Power Rangers
- Thread starter SG-17
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^That looks profoundly impractical.
That's probably the point, they argue who gets the armor, get stuck like that and have to overcome that obstacle and their differences. It's one of the Sentai stock plots, I'd be surprised if the shared armor ever shows up again.
How much have you seen because I think the show works just fine. The design of the first mech is ... not so great but later additions like Diesel-Oh and Build Dai-Oh are much better.Yeah, I have to admit much of what I've seen of the Train Rangers show just doesn't seem to work for me. This is another step in that category.
The characters are good, the stories too, I think it's all really well done. It starts out episodic so if that's not your thing I understand but there are arcs, the search for the ToQger's home town for example or all the stuff on the villain's side.
The double power up thing, as I said, it's most likely intentional that it's weird and impractical, it's not unlike this from Shinkenger:
Blue and Green were stuck like that for almost the entire episode, they started arguing, were completely useless in battle but overcame that obstacle and defeated the villain with a kickass battle, the choreography was really great.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIIJotu0vvA?t=16m34s[/yt]
I expect less choreography and more not stumbling in ToQger's case but the idea seems to be the same.
And how can you not like a show that gives us female red and male pink occasionally, the color switching is one of the best parts imo, so many combinations.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEFSph131GM[/yt]
I haven't watched the train series and I don't mean to imply it's bad in terms of overall quality. I've only seen elements from the promotional materials, and a lot of the design aesthetics don't work for me personally. I agree with Christopher that the joined armor just kind of looks silly and impractical. The last segment of PR I watched with any degree of regularity was probably Zeo, so I'm way behind on the more modern series. 
And in fairness, there are other chapters in the overall franchise that have the same issues when it comes to aesthetics and such. I'm not a huge fan of the pirate-themed Zords.
And in fairness, there are other chapters in the overall franchise that have the same issues when it comes to aesthetics and such. I'm not a huge fan of the pirate-themed Zords.
Well, no wonder. If that is indeed IT, I'm not at all surprised that all Saban was willing to offer was (apparently) a plane ticket and hotel for the day it'd take for them to shoot this. Barely even a cameo, really, JDF aside. The other Legacy Ranger episodes had more meat to them, and that's saying a lot.
Mark
Today's Super Megaforce, "United as One," was cool. The hook of a monster stealing people's happiness threatened to be routine, familiar stuff, but the story went in some unexpected directions. The Megazord battle came five minutes into the episode and was the least formulaic, most unusual one I think they've ever done, with the monster actually shrinking back down, kicking Orion out of his Megazord control seat, and turning the Q-Rex against the other Rangers, then leading them on a chase through their own Megazord -- before inexplicably crippling it just by punching out a person-sized hole in the wall from the inside. I'm curious to know how the city authorities dealt with the Megazord just standing there immobilized in the middle of the main thoroughfare for several hours. The traffic jams must've been prodigious.
And then came the very fun sequence where Emma and Orion used Bugs Bunny-style disguises and trickery to get the monster's staff away from him. Nice to see them use their wits instead of brute force. But how the heck did Emma get her hands on an ambulance, a police car, and the associated uniforms on such short notice? (Maybe she just asked really sweetly? Who could say no to her?)
Although she can be generous to a fault. How can Orion ever learn to fly a kite if she cheats by giving him a magic gust of wind?
And then came the very fun sequence where Emma and Orion used Bugs Bunny-style disguises and trickery to get the monster's staff away from him. Nice to see them use their wits instead of brute force. But how the heck did Emma get her hands on an ambulance, a police car, and the associated uniforms on such short notice? (Maybe she just asked really sweetly? Who could say no to her?)
Although she can be generous to a fault. How can Orion ever learn to fly a kite if she cheats by giving him a magic gust of wind?
"The Grass is Always Greener... or Bluer" was rather weak. It was a mashup of stuff from three different Gokaiger episodes -- one with a body switch, one with the Green Ranger inventing a new weapon (probably why they needed to combine it with the switch episode, so that Noah could be green), and a Hurricanger tribute episode which was the source of the out-of-nowhere Ninja Storm Megazord sequence. All those disjointed things put together make for kind of a weak episode.
Super Sentai 2015 appears to be Ninja themed
http://tokusatsunetwork.com/2014/10/22/2015-super-sentai-title-revealed/
http://tokusatsunetwork.com/2014/10/22/2015-super-sentai-title-revealed/
My goodness, I love me some Sentai ninjas. Thanks for sharing!
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As for Super Megaforce, I've all but given up. I really hoped that it would be an American lens on PR nostalgia, but between the sloppy choices of footage, using pre-Zyu sentai teams, mere lip service to the past, and that they just can't stop talking exposition during fights, I can't be bothered anymore. Sure, several complaints could be applied to past seasons, but this time around this was supposed to be the season that we'd been waiting for since 1993 supposedly, but certainly since 2007 and definitely since the Gokaiger adaptation was announced.
As such, out of curiosity I looked into a few spoilers:
- I can't blame alumni who chose not to come back, because now I can see their complaints about lack of inclusion more concretely. Many of the returning legends had one or no lines. To make an international trip for that seems rather pointless. And if the pay is low, that's time AND money lost that disrupts daily lives. JDF got a couple lines, sure; but compare that to Adam, who had a major role in the last reunion and was handled well. JDF couldn't get similar treatment, and even if JYB came back, it'd be a drastically reduced cameo compared to Once a Ranger.
- Having pre-Zyu representation in an American nostalgia season reduces the reason for celebrating an American product; plus, it removes screen time from remembering other teams as well. Some teams received no team-morphs at all, and a couple teams just weren't represented by even one Legendary morph at all because there was no time left. Devoting screen time and entire battles to Japan-only teams is like going to a stranger's birthday party: you wish them well, but you can't really enjoy it personally because there's no history that you're aware of.
- Having pre-Zyu representation in an American nostalgia season reduces the reason for celebrating an American product; plus, it removes screen time from remembering other teams as well. Some teams received no team-morphs at all, and a couple teams just weren't represented by even one Legendary morph at all because there was no time left. Devoting screen time and entire battles to Japan-only teams is like going to a stranger's birthday party: you wish them well, but you can't really enjoy it personally because there's no history that you're aware of.
Sounds like Saban trying to save money.
I quite like getting a chance to see some of the non-PR Sentai costumes -- in particular the gorgeous Dairanger costumes that were skipped over by MMPR season 2 (except for the White Ranger). And it makes sense -- if Megaforce can access Legendary powers from the future (Time Force, SPD), alien worlds (Alien Rangers, Space Rangers), and alternate realities (RPM), then it follows that they could access powers from teams we haven't seen before. I think it makes the Ranger universe feel larger.
Still, in other respects, I agree. Megaforce has been relentlessly shallow and slapdash due to cramming two separate seasons into a mere 42 episodes, and due to the generally lousy writing aside from that. It's a shame the anniversary had to fall within one of the weakest periods within the franchise. They're bringing back Judd Lynn as producer next year, but it's a year too late.
Still, in other respects, I agree. Megaforce has been relentlessly shallow and slapdash due to cramming two separate seasons into a mere 42 episodes, and due to the generally lousy writing aside from that. It's a shame the anniversary had to fall within one of the weakest periods within the franchise. They're bringing back Judd Lynn as producer next year, but it's a year too late.
If Disney were still in charge, we might have gotten a decent take on Angel Rangers and Pirate Rangers instead of Megaforce which is all action with no character or story development.
I was just hoping that by squishing everything into 20 episodes, they'd have been able to skip over a lot of the non PR seasons and concentrate on the ones we knew. Alas, not to be; though to be fair it would have been tough to separate out some of those teams. They did an admirable job with the Dairanger footage, but that was literally a different era of skill and very likely budget.
As for other teams, it SHOULD have been easy to write some of them into one shot episodes as groups from other planets or times or whatever - but as has been amply commented, good writing and the current era of Saban do not often mix. I just wish they'd have stuck to the Gokaiger episode formula closer, and incorporated more former actors into the mix.
Mark
As for other teams, it SHOULD have been easy to write some of them into one shot episodes as groups from other planets or times or whatever - but as has been amply commented, good writing and the current era of Saban do not often mix. I just wish they'd have stuck to the Gokaiger episode formula closer, and incorporated more former actors into the mix.
Mark
Speaking of Dairanger. You should check out the Gokaiger VS Goseiger movie. It has a Dairanger alumni cameo
[YT]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw1GzSZGark[/YT]
And I'm sure it is, but it confuses me honestly, because...
Four of the Japan-only suits are used in American fight footage, along with MM Red, and that had to cost more money to ship over or tailor than simply using the PR suits that they already had in storage. I could understand the need to use sentai footage because, after all, that's the point of the adaptation. But Super Megaforce kind of seemed to pick the footage arbitrarily, unless it was a new Megazord powerup.
On a side note, IIRC, only Wild Force got an American-made tribute battle so far. I was really hoping that other teams would get their own American-made battles. Virtually all other tribute team fights were lifted straight from the source. PR and Sentai fights tend to be of different flavors, and I was really curious to see how PR would choose to spotlight their own, especially MMPR. Oh well.
And poor Orion! He seems to have suffered the same fate as Omega: many, many powers in the Sentai that went unused in PR. Simply using the Sentai footage of him using various other Sixth Ranger powers would have saved some money here and there.
Unrelated, but still a spoiler: while not a deal breaker, we don't get to see that awesome OhRanger/Zeo tribute battle against the stolen Ranger Helper powers. A petty complaint, sure, but Zeo's among my favorites and I'm very fond of that battle just because the Gokaiger simply go all out.
On a side note, IIRC, only Wild Force got an American-made tribute battle so far. I was really hoping that other teams would get their own American-made battles. Virtually all other tribute team fights were lifted straight from the source. PR and Sentai fights tend to be of different flavors, and I was really curious to see how PR would choose to spotlight their own, especially MMPR. Oh well.
And poor Orion! He seems to have suffered the same fate as Omega: many, many powers in the Sentai that went unused in PR. Simply using the Sentai footage of him using various other Sixth Ranger powers would have saved some money here and there.
Unrelated, but still a spoiler: while not a deal breaker, we don't get to see that awesome OhRanger/Zeo tribute battle against the stolen Ranger Helper powers. A petty complaint, sure, but Zeo's among my favorites and I'm very fond of that battle just because the Gokaiger simply go all out.
Anyway, I'll stop with the venting session now, which I've turned this thread into unintentionally. It's just that I greatly enjoyed each of the PR anniversary milestone episodes, and an entire season based on that premise sounded wonderfully fanwanky and celebratory, but it turned out to be so disappointing. Still...
...I was planning to give Dino Charge a try anyway (the name is already leagues ahead of the extraordinarily generic "Super Megaforce"), but I wasn't aware of that good news, so thanks for that small ray of hope there.
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Shout Factory reveals the Zyuranger cover art.
http://tokusatsunetwork.com/2014/10/23/shout-factory-reveals-zyuranger-cover-art/
http://tokusatsunetwork.com/2014/10/23/shout-factory-reveals-zyuranger-cover-art/