Pros and Cons: If Saban Adapts Gokaiger

Yes, I know it is too earl to be speculating on this since Samurai (2011) is currently airing and it is based on Shinkenger (2009)--said to last two seasons, but it is fun to speculate. Some fans would prefer Saban not to adapt Gokaiger. But it will most likely will be adapted. Remember when people thought that Shinkenger was not going to be adapted because it was quote-end-quote 'too Japanese.'

There are three avenues they can go....
1. Don't Adapt
2. Adapt, skip all the old team Rangers and/or replace with others (Difficult task)
3. Adapt, introduce old teams as 'new' teams of PR
CONS
But let's go over the factors to why fans think Saban won't adapt it.
The Gokaiger transform into past teams, but not only one that were adapted into Power Rangers but all 34 past teams, many (15) that were not adapted. And many of the costume designs are sort of ugly or not appealing to modern audiences. But look at Gingaman, those suits were adapted for Lost Galaxy and many fans complained those suits were ugly and looked like Charlie Brown T-shirts, also that the Lightspeed costumes looked like pinwheels/peppermints. Another factor is that Saban is planning to use the Samurai theme in 2012 and Goseiger will most likely be adapted in 2013 and Saban Brands have confirmed that 2013 will be the anniversary year for Power Rangers. Since Gokaiger celebrates 35 anniversary and there will be a lot of nostalgia for a season if Gokaiger is indeed adapted into Power Rangers, it would be strange if it was airing in 2014 after the 20th anniversary and with so much nostalgia.

If Saban Brands chose to skip over footage of past Sentai, it would be a bit difficult, as the Gokaiger sometimes become past warriors, mixed with those that were adapted into Power Rangers. For example in the above photo, Yellow becomes Gao White, who PR fans know as White Wild Force Ranger (2002). But the other two--Big One and White Swan, were not ever Power Rangers. One can think Saban is having Samurai for 2 seasons and Goseiger adaption for 2013 a.k.a. the 20th anniversary in order to skip Gokaiger for 2014 and adapt the 2012 Sentai for 2014. But Disney and Saban, both who have run Power Rangers, have never skipped a season.

Another factor is the 'Legend War,' which we see briefly in the first episode and is said to be full blown in one of the Gokaiger movies coming soon. Many PR fans comment that it is hard to explain how it is possible for one team to be present if many of the Rangers shared powers. Since we have seen Adam use the Black Ranger powers twice after MMPR was over, one would think he would be MMPR Black but he could easily gave his powers to Zack and he took either Zeo or Turbo. Since we don't see their faces, we can assume Trini is MM Yellow and the original five are the MMPR. But if Tommy, Kat, Tanya, Adam and Rocky took the Zeo powers and TJ, Cassie, Ashley and Carlos took the Space powers for this war, it would leave Justin lonely with the Turbo powers. Now, if the Saban producers choose to not use the 15 teams that were not PR, then they would have to re-shoot the 'war' with only 18 teams and they could just have Blue Turbo Ranger with no one else and Black Dino Ranger absent. Or maybe they can say they recruited some help, Aisha for Turbo and some other three (or those Robot Rangers in Turbo that writers forgotten). Another thing one fan brought up is that maybe Tommy can switch from his five past powers (Green to White to Zeo to Turbo to Dino Thunder), meaning they would have to reshoot the war. Or they could just choose to use the Gokaiger footage of the Rangers in suit and make fans debate even more than in "Forever Red."

Disregard! Update 9/29/11! RPM and Samurai teamup has been announced.
Another thing I forgot about as a con is the RPM continuation. There is a lot of contest between fans if RPM is canon because it takes place in a post-apocalyptic world and the only connection to past seasons it had was the presence of "Jungle Karma Pizza," the work place of Jungle Fury. But it can be argued that there is a year between RPM and Samurai, and some towns rebuilt rather quickly. But anyway, Samurai hasn't said what year it was and neither did RPM. So they can just have the suits in the war and not explain it. As for the show itself in having past rangers come in, that is up to the writers.

PROS
Advantages to adapting the series would be that since Bandai America likes repackaging toys and re-painting toys to save money, they can release a lot of old toys (more than before) for the Gokaiger-adapted season. And if they do use 'Rangers' of past Sentai, they can release more toys.

Another Pro is that in Power Rangers, we can finally see females in colors we haven't seen before like Navy, Black and more Reds. And some different twists to past Rangers we have not seen before.

In the past three episodes that have aired of Gokaiger, I see plenty of footage that can be used and little snippets they can cut. For example, in the first episode they become Magiranger, Shinkenger and Goranger. Mystic Force and Samurai can be used. The Goranger part can be supplemented for the original MMPR. Look at Samurai, they re-shot a lot of fighting footage where the Kuruko of Shinkenger were and also where the Japanese actors were at and matching looked effortless. In Episode 2 of Gokaiger, they become Hurricanger, Dekaranger and past reds, those can easily be Ninja Storm, SPD, and the reds were Power Rangers once before (more on that later).

As mentioned before, in Ep 3, Blue becomes Big One and Pink becomes White Swan, if they chose to skip over teams that were not PR, they can skip that part of the footage and definately can use when the three become Black Rangers. They become AbareBlack/Black Dino Ranger, Ninja Black/Black Aquitar Ranger and Go-On Black/Ranger Black. Also another factor is that most PR seasons are shorter than the Sentai series, so they can skip and mesh episodes together, so they don't need to show every Gokaiger transformation.

Now if they do choose to use past teams that were not Power Rangers, it would be a bit difficult to explain who is who or from what team. For example, if they do choose to show Big One and White Swan in PR, it would seem out of nowhere if used out of context. PR fans would be like 'who are these two from?' I do hope they use some past teams, but hopefully use footage when the new team all become the whole team, and not when the old powers are used individually. If they do re-shoot and replace Big One and White Swan with two other white Power Rangers, that would be interesting to see as well. White Swan could be swapped for White Aquitar Ranger and Big One could be swapped for Rhino Ranger.

In Conclusion, I think it could easily be adaptable and there is no reason (money-wise) not to do it. But fans will speculate all they want and I will speculate all I want, we can cry till the cows come home but we will never know until 3 years from now or a little sooner than that. It will definitely be interesting to see how they do it too.

Kamen Rider Random Combos List (so far)

These are the ones that have appeared on the show or in a stageshow, not including toys or video games.
Takajaba

Combo of Taka (Hawk), Kujaku (Peacock), and Batta (Grasshopper).

Takakiriba
Combo of Taka (Hawk), Kamakiri (Mantis), and Batta (Grasshopper).

Takatoradol
Combo of Taka (Hawk), Tora (Tiger), and Condol (Condor).

Takakirietar

Combo of Taka (Hawk), Kamakiri (Mantis), and Cheetah.

Takatorartar

Combo of Taka (Hawk), Tora (Tiger) and Cheetah.

Takagorita
Combo of Taka (Hawk), Gorilla, and Tako (Octopus).

Takauba
Combo of Taka (Hawk), Unagi (Eel), and Batta (Grasshopper).

Takautar
Combo of Taka (Hawk), Unagi (Eel), and Cheetah.

Gatatoraba
Combo of Kuwagata (Stag Beetle), Tora (Tiger), and Batta (Grasshopper).

Lakiriba
Combo of Lion, Kamakiri (Mantis), and Batta (Grasshopper).

Lagoriba
Combo of Lion, Gorilla, and Batta (Grasshopper).

Lakirietar
Combo of Lion, Kamakiri (Mantis), and Cheetah.

Latorazo
Combo of Lion, Tora (Tiger), and Elephant.

Takagoriba

Combo of Taka (Hawk), Gorilla, and Batta (Grasshopper).

Latoraba
Combo of Lion, Tora (Tiger), and Batta (Grasshopper).

Griff says: Land Ahoy! It's Columbus & Crusoe.

Several years ago, while browsing Myspace, I came across a band called The Madrigals (pictured above) who had a sound that particularly appealed to me; it nodded in the direction of traditional English folk music but had an altogether more unkempt, more energetic and more playful sensibility than is usually found in that genre. Imagine Saturday Looks Good To Me meets the Ernest John Moeran songbook, if you will. They also had one song on their Myspace page, the rather gloomily titled ‘My Impending Death’, that I was particularly struck with and I immediately decided upon hearing it to keep a close eye on them to see what developed. That was a few years ago and since then, to my immense disappointment, they had appeared not to have been up to awfully much. I did, however, take the opportunity to download several of their fine songs from their more lately established last.fm and Reverbnation pages when they became available. These small crumbs were good enough to whet my appetite for more, if not completely sate my appetite, and I decided not to give up on them and continued to occasionally visit their web page.




Recently, on one of these visits I noticed that their top friend (don’t worry young Facebookers, an elderly relative will be happy to explain) was now something called Columbus & Crusoe. The name intrigued me, I liked the evocation of distant travellers whose divergent stories are forever defined by their respective destinations, and I decided to have a look. I’m glad now that I did and I suspect that you will be too. It seems that I’ve been rather hard on the personnel of The Madrigals; the picture I had formed of them taking endless lazy picnics by the banks of the Thames now seems quite foolish. Three of their number; Ben Brown, Rachel Horwood and Rachel Aggs, have actually been very busy little bees, as you will soon discover (my apologies to Harriet if you’ve been similarly busy but you’re not so easy to stalk on the internet as the others). The two Rachels and Ben are actually members of Columbus & Crusoe, which you should have guessed by now is a band; providing Fiddle, Mandolin, Banjo, Accordion, Drums, Percussion and Vocals between them. The other, equally important, band members are; Chris Belson, Jack Barralcough and George Maude (band pictured below).



So how does Columbus & Crusoe compare to The Madrigals? Well, the overall sound still falls squarely into the indie-folk category but there’s also an alt country flavoured undertone and, undeniably, a commitment to a more professional and polished sound. The band have so far released one album, called ‘The Church Recordings’ and available as a free download on their last.fm page, and quite frankly it’s absolutely magnificent.



The energy and invention obvious in the song-writing of The Madrigals is present here but is now fitted out with tighter playing, a clean production, and clever arrangements that are almost orchestral at times. The icing on the cake though is undoubtedly the rich, baritone vocal talents of singer/guitarist Chris Belson. I’m sure that he’ll soon tire of the obvious comparisons to Leonard Cohen but that’s what immediately springs to mind on first hearing. The other acts that occur as regards the music are Low, The Divine Comedy, Richard Hawley and Streetlamp ‘Festive Thirty’ favourite Stephen Harrison. Strangely, although this terrific album has been up on last.fm for several months I appear to be one of only two listeners. It’s heartbreaking to think of this excellent music being virtually ignored while much less deserving artists clock up play after play. Accordingly, I’m bringing this to your attention and ideally at least some of The Streetlamp readership will take steps to remedy this perverse situation; you won’t regret it.
Columbus & Crusoe are also now part of a new collective and label called Issue No1. The label's first four-band, four-track, EP was released in January and it features the following superb Columbus & Crusoe track 'This Feels Like A New Low' (taken from The Church Recordings).




The other bands on the EP are Me & The Neck (who include C&C’s Ben and George in their number), Tight Lines, and Leptons (about whom I know nothing but suspect that they may also include C&C personnel). The four songs are certainly all very good and available as MP3 downloads on a 'name your price' basis, so check them out.
Happily, the Issue No. 1 website states that;

"Every three months we'll release an EP of new songs, one from each band, streamed for free on our site or available to purchase and download from BandCamp.com."

You can’t say fairer than that and, as always, I do suggest that if you like the music then you should support the band in any way you can; blog about them, buy a t-shirt, see them live, invite them to your home for a long weekend, whatever seems best really. Now here's a nice, little diy video of Columbus & Crusoe's 'Myself' (also available on The Church Recordings).



I should probably also take this opportunity to mention that C&C’s Ben & George were also members of Essay Like Nephew who sadly split in January of last year but still have numerous fine indie-folk-pop tracks available for streaming/free download on their website 'here'.


Finally (phew), as some of you may know, the two Rachels, along with Ros Murray, are also members of diy, afro-punk trio Trash Kit (pictured above). I had this band brought to my attention last year by Knut of Eardrums Music but hadn’t realised until now that it contained two Madrigals. Trash Kit are very different musically from Columbus & Crusoe but have me equally enthused. As keen readers will already have noted, I’m a big fan of The Slits and they seem like the obvious point of reference to Trash Kit’s sound. The other band they bring to my mind is the excellent but often overlooked Ludus (a band who seem ripe for a Kitten Wine retrospective now that I think on it). Perhaps a joint Streetlamp piece on both bands can be organised later in the year? In the meantime, here's the video for Trash Kit's Cadets.



Well, I think that’s quite enough to keep you going for the present.

Enjoy!

Griff
xx

SGALGG: Lesbian Oscars Edition

God, did you make it through all 127 hours of the Oscars telecast? Did anyone find James Franco’s personality? Or, better yet, could he have just shared whatever he was smoking with all of us. That way it would have been a much more enjoyable experience for all parties involved. Though, despite the show falling in its desperate attempt to be young and breaking its hipness, there were still some quality Straight Gals Acting Like Gay Gals moments. I mean, the show’s one conscious host Anne Hathaway herself called it “a great year for lesbians.”

Michelle Willliams & Busy PhillipsBusy was Michele’s date for the Oscars, and they even arrived holding hands. Someone needs to give them a portmanteau tout de suite.

Gwyneth Paltrow & Cameron DiazI can’t tell if I’m more excited by the SGALGGy hug or the arm porn. Probably both.

Sandra Bullock & Halle BerryI will pay good money to whoever has the next photo in this sequence. Kiss her you fool!

Marisa Tomei & Melissa LeoMarisa looks like she’s about to jump into Melissa’s arms. And then, in my head, they do the dramatic lift from “Dirty Dancing.”

Selena Gomez & Taylor SwiftWhile the Bieber kid looks more lesbian, Selena and Taylor make a cuter couple.

Leslie Mann, Emma Stone & Jennifer WestfeldtThe best thing about this picture is how badly Judd Apatow wants to make this a foursome and how defiantly the ladies are keeping it a threesome.

Rosario Dawson & Jennifer HudsonWhat I would not give to hear a “Take Me or Leave Me” duet between those two.

Reese Witherspoon & Elizabeth BanksI’m assuming Reese just said something absolutely filthy about what she was going to do with that finger and Elizabeth approves.

Anne HathawayIf only Anne had hosted with herself and her tuxedoed self, instead of James Franco. It would have been so much more entertaining, and hot.

Lea Michele & Dianna AgronI particularly love how they both look like they’ve been caught in the act. Busted, Achele, busted.

GGALGG Bonus: Lora Hirschberg & her wife LauraOut lesbian sound mixer Lora Hirschberg won for Inception and got a smooch on her way to the stage.

OK, Anne Hathaway, you were right. It was a great year for lesbians, or at least lesbian behavior.

p.s. Check out my full Oscar recap over at AfterEllen.

Power Ranger Samurai - Sticks and Stones - Episode Review

The newest monster Negatron sees into a person and tells them their inner most flaws physically knocking them out. But he can't seem to get Emily. Emily confesses to Mike that the reason she seems to be invulnerable to this is that she trained herself to not cry. When Emily was little and was made fun of or didn't think she could handle school, she would cry and her older sister would cheer her up. But her sister got sick. When it was time for Emily to take over as a Ranger, her sister told her she regretted that she had to take her place. It also kind of seemed that Emily's older sister was dying but not confirmed. Anyway, Emily and Mike double-team him and destroy him with the Fire Smasher cannon with Beetle disk. They then do a trick attack with the ape zord when he is big and destroy him with the Megazord-Beetle combo. After the monster dies, Emily faints and Mike gets her in his arms. Later, we see Mike carrying Emily and they run to an Ice Cream truck.

Review:
The original episode of Shinkenger was just like this and it was an awesome episode. This one okay but a bit pale to it because of the acting. Both Kotoha and Emily play the flute. Even though Emily's sister only appears a little bit, I think the actress did a great job. Hector and Britney have good chemistry. I kind of winced at the line that Emily said "Stick and Stones may break my bones..." but I think it helped out when she said "Shut up." It gave it more of an edge. Good and bright episode.

*I made a mistake, the monster name is Negatron. I thought I saw a 'M' in the closed captioning.

Pictures from Samurai Cast

The Rules of Gokaiger, not like Decade

I thought I'd go over the rumors and confirmations of the rules in Gokaiger.

When it was first rumored in September that the 2011 Super Sentai was going to commemorate the 35th anniversary and have Rangers that transform into Rangers, fans instantly thought of Kamen Rider Decade, which celebrate 10 years (since the show was off the air for a while before 2000) and the hero transformed into past heroes. In Decade, the heroes traveled from dimension to dimension, each dimension covered one series that lasted one year (I'm writing this people who may not know). Then as soon as we got more info, that they were pirates and they traveled in a pirate ship, fans assumed they would go to different dimensions representing each Sentai or go to a 'Sentai sea' and go to each island and visit old members.

But it has now been established (in the first episode) that the Gokaiger are aliens from another planet and just arrived to Earth. And there was a Legendary War that including all the Sentai (teams), but did exclude some members that may not be that important (BullBlack, Signalman, Ninjaman, MagiMother to name a few). In one ad, it said the Gokaiger would transform into 200 heroes. But it now seems they are only transforming into Rangers that were in the war. Because if you count the sixth rangers Gokai Silver will turn into, that accounts all the heroes that were in the war. 172 Ranger Keys (of the teams of 3 to 5 including Gokaiger) plus the 16 Gokai Silver has makes 188 and we know 182 heroes were in the Legendary War. 182 past heroes plus 6 Goklaiger make 188. In the War, they all lost their powers.

From Hyper Hobby:
"The 5 Goseigers, with their powers, appears before the Gokaigers.
Black Cross (villains of Goranger) revives from hell in order to take revenge on the Super Sentai teams. 199 Heroes will appear in this Legend War. However, 182 Sentai Heroes + the 5 Gokaigers does not equate to 199. Who could the remaining heroes be!?"

In Episode 5, Doggie Krueger will come around. Maybe he still has his power of DekaMaster. So we might see 12 other heroes in the movie. And plus 1 is GokaiSilver to be 200. So now we know there will be 200.

Thanks to subtitles some sites have done, we know that the Gokaiger barely even knew who the past Super Sentai were. Aka Red gave Marvelous the chest with the Ranger Keys and the Mobirates and Sword. He rounded his team up and they know they can use other powers but thats all they know and seem not to care.

Kai (MagiRed) appeared in Episode 3. Past heroes will return, they have no powers but still fight and have some sort of power. Kai used Frajiel, his Sky Saint. It seems he was there to test them. Their parrot robot Navi will give them clues and it seems one or more past heroes will 'test' the Gokaiger or lead them to some sort of treasure. The Gokaiger didn't give Kai back his powers, maybe they will at the end of the series. It seems they will transform into the team the past hero guest represents and then show off their individual powers and gain some sort of knowledge or power. Kai tells them that if they master all 34 teams' powers, they will be able to gain the universe's greatest treasure. So, they can change into past heroes but the goal is mastery.

Another thing is that they transformed into Magiranger in Episode 1 and then in Episode 3 but more significantly. In Episode 2, they became Dekaranger and we know in Episode 5 they will meet some Dekaranger and most likely transform into Dekaranger for a longer period to be highlighted. And it is rumored Jan of Gekiranger will appear in Episode 7 and we know from the Ep4 preview that they will transform into Gekiranger. In Decade, Decade would become a past rider in a new world after gaining their powers in the last world/episode. So here seems to be the opposite. They will briefly transform into a team and a few episodes later they meet a member. That seems to be a pattern for now.

Another rule is the Gokaiger can use any key they want and transform into any color they want, they don't have to go by their color or position. But when all 5 transform into one team, they do have to be assigned to their analog/counterpart. I like when they transform into past heroes of just one color, it confuses the enemy is sort of a 'Forever Red' of other colors.

And their auxiliary mecha seem to come when they learned a lesson or found a 'inner treasure.' Magi Dragon popped out of the 'treasure chest' compartments of the robo. The rumor that the robo would switch heads of old robos seem to not be true for now. Who knows, it might happen later. And villains becoming past villains seems untrue for now as well. Their villains seem to have no connection to past villains.