Power Rangers

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by SG-17, Aug 7, 2010.

  1. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    I assume the 5 colors on the ginga brace are to make it more toy friendly. Kids can be any of the other rangers by switching the dial. It might make the brace pop out/stand out.

    [​IMG]

    It reminds me of the G-Phone/Wild force morpher. In the U.S kid's didn't get the other head attachments besides lion. In Japan. You can swap out the attachment to be the other gaorangers and modify the phone's pose



    Kamen Rider Ryuki/Dragon Knight was the first series that used a device to activate & announce a Rider's arsenal/final attacks.This would become a trademark concept of every Kamen Rider Series after Ryuki, with the exception of Hibiki.

    http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Kamen_Rider_Ryuki


    Before that the belts lit up and made simpler noises

    http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Kamen_Rider

    The original 1971 Kamen Rider ichigo belt. Actually it's rereleased collectors version




    I assume the more jingle centric belts are to make it much more interactive for kids nowadays
     
    Last edited: Jul 15, 2018
  2. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Yeah, but it's really annoying and unjustified that it happens in-universe too. The problem with the shows being co-produced by a toy company is that the gear looks and behaves like toys, which is silly. I wish the in-show versions were a bit more functional and less toylike.

    Like, in show logic, it makes no sense that the Lupinrangers' VS Changers are so darn noisy. You'd think that equipment for phantom thieves would be silent and stealthy. Heck, there was even that episode where the Ganglar knew the combination to use the VS Changer because the device shouted out the combination when it was entered, which thoroughly defeats the purpose of a combination lock.
     
  3. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Incidentally, while I was watching a Gingaman episode today, it suddenly struck me that the mentor figure Moak and the cute mascot Bokku are basically "What if Zordon and Alpha were made of wood?"
     
  4. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    By the way, here's an interesting article about Japanese linguistics and its use of mora or duration-based rhythm, with words being distinguished by their length in a way pretty much unique to Japanese -- like how "Nissan" is a four-syllable word to a Japanese ear (Ni-s-sa-n). This was the basis of a running gag in Carranger, where all the alien characters mispronounced the Japanese name for "Earth," Chikyuu (Chi-kyu-u), as Chiikyu (Chi-i-kyu) instead. I wonder if that was a satire on how foreigners have trouble with the use of mora in Japanese words. (The subtitles on the ShoutFactory release render the mispronunication as "Earsh," but I would've gone with something like "Eerth" instead.)
     
  5. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    Kamen Rider Heisei Generations FINAL: Build & Ex-Aid with Legend Riders. The crossover has been subbed finally

    I've split the video into two pieces. Nothing has been lost





    I haven't had a chance to view all of it. I've only seen the first few minutes. It makes me realize how the build crew look so innocent at that point in time. Misora's purifying bottles nonchalantly. At that point they don't know that craps about to hit the fan

    It takes places between Kamen Rider build episode 14 and 15.

    http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Kamen_Rider_Heisei_Generations_FINAL:_Build_&_Ex-Aid_with_Legend_Riders

    It explains the Kaisers that appeared in Build's series timeline

    The crossover also gives people a refresher course in each series main focus and some of their adventures.

    If people haven't seen the other series they won't be too confused. However if you've seen the previous series you do connect with them more.
     
  6. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    So far, only part 2 is showing up...
     
  7. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    Oh whoops. Fixed now
     
  8. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Okay, that was... that. I guess it would work better if one were familiar with the various series and characters. I found it confusing and cluttered, mostly. It didn't do a great job balancing the characters; particularly, in the climax, only Build, Ex-Aid, and briefly Cross-Z had any real role to play, while the rest were just fighting the gratuitous horde of robots. I mean, if the worlds are minutes from being destroyed altogether by the convergence, what do you need a horde of robots for? It was just padding.

    As far as elements relevant to Build go, I guess now I sort of understand why the Kaiser drivers incongruously say "Funky," though that's not much of a takeaway from all this. It does sort of clarify the history some, though, establishing that Katsuragi operated as Build a full two years before the series proper. I wasn't clear on whether he'd actually used the tech himself; I figured he just designed it.

    How did Sento and Ryuuga get back to their own dimension after they destroyed Enigma? That doesn't seem to have been addressed. And it's awfully convenient that all the cataclysmic urban destruction caused by the convergence magically reversed itself at the end.

    Well, I guess I'll have to stop griping about Build's ridiculous costumes and oversized drivers. They've got nothing on the hideous designs in Ex-Aid. Seriously, neon pink, green, and yellow? Helmets with cartoon eyes and anime hair? Yeccchh. Ghost's driver was also cumbersomely large, though the suit design wasn't bad.
     
  9. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    Mar 27, 2007
    Yeah Ex-Aid took awhile to get used to.....

    It was trying emulate the early 90's Nickelodeon style kid's gear. Loud colors

    [​IMG]

    Ex-aid was about real doctors combating viruses that infected people. One doctor lost his girlfriend to the virus and eventually was manipulated by the villains to do their bidding for sometime.

    A coroner died but came back because his data was game saved.

    One of the games creator turned himself into the virus to essentially live forever or have 99 lives.

    In the beginning of the show the riders had to battle a CGI creature to separate the virus from the human.

    Much like a
    game you could not jump from Level 1 to Level 2 instantly. So they had plump game sprite versions as level 1

    [​IMG]

    Once the virus was separated then they could jump to level 2 the main rider form.


    When Ex-aid was first revealed his spikey hair reminded me of the old SNES game "Chrono Trigger"

    [​IMG]

    Ex-aid was probably the most garish and loud Heisei era Kamen Rider has reached.


    On that note. I can't wait to see Zi-O in action. I'm going to miss our build crew when the show ends

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2018
  10. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Yeah, it's going to be a hard show to top. I always like it when the heroes are scientists, even when it's the fantasy interpretation of "scientist" to mean "guy who can invent any new technobabble gizmo in about two hours as needed by the plot." And the drama and humor are quite effective too.


    But let me be sure I've got this straight -- so all the Kamen Riders in the movie other than Build and Cross-Z were from the same Earth? None of them came from yet another parallel world? Are we basically dealing with an Arrowverse crossover-style situation where Build is like Supergirl, the one outsider to the main shared reality?
     
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2018
  11. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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  12. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I just saw a banner ad here promoting ShoutFactory's "Summer of Sentai." Looking into it, apparently they're premiering a new Sentai season each month this summer, and we've already gotten Carranger and Gingaman, so that means we should be seeing GoGo-V there in August.

    As for Gingaman, I've just gotten through the end of the BullBlack storyline and the debut of the second Black Knight, and it's again striking how Lost Galaxy copied it virtually exactly, even keeping the child death aspect intact, which I think was a first in Power Rangers.

    Although I wish LG had kept more of the original villain story arcs intact. It's interesting to see the different personalities and approaches of Zahab's various commanders and the internal squabbling among them. I was actually starting to find Budoh a rather likeable character -- a very calm, polite, disciplined figure in the vein of a traditional Japanese warrior-ascetic, very unlike the usual angry, blustering Sentai villain -- up until his final episode where he and his lieutenants were just going around blatantly murdering random citizens to draw Gingaman out. Man, that's hardcore. Maybe they figured they'd made him too sympathetic and needed to underline that he was still evil.

    I am a bit puzzled by the hierarchy here. How is it that a military general like Budoh and an "Empress" like Iliess are subordinate to the captain of a pirate ship? Maybe they're survivors of the various planets he destroyed, opportunists who chose to swear allegiance to him and maybe even betray their own peoples in exchange for being spared.
     
  13. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I've gotten to the part of Gingaman where the auxiliary Starbeast/robos GigaRhinos and GigaPhoenix have been introduced. I don't get why they decided to have each of the Starbeasts split into five vehicles, when the individual vehicles never actually seem to do anything -- plus it's creepy that each is a single living being that's been mutilated into five pieces. But I do like the bit in GigaPhoenix's fusion sequence where the upper torso's arms grab onto the lower torso's hips to pull it into place, like pulling up its pants. That's kind of clever.
     
  14. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    Mar 27, 2007
    LVP-23



    This week's Lupin Collection comes from Denziman, which is obvious because they didn't even bother changing the logo out again.

    Next week is a Tsukasa episode, and those have a track record of being pretty good. While the main plot could use a little more forward motion, the character focuses are pretty enjoyable.



    Build. Doing four episodes again because damn the last episode of this weeks batch.....

    34
    https://vk.com/video-154850906_456239052

    35
    https://vk.com/video-154850906_456239053

    36
    https://vk.com/video-154850906_456239054

    37
    https://vk.com/video-154850906_456239055

    34
    What an intense episode. The talk between Evolt and Ryuga was really well done, even if it slightly rehashed Ryuga affirming that he's human and standing with the humans in all of this. The nighttime fight between Evol and Cross-Z was amazing, especially that final shot. But the final shot of the episode... so that's how Evol Dragon comes around. Things just went from bad to worse.


    35
    Build does not know when to let up. There was one overtly comedic moment this week with Kazumi not knowing what to do with his Mii-tan fascination, but otherwise we were in full "battles with stakes" mode. That final scene, with the Pandora Tower, was some intense stuff for this time slot. Going to break with Evolt bragging about "the end of the world" is quite the thing.



    36
    Seeing Kazumi and Gentoku settle their issues with a duel in the middle of the episode was a nice bit of character work, especially that shot lingering on the grave. This episode as a whole was great. More Misora backstory (and Mars backstory), and the final shot confirmed what "white haired Sento" is. Evol Sento. We now have Evol Rabbit, giving all of our main characters something even more terrifying to fight against - the protagonist.

    Misora actress deserves an award for that performance. She was going nuts at the thought of losing Sento, and now look what happened...

    37
    What an episode. Ryuga's new form doesn't remove Magma from the show - but the appearance of a recolored Dragon at this point in the game is still a surprising twist. The fight scenes were great, and the reveal of Evol Black Hole was super suspenseful.
     
  15. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Mar 15, 2001
    I'd say the introduction of the Raimon Gang and the Status Gold safes is forward motion. At least, I figure that introducing such an ambitious nephew (?) of Dogranio for a multi-part arc, and near the halfway point of the season, is going to amount to something significant storywise.

    This was a fun Iron Chef pastiche. It was cool to see Tooma actually enjoying himself. He takes phantom theiving so seriously, because there's so much at stake personally, but it looks like being a chef is his true passion. It was nice to see that side of him.

    And next week's isn't just a Tsukasa episode, but a Tsukasa-Kairi episode, a new pairing to explore. And quite a contrasting pair, which should be interesting.

    So judging from that promo at the end, I take it there's an LvP movie coming out soon?
     
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  16. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    We're getting two special episodes for Lupinranger VS Patoranger




    From Toku Connect :

    Odd that we wouldn't get the more important one with a former Patren #2 in the shows official episode count.

    Still if the series ends at 48 episodes (due to holidays etc) we can count these two to make it 50 episodes.
     
  17. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Wow, things on Build keep going from bad to worse. How many episodes are left? The preview at the end of 37 said the final chapter begins next time, though I assume that chapter is more than one episode, given that there are two more showing on that site.
     
  18. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    Mar 27, 2007
    Kamen Rider Zi-O is scheduled to premiere on September 2nd. Build is currently on episode 45. It should finish in the upper 40's

    A new trend is the very last episode is an epilogue. The episode before that is the true finale.

    It's possible episode 48 wraps up everything. Episode 49 might have a small cameo by Kamen Rider Zi-O in the episode. I don't know yet.

    This really hits you in the gut.

    Filming has wrapped :(

    [​IMG]

    A bit of trivia. Whoever get's flowers during a sentai or kamen rider production usually means that they are done in the series.

    That could spoil things if the person on the show is still around and you browse the social media places.

    With Kamen Rider you usually find out that character is going to bite the dust soon.
     
  19. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    It strikes me that one advantage of Kamen Rider over Super Sentai is that it doesn't need to drag every episode's story to a halt for a big giant robot/monster fight in the climax. It's not as constricted by formula and thus has more flexibility in its story structure. Sure, it has Rider-vs.-monster or Rider-vs.-Rider fights quite regularly, but not on a set schedule in the same way; and the advantage of the latter is that they can be character-driven and actually advance the story.
     
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  20. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    Mar 27, 2007
    This is pretty cool. On the Japanese version of a Nintendo Switch game

    Taiko drum master

    there is the "Lupinranger VS Patoranger" theme that you can choose



    and also "Be the One" from Kamen Rider Build