πιξελ καμεν's Interview

[Anahí]

Hey πιξελ καμεν, this interview should be done withing a week(more or less) if something happens with you and you are unable to post please let me know, and I will try to do the same if something comes up with. If you don't feel confterable answering a question let me know and I'll ask you a different one.

So, as always lol let's start with your username, what inspired it?...I've gotta say..it's really interesting lol.

[πιξελ καμεν]

Yay!

Well, since it was a new board and all, I wanted to try a different username, because I've always just been "Taiko554". Though, even with the new username, people still refer to me as "Taiko554".

"πιξελ καμεν" is actually a use of the ancient Greek alphabet. The Greek->English alphabetical translation would be "Pixel Kamen". Pixel because I'm a pixel artist, and kamen for Kamen Riders, which are the things I pixel-ize the most. So yea, that's how "πιξελ καμεν" came into existence.

[Anahí]

Ohhh makes sense :p lol.

Which are your top 5 ranger seasons and why?

[πιξελ καμεν]

Well, of the seasons completed:

MMPR, Season 2. Don't get me wrong, I loved the first season, but there was just something about the thunderzords. I think it's because that was the first megazord I owned.

MMPR, Season 3. The ninjetti were just soooo cool. What's not to love about ninjas? I loved the movie, and actually prefer it over the TV show's explanation of the powers but whatever. Plus, the White Falconzord just plain rocked.

Wild Force. Namely just because I liked all the animals they had. It wasn't the best season, by any means. I just liked the various zords and megazord combos. And the Falcon Wild Zord. What? I like falcons!

Ninja Storm. Again, what's not to love about ninjas? I loved that they gave the rangers something to do while not fighting monsters. Well, something that kids could do too. Like skateboarding, biking, etc. It made the characters able to relate to, IMO. I mean, what kid likes going to school? How many kids have a job? Now, how many kids have a skateboard, bike, etc? I didn't like the hamster-master though.

Dino Thunder. I loved how the theme was kinda like the first season of MMPR with all the dinosaurs and what not. Not to mention they brought Tommy back. Oddly enough, I really liked the comic relief in Cassidy and Devon too. The rest of Disney era comic relief I don't enjoy.



But, RPM may take one of those spots after its had its run. I'm enjoying it far more than I enjoyed the past two seasons.

[Anahí]

Cool, okay, so what would you take out/add to make WF better?

[πιξελ καμεν]

Hmm. Well, after I saw the counterpart, Gaoranger, I could see some obvious similarities between the two. So it would've been a better season (IMO) if the writers of Wild Force tried to do something different from the source material. Merrick was awesome in Wild Force, but after I saw Gaoranger, I could see he was just a (almost exact) copy of GaoSilver. I would've liked to see some more originality with that season.

It's not like it can't be done, just look at Go-Onger vs RPM! Very different stories and characters, not to mention the extremely different tone.

[Anahí]

Okay so in your opinion those in charge of SS are doing better than PR in general?

[πιξελ καμεν]

In general, yes. The one exception I see, as I've said, is Go-ON/RPM.

[Anahí]

Okay so mind telling us your favorite SS seasons and why? What does it have that that PR season didn't have.

[πιξελ καμεν]

Honestly I haven't seen any seasons before Gaoranger, so my favorites are only from the past 10 years or so.

Boukenger. It was my first sentai, so it hold a spot on my favorites. Not the top spot, but it's up there. I liked Chief/Akashi a lot, and Eiji even more. Eiji was definitely my favorite character from that season, though I wasn't a big fan of his mecha. His suit, yes! His mecha, not so much. I do wish there was more of a conclusion with this season though, since Gaja just went back to sleep.
I'm probably gonna use this a lot when I compare these Sentai series vs their PR counterparts, but I think Boukenger actually had some good characters. They were all given focus and development, where as I thought only Mack from OO got any kind of story. That tends to happen too much in PR, where red takes far too much of the story. Besides, I just absolutely hated the characters of Tyzonn, Will, Mack, and Rose. They just never appealed to me, especially since I knew their respective characters from Bouken. I also hated that OO made Zuban into an actual character that could talk, much less make him into Mack's battlizer.


Magiranger. I loved this season. All the characters were awesome in my book. The whole family dynamic was great, and I hope sentai goes that route again in the near future. I also really liked the villains in this series. I loved that this season combined elements and mythical beasts. I've always had an interest in mythical beasts, so this season was just amazing.
Again, I thought Magiranger had characters compared to Mystic Force. The only character form Mystic Force I liked more than their Magi counterpart was Xander just because he was supposed to be a suave ladies man, and apparently had an affinity for milf's. Anyway, I didn't like any of the other characters, especially Nick. Maybe it was more towards his actor, but Nick was awful, and I loved Kai's character from Magi. They seemed to be too different. I also liked that in Magi, MagiMother actually "dies" and is gone for the majority of the season whereas Udonna is around for the whole time. Magi also had Hikaru, and Daggeron was pitiful. Just flat out awful. I also liked that in Magi, they were in one world the whole time, but disliked the Mystic Force had the "magical forest" B.S.


Gekiranger. I didn't think I liked the beginning trio after Hurricanger and Abaranger, but Gekiranger definitely did it right, IMO. I found Jan annoying at first, but his antics grew on me after a bit. And the fight choreography and fight scenes in Geki were just so awesome. The rivalry between Jan and Rio kept me hoping for them to duke it out over and over. I loved Gou/GekiViolet and I thought Ken/GekiChopper was hysterical. Especially at the end when he goes on "strike". This season may be my favorite to date.
I think Geki's fights were better than Jungle Fury, though both were great. I think Geki was better off keeping the number of rangers at five; the Spirit Rangers were stupid and just confusing. I did however like RJ a lot more than any ranger in that series, more than any ranger from the previous few seasons. Also, Geki's villains were so much more badass than Jungle Fury's. Rio actually seemed to be hellbent evil, where we knew Jarrod was just possessed. The masters were also ten times better than their Jungle Fury counterparts. And the scheming Long was something I thought made Geki an amazing series.

[Anahí]

Cool, so um, which would you say is the biggest difference that exists between PR and SS?(If any >.>) It doesn't really have to be hard to answer, just so that someone that doesn't watch SS, or watches SS but not PR can know...you know as in one's more agressive, the other one's more dramatic or something like that.

[πιξελ καμεν]

Personally, I think it's a cultural thing. I think that in Japan, the maturity of children is higher than in the Western world. Maybe that's not what I mean to say. It's like in the US, where kids shows never show blood, "death" is taboo, all that. I think that it's a matter of what each culture defines as childish and mature. I think it's because of this that sentai tends to get darker, more complex stories than PR, and also the same reason they can be more violent. PR here seems to be geared to a younger age than Sentai, but in reality, they target the same ages.

Besides, the acting material (possible the director) have always seemed to be too kid-ish. I think the actors in Sentai are much better and can actually show emotions. PR actors and actresses (definitely of the Disney era) never seemed to be able to show an emotion other than "semi-pissed, semi-happy". It just doesn't look natural for somebody about to go in a fight. Of course, there have been exceptions, and most of them come from the rangers that tend to be the more comical of the team, IMO.

[Anahí]

Honestly I do agree a bit with what you said at first there, but it's not really our fault..(yeah I sorta concider myself a kid still) most of us get pampered a bit too much.

Which would you say was the best PR team up? and SS team up? Why?

[πιξελ καμεν]

Yea, we definitely get pampered too much in the US. It's actually kinda ridiculous with some kids now-a-days. I blame the government. Haha.

Well, out of the team-ups I've seen, I liked Geki vs Bouken the most. I thought Gao vs Super Sentai was awesome, but I had no sense of nostalgia when the previous warriors showed up. But in Geki vs Bouken, I loved the Geki team and was extremely happy to see the Bouken cast on screen again. So that's probably my favorite out of the ones I've seen.

For PR, I loved O.A.R. I hated that it was in OO's run, because I didn't like that season. But I was ecstatic when Adam came back, and was pretty happy to see the other rangers as well. Plus, I never liked Jack or Sky, so I was even more happy to see they gave SPD Red to Bridge, because he was my favorite from that season. I disliked Thrax though. He was just another shitty villain produced by OO.

[Anahí]

I actually think that part of OaR was to give OO higher ratings lol.

If you had to replace yourself with another ranger. Not because you think the suits were cool or you liked the team or anything like that, but because the ranger did something wrong or you just thought it was lacking something. Who would it be? and why?

[πιξελ καμεν]

Pretty much any red ranger since SPD. At SPD, I started to not like the red's. Dunno why, it just seems like Disney flipped a switch and only hired terrible actors for crappy red rangers. I liked Shane and Connor, but no other red since then. So yea, my answer would be any of the reds from SPD til now.

[Anahí]

Alright, cool.

If you were to create a new PR...or SS season, what would be the setting? Which actors would you like to have as which rangers? Any former ranger? Also which is the villain's evil plot?

[πιξελ καμεν]

I'd have to go with one of my pixel teams...maybe this one:
Tenshi Sentai Virtueranger...maybe Power Rangers Virtues
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll262/taiko554/virtuenew.png

They're a team based on the Seven Heavenly Virtues of justice, hope, faith, temperance, prudence, fortitude, and charity. I'd say they're something along the lines of the Vatican's secret forces against demons from hell. Each would have a special attribute that was passed down from the teachers (not a family lineage). It'd be kind of along the lines of the Vatican combating the Methuselah in the anime "Trinity Blood".
So the baddies would obviously be demons from Hell. The main bad guy would be some high-up demon who is trying to take humanity away from the good so he can amass an army to overthrow the Devil/Lucifer and then God. Underneath the main bad guy would be his Six Generals, based on the Seven Deadly Sins: greed, gluttony, anger, sloth, lust, and envy (with the main baddie being the seventh, pride).
So yea. The Vatican has this team, the rangers that fight back the demons. It'd all be complicated, and eventually the Vatican would discover that this evil (who was never the Devil, as they expected) has to be defeated in order to maintain balance of good and evil. Plus the Devil might step in to actually do some damage and take back hell from these rebellious demons. He wouldn't want to be challenged.

As for actors, I have zero clue. I can't think of any good, young actors right now. But there wouldn't be any returning rangers in a suit. Maybe some could be brought back as an ally, or maybe even a villain!

[Anahí]

Wooooow honestly those suits are amaziiiing and the story line too! Wow it sounds great!

So what do you think about having a female ranger? Do you think it'll go well with fans?

[πιξελ καμεν]

Well....umm. They're ok for the most part? Maybe I don't understand the question completely. But we've had females in sentai/PR since the beginning, so I think they're pretty well received by fans...

[Anahí]

Oh man..blonde moment..I forgot to add red in it..So it's actually red ranger*

[πιξελ καμεν]

Haha, it's ok. My older sister has quite a few "blonde moments" even though she's really f'ing intelligent!

But now the question makes sense. And here's my answer:

I think that a female red ranger/warrior wouldn't be too well received by fans. Looking at two cultures where red is perceived more as a masculine, firey, passionate, leader-like color and character. Especially in the context of warriors fighting bad guys. I just don't think a female red senshi would bring the same context as a male does, every year. I think that in sentai, there are two colors that are pretty much set in stone for genders: red males and pink females. I can't really see either of those changing.

I'm not totally against it, I just don't see it happening in sentai. However, I do think that the A-squad female red in SPD was a pretty cool thing to see. But then again, she was in like, what, 3 episodes? Hardly a character people saw enough of.

[Anahí]

Lol well I guess your sister and I don't have much in common >.> lol.

Onto off topic questions. Which are your hobbies?

[πιξελ καμεν]

My biggest hobby would probably be making pixel images. I've been doing it for a while and I've made bunches of different toku-related images.
I love music, pretty much all genres, from English to Japanese, to Spanish, to Russian, German, and probably some more in there too. Part of my love for listening to different kinds of music is that I'm jealous of the talent people have. I've never been musically gifted, but I love hearing other people's works.
And the only other thing would be Ultimate Frisbee. I used to be on a team, and I love throwing a disc around. Although I'm not on a team here at college, I'm not one to turn down a pick-up game. Ever!

[Anahí]

Awesome, what got you into pixel art?

[πιξελ καμεν]

Well, I've always had a thing for art. I don't remember how, but I just kinda stumbled across a (mainly) pixel art thread on RB some number of years ago. I screwed around with the pixel bases a lot at first. But finally I joined up on RB and posted my work. Then just expanded to different boards and what not.

[Anahí]

Cool. So you said you had a thing for art...have you ever tried to play around with graphics? and do you enjoy drawing or anything like that?

[πιξελ καμεν]

What do you mean by graphics? Like altering pics to make banners and sigs like lots of ppl do? Because I don't do that. Never really wanted to.
I've always loved drawing. I have numerous sketch books from when I was younger at home. They're filled with landscapes, cartoons, heroes, and still life drawings. I was really random and never had a set thing I liked to draw more than others. I still draw a lot today. Though now, it's just a lot of early sketches of things I want to convert into a pixel form later on.
When I get really bored in a class, I start to sketch out things around me, my right hand (since I'm left handed), pencils, desks, other people, etc. Just random objects that seem more interesting than listening to the professor speak.
I've never really been one for painting. Don't get me wrong, I like it enough, but it's not my favorite thing to do. I think it's because I can never get small details or thing lines to look right with a painting because of brush size.
I do love clay/pottery though. I made so many useless things as a kid with clay. It's just amazingly fun. In one of my more recent art classes though, we had to make a clay caricature of a person/profession. So that was fun.

[Anahí]

Yes, that was what I meant by graphics. And cool that you can draw different things, a lot of us just stick by one category.

You mentioned that you like to listen to music with different languages. Can you mention some artists you like to listen to from each language?

[πιξελ καμεν]

Well, obviously English is the vast majority of the music I listen to.
Japanese music is mainly mainstream "pop" Japanese artists like UVERworld, Orange Range, Yui Horie, Asian Kung-Fu Generation, and various artists from KR and Sentai. Most of the artits from Japan that I listen to are those that have performed an opening or closing theme to an anime I've watched at some point, I end up liking their music, then download a lot of it.
There's a couple of Russian artists I listen to: Dima Bilan and Origa. Though I only have a few songs by Origa that are actually in Russian, everything else is Japanese.
I have a lot of Spanish-speaking music too. A lot of different genres. Reggaeton music like Don Omar, Daddy Yankee, etc. I have some Enrique Iglesias and Juanes. Then there's some music I took off of my World Music CD last semester that's Latin American/Hispanic music. The good thing about the Spanish-speaking music is that I can more or less understand it, because I've taken 6 years of Spanish classes.
I think I only have one German artist and that's Rammstein. I know I have some other techno songs that are Eastern European in origin, I just have no idea what language.

[Anahí]

Oh that's cool a bunch of us just stick with the languages we understand*cough*youmightlikeRBD*cough*. Did anything in particular get you into listening to foreign music? Or you just randomly looked artists up?

[πιξελ καμεν]

I've heard one song of theirs, but nothing more. Haha, sorry.

The Japanese music kinda originated from me watching anime and wanting to download the opening or closing themes. After I got a few, I just searched for more songs from the same artist, so that's how I have a lot of my Japanese music.

The Spanish music comes from taking the Spanish language for years. In my second year taking the language, my teacher loved to play Spanish music and give us the lyrics. It was a really effective way for us to learn, and a lot of the songs and artists names kept in my head. So I downloaded them.

The other stuff was just a lot of searching for techno music and what not.

[Anahí]

Are you into video games? If so, which systems do you own?

[πιξελ καμεν]

Not so much. The only game station I've ever owned was the first Playstation. As a kid, I always played the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro games. Whenever I went to my friends' houses though, we always played N64. Not to mention, one of my suite mates brought his N64 down to school last year, so I can still kick some ass in Mario Kart 64 and Super Smash Bros.
I can't play any of the more recent games. Halo or any first person shooter never were and still aren't my thing. I'm just awful at them. I'm pretty much awful at any game that's at now-a-days.
I still have my Game Boy, and have a couple Mario games along with a Zelda game. I haven't played it in a while, but I have it with me here at school.

[Anahí]

Which are your favorite movies? and why?

[πιξελ καμεν]

All kinds of movies, especially the superhero/action movies. I've always been a sucker for those kind of movies. I know they're not the best acting wise, but I love the action, stunts, and effects. Lately I've been watching some foreing martial arts movies because they action and their athleticism is so incredibly impressive.

[Anahí]

Any specific ones you would like to mention?

[πιξελ καμεν]

Pretty much any comic book movie. DC and Marvel. Watchmen was awesome, but the graphic novel was better. Nolan's Batman films are amazing and I can only sit back and hope he gets with Bale again soon for another.
I loved the first Transformers movie, I've seen it far too many times. Big f'ing robots and a pair of hot chicks. What could be better? TF2? It was definitely a treat, especially since I saw it opening night in IMAX. That took my breath away. The fights and just the sheer detail of the bots that you're able to see in an IMAX film were brilliant.
I've recently watched too movies from the same director/producer: Ong Bak, and Chocolate. Both are Thai martial arts films that feature amazing Muay Thai fight scenes. Ong Back 2 comes out soon and I'm stoked! So does another movie, called Ninja Assassin and it looks extremely kickass.
I love funny movies as well: the Harold and Kumar movies, Blazzing Saddles, and Eurotrip. Though I'm not the "standard American guy". That's because I f'ing hate Will Ferrell. I think he has zero talent and is god-awful. He was only funny during SNL's Celebrity Jeopardy skits, and I can't see how he has a career beyond that. Honestly.
Some of my other favorite movies are the Illusionist, the Prestige, the Bad Boys movies, the Incredibles, and of course the James Bond 007 flicks!

[Anahí]

I'm actually with you on that Will Ferrell thing.

Are you into sports? Either playing them or watching them? If so which?

[πιξελ καμεν]

Good. I thought I was the only one who didn't like Will Ferrell!


I play Ultimate Frisbee a lot. My friends and I tried to get an official club for our high school, but it didn't work out. I play every now and then/whenever friends want to toss a disc around. Which is often!

I played baseball up until high school. I love the sport, grew up with it, was raised in it, everything. My dad is a HUGE baseball buff. He can recite the starting roster for his Detroit Tigers from the 70's, if not earlier. SO he raised me to be his clone. Though I'm not as in love with the sport like him, I still do deeply love it. One of my favorite things to do is to go to a ballgame. I like watching a game on TV, but being there is sooooo much better (as it with every sport!).
As of last year, my dad and I had been to every Major League Baseball stadium. Since then, they've built new stadiums for both New York teams, and Saint Louis. So we'll have to get to them. Those trips are probably my favorite part of my childhood.

I like watching football too. Especially around the holidays because it just has a certain feel to it when you're watching a game on Thanksgiving or during winter break. It's just so much fun!

[Anahí]

Haha nah, he's way too over rated.

Any favorite teams?

[πιξελ καμεν]

Yes he is!

I don't really have a favorite team. And I think that's because I grew up in different cities/areas than my parents. My dad's from Detroit and my mom's from Boston. I grew up outside of DC. So growing up, the professional sports teams around me weren't that good. And being a fan of a team 10 hours away seemed silly. So no, I don't have any favorite teams for any sports. Kinda lame, but w/e.

[Anahí]

Alright well I ran out of questions. It was awesome interviewing you.

Now for the last question, if you had to pick members from this site to make a ranger team, who would you pick? and why? Remember you would be putting earth in their hands. Also, any villains? just playing of course.

[πιξελ καμεν]

Sorry, but I have no answer for that question! Haha, I'm drawing blanks left and right. So yea.

Thanks for the interview.