Power Rangers

[Samurai8472]

As someone who's watched MST3K's "Prince of Space," I can tell you that the Japanese used to have their own struggles with accommodating anatomy.



Is that the one where I've seen the photos of the Megazord with the giant train boner? What's the deal with that? Does it make sense in context or is this one of those cases where I just have to shrug, shake my head, and mutter, "Oh, Japan..."?

Here is the scene

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

BTW Zyuranger is on Shout factory's website. Curious to hear your opinions on it!

http://www.shoutfactorytv.com/super-sentai-zyuranger/the-birth/568d438a69702d0803664300


If anyone is curious about Megaranger it's also on Shout Factory's website

http://www.shoutfactorytv.com/super...the-twisted-invaders/5a3c04b5dead52156000015d

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Here's an article about it on RangerWiki:

http://powerrangers.wikia.com/wiki/Zeo–Turbo_transition_gap

It sounds like Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie was originally going to be more of a transitional piece between Zeo and Turbo, but they decided to rewrite it to be less continuity-dependent and more accessible to general audiences. So a lot of the transitional material they would've put in was just dropped.

Yeah, I've read that before. It still doesn't explain what actually happened behind the scenes and why they didn't give Zedd & Rita any follow-up on Turbo. There's in-universe speculation that's tied into "Scorpion Rain" but that's not really canon and I'm more interested in the real world reasons for the change, since any fictional explanation at this stage is bound to be arbitrary anyway.

Meanwhile, I do have my own theory about what happened in-universe with Lt. Stone. I figure, since he was pretty summarily fired during the events of "Bulk Fiction" due to one of Bulk & Skull's antics that wasn't really his fault, he promptly sued the police department for wrongful termination. His lawsuit was pending behind the scenes during most of the 2nd half of Zeo. Eventually, as part of a settlement, he was temporarily reinstated and later made an out of court settlement for a large cash sum in exchange for resigning quietly. He used the money to buy the Juice Bar.

 

[JD]

They've revealed a bit more information about Boom!'s bit MMPR crossover. The comics' MMPR team will be joining forces with the Dino Super Charge, RPM, Time Force, Ninja Steel, and Dino Thunder Teams.

 

[Unicron]

And while this is a minor quibble in the grand scheme of things, it's a major deal-breaker for me: We can't really see what's going on during the Megazord transformation sequence! When I was a kid, when I first saw "Day of the Dumpster," I mostly wasn't very impressed. But when we got to the end, I was like, "Wait a minute, the 5 individual dinosaur robots fit together to form a giant robot? Awesome!!!!" That was the gimmick that sold me on the show. I just loved the way that all of the Zords fit together. I had never seen that before. (In retrospect, it's an element that Power Rangers shares with Transformers & Voltron but I never saw those as a kid. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was my first.) It's the reason why the show kept my attention through that repetitive stock footage every time. So, while the movie is called "Power Rangers," it doesn't really deliver on the things that I most fondly associate with Power Rangers.

I admit, I always enjoy the older zord sequences. While I haven't watched the modern movie or pretty much anything past Zeo, I have watched clips of some of the more modern zord sequences on YT. And I admit that the cartoony CGI doesn't really work for me, even though I do own a few modern megazords whose overall designs I like. I prefer the vintage, more realistic (relatively speaking) combinations from the earlier seasons.

 

[Christopher]

They've revealed a bit more information about Boom!'s bit MMPR crossover. The comics' MMPR team will be joining forces with the Dino Super Charge, RPM, Time Force, Ninja Steel, and Dino Thunder Teams.

If the story involves some kind of time-travel or alternate-realities premise, I can see how some of those fit in. Time Force is all about time travel, RPM was retroactively established as taking place in a parallel reality, and Dino Super Charge basically created their own alternate timeline at the end there. I don't see how Dino Thunder and Ninja Steel fit in, though.

I admit, I always enjoy the older zord sequences. While I haven't watched the modern movie or pretty much anything past Zeo, I have watched clips of some of the more modern zord sequences on YT. And I admit that the cartoony CGI doesn't really work for me, even though I do own a few modern megazords whose overall designs I like. I prefer the vintage, more realistic (relatively speaking) combinations from the earlier seasons.

Yeah, it was more fun with miniatures. I particularly liked the Carranger/Turbo sequence where the car-Zords assemble while driving in formation and only rise up to the vertical once they're assembled. It's more believable than all the ones where the Zords are just flying through abstract space.

 

[kirk55555]

They've revealed a bit more information about Boom!'s bit MMPR crossover. The comics' MMPR team will be joining forces with the Dino Super Charge, RPM, Time Force, Ninja Steel, and Dino Thunder Teams.

So the crossover involves the most popular Saban season (Time Force), Disney season (RPM), Neo-Saban season (Dino Charge), the currently airing season (Ninja Steel) and the other season with Tommy (Dino thunder, presumably so they can have young Tommy, old Tommy and evil Tommy together). It makes sense. Obviously I wish my favorite season was represented, but there wasn't much chance of a season like Lost Galaxy getting a slot unless it was an all Rangers or all one color of Rangers crossover. I'm definitely interesting in the crossover.

 

[Danlav05]

They've revealed a bit more information about Boom!'s bit MMPR crossover. The comics' MMPR team will be joining forces with the Dino Super Charge, RPM, Time Force, Ninja Steel, and Dino Thunder Teams.

There's also a bit of Zeo, Space and SPD in the Annual! It's a proper crossover...

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

That's fair, but as I said in my review some pages back in this thread, I rather liked the character story, the way these screwups with nothing in common became fast friends and gained their power from trusting and caring for each other. I wish they hadn't reused the names of characters they had nothing in common with, but otherwise it was a decent story, though the movie certainly wasn't without its flaws.

The character story worked for me but it's not really the kind of thing that I'm generally interested in. And I agree about reusing the names of characters that they have nothing in common with. I was especially annoyed with Billy. As something of a nerd myself, he tended to be the character that I most related to on the TV show. So I was kinda annoyed when they put him on some kind of autism/aspergers spectrum here. (It's a disturbing anti-intellectual trend that I'm noticing in fiction. People aren't allowed to be exceptionally intelligent unless there's also something wrong with them.)

My main problem with Demetria is that they were obviously setting her up as Divatox's twin sister, but then dropped that arc when Hilary Shepard Turner returned to play Diva but Carol Hoyt stayed on as Demetria.

I don't know why they didn't run with that storyline anyway. Either make them fraternal twins or cast Turner in the scenes where they do the actual reveal.

I agree the chimp thing was dumb, but I disagree about their great gift. When they were just slapstick bullies in season 1, they were just annoying. What made them work was when they got to develop as characters, first by achieving the goal of uncovering the Rangers' identity, then by becoming the comic foils to Lieutenant/Detective Stone. I liked their verbal and character humor better than their physical humor alone. Schrier and Narvy made a terrific comedy duo once they had good material to work with. The problem with the chimp arc was that it lost the actors' onscreen chemistry, both with each other and with Gregg Bullock as Stone.

I'm not just talking about slapstick. A lot of it is little things, like little looks that they would give to each other or facial expressions that they would make when they're attacked by a monster or something. I feel like I should be "too sophisticated" to appreciate their overly broad antics at my age but they're extremely talented and, as an amateur comedian myself, I admire their full commitment to each and every ridiculous bit.

It probably also didn't help that, given the time & budget restraints of the show, they probably didn't have any time to train the chimps to actually do anything besides sit there while they dubbed the actors' voices over them.

I wasn't crazy about Hoyt's Divatox, but Turner's Divatox is one of my all-time favorite Power Rangers villains, charismatic and funny and sexy. She had the same quality I liked about Bandora -- the fact that she really, really enjoyed being evil. She had enormous fun being bad, and it made her fun to watch.

Turner's Divatox was probably my favorite thing about that season when I was a kid. "Viva la Diva!"

 

[Christopher]

The character story worked for me but it's not really the kind of thing that I'm generally interested in. And I agree about reusing the names of characters that they have nothing in common with. I was especially annoyed with Billy. As something of a nerd myself, he tended to be the character that I most related to on the TV show. So I was kinda annoyed when they put him on some kind of autism/aspergers spectrum here. (It's a disturbing anti-intellectual trend that I'm noticing in fiction. People aren't allowed to be exceptionally intelligent unless there's also something wrong with them.)

"Wrong?" That's egregiously missing the point, and it's an outdated and offensive assumption. The whole point is that we now understand that autism is not a disease; it's just a natural difference that's been wrongly stigmatized as a defect, the way left-handedness and homosexuality were before. The way Billy was portrayed in the movie was great -- it made it clear that there was nothing wrong with his being on the spectrum, that it was just who Billy was, and Jason and the others took it in stride and accepted his difference. That was terrific, a step forward in the portrayal of neuro-atypical characters. It's not that there's something "wrong" with geniuses -- it's that people are often geniuses because their brains work in a different way whose benefits society has been slow to recognize.

I'm not just talking about slapstick. A lot of it is little things, like little looks that they would give to each other or facial expressions that they would make when they're attacked by a monster or something.

I see. When I hear "physical humor," I take that to mean slapstick, pratfalls, etc. What you're describing is the same sort of thing I'm talking about, the personal chemistry and rapport between them. I see that as more about acting.

 

[Christopher]

Belated heads-up: The Super Ninja Steel season premiere is in less than an hour!

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

I'll gladly watch it whenever it makes it to Canada. Next ice age, likely. :P

Back to the presence of child actors, one wonders if Saban will be hiring a kid to be the (lighter) blue Kyuuranger for its inevitable adaptation. I can see them liking the concept of a younger character to appeal to the target demo, but OTOH with a total of twelve suits to worry about, the low budget of the adaptations would make him one of those always-masked, in-the-background Rangers so the gang can concentrate on the six prettier ones. OTOOH, the Kyuuranger team includes the usual mentor and tech support characters as active sentai fighters too, so they could also arrange it a la Dino Charge...

Mark

 

[Christopher]

Well, Super Ninja Steel's premiere "Echoes of Evil" had some unexpected stuff in it. It opened with the return of Sledge and his crew from Dino Super Charge. In that series, the original timeline's version of Sledge and his ship were sucked into a black hole, and the Rangers then went back in time and created an alternate history where Sledge was killed 65 million years before and the dinosaurs never went extinct. This episode opens with the original timeline's version of Sledge and his crew emerging from a wormhole into the Ninja Steel universe, which they recognize as an alternate universe to their own -- which doesn't rule out the possibility that it's the same timeline created at the end of Dino Super Charge, I suppose, though I suspect it's meant to indicate that the two series are in completely unrelated realities, so as to dodge the issue of the dinosaurs being un-extincted in DSC's finale. Either way, though, does this mean that time travel in the PR universe creates a branching parallel history rather than erasing the original, since "OG" Sledge & crew's black-hole fate still happened? Or maybe OG Sledge & crew survived the erasure of the timeline they came from because they were no longer in it when the change happened.

Anyway, Sledge helps Madame Odius repair the Galaxy Warriors ship in exchange for an asteroid containing "Super Ninja Steel," although Odius and a new hench-monster (a prisoner of Sledge's whom Odius frees) contrive to steal the metal for themselves. But that means that Sledge & crew are still alive and active in the NS universe, and thus could potentially return in the future.

Aside from that, though, the episode is mainly about restoring the status quo that the previous finale upended -- getting the Rangers their powers (and Mick) back and putting Galaxy Warriors back on the air, just with Odius in charge instead of Galvanax. Even though their Ninja Steel is supposedly "Super" now, there's no evident difference in what they can do with it, and it kind of cheapens that big, decisive finale that it could all be reset so easily. And they're still relying way too much on juvenile grossout humor with Victor & Monty.

Well, I guess Brody's father being back is another significant change, although the actor really needs to work on his American accent. Anyway, how was he able to just open the trophy case right up to put the Ninja Steel-hiding trophy back in its old place? Don't they lock those things?

 

[Samurai8472]

Trailer # 4 for Lupinranger VS Patoranger

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Back to the three walled cockpit with the Lupiranger's. I wonder if the Patorangers will stay in individual cockpits like SPD/Dekaranger to save money and Kyuranger

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Slightly off topic. Everytime I see Ryu Commander's Ryuu Voyager I want to hum the Dairanger theme

 

[Samurai8472]

Lupinranger and Patoranger specific trailers

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Christopher]

Pretty mediocre Super Ninja Steel episode today -- "Moment of Truth," featuring a monster that feeds on lies just when Calvin is lying to Hayley about forgetting their "anniversary" as boyfriend and girlfriend. Could've had potential, but it played out pretty simplistically, and was wrapped up rather quickly so they could spend the last half of the episode on the monster fight.

The thing that seemed like a waste to me is that there wasn't really anything about the monster's design or behavior that fit the theme of being powered by lies. Indeed, ironically, the monster was truthful to a fault, unwisely blabbing to the Rangers about the source of his power, which let them figure out how to beat him. It would've been more interesting if the monster had been a compulsive liar, with the Rangers catching on that everything he said was a lie and thus deducing that their own lies were the source of his power. But the writing doesn't seem to have even that much cleverness anymore.

The corresponding Yokai from Ninninger was actually a Frankenstein-themed monster whose beam shut down machinery. He appeared along with Dracula and Wolf Man Yokai, so we may see monsters based on them soon.

 

[JD]

Boom! Studios has released a trailer for the upcomig PR crossover event series Shattered Grid featuring a narration by Jason David Frank as Lord Drakkon

Spoiler: Drakkon's real identity

aka evil alternate universe Tommy Oliver

.

Lupinranger and Patoranger specific trailers

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

So are they going to cut out any of the guns in the US version? I know people tend to be a bit more paranoid about characters using guns in kids' shows here.

 

[Christopher]

So are they going to cut out any of the guns in the US version? I know people tend to be a bit more paranoid about characters using guns in kids' shows here.

Only realistic-looking guns that fire bullets. The Power Rangers have always used their fancy, toyetic guns that fire energy bolts and turn into swords and batons and stuff. The concern is about the risk that kids may emulate what they see, so American kids' TV tends to censor things like realistic guns, punching people in the face (often implied but not shown on camera), that sort of thing.

There have been a few kids' cartoons that have gotten away with realistic-looking guns instead of fanciful ones that fired lasers. Batman: The Animated Series managed to get guns and bullets onscreen, though it had to be extremely circumspect about showing them hit anybody, which is why the Wayne murders were never overtly shown. The Rambo cartoon -- yes, there was one -- managed to have A-Team levels of gunplay, with people spraying bullets everywhere but only hitting inanimate objects. I'm not sure how it got away with that, considering that the show it most resembled, G.I. Joe, had all its soldiers use laser guns.

 

[Christopher]

Another mediocre Super Ninja Steel, as a monster impersonates a pretty street musician to attract Levi and trick him into singing a song that makes him evil. Okay. She's lucky he didn't sic his lawyers on her for performing his songs in public without paying him royalties.

They seem to be assigning monsters somewhat randomly to plots, or vice-versa, since they're giving monsters powers that the corresponding Yokai in Ninninger didn't have at all. According to RangerWiki, this one was an umbrella/fountain-pen monster that could make rain and fire explosive ink. There was a disguise theme, but it disguised itself as an umbrella in an attempt to trick the Ninningers' mentor into taking it to their secret dojo. It looks like they combined footage from that episode with the episode that introduced StarNinger (Levi's counterpart). There, he wasn't fighting the other Ninningers because he was evil, but because he saw them as competitors.

 

[Samurai8472]

If anyone wants to watch the first episode of Lupinranger VS Patoranger live here is the link

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/6hbd9KTpN63

Show starts in one hour

 

[Samurai8472]

Some breaking news on the power ranger side.

First new power rangers brand logo in 23 years

After 25 years together Bandai America and power rangers are going their separate ways

http://news.tokunation.com/2018/02/15/power-rangers-bandai-america-part-ways-50205

After a successful 25-year partnership building the iconic action franchise, Power Rangers, Saban Brands and Bandai have mutually agreed not to renew their global Power Rangers master toy license agreement, effective April 2019. Bandai will continue to support Power Rangers, including the 2018 commemoration of the Power Rangers 25th anniversary and the current season, Super Ninja Steel. In addition, Bandai, through its partnership with Toei Company Ltd., will continue to exploit toy rights for the Super Sentai series, which has enjoyed over 40 years of success, in Japan and select other Asian territories.

Nothing changes with Super Sentai. I guess Bandai America helping design certain things in Kyuranger was pointless.