Favorite Sentai Rukiranger.....My Heroes of the Decade (+1)

I started watching Super Sentai back in 2000 during the run of Mirai Sentai Timeranger (Future Task Force Timeranger) and instantly fell in love with the show. In 2001 during Gaoranger I was a little less interested but I still found some fun with it ("Goddamn!"...."Jesus"...."Oh my God!" - Washio Gaku: GaoYellow)....especially with my first Super Sentai anniversary special...and actually look at past Sentai senshi before Time and Gao. I am talking about Gaoranger VS. Super Sentai.

Moero! Super Sentai Tamashii!

For the first time I saw previous heroes from JAKQ Dengektai (1977), Choujuu Sentai Liveman (1988), Denji Sentai Megaranger (1997), Seiju Sentai Gingaman (1998) and Kyuu Kyuu Sentai GoGo Five (1999). I was surprised to be honest to see these heroes...all of them catching my interest. I was awestruck. Flash forward a couple years to the 30th Anniversary special....Go Go Sentai Boukenger VS. Super Sentai...and I was a little less impressed....AkaRed...great concept...but just not that great a character...though they did pick great Sentai Heroes as the Legend Sentai for that movie...special....thing. hehehe. Flash foward another five years to 2011 and we are hit with so much amazing action in Gokaiger the number of "sugoi" I said this year are more than I can count...and that was just from GGSS199HD (A movie where I made a cameo appearance in the crowd)....but seeing it was amazing. The lineup they had....the recap of the Legend War....so much went right. And here I was just going over the anniversaries...there are so many highlights and heroes (hell...even villains) you can enjoy. There really hasn't been any negatives towards Super Sentai over the years...just a few kinks in the road here and there...but nothing to take away from its excitement.

The Twelve Current Series of the 2000s (Not Counting Gobusters)-
Timeranger
Gaoranger
Hurricaneger
Abarenger
Dekaranger
Magiranger
Boukenger
Gekiranger
Go-Onger
Shinkenger
Goseiger
Gokaiger

My Twelve Personal Favorite Heroes of the Last Decade (+1) in Super Sentai (In order of year appearance in the 2000s):

YUURI/TIMEPINK (Mirai Sentai Timeranger- 2000)

NAOTO/TIMEFIRE (Mirai Sentai Timeranger- 2000)

BANBA/BIG ONE (JAKQ- 1977, Gao V. SS- 2001, GGSS199HD- 2011)

NANAMI/HURRICANEBLUE (Hurricaneger-2002, Bouken V. SS-2006, Gokaiger- 2011)

SHURIKENGER (Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger- 2002)

RYOUGA/ABARED (Bakuryuu Sentai Abarenger- 2003)

MIKOTO/ABAREKILLER (Abarenger- 2003, Gokaiger- 2011)

UMEKO/DEKAPINK (Dekaranger- 2004, GGSS199HD- 2011)

DOGGIE/DEKAMASTER (Dekaranger- 2004, Gokaiger/GGSS199HD- 2011)

KAORU/HIME SHINKENRED (Shinkenger- 2009, Gosei Vs. Shinken- 2011, Gokaiger- 2011)

These last selections are tough though.....there are so many great ones...but I must only chose two more....My selection for #11 is.......

JOE GIBKEN/GOKAIBLUE (Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger- 2011)

My #12 Selection

CAPTAIN MARVELOUS/GOKAIRED (Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger- 2011)

SUPER SENTAI! GO!

Ruki Rants: Hentai....A Disgrace.

You know the biggest bother for me in the world is seeing an anime or tokusatsu character portrayed in a hentai image or video...

For those who don't know what hentai is....

it is the combination of two kanji..."Hen" and "Tai" which put together would mean something like "strange appearance" or "weird attitude". It is most commonly a slang term for the English word, "pervert" or "strange person" or words like that. It has commonly also a name given to pornographic-like drawn images, manga or video.


Hentai is commonly found in four main genres...one person.....straight...yaoi (boy with boy)....and yuri (girl with girl). All four with many different subgenres within them.

There are such things as "innocent" images which could look like hentai but just show off the "appeal" of a character's design and covering up the "naughty parts". Those I am okay with, they don't bother me as much as actual hentai images showing off naked bodies in some pose or position doing who knows what. That disgusts me but images like these two:

An "innocent image" of Celty from the series "Durarara!!". Her breasts are covered by Celty's signature shadow-like matter. This fanmade image was just made to show off Celty's overall appeal, but is not meant to be hentai.

An "innocent" image of Yagami Taichi from Digimon. Only the outline of the butt is showing. Nothing is really wrong with this image, in fact it is one of my favorite Digimon related fanarts.

I think that Hentai is just a disgrace...if you can't tell by the title of this post. It takes way from the likeness and appeal of a show and exposes it to perversion. I believe in it as an evil. Some may see it as a way an artist shows their love for a show...or makes fun of show...But me, I think that it is just stupid. There is hentai for almost anything...including children's TV shows. I'd wish for it to stop, but I know the business is growing. People for some reason love it and it ruins the credibility of things and people. Now I am a Yaoi fangirl...I love seeing images with male characters with intimate looks to them...but Yaoi-themed hentai depicts them doing not so innocent things many times and that becomes the image people think of when they hear the word "yaoi". I can tell you the same probably applies to Yuri fanboys too. Hentai exists for tokusatsu programming too...believe it or not. Here is an image that I censored from the cover of a Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger CG art book, a book which depicts Ahim de Famille (Gokai Pink) and Luka Millfy (Gokai Yellow) captured and now sex slaves for the Gormin of the Zanyack Empire:

The cover of "Kaizoku Yellow and Pink: A Hentai CG Book".

Stuff like this should not exist, yet it does. Why? Well, for some reason, it sells. People do love this stuff for some odd reason. I guess as long as there are hormonal perverts in this world willing to buy or download this stuff it will still exist. I will never buy into it, I hope none of you have or will ever entered the realm of hentai. IT IS BAD AND EVIL! STAY AWAY!!!!
Hentai...Hentai...Go Away....and NEVER Come Back Another Day.

This rant is done....hmph.

I Don't Want to Be Famous, I Just Want To Be Luki

I am in a business where unless you are mainstream, most likely you aren't going to have a big following and I am okay with that. The reason I am in this is not because I want to be famous, I am in this business because of the passion I have. Yes this is my career choice, but no I don't have the feeling of wanting to make it big. I could care less. All that matters to me is putting a smile on people's faces with music, trying to make people feel better. Fame can easily corrupt you...and I don't want to follow that path. I don't even want to go near it.

This may sound completely opposite of my known personality. You would maybe think I want to be the next big thing in the world....I want it all....the fame.....the fortune....the everything! Well guess what, that is wrong. I don't want all that. I just want to be Luki....daughter....(future) sister....cousin....devoted wife...friend.....then Ruki.

Fame isn't my goal in life. My goal in life is to be the best Luki I can be. My goal is TO BE me.

Their is more to life than that. A lot more to it. I know this and I am only sixteen. Papa tells me almost daily "Luki, just follow your heart and everything will fall into place. Life is what you make of it, so make it right". 

And that is exactly what I am doing...and my life couldn't be more perfect than it is now. Yes there are crazy moments, and some awkward, and some bad, but that is what makes this feel so real. I am Luki...I am Ruki...and I couldn't be happier.

I think I need some tissues now.

To everyone reading this who I know....I love you all.
- Luki <3

Best Toku Talk: DAN'S (TOKU) RANTS!

So....one day I was just browsing the web randomly and I came across a podcast.....It was a tokusatsu podcast on this website called Podomatic. I was interested in hearing this. An american who was taking about Japanese tokusatsu. I wanted to hear his opinion. I listened and fell in love with the podcast almost instantly. That was really early on this year when he was just barely starting out. As the show matured and more and more guests started appearing; Shamus Kelley, Anthony Vega, Nick Cochran, Gemma Lascio, and others...I just started liking it more and more. My love for this podcast has skyrocketed over the months and I enjoyed every minute of it. 

There is so much to look forward to: Dan's hatred of AkaRed, love of Dairanger, Kamen Rider Decade, and Season 2 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, everyone trying to argue their points with Dan on why he is wrong about everything, Going off on random tangents that have nothing at all to do with the topic of that podcast, The (really) intense talks (and arguments) they pretty much get into on every episode. There is just so much to love about it!

They go over a multitude of tokusatsu (and occasionally non-tokusatsu topics) like Power Rangers, Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, Ultraman and so much more! Very "informative" and very enjoyable.

They have encountered some troubles along the way (coughpodomaticcough), but that did not stop the show from going on. When podomatic was being a pain, Dan started posting episodes on 4shared.com and I followed along for the ride (even with the occasional fan letter), nothing was going to stop me from missing my "Daily Dose of Dan" as I call it. ^_^
Then recently the podcast was picked to be on Rajio Nihon and I have to congratulate them for that. They were moving on up! And now after only having a Facebook page, Dan's (Toku) Rants was given their own site via Rangercentral and now they have a permanent home! Which I again am so happy for Dan and everyone on DTR.

They also recently celebrated their 100th and 101st Podcast! SO HERE'S TO A HAPPY 100 DTR!!!!!!!

I laugh so much and I enjoy listening to this show so much I just had to share my love for it here on my blog. I want anyone reading this post to check out Dan's (Toku) Rants online. The podcast always makes my day and I hope it makes yours. You do not know what you are missing out on! GO TO THEIR WEBSITE RIGHT NOW AND LISTEN!!!!! (links below). hehehe.
remember the name!
D....A....N....apostrophe....S....space....parenthesis....T...O....K...U...close parenthesis....space...R...A...N...T...S



So I will end this post in the words of Dan Pearce [Host of Dan's (Toku) Rants on Seriously Orange Radio. hehehe]. "There is so much more to come folks so stay tuned and keep...on...listenin'."
 

Dan's (Toku) Rants Official Site
Dan's (Toku) Rants on Facebook

Dan's (Toku) Rants 4shared Archives

Its currently the "Fall of Forever" on Dan's (Toku) Rants.

Power Rangers in Japan

The title for this blog does reference what the average Power Rangers fan thinks of when they see Super Sentai for the first time and do not know that Super Sentai started WAY before Power Rangers. But what I am referring to is the Power Rangers seasons that get dubbed into Japanese. Kinda weird isn't it....Japanese toku gets 'Americanized' then dubbed into Japanese for distribution. Well I have some instances where this is true. For example here is a scene from a dubbed episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers:

Even Mighty Morphin Power Rangers the Movie ended up being dubbed, which you can see here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmZ-EJfA00k


But it didn't end with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It happened all the way up until the acquiring  of the Power Rangers brand by Disney in 2001. Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue was the last Power Rangers Series to be shown in Japan. That was until this summer when Saban Brands had reacquired the brand and worked with Toei to start bring Power Rangers back to Japan with Power Rangers S.P.D (adapted from Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger back in 2005 when the brand was still under Disney).


Here is the morph of Jack (S.P.D Red) in Japanese:

This is the Opening of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in Japan:





The Power Rangers S.P.D Opening In Japan:





Power Rangers following in Japan is small in comparison to the Super Sentai following however this cult following is big enough for Toei to distribute (Originally through Toei Hero Club and now through Toei Channel and DVD).


What is my opinion on Power Rangers? Well, I grew up on Super Sentai from Timeranger to currently Gokaiger and I have seen only some episodes of the Power Rangers franchise but from what i saw, it really isn't all that bad. It is what it is for its audience. And no one should question it. I get tired of hearing the Super Sentai fanboys and fangirls or the Power Rangers fanboys and fangirls arguing about which series is better. Shut the hell up and just enjoy the product!!! Power Rangers has given Super Sentai real exposure in the Western World, especially in North America...I respect the franchise. That is my opinion. Deal with it.