Hasbro's Power Rangers era and General Tokusatsu discussion

Oh DANG, that Shadow Ranger / DekaMaster figure is gonna go over awesomely with SPD fans like me. Count me in, one of my overall faves. The sculpts on all of these are overall really nice, credit to Hasbro for using the Marvel figure guys on these!

Cautously optimistic on Beast Morphers, if only because I really enjoyed the source material - arguably my favorite until Kyuranger came along. Here though, it's always refreshingn to see the actual actors kick some butt without their stunt guys taking you out of the action. No real sign of the Buddyroids in action in the OP credits apart from briefly at the end - are they going to be a major part of the show?

Mark

 

Masaya Kikawada who played the first was also on Sailor Moon as Motoki, that show connects all three.

 

Zi-O 24

https://www.mp4upload.com/q60fe0pyvf54

I'm digging the fact that unlike wishy-washy Tsukuyomi and Geiz, Heure and Ora are professional and focused on the big picture: remake the future so it favors them, and not worry about other people or even themselves getting hurt. It shows that whoever sent them (Schwartz or some yet to be revealed villain) made a good choice in personnel. Excellent job by Ora in fooling the (sort of) good guys.






Strongest battle 2

https://www.mp4upload.com/c1g0thignwj3


Its a shame that Kagura hasn't done anything yet. As the lone woman who's a "regular", you'd think she'd have more stuff to do. Maybe that for episode 3

As for the fights themselves, it was another good week of action. Though I think someone should call fowl on Yamato using power-up forms, especially Whale. Whale and that hand-cannon of his is pretty much god mode, and he could blow up the whole planet on his own. It's all rather unfair, especially against opponents who don't have power-ups of their own.

 

Zi-O: It's creepy that Woz Futurering Kikai has the power to enslave people's minds, like he did with those construction workers. That's a pretty nasty power to treat so casually, with nobody else remarking on it. Did (or will) the actual Kikai/Rento have the same ability?

Speaking of scary powers, Sento having the ability to dream the future into existence is downright godlike. He could really turn out to be quite a dangerous villain if pushed in the wrong direction. It seems this anniversary season is paralleling the previous one, Decade, by making us wonder if the title Rider will turn out to be hero or villain in the end.

(By the way, do we know if Tsukasa/Decade will be coming back? I had the impression that his arc in the story was not yet over, but he hasn't returned yet.)

Cute that Black Woz's narration starts out with him caught napping, in an episode about dreams.

It turns out that the actor playing Kikai played the title character in the 2014 movie Kikaider REBOOT, which was, obviously, a reboot of Shotaro Ishinomori's '70s tokusatsu character Android Kikaider. So this was clearly an homage to that.


Strongest Battle: It's a bit annoying that most of these tokusatsu mass crossovers just bring back a couple of veteran cast members and do the rest in costume with unconvincing voice doubles. Here, when Yamato was taking on the other three animal-themed Rangers, we only saw GaoRed's face, and the other two were seen only from the back or in close-ups on their henshin devices. Because of that, this week there were no faces at all that I recognized, since the only ones from Sentai seasons I've seen were purely in costume. They did bring back the actors for Ryo from Dairanger and Tsuruhime from Kakuranger in voiceover, according to the wiki, but only briefly.

Rita reminds me somewhat of Naomi from Kamen Rider Den-O, albeit a bit more sinister (probably more than a bit). And she doesn't serve coffee.

Speaking of Kamen Rider, in the main team's guest quarters/green room/whatever, there's a spiral-shaped yellow plant decoration that I recognize as a repaint of an alien plant prop from the Helheim Forest scenes in Kamen Rider Gaim. Gaisorg reminds me of Kaito/Baron from the same series, a fighter obsessed with proving his strength. And Captain Marvelous is reminiscent of Decade, an antihero who can transform into past heroes' costumes.

 

It's a new month, and ShoutFactoryTV now has Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger, the basis for Power Rangers Wild Force, available for free streaming:

http://www.shoutfactorytv.com/series/super-sentai-gaoranger

 

Interestingly some thought kaitos actor in gaim looked a lot like captain marvelous

And Yutaka Kobayashi even auditoned for the role of captain marvelous

http://henshinjustice.com/blog/2013/10/27/kamen-rider-baron-the-banana-who-split-on-gokaiger/

 

Power Rangers Beast Morphers: "Beasts Unleashed": I'm genuinely impressed. Beast Morphers is off to a strong start with this pilot. The characters are well-drawn from the start, with interesting conflicts and things to prove. Red Ranger Devon is a bit of a slacker, but it's because he's so capable that he's bored at the lack of adequate challenges. The opening scene establishes that he has an edge to him too. Giving him a stern father he has to keep his identity secret from is reminscent of Time Force/Timeranger, and there's also a definite vibe of Scott and Col. Truman from RPM. Those were two of the best seasons ever, so they're good precedents to evoke.

Zoey's eagerness to face and solve big problems, along with her underdog status, makes her appealing. Ravi's actor is kind of bland, but his tragic romance arc and the main villainess being an avatar of his girlfriend has a lot of potential. I wonder if the evil avatars of Blaze and Roxy will still have some humanity inside them that can be drawn out.

I love the worldbuilding, the way the storyline is built around the franchise's history and the established legacy of the Power Rangers -- the Morphin Grid as the ultimate energy source being battled over, the existence of Power Rangers being a well-known and storied institution that the organization is continuing in its own way. The casualness of their willingness to perform mad-science genetic mutation experiments on teenagers is really creepy if you think about it -- especially since Nate mutated Devon and Zoey without bothering to get their consent first -- but I suppose there's precedent in the franchise for similarly cavalier genetic experiments on Rangers.

It does play fast and loose with continuity a bit, though. Mayor Daniels claims that all the villains from Rita onward have been after the Rangers' power sources, when usually they were just out to conquer the world. And listing Sledge as one of those past villains overlooks that Dino Charge was treated as an alternate reality. But then, it's no different from how Kamen Rider Zi-O glossed over Build being in an alternate reality. Continuity has always been highly flexible in these franchises.

Of course, we still get a bumbling comic-relief duo, this time a pair of sibling security guards, Betty & Ben Burke. So far they seem harmless enough -- at least they aren't obnoxiously overacted delinquents like Victor and Monty. I'm reminded of how Bulk and Skull were annoying as bullies in season 1 but finally came into their own when they became bumbling cops in season 3 and after. At least the Burkes mean well, so they can't be as unpleasant as V&M were.

It's interesting that the premiere used no Go-Busters footage aside from some establishing shots of the Enetron (now Morph-X) Towers. I don't think it's the first time we've seen an all-original Power Rangers premiere episode, but it's pretty rare. Anyway, it's amusing that they've named the organization "Grid Battleforce" so that they can justify the Go-Busters' GB logo appearing on the Ranger costumes and gear.

All in all, a very encouraging start to the Hasbro Era of Power Rangers. I hope the season can stay at this level or even surpass it.

 

If you'll remember, Sledge showed up in the "main" PRU in (Super) Ninja Steel and is actually the final villain that team of Rangers faces (as per the Christmas special "The Poisy Show"), so his being referenced is completely in continuity and actually makes sense.

 

Except it doesn't make sense, because neither of Sledge's main-universe appearances in Super Ninja Steel was actually known to the public. In "Echoes of Evil," his ship encountered the Warrior Dome in space, helped repair it, and then went on its way, so Sledge never came to Earth. And in "The Poisy Show," Sledge only appeared on Earth briefly in the Rangers' private training area, fought them for a bit, then fell through a dimensional portal into the Dino Charge universe, and when he came back, it was again aboard the Warrior Dome, where he remained until its destruction. So nobody but the Rangers ever knew he was there. Even if they had, they would've seen him as just a one-shot monster like all the others.

 

I went and found the actual text of Mayor Daniels' comment, and he specifically references alternate dimensions, so even if Sledge's exploits in the "main PRU" aren't public knowledge generally, information about him and the existence of other dimensions has obviously made it into the main PRU in some fashion.

 

I think the Lost Galaxy premiere was all original footage. From Leo's antics at the space port to all the mironi scenes.

Watching the beast morphers premiere it reminded me a bit of Lost galaxy with all the interactions in the organization hallways.

The beginning of the episode was a nice homage to the first MMPR episode with the juice bar/fitness center. I wonder if that will be the main set or if the grid battleforce set will be where the cast usually hangs out at.

 

Beast Morphers: "Evox's Revenge" was another reasonably good episode, mostly completing the establishment of the status quo -- the villains are stuck in the "Cyber Dimension" with an ally (original to the show) who provides their grunt robots and giant robots, and the Rangers get their "Beast Bot" (Buddy Roid) allies as well as their Zords, plus they sort out who should lead the team, which turns out to be Devon since the other two bicker too much and he keeps his head and brings them together (even though, of course, the Red Ranger almost always leads). And we finally get Go-Busters action footage, apparently taken from episode 5.

Rorrie D. Travis is still impressive as Devon, charismatic and capable with a good balance of arrogance and decency. I'm really starting to like the attitude and personality that Jacqueline Scislowski brings to Zoey. The weak link is Jasmeet Baduwalia as Ravi; he's just kind of bland.

Ben and Betty are still the goofy comic relief, but at least they genuinely try to help and managed to make a difference. I like how gung-ho and fearless Betty is, even though her self-confidence is greater than her abilities warrant. Ben is more realistic about their limitations and thus more timid, so he gets dragged along under protest. It's a workable dynamic, and an enormous improvement on Victor and Monty. (And I think I'm starting to find Betty somewhat attractive.)

Interestingly, they're keeping essentially the same "Weak Points" (here called weaknesses) that the Go-Busters had, but interpreted slightly differently. The Go-Busters' Weak Points were the downsides of their superpowers -- Hiromu's superspeed sometimes cutting out and making him freeze up (triggered by his childhood phobia toward chickens), Ryuji's superstrength making him overheat and go into uncontrolled rages, Yoko's rabbitlike energy depleting if she didn't keep her blood sugar up. Here they're tying it to corruption in their animal DNA thanks to Evok, and Devon's freezing is triggered by the sight of dogs because of his "cat" (cheetah) DNA, while Zoey's energy is replenished by carrots rather than sweets.

They're also keeping the idea of the Beast Bots as sentient partners, something I wasn't sure they'd use. Their personalities aren't quite the same as their Buddy Roid counterparts, though. Cruise (the Red Ranger's motorcycle/cheetah partner based on Go-Busters's Cheeda Nick) is apparently voiced by Power Rangers stalwart Kelson Henderson, in his sixth series-regular role.

They're also keeping the Go-Busters monster mechanics, basically -- the human-sized "Robotrons" (Metaloids) are transformed from ordinary objects infected by the evil virus, and the giant "Gigadrone" versions (MegaZords) are mass-produced models that take on the characteristics of the smaller ones. I'm glad they kept that, because it lets them make use of Go-Busters's interesting variations on the usual Sentai formula, where instead of always having the human-sized monster get defeated and then turned giant, you can do things like having the giant form turn up first or having the Rangers fight both of them at the same time.

Oddly, though, they've changed the way the morphers work, adding separate keys that supposedly plug into nonexistent slots on the devices. They've kept the bit where the "sunglasses" visors are the last part of the helmets to materialize, but the "sunglasses" are no longer popup pieces from the morphers themselves. They've also made the morphing effect look less "digital" and more like a swirly, cloudy energy field.

 

Zi-O 25

https://www.mp4upload.com/dvfyj01yk9ht

At the halfway point, it seems like we've got a new recurring character. And I guess he has a chip on his shoulder against Sougo.

Pretty cool that Another Zi-O has to collect his Ride Watch powers the same way Sougo does. I wonder if they're going to explain how Zi-O and Another Zi-O can coexist

Kind of wish the stakes were better set up in this series. Like it'd feel better if there were something linking the different Another Rider stuff together or if there were a countdown till Oma Day and not just some vague time in the future.

Strongest battle 3

https://www.mp4upload.com/do1uzw28q24k

The ZyuRanger references are pretty undeniable at this point. Trying to revive Dai Satan

I enjoyed the fight, but wish there were more to it. Kagura has a fun set of imagination powers, I wish she had used them to counteract Doggie's swordplay.

Props to the actress for really getting through how creepy Rita is.

 

I guess it makes sense that we'd get "Another Zi-O" along with all the other Anothers. A bit weird to add this major new element halfway through. I wonder if it'll turn out that he's the guy who really becomes Oma Zi-O.

This is the first I've seen of her, so I don't have any basis for comparison. I found it unusual that she relied so much on unarmed combat and wrestling/grappling moves. I mean, the titles show her running with a weapon that looks like a railroad turntable, so that's what I was expecting to see.

It was interesting that Kruger referred to the various grunts that attacked him and Stinger as Sento-in (literally "Combatmen" or "Fighters"), the term used since the original Kamen Rider to refer to the footsoldiers/grunts in that series. I hadn't realized that was the term used in Super Sentai too, but I guess it stands to reason.

 

And the next Shoutfactory release is..... Fiveman?

https://news.tokunation.com/2019/03/08/shout-factory-releasing-chikyu-sentai-fiveman-on-dvd-59551

Interesting opinion on Fiveman I read

The 1995 Mighty Morphin Power Ranger's movie will be released on blu-ray!

https://news.tokunation.com/2019/03...he-movie-blu-ray-releases-june-4th-2019-59546

 

You can see the trend at trying to capture kid audiences starting with those two shows and it explains a lot of the BTS stuff like why Toshiki Inoue who was the writer on Jetman didn't get another season after turning in a show that just wasn't kid friendly despite being the protege of the previous writer and why the next show after Jetman, Zyuranger, was so kid friendly with its emphasis on the kid character of the week or the various kid elements in Dairanger especially with Kou.

 

Beast Morphers: "End of the Road" was a bit of a silly one -- a decent idea of Zoey trying to convince the Mayor to cancel a forest-destroying road project in favor of green-energy Morph-X-powered bikes (which supposedly can be either pedaled or self-powered, but which were never really shown as anything other than ordinary bikes), but the execution was kind of silly, in the ridiculous ease with which the Mayor could postpone or cancel a construction project on the spot after what were presumably months' worth of planning and contract negotiations that the city would be heavily penalized for breaching. Not to mention the absurd idea that all the forest animals endangered by the road could be gathered up one by one and evacuated in a few cars. Also, it's oddly behind the times, given how many cities already have bike-sharing programs like the one presented here as novel and unpopular.

Still, I'm really growing to like Jacqueline Scizlowski as Zoey -- she's an effective actress who brings charm, strength, and humor to the role, and she's pretty nice-looking too. This was Liana Ramirez's first substantial turn as the evil Roxy avatar, and she was pretty effective too. Zoey and Roxy had a nice face-off in the warehouse at the climax.

I liked how they subverted our expectations about Ben and Betty. When we first saw Betty getting excited about building their own X-Bike, the expectation was that they'd totally fumble it somehow, but the next time we saw them, they'd built an awesome tandem bike that everyone admired (and it even had cupholders!), and it didn't go wrong until the monster attacked. They did overreach themselves more comically at the end, but it was nice to see that the comic-relief characters don't invariably screw things up. It helps explain how they stay employed at Grid Battleforce.

The monster and the climactic action footage came from Go-Busters episode 3, in which the "Needleoid" was converted from medical equipment and the plot involved the villains stealing a hospital's Enetron supply -- so they really toned it down a lot here. As far as I could tell, the only Go-Busters footage was of the giant robots' fight. The battle with the smaller robot was all-new, since its G-B counterpart fought the Go-Busters inside a hospital.

And I was wrong last week -- they've kept the part of the morphing sequence where the sunglasses pop up from the morphers and they hold them in front of their faces to complete the transformation. Although they've created their own version of the sequence, with the swirly cloudy energies and the roaring animal faces forming out of them (and a roaring bunny looks kind of weird).

 

Zi-O 26

https://www.mp4upload.com/azh6htdl7v5d

Mysteries and background information are ramping up. Why was Decade on that bus? ITS ALL DECADE FAULT, ONORE DICAIDO!!!!

Who was tsukuyomi firing at?

I had to laugh at one child actor that didn't seem scared at all. He seemed happy the bus was going to crash.

White Woz delivering the announcement speech was funny. "He does that too."


Super strongest battle episode 4


https://www.mp4upload.com/dpkv00iy8bqc

The big final fight was decent, though it was surprising how quickly the Super Forms got stomped.

I did like the ZyuRanger references, "Make my monster grow!" staff throw, and the parting of the ground. Looks like there will be a directors cut of the finale episode.

The Ryusoul attack was long but it will probably be shortened after kids learn it and it's no longer new.

Till next time super sentai veterans!


I think I was expecting a bigger crew for this month long miniseries

 

Zi-O: Well, things are getting Terminator-y, although we're being led to think that Tsukiyomi's the Terminator and young Sougo is Sarah Connor. I'm sure we'll find out that Tsukiyomi was shooting at the person actually trying to kill Sougo, who might well be Decade. I was wondering when he'd be passing through again. It'll be nice to see a Decade episode now that I'm more familiar with the character and his backstory.

So apparently Geiz Revive has two forms toggled by the hourglass Ridewatch, one for strength and one for speed. And his weapon is, weirdly, a circular saw. Well, we've seen a couple of Riders with chainsaw weapons before; one of Fourze's modules was a chainsaw (though it was a leg module, awkwardly enough), and Build had a chainsaw sword in a couple of his more powerful forms. But it's still kind of an odd choice.

Anyway, that pyro effect of Another Zi-O being smashed through the concrete blocks and the blasts of dust going off in sequence down the line was very impressive.

 

So like I said in my own thread, I started MMPR because that’s the only one I watched, though not constantly. I’m quite enjoying it.

Also want to do In Space, Galaxy Lost, and the one where Rose McIver is the Yellow Ranger.

I’m a bit confused about when to watch the two movies (1995 and 1997). Where in the show are they set?