of cleaning up the park on the weekend after doing all of their homework on a Friday night, to go on some sort of Clockwork Orange-styled frenzy.

Whew, that was a nice laugh.