Today marks the 20th anniversary of when the Power Rangers franchise first began! Back on this day on Saturday, August 28th of 1993 on the Fox Kids Network here in North America with the premiere of "Day of The Dumpster". This was way before the internet as we know it came into existence so we didn't have any idea back then that it was being adapted from the 16th entry in the Super Sentai Series, Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, but it was something ahead of it's time that had never been done before which really took the American audiences by surprise.
Teenagers that could also be superheroes and know martial arts was an idea that had never been done before which I think that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers resonated with so many kids back then! And adapting a Japanese show for an American audience was also something that was brand new that had never been done before. Haim Saban was taking a huge gamble and risk when finally getting Power Rangers to come to fruition, and luckily for him and the rest of Saban Entertainment it ended up paying off!
As with all shows from the 80s like Transformers, Thundercats, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers has become a very successful franchise because of the merchandise and in my opinion, I think it's the merchandise that helped Power Rangers stay afloat and alive during it's darkest times during the Disney era of the franchise and during the run of Power Rangers Turbo. Here we are, 20 years later, and the franchise is still a huge success because of merchandising alone as well as the fact that Saban Brands has decided to take advantage of social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube to help promote the most recent incarnation of the franchise, Power Rangers Megaforce and it's previous entry Power Rangers Samurai as well as the previous seasons which are now available on Netflix's "Watch Instantly" streaming service and are being released on DVD which is something that Disney never did back when they owned the franchise!
And whether you like it or not, the Power Rangers franchise has become a intricate part of tokusatsu history. This was proven when Toei Company Limited, the owners and producers of the Super Sentai Series as well as co-creators of the Power Rangers franchise used some terms from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Power Rangers in general in the previous entry in the Super Sentai Series, Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers became so successful, that it was even parodied and referenced on shows and video games like American Dad, Animaniacs, Bakugan, Bill Nye: The Science Guy, Doctor Who, Dragon Ball Z, the Suda 51 video game Killer 7, Mega Man Battle Network 3, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers, the Pretty Cure and Sailor Moon franchises, etc.
Happy 20th anniversary Rangers, and hopefully here's to another 20 more! Sorry for this blog entry not being as focused as my previous blog entries, my mind has been all over the place during the time I was typing this blog entry out so I hope you can forgive me.
If any of you have been living under a rock, or don't have excellent internet connections and still prefer actual gaming magazines for you to get you're latest gaming news, the Playstation 4 and the XBox One have both been announced. Microsoft had originally intended the Xbox One to be a console version of Valve's Steam platform on the PC, but it was so badly explained as well as marketed that tons of 360 fanboys and fangirls switched to the PS4 because of Microsoft's security concerns and because of this whole public relations nightmare, Don Mattrick resigned from his post as the President of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft and became the new CEO of Zynga, who's best known for social media games like Farmville and Mafia Wars.
Microsoft has also been doing a lot of back-peddling to try and repair the damage done earlier this year when the Xbox One was announced and the PR nightmare that followed soon after while Sony Computer Entertainment divisions in both America and Japan have unveiled the Playstation 4 as well as announced the price which makes it $100 cheaper than the $500 MSRP that Microsoft is charging for the Xbox One! Fast forward to the present where just recently Sony finally announced the release date for the PS4 at the Gamescom trade fair in Cologne, Germany.
The Playstation 4 will be available to everyone in North America on November 15th and will be released in Europe on November 29th which will also be when the console will be released in Australia and will be available in 32 countries! Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn't released an announce date for the Xbox One, and the release of the console will be delayed in the European countries. A list of launch titles for both consoles have recently been released for both consoles which will be released during the first 3 months of both respected console's release dates.
Both consoles will have Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Battlefield 4, and Call of Duty: Ghosts released on them as well as the latest entries in the Madden and NBA franchises. Also, keep in mind that a lot of the games coming for this holiday season will also be coming out for the PS3 as well as the 360 since both Microsoft and Sony will still be supporting these consoles for a few more years. The only real difference that you will see will be the graphics and the visuals because the graphics and visuals are supposed to look much better on these next generation consoles, but as to how much better remains to be seen.
So we are only 2 weeks away from the return of the Nerd Fortress podcast as well as the 20th anniversary of the Power Rangers franchise. It's very hard to believe that it's been 20 years since the Power Rangers franchise began with the premiere episode "Day of The Dumpster". And as far as I know, Nickelodeon isn't going to do anything special for the 20th anniversary which continues to show how much they care about the franchise. As far as the podcast goes, we have been able to snag somebody for a guest appearance which is better than not having anybody as a guest at all.
I know that I've been neglecting this blog for a while, but that doesn't mean I'm going to quit posting on it completely though! I've been so preoccupied with other things and didn't really feel that there was much to post about in my opinion. I would have posted about the newest thing in the AKB48 fandom causing an absolute uproar but felt that it was better to just do a post about it on my twitter.
I'm not going to go over it in full detail, but you can find out about it here and judge for yourselves!
And I've been trying to catch up on the new Garo series as well as Kamen Rider Wizard and Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger before I start watching the latest entry in the long running Ultraman franchise, Ultraman Ginga. And Kamen Rider Wizard has 3 episodes left before it's big finale. This is also the first time that an entry in the Neo Heisei Era of the Kamen Rider franchise where there was 51 episodes. This hasn't happened since Kamen Rider Black, the 8th entry in the Kamen Rider franchise which aired from October 4, of 1987 to October 9, of 1988.
Anyways, I'm not sure about how we are going to be releasing the premiere episode of the podcast, but Devin and myself will figure that out once we get around to it. I'm also going to be setting up an email address for the podcast for people to get in contact with us and give us fan feedback. The big show is only 2 weeks away from now! And I'm not going to be sharing anymore details than that. So that's what's been going on lately and why I haven't updated the blog in a while. See you guys in the next 2 weeks!
For everybody that's a gamer, the Electronic Entertainment Expo or E3 for short is the time of year where we all get to find out what's coming up for the current generation and for the big 3 in the gaming industry to show off their best software and also show off live demos of upcoming games that are currently being developed.
Exactly 2 weeks ago, Microsoft unveiled the Xbox One and even though the console itself is an amazing piece of technology, there's just a whole lot of things that Microsoft is doing wrong with this console like having you to be connected to the internet for a game authorization process every 24 hours, being highly restrictive when it comes to used games and wanting to loan games to any of your friends for example. If you want to let a friend borrow a game for the Xbox One, you have to have them on your friends list on Xbox Live for 30 days, and you can only do this once! That's right, you can say "R.I.P." as far as letting friends borrow your games is concerned!
With all of this now being public knowledge among the gaming public, this absolutely hurt Microsoft's press conference at E3 this year. The new trailer for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain was debuted to kick off the press conference, then the senior vice president of Xbox, Don Mattrick and Metal Gear series creator, Hideo Kojima came out and said a few words then went straight to the games.
Among these games were Below, Crimson Dragon, Dead Rising 3, D4, Forza Motorsport 5, Halo 5, which is a part of the new Halo trilogy being developed by 343 Industries, a Killer Instinct reboot, Kinect Sports Rivals, Quantum Break, Ryse: Son of Rome, and Sunset Overdrive which are all Xbox One exclusive games.
Electronic Arts and Ubisoft then had their press conferences which I'm not really going to go into since they are both developers and publishers for Microsoft and Sony, except for the fact that Aisha Taylor hosted the Ubisoft press conference for a 2nd year in a row and did a much better job than she did last year! Then the Sony press conference began after a bit of a delay just to make sure that everything was working properly and to correct a few things which is an E3 tradition at this point by now!
Sony then came out and showed off their list of impressive games with absolutely very amazing graphics which can also be applied to the games showed off for the Xbox One. And then, Jack Tretton who is the CEO and president of Sony Computer Entertainment of America came back out and began a series of rapid fire jabs at the Xbox One by putting all of our worst fears for the PS4 to rest by saying that we can still let our friends borrow our games, trade them in at Gamestop, it won't require any sort of online authentication for disc based games, and purchasing a game means that it is owned by the consumer forever!
Nintendo decided not to have a press conference this year for E3 for whatever reason and had an E3 edition of their Nintendo Direct online show instead. Nintendo showed off a great amount of games for the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U as well as some indie games for the Wii U version of their E-Shop and also showed off a montage of the 3rd party titles that would be coming to the Wii U. They also showed off actual gameplay footage of Bayonetta 2 which will be a Wii U exclusive which doesn't sit right with the people who payed for buying the original on the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3.
Nintendo also showed off some new games for the Wii U and the 3DS including Super Mario 3D World, a sequel to Super Princess Peach released for the Nintendo DS on February 27 of 2006, Pokemon X and Y for the Nintendo 3DS which will be the Pokemon franchise's official 3D debut, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and last but certainly not least....
Yes, there is going to be a new Super Smash Bros. for both the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS sometime in 2014 which is next year, and that the secret characters will be none other than the villager from the Animal crossing series, the "Blue Bomber" himself, Mega Man! Or as he's known by his original name in Japan, Rock Man (ロックマン). And just recently, the Wii Fit trainer was revealed to be another secret character for the game as well. And it's not the Mega Man from the box art of the original Mega Man game on the NES that was made for Street Fighter x Tekken, it's the actual Mega Man that we all know and love and am happy to see returning for another guest appearance!
There's games that I didn't cover, and that's perfectly fine because this is just an overview of this year's E3 from my own perspective! Microsoft, just what in the world happened to you? It's because of what their practices are for the Xbox One that a lot of loyal Xbox fans are going to be buying a PS4 instead of an Xbox One which is very shocking. It seems to me that Microsoft is doing everything that Sony did with the Playstation 3, but just much worse. And Microsoft has continued to either give people the run around, or flat out ignore the issues that a lot of people are wondering about with the Xbox One, and only more than a few details have been 100% concrete which is ridiculous!
Sony came right out, guns blazing and did the complete opposite of what Microsoft did at E3 despite the fact that they showed off what they had in terms of games and they even showed off what the Playstation 4 console would look like. And not to mention that Sony actually showed that they give a damn about their consumers, which is something that Microsoft is hardly doing at all with their consumers which include the now former Xbox fans that have been with them for 7 and a half years. And it must have took some very serious balls for Jack Tretton to be up there on that stage and deliver the verbal pounding to Microsoft by saying that they wouldn't be doing the exact same things that Microsoft are doing with the Xbox One and bullshit everybody with shit eating grins on their faces.
Microsoft introduced the Xbox One, but didn't focus very much on games and focused more on the multimedia aspect of the Xbox One by touting it as a replacement for your cable box even though you still need an internet connection and a subscription to a cable provider. The only mistake that Sony made when it revealed the Playstation 4 was not show off the actual console which was rectified during their presentation at E3 this year. Xbox One does have some awesome games, but most of them are going to be on the PS4 and the PS3 as well as the PC for all of the PC gamers out there, but that's not enough to justify a $500 console with restrictions on used games as well as what you can and can't do with your console that you just purchased!
Sony is the exact polar opposite of what Microsoft is doing and they are actually listening to their consumer base which is a very good thing. Nintendo had a good showing as well even though they didn't have their own press conference which ended up working for them in the long run and they are on even ground with Sony even though Nintendo has their own set of problems to deal with. If this was going to be how Nintendo did their presentations for E3 from now on, it wouldn't bother me a single bit because this gives them much more time on what they want to focus on and how they are going to be presenting their latest and future lineup of games without having to do anything like they did at E3 last year which would make perfect sense.
With all of that being said, here's my verdict for E3 2013:
#1. Sony
#2. Nintendo
#3 for the 4th year in a row: Microsoft
Anyways, sorry this blog post was a bit long everyone, and hope you enjoyed reading my opinions and thoughts on what happened at E3 this year! Will let you guys know what happens with the podcast on my personal twitter, so stay tuned!
I don't regularly do these kinds of posts, so I'm going to make this an exception!
If you haven't been watching season 2 of Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger which is known as Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger: Season 2 (非公認戦隊アキバレンジャー シーズン痛(ツー), then you are really missing out on what is looking to be another very great season! Just like the first season of Akibaranger, season 2 is geared towards more mature audiences for fans of the Super Sentai Series who used to watch it as kids.
I'm not going to give too much away, but season 2 takes place in an alternate world where certain things that happened in the first season didn't happen and the original Akiba Blue, Mitsuki Aoyagi was chosen to go to America to work for the Pentagon instead of Nobuo. In the previous episodes, we have had Kiba Ranger and Ryu Ranger from Gosei Sentai Dairanger make guest appearances as well as Mitsuko Horie, Yuko Yamagata, and even Koichi Sakamoto who is best known for his work as a fight coordinator and director for various shows in both the Kamen Rider and Super Sentai Series as well as various shows in the Power Rangers franchise!
Anyways, on to the reason that I decided to make this latest blog post. There will be some minor spoilers for those of you who haven't watched episode 5 of Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger: Season 2, so if you don't want to be spoiled, you might want to skip ahead. I'm also not going to spoil the entire episode either so please keep that in mind! (SPOILER WARNING!!!!)
Luna Iwashimizu, the new Akiba Blue who replaced Mitsuki Aoyagi saw George Spielburton (A combination of the directors George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton) playing with some Zyuranger figurines and Nobuo Akagi finds out that somehow, Super Sentai's history was changed to being from the United States instead of Japan under the name Powerful Rangers. Dragon Ranger and Tyranno Ranger, now known as Green Powerful Ranger and Red Powerful Ranger attacks the Akibarangers and eventually had to retreat.
Back at the Sentai Cafe which is the Akibarangers headquarters, Kozukozu informs everyone else that somehow reality had been written that Powerful Rangers is the source of the Super Sentai Series instead of it being the other way around with Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger being the first entry which was made from it's American version without permission! (End of spoilers!)
This episode to me played off of the whole "Power Rangers vs. Super Sentai" situation which has been going on within both fandoms in a very comedic and great way. I can understand why the Power Rangers brand name wasn't used again to an extent even though it was used by Ryuji Sainei who made a brief cameo appearance in episode 2 of season 1 of Akibaranger since he voiced Jack Landors, his Power Rangers counterpart in the Japanese dub of Power Rangers SPD. But for the long time fans of Power Rangers that have next to no knowledge of the Super Sentai Series at all whatsoever, they will get quite a few laughs!
It was very strange and weird seeing those things reversed, but it was also funny that Powerful Green Ranger and Powerful Red Ranger as well as the Akibarangers acted exactly just how Power Rangers fans and Super Sentai purists act whenever they get into one of their many debates over "which one is better" and captured that very well in my opinion.
For those of you who have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, the term Super Sentai purist basically means that the person believes Super Sentai to be better than Power Rangers and that Power Rangers is inferior to the Super Sentai Series or vice versa. Power Rangers purists are pretty much the same way except that their love for Power Rangers does tend to make them closed minded which happens among people in the fandom, but not all Power Rangers fans are like that though however.
I like both Power Rangers and the Super Sentai Series and just don't understand why we can't all get along and learn to like both! Anyways, I promise to try and keep this blog updated regularly even though E3 is right around the corner. So if I don't update the blog right away, don't worry about it since I do have a tendency to get sidetracked. I might not be able to post about everything that happened at E3 this year, but I'll certainly do my best! May the power protect you, always!
Just recently, the official Akibaranger website posted the second promo for the upcoming Hikounin Sentai Akibaranger: Season Two which starts on April 6th on BS Asahi which tells us the story for this season which takes place in an alternate universe or parallel world 9 months after the Evil Group Stema Otsu Corporation have been defeated by the Akibarangers!
There will also be plenty of guest stars who have worked on previous tokusatsu shows like Yu Kamio who played Dr. Maki from Kamen Rider OOO, Keiichi Wada, who is best known for his role as Ryo, Ryuu Ranger from Gosei Sentai Dairanger who also made a guest appearance on Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, Sakina Kuwae, best known for her role as Natsume Masaki from Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger, Ichiro Tomita, otherwise known by his stage name MoJo who performed the theme songs for Battle Fever J, Dai Sentai Goggle V, and Kagaku Sentai Dynaman, and Yukio Yamagata who is best known for performing the theme song of the 25th anniversary of the Super Sentai Series, Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger will all make guest appearances.
At the near end of the promo, we are shown the imaginary legends that will be appearing for this season!
Dragon Ranger and Tyranno Ranger from Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger
Black Condor and Blue Swallow from Choujin Sentai Jetman
Deka Yellow from Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger
Bouken Pink from Gogo Sentai Boukenger
And Kibaranger from Gosei Sentai Dairanger
For everyone out there who doesn't know about Power Rangers, Dragon Ranger and Tyranno Ranger had their footage from Zyuranger used for season 1 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as the Green and Red Rangers, and Kibaranger had his footage used for season 2 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as the White Ranger. The 5 main suits from Zyuranger were used for all 3 seasons of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers until the annual suit change began with Power Rangers Zeo which was a loose adaptation of Chouriki Sentai Ohranger!
Anyways, who else is psyched about season 2 of Akibaranger besides yours truly?
All of you may remember back in early January of this year, there was an official announcement that a season 2 of the comedic parody of the Super Sentai Series, Hikounin Sentai Akibaranger would be happening and that not much else was known about it!
Now we have more information about the upcoming season as well as the premiere date!
The second season officially called, "Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger: Season Two" (非公認戦隊アキバレンジャー シーズン痛(ツー) will be debuting on BS Asahi which is a broadcasting satellite, as well as Tokyo MX starting on April 6th. The good news is that almost all of the original cast members from the first season will be returning. The bad news is that Kyoko Hinami who is now best known for her role as Mitsuki Aoyagi will not be returning!
Unfortunately, the reason that Kyoko has chosen not to return for season 2 is unknown and left to fan speculation at this point! And as you can imagine, the fans of the first season aren't taking the news very well and are just as amazed and shocked about this as yours truly.
Replacing her will be 14 year old Shione Sawada as the new character, Luna Iwashimizu. And joining the cast for the 2nd season as the new villain is Ryo Horikawa who is the Japanese voice actor for Vegeta in the original Japanese dub of Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT, and Dragonball Z Kai as well as Makuramon on the original Japanese dub of Digimon Tamers and as Akumaro Sujigarano on Samurai Sentai Shinkenger as General Tsu.
There's also some new changes to the Akibaranger suits including a garter belt on Akiba Blue's legs, Akibba Blue and Akiba Yellow are sporting new 'hairdo's' for their new outfits, and Akiba Red has an armor upgrade in the form of an Aoi looking girl!
TV Nihon will be subbing Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger: Season Two since they did sub the first season as well as the announcement about season 2 back in January. So be sure to go to TV Nihon to download the fan subs as soon as they are released. Still no word on if Over-Time will be subbing Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger: Season Two at this time.
This past Wednesday at Sony's super secretive event, Sony finally announced the Playstation 4!
And it looks like that it's going to be more socially focused. Unfortunately, the cell processor that powered the Playstation 3 will not be powerhouse for the new console which has been coming back to biting Sony in the butt as of recent times. And there will also be personalization which is something that everybody likes!
Here are the official specs for the console itself!
There will also be new things that people have been asking Sony about for years, like cross game chat which can be found on the X Box 360, as well as a new controller which was also shown at the Playstation Meeting 2013 event in New York City. The new controller does away with the traditional 'Select and Start' buttons which have been a mainstay for the console ever since the original Playstation console and replaces them with a 'Share' button which will allow gamers to share their victories or favorite moments of what they are playing by scanning the last few moments of gameplay, tagging it and then returning the player to said game of choice. And gamers will also be able to share their images and videos to their friends on social networking services like Facebook and twitter.
The traditional "Select and "Start" buttons have now been replaced by an "Options" button!
The Playstation 4 will also enhance social spectating by enabling gamers to broadcast their gameplay in real-time to friends by using live internet streaming services like Ustream. During live broadcasts, friends can
make comments on the streamed gameplay and, if a gamer gets stuck on
a challenging level, friends can also join the game in completely new
ways. For example, friends can offer health potions or special
weapons when a player needs them most during actual gameplay.
Some other differences with the new controller is that it will have a sensor for the Playstation move accessory as well adjusted shoulder buttons, new analog sticks, a new directional pad and a touch screen and it will also support motion detection thanks to a three-axis gyroscope and a three-axis aceelerometer and improved vibration!
The controller also features several output connectors. A stereo jack which will allow the connection of a headset to speak and hear audio simultaneously, a micro USB port and an extension port are also included. It can be charged via microUSB, a dedicated charging station, or the console itself when the console is turned off.
There is of course, some bad news though here! The Playstation 4 will not be backwards compatible with the 3 previous Playstation console games because of the cell architecture of the Playstation 3 and a new cloud based streaming service made possible via Gaikai, a company purchased by Sony, which will render Playstation, Playstation 2, and Playstation 3 games and stream them to the Playstation 4.
You also won't be able to carry over everything which includes you're game saves from the Playstation 3 to the Playstation 4 either!The main reason for this also has to do with the architecture between the 2 consoles. However, Sony is considering transferring some games over if things aren't too demanding in terms of emulation. All of the PSN games as well as the game saves for them won't be carried over either unfortunately!
The thing that really strikes as weird or just plain worng is the fact that the actual console itself wasn't shown because even Sony doesn't even know what the design of the console will be and will possibly be determined and made for Sony's E3 presentation this June at the Los Angeles Convention Center! The PlayStation 4 will be released during the holidays later this year.
A little bit of an update to the previous story for anybody who is a fan of the AKB0048 anime which is based on the real life very successful idol group AKB48. The anime and J-drama streaming site Crunchyroll has now obtained the licensing rights to legally stream season 1 of AKB0048 and has launched the first season yesterday at 7:30am PST which is also the same time that new episodes of the 2nd season, AKB0048: Next Stage are launched and 2 to 3 'new' episodes will be made available each week for both free and premium users of the legal streaming site!
So if you haven't seen the first season of AKB0048 or have only watched it through illegal fan sub sites and want to watch it again through legal means, then this is you're chance to do so and also watch the legal fan subs of the 2nd season at the same time, so it's a "win win" situation for everybody.
We all know that Sony has been secretly developing the next Playstation without much information leaking out and every bit of information that has managed to get out has been classified as strictly rumor! But as of last March, a plethora of news concerning the successor to the PS3 has been made available including some of the specs, and even anti-used games measures which will combat the used gaming market. However, this information is purely speculation and hasn't been confirmed or denied by Sony!
The successor to the PS3 is code named "Orbis" and the code name for the new console from Microsoft is code named "Durango" and that Sony was going to let Microsoft go first by announcing they're new console, but it seems like this isn't going to be the case!
Recently, this video was posted on the official Playstation Youtube channel as well as the North American Playstation blog which basically tells us that Sony will be having an event on February 20 of this year. The event will be held in New York City and will be livestreamed on the internet which is only 5 days away from the 'Destination Playstation' event starting in Arizona which showcases the biggest and best games that Sony has on it's plate for the year ahead.
Meanwhile, members of the gaming industry press as well as investors have been handed an invitation to the event which have offered no further information which has added more fuel to the fire when it comes to the rumors of Sony and the Playstation 4! The only thing that we do know so far is what the specs of the development kits will be for the developers who would want to develop games for the new console and not much else.
Please keep in mind that these are the specs for just the development kits and not the console itself!
We will just have to wait until February 20 to see whether or not the Playstation 4 will in fact be revealed before E3 or something completely different. I will be keeping you guys updated with further news as it becomes available!
