Live Blogs Rangers, Sentai Warriors, and...Wait, They're Not Them? Rika Liveblogs Vs. Super Sentai Vs. Power Rangers!

arcadiarika2012-07-26 14:25:40

Welcome to one of the biggest liveblogs ever. And by that? A shitload of chapters will be covered...one at a time. Because I'm very sadistic like that.

From the batshit insane mind that brought you the livebloggings of Kickboxing Academy, Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue, A Light in the Forest: The Legend of Holly Boy, Forever Mine, Pooh's Adventures of Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, The Prayer Warriors series, and My Little Eye comes...yet another damn crossover.

Yes. Crossovers. We all have our favorites and those we want to purge out of our minds. I have done many liveblogs featuring the latter type (though, if you want to count My Little Eye as a "crossover", it's the rare former).

This fanfic? Will be no exception.

Super Sentai vs. Power Rangers is a fanfic written by one of Sentai's most renouned members, Sean Akizuki. It is exactly what you think it is: all members of Super Sentai teaming up with the Power Rangers. Sounds exciting, no? Maybe a bit more epic than Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger? A fun chance for some crossover ships explained in detail, along with the whole cultural barriers our heroes face? A beautiful explanation of how the Sentai Warriors and the Rangers are Not So Different?

Not by a long shot.

What we really get is half of the awesomeness, lots of Author Tracts about how much both the Kalish seasons and Power Rangers Samurai suck ass, murders and humiliations, and so many characters being demoted to extra.

Oh, and a huge fangasm on one particular Ranger, which will be covered in the liveblog later on. One that makes my own look so damn subtle by comparison.

(Suddenly, Carter Grayson arrives.)

Carter: Rika, is that you?

Yeah. Hey, you remembered my name!

Carter: Apparentally there was a dimensional rift that brought me to here. And...despite your shape, I can make out bits and pieces.

...

Let me guess, there exists a horrible fanfic featuring my fellow Rangers again?

Yes. Though how horrible it really is depends on the people.

(Then a flash.)

Carter: The hell was that? It can't be a demon! (prepares himself with his Rescue Blaster)

I have no idea what that is...

(Yours truly, thanks to Prayer Warriors!Rika saving the world, is turned back to normal. Then several more people show up—Catherine Grayson, Mako Shiraishi, and, for teh lulz, Matoi Tatsumi. All three look around)

Welcome aboard—holy shit! How did you guys end up here?

Especially you? (points to Catherine) And you two? (points to Matoi and Mako)

Catherine: Dimensional rift.

Mako: I was busy trying to make a cake for my friends! But then I got caught in the rift...I do hope that I find my way out of here soon.

Matoi: Same as everyone else; what is going on here? This shouldn't be the work of the Saima clan!

Catherine/Carter: Saima what now?

(Matoi tells the two about the Saima clan, and Catherine and Carter tell about the demons they faced. Then they realize one thing...)

Catherine: You two guys are my Others! That explains it! My alternate counterparts!

Mako: Alternate counterpart? I don't think Takeru said anything about that...

(Catherine tells Mako what an alternate counterpart/Other is)

Oh, now I see!

Catherine: And yes, I may not really look much of an alternate counterpart. But this fact should show you otherwise. (clears throat)

My true form is that of Carter Grayson. I changed genders thanks to Yukari Yakumo.

(she clears her throat again)

Matoi: Yukari? Changing genders? What on...

Okay, guys, guys, I think we all have our own stories to share. But now is not the time. You guys can only be free if we all liveblog this together.

Mako: W-what? Are you a monster?

What? No! I'm just a liveblogger. A commentator, if you will.

Mako: Okay...but if you try to do something, I will make you a cake...of death!

Carter: Probably botch up the poison somehow.

(Mako overhears Carter and picks up her katana)

Mako: ...

Guys, let's not try to kill each other. We'll have to keep ourselves alive.

Catherine: This woman is right, guys! If the story is as bad as she says, we must direct our anger towards it at all costs!

(Carter, Mako, and Matoi reluctantly agree)

Thanks. Anyway...the story begins.

Chapter 1

Catherine: Chapter 1 is a prologue of sorts. It begins with what you expect: how the Sentai and Ranger worlds are parallels.

As if we didn't know.

"There are two universes that exist- the Super Sentai universe and the Power Rangers' universe. One of each other, one almost parallel to each other…"

Also, fun fact. The Rangers' universe is made up of a connecting universe, Power Rangers RPM arguably notwithstanding. I say "arguably" because, even though some say that it's not in-canon with the rest of the seasons, there are others who say that it is.

Carter: I found out a lot about the Ranger Operators' world. I...really am hoping that I end up dying of old age instead of just a smudge on a pavement thanks to robots...

(Carter shivers, and Mako comforts him by patting him on the back and telling him that everything will be okay)

As for the Super Sentai universe? Made up of many, many worlds. One season is pretty much not in-canon with another. With the possible exception of the aforementioned Gokaiger.

Speaking of Super Sentai, we get a preview of their monsters and villains, all said to be much more horrific than the Rangers' villains (...seriously?).

"In the Super Sentai universe' own Earth, it has been attacked by more villains, more cruel than those in the Power Rangers' universe. They were the Black Cross Army, Crime, Egos, Vader Clan, Black Magma, Deathdark, Jashinka, Gear, Gozma, Mess, Tube, Volt, Bouma, Vyram, Bandora Gang, Gorma, Youkai, Baranoia, Bowzock, Nejireja, Balban, Saima Clan, Londerz Family, Orgs, Jakanja, Evolien, Alienizers, Infershia, Negative Syndicates, Rin Jyuu Ken and Gen Juu Ken, Gaiarc, Gedoushu and the involvement of Buredoran with Warstar, Yuumaju and Mantrinitis..."

In other words, a shitload of bad guys. Also, Gokaiger's bad guys aren't mentioned. At all.

Matoi: Uh...why?

Because the author states that it's an AU, Alternate Universe. For serious.

Matoi: O__o

However! Here is how the Power Rangers' universe came to be. According to the story, it happened thanks to a rift, which occurred during the dinosaurs wars, a war involving numerous Sentai groups that nearly spelled the end of, well, the dinosaurs. Also, the Great Offscreen War that happened 10,000 years ago played a part.

...okay...apparentally, the Power Rangers' universe isn't just created from the many offscreen wars that shaped it. The Zyuranger dinosaur wars—which, mind you, happened because Bandora wanted revenge on the death of her son, Kai—also helped, I guess?

Catherine: Weirdest. Creation Myth. Ever.

Mako: You said it! You want a cake after this?

Catherine: Eh, sure, why not? I'll bring the tea.

(Carter stares at Catherine)

...what is it, Carter?

Carter: I can't get over the fact that my alternate counterpart is a lot less serious...and female...and having breasts.

(Catherine—and Mako—facepalm at the same time)

Also, we get a close-up on the Rangers' villains.

"The Power Rangers' world, for at least five years it became a victim of a residual effect- the first three years was a lagging war against Lord Zedd and Rita's forces who were later usurped by the Machine Empire (Baranoia's counterpart), Divatox's crew (Bowzock's Counterpart) and the United Alliance of Evil led by the Dark Speceter, the rest there weren't much changes in rangers except until the coming of Turbo but four of the Power Rangers Turbo members became Power Rangers in Space members, ending the lag war destroying the first incarnation of the United Alliance of Evil."

And by "residual effect", we mean, simply put, "astronauts opening up the dumpster can, which is a great idea of them not thinking it through".

Also. No great changes in the Ranger teams? Did he forget the swap from Jason, Trini, and Zach to Rocky, Aisha, and Adam; Kimberly to Katherine, Billy to Rocky (arguably due to Tommy taking over the leadership as the White Ranger and, in Zeo, becoming the Red Zeo Ranger), and the infamous Rocky to Justin? And technically, the Space Rangers didn't really defeat the United Alliance of Evil; rather, Zordon did with his Z-Wave. Thanks to Andros fucking up the mission to save the mentor because "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH MY SISTER IS MOAR IMPORTANT!!1"

And yes, in the bloopers for "Forever Red", Andros really did say that he killed Zordon. Sounding so damn chipper in the process. And no, I don't think it was ad-libbed, contrary to popular demand.

Yes, Andros is an asshole, why do you ask?

Carter/Catherine: ...

The paragraph goes on to say that for each new year, another force tries to destroy another team of Rangers. And once again, we get a list. Be wary of what you see here.

"These villains were the Scorpius, Bansheera's clan (counterpart of Saima), Ransik's mutant gang, the Orgs of the Power Rangers universe', Lothor's forces, Mesogog's forces, Troobian Empire (well sort of an Alienizer… but it was in 2025), a close replica of the Infershia but not close enough, dumber versions of the Negative Syndicate (and Flurious is SO DUMB), Dai Shi and in one future… Venjix destroyed it."

See something wrong? Aside from, technically, ignoring Trakeena? The writer had the audacity to say that the Ten Terrors weren't close enough versions of the Infershia, and how much the villains in Operation Overdrive—the most viled season before Samurai, mind you!—sucked ass. Especially poor Flurious.

Get ready to see more venom towards the Disney seasons, ladies and gentlemen.

Mako: But why would the writer just hate things that never hurt him in the first place?

Because, dear Mako, it's one of those fanfics.

(Mako doesn't question why yours truly knows her name...)

Also, the writer notes that he doesn't know if Samurai should be canon. I will say this: he doesn't like the direction the series is taking. Dude, I, too, dislike Samurai, but I don't make mean-spirited potshots. In a game, I usually leave them alone out of respect.

Catherine: ...dare I ask what you're talking about?

No. I'm just as afraid of breaking the fourth wall as you are. Or offending you. Or both.

Catherine: Okay...

Anyway, now, an incident causes both worlds to collide. Fucking up everything and the canons as we know it. Like, big-time. A new version of the U.A.O.H (as it will be known) has resurfaced...

And aside from the disclaimer, that's all for Part 1. Who's leading the new U.A.O.H?

Carter: What is up with all the bashing, anyway? Flurious isn't that stupid—yeah, he sat on his ass, but seriously?

Matoi: Will we ever get an explanation on the "unfortunate incident"?

Mako: And will we all survive the fanfic and find a way home?

Catherine: And most importantly, will there be hijinks that will befall all of us during the commenting?

It's liveblogging.

Catherine: Close enough.

Emergency Signal; Now, Forward! To the next liveblogging of Super Sentai Vs. Power Rangers!

Comments

ChrisX Since: Dec, 1969

Jun 8th 2013 at 7:46:11 AM

This is where shits start coming down like hell. And FAST. Hoo boy, where to begin.

Well there we have it, Flurious at the last lines of his life. All because Akizuki refused to even dignify it, too salty because Operation Overdrive is based on one of his fetish targets Boukenger. I pity Flurious, really, instead of being the subject of laughter Akizuki intended him to be (by having EVERYONE insult him and make him like a villainous version of 'early Bulk and Skull'... all while in their bullying silly days, even Bulk and Skull had more dignity than what Akizuki granted to Flurious!), he ends up as an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain, really.

Okay, I need to explore further on the treatment of Maskmen. First off, he always thought that M!Takeru is always the hotheaded leader that is kind of unfit as the leader while Kenta could make a better leader. The hell is he smokin'? I think M!Takeru, even as much as he could get hotheaded at times, still kept his head cool and really deserves to be the leader of Maskmen, hell he even administered TWO Get A Hold Of Yourself Man treatment to two of his teammates (one of them being Kenta himself) when they went astray. I think it's because Akizuki claimed that Maskman is one of his childhood shows... and he kind of imagined himself as M!Takeru... Which is sad, because he ends up ruining M!Takeru image and imagined his own self, which is clearly different, into M!Takeru. And occasionally this seeps into S!Takeru (hey, simple enough)... because they have the same name...? Well I think the next thing is going to explain further.

Furthermore, before MMPR came in, Akizuki also claims that he had a crush on Momoko... scratch that, I should say Kanako Maeda. So based on that, he made a lot of nonsensical comparison between Momoko and Kimberly just based on that childhood crush. And after Shinkenger is aired and he fell to Rin Takanashi, he suddenly felt compelled to transplant some of Mako's traits to Momoko (like Lethal Chef), just he could make more links and comparison between those two aside of their pink color designation. Momoko is far different than what Akizuki imagined her to be, nobody ever talked about her cooking (and she never cooked on-screen), and while she is the girlier one than Haruka, she is one tough nut to crack, even if there's that episode where she ran out of strength and fainted. She's a real tough chick who also has a snarky side. Not this... 'vain, 'overly girly', bad cook' that Akizuki projected her as.

And ah yes, the pairing of M!Takeru/Momoko. See, they're quite a Fan Preferred Couple, because I think fans didn't like it that Iyal is not an Action Girl and spent the majority of her screentime inside a popsicle. You know, Real Women Never Wear Dresses. Unfortunately, as much as I am also guilty of kinda putting it in my version, they are kind of like the Ships That Pass In The Night. Of course with good build ups, they could even be plausible, but still... you know that. Even Haruka makes a more easier pair with M!Takeru. But then again, her actress probably didn't attract Akizuki much.

But then, that's how it goes for those Akizuki likes, or rather, their actresses. Especially those two. It gets... really annoying.

Oh by the way, I laugh that he made M!Takeru sound like a very typical Tsundere. "S-stupid Momoko, it's not like I l-like you or something..."

I'll excuse the mispelling this time, because it's even in the fic. Maskmen monsters usually ends with 'Doggler', not 'Dobler'. So this time? Not your fault.

I apologize, I didn't know that there were wonderful people like you to remind me how awesome the name 'Sean' is. It's a very common name, it was defiled because of this man's... cloud-cuckoo-landity. I think I should've used that Shraffe's 'Zukini' instead of Akizuki... or you could go the Linkara route and instead of RINO, you call him an equivalent of 'Crazy Steve'. But then again that insults those called 'Steve', so I think I shoulda say... 'Crazy Hobo'.

But what I'm getting at is that, C-H is projecting himself and makes it like the villains are mouthpieces to his opinion, on what he thought to be a 'good villain', which is why RINO doesn't sound like Radiguet at all... and everyone was insulting Flurious. Everytime they do things like that, consider it like they're possessed by C-H and became his mouthpiece.

Oh yeah and do note how Mikoto Nakadai has been reduced to just some random doctor guy, no signs of his delight of Games and his overall boredom with things and the fact that he's still a cocky bastard even when he turned good and when he's still evil, he's near Complete Monster level of asshattery. I could say the same to both Billy and Ranru, ditch them for two random mechanics or tech geeks and the story won't change much!

And ah yeah, I think that's kinda how I shoulda say how C-H portrayed Kaoru. Bitchy. So unbefitting of the canon Kaoru, who while serious and cold, actually kind hearted and is doing her best at what she does.

You know what... this feels too hopeful, but I had hoped that somewhere, someone would make an arc similar to the Benji Ending of Naruto Veangance Revelaitons, like canon, derailed characters came to their senses and took vengeance on C-H, but I think that'd be too cruel. Maybe something like a 'successful' ending for the season 1 of Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger instead... I mean, I'd love to see the characters reacting and revolting against this author! But I guess that's never gonna happen...

arcadiarika Since: Dec, 1969

Jun 8th 2013 at 11:35:01 AM

...hoo boy.

Yeah, there's no denying that Flurious' treatment is nothing short of awful. I mean, he's an absolute monster in canon, so one would think he would have been a shoo-in. But nope. Actually, come to think of it, I've noticed that, considering that the writer loves Complete Monsters and destroy them, some other monsters are absent, like Queen Bansheera, for instance. For now, I consider it a good thing.

And yeah, I did look at the Maskman character sheet, and there are several things I've learned about M!Takeru. Aside from the aforementioned Get A Hold Of Yourself Man moments (yes, one distributed to Haruka at one point), I have noticed that about the only time he has ever been a brat was when he was a kid. Until time travel happened.

(I will say, Maskman does sound like an interesting series.)

And really? Interesting. I was about to think, "okay, so does this guy fall hard for Pink Rangers/Sentai Warriors?", but considering that he likes Yellow Rangers (and maybe some female Rangers of other colors?)...yeah. I never quite understood why he would just butcher them if he claims he likes them. (I also did read about that Heroic RROD also on the character page, too. Let's just say that throughout the story, I used the Character Sheet a lot.)

As for pairings in general? It's fine that you can pair M!Takeru and Momoko together. Just as long as you, yes, build it up. Not go all "oh, my God, I want to romance him/her one day". And, yes, destroy their personalities in the first place.

You know what, I've read Shraffe's reviews and that one-shot where several characters did read the story and reacted upon it. While I'll still call this Radiguet "RINO", I think it is high time that I call Akizuki "Zukini", to respond to an earlier comment on calling Akizuki a different name. Plus, the one-shot's freaking hilarious. (Note to self: at the end of the Jetman arc, promote it.)

And with the name thing, yeah, there are some people who do defile it. I choose not to single them out unless if A) I have to and B) it makes sense with the context.

As for the misspelling, I'll fix that in the next installment, consistency be damned. And I've noticed, by using the Character Sheet, that Oya-Bu was misspelt in the fic (there, it's spelled "Oyobur", but I don't know if it's an alternate spelling or not).

For the characters, you could replace literally nearly anyone for anyone else, and the story wouldn't change. The Billy/Ranru ship still raises questions, as well as who Billy broke things off with Cestria. (Then again, he does have a blog for the story, so...might as well check it out.)

Kaoru's characterization bugs me. I don't really know how or why she would be played as such here where, yeah, she's both sugar and ice, a bit. (Serious but kind-hearted.)

As for that arc? Hm...well, I didn't know if some of the All-Stars reacting to the fic is enough. I did think about an arc where everything goes topsy-turvy with some exceptions, and some of the All-Stars (and some new faces) go to investigate. It would turn out that the way things are is because of the fanfic. (But I'll only focus on some of the things that generally do happen, like nearly everyone speaking Japanese for no reason.)

Or an arc where they're forced to read the story in order to move on, or re-enact the story in such a way. Originally, Chapter 20 would have had such a re-enactment in lieu of my usual snarking, with one of them (likely either Sean or Mao) mentioning that they saw this before. Then they'll flip out in the end, realizing that, yes, they're re-enacting the latter parts of Super Sentai vs. Power Rangers.

As for here? Well...let's just say that there will be one part that will be the ultimate Take That towards Red Conqueror as a whole. That the Ultimate Red Legendary Ranger will be chosen not because of looks, but because of what he has done. And there's a trade-off involved instead of "oh, hey, shiny powers, and no certain drawbacks!"