Power Rangers
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I was a very big fan of Power Rangers since it came out when i was a toddler all they way up to a season called "Ninja Storm". Even then i started getting a little iffy on the series but the power rangers were my childhood heroes so i was dealing with it. I'm SO glad that Sabat bought back the rights because when I heard my little cousins where watching power rangers I thought "cool, they get the opportunity to see what us older kids got to see"... only to see a bunch of fucking fairies and mystical shit replacing the traditional japanese style of Power Rangers.
An update on the RP/Samurai team-up: it now appears that The Clash of the Red Rangers will be the first team-up in the franchise where the Rangers of the previous season (in this case RPM) will not be appearing out of costume. IOW, this will, at least in the case of the RPM Rangers, be a 'suit-only' team-up. This is slightly disappointing, in that I would've liked to have seen at least some of the RPM cast return, but isn't, at least for me, a complete deal-breaker. What is more important to me at this stage is to what degree Tzachor's slavish devotion to making his seasons of PR like their Sentai counterparts will impact the recognizability of the RPM Rangers and the world from which they hail, since RPM was drastically different than its Sentai counterpart.
What are you talking about? If you're referring to the Mystic Force season, that was built on a season of the Japanese original called Magiranger, which was in turn a knockoff of Harry Potter. The original Japanese Super Sentai shows that get adapted into Power Rangers are often highly imitative of popular trends -- Megaranger (Power Rangers in Space) copied a lot from Star Trek, Magiranger copied Harry Potter, Go-onger (Power Rangers RPM) was heavily influenced by Pixar's Cars, and the Sentai series currently airing in Japan is pirate-themed as a knockoff of the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
So it's the Japanese themselves who pick the theme of each season, and Power Rangers just follows their lead (it has to, since it recycles their FX footage and costumes).
And if you watched PR from the beginning through Ninja Storm, I don't know why you'd think it had a "traditional Japanese style." Out of those eleven seasons, the only ones that significantly played up any Japanese elements were Mighty Morphin' season 3 (the first "ninja" season) and Ninja Storm. For the most part, the stories were as Americanized as possible.
Ohh, that completely stinks. RPM had the best cast in the history of Power Rangers (maybe not quite as iconic and charismatic as the original MMPR team, but collectively more talented), and the richest character development.
Christopher, I agree with you that RPM had one of the best casts in the history of the franchise. However, there is such a marked difference, as noted, between RPM and its Sentai counterpart, Go-Onger, that I'm much more worried about the RPM Rangers coming across as completely unrecognizable in Tzachor's hands than I am about the RPM cast not being back for the team-up.
I do want to add, though, that some of the RPM cast may have indeed been able to voice their characters 'in-suit' for the team-up, but we probably won't know if anyone was able to make it back to provide voice-overs until it actually airs.
I do want to add, though, that some of the RPM cast may have indeed been able to voice their characters 'in-suit' for the team-up, but we probably won't know if anyone was able to make it back to provide voice-overs until it actually airs.
Oh, agreed. That's part and parcel of the same issue, as I see it. RPM created something unique, something of unprecedented quality for the franchise on every level -- the concept, the storytelling, the characterizations, the casting. If what we get has none of that, just the costumes and a Go-onger approach, that will be most unfortunate. (Particularly if they include the talking "Engines"/Zords that RPM so carefully expunged.)
Then again, maybe there's an out for those of us who are geeky enough. After all, this crossover is establishing that the RPM Rangers are from an alternate reality, right? Well, maybe the version of the RPM Rangers we're seeing here aren't from the same alternate reality as the ones from the RPM season itself. Maybe they're their counterparts from a goofier mirror universe.
(Aww, we need a Mirror Spock smiley.)
Harry Potter's success influenced Magiranger, but how is it a knockoff? Using magic and a train with a steam locomotive are the only things they have in common.
What exactly? Megaranger was set in a High School and was videogame/digital technology themed, I can't think of anything it copied from Star Trek.
It featured talking cars with eyes that are originally from a world populated by cars and other vehicles, but Go-Onger was not actually about that. I'm not sure it can be called heavily influenced by "Cars", the story and setting is completely different. At best it's a quasi spin-off about what would happen in characters from cars went to earth and started fighting environment polluting villains from a third dimension.
The pirate theme was actually chosen because of One Piece, but the series is more about the current heroes learning about the legacy of their predecessors.
It's true that sentai is influenced by popular franchises, but the similarities are usually superficial, have you even seen the shows? I'm asking because it's weird that you talk about copies, knockoffs and being heavily influenced, when the shows didn't have much (or nothing at all in the case of Megaranger/Star Trek) in common with the franchises you named.
Isn't that enough? "Knockoff" doesn't have to mean a direct copy. It's clear that the makers of Super Sentai were trying to capitalize on the Harry Potter craze, and that's all I meant.
Seriously? Try this:
http://www.supersentai.com/database/1997_megaranger/images/mega-mc-megaship.jpg
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/_...es/e/e3/USS_Defiant_firing_phaser_cannons.jpg
There's also PRiS's "simudeck," which was blatantly based on the holodeck, though I may have been wrong to assume that Megaranger did the same thing; I've found reference to a "digital world" there that was adapted as the "simudeck" scenes, but it seems to have been something different in the original.
Must you be so nitpicky? I'm not claiming exact duplication, okay? I'm saying that the makers of Super Sentai are clearly picking up on mass-media trends when they develop a lot of their seasons.
And the point is that Itachi seemed to think that the "fairies" and "mystical" stuff in the later seasons of Power Rangers were somehow a departure from the Japanese influences on the Saban seasons. I'm correcting that error by explaining that the themes of the seasons are determined in Japan and the PR incarnations follow their lead (for the most part -- RPM did its level best to be as different from Go-onger as it could).
Christopher is right. the people behind Super Sentai often 'borrow' aspects of popular movies/tv shows. i mean, just look at the Matrix style sfx of Timeranger. the Astro Megaship as the Defiant is a great example. heck, the bridge was set up in a way that was quite similar to that of the Defiant as well.
Yeah Mystic Force was what it was. But dude I don't care what knock-offs there were or how it was thought up. I just saw it and thought it sucked. I mean thats cool you know all that trivial stuff about it, but its not going to persuade me to change my mind about it if that's what you were aiming for.
And yes I DID watch it from MMPR to Ninja Storm, you can either believe me or not. But i think your reading FAR too much into the word "traditional". I know, my bad for leaving it unexplained, but i'm still getting used to everyone here taking EVERY SINGLE word far to literal and in doing so missing what i say entirely. So forgive me for that. What i meant is that Power Rangers TRADITIONALY had japanese influence.
Better?
No, all I was "aiming for" was to clarify the facts. You seemed to be suggesting that the use of magic in Mystic Force was caused by the transfer of the franchise from Saban to Disney, and that was a misconception. The decision to base that season on magic was made by Toei Studios in Japan, the same people who've produced Super Sentai from the beginning. I don't care whether you like the show or not, I just want people to have accurate information.
I knew that was what you meant, and of course it had Japanese influence because it was based on a long-running series created and produced in Japan. But most of the seasons of Power Rangers have been heavily Americanized in story as well as casting, so the Japanese elements that were there in the Super Sentai originals are mostly expunged from the Power Rangers adaptations. And that's no different post-Ninja Storm than pre-NS. All I'm trying to do is point out that the differences you perceive aren't really there. Since you didn't actually watch the show consistently post-NS, you wouldn't know that. There's really no reduction in the amount of Japanese influence in the post-NS seasons versus the pre-NS seasons.
It still does. The current season Power Ranger's Samurai is practically script for script/word for word from "Samurai Sentai Shinkenger"
NinjaStorm still had three goofball Ninja's who are the only survivors of an attack on their base. They also kept the hamster/gerbil aspect from Hurricanger
TimeForce was 50% like TimeRanger
Also Power Ranger's SPD had influences from "Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger.
Now here are some Disney seasons that went in a different direction from the original Sentai seasons they were adapted from.
To go back to Mystic Force. They abandoned the five ranger's being siblings from "Magiranger"
DinoThunder was also completely a 180 from Abaranger
Operation Overdrive was also different from Boukenger. They only kept the adventure motif.
Yes, In Megaranger, it's one of those "zap the enemy into an alternate reality" type of situations. Sort of like Triassic Ranger/Abaremax or the "Battle Grid" thing in VR Troopers.
I know this is mostly discussion of the current incarnation of the show, but here in Canada the Teletoon Retro network has begun airing the first season of the show (or to be precise the 1st season of the US version). What a strange little show it was back then - and it's still a trip to see Jules from Flashpoint (aka Amy Jo Johnson) jumping around as the Pink Ranger. Luckily we're seeing the original versions, not the rather bizarre, bowdlerized versions that aired on ABC Family a few years ago. Check out this website to see what happened: http://www.grnrngr.com/rvpr/index.html
After reading that, when I think of Star Trek TOS Remastered I can honestly point to something and go "it could have been so much worse"! (Well this and Fox Kids's huge fail when it tried to revamp Thunderbirds! Don't ask.)
Alex
After reading that, when I think of Star Trek TOS Remastered I can honestly point to something and go "it could have been so much worse"! (Well this and Fox Kids's huge fail when it tried to revamp Thunderbirds! Don't ask.)
Alex
Since discussion of other seasons has re-entered the equation, I decided to give S.P.D. a second chance, and, this time around, all of the issues I had with the season that had turned me off previously have actually ceased being as big of a deal, and I'm starting to come around as to just how good it actually is. I still think there are seasons out there that are better (such as RPM, Ninja Storm, and Time Force), but there's now less of a gap between my opinion of the season and the fandom's majority opinion of the season.
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So having watching "Power Ranger's Samurai" "Origin's" episode, it was pretty much a direct translation of Shinkenger episode.
They even played the opening theme during the first fight.
Shinkenger episode 1 clip
Sorry it's dubbed in Latino. It was the only clip I could find
[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcBl_JAO7FM[/YT]
Power Ranger's Samurai
[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh4A0RW19VE[/YT]
They even played the opening theme during the first fight.
Shinkenger episode 1 clip
Sorry it's dubbed in Latino. It was the only clip I could find
[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcBl_JAO7FM[/YT]
Power Ranger's Samurai
[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh4A0RW19VE[/YT]
Gokaiger is actually a very obvious rip off of the manga/anime One Piece. Each of the main five main pirate characters are copies of One Piece characters. The most egregious are the characters of Red, Blue and Yellow.
I think the shift towards copying is more due to the timeslot change (to an early morning one) that is more geared towards children and emphasis on selling merchandise undoubtedly due to the increased funding from the toy companies.
I'd say Green is a pretty clear ripoff of a One Piece character too. I get some strong Usopp vibes from him.
