Archive for the ‘Sentai’ Category:
Originally posted: June 13, 2008 @ 11:27am PST
Pictured: Mirror-Dimension monster from Jetman (1991)
This week’s Monster of the Week was a bit of a challenge for me. I didn’t want to cover another Toho monster so soon, yet there weren’t any movies I’d seen recently that really had a creature begging, "Show me off!" I racked my brain trying to figure out a monster to cover, when I came across this picture.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to Mirror-Dimension….
He’s one of the enemies that the Jetman team face off against early on in the series and is actually rather powerful. His abilities include being able to fire beams from his eyes, being able to teleport away (fade), or to appear from any reflective surface. He can also fire another beam from his torso that traps people inside the big mirror (he can use this from any reflective surface, as well). I’ll be using both civilian and hero names for the members of Jetman, so here’s a key for newcomers.
Ryu = Red Hawk
Lyta = Yellow Owl
Kaori = White Swan
Gai = Black Condor
Ako = Blue Swallow
The first time we see his actions, he captures a young boy while he’s looking in a mirror. Later, he captures a woman from a fashion store who was trying on some clothes. When the Jetmen first encounter him he’s kidnapped a girl who’d looked into the mirror of her compact. Ryu, Lyta and Kaori go to the bench the girl was sitting on and pick up the compact, only to have explosions go off nearby. Ryu gets knocked near a window and the monster’s arm reaches through the reflection and grabs Ryu around the neck. Lyta and Kaori succeed in pulling the monster out of the window, where he puts up a good fight until the other two appears, then he fades away.
Later, Ryu is talking to the woman that his grandmother tries to match him up with. Suddenly she too gets captured by the monster (they were standing by a lake and it reflected her). The others show up again and this time Maria, the monster’s boss, appears and tells them that if they destroy the mirror its captives will be destroyed along with it. The monster starts trying to absorb the Jetmen when Ryu’s grandmother runs out to intercept the ray with her own compact. The ray bounces back to Maria, instead, who demands to be let out of the mirror afterwards… to let her out, the monster has to let out all of his captives, as well, and they all go free. The Jetmen are free to change into uniforms and try to shoot the monster, but his polished surface reflects their shots right back at them. The Jetmen attack by jumping at the monster with their swords (or in the case of Yellow Owl, a large rock) and shatter his mirror, destroying him.
While not my most favorite monster from the series, he is definitely in my top list. I love the concept of a mirror able to absorb people into itself. This isn’t the only time the concept is used, either. Two years later, in Dairanger
, there’s another mirror monster that also absorbs people, but in this case has kept a woman inside it for centuries. Stay tuned for more monsters, both mainstream and sentai, here on Happy Horror!
Until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!
[Editor's note: This article's part of our re-posting since I had to re-build the site by hand. I wanted to include it to show what all went on. Don't worry though, we'll be finished with the reposts soon, but for now I hope they give new visitors an idea of what all we've gone through since our inception. Thanks for bearing with us!]
Originally published: June 10, 2006 @ 11:19am PST
Welcome again, everyone, to Happy Horror! I’m your host, Red Hawk, and I just wanted to update you on some of the stuff I’ve got on the burner for the website. I know that my own output hasn’t been very much in the last couple weeks but that should increase once I get a bit more time on my hands. In the meantime, I want to thank GlowStormLion and glittersoul for helping out with the articles, you’re both going above and beyond and I appreciate it!
First up, in the next few days, I should have reviews for One Missed Call and One Missed Call 2. I just watched these movies and they were really good, I thought, but you’ll have to wait for the update to see my whole opinion. Also coming soon will be one of the most reviled movies of all time, or so it would seem, House of the Dead! I’ll also be covering its sequel, House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim.
On the tokusatsu side of things, I know it’s been really quiet, but have no fear, I’ve got plans for there, also. As soon as I get it ordered and received, I’ll be covering the 1973 series White Lion Mask. I’ve only seen three episodes of this show but I already love it and plan on getting the last three tapes as soon as I can. After that, I’ll also start my coverage of what some say is the best sentai series made, Choujin Sentai Jetman! This is, without a doubt, one of the best TV shows I’ve ever seen anywhere, period. I’ll be bringing an episode by episode guide, monster coverage, hero coverage, mecha, everything!
On to games! I’ve got several more Fatal Frame ghosts to cover for the Ghost Gallery before we move on to Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly. I also have a sequel game to cover, The Suffering: Ties that Bind. If you played and enjoyed the first one, you’ll definitely want to try this one out, if you haven’t already. In addition to the first game’s monsters, it adds at least a half dozen, if not more (the only monsters missing from the first game, pretty much, are the Infernas, the Festers and the bosses, though Dr. Killjoy makes several return appearances). I’m also open to other suggestions on what to cover, so please shoot those queries over to here! redhawk28@gmail.com
So, as you can see, there’s a lot to cover! I’m looking forward to all of it, and I hope you are, too. Oh, before I close this off, do you want a forum on here? Let us know! As always, until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!
Originally published: June 03, 2006 @ 3:25am PST
Pictured: Gouki (aka Ginga Blue) from Gingaman
"How can a frightened sword like that defeat enemies?"
- Red Falcon (aka Yuusuke Amamiya in Liveman
Let’s continue the review of Gaoranger Vs. Super Sentai on DVD from where we left off in Part 3… (Click any of these links to view previous articles: PART ONE, PART TWO or PART THREE)
Back to Black who’s now begging Ginga Blue (Gouki) to help train him. Gouki tells him he can’t teach him how to be strong but Black doesn’t take no for an answer and gets on his knees, bowing in front of him, repeating "Please! Please!" Gouki finally accedes but tells him first, "There are many who are stronger than I am," and we go into his montage of cut scenes, this time showing the strongest of the various teams. So much footage to go through, but my favorites are the Yellow Ranger from Goranger (several grunts running at him but he grabs the front grunt, throwing them, yelling "Do you dare to face me?!"), Yellow Owl from Jetman (running in to hurl a boulder at the Sewing Machine monster), Mammoth Ranger and Dragon Ranger from Zyuranger (Dragon Ranger picking up a large column and using it as a club against several Golems [Putties] before advancing on Grifforzor [Goldar] with it), and finally Megablack (the first of several crotch shots in the movie, done on a Kunekune [Craterite]). Next we see a shot of Gouki getting a pep talk from the rest of his group, where he got his resolve and ability to harness his strength. Gao Black, however, is still unconvinced. He tells Gouki that he can’t do anything so Gouki will have to fight in his place. Gouki, looking disappointed, starts walking away. Black looks up and sees him walking towards some flowers and without thinking, he dives and catches Gouki’s foot before it lands on the flowers, which flips him over. Gouki turns and grins at him. In the dream world Red is being attacked by Wedding Dress Org with the "Promised Candle Attack", when he remembers that Black defeated the Org’s attack with water from a fountain. Red jumps for another fountain and tries the same thing and it works.
Pictured: Banba Souichi (aka Big One) from JAQK
Blue is being trained by his new teacher Daimon, the former Go Yellow, but not making much progress. Upset with him, Daimon goes to his bag and tells Blue that he needs, "THIS!" and holds out a carton of milk. He then proceeds to tell him, "Milk is the flame of life!" then telling him how it’s needed to unlock the special moves he’d learned from his sensei. We cut to his flashback of being beaten by a monster who’d studied his former sensei’s moves, but we see how Daimon kept getting up. Finally, he told the monster that there was power in this move that his teacher taught him and he drank a whole carton of milk, then performed the "Milk Tornado" move. He then explains to Blue about how it wasn’t just the enemies that got stronger but that Blue got weaker. He tells (through stock footage) about how the warriors innovated moves, not simply relying on the same ones over and over. A lot of these are really good, with some of the best being in Gingaman (really funny shots), Zyuranger’s Tiger Ranger splitting so that he can fight multiple enemies, etc. Blue admits that he lost once and thought that he’d never win again, so Daimon holds out the milk carton to him. Blue accepts it with a smile and drinks it all down. In the dream world Red is fighting Ship Org and he remembers how Blue had defeated him by dropping down on him with his claw, so he mimics him. Rakushasa is surprised that the battle’s still going.
Yellow is being trained in sword fighting by Red Falcon (Yuusuke Amamiya) and again, not doing well. Amamiya hits Yellow, asking him how such a scared sword can fight. He flashes back to when an enemy almost killed him and how his team’s assistant, a robot named Coron, jumped in front of the sword and took the hit. This caused him to realize not to be afraid of the enemy’s attacks. He then tells Yellow, like the others, that there are many swordsmen better than him. This is one of my favorite sequences, stock footage-wise. There are so many great sword sequences on this DVD. Some favorites include Black Condor fighting with Grey from Jetman, one of the Dairanger fighting a huge-clawed monster in somewhat slow motion, Red Racer from Carranger fighting with a monster on the front of the mecha. In the end, it left Yellow with a lot to think about. Meanwhile, in the dream world, Red is now fighting Cell Phone Org. He remembers how Yellow defeated the monster and repeats his maneuvers, slamming him against the walls and into the ground. He then starts firing on Wedding Dress Org….
Tune in tommorrow for the final installment of this review! (Click here to see PART FIVE – the final installment!)
Originally published: June 02, 2006 @ 4:51am PST
Looking for the first two parts? Click here for Part One or click here for Part Two.
Pictured: Red Falcon fighting Yaba-Iba
"Milk is the flame of life!" – Daimon (aka Go Yellow) in GoGo V
Once again, there are MAJOR spoilers in this review, so read at your own risk!
After the monster encounter for Red, we find White trying to get her phone back from the mysterious girl from the arcade. As they round a corner, Tsue Tsue and some Orgettes are waiting for them up a flight of stairs. Tsue Tsue says, "I have you now, little kitten," and while White asks again for the phone the other girl grabs her and leads her away quickly. Next, we see the girls in school uniforms with White still being frustrated from the other girl keeping her phone away. Their escape from Tsue Tsue is short-lived, however, as she appears nearby with her army again. The girls run away, with Tsue Tsue following, but a staff flies out and trips her up. The scene changes to an indoor waterpark and the girls are now in swimsuits. White asks the girl what’s going on and she responds with a question, "Haven’t you ever done this before? Changing clothes, all women Rangers do it." White looks rather dumbfounded…
Pictured: Gao White & Megapink
We cut from there to a montage of cut scenes from the various Sentai series, showing examples of how the women on the shows have disguised themselves or just looked different from their usual attire. Some of my favorites shown are from Bioman (the girl on there, disguised as a cop, puts handcuffs on the General, Monster and his underling), Zyuranger’s Mei changing costumes repeatedly when fighting an enemy (turning into a nun and saying, "Repent to God", before changing into a wedding dress and grabbing something away from her enemy) and Kakuranger (a group of girls who fight injustice, similar to Sailor Moon), but there are a lot more than those. The narrator’s voice says, "But is that all women fighters do?" The mysterious girl tells her "Of course not" and then we go into more footage – this time of the various women in battle in their costumes. My favorites from this part are the two Jetman sequences (White Swan fighting the Fortune Telling monster and Blue Swallow fighting Maria) but again, there’s a lot of footage besides those. At the end of this sequence, the girl, Miku, who was Megapink in Megaranger (Power Rangers in Space), tells White that the woman of the group is just as important as everyone else and that she’s a must for the team. She also tells her that nothing good will come of worrying too much and then as they decide to go for a swim they’re stopped by laughter. They turn and see Tsue Tsue, who’s also changed her outfit, this time in almost a leopard or cheetah print swimsuit and her hair down long, wearing sunglasses. She tells them nothing good will come anyway and a group of other women stand next to her… the women start to crouch and put their hands to their heads as they change into Orgettes, who rush the girls in the pool (you can kind of tell that they shot this at least one other time… the Orgette costumes are wet before they even hit the water). The girls fend them off, though (including a nasty-looking hip bump against a rock) and run away, with Tsue Tsue chasing after them… however, she’s tripped up by a flying hat this time and goes splashing in the water. We cut to Red, who’s still fighting and won’t give up… he changes into his costume…
To be continued in our 4th installment! (Go to PART FOUR by CLICKING THIS LINK)
Originally posted: June 01, 2006 @ 3:23am PST
Continued from PART ONE
Someone we’ve defeated once is no match for us. – Big One
However, this time the enemies are a LOT stronger and smarter. Gao Black tries to do one of his traditional moves and the Orgette catches it… Gao Blue’s Orgette is able to block his blow and strikes him back faster than ever before… Yaba-Iba is this time able to get the upper hand on Gao Yellow… Gao White tries to strike at Tsue Tsue, but she warps around the area getting in a perfectly timed shot while dodging away. Finally, the enemies rear back and blast the four, sending them to the ground, weapons in hand. "Looks like you’re the only one left," Yaba-Iba says to Gao Red, the last one standing. "DIE!" yells Tsue Tsue as she blasts him with her staff, knocking him to the ground. "What’s happening?" Red asks as he struggles to stand, "We can’t lose to Orgettes!"
A second later he’s standing on the battlefield with the other four standing as in a daze behind him. A blue and white fuzzy tentacle flies out and he dodges out of the way of it… more tentacles fly towards the others and he dives, knocking White away from it, but they latch onto the other three Rangers. The two try to get them to release their allies but to no avail… as thin as they look, they’re strong as steel. A roar causes them to turn around and see the owner of the purple horn we saw earlier… Hagura Highness Rakushasa. Seeing him in her viewing pool, Tetomu (their leader) panics, knowing the power that he possesses. She steps back and trips on her own dress, falling and knocking herself out.
Tsue Tsue tells them about how Rakushasa was so powerful his horn damaged him and he fell into a coma, waiting for strong-willed warriors to come to wake him up, saying that he feeds on their courage. After that, the tentacles wrapped around the others glow with each Ranger’s color as he starts to feed on them. Finally, he releases them and they start yelling and screaming about how they don’t want to die, how they’re too young to die. The only two who are capable of fighting are Red and White, but they’re vastly outnumbered…
Red tells White to get the others to safety. She protests but he tells her that the others can’t fight and need to be taken off the field as quickly as possible, so she reluctantly complies. Rakushasa sends the Duke Orgs after them and when Red starts to try to blast them, Rakushasa wraps him up with one of his tentacles, squeezing him and sending him into a dream world… Red looks up and is in the middle of a crowded walkway in costume, with nobody seeing him. Suddenly, a bunch of knives come out and start stabbing him as people walk by nonchalantly.
Meanwhile, White is trying to talk some sense into the other three, asking them how their courage can be taken just like that when a monk shows up and asks her what’s troubling her. He then tells her how to get a red rose: "To get a truly red rose, you need four special colors. Do you know what they are? One is blue, like the clear blue sky. The second is yellow, like the rays of the sun. But that alone is not enough to grow a truly red rose. The third color is black, like the dark skies of night. The last one is white, like the arms that embrace the roses." When she asks what he’s talking about he tells her he thought it was a good metaphor for the five-colored warriors that came before them. When they hear about the others, Blue and Black think it means that they won’t have to fight anymore, which makes White mad but when she turns to yell at the monk, he’s disappeared. Then the Rangers phones fly or run away from them, with White wondering why hers is leaving, since she can still fight. They all chase after the phones.
This is the Wedding Dress Org Back to Red. He’s now running away from a crowd that looks like they’re running the same way he is. As he runs down some stairs, the police pull up, get out of their cars and fire on him, blasting him out of his costume. When he looks up, the police turn into Traffic Light Org and Turbine Org… the crowd becomes Plug Org, Bulldozer Org and Tire Org. The Orgs converge on him and start beating him as Rakushasa looks on asking, "How long can you stand?"
Cut to White, chasing her phone through the streets… the phone leads her to a video arcade and to a girl who’s playing one of the games, bumping into her foot. She picks it up and investigates it… Blue chases his to a police office, looking around for it when he hears a loud "OUCH!" Blue looks around, then sees his phone and runs towards it. The cop who was hit by it grabs him and throws him, yelling, "Why’d you run at me? I’m going to arrest you!" Blue blinks and says that the move was cool and begs the officer to teach him… Next we see gravestones on a sea cliff, with a man kneeling next to them and starting to pray, when one of the phones lands next to him. He picks it up just as Yellow crests the cliff and then Yaba-Iba shows up with some Orgettes. Yaba-Iba sees the stones and says, "Great, there are graves here!" and puts his foot down on one of them. The man who was there stands up and orders him to take his foot off… when Yaba-Iba asks who he is, the man changes into Red Falcon (from Liveman) and attacks the enemies on the cliff, sending Yaba-Iba running with the words that he’ll get Gao Yellow next time. Red Falcon hears the name and looks at Yellow, then releases his armor… Black, meanwhile, is in a forest confronted by Orgettes, one of which has his phone. Suddenly a wash of water comes up and then a Blue warrior comes out and attacks them… it’s Ginga Blue and he makes short work of the Orgettes. As Ginga Blue starts to walk off, Black calls out to him to wait. As Ginga Blue turns to look, he shifts out of his armor.
Back in the dream world, Red is getting accosted, with blood staining his lip now. When Traffic Light Org grabs him, he stomps its foot and is able to hide but only for a few seconds, as Ship Org, Cellphone Org and Wedding Dress Org find him…
Continue to Part Three by CLICKING THIS LINK
Originally published: May 30, 2006 @ 11:42pm PST
"Despair is waiting for you." – Hagura Highness Rakushasa
Two years ago I was searching for a way to get ahold of Sentai shows without having to pay super-outrageous fees to get them from overseas. I looked at eBay, I looked at tape trading yet almost nothing was available to me (eBay had some on occasion but not reliably enough, and most tape traders had what I was looking for but not complete sets). I tried one website that seemed good, with reasonable prices, but never got an e-mail back about whether they were still around or not. That’s when I started researching Godzilla movies and came across Video Daikaiju. The company has been around for years, even before the web was up (they’d advertise in the back of Godzilla fanzines). In addition to Godzilla films they have an incredible catalog of tokusatsu series… Sentai, Metal Hero, Ultraman, Kamen Rider, you name it, they seem to have something to cover it. So after I received my catalog, I sent off my first order: the first three volumes of Jetman, Godzilla X Mothra X Mechagodzilla: Tokyo and Gaoranger Vs. Super Sentai.
I got my order a couple weeks later and that night I popped the DVD in my PS2 to watch – I was floored!
The movie, a 25th anniversary project, was incredible and, in my opinion, WAY better than anything we were shown here in the US as Power Rangers. This title was also the inspiration for the Wild Force episode Forever Red that celebrated the American Power Rangers‘ 10th anniversary. The ending sequence in particular is simply amazing.
Since some of the footage shown is of what we got as Power Rangers, I’ll do my best to mention the American version’s name along with the Japanese name. Also, in the American version of Gaoranger (Wild Force), they made the Yellow Ranger a woman… in Japan, though, it’s a man. One more caveat: I’m going by the subtitled version that I bought. I know of at least one site that also reviewed the movie whose rundown of the movie is slightly different in places. There will be MAJOR spoilers in this review, too, just to let you know ahead of time.
We open with a view of the earth as a voice tells us about what a precious jewel it is, but how many dangerous enemies have appeared to try to extinguish life from it. As the voice says this we see flashes of various major enemies from the Sentai series over the years… the Black Cross Fuhrer from Goranger, the first sentai series; Queen Hedrian from Denjiman, the fourth series; Chimera from Dynaman; Emperor Tranza of Jetman; Lira of Timeranger (Time Force’s inspiration for Nadira); the rulers of the Machine Empire from Ohranger/Zeo; Megaranger’s villains (the only one American audiences would recognize is "Ecliptor" from Power Rangers in Space); a pair of villains from Carranger, one of which is Rygog from Power Rangers Turbo; the villains from Gingaman (Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy); finally, Zylpheeza from GoGo V (Diabolico of Lightspeed Rescue). The voice next explains that there has also been many heroes to save the earth, accompanied by flashes of the 24 hero teams, followed by a pandown shot on an abandoned, forested area… abandoned, except by a group of figures in the distance, with five people running towards them. The group of figures is the Org; a group of Orgettes (Putrids) led by Yaba-Iba (Jindrax) and Tsue Tsue (Toxica). The five stop before them and tell them they’re going to stop them, then they change into their hero costumes… the Gaoranger… as the opening credits roll.
Once in costume, the heroes dive into battle, laying waste to any Orgettes that get in their way. Gao Yellow goes after Yaba-Iba, their longtime rivalry flaring up again, until Yellow smashes him into a cliff. Yaba-Iba asks Tsue Tsue if she’s sure it’s the right place… immediately afterwards the earth rumbles, we see a glimps of a large purple horn, and some smoke comes up from underground. The quake ends, and the Duke Orgs’ horns turn gold… the Orgettes horns get larger, as well. The villains challenge the Rangers again and the battle is joined once more…
(Editor’s note: I found something too cool not to mention so.. I’m mentioning it. Check THIS out: Lego Sentai Fortress!)
Looking for PART TWO? Simply click THIS LINK
