Oh Lord, Masked Rider. There's a reason Kamen Rider fans pretend it doesn't exist...well, several, really. All relating to the fact that it sucked on ice. Oddly enough, the backstory presented in Power Rangers is different from what they used in the actual show. Not to mention, they were at least self-aware enough to have a villain in a later series be watching Masked Rider and laughing at it.
Season 3 was kind of a blur to my adolescent mind. The whole ninja thing was pretty cool, but I always felt that the switch from Kim to Kat was kind of awkward, not in the least because Tommy apparently transferred his romantic interests along with the Pink Ranger powers. The Alien Rangers were pretty dull, but it was cool to see a woman leading the team for once.
You're totally right tho, they could have at least gotten new helmets with the power changes. Heck, they were getting original monsters, it shouldn't have been any harder. (And in retrospect, it's also kind of strange that they never gave the White Ranger suit a modified belt to hold the Morpher like the other five, making it look like his Morpher just disappeared post-transformation.)
Seriously though, no Twilight jokes regarding the sparkly costumes? You obviously have better restraint than I.
I'm a little sad that you didn't touch on The Potion Notion though. It had my favourite scene of the season, that being Kimberly asking Skull to dance after completely turning him down (after completely fawning over him while under a love spell). It really exemplifies the new relationship between the bullies and the heroes. Not to mention the rumour that Kim was supposedly going to be revealed as married to Skull in an earlier draft of Forever Red. I'd go so far as to say that Kim and Skull had more chemistry in that one scene then she and Tommy had in the rest of the series, but that's just me.
Oh well, there's no way you could've covered every episode. Great job, and I can't wait for the rest.
"I'm a little sad that you didn't touch on The Potion Notion though. It had my favourite scene of the season, that being Kimberly asking Skull to dance after completely turning him down (after completely fawning over him while under a love spell)."
Yeah, I had to cut a lot for time, including that scene, but the important part WAS pointing out the changed relationship with the teens.
Duuuuuuuude! Those metallic costumes were awesome, man! NOT! I had honestly forgotten about that until watching this then it all came flooding back. When I heard metallic, I thought that they were gonna go with the suits from the movie. Now THAT would've been hardcore!
The Blobber (despite the stupid as all Hell name) was one of my favorite monsters for the simple reason that I really like the idea of a villain taking on aspects of a hero's power/appearance (prob the reason why Venom is my favorite Spidey villain). Also, despite what anyone says, I f*&=ing loved Masked Rider as a kid. Yeah I was a pretty dumb kid.
Anyway, great job as always Lewis. The only thing that sucks is that I have to wait for the next one. AHHH!
Wow, congratulations on yet another great episode in this series. It's been a great pleasure watching these episodes because it brings back so many memories. I had forgotten almost everything, so thank you.
It's kind of odd though to hear you reference the Sentai series so much, because as a kid I had no idea that the footage belonged to two different shows. xD
The one thing that bothered me though was the fact that the movie wasn't canon. As a kid I had no idea what was going on.
Thank you for doing these, I hope you do go through every season, I kinda stopped watching the series after in space started. So getting to see someone else's take on the series is an entertaining watch.
I love your reviews, especially the Power Ranger ones lately. I hope you don't take this the wrong way, because you're my favorite online reviewer right now, but could you maybe slow down your speech just a little bit? I noticed in this review that occasionally I had to backtrack to get exactly what you said. I thought I was listening to Yahtzee for a minute.
For what it's worth man... I didn't watch a single episode of the power rangers after about halfway through season one... and you're somehow making this series of videos interesting enough for me to watch each all the way through.
I think the reason why they didn't use different helmets because for one thing, they didn't use the Kakuranger suits in the main series, as those were the suits being used by the Aquitan Rangers. Also, as shown by the "Metallic Armor" and the Ninja/Shogun Ultrazords, they weren't that great at making their own stuff for the series itself.
Although they could have used the movie suits, which at least looked more armor-like than the Sparkle Armor.
Huh, and i thought I was the only one who was annoyed by the civilian powers that the Rangers would get, in later seasons.
Nice review as always, Linkara. Nice to see a critical look at these seasons, though I'm still a bit flabbergasted that you're doing the entire series.e
1st The Power Ranger / Masked Rider crossover was generally the first instance people ever got to see "Super Sentai" having a crossover with "Kamen Rider" Something that didn't happen in the Japanese series until the 2000s
2nd References to DBZ, before DBZ even started airing in the US
During the time Kakurangers (the Sentai Series season 3 was based off) was being made in Japan, DBZ was nearing it's conclusion and was in the prime of it's popularity, and so the writers slipped in several references to the anime.
Daimaou (Vile) vomiting out a egg to create Daradara (Blue Globbor) mimicked the way Piccolo Daimao spawned his minions.
Daradara himself was directly based off the DBZ villain Majin Buu, mainly his liquid nature and the ability to devour his opponents and use their powers.
He first devoured Ninjaman (Ninjor) and then the Kakurangers with only Ninja Red - Sasuke escaping this fate and having to fight alone to save his friends.
Of course by the end of the story-arc Daradara was defeated and the heroes freed, but it made for a quite epic story and good developement for Sasuke
- The Masked Rider crossover to open the season was lame, as was the show it later spawned. Though to be fair, a comic adaptation based on Masked Rider released by Marvel around 1995 wasn't that half-bad. However, props to the producers for actually making an Americanized Zord battle.
- The "Metallic Sparkly Toy" armour was, in my opinion, nothing more but a cash-grab to get kids to buy Power Rangers toys.
- The destruction of the Thunderzords was the first of MANY traumatizing moments for me this season, alongside the Rangers getting turned to kids, and of course, the season-ending cliffhanger.
- The Alien Rangers were just kinda there, but I never understood why aliens would wear ninja garbs, but I digress.
- I love the fact that they were reduced to using the toys to incorporate Titanus back into the show. Again, it was nothing more but a move to sell more toys.
- The "Cab" episode another move again to, you guessed it, sell more toys.
- I love how the Rangers were forgiving and welcoming to Kat after her face turn, when in the new opening credits, they look less than impressed. Maybe it's just me.
- A filler episode that you didn't mention, where the baddies send a hate-based villain to get the Rangers to hate eachother was kinda disappointing. Mind you, the final battle was pretty cool, but it would've been crazy to see the hate-influenced Rangers to fight each other whilst morphed.
- A battle featuring multiple Zords & monsters without the use of stock footage? Awe. Some.
Great video as always man. You mentioned the man who wrote the theme. I thought it was Shuki Levy (who also produced the series) who wrote the main theme. I mention it because it is listed on his site shukilevy.com under his compositions section. Was it a co-writing theme credit you over looked? Was is Shuki did some work with the series and just listed the work under that show?
Great job Lewis I really love this series. I am 16 and I grew up with Turbo, In Space, and Lost Galaxy (with reruns or MMPR and PRZ being present constantly) I really am glad someone can kind of be the voice of the Power Rangers fans like you are.
I honestly never watched Power Rangers after the first season. I was never a very big TV watcher (I preferred books and video games), so the only time I ever watched Power Rangers was when I was going to a daycare. Needless to say, put me down as another going on Youtube to find episodes. It's fascinating! I knew that Johnny Yong Bosch had been the Black Ranger at some point, but the first time I remember him was voicing Vash the Stampede. It's fun to go back and see a baby Johnny Yong Bosch as the Black Ranger.
And now to go play with Youtube to make it give me season three episodes. I don't know if I should thank you or hate you for this, Linkara.
I agree with SynjoDeonecros that the civilian powers didn't always work for me. It was worse in another Saban show, Beetleborgs, but everything about that show was worst. Masked Rider was better by comparisson.
For what I recall, Masked Rider was toned down because of some of the fallout of Power Rangers at the time. (Odd, since the original footage came from one of the darker shows of the time, Black RX, but I'm still on Black and I'm only going by what I've read.) Apparently kids were acting out the show (you know, because kids have been doing that since radio--heck I could imagine kids playing out Greek myths way back when stories were only spoken) and getting hurt by playing martial artist. Parents complained ("why can't these kids play a non-violent role-play like Cowboys and Indians, like we did?") Fox responded, but still wanted that Japanese reacted genre money.
The result is that the only other good live-action show we had from Saban at the time was VR Troopers.
The Masked Rider footage was from Kamen Rider Black RX, aired in 1989, Zyuranger was 1992-1993.
Another fact: Barbara Goodson also did the voice for Laharl from Disgaea. After finding that out, I can't hear Disgawa in the same way again.
Rito Revolto? He has a different last name? Did Rita take Zedd's last name or something?
About the special powers: Obviously, the new zords (and later the Alien Ranger costumes) were from a new Sentai, this one called Ninja Sentai Kakuranger. The gimmick being ninja, they were able to use jutsu (ninja magic, also used in Naruto.)
Also, the toad that the one ranger seemed to dislike was because his Sentai counterpart was named Jiraia.
One more thing about Kakuranger, in Power Rangers, a rival team of rangers wouldn't occur until In Space, but Kakuranger had one for most of the series (as opposed to Megaranger's Nejirangers that were a fairly late plot development, and they were also probably the best rival team of rangers.) The Hanarangers as Kakuranger called them were created from cats (a plot twist which Power Rangers seems to have used anyway) by the character who was used for Rito Repulso.
I'm enjoying these. I'm a huge Sentai fan, but I haven't seen very much of Power Rangers, so it's cool to see what was done with the footage. I'm especially looking forward to the Turbo and In Space installments, since they're based off two of my favorite Sentai series.
Great video as usual (keep it up!) but there was one thing that annoyed me. Sometimes you have a tendency to describe something rather than let us actually see it for ourselves. Here's a good example: At the start, you mention that one of the people from the Masked Rider series was a bad actor with poor inflection, but unfortunately you don't let us actually hear anything he's saying so we can see it for ourselves. Would've been great if you had said that, and then let us hear him talk to demonstrate your point.
"but there was one thing that annoyed me. Sometimes you have a tendency to describe something rather than let us actually see it for ourselves. Here's a good example: At the start, you mention that one of the people from the Masked Rider series was a bad actor with poor inflection, but unfortunately you don't let us actually hear anything he's saying so we can see it for ourselves."
Sometimes I have to cut things due to video length, which is usually series footage.
I’ve been meaning to write this seeing right after your fist Power Rangers season review went up. I just have to express my appreciation for what you’re doing.
I was never into the Power Rangers. I’m in my mid-30s, so it didn’t come around when I was the age for it to be *my* show. But at the time I as still checked it out Fox Kids and I recall seeing the first episode. I didn’t get into it. I recall seeing a few episodes here and there, noting that things had changed and becoming increasingly more confused when seeing a person turn into a cat and so forth. And over the years, wiener they made a whole different series, for a while I checked out one episode of it to see what was going on now. (I recall watching the premier of that one that was set in the far future but had historical records of the past Rangers and thinking, “Wow, this is a great concept” but didn’t continue on. I also recall seeing that one when they’re in the present day serving a Naval officer from an underwater base and thinking, “How does this connect with anything?” Maybe that revelation about Ninjor making the rangers coins from this season’s review is an explanation. I’ll have to wait and see.)
But even though I’ve been only periodically curious about and never into Power Rangers, I often find it fascinating to hear people discuss things that interest them even if I am indifferent to or even dislike the thing that interest them. So again, thank you. You have don a great deal to explain the charm you find, as well as explaining those surprising changes I recall from those scattered episodes I did watch. At the end of this, I’ll get a better understanding of a big Popular Culture Phenomena that is significant both in its initial boom and in its longevity.
Again, thank you. And I look forward to learning more as the series progresses.
I remember that with Power Rangers the movie they released action figures of the Rangers that had a metallic paint job. Was the metallic armor used in the show as a tie in with the metallic painted figures that were still being made?
Technically, while Rita and Zedd did destroy the Machine Empire, it's implied in Zeo and Space that they can repair themselves over a set period of time, when we see Mondo destroyed in Zeo, but come back before season's end, and the entire Empire's royal court destroyed at the end of Zeo, but we see them fine in Space. But that's somewhat spoileriffic and we'll cross that bridge once we get into one of my personal favorite Power Rangers seasons.
Also, I'm kind of surprised that you didn't mention the Christmas episode that showed up in the Ninja saga. However, since there's a Christmas episode in Zeo as well, I'll figure that you'll address that next segment. Nice recap of the Ninja and Alien saga, overall.
Are there any plans to go over the ancillary Ranger stories, like the comics and direct-to-video specials? I realize it's probably too late, as the lion's share of them were devoted to MMPR Seasons 2 and 3, but maybe an appendix video at the end of this (absolutely wonderful) retrospective would be possible?
I know you've covered Marvel MMPR #1 (still my favorite episode of At4W), but Marvel published a total of 12 issues under two different titles. The previous rights-holder, Hamilton Comics, published ten issues under two "volumes", as well as a three-part recap of the TV series through White Light.
I don't know what happened behind the scenes on the Image's Zeo comic, but it was canceled after a single issue. Three triple-length one-shots were published during Turbo's run (including a crossover with Beetleborgs Metallix, another Japanese superhero adaptation), but that was it as far as American PR comics. The UK got some unique comics of its own later (MUCH later), but I've been at a loss to find scans of them.
As for the direct-to-video stuff, they basically represent the nadir of the series. Alpha's Magical Christmas was the first, and... it's unspeakable. Take MMPR's target age group and divide by two, and you've found the only people who can stand to watch it. Then there was the Power Rangers stage production that was making the rounds back in '95, and managed to get an official video release once the tour was completed. While interesting, the audience participation parts were unbearably corny, even by MMPR standards.
Last but not least is The Good, the Bad, and the Stupid. While mostly a clip show of Bulk and Skull's antics throughout the first three seasons, a passable frame story is built around it, with Bulk and Skull trapped in a cave during the events of The Changing of the Zords. The interaction between Bulk and Skull is shown in a bit more touching light, as the two face the prospect of death in the cave.
There was also Lord Zedd's Monster Heads, which isn't worth noting, as every single frame of the program is stock footage. Seriously, everything. It was as cheap a money-grab as they could possibly make.
If any of this sounds the least bit interesting, send me an e-mail at jamesgalloway@windstream.net, and I can hook you up if need be.
To add to Johnboy's comments about MMPR comics, there was an issue of the 12 issue MMPR Marvel comic where the Rangers had to fight an evil group of Power Rangers who wore the old suits (in the comics the teens were in their Ninja Ranger garbs), and used the Thunderzords. Unfortunately, the story was left unresolved before anything good could happen. What happens, basically, is that the Dark Rangers form the MegaTigerzord and leave for some reason. One particularly bizarre issue was where the Rangers had to stop humans who were turned into merchandise-devouring monsters by Zedd. Once we see these humans as the monsters, I'm sure you'll lose your appetite. Also of note is that Masked Rider comic I mentioned in my previous comment, which features the Power Rangers. Like I said before, the plot is actually alright, and the execution is better than the show.
(I have no knowledge of the Hamilton Comics MMPR issues, so I can't really speak for its quality.)
Also, some other interesting factoids about the Image (seriously, they of the Liefeldian "EXTREME!!!1" style, writing friggin' Power Rangers comics?!) Zeo comics (I should say "comic", in this case.) Supposedly, there was going to be a crossover with the Zeo Rangers and (yes, I'm being dead serious here..) of all things, Youngblood. That's right a comic based on a childrens' show teaming up with the epitome of EXTREME!!!1 I'll let that sink in. Also, had the Zeo comic continued, the dangling plothole in the first issue would've culminated in Billy supposedly becoming an evil "Grey Ranger" of some sort. (According to a post on RangerBoard)
As for the Turbo/Beetleborgs crossover comic, man did it ever sucked. An incoherent plot? Check. Art that looks like it was drawn by a bored high-school student? Check. I unfortunately don't have a copy, but I'm sure someone will be gracious enough to lend one. Another Turbo comic features the Rangers fighting a monster called "Simple Simon", who brainwashes half the team. The art in this story is just horrendous, as Tommy was coloured green for some reason and at some points, it's unclear which Rangers are brainwashed. Needless to say, it sucked arse.
I don't mind saying this but I had the hugest crush on Kat while watching Power Rangers. And I just saw a recent video of her and WOW! she still looks gorgeous!
Fun fact about the 4 parter. When Bulk and Skull announce that they will be joining the Jr. Police force and the camera pans through the Juice Bar, you can see that they pulled a Flintsones; they recycled the footage of the pan to make the room seem larger and you can see two of every person
Anonymous said... I don't mind saying this but I had the hugest crush on Kat while watching Power Rangers. And I just saw a recent video of her and WOW! she still looks gorgeous!
Is my subconscious posting here without me?
As for the Hamilton Comics, I won't say that they were better (although I thought they were), just more faithful and only a few issues had a small back-up feature. That was better than Marvel's stuffing 2 stories into one comic. Some of the early issues had Zedd throwing his staff to make monsters grow, but the episodes hadn't aired at the time the stories were made, so there wasn't much they could do there.
Marvel had another Ranger series that was one of Linkara's "favorite" type of comics, a flip-book, shared with the VR Troopers. The early "Ninja Ranger" stories had more interaction with the locals, but that didn't last long. The only story there I was remotely interested in was the VR Trooper story with an Ultraman analog. :)
Actually, Masked Rider did air for a second year, but I'm not surprised if people missed it. The first year aired on Fox, but for the second season it got moved to the syndicated market, and it came on 8:00 AM in my area on weekdays, which is pretty bad if you have to be at school.(I had to be out the house by around 7:30) I only caught it during the summer. I seem to remember the show being so-so, it didn't really leave a big impression on me the way VR Troopers or Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad did.
I did think it was strange that Masked Rider absolutely, never mentioned Power Rangers again, especially when it came on Fox. I kept wondering if Zedd ever noticed Dregon was orbiting the Earth. It was so weird that it never came up!
I got to admit, you made a good point about Zedd being more successful as a married man. And unlike Master Vile, he had more stick-to-it-ivness. Master Vile tried his hand a few times and just gave up. Wuss.
I'd hate to be a nitpicker but the season opener wasn't the first time they used new Zord footage with American versions of the Tigerzord and Thunder Megazord costumes. The episode "Best Man for the Job" from the second season had them as well as they can be seen from 3:14 onward in this youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xncQgRrBKOo&feature=related
I totally forgot about the glitter armor! I agree on the examples cited when you think armor!
Nice you bring up the Masked Rider stuff! Even if it was watered down and chopped up so much, it bore nothing from it's source (or sources) TV-Y for Masked Rider vs TV-Y7 for Power Rangers, ratings in the US.
Nice special shout out to Titanus!
So until my plan to use the Zeo Crystal to power my weapon, if they don't uncancel "Wolverine & The X-Men" suceeds, MAKE MINE LINKARA!!!
Ahh a very nice trip down memory lane, as for the problems with the whole Ninja MegaZord and other stuff that seemed odd for this season, I am going to have to bring up the sentai footage that was used in making the third season
1) In Kakuranger(the footage used) there was no PINK RANGER or really a sixth for that matter in fact the crane zord was for the White Ranger and the Falcon was a seperate thing altogether.
2) They used the sentai footage in the wrong sequence see the Shogunzords came first then the Flaconzord then the Ninja megazord so the whole thing with the capture of the falconzord=no more Ninja megazord makes somewhat more sense
So really what the writers are trying to do is use the footage they had on hand and adapt it for power rangers as best as they could, as for why they used it out of sequence I guess it better fits with the established cannon that they had created and had to make something a little more acceptable for why they couldn't use the Ninja Megazord while the Falconzord was captured. Otherwise KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.
Awesome history of Power Rangers so far... just a little question: i know you said you wont mention the movie and dont know if its really something behind it but... what's with the paralels between the season 3 and the movie? where there for a reason or for nothing in particular?
anyway keep going, you're doing a great job... and dont know why but today i thought that the continuity alarm will explode if it appears in this reviews
This season is the weirdest in terms of the monsters. They fight a monster than turns them into footballs. What show apart from Power Rangers would ever do that?
Also, will you change the theme song of these videos to suit whatever season you're reviewing, eg, the Zeo theme song for your Zeo review?
I remember this season! I remember as a little girl feeling annoyed because Kimberly was my favourite ranger (ie. the only female one with a personality) and the new ones didn't really have any defining character traits, not even the broad brushstroke characters of the original team.
This was the last season I actually watched, since by the time Zeo came out in the UK, I was getting to around 11 and lacking a TV of my own, didn't want to get caught watching power rangers by my siblings ¬_¬; (in Britain, 11 years old you're at high school, so it's generally considered the age you should grow out of kids TV...except Doctor Who, obviously. Everybody watches that). I'm looking forward to seeing what I missed, since I didn't follow Power Rangers for years, right up until RPM. Really enjoying this series!
The other Wizard Of Oz parallel was that Rita basically had a flying monkey as her main general.
BTW, Goldar is the most badass 2nd-in-command monster from any of these sentai shows ever! How can you not love a guy who begins every other scentence with the phrase "Nuuugh!"
You might not want to fuck with the kamen rider fans talking about masked rider. Ishimori the who innovated the idea of tokusatsu (superheroism of rangers) really hated masked rider. I mean the japanese television series was fucking awesome and its even better than Power Rangers. But its just horrible.
Hey, Linkara. Seeing as you're taking the time to watch every series of Power Rangers, it shouldn't be to hard to research the Sonic the Hedgehog comic and do a review on that, right?
Yes, it would, I'm afraid. For one thing, I actually watched Power Rangers during its first six years, so nostalgia plus remembering a lot of this stuff helped weed out what was filler and what was good.
Sonic comics, on the other hand, have an extensive history that I have no place to start plus I lack any kind of emotional connection to it since I never watched any sonic series except the occasional episode of AoSTH at, like, 7 AM when I had to wake up for something.
I can't wait for your review on Zeo! Also, did you know there was a Power Rangers Turbo movie? It serves as somewhat of a pilot to the Turbo season itself.
Could you put up a list of which episodes are worth watching for each season so if anybody gets inspired to go back and watch they will know what to skip and what is important?
Season 3 is roughly where I stopped watching regular.
I barely remember Masked Rider. Seeing the new Zord footage, I think I regret that since the stock footage Zords was one of the reasons I dropped the show. Though perhaps the new Zords would not have been enough considering they foisted Masked Rider on us.
Masked Rider also reminds me of...Dune. Maybe it's the dust everywhere and the hoods and cheesey expressions. Long live the fighters!
Wow. I'm glad I missed the Zords falling apart on one level. I'm sure I would still be bitter about it in much the same way I have yet to forgive whoever gave the order to burn the Enterprise-D sets. On the other I'm still a mecha fan, writing mecha stories (though American flavor ones like BattleTech) and it took me an age to produce a mental image of a giant robot's destruction that was remotely that visceral on a diet of MechWarrior games and Robotech. It was until Stand Alone Complex and in particular Testation rolled in through my TV that I could really visual combat between robotic entities as anything like that visceral, and to a great extent I think that stunted by efforts to write it.
Ninjor's outfit is shockingly 40k Space Marine, complete with the PAULDRONS. I remember him vaguely, but I'd forgotten that voice. An outfit like that and he sounds like a twerp? Come on people, he ought to be dripping badass. His getup is tailor-made for some kind of full-conversion cyborg/powered armor-based series in retrospect, pity nobody used it that way.
...oh god. Now we come to it. The Final Argument. The Death of Watchers.
The ninja getups. I hated the ninja getups. I dropped the show like it was radioactive because of the ninja getups. I wanted to set the ninja getups on fire, and now you bring that hatred back to me in full force years later. I'm surprised it has endured so well in this age of Naruto and other Highly Visible Ninjas, but then my hate for them remains undiminished too.
Which is just as well, because I would have hated Kat's guts. And the rest of her, but mostly her guts. Kimberly was the gold standard for fictional females of my pre-adolescent days. (Though soon enough she was replaced by a succession of other characters, with the current gold standard and likely holder for life being Motoko Kusanagi.)
Ah, Rita. World domination is not enough if you can't have your petty, amusing revenges. Zed may be more effective, but Rita really gets the possiblities of the supervillian gig in a way Zed never did.
40k infiltrates, bit by bit, with the Chaos-esque concept of evil corrupting not only people but places, and that people can be made bad against their will. It must have followed Ninjor's pauldrons.
The surreality of the end of the world is...well obviously, it's because they're trying to make up for the darkness. Zed and Rita's marriage was to lighten and soften the show too. Not that this really helps, but you take what justification you can get or you end up with a 17th century pistol to your head while screaming "ANTILIFE JUSTIFIES MY HATE".
I guess the Digimon/Power Rangers thing became fully realized in Digimon Frontier.
Do think you may do a Digimon retropective in the near future? I loved that series. Until they stopped airing it 17 episodes through Tamers for no reason.
One thing I remember bothering me with the whole time travel thing was that Tanya was actually a kid. When they return the world to normal, suddenly Tanya is a teenager, which for her means she was suddenly aged up, clothing and all.
It's the same problem as the aliens in Act of God, where she changes in a way that is not normal for her when everyone else changes and no one blinks at it, even her. I do not recall them ever addressing this, although I believe they did spend some time addressing her being from the past.
Will you talk about the Zeo promos that I recall, they got me SUPER hyped for Zeo, they really went out of there way to promote the Zeo series , slowly revealing the opening to us, it was almost painful! Also the song is... awesome.
Actually no, the MR/MMPR crossover in season 3 was not the first crossover of Sentai and KR. In Goranger vs. JAKQ, there's cameo appearances of Kamen Rider V3, Amazon, and even Kikaider. While they didn't fight onscreen together, it still counts as the first crossover. Toku didn't get anything close to what Saban did until Shinkenger World in the later half of Decade.
Second, the worst thing about the Shogun Megazord being used in Titanus was that they used the American toy for the footage...meaning that the Shogun Megazord in those scenes has a pink arm, when there was no Pink Shogunzord. It made it look twice as bad.
Finally, even as a kid I was annoyed by Aisha being written off the show so casually. Nothing was lost I guess since she was probably the least developed of all the characters (though between her, Rocky, and Adam, that's a hard call to make). I always did feel bad for Rocky though, because there was no way he was ever going to live up to Jason's legacy, especially since Tommy had taken over the role of leader.
I have always held M.M.P.R. (and the Power Rangers series) as something of a "guilty pleasure". It was cheesy, and seemed to have low production standards...
And yet, I watched it. Mostly because I curious what they were going to do next. I guess it is bit like sitting down and reading some old Silver Age issues of Superman. You know that they are going to have some (okay, a lot) of goofy stories and plots, but that just seems to be part of the fun.
Hmm, kind of unrelated to Power Rangers, but relevant to early morning/early afternoon programming in the 90s: I'd actually really like to see your take on the original X-Men cartoon. It's a bit out of your normal field of expertise so I can understand if you'd be reluctant to, but it's probably one of the shows that really got me into comics/sci-fi in the first place, and I'd love to hear some critical commentary on it.
Was it just me, or was Rita looking very pregnant in some of those clips?
I'm enjoying this miniseries of yours way more than I thought I would. (I should say, I'm more interested in what happens next than I thought I would be. I never doubted you'd put out something enjoyable.) I never saw an episode of MMPR past season 2, so we're past the point that I have nostalgia for, but I'm still looking forward to the next installment. I'd like to see you do something in a documentary style with longer episodes someday. You could level up to Ken Burns, if you wanted.
But I do agree that this episode felt... I don't want to say "rushed" because I know how hard you work, but that's really the only way I can describe it. You had to cut so much that it felt forced into the 30ish-minute time-slot. Maybe that was the sign that Season 3 needed to be done in 2 videos instead of one.
All-in-all, though, good job. Like I said, I'm looking forward to hearing about the Zeo Rangers, even though I never watched them, so you've got me interested in something brand-new to me. Although, considering you're basically the only reason I ever picked up Blue Beetle, 52, Wonder Woman, and All-Star Superman, that might be par for the course. ;)
Anyway, good luck slogging through JLA:AoG. I may have an atrocious indy miniseries for you, if I can find the rest of the issues, so may the power protect you!
I am continuously amazed at how many times I find myself saying "hey, I remember that!" while watching these videos.
And yeah, I remember not liking Masked Rider much as a kid. I seem to recall being put off in some way by the visual aesthetics, and looking back on it now it did look a lot more "out there" than Power Rangers.
Also, I liked the Digimon joke at the start. I still have fond memories of that show as an early introduction to anime that was a bit more mature than Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z (despite all the violence DBZ is one hell of an immature show) and I've been meaning to track down the japanese versions and rewatch them.
The fact that cracks me up to no end is that Master Vile is apparently wearing granny glasses. It's IMPOSSIBLE to look bad-ass wearing those glasses. I have to wonder if the Sentai monster had those or if Power Rangers slapped them on to make him less scary for the kiddies.
Even more frightening is trying to figure out how the hell the Vile/Repulsa(o) family works! Witch thingy, Skeleton Lich, sired by a ...snake monster guy? I presumed as a kid that they were Viles kids in the sense that he made them (ie vomited them up like he did the other monster).
I meant to drop a quick line and thank you for this project. You're clearly passionate about the material and it shows. I never really got into the Power Rangers, as it was coming on as I was making the transition away from Saturday morning television, but the theme song is so distinctive and you couldn't make it through the channels most weekday afternoons without seeing it in syndication, so I know a little bit.
I'm fascinated by the way the creative team wove all these very different Japanese television series into something resembling a cohesive whole. Is there a period when the show becomes largely it's own entity or does this continue well into the series' present state?
Regardless, thanks for the history lesson and the information on a piece of fun from the often abused '90s.
I'm glad to see Titanus was finally covered here, he was so awesome! Ninjor as well. It's too bad discussion of the movie was omitted. I think it was rather relevant.
Izan Ooze repeated what Zedd started in storming the command center, and what was critical about the film was actually getting to see what Zordon looked like outside of the tube.
Just wanted to say first off that you're doing a great job with the Power Rangers history. I was a hardcore fan as a kid up until Turbo(in my mid 20s now) and watching these up til Turbo is a nice reliving of old memories, and I look forward to future installments.
If I may make a suggestion as to why they didn't need the sword to transfer Kimberly's powers - not having that direct connection since it would drain her life-force, as established in the 3 part-er for this season, it should only take someone else possessing the coin and getting infused with energy to obtain the powers. Somewhat similar to how the Green Ranger powers were transferred to Jason temporarily.
While with the Jason, Zack, Trini transfer since they were still directly connected to their powers, so it would have taken some intervention, but it's more like a copy-paste thing since the old rangers are able to call upon their powers during guest spots in later seasons, although they are weaker.
On another note, completely forgot about the glittering armor, which I thought was pretty dumb myself. Movie costumes would have been a lot better.
Truth be told, this was my favorite season of the series, and my all time favorite of power rangers.
First, I loved the ninja thing, though the costumes should have changed to the ones the Alien Rangers had. I always loved those costumes, they just screamed "ninja" and each one had a sword. That's awesome.
Also, one filler I wished you had mentioned was "Another Brick in The Wall". Even though it's another example of Rita's evil plan being to reck another youth project, the episode is awesome for two reasons. One, the solution to the problem of the day is polution. Second, it was the only time a single ranger who wasn't the red/green/white ranger defeated the monster.
Great series! I'm watching all of them right now on the computer at work... I felt the need to comment on this one in particular, though, because I've sold six tenga in the last hour. (I work at a sex shop, tenga are a new kind of male masturbator that have just come out. Go GO power rangers.)
But seriously, this is a great series. I love all your stuff, but the Power Rangers in particular are such a fun flashback to my childhood... kind of makes the tenga thing all the more disturbing.
The channels I had as a kid never played any seasons other than the first, and I saw this season on DVD and got it recently and started watching it with my nieces. I haven't finished watching it yet so I probably shouldn't have seen this video, but I'm glad I did because I missed a LOT of parts due to the girls being very young and with their attention spans not quite to the point where they can sit and pay attention to something for more than ten minutes or so.
Great review! Linkara, in your opinion, would having an Aquatar alien return as a ranger or ally to the rangers in future power ranger seasons be a good idea or bad idea? Are they an alien species best left forgotten like the Gungans from Star Wars The Phantom Menace or could they be salvaged & made interesting rather than annoying?
My own biggest issues with them were that they (1) had those odd distorted water gargling voices (2) were ALWAYS getting dehydrated & needed saving & (3) all more or less behaved in the same stereotypical "odd quirky alien" fashion rather than having distinct personalities or acting like real people who just happen to be from another world...It be like if an entire star trek crew acted like bad copies of Mr. Spock or Data, it makes for a distinct lack of individuality & makes you question how advanced they really are if they lose their cool over humans fishing for clearly non-sentient lifeforms.
I think it would be interesting to have more aliens serve as rangers again, but only if they actually have real personalities (like Kruger from S.P.D.)
Yay, new video! Unfortunately it's bedtime for me, but I can't wait to watch it tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteOh Lord, Masked Rider. There's a reason Kamen Rider fans pretend it doesn't exist...well, several, really. All relating to the fact that it sucked on ice. Oddly enough, the backstory presented in Power Rangers is different from what they used in the actual show. Not to mention, they were at least self-aware enough to have a villain in a later series be watching Masked Rider and laughing at it.
ReplyDeleteSeason 3 was kind of a blur to my adolescent mind. The whole ninja thing was pretty cool, but I always felt that the switch from Kim to Kat was kind of awkward, not in the least because Tommy apparently transferred his romantic interests along with the Pink Ranger powers. The Alien Rangers were pretty dull, but it was cool to see a woman leading the team for once.
You're totally right tho, they could have at least gotten new helmets with the power changes. Heck, they were getting original monsters, it shouldn't have been any harder. (And in retrospect, it's also kind of strange that they never gave the White Ranger suit a modified belt to hold the Morpher like the other five, making it look like his Morpher just disappeared post-transformation.)
Seriously though, no Twilight jokes regarding the sparkly costumes? You obviously have better restraint than I.
Great review.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little sad that you didn't touch on The Potion Notion though. It had my favourite scene of the season, that being Kimberly asking Skull to dance after completely turning him down (after completely fawning over him while under a love spell). It really exemplifies the new relationship between the bullies and the heroes. Not to mention the rumour that Kim was supposedly going to be revealed as married to Skull in an earlier draft of Forever Red. I'd go so far as to say that Kim and Skull had more chemistry in that one scene then she and Tommy had in the rest of the series, but that's just me.
Oh well, there's no way you could've covered every episode. Great job, and I can't wait for the rest.
"I'm a little sad that you didn't touch on The Potion Notion though. It had my favourite scene of the season, that being Kimberly asking Skull to dance after completely turning him down (after completely fawning over him while under a love spell)."
ReplyDeleteYeah, I had to cut a lot for time, including that scene, but the important part WAS pointing out the changed relationship with the teens.
Duuuuuuuude! Those metallic costumes were awesome, man! NOT! I had honestly forgotten about that until watching this then it all came flooding back. When I heard metallic, I thought that they were gonna go with the suits from the movie. Now THAT would've been hardcore!
ReplyDeleteThe Blobber (despite the stupid as all Hell name) was one of my favorite monsters for the simple reason that I really like the idea of a villain taking on aspects of a hero's power/appearance (prob the reason why Venom is my favorite Spidey villain). Also, despite what anyone says, I f*&=ing loved Masked Rider as a kid. Yeah I was a pretty dumb kid.
Anyway, great job as always Lewis. The only thing that sucks is that I have to wait for the next one. AHHH!
Wow, congratulations on yet another great episode in this series. It's been a great pleasure watching these episodes because it brings back so many memories. I had forgotten almost everything, so thank you.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of odd though to hear you reference the Sentai series so much, because as a kid I had no idea that the footage belonged to two different shows. xD
The one thing that bothered me though was the fact that the movie wasn't canon. As a kid I had no idea what was going on.
Dear God. I completely forgot Ninjor spoke like that.
ReplyDeleteThank you for doing these, I hope you do go through every season, I kinda stopped watching the series after in space started. So getting to see someone else's take on the series is an entertaining watch.
ReplyDeleteI love your reviews, especially the Power Ranger ones lately. I hope you don't take this the wrong way, because you're my favorite online reviewer right now, but could you maybe slow down your speech just a little bit? I noticed in this review that occasionally I had to backtrack to get exactly what you said. I thought I was listening to Yahtzee for a minute.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth man... I didn't watch a single episode of the power rangers after about halfway through season one... and you're somehow making this series of videos interesting enough for me to watch each all the way through.
ReplyDeleteGood stuff man.
I think the reason why they didn't use different helmets because for one thing, they didn't use the Kakuranger suits in the main series, as those were the suits being used by the Aquitan Rangers. Also, as shown by the "Metallic Armor" and the Ninja/Shogun Ultrazords, they weren't that great at making their own stuff for the series itself.
ReplyDeleteAlthough they could have used the movie suits, which at least looked more armor-like than the Sparkle Armor.
Huh, and i thought I was the only one who was annoyed by the civilian powers that the Rangers would get, in later seasons.
ReplyDeleteNice review as always, Linkara. Nice to see a critical look at these seasons, though I'm still a bit flabbergasted that you're doing the entire series.e
Wow, I never knew the second Yellow ranger was essentially written-off the show off-screen as well.
ReplyDeleteWonder why they chose to do that.
This season introduced two interesting paradoxes
ReplyDelete1st
The Power Ranger / Masked Rider crossover was generally the first instance people ever got to see "Super Sentai" having a crossover with "Kamen Rider"
Something that didn't happen in the Japanese series until the 2000s
2nd
References to DBZ, before DBZ even started airing in the US
During the time Kakurangers (the Sentai Series season 3 was based off) was being made in Japan, DBZ was nearing it's conclusion and was in the prime of it's popularity, and so the writers slipped in several references to the anime.
Daimaou (Vile) vomiting out a egg to create Daradara (Blue Globbor) mimicked the way Piccolo Daimao spawned his minions.
Daradara himself was directly based off the DBZ villain Majin Buu, mainly his liquid nature and the ability to devour his opponents and use their powers.
He first devoured Ninjaman (Ninjor) and then the Kakurangers with only Ninja Red - Sasuke escaping this fate and having to fight alone to save his friends.
Of course by the end of the story-arc Daradara was defeated and the heroes freed, but it made for a quite epic story and good developement for Sasuke
Some thoughts about Season 3:
ReplyDelete- The Masked Rider crossover to open the season was lame, as was the show it later spawned. Though to be fair, a comic adaptation based on Masked Rider released by Marvel around 1995 wasn't that half-bad. However, props to the producers for actually making an Americanized Zord battle.
- The "Metallic Sparkly Toy" armour was, in my opinion, nothing more but a cash-grab to get kids to buy Power Rangers toys.
- The destruction of the Thunderzords was the first of MANY traumatizing moments for me this season, alongside the Rangers getting turned to kids, and of course, the season-ending cliffhanger.
- The Alien Rangers were just kinda there, but I never understood why aliens would wear ninja garbs, but I digress.
- I love the fact that they were reduced to using the toys to incorporate Titanus back into the show. Again, it was nothing more but a move to sell more toys.
- The "Cab" episode another move again to, you guessed it, sell more toys.
- I love how the Rangers were forgiving and welcoming to Kat after her face turn, when in the new opening credits, they look less than impressed. Maybe it's just me.
- A filler episode that you didn't mention, where the baddies send a hate-based villain to get the Rangers to hate eachother was kinda disappointing. Mind you, the final battle was pretty cool, but it would've been crazy to see the hate-influenced Rangers to fight each other whilst morphed.
- A battle featuring multiple Zords & monsters without the use of stock footage? Awe. Some.
Good reviews, can't wait to see another.
Am I the only one who thought that the Aquitian rangers looked like bad Babylon 5 aliens?
ReplyDeleteAlso, regarding the powers the teens got as ninjas, all I have to say is "Mighty Morphin' No Jutsu!"
Great video as always man. You mentioned the man who wrote the theme. I thought it was Shuki Levy (who also produced the series) who wrote the main theme. I mention it because it is listed on his site shukilevy.com under his compositions section. Was it a co-writing theme credit you over looked? Was is Shuki did some work with the series and just listed the work under that show?
ReplyDeleteI also agree that I thought the Metallic Armor was going to be the suits from the movie. What a disappointment.
ReplyDelete"Don't get me wrong, I like the dub music for Digimon, but I watch [these episodes and Masked Rider] and half expect Myiotismon to attack".
ReplyDeleteMy god. You know how much more awesome PR and MR would have been if that happened?
excuse me, I'm a go fanboy'ism.
Myotismon taking on the Power Rangers...
ReplyDeleteThank you for that mental image of awesome.
Great job Lewis I really love this series. I am 16 and I grew up with Turbo, In Space, and Lost Galaxy (with reruns or MMPR and PRZ being present constantly) I really am glad someone can kind of be the voice of the Power Rangers fans like you are.
ReplyDeleteYou make it very cool to be a geek, thank you!
I honestly never watched Power Rangers after the first season. I was never a very big TV watcher (I preferred books and video games), so the only time I ever watched Power Rangers was when I was going to a daycare. Needless to say, put me down as another going on Youtube to find episodes. It's fascinating! I knew that Johnny Yong Bosch had been the Black Ranger at some point, but the first time I remember him was voicing Vash the Stampede. It's fun to go back and see a baby Johnny Yong Bosch as the Black Ranger.
ReplyDeleteAnd now to go play with Youtube to make it give me season three episodes. I don't know if I should thank you or hate you for this, Linkara.
I agree with SynjoDeonecros that the civilian powers didn't always work for me. It was worse in another Saban show, Beetleborgs, but everything about that show was worst. Masked Rider was better by comparisson.
ReplyDeleteFor what I recall, Masked Rider was toned down because of some of the fallout of Power Rangers at the time. (Odd, since the original footage came from one of the darker shows of the time, Black RX, but I'm still on Black and I'm only going by what I've read.) Apparently kids were acting out the show (you know, because kids have been doing that since radio--heck I could imagine kids playing out Greek myths way back when stories were only spoken) and getting hurt by playing martial artist. Parents complained ("why can't these kids play a non-violent role-play like Cowboys and Indians, like we did?") Fox responded, but still wanted that Japanese reacted genre money.
The result is that the only other good live-action show we had from Saban at the time was VR Troopers.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe Masked Rider footage was from Kamen Rider Black RX, aired in 1989, Zyuranger was 1992-1993.
ReplyDeleteAnother fact: Barbara Goodson also did the voice for Laharl from Disgaea. After finding that out, I can't hear Disgawa in the same way again.
Rito Revolto? He has a different last name? Did Rita take Zedd's last name or something?
About the special powers: Obviously, the new zords (and later the Alien Ranger costumes) were from a new Sentai, this one called Ninja Sentai Kakuranger. The gimmick being ninja, they were able to use jutsu (ninja magic, also used in Naruto.)
Also, the toad that the one ranger seemed to dislike was because his Sentai counterpart was named Jiraia.
One more thing about Kakuranger, in Power Rangers, a rival team of rangers wouldn't occur until In Space, but Kakuranger had one for most of the series (as opposed to Megaranger's Nejirangers that were a fairly late plot development, and they were also probably the best rival team of rangers.) The Hanarangers as Kakuranger called them were created from cats (a plot twist which Power Rangers seems to have used anyway) by the character who was used for Rito Repulso.
I'm enjoying these. I'm a huge Sentai fan, but I haven't seen very much of Power Rangers, so it's cool to see what was done with the footage. I'm especially looking forward to the Turbo and In Space installments, since they're based off two of my favorite Sentai series.
"The result is that the only other good live-action show we had from Saban at the time was VR Troopers."
ReplyDeleteI never hear about that show even though I liked it as much as Power Rangers. I remember it being cheesier though if that's possible.
Great video as usual (keep it up!) but there was one thing that annoyed me. Sometimes you have a tendency to describe something rather than let us actually see it for ourselves. Here's a good example: At the start, you mention that one of the people from the Masked Rider series was a bad actor with poor inflection, but unfortunately you don't let us actually hear anything he's saying so we can see it for ourselves. Would've been great if you had said that, and then let us hear him talk to demonstrate your point.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your next video!
"but there was one thing that annoyed me. Sometimes you have a tendency to describe something rather than let us actually see it for ourselves. Here's a good example: At the start, you mention that one of the people from the Masked Rider series was a bad actor with poor inflection, but unfortunately you don't let us actually hear anything he's saying so we can see it for ourselves."
ReplyDeleteSometimes I have to cut things due to video length, which is usually series footage.
Linkara:
ReplyDeleteI’ve been meaning to write this seeing right after your fist Power Rangers season review went up. I just have to express my appreciation for what you’re doing.
I was never into the Power Rangers. I’m in my mid-30s, so it didn’t come around when I was the age for it to be *my* show. But at the time I as still checked it out Fox Kids and I recall seeing the first episode. I didn’t get into it. I recall seeing a few episodes here and there, noting that things had changed and becoming increasingly more confused when seeing a person turn into a cat and so forth. And over the years, wiener they made a whole different series, for a while I checked out one episode of it to see what was going on now. (I recall watching the premier of that one that was set in the far future but had historical records of the past Rangers and thinking, “Wow, this is a great concept” but didn’t continue on. I also recall seeing that one when they’re in the present day serving a Naval officer from an underwater base and thinking, “How does this connect with anything?” Maybe that revelation about Ninjor making the rangers coins from this season’s review is an explanation. I’ll have to wait and see.)
But even though I’ve been only periodically curious about and never into Power Rangers, I often find it fascinating to hear people discuss things that interest them even if I am indifferent to or even dislike the thing that interest them. So again, thank you. You have don a great deal to explain the charm you find, as well as explaining those surprising changes I recall from those scattered episodes I did watch. At the end of this, I’ll get a better understanding of a big Popular Culture Phenomena that is significant both in its initial boom and in its longevity.
Again, thank you. And I look forward to learning more as the series progresses.
I remember that with Power Rangers the movie they released action figures of the Rangers that had a metallic paint job. Was the metallic armor used in the show as a tie in with the metallic painted figures that were still being made?
ReplyDeleteTechnically, while Rita and Zedd did destroy the Machine Empire, it's implied in Zeo and Space that they can repair themselves over a set period of time, when we see Mondo destroyed in Zeo, but come back before season's end, and the entire Empire's royal court destroyed at the end of Zeo, but we see them fine in Space. But that's somewhat spoileriffic and we'll cross that bridge once we get into one of my personal favorite Power Rangers seasons.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm kind of surprised that you didn't mention the Christmas episode that showed up in the Ninja saga. However, since there's a Christmas episode in Zeo as well, I'll figure that you'll address that next segment. Nice recap of the Ninja and Alien saga, overall.
Are there any plans to go over the ancillary Ranger stories, like the comics and direct-to-video specials? I realize it's probably too late, as the lion's share of them were devoted to MMPR Seasons 2 and 3, but maybe an appendix video at the end of this (absolutely wonderful) retrospective would be possible?
ReplyDeleteI know you've covered Marvel MMPR #1 (still my favorite episode of At4W), but Marvel published a total of 12 issues under two different titles. The previous rights-holder, Hamilton Comics, published ten issues under two "volumes", as well as a three-part recap of the TV series through White Light.
I don't know what happened behind the scenes on the Image's Zeo comic, but it was canceled after a single issue. Three triple-length one-shots were published during Turbo's run (including a crossover with Beetleborgs Metallix, another Japanese superhero adaptation), but that was it as far as American PR comics. The UK got some unique comics of its own later (MUCH later), but I've been at a loss to find scans of them.
As for the direct-to-video stuff, they basically represent the nadir of the series. Alpha's Magical Christmas was the first, and... it's unspeakable. Take MMPR's target age group and divide by two, and you've found the only people who can stand to watch it. Then there was the Power Rangers stage production that was making the rounds back in '95, and managed to get an official video release once the tour was completed. While interesting, the audience participation parts were unbearably corny, even by MMPR standards.
Last but not least is The Good, the Bad, and the Stupid. While mostly a clip show of Bulk and Skull's antics throughout the first three seasons, a passable frame story is built around it, with Bulk and Skull trapped in a cave during the events of The Changing of the Zords. The interaction between Bulk and Skull is shown in a bit more touching light, as the two face the prospect of death in the cave.
There was also Lord Zedd's Monster Heads, which isn't worth noting, as every single frame of the program is stock footage. Seriously, everything. It was as cheap a money-grab as they could possibly make.
If any of this sounds the least bit interesting, send me an e-mail at jamesgalloway@windstream.net, and I can hook you up if need be.
great stuff once again man. can't wait for you to get into zeo. i have a hard time remembering what happened during that season!
ReplyDeleteTo add to Johnboy's comments about MMPR comics, there was an issue of the 12 issue MMPR Marvel comic where the Rangers had to fight an evil group of Power Rangers who wore the old suits (in the comics the teens were in their Ninja Ranger garbs), and used the Thunderzords. Unfortunately, the story was left unresolved before anything good could happen. What happens, basically, is that the Dark Rangers form the MegaTigerzord and leave for some reason. One particularly bizarre issue was where the Rangers had to stop humans who were turned into merchandise-devouring monsters by Zedd. Once we see these humans as the monsters, I'm sure you'll lose your appetite. Also of note is that Masked Rider comic I mentioned in my previous comment, which features the Power Rangers. Like I said before, the plot is actually alright, and the execution is better than the show.
ReplyDelete(I have no knowledge of the Hamilton Comics MMPR issues, so I can't really speak for its quality.)
Also, some other interesting factoids about the Image (seriously, they of the Liefeldian "EXTREME!!!1" style, writing friggin' Power Rangers comics?!) Zeo comics (I should say "comic", in this case.) Supposedly, there was going to be a crossover with the Zeo Rangers and (yes, I'm being dead serious here..) of all things, Youngblood. That's right a comic based on a childrens' show teaming up with the epitome of EXTREME!!!1 I'll let that sink in. Also, had the Zeo comic continued, the dangling plothole in the first issue would've culminated in Billy supposedly becoming an evil "Grey Ranger" of some sort. (According to a post on RangerBoard)
As for the Turbo/Beetleborgs crossover comic, man did it ever sucked. An incoherent plot? Check. Art that looks like it was drawn by a bored high-school student? Check. I unfortunately don't have a copy, but I'm sure someone will be gracious enough to lend one. Another Turbo comic features the Rangers fighting a monster called "Simple Simon", who brainwashes half the team. The art in this story is just horrendous, as Tommy was coloured green for some reason and at some points, it's unclear which Rangers are brainwashed. Needless to say, it sucked arse.
Great Video, this was just after I stopped watching the series, but I see it was good.
ReplyDelete"Master Bile's End of the world party"
Thanks Lewis, Now I have the name of 2012's Halloween party :D
I don't mind saying this but I had the hugest crush on Kat while watching Power Rangers. And I just saw a recent video of her and WOW! she still looks gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteThis means you liked Digimon! :D That makes me so happy, since that's one of my other favorite shows.
ReplyDeleteDid you ever see Galidor?
D: you didn't play the Shape Up Bulk and Skull song! XDDD but you mentioned it so yay. At least I think you did.
Here's something that I've always wondered.
ReplyDeleteIn the Power Rangers universe, when Aisha stays in Africa and later, Billy staying on Aquitar...how is that ever explained to their families?
I would imagine the buildings would be abandoned because Angel Grove keeps getting attacked by giant monsters.
ReplyDeleteFun fact about the 4 parter. When Bulk and Skull announce that they will be joining the Jr. Police force and the camera pans through the Juice Bar, you can see that they pulled a Flintsones; they recycled the footage of the pan to make the room seem larger and you can see two of every person
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteI don't mind saying this but I had the hugest crush on Kat while watching Power Rangers. And I just saw a recent video of her and WOW! she still looks gorgeous!
Is my subconscious posting here without me?
As for the Hamilton Comics, I won't say that they were better (although I thought they were), just more faithful and only a few issues had a small back-up feature. That was better than Marvel's stuffing 2 stories into one comic. Some of the early issues had Zedd throwing his staff to make monsters grow, but the episodes hadn't aired at the time the stories were made, so there wasn't much they could do there.
Marvel had another Ranger series that was one of Linkara's "favorite" type of comics, a flip-book, shared with the VR Troopers. The early "Ninja Ranger" stories had more interaction with the locals, but that didn't last long. The only story there I was remotely interested in was the VR Trooper story with an Ultraman analog. :)
Actually, Masked Rider did air for a second year, but I'm not surprised if people missed it. The first year aired on Fox, but for the second season it got moved to the syndicated market, and it came on 8:00 AM in my area on weekdays, which is pretty bad if you have to be at school.(I had to be out the house by around 7:30) I only caught it during the summer. I seem to remember the show being so-so, it didn't really leave a big impression on me the way VR Troopers or Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad did.
ReplyDeleteI did think it was strange that Masked Rider absolutely, never mentioned Power Rangers again, especially when it came on Fox. I kept wondering if Zedd ever noticed Dregon was orbiting the Earth. It was so weird that it never came up!
I got to admit, you made a good point about Zedd being more successful as a married man. And unlike Master Vile, he had more stick-to-it-ivness. Master Vile tried his hand a few times and just gave up. Wuss.
- Jason
I'd hate to be a nitpicker but the season opener wasn't the first time they used new Zord footage with American versions of the Tigerzord and Thunder Megazord costumes. The episode "Best Man for the Job" from the second season had them as well as they can be seen from 3:14 onward in this youtube:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xncQgRrBKOo&feature=related
awesome video!
ReplyDeleteI totally forgot about the glitter armor! I agree on the examples cited when you think armor!
Nice you bring up the Masked Rider stuff! Even if it was watered down and chopped up so much, it bore nothing from it's source (or sources) TV-Y for Masked Rider vs TV-Y7 for Power Rangers, ratings in the US.
Nice special shout out to Titanus!
So until my plan to use the Zeo Crystal to power my weapon, if they don't uncancel "Wolverine & The X-Men" suceeds, MAKE MINE LINKARA!!!
Ahh a very nice trip down memory lane, as for the problems with the whole Ninja MegaZord and other stuff that seemed odd for this season, I am going to have to bring up the sentai footage that was used in making the third season
ReplyDelete1) In Kakuranger(the footage used) there was no PINK RANGER or really a sixth for that matter in fact the crane zord was for the White Ranger and the Falcon was a seperate thing altogether.
2) They used the sentai footage in the wrong sequence see the Shogunzords came first then the Flaconzord then the Ninja megazord so the whole thing with the capture of the falconzord=no more Ninja megazord makes somewhat more sense
So really what the writers are trying to do is use the footage they had on hand and adapt it for power rangers as best as they could, as for why they used it out of sequence I guess it better fits with the established cannon that they had created and had to make something a little more acceptable for why they couldn't use the Ninja Megazord while the Falconzord was captured. Otherwise KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.
Awesome history of Power Rangers so far... just a little question: i know you said you wont mention the movie and dont know if its really something behind it but... what's with the paralels between the season 3 and the movie? where there for a reason or for nothing in particular?
ReplyDeleteanyway keep going, you're doing a great job... and dont know why but today i thought that the continuity alarm will explode if it appears in this reviews
Surfing wikipedia and several other sources I found out that Skull and Kimberly married and Bulk worked with Tommy
ReplyDeleteThis season is the weirdest in terms of the monsters. They fight a monster than turns them into footballs. What show apart from Power Rangers would ever do that?
ReplyDeleteAlso, will you change the theme song of these videos to suit whatever season you're reviewing, eg, the Zeo theme song for your Zeo review?
"Also, will you change the theme song of these videos to suit whatever season you're reviewing, eg, the Zeo theme song for your Zeo review?"
ReplyDeleteI considered doing that, but decided not to for two reasons:
1. It'd be a workload in itself to make another fourteen theme songs.
2. I don't want to have to make a theme song using the Operation Overdrive theme, which I hate.
I remember this season! I remember as a little girl feeling annoyed because Kimberly was my favourite ranger (ie. the only female one with a personality) and the new ones didn't really have any defining character traits, not even the broad brushstroke characters of the original team.
ReplyDeleteThis was the last season I actually watched, since by the time Zeo came out in the UK, I was getting to around 11 and lacking a TV of my own, didn't want to get caught watching power rangers by my siblings ¬_¬; (in Britain, 11 years old you're at high school, so it's generally considered the age you should grow out of kids TV...except Doctor Who, obviously. Everybody watches that).
I'm looking forward to seeing what I missed, since I didn't follow Power Rangers for years, right up until RPM.
Really enjoying this series!
Wow. The whole Alien Ranger thing became really ironic in light of the new Doctor Who episode.
ReplyDeleteThe other Wizard Of Oz parallel was that Rita basically had a flying monkey as her main general.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Goldar is the most badass 2nd-in-command monster from any of these sentai shows ever! How can you not love a guy who begins every other scentence with the phrase "Nuuugh!"
You might not want to fuck with the kamen rider fans talking about masked rider. Ishimori the who innovated the idea of tokusatsu (superheroism of rangers) really hated masked rider. I mean the japanese television series was fucking awesome and its even better than Power Rangers. But its just horrible.
ReplyDeleteHey, Linkara. Seeing as you're taking the time to watch every series of Power Rangers, it shouldn't be to hard to research the Sonic the Hedgehog comic and do a review on that, right?
ReplyDeleteYes, it would, I'm afraid. For one thing, I actually watched Power Rangers during its first six years, so nostalgia plus remembering a lot of this stuff helped weed out what was filler and what was good.
ReplyDeleteSonic comics, on the other hand, have an extensive history that I have no place to start plus I lack any kind of emotional connection to it since I never watched any sonic series except the occasional episode of AoSTH at, like, 7 AM when I had to wake up for something.
You make a good point at the end Linkara about how Zed was actually MORE successful with Rita.
ReplyDelete"Season 3 was kind of a blur"
Yeah, I agree Chris.
Hey Linkara! awesome review once again.
ReplyDeletei totally agree with you on bulk and skull, they were always awesome!
by the way, if your lookin for the bulk and skull theme, it was released, and i have a copy, if you want it.
yuffiesboy@gmail.com
I liked Count Dragon's design and crew. Too bad Masked Rider was a horrible flop.
ReplyDeleteI guess your not gonna bring up Scorpina "Goldar's Girlfriend" She just seems to cease to exist! just like Rito!
Excellent Look.
I can't wait for your review on Zeo! Also, did you know there was a Power Rangers Turbo movie? It serves as somewhat of a pilot to the Turbo season itself.
ReplyDeleteCould you put up a list of which episodes are worth watching for each season so if anybody gets inspired to go back and watch they will know what to skip and what is important?
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of armor did you say for the Gundam? I can't really understand what you said, it sounds like chob-him. Other than that, great vid as always.
ReplyDeleteSeason 3 is roughly where I stopped watching regular.
ReplyDeleteI barely remember Masked Rider. Seeing the new Zord footage, I think I regret that since the stock footage Zords was one of the reasons I dropped the show. Though perhaps the new Zords would not have been enough considering they foisted Masked Rider on us.
Masked Rider also reminds me of...Dune. Maybe it's the dust everywhere and the hoods and cheesey expressions. Long live the fighters!
Wow. I'm glad I missed the Zords falling apart on one level. I'm sure I would still be bitter about it in much the same way I have yet to forgive whoever gave the order to burn the Enterprise-D sets. On the other I'm still a mecha fan, writing mecha stories (though American flavor ones like BattleTech) and it took me an age to produce a mental image of a giant robot's destruction that was remotely that visceral on a diet of MechWarrior games and Robotech. It was until Stand Alone Complex and in particular Testation rolled in through my TV that I could really visual combat between robotic entities as anything like that visceral, and to a great extent I think that stunted by efforts to write it.
Ninjor's outfit is shockingly 40k Space Marine, complete with the PAULDRONS. I remember him vaguely, but I'd forgotten that voice. An outfit like that and he sounds like a twerp? Come on people, he ought to be dripping badass. His getup is tailor-made for some kind of full-conversion cyborg/powered armor-based series in retrospect, pity nobody used it that way.
...oh god. Now we come to it. The Final Argument. The Death of Watchers.
The ninja getups. I hated the ninja getups. I dropped the show like it was radioactive because of the ninja getups. I wanted to set the ninja getups on fire, and now you bring that hatred back to me in full force years later. I'm surprised it has endured so well in this age of Naruto and other Highly Visible Ninjas, but then my hate for them remains undiminished too.
Which is just as well, because I would have hated Kat's guts. And the rest of her, but mostly her guts. Kimberly was the gold standard for fictional females of my pre-adolescent days. (Though soon enough she was replaced by a succession of other characters, with the current gold standard and likely holder for life being Motoko Kusanagi.)
Ah, Rita. World domination is not enough if you can't have your petty, amusing revenges. Zed may be more effective, but Rita really gets the possiblities of the supervillian gig in a way Zed never did.
40k infiltrates, bit by bit, with the Chaos-esque concept of evil corrupting not only people but places, and that people can be made bad against their will. It must have followed Ninjor's pauldrons.
The surreality of the end of the world is...well obviously, it's because they're trying to make up for the darkness. Zed and Rita's marriage was to lighten and soften the show too. Not that this really helps, but you take what justification you can get or you end up with a 17th century pistol to your head while screaming "ANTILIFE JUSTIFIES MY HATE".
So, let me get this straight. Rita, Zedd and Master Vile create monsters from whole cloth, right?
ReplyDeleteAnd there's a big party with a ton of them.
Did they just create them for the party? o.o
I guess the Digimon/Power Rangers thing became fully realized in Digimon Frontier.
ReplyDeleteDo think you may do a Digimon retropective in the near future? I loved that series. Until they stopped airing it 17 episodes through Tamers for no reason.
One thing I remember bothering me with the whole time travel thing was that Tanya was actually a kid. When they return the world to normal, suddenly Tanya is a teenager, which for her means she was suddenly aged up, clothing and all.
ReplyDeleteIt's the same problem as the aliens in Act of God, where she changes in a way that is not normal for her when everyone else changes and no one blinks at it, even her. I do not recall them ever addressing this, although I believe they did spend some time addressing her being from the past.
Will you talk about the Zeo promos that I recall, they got me SUPER hyped for Zeo, they really went out of there way to promote the Zeo series , slowly revealing the opening to us, it was almost painful! Also the song is... awesome.
ReplyDeleteJust thought I'd touch on a couple of things.
ReplyDelete@Anon 9:43:
Actually no, the MR/MMPR crossover in season 3 was not the first crossover of Sentai and KR. In Goranger vs. JAKQ, there's cameo appearances of Kamen Rider V3, Amazon, and even Kikaider. While they didn't fight onscreen together, it still counts as the first crossover. Toku didn't get anything close to what Saban did until Shinkenger World in the later half of Decade.
Second, the worst thing about the Shogun Megazord being used in Titanus was that they used the American toy for the footage...meaning that the Shogun Megazord in those scenes has a pink arm, when there was no Pink Shogunzord. It made it look twice as bad.
Finally, even as a kid I was annoyed by Aisha being written off the show so casually. Nothing was lost I guess since she was probably the least developed of all the characters (though between her, Rocky, and Adam, that's a hard call to make). I always did feel bad for Rocky though, because there was no way he was ever going to live up to Jason's legacy, especially since Tommy had taken over the role of leader.
I have always held M.M.P.R. (and the Power Rangers series) as something of a "guilty pleasure". It was cheesy, and seemed to have low production standards...
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, I watched it. Mostly because I curious what they were going to do next. I guess it is bit like sitting down and reading some old Silver Age issues of Superman. You know that they are going to have some (okay, a lot) of goofy stories and plots, but that just seems to be part of the fun.
Really enjoying this retrospective. Let's go Zeo!
Hmm, kind of unrelated to Power Rangers, but relevant to early morning/early afternoon programming in the 90s: I'd actually really like to see your take on the original X-Men cartoon. It's a bit out of your normal field of expertise so I can understand if you'd be reluctant to, but it's probably one of the shows that really got me into comics/sci-fi in the first place, and I'd love to hear some critical commentary on it.
ReplyDeleteWas it just me, or was Rita looking very pregnant in some of those clips?
ReplyDeleteI'm enjoying this miniseries of yours way more than I thought I would. (I should say, I'm more interested in what happens next than I thought I would be. I never doubted you'd put out something enjoyable.) I never saw an episode of MMPR past season 2, so we're past the point that I have nostalgia for, but I'm still looking forward to the next installment. I'd like to see you do something in a documentary style with longer episodes someday. You could level up to Ken Burns, if you wanted.
But I do agree that this episode felt... I don't want to say "rushed" because I know how hard you work, but that's really the only way I can describe it. You had to cut so much that it felt forced into the 30ish-minute time-slot. Maybe that was the sign that Season 3 needed to be done in 2 videos instead of one.
All-in-all, though, good job. Like I said, I'm looking forward to hearing about the Zeo Rangers, even though I never watched them, so you've got me interested in something brand-new to me. Although, considering you're basically the only reason I ever picked up Blue Beetle, 52, Wonder Woman, and All-Star Superman, that might be par for the course. ;)
Anyway, good luck slogging through JLA:AoG. I may have an atrocious indy miniseries for you, if I can find the rest of the issues, so may the power protect you!
I am continuously amazed at how many times I find myself saying "hey, I remember that!" while watching these videos.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, I remember not liking Masked Rider much as a kid. I seem to recall being put off in some way by the visual aesthetics, and looking back on it now it did look a lot more "out there" than Power Rangers.
Also, I liked the Digimon joke at the start. I still have fond memories of that show as an early introduction to anime that was a bit more mature than Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z (despite all the violence DBZ is one hell of an immature show) and I've been meaning to track down the japanese versions and rewatch them.
The fact that cracks me up to no end is that Master Vile is apparently wearing granny glasses. It's IMPOSSIBLE to look bad-ass wearing those glasses. I have to wonder if the Sentai monster had those or if Power Rangers slapped them on to make him less scary for the kiddies.
ReplyDeleteEven more frightening is trying to figure out how the hell the Vile/Repulsa(o) family works! Witch thingy, Skeleton Lich, sired by a ...snake monster guy? I presumed as a kid that they were Viles kids in the sense that he made them (ie vomited them up like he did the other monster).
...and when you think about it, vomiting up eggs is probably the LEAST disturbing possible fathering imaginable.
ReplyDeleteHey Lewis,
ReplyDeleteI meant to drop a quick line and thank you for this project. You're clearly passionate about the material and it shows. I never really got into the Power Rangers, as it was coming on as I was making the transition away from Saturday morning television, but the theme song is so distinctive and you couldn't make it through the channels most weekday afternoons without seeing it in syndication, so I know a little bit.
I'm fascinated by the way the creative team wove all these very different Japanese television series into something resembling a cohesive whole. Is there a period when the show becomes largely it's own entity or does this continue well into the series' present state?
Regardless, thanks for the history lesson and the information on a piece of fun from the often abused '90s.
Stacy.
love the reviews...
ReplyDeleteBut I have a question "History of Power Rangers" has a schedule? is it monthly or just when you have time?
if anyone besides Linkara knows don't hesitate to answer.
In response to Ing
ReplyDeleteIn the original Sentai version (Kakurangers to be exact) Vile/Daimaou wore shades
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ve94h_1Tm4
I'm glad to see Titanus was finally covered here, he was so awesome! Ninjor as well. It's too bad discussion of the movie was omitted. I think it was rather relevant.
ReplyDeleteIzan Ooze repeated what Zedd started in storming the command center, and what was critical about the film was actually getting to see what Zordon looked like outside of the tube.
Lewis,
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say first off that you're doing a great job with the Power Rangers history. I was a hardcore fan as a kid up until Turbo(in my mid 20s now) and watching these up til Turbo is a nice reliving of old memories, and I look forward to future installments.
If I may make a suggestion as to why they didn't need the sword to transfer Kimberly's powers - not having that direct connection since it would drain her life-force, as established in the 3 part-er for this season, it should only take someone else possessing the coin and getting infused with energy to obtain the powers. Somewhat similar to how the Green Ranger powers were transferred to Jason temporarily.
While with the Jason, Zack, Trini transfer since they were still directly connected to their powers, so it would have taken some intervention, but it's more like a copy-paste thing since the old rangers are able to call upon their powers during guest spots in later seasons, although they are weaker.
On another note, completely forgot about the glittering armor, which I thought was pretty dumb myself. Movie costumes would have been a lot better.
Keep up the good work!
Truth be told, this was my favorite season of the series, and my all time favorite of power rangers.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I loved the ninja thing, though the costumes should have changed to the ones the Alien Rangers had. I always loved those costumes, they just screamed "ninja" and each one had a sword. That's awesome.
Also, one filler I wished you had mentioned was "Another Brick in The Wall". Even though it's another example of Rita's evil plan being to reck another youth project, the episode is awesome for two reasons. One, the solution to the problem of the day is polution. Second, it was the only time a single ranger who wasn't the red/green/white ranger defeated the monster.
Great video as always, now make more!
Great series! I'm watching all of them right now on the computer at work... I felt the need to comment on this one in particular, though, because I've sold six tenga in the last hour. (I work at a sex shop, tenga are a new kind of male masturbator that have just come out. Go GO power rangers.)
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, this is a great series. I love all your stuff, but the Power Rangers in particular are such a fun flashback to my childhood... kind of makes the tenga thing all the more disturbing.
I was just rewatching your series when I noticed something. Is it just me or does the car theif look like Malachite?
ReplyDeleteWhat does Tommy say at the end?
ReplyDeleteNice work . . .
ReplyDeleteThe destruction of the Thunderzords is still awesome as hell. Master Vile's 'End of the World' Party is surreal and funny.
IMO . . . Catherine Sutherland > Amy Jo Johnson.
And I seem to recall reading that ratings for Power Rangers were starting to dip in season 3 . . .
The channels I had as a kid never played any seasons other than the first, and I saw this season on DVD and got it recently and started watching it with my nieces. I haven't finished watching it yet so I probably shouldn't have seen this video, but I'm glad I did because I missed a LOT of parts due to the girls being very young and with their attention spans not quite to the point where they can sit and pay attention to something for more than ten minutes or so.
ReplyDeleteGreat review! Linkara, in your opinion, would having an Aquatar alien return as a ranger or ally to the rangers in future power ranger seasons be a good idea or bad idea? Are they an alien species best left forgotten like the Gungans from Star Wars The Phantom Menace or could they be salvaged & made interesting rather than annoying?
ReplyDeleteMy own biggest issues with them were that they (1) had those odd distorted water gargling voices (2) were ALWAYS getting dehydrated & needed saving & (3) all more or less behaved in the same stereotypical "odd quirky alien" fashion rather than having distinct personalities or acting like real people who just happen to be from another world...It be like if an entire star trek crew acted like bad copies of Mr. Spock or Data, it makes for a distinct lack of individuality & makes you question how advanced they really are if they lose their cool over humans fishing for clearly non-sentient lifeforms.
I think it would be interesting to have more aliens serve as rangers again, but only if they actually have real personalities (like Kruger from S.P.D.)