Theme month two: Gokaiger Catch-up

So now that my five-week ACTION WORKS reviews is in the over, it is time to play some catch up with Gokaiger releases. In the month of September you can expect to see...

04.September - Gokai Cellular Part 1
11.September - Gokai Cellular Part 2
18.September - Ranger Key Set 04
25.September - Ranger Key Set 05

I wanted to make the Gokai Cellular into a singular review, but it just wasn't working out. Oh well.

Is this it for me and Gokaiger? Nope. There are two future items that I have secured and plan on reviewing...

-Ranger Key SP Set
-Gokai Treanger Box

The Ranger Key SP set comes with the remaining DX Red Ranger Keys and the Treasure Box comes with the Ninja Red that isn't included in the SP set--or any other previous set for that matter.

Anyway, that is my brief update. October will have some fun videos.

I will be back soon with a report card blog on Gokaiger now that more than half of the series has aired... I have a lot to say...

See ya!

-CC

How do YOU pronounce CCLemon99?

I was thinking about this earlier in the day... I'd kill to shut my brain off for five minutes sometimes. How do you think the "99" in CCLemon99 is/should be said?

Is it "Ninety-Nine"?
Is it "Nine-Nine"?
Is it "Kyu-Kyu"?

If I get a shout out on video, people tend to refer to me as just "CC Lemon", so maybe I'm on to something here...

So how do you say my name?

If you have a Google/Youtube/Gmail/Blogger account, you should be able to comment here. If not, hit me up on twitter @CCLemon99.

Short & Sweet. I'm out. Bye.

I will not make a list. I will not make a list. I will not make a list.

I realize that I have typed up two list posts pretty close together. I'd apologize, but people seem to enjoy this. Meh. I feel bad for the lack of genuine content, though.

Here is what has been going on recently...

When I make a video and it goes seemlessly, I am in heaven. I've been doing this for over four years now and still get a great feeling when I export a video that is, in my opinion, as good as it can be. I really get a kick out of making videos of toys for the enjoyment of fans and myself alike. This has, and will forever be the reason I make videos.

The problem is obstacles.

Youtube makes it difficult to upload the videos that I really want to upload with their "brilliant" updates. I really think that being the only game in town [face it, they are] they have no time to properly test or even think their updates through. It used to be "Hmm. That's new." but now it's "What now?". This may be an old complaint, but the whole "random thumbnail" bullshit is a drain on my time and disk space as well as bandwidth for Youtube. Lose-Lose situation. It always feels like it gets less and less user friendly in each iteration.

Another problem I seem to be having is energy. I have officially fallen into a slump. I hate Gokaiger. With a passion. Going back and reading my entry where I seemed to be full of optimism stings a bit. I wanted to show to pan out. It's almost at the midway point, and i'm very slowly getting back to speed. It's a very hard watch for me now. Zangyack is a virtually threatless enemy, Basco is a dick with a perm, and Gai is a retarded man-child who somehow escaped from his beaten-down-single-mother's leash [his father, ofcourse, died in a mine collapse]. BTW, I say that based on nothing...but it might as well be his official back story considering they haven't given him one opting, rather, to turn the "annoying" dial up to eleven to make up for it. Hell, maybe I need to make an update blog on Gokaiger...in time.

Anyway...

My point is this: When the shows start to suck this bad, I lose interest. It pains me to say this, but Gokaiger is the tipping point. It's especially bad with this one since you want to tune in to see how the old shows are incorporated. If I lose interest like this, it's a chore to make reviews. Not just for the current show--all reviews. I have been biding my time with the monthly car review, but anything beyond that is difficult. Like the Gokai Cellular. I've had it for quite some time now and don't want to review the thing. I don't want to look at it. It's still in the shipping box it arrived in. You don't want me to review something I don't want to review. It won't go well. Infact, let me break it down...

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Youtube people: Review the Tensouder/Mobirates/whatever already! It's been out for seven hours and i've seen twelve reviews on it!

Me: I need a song, and I need to be in the mood or the review will suck.

*Upload the review*

Youtube people: WTF! What do you mean two stars!? You're biased!

Me: Hey. Who wanted me to review this toy? Wasn't me, so why are you pissed that I didn't like it?

Youtube people: You're so rude! No wonder nobody likes you! When are you reviewing Leon Cellular/Gokai Cellular/whatever?

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I have that kind of exchange to look forward to everytime I upload a review of the newest toy. Demotivational much?

I truly, truly, truly appreciate anybody who takes the time out of their day to watch one of my videos. It's a nice feeling knowing that any given moment several people are watching my videos. My latest insight stats have me very close to breaking the 50,000 views/day barrier on my strong days with the lightest being about 38,000/day. Almost 2,000 views an hour. Amazing. I love the feeling that I can turn a toy, the backside of a large poster, sunlight, a five year old camera, and my laptop into something people really enjoy watching.

It pains me when the same people rail against me constantly. Or they make demands. Or they make requests. Or they can't be bothered to do some searching on their own. As someone who is tettering on the brink of losing complete interest in making videos, you're lucky to get anything, bitches. Let me do my thing and i'll ride out my lack of interest and find a groove that I can lock into.

That being said, I really had fun making the Uchuu Keiji Action Works figure reviews. I took a lot of the pictures months ago and never did anything with them. I recently did some pick-up shots and am finally in the middle of uploading them. It's a good way to get back into the swing of things by finally getting to do something I want to do. It's therapy for me, and content for those who seek it. This time...it's a Win-Win.

Enjoy the Sharivan review. I'm pretty sure Shaider will be next week. After that, I have two more videos to close out the Action Work Uchuu Keiji videos. The first is Saibarian, Gavan's motorbike. The second is a mail-away exclusive set that is too awesome to explain now. All I will say is... You'll see~!

So long for now. Take care.

-CC

My favorite Super Sentai suit designs...

A few weeks back I posted a list of my favorite Super Sentai themes in five blocks of seven shows. I decided to go back to that concept and apply it here to suit designs. I get asked about what suit designs I like enough to warrant this topic, so let's get to it. Same rules apply, so here goes.

Oh, and i'm a little bit strapped for time so no pictures. If you don't know what each Sentai team looks like at this point, why are you even reading my blog?

Best Design, Goranger-Dynaman: Himitsu Sentai Goranger

Easy choice for me and probably a lot of fans out there. The suits may be a little mismatched (inconsistent glove/boot colors) but they are the perfect launching point and standard for Sentai suit design. Not too complicated, individual yet falling into a pattern. Definitely to best of the bunch. JAKQ and BFJ went flamboyant, and Denjiman-Dynaman was a little too uniform. The Goranger suits really are the greatest design.

Worst Design, Goranger-Dynaman: Dai Sentai Goggle Five. Bland and not particularly good looking.

Best Design, Bioman-Fiveman: Hikari Sentai Maskman

I'm not sure why I love these suits so much. Their design is a kind of sleekness that hadn't existed to that point. It was as if the helmets were designed in a windtunnel or something. Add that to the gun slinging with the Laser Magnum and we're all set.

Worst Design, Bioman-Fiveman: Bioman. I might catch some shit for this, but their helmets look absurdly large on their bodies. The suits themselves look like pajama onesies...

Best Design, Jetman-Megaranger: Ninja Sentai Kakuranger

Along the same lines as Maskman, the Kakuranger suits are sleek and smooth. Each shape used for the visor is very simple to differentiate from each other, which is a nice touch. It's a suit designed for great action. No frills, just a sword and a dagger/gun. Love it.

Worst Design, Jetman-Megaranger: Megaranger. This is another one I know people might disagree with me on. Every suit is the same and the helmets look very similar to each other. They get the job done...just.

Best Design, Gingaman-Dekaranger: Hyakuujuu Sentai Gaoranger

Each of these suits is well done and has a nicely sculpted helmet. There is a lot of detail throughout. Just looking at the suits, they just scream the word "Wild"...

Worst Design, Gingaman-Dekaranger: GoGo Five. I looooove GoGo Five. Love it. The suits, however, are like a peppermint-clone fest.

Best Design, Magiranger-Gokaiger: Engine Sentai Go-onger

I don't care for the show at all, but the suits look fantastic. Bright, plenty of detail, and work nicely in conjunction with the mecha. They seem a bit on the bulky side, but that's OK. They look nice.

Worst Design, Magiranger-Gokaiger: Magiranger. By default, Magiranger gets "worst" anything. Fuck Magiranger...

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That is all I have to say about suit designs. It's a pretty straight-forward question that seems to find it's way to my inbox every so often.

If you want me to talk about something, hit me up on Twitter! @CCLemon99

See ya next time!

Get Wild And Tough!

A lot of people seem to make assumptions about me when it comes to entertainment. For example, I received an email earlier in the week from a viewer who was asking me a question about a Transformer that he/she had purchased. Truth be told...I know about three words in Transformer speak: "Optimus Prime", "Autobot", and "Decepticon". Something tells me that those are the only three words needed to follow that drivel, but I digress.

I'm not a fan of Star Wars, Star Trek, Transformers, Video Games, Sports, Power Rangers, or even Anime. Yet, I get questions about all of those subjects all of the time.

I should clarify, though, that while it is easy to not be a fan of something as specific as Star Wars, Anime is a difficult thing to not like entirely. Truth is...I do like an anime...but in it's state of neglect and inactivity, it's just easier to say that I don't like anime.

If you follow me on Twitter, you probably have picked up on my recent rediscovery of the hilarious show called "City Hunter". It has been nearly six years since the last time I breezed through all 140 episodes from the four series produced (City Hunter, City Hunter 2, City Hunter 3, and City Hunter '91). This recent revival in interest really stems from two things. First, because I finally have some free time to watch stuff again. Second, because last month a new Korean Drama called "City Hunter" started airing.

I caught wind of this new Korean Drama being produced about four years ago. It felt like the project had been shelved until earlier this year. News came out that it'd air in late May and ofcourse, I told my wife that this fucker was finally coming to fruition. She was interested in watching the anime with me, which was like giving a recovering addict a free bump. Oh yes, i'm hooked all over again!

So after watching a few episodes of the anime, I asked her what she thought and if it drew any similarities with the new Drama. She thought it was funny, but really didn't see the connection between the two outside of the title. She said the show was more of a revenge story. My memory of that conversation being "...sounds like Kill Bill...". Compound that with Jackie Chan's weak, but OK attempt at a City Hunter film and a few other attempts from Hong Kong and it is totally safe to say that if a Live Action City Hunter comes along, walk away. Walk away quickly.

I've also been told that the anime is inferior to the Manga. I am willing to give the Manga a shot in the future, but I do have a couple of hang ups with that. The first being that it is 35 volumes. Sure, I could buy them all used for a very low price, but shipping is probably a beast for 35 books. No complete adaptation has been released in America. One company attempted, and only got something like five volumes in. Also, the manga is missing a crucial component that makes City Hunter great: Akira Kamiya, the voice of Ryo Saeba.

Which brings me to my ultimate point.

Seeing that this show is a gem of the late 80s with adult themes, there is niltch in terms of merchandise. I guess there was nothing wrong with this, but it would've been cool to have something outside of the odd book or two they published. December of this year, this all changes.





Oh. My. God...

Worth the wait! If only there was also a 1/6 Scale Mini for him to drive in. There is also a figure of the ultimate cocktease, Saeko Nogami, which is cool...but why her? Why not Ryo's partner Kaori Makimura?

Yes! Ryo! My obscure little anime finally has some awesome merchandise from the same company responsible for handling many higher profile franchises.

I preordered my figure already, I might come back for Saeko at some point, but for now it's all Ryo. Yes, there will be a review. Granted, it might not be a popular one, but it has been a dream to review anything from City Hunter for a very long time.

Check out the anime if you like fantastic voice acting, comedy, action, and just a fun time. It's truly fantastic. This is coming from someone who doesn't like anime, so that must be worth something...

Mokkori Hips!

-CC

One. Two.. Three... FOUR!!!!

Has it really been four years since i've started my Youtube channel? It has! 25.06.2007 was the day I created my channel as well as shot, edited, and uploaded my very first review.

I just wanted to review some of the Super Sentai Henshin items i'd managed to collect over the years. Here I am four years later, with a review of every Super Sentai Henshin item from 1982-Present...and many more.

I never pictured myself getting to any of the Kamen Rider Henshin Belts that I own, but I managed to review my two favorites: BLACK & BLACK RX.

Never pictured myself reviewing model cars, and for the past year i've done so roughly once a month. Sure it may not be totally in focus with the rest of the content on my channel, but I enjoy making car reviews...plus it brings in a new type of viewer. Hell, even some of my regulars dig my car reviews and were pleasantly surprised to see them.

More importantly, I never pictured myself making videos of the various Mechas I own. In the almost three years I began making mecha videos, they have become a very important staple of my video catalog. Which is why I decided to center my second, third, and now fourth anniversary videos around them...

That's right. My fourth anniversary video will be...

DX Gokaioh!

That may be a bit underwhelming, considering my last two anniversary videos were spectacular (so good that I had to removed them from Youtube to avoid the copyright ban-hammer). This is something new, though. This is the earliest i've done a mecha video to date. Usually I release my Mecha video late in the series (or in the case of the old mecha I have...years after the series is over). Gokaiger has been on for four months...which makes this the quickest turn around possible. I had to wait until the first Gokaiger OST was released (which sucks BTW) a few weeks back. Now I have it in my mitts, and thus have all the music I need to complete my video.

Really, I have so much more to say when it isn't important... So I will leave this blog entry with the same thing I say at the end of every video...

Thanks for watchin'! See ya next time!

My favorite Super Sentai opening theme songs...

I was hard up for a topic for this week's blog entry. Naturally I took to Twitter and asked my followers what would be a good topic. @MisturYellow suggested that I talk about my favorite Sentai OP theme songs. Good idea!

I've been meaning to make some kind of post regarding this for quite some time. I've mentioned in the past that I am a Sentai music junkie (both songs and BGM). Hell, every day I listen to a Tokusatsu album at work. It's usually my first tweet of the day. For some reason I forgot to mention that I listened to Megaranger songs (again for some reason...I listened to them not too long ago). I usually type something like this.

I've decided to break this down a certain way. Instead of doing a top five or a top ten, i've decided to do my favorite theme from a block of shows. This will eliminate bias toward older shows (I tend to be biased) and really make the decisions tougher for me. So here goes...my Top...um...7 favorite Sentai opening theme songs.

Best Theme, Goranger-Dynaman: Taiyo Sentai Sunvulcan



This one was a close call with Ah Ah Denshi Sentai Denjiman. The Sunvulcan theme is just timeless. I mean, sure, it's definitely an 80s song. It is one that gets the excitement going just listening to it. If you ever watch those horrible godawful recorded Tokusatsu concerts, this is the song that gets the crowd moving. It has a combination of energy, beat, and charisma that really hasn't been matched since. What a great song.

Um...as for the worst between Goranger-Dynaman. Hands down, that is the Goggle Five opening theme. It cast Sentai themes back into the dark ages. Then again, the Sunvulcan theme was a tough act to follow. As a side note, this song is SO bad in it's normal form that I made a custom edit of it to even out the Intro/Outro. I've replaced the song with my edit on my computer. Still have the original version on CD, though. > <

Best Theme, Bioman-Fiveman: Kosoku Sentai Turboranger



This was another one that was a tough call. Hironobu Kageyama did a wonderful job on Dengeki Sentai Changeman and Hikari Sentai Maskman, but they seem to fall a little short against the Turboranger theme song. I think depth is what makes the Turboranger theme song stand out. I don't have the disc in front of me, so i'm not sure who composed the Turboranger songs...but whoever that composer is made one of the best Sentai themes. One featuring the lead character on vocals no less!

Worst theme, Bioman-Fiveman: Fiveman. Boooooring. It's alright...but booooring.

Best theme, Jetman-Megaranger: Gosei Sentai Dairanger



This was a very tough call. In this span of seven shows, almost all of the theme songs are pretty damn solid. I mean...think about all of the great theme songs here! What makes the Dairanger theme song shine to me is how it all came together. They hired the perfect singer for the show, not necessarily the song. I know that sounds weird, but the singer matches the suits, the mecha, everything. NEW JACK Takuro is a bit of a mismatch for the song itself. If they hired Akira Kushida (of Sunvulcan fame) to sing the song, it would've been the right match, but the song wouldn't have been as good. The composition itself is wonderful as well. Oh, and it ends with a gong. That should give it the win alone...

Worst theme, Jetman-Megaranger: Jetman. Poor Kageyama. He is such a wonderful singer, but his last Sentai theme ever is such a poorly written mess. "Jetto-Jetto-Jettoman! LET'S GO tobidase!" That's the entire song right there. It's alright, just uninspired.

Best theme, Gingaman-Dekaranger: Seiju Sentai Gingaman



Hear me out on this one...it's complicated. I've never been a fan of veteran singer Masato Shimon. I don't know what it is about his voice, but I just don't dig him. However, this is the song that really won me over from him. His singing is a little lower here, which helps, and he really gets into the song. The music is fantastic to say the least, it really paints a vivid picture. Gogo Five may have the cooler, faster, and better theme song...but I just consider Gingaman to be my favorite from this era a little bit more...

Worst theme, Gingaman-Dekaranger: Dekaranger. I know this is a favorite to many, but what a piece of shit. Psychic Lover was really digging their role as the band for the theme, which is a cool thing. YOFFY is just a horrible singer. Shrill and annoying. NEXT!

Best theme, Magiranger-Gokaiger: Juken Sentai Gekiranger



I dug the show, I like the theme. The singing isn't all that great, but the composition is bang on. Sadly, this was a very easy choice for me. The theme songs in this era are pretty much garbage. Which leads me to...

Worst theme, Magiranger-Gokaiger: Magiranger. This song, and the rainbow-fucking horrible show it's attached to, can go directly to hell. This song and show represent a time when I was seriously ready to hang up my hat and not give a shit about Sentai at all. Mercifully Gekiranger came along. Seriously, fuck Magiranger.

Well that about does it for this entry on my favorite Sentai theme songs. I will be back next time with...well, maybe i'll do the same thing with Kamen Rider next time... If you want me to talk about something, hit me up on Twitter! @CCLemon99

Thanks for reading!

-CC