Hasbro's Power Rangers era and General Tokusatsu discussion

So I started watching Ninja Steel and have thoughts:

 

The frustrating thing about Ninja Steel is that it had a really solid cast but very weak writing. It's bizarre that it's so poor given that it's from Chip Lynn as showrunner.

The reality-show/MMA thing was an okay idea, but it didn't mesh well with the very striking and strongly Japanese-influenced designs of the monsters (who in Ninninger were youkai, traditional Japanese demons). Overall, for a show named Ninja Steel, it made surprisingly little use of the ninja element overall, in contrast to Ninninger, which piled on the ninja gimmicks of traditional fiction (e.g. bunshin/clones, decoy dummies, tangible illusions, etc.) even more heavily than either previous ninja Sentai. You can see the contrast in those few instances where they use a lot of Sentai footage, like in the "Dimensions in Danger" special using footage from the Ninninger theatrical film.

As for Victor and Monty, it's probably a vain hope that they won't get on your nerves. They're without a doubt the worst regular characters in the history of Power Rangers.

 

Ninja Steel sunk Power Rangers to a new low with it's farts jokes

 

So far through 4 and a half episodes (I'm not yet completely through Presto Change-O because I fell asleep from pain and exhaustedness), I've been able to ignore Victor and Monty and focus on the good stuff, but we'll see what happens going forward.

Regarding the title and theme, the way I look at it is that, unlike other seasons, the title and costumes are more of a component of the story rather than being the story, much in the same way as the titular objects/entities of the 4th through 7th Harry Potter novels are elements of the story being told rather than the story being about them.

 

Zero-One #13: For a moment there I wondered if Izu was actually going to sacrifice herself (at least in some way that proved reversible). My writer senses failed me, because it should've been obvious that they set up the guest character of her "big brother" to take the fall. Although I don't think it quite adds up -- why would he have the same Zero-One combat data that Izu had, when he's only witnessed one or two of Zero-One's fights instead of essentially every one as Izu has? So it's a bit of a cheat, but it led to a nicely sentimental moment or two. I think Izu's getting quite close to Singularity now, if she hasn't already reached it. She's actually showing emotion now.

Having all three Riders together was nice, but they didn't really show them working as a team, just separately fighting the same group of villains. But it's a start.


Ryusoulger #36: Can't really think of much to say about this one. Pretty much just a case-of-the-week story focusing on Towa and a guest of the week, and not doing anything particularly noteworthy aside from a bit of drone camera work during a fight scene. (Must be a pretty small drone, since it was weaving between the support posts of a swingset sort of thingy, following RyusoulGreen.)

The bit with the characters starting to muse about what they'll do after beating the Druidons reminds me that we're about 3/4 of the way through the series now, maybe a bit less. (There was a run of recent seasons that were 48 episodes each, but LvP was 51.) I hadn't realized we were that far along. It won't be long before things start building toward the endgame, although some Sentai seasons start that buildup earlier than others.

With all the separate, conflicting Druidon leaders, it's hard to get a sense of who the final big bad will be. I'm almost tempted to think it'll be Kreon after some metamorphosis, since he's the most prominent Druidon character.

Hmm, if this follows a typical pattern, I'd guess that next we'll get a big, important storyline either preceding or culminating in the Christmas episode, then maybe a New Year's clip show, and then the buildup to the big finish.

 

I'm about halfway through the first half of Ninja Steel and thus far, I'm liking what I've seen quite a lot. As mentioned before, I really like this cast of Rangers, and Mick might just be Kelson's best role in the franchise ever because he contributes something other than just comic relief and is more of a mentor than I first thought he was going to be.

I really like Levi (AKA Aiden) (yes, I had that 'twist' spoiled by watching Linkara's HoPR video), and he is dueling with Ivan for being my favorite Gold Ranger character; he's also got great chemistry with Will Shewfelt and looks more like him, IMO, than the actor they got to play the robot imposter Aiden, which is good. The cowboy aesthetic to his costume and Zords also isn't as incongruous as I thought it might be.

Also, I'm finding Victor and Monty far less grating than I was expecting to, and some of the pratfalls they've been on the receiving end of have actually made me chuckle a little bit.

On the villains side, I really like them. Galvanax is giving me major Koraag vibes even though he's not as 'hands-on' as Koraag (but easily could be), while Ripcon is as close to Goldar as any 'hench-general' we've gotten since Goldar and Odius reminds me of Trakeena crossed with Frax and Vrak, which is fitting since I love those characters. Cosmo is admittedly just sort of 'there', although his voice does remind me a little bit of Frax minus the roboticness and the humor he adds is more organic than we've seen in other characters of his type.

It's still too early to say for sure if NStl is going to leapfrog into my Top 10 the way that Dino Charge did, but it's been a fun season thus far and hasn't really had any super-offputting flaws (which is surprising).

 

Zero-one episode 13

I can't see Toei using that predictive fight graphics thing all the time. Adding that is extra work they might not want to expend.

This must be the quickest a power up has lost its grandeur. Wazu's sacrifice was a great narrative piece. Death of characters are hard to pull off(Ryuusoulger)

Apparently Izu’s singularity moment will be sad? According to the former president

Next week. Space! Uchuu kitaaaa!!!!(space is amazing )


Ryuusoulger 36

It feels like forever since we’ve had a regular filler. All that business with Nada and training

Highlight was Kureon breaking the fourth wall and making the first fight funnier making everyone believe he'd wield the staff

 

Beast Morphers episode 20 season finale clips







Looks like next season Devon's dad will become Evox's next vessel

 

I see they're using Messiah's midseason-climax body for Evox's body -- which is a bit incongruous, since it carries forward Messiah's skull motif rather than Evox's cobra motif. Also, it's interesting that they shot new Megazord footage rather than using what, IIRC, was some fairly similar footage of the Go-Busters' battle in Messiah's subspace.

I have been wondering what they'd do with the Megazord footage from the Go-Busters episodes where the subspace was projected onto the real world for the city battles, or if they'd even use that material at all.

 

https://comicbook.com/powerrangers/2019/12/07/power-rangers-major-change-logo/

Saban has been finally removed from the Power Ranger's logo. The new logo will appear on the next wave of Beast Morphers toys

Next season of Beast Morphers will be completely Hasbro's

 

It's been announced that Paramount and Hasbro will be co-producing a new Power Rangers movie reboot, with Jonathan Entwistle attached as director:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/power-rangers-reboot-works-1262562

So no sequel to the 2017 film, which is not surprising, but kinda disappointing, since I liked the character work in that film.

 

Yay for more Power Rangers, Yay for a reboot (to hopefully get more aesthetic suits/zords) , but what a shame about not having back the wonderful 2017 cast.

 

Kamen Rider Zero-One episode 13

It's funny that they choose this episode to focus on the little questions/workers maintaining gear for the hero. At least we know someone has to reload the bike back into the satellite.

Well, you're never going to see Power Rangers showing a power-up make the hero bleed from his mouth...

The debut of Assault Wolf was pretty cool setting-wise.

Ikazuchi is an interesting character but is he really dead?

Hey, "time for buster" is back, this time in Rider!


Ryuusoulger episode 37

Eh. This feels like an episode that could've been done a lot earlier in the show's run. There's not a lot of time left, so we really should be getting endgame stage soon.

Also this weeks guest star was Rinna's actress from Kamen Rider drive! Was nice to see her again

Interesting fact. In 2000 she left the entertainment industry for a bit because she was fighting leukemia. Her blood type changed because of blood infusions (Was Blood type A. Currently Blood type O).

 

Zero-One: Well, things are ramping up with Metsubo-etc. Interesting the way Fuwa and Yaiba parsed their name to deduce there might be two more members. So was Raiden actually the Rai/Kaminari Fuwa suspected? It seems unlikely, since he was destroyed. Man, this show loves making us like HumaGears and then killing them.

I wonder what the Ark being active will mean now. And I wonder why Fuwa was able to henshin into that new wolf form.

I only just now noticed that the Progrise Keys have images of their animals visible on them when they're flipped open. A bit like the Ryusouls in the sister show, but more high-tech.

I wonder why TVNihon transliterates the satellite's name as "There." The Kamen Rider Wiki calls it Zea.


Ryu: An okay but unremarkable episode. I like it when they do plots where the monster has a mysterious attack and the heroes have to reason out a solution. Especially when the solution is not just a new toy that conveniently has the exact power needed to defeat it.

Indeed, the closest thing we got to a new power-up was Max Ryusoul standing on top of Tyramigo. I was kind of expecting them to combine in a more literal way, like Tyramigo turning into some kind of powered mech suit.

 

There seems to be no catalogue this year, according to Rangerboard. Probably because it gets leaked every year.

 

Yeah. It got heated this year. There were death threats over a silly toy company catalog

Last year Kamen Rider Zi-O trinity was leaked. A twitter user actually asked kamen rider producer shirakura about Trinity and then prodded him with the leaked picture!

Bandai's been aware of leaks in the past but this year they took stricter measures to protect their company information.

We the public are not supposed to see the catalog. It's only for sellers and toy stores to know how much to order and what prices to use

Death threats soon came to the user who caused all the trouble and forced Bandai to not release the catalog to sellers. Sellers only got a basic excel spreadsheet outline of what to expect










Magazine scans are due at the end of the month with possible leaks next weekend. There's also filming going on for Kiramager tonight but extras were told not to bring bags incase of leaked photos



It's possible that Bandai wants to control when and who get's the see the new team from now on

So when the magazine scans come out then EVERYBODY is on the same page. No one is ahead of the curve.

So online fans and general public people will both know at the same time

 

More details have been revealed regarding Pua Magasiva's death.
https://www.rangerboard.com/showpost.php?p=5825587&postcount=301

 

The details that have emerged are really sad

 

Hot off the press! Kiramager finally revealed

 

Looks like a blend of a vehicle theme and something pointy-eared and animalistic... my first thought was cats, but now I'm thinking maybe bats/vampires? "Mashin" sounding like the Kamen Rider term for motorcycles, but with the "Ma" being the kanji for demon or magic. There is sort of a sinister, frowny look to the visor shapes. Looks like a black sash-like strip coming diagonally from the left shoulder, with a crystal near the top.

Yellow and Green seem to have wrist-mounted changers with a tire-like appearance, also suggesting a vehicle theme.