I could kiss you, thank Zordon this series has returned lol.
Mystic Force is one of the shows that falls into the middle ground of "good and bad" for me. My favorite being PRiS, my absolute least favorite being RPM followed closely by Jungle Fury and Operation Overdrive.
Looking forward to the following episodes of History of Power Rangers. (I won't be one of those people to pester you about them though lol.)
Having just finished watching Magiranger reciently and watching this episode of HoPR, i remember why i always turned off Mystic Force.
The series never really felt like it connected some spots to me. And i have to agree on the fact that the theme is kinda "meh" but, in its defence, does go with the Civilian Lives of the rangers. Though, i think this is the only season before Samurai where the Rangers don't outright loose their powers permenantly.
Looking forward to the next episode, whenever you get it done.
Yeah, we don't *Like* To talk about Jungle Fury. We Try to forget that one happened. I'll let you approach that one yourself. And once more, I'm sorry on Behalf of Toku viewers on both sides of the fence you had to emphasize for the Sentai fans your preference to focus solely on PR. They should just accept that. I do recommend you try and get to Gokaiger at some point, but if you don't, that's your choice. Mystic force's theme is catchy, but you're right; hiphop was not a good choice.It's more the beat that carries it than the bad, bad Lyrics. Xeno translates as Alien or strange...So book of all that is 'alien' to them? It would have made more sense than 'Unknown'. I liked the Cape's too. IT's something Japanese Source series don't do much (Scarves are more of a thing), and Magiranger/Mystic force did it well enough. Certainly a cost-cutting thing on the Teamups. Only three have used Sentai Footage as of yet in Power Ranger's Run; Rangers of two worlds (Zeo), Trakeena's revenge (Lightspeed), and Clash of the Red rangers (Samurai). As you've said, less Sentai footage is a no-no when making a show on a budget. I mentioned this on twitter: Catastros is Loyal to Koragg/Leanbow. While he allows another rider on occasion, he will always return to his master. The monster form/Ancient Mystic Mode for leanbow, Daggeron, Calindor and Claire's mother was a Sentai thing. Not really important to mystic force. I'm sort of indifferent to This myself, falling in the middle of the tiers with respect to best-worst. Same with overdrive, Which from your tone of voice is not going to be glowing with good things when you finish it. But the worst is yet to come, Sir Guy With The Hat. For overdrive isn't what was credited with Killing the series' Production and the remaster year...
Yeah this was around the time I started getting tired of Power Rangers. I saw the first episode, the sixth ranger episode, the power up episode, the battilizer episode and the final episode, didn't think I missed much. Then when I started seeing Operation Overdrive figures in stores my first thought was, "Ugh their going back to cars again?".
I saw snippits of Overdrive but never really saw anything else until some Jungle Fury episodes thought they were meh and saw some Samurai episodes and thought it could be interesting, I'd have to watch them again. But got to admit, now your my guide to Power Rangers until Samurai cause I have yet to see Overdrive, RPM, and Jungle Fury.
I dunno, I liked Mystic Force; I thought it was really different and tried some new stuff ... but then again I fell out with PR back during Turbo and came back to Ninja Storm, SPD and this, and have been watching old series now based on HoPR (which, thanks, I really liked Time Force!)
Huh yeah that theme doesn't fit really any action show. While this is my fav ep of HoPRs I did still enjoy it, I understand you are a very very busy man the wait made me think you had a lot more to talk about it. Seems to be the opposite with there not really being much to work off.
I will agree though these might be some of the best suits for the rangers ever, I'm a big fan of capes, jackets or other things that flow in the wind.
All in all I look forward to the next ep and I do still catch myself rewatching older HoPRs ep and while I don't always agree how you feel about some characters I always see where you are coming from and it was nice to learn why you love Camelot so much.
Keep up the good work but keep it at your pace and don't burn yourself out.
Jungle Fury, in my opinion, was actually pretty decent. However, it's forgettable. Probably why people don't talk about it. There are some who hate it, but overall just seems to have been forgotten.
I don't think it helped that it was written during the Writer's Strike; the Writer's Strike brought out a slew of bad material. Still, compared to other shows and movies that came out during the writer's strike, it was pretty good.
I too felt that Mystic Force could've been a lot better than it was. Hell, Operation Overdrive I felt was better than Mystic Force in so many ways (especially with the 15th anniversary two parter).
Mystic Force is a mixed bag IMHO and the season can be divided into sixth when discussing good and bad parts. The first 2 sixth of it are good, the third sixth is bad, the fourth sixth is good, the fifth six is bad and the final sixth seems to fluxuate between good and bad with the final unfortunately settling on bad.
Good luck with Overdrive, it is probably the weakest season. It had some interesting villains and a great team up episode, but besides that was rather dull. Jungle Furry is much better then Overdrive but is not that great a season
I always thought the supporting characters and villains were as important as the rangers. I liked the focus on them but thought that the sudden face turn by some of the villains was pretty bad.
This is coming from someone who is not a Power Rangers fan, so everything I know about series is from Linkara's videos.
1) Capes. I like capes, but not because they are giving "superhero" feel. It feels more "wizard" like. Pointy hats on ranger costumes would be ridiculous, but capes looks good with mystic theme.
2) Nick as Red Ranger. I cannot help but notice a patern here: a Red Ranger is always someone maximally different from others. And here is the problem in making Nick follow this patern: he is an outsider (so he is the least likely person the for others to follow) and doesn't believe in magic (so he is the least powerful one, since magic is powered by believes). And making him a secret child of powerful wizards goes into Marty Stu territory (and the only logical reason for him to be Red, but their sorseress mentor didn't know that). From logic's point, Xander was both more expected choice and more suited for the job of team leader.
And it's not my complain to MF only. Like in other Power Rangers (damn, how was they called again?) a character was trained to be Red, but wasn't quite a perfect leader, so to teach him a lesson him mentor chose the worst possible person instead.
3) To see magic before his eyes and still not believing in it. But you answered it yourself, Linkara: to know and to believe are entirely different things! Did you heard people sometimes when facing a fact say: "I refuse to believe it!"? Changing a position you holded for the entire life is not that simple.
4) Other type of enemy mooks introduced after the first type worked well. I don't see a problem here. Some variety in enemy army never hurts.
It is incredible how much effort you put into this. Thank you for going through all that trouble.
You asked, why the older Rangers have alternative monster-forms and I can only speculate myself. I guess it was just to work in some more Sentai elements. According to a Sentai-wiki, the japanese versions of Daggeron, Imperious and Leanbow were so-called "Sky Saints". Some of those served as the source of the Rangers' powers. So, yeah...my best guess is fan-service...kinda.
I'm really curious about the next episodes of HoPR, because I stopped watching Power Rangers after Mystic Force. And if you could maybe do me a favor? You said there were worse intro songs coming after Mystic Force. In case you were referring to Operation Overdrive, could you go into a little more detail, WHY you don't like it? Because I actually really like the intro and I'd like to know why people seem to have a problem with it.
Didn't expected to have so much to say. Moving on!
5) Koragg (is that how you spell it?) not killing Rangers kinda make sence with him being good: there is a good part of him trying to fight mind conditioning, and evil part calls it "honor" because it cannot believe he is not entirely evil. Still, it could be done better. Hey, Koragg, you moron! Take their wands like you did with the White Ranger and they'll be powerless, this way you can eluminate the threat without killing them. Speaking of powers...
6) Unmorped fights. I'm not that big fan of them as you, and MF is a series when they have the least sence. Ranger's power is magic that is powered by believes, why they suddenly do kung-fu? It's like making a DnD wizard and putting all your points in strenght, or having Green Lantern to participate in a bar fight.
7) Why Koragg is red when he is good? Because magic.
8) What other Rangers do when current Rangers get their asses kicked? What indeed. Disney fails to deliver on this answer and even when there are team-ups with previous Rangers teams, they are cameos at best. To add insult to injury, Japanise Sentai series ocasionally show what happened to previous teams. They even have a movie with 199 (!) heroes fighting evil together (10-15 minutes or it, but it's still AWESOME!) But Power Rangers? No, they are always alone.
It's not that hard to make each new series to not look like full continuity reboot without using the same team. The idea from Turbo - make Rangers retire for some reason and hire new ones - is actually very good, it's execution of it in Turbo that is bad. But the idea itself can work.
The other variant is to do as in Mazinger USA. They made clear that while Mazinger fights their enemies in America, Mazinger Z in Japan fights Dr. Hell in the same time, and they are other Mazinger teams in other counties too. Hey, Disney, do the same: show in newspaper somewhere that other Ranger team from previous seasons is fighting evil in other town in the same time, so they have their hands full and cannot help. (and you don't even need to shoot any new footage for this, so... profit!)
If I came up with solution and I didn't even need to think, why people that actually write the scenario for Power Rangers cannot do the same?
P.S.: Let me stop here, it became too long already. With new HoPR episode came up, there isn't much I've left to wish for. Except new let's play. Or new Warrior comic review with Spoony.
THANK YOU! I really hate getting into a sentai vs Power Ranger debate. I love Power Rangers, I grew up on Power Rangers, I co-write Power Rangers fanfics therefore I go by the rangers!
Technically, the rangers have monster forms too, we see them during the transformation sequence plus the Mystic Titans are basically mechanical-looking versions of them.
I would love to see a crossover between Power Rangers and Doctor Who. I don't know why but seeing Daleks, The Master and Cybermen fighting them just makes me laugh like crazy.
Him posting the rock theme pissed Disney off because they didn't want to admit they screwed up in the theme song department. Disney can be pretty stubborn when it comes to admitting they are wrong. Hell look how long it took them to give the series back to Saban.
Actually, in the case of "Believing in magic." They did a little truth to that. One of the things, Paganism and Wicca have stated that many of their spells and blessings worked more or less because they believe it worked. However because this is hollywood magic, it does take some rules of magic out. For example one rule I personally believe in and every religion has it's own variation is, what goes around comes around. In the case of Magic, what the user casts comes back to them 3 times. For example if someone cast a spell that benefits and helps others, they get three times the backlash from it, since it was a spell for good it would mean they get 3 times more good luck. However if it was a selfish or bad spell it would backlash them 3 times. Since the Rangers are naturally the good guys its a given that they don't backlash even if they used their powers selfishly like using their wands to clean up their mess at work. Realism aside I believe one of the cardinal rules of all Rangers is to never use their power for personal gain.
Anyone else get the vibe that Vida is a lesbian.... I mean.... I get a somewhat vibe from her... now... It might just be me... but seriously.... anyone else get the feeling?
Also.... the Rock version of the theme song ACTUALLY sounds a lot more in synch with the opening for Magiranger done by my absolute FAVORITE band from Japan... Psychic Lover.
I pretty much agree with everything you said here. Mystic Force was a flawed but still enjoyable season. The secondary characters managed to be interesting and relevant for the most part but at the cost of making the Rangers as interesting as they should be.
Pacing really seems to have become problematic for almost any media of late. Like the world has decided "we're in too much of a hurry to wait around." Anime, movies, games (maybe even comics), it seems so many stories of late that could be good to excellent are crippled by rushing through them.
And, oh boy! it seems we may agree about Operation Overdrive as well if your ending comments are anything to go by. I have a feeling it will take some time to finish that one.
I feel the need to make a prediction of a recurring motif for next seasons review: "Good ideas executed poorly."
Judging by your tone at the end of part 3, I can tell that Operation Overdrive is going to be a nightmare for you. For that, I wish you luck. You're going to need it.
I've just found confirmation about the Lesbian Vida thing.... http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ButchLesbian "Vida Rocca from Power Rangers Mystic Force was about as blatant about being this trope as US Moral Guardians will permit." So... yeah.... wow..... EVEN TOEI HASN'T TOUCHED THAT TOPIC YET! Now granted in Kamen Rider Wizard, there is a cross-dresser... but still No legit gay people, and this is from JAPAN people... so... props
i... liiiiked it.. kinda.. i always thought it was a season of missed opportunities. especially the way they executed magic and that they didnt set up a good ruleset and explanations of their magical boundaries and the other dimension (see the stupid magic game the terrors play). you have to do that with magic- even magic cant stay completely unexplained (thats what i hate about harry potter, too).
and cellphone-wands.. are utter garbage, sorry. cant agree with you. even worse than the growlphones imho.
it came kinda weak especially because i returned to powerrangers via spd (my fav season atm- even better than the original imho). mystic force with its forest, the music shop and the one garbagehut-village.. kinda has a small scope feel which should never be the case while defending several dimensional planes. the vampire episode shows that they should have gone all out with their mystical creatures in their magical plane. sadly missed that chance. not that they didnt do anything with mysticism and magic.. but they didnt do anything worthwhile for me. it all happened in the background or wasnt fleshed out enough to matter.. (see the mystic mother or the creatures of the forest and their relationship with humanity/reality)
"fantasy power rangers" was better done by mystic knights imho. plus the characters in mystic knights were more rounded
btw.. i stopped watching powerrangers again shortly after the start of overdrive.. because.. overdrive sucked imho.
p.s. does anyone know why they used the "hook"-theme all the time?
Bees my god. Surprised you didn't use that sound clip I saw "Once A Ranger" and I'm waiting for your explanation on how come Adam has his MMPR back since the power coins were destroyed unless you use the PR in Space explanation. And to hear how this group came to be even if the series is supposedly crap.
Mystic Force is here at last! Yes, it has way too much mythology. Yes, it focuses too much on peripheral characters rather than on the Rangers themselves. And yes, it has potential to be something good but Disney wastes it. However, despite those facts... I just can't help but think that this season is So Bad, It's Good. Even the theme song, I believe, is So Bad, It's Good.
Why do I think it's So Bad, It's Good? Primarily the theme of the season, which you didn't mention. The theme, I believe, is supposed to be one of balance. The way the creators try to balance out the mythology and characterization failed, but you at least see the season try to do it. Nick, himself, is a key part of the balance theme: he's supposed to be a balance of both magic and might and the human world and the magic world. The Tribunal of Magic is another example of how magic must be maintained in the human world and even the Ten Terrors mention at one point there's a balance of evil. The show tries to balance so much on us... and yet it failed so hard at it that you can't just help but admire it. Wish I could say the same about Operation Overdrive... May the Power protect us all...
Well, of course red is less evil than purple. Superman wears red, Lex Luthor wears purple! Ta-da!
Also, this season sounds like it needed a tighter focus on the story. Maybe another writing draft, or something. There sounds like a lot to like about this, it just kind of falters in execution.
Alright, I'll do this in a list because...I like lists. :D
Theme: I know it's weird, but I don't totally hate it. It's just SOOOO cheesy that when I hear it, I just have to roll my eyes and smile. (Power Rangers needs rock and roll. For sure.)
Suits: I like the suits for the same reason you do- CAPES. I also like that all it's got more black incorporated in it, cause I feel like there's not enough of it on many teams. I liked the Battlizers too, cause DRAGONS!
Story & Such: The only parts I really remember about this season is the Dark Wish arc and when Clare was kicking ass. I loved those ones. Otherwise...no comment I guess. :)
But really, I only have the vaguest memories of this season, since it was the last one on cable (or it's equivalent that didn't require a box) that you could watch. It wasn't bad...I guess average is the best classification for Mystic Force.
Can't wait for the next one...kinda...is it OK to feel conflicted on what we all know is probably the least liked season? *shudders at the thought of that theme song*
- pretty good review well worth the wait and I agreed with much of what of what you said, personally i actually did enjoy MF for the most part despite some of its flaws, and i'm definitely glad HOPR is back. - The new theme was cool but TBH i kinda missed how all the logos of the past ranger seasons would quickly run across the screen. - Good call on Gosei's voice, i never really noticed that before, but it probably was his voice, since Gosei is voiced by the same guy who voiced Koragg. - I thought you might have been just a bit harsh on Nick's character since despite giving up too much there were a few moments where he actually continued to fight even when they were losing, such as during the Gatekeeper Saga as well as during the Dark Wish trilogy, - Can't say i cared much for the Mystic Force theme either, I got used to it after a while, however I usually liked the background music played during fights, especially when they transformed into Legend warriors, which i thought was just epic. - overall though a pretty solid review, Looking forward to the OO review, especially if you on a rant similar to the one you had during Turbo, Although I still rank OO over Samurai.
Glad to have a new episode of HOPR. In anticipation of the pending posting of this episode, I actually went back and watched Mystic Force in its entirety before hand. Mind you I was still kind of watching power rangers at the time when this series aired. I was just out of high school mind you when SPD started airing, that puts me at 19 when MF started. Honestly...I lost interest pretty quick. Just...couldn't get into it. After going back and watching the series recently I can kinda see why, and your analysis was pretty accurate. It seemed like a real ADHD show. It bounced all over the place, had WAY too many characters and the focus wasn't where it should be.
I back you 100% on Nick. He was a bad red ranger. I think if he and Xander's character would've been switched up it would've been a lot better. Although Xander wasn't on the top of my list of characters, he was better suited to be red ranger than nick. I've not seen Operation Overdrive yet so I'm likely gonna try to start pushing through that season here soon. I have never seen all of Jungle Fury, but did catch some of it here and there with my kids. But I have seen RPM. I cant wait to see your episode on that one. But for now I'm going to, from what other's have said, subject myself to torture and jump into PR:OO in the near future.
The random romance between Nick and Madison at the end came about because their actors were actually dating at the time of production, and Nick's actor (can't remember the actors' names) wanted Madison to have more screen time. Well, that's just hearsay, anyway...
Incidentally, while you stated at the very beginning that you don't care about the Sentai, I feel like you SHOULD have mentioned how Magiranger's magic system was very complex and specific, whereas Mystic Force's magic was... not.
I just want to say that I don't mean anything malicious when I say this as I honestly enjoy your your work but, its about frikin time.
Also in response to your bit at the beginning of the the first video about 'whether we really need you continue doing these videos', dude no offence but you've kinda brought this to yourself.
I do agree with quite few of your points about Mystic Force, however a lot the questionable things can be explained away as 'that's what Magiranger did'. Mystic Force took practically all its major plot line from its Sentai counterpart, I think more then any other Power Rangers show had before it other then Time Force which borrowed quite a but of its plot from Timeranger.
Udonna doesn't get a whole lot of development but thats probably because her Sentai Counter pater spends most of the series supposedly dead.
Nick has to be the one to stab the Master because his Sentai counterpart Kai because he'd been taught a special sword technique that was supposedly able to kill him.
Your point about the The Ten Terrors Magiranger counter parts, The Hades Gods of the Infershia (Infershia being the name of the place where the evil forces live) the whole game of darkness thing was about , and I quote from Ranger Wiki, "to bring Divine Punishment upon humans while following a self-made code of conduct called the Dark Precept, using the Slab of Judgement to pick the chosen God to execute Divine Punishment" and later which of them would be the vessel for The Master.
Also the there is a Magiranger Dekaranger team up movie they could have used footage from, particularly a fight between Wolzard (Koragg) and Dekamaster (Shadow Ranger), but to be honest its really not that good.
All in all for me Mystic Force is an ok show, its not that great but its still far better then the two shows that followed it.
Finally you think Operation Overdrive is the worst season of Power Rangers, ha ha ha ha. In the words of SFDebris, poor dumb Linkara, I pity your soul when you reach the soul destroying abomination that is Jungle Fury.
PS I know you said you don't care for Super Sentai however is there any chance that before you edit and post the Operation Overdrive review, since that series contains 15th anniversary episodes, is there any chance that you could go watch and comment on its comparison Boukenger vs. Super Sentai just as a comparison to Once a Ranger, I think I can provide you with a Youtube link
There are two small things that I wanted to comment on first:
1)Sadly, while you did mention the passing of the actress who played Witch Bandora/Rita Repulsa as well as the Magic Mother died, you didn't mention that Peta Rutter, Udonna's actress, passed away herself in 2010. Then again, you also didn't mention that Edward Albert, who played Mr. Collins in Time Force, died in 2006, so I guess we can let that one pass.
2)Not mentioning that Daggeron was played by the same actor who voiced Anubis Cruger in SPD.
Other than that, a pretty good review of the show from the little bit that I did see of it when it aired. Can't wait to see more.
...though I did just think of another thing: Vida did have an arc, albeit a miniscule one. In the start, she hated the color pink. By the end, she dyed her hair pink!
...yeah, just wanted to be silly and mention that.
They had no idea what they were messing with They had no idea They didn't know what they were looking at when they were looking there They didn't know what they were up against No, No way, no how They didn't know what they were messing with But he was going to tell them now.
Yeah, Camelot may be your favorite musical, but mine is, hands-down, Little Shop of Horrors.
I generally enjoyed Mystic Force. It was a fun series, and I consider it more or less middle of the road as far as Ranger series go. It certainly was flawed, but I don't really think it deserves the sheer level of vitriol that it gets.
As for the theme song though...I'm going to have to disagree with you there. I ADORE the Mystic Force theme, and honestly consider it the best Power Ranger theme, short of maybe just short of the original. It's catchy, it's used perfectly for an action scene in the finale, where the buildup to the singers matches with the team's increase in magic, it was an attempt to try something different, which I can generally appreciate, and lastly, I honestly think that a pop song fits really well with the whole urban fantasy genre. It shows a willingness to step away from the whole classical Tolkienism that forever has the genre in a noose, and I legitimately think that was a nice touch.
As for the two remaining Kalish seasons, yes, Overdrive was terrible, you'll get no arguments from me there. But Jungle Fury was honestly a pretty strong series. It had several well constructed character arcs, both on the heroic and villainous side, made an earnest and I would say generally successful attempt to homage the wuxia genre, and not to mention that it had what was probably the most entertaining mentor character in the franchise to date.
Honestly I feel about Mystic Force and the next few years like I do about Moffat's writing of Dr. Who where there are some grand and cool ideas but they have no idea how to get to them and in the end things just fall flat
The thing about red beeing less evil then purple might actually go back to the Sentai. I never watched the Sentai (or Mystic Force for that matter), but in japan, Purple is a color connected to death and many evil characters and villians make use of this color. Rayman for example got recolored in the japanese release from Purple to Blue because of that: http://www.vgfacts.com/game/rayman2thegreatescape/
Not that it is so important, but noone commented on it yet, so I thought it might be interesting ^^
I can't get over the background musical motif that sounds just like "Across The Stars" from Attack of the Clones. Throws me off every time it comes up.
Now I did enjoy Mystic Force and I probably hold it a little higher than Linkara. Still it is not much above average. I liked the idea that the group was less focused on martial arts simply because it gave a new type of battle: Magic. We have had mostly martial arts or militaristic weaponry (the only other season I can think of that has that difference was Lost Galaxy).
Oh dear. Operation Overdrive... I do agree that there is little good about the series but there is one thing about it that is NOT the worst about the PR universe and that is (and before you lash out read the full thing)... the theme song. Yes, while the Operation Overdrive theme is bad, it is NOT as bad as RPM's theme song. Of course RPM more than makes up for its theme with an excellent story but it is something to comment on.
Jungle Fury, on which Linkara edit-commented... well here is some talk. It does something that I recall him complaining didn't happen - it actually gives the three ranger team setup time to develop; maybe too much so but I won't reveal how just in case you didn't get that far even though many of your comments suggest you do. Still Jungle Fury was enjoyable (and I really like its theme song) especially since in my opinion it seems to do right what Ninja Storm did wrong.
I am SO looking forward to the RPM review. That is all that needs to be said there.
Now I recall Linkara having mentioned at the release of the Ninja Storm review that at the time of its release he was "enjoying Power Rangers Samurai" and that brings the question of whether or not he stands by that.
Then of course we will have Megaforce which to be honest is not what it was promising to be (oh well...)
Yay! Good things do come to those who wait! Lol. I personally liked the first half of Mystic Force and thought it was a fun watch. The theme song I thought was fun since I had not heard hip hop in PR; was it appropriate for a show about magic? No, but was still pretty catchy.
To me, the best part of PRMF was the Dark Wish three-parter which felt epic advertised like a movie when it premiered. After that, the intro to the ten terrors was when it fell apart for me. The interchanging of villains was a weak point to this series since it felt like the rangers were only occupying themselves with baddies before the series remembered it actually had a main villain.
As for PRJF, I like it! True, it did have similarities to Ninja Storm with the academy students, but was fun and had some different but cool aspects! I like their morphers (I don't mind if anyone disagrees).
A suggestion for a joke for your PRJF review: at the beginning of the show, the mentor character RJ asks the main characters if they had ever heard of the power rangers. The future red ranger Casey answered, "Yeah, who hasn't?"; replay that scene where Dustin says "Power rangers are real!" In hindsight, I think it's funny the fact (not my joke) that ninja students would not believe in power rangers and yet martial art students that draw power from animal spirits have heard of and believe in them. What? Did the proof of power rangers not reach the ninja academies' side of the mountains?
I do agree with quite few of your points about Mystic Force, however a lot the questionable things can be explained away as 'that's what Magiranger did'. Mystic Force took practically all its major plot line from its Sentai counterpart...
While I don't nessesary think people that watch Power Rangers should completely ignore Super Sentai, I need to say that: If you are doing PR in a way that requires to watch SS to understand a plot, you fail! If Mystic Force can't tell a story by itself, what point is in watching it? Fans should just watch Magiranger to begin with (assuming there is a good translation for it, but that's not the point). Now don't get me wrong: I'm not saying borrowing a plot from SS is a bad thing, but if you do so, you don't drop important plot points without filling the resulting holes with something. Like in "To boldly flee" Ma-Ti was needed to plug the plothole.
Good review. I have to admit that I only saw like two or three episodes in this season. I don't think it was horrible, I really didn't see anything here that was worth watching.
The suits do look cool though. Good luck on Operation Overdrive because... Ugh.
Linkara, I am so glad to see this series back in action. Awesome you're doing this for the fans. Please keep up the great work and my humble and deepest sympathy for what you are about to endure with Operation Overdrive. It truly was one of-if not THE WORSE-seasons of ANY show I have ever watched since being born 4 decades years ago. The good thing is that if you are still sane after Overdrive, you're in the home stretch to perhaps the best Power Ranger series RPM.
Are you seriously still getting crap from some Sentai fans? Sigh. Let me just say, in my opinion, what you're doing is the best way to do this. The complainers are the ones who feel the need to constantly weigh each series against its Japanese counterpart...but do so with loaded scales, since they inevitably come away bitching about how PR is just a terrible bastardization of the original Sentai, and that it somehow "destroyed" the Sentai merely by existing. These people are what I like to call "morons". If you want a fine example, look at the comments section of JEFusion, where ANYTHING sets these people off. The news that the Gokaiger suits would be used in Super Megaforce? Well obviously, that destroyed Gokaiger for all time, past present and future. And you should have heard the screaming when it was rumored that a Caucasian actor was going to be part of Kyoryuger, the latest Sentai; it turned out to be false, but the comments made were nothing short of blatant racism against non-Asians and cries to boycott the franchise until Toei "saw the light". Of course, you should only browse those comments if you find yourself needing an excuse to hate humanity.
As for Koragg turning red...um, fire magic? Plus Japan considers red the most heroic color - which is why every single Sentai leader minus JAKQ's Big One is red, and why 9 of the last 14 Kamen Riders have had red armor in either their primary or their ultimate forms (with the staff of one season having to fight Toei in order made the hero a a different color).
I'm probably going to be one of the few people who defends OO. I actually, when the episodes were still on Youtube, and I liked it AND Jungle Fury better than Mystic, but on Retrospect I was waaaaay to harsh on it so, thanks to Netflix, I'll see if my opinion changes.
Also I know we're going to disagree on Samurai, but that's a ways off. I think Samurai is absolute dreck because of the awful acting and the dialogue be taken from the sentai and put through Google Translate.
Quick point about the alternate dimension bit in part 1: There is nowhere in NZ with purple plants and trees. I've lived there for about 17 years and I'm pretty sure I'd have heard about it. It's more likely than not just a filter.
And before anyone points out that Linkara said it wasn't a filter, there still exists the very real possiblity that there were very talented editors who just adjusted the colour gradiant in the areas around the actor. It's not that difficult of a process, just time-consuming (as evidence by some shots that show the ground immediately around him not being the same purple as ground not so close to him).
About a year ago I wrote a plot outline for a Power Rangers reboot. The idea was to go back to the Mighty Morphing era and retell that story in a way not too dissimilar to Battlestar Galactica.
I conceived it as a trilogy (Rangers origin, Green Ranger Saga, Lord Zedd) of films but with a view to possibly doing it as a series. I wanted to do a more "serious" take while paying homage to the original show.
Anyways, I'd be interested to see what you guys think. Give it a read if you'd like:
I watched a handful of episodes of this show while waiting between installments of your reviews. I don't recall having much of an opinion one way or the other outside of not particularly liking the idea that they are their zords. Weirder now that I know that the megazord had an actual cockpit. Do one or the other, not both, is all I'm saying for that bit. It's too bad that this one was so uneven, it did look like it had a lot of potential. The music... Theme? Catchy, just doesn't work for a show about magic. Incidental? Was the composer asleep while trying to match it up to the scene being worked on?
I can't think of anything else to say about this at the moment, so I'll say I look forward to whatever you have to say about OO. The good, the bad and the just plain ugly I've heard read and seen, to a limited degree, relating to this one. As always, take your time, just not too long... ;)
And 'Who said that? Gosei?'...brilliant...utterly brilliant. I can't wait for 5 years from now when you finally reach megaforce so I can hear what you have to say about gosei.
I greatly enjoyed Mystic Force and the theme song grew on me but the Wassermen one was MUCH better. But yea Operation Overdrive's theme song is sad...but not as sad as RPM...the Demo was SOOOOOOOOOOOO much better.
I think the problem fans have with PR adapting Sentai storylines is that they like to watch both and don't want to watch essentially the same thing twice. After watching a lot of your PR videos I thought I'd give it a go and would watch Samurai when it started, but I also decided to watch it's Sentai counterpart for comparison (and that's the first time I watched any Sentai and the only one I've seen all of so far). I ended up ditching Samurai after a few episodes, I have seen a few more since but wasn't following it, and that was because it was pretty much copying the Sentai with a few minor changes. So I don't know if I really mind PR straight up adapting Sentai (if they do it well that should be ok) but I think it's probably better when PR is doing it's own thing.
As for Mystic Force, yeah I don't like the theme song but it does have a good start. Some of the ideas and storylines in there do sound like good ideas, just not too well executed.
i can think of five different reasons why the giants couldn't go all to earth at the same time... if they all had powers similar level to the "master", it would be like putting ten giants bomb together in the same place... there is no point in taking over the world if it's destroyed... a really enjoyed this review,i gotta say Dark wish was my favourit story of this season because the message was just really well played... looking foward to next season... wish i only saw like five episodes i think... s you won't get any spoilers from me...
I enjoyed Mystic Force but yeah watch it once and don't watch it for about a year. My fav character was Finacis. I enjoyed the idea that it was just a good old good vs evil. Personal though I wish Zander had more of a role. For operation overdrive I only ever watch the 15 year episode special because I really like seeing Adam back. I'll be blunt I hate operation overdrive and RPM. Jungle Fury is also painful and RJ is the only part I like.
I'd say the best way to handle Sentai is to mention it when footage constraints actually affect the show's plot (like the lack of a pink ranger in Kakuranger affecting MMPR season 3, the whole Sam situation in SPD, etc.) and not when there are just some visual oddities that don't factor into PR's plot but are there because they were there in Sentai (like the Heavenly Saint forms from Magiranger showing up here, or that one time that a monster in MMPR season 3 absorbed some of the rangers' powers and got the Alien Rangers' masks on its head even though they hadn't shown up yet).
"The zords combining feels like somebody hit the fast forward button on the sentai footage." Funny you should say that because, that's exactly what they did, the combining sequences for the dragon and the Titan Megazord are basically just the Sentai footage sped up. I feel it's definitely better to look at this show without looking its Sentai counterpart to judge it fairly. I did watch Magiranger from start to end, and I feel Mystic Force trying to follow some its plotlines was a mistake. It had fewer episodes and from the beginning it didn't set it self up in a way that would make it very good for copying Magiranger, with the only good plot it got form being the pink ranger turning into a vampire, but for the most part the Sentai plots were just botched. It feels most PR seasons do best when they don't follow the Sentai and focus on their own ideas, and I'm saying this as somebody who has watched Sentai. I suppose it's also fair to expect more rants about stock voices tones, because the next two shows use a lot of them.
When I first saw the suits and I heard the music I didn't like, but both have grown on me through the years. However I still think the male suits (maybe it's because the M going all down to their legs) so I prefer female versions. And I agree with you the theme while not bad just doesn't fit well in fight scenes and thus lack "the Wasserman effect"
As a whole through, I agree that series while this series bad, it just failed to deliver.
Take Imperious as an example, he was great concept has he was pretty much a nonredeemable power ranger turn evil that was trying to overthrow his dark overlord. To bad they didn't just kill of the master and made him into the ultimate villain.
Great review, Linkara. I never realized that Mystic Force was more about the secondary characters than it was about the rangers themselves, save for Nick.
I don't like the idea of comparing every single thing with magic in it to Harry Potter either, but... That piece of music that plays at about 10:00 in the first video (and repeats at 10:54... probably again later, but I'm typing this while recovering from a vid crash... I hate those!)... That bit of score is a clear rip of John Williams's Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter. Listen to Prologue from The Philosopher's Stone* and you'll hear it.
~ Mik * That's what the first one is called everywhere but the U.S.
the legends were true..... you do actually make power rangers history videos!
lol. couldn't resist there. i do like these videos a whole lot though, almsot as much as the actual linkara videos too. and also it made me somewhat itnersted in power rangers, although i have long since dismissed them; even when i was a little kid i would complain about why are they flipping around and shit and not just hitting it, or them ignoring obvious plot points. obviously i prefer the latter series over what came before, not sure why though.
here, yah i am very disapointed. it all jsut sound so unintersting. boring demon people of evil magic aren't so itneresting. and it is obviosu the borrowed plot points like three times in the series. introduce a group of super baddies, they get killed, new one comes along. i was also extra disapointed by the rita turning good yet nothing done with it thing. i thoguht that might be itneresting. turns out she just gets killed....... not to mention the idiotic continuity here. i can accept the bug people from galaxy not getting hit by it, or perhaps being more immune as they were not so hardcore evil. but these guys were on earth for god's sake. not to mention the plot hole of when rita became a magic thing mabob...... wait if rita basically became another zordon here, shouldn't he death have created another anti evil wave and just killed the chthulu rip off? jesus.
the fight scene with the red ranger turning bad and donning armor like his originally possessed father thing was just.... stupid. i know it is a power rangers fight, but what moron throwsh is shield when his enemy has one, or abandons it at all? i do no care what fight logic you use, you do not gain the advantage over a guy with a shield by abandoning yours. it would just let the enemy block you attack and slash you with thier free arm while you try to recover to a second attack. as said i know this is power rangers, where everything blows up when they die even if they re stabbed by a sword or something, but that is incredibly strategically unsound.
random ideas about how the mystic force could have improved:
*have imperius reason to become evil be that he loved udonna but leanbow came first. so the master tempted him to become evil with the promise of udonna as his prize. he would also know who koragg is, so he wants to kill him so udonna could be his.
*Necrolai loves her daughter and wants her to be happy, but she believes this can only be done if she accepts evil. sort of trakeena and her father. and the reason she turns one of the rangers into a vampire is in part so her daughter can have friends.
*ALL five rangers are the childrens of the original five warriors. yu see, in the sentai(and i do know you don't watch the sentai, but this is important), the five were siblings. so, when the chosen one plot was adapted, since the rangers are not siblings, they don't feel connected to the conflict.
*Daggeron is clare's father...because clare's father is never mentioned...and daggeron needs some depth desperatly
*Clare becomes the new white ranger. which would complete her way from apprentice to master without the whole flashback thing.
*have more plots related about the rangers interacting with the forest creatures.
Hey Lewis, big fan of yours from Australia. You actually caused me to get back into Power Rangers (I gave up partway through Mystic Force originally, so I've had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this season. ) A couple of things I should point out (if you actually read this)
1) Richard Branticassino (Xander's actor) is actually from Australia, and I'm pretty sure that Xander explicitly mentioned that he was from Australia, I'm not going to find which episode it was, but as an Australian, I really wouldn't go around saying that an Australian is actually a New Zealander. Nothing personal, its just that we have the same relationship to New Zealand as Americans do with Canada (not that I'm trying to offend any of my New Zealand friends out there.....)
2. I noticed that when you brought up Operation Overdrive at the end, you seemed to be dreading it. You have mentioned that you've seen Once a Ranger, I don't know what else you have seen, or if you've already started watching OO, but since you did mention at the beginning that each season will have a chance to impress you, I sincerely hope that you don't have a bias against this season because of your bad experiences with it. Yes, it is not the best that Power Rangers has offered, but like Mystic Force there are some good points (I won't go into what at the moment)
Overall, a great review, Looking forward to the next one, whenever that may be.
Plan Xander actually DID work once - against the giant.
I kinda agree that Mystic Force was decent but did a lot wrong and had bad pacing. And that Operation Overdrive was... bad. Having never truly watched Turbo (I lost interest in Power Rangers the first time around shortly after Zeo ended), it's probably my least favorite out of those I've seen. Jungle Fury was at least okay.
I'm surprised, though, to see people maligning RPM here; it was my favorite of the franchise, main theme song notwithstanding. I did try In Space, but wasn't as fond of it as RPM.
And speaking of main theme songs, I don't know why, but somehow I always felt that Mystic Force's was... strangely appropriate somehow. And I can't say why. I'm not into hip-hop, but it just feels right for the series. *shrug*
"I really wouldn't go around saying that an Australian is actually a New Zealander. Nothing personal, its just that we have the same relationship to New Zealand as Americans do with Canada (not that I'm trying to offend any of my New Zealand friends out there.....)"
NZ'er here, and I was thinking much the same thing. Although I can see how it might be easy to make the mistake, with the show filmed in NZ (I had a lot of fun seeing how many things I could recognise - actors, locations, the sheep :) ).
The accents are different but then I couldn't differentiate between various European accents until I lived there for a while - I'm guessing Australian and NZ accents probably also sound much the same to someone not familiar with them.
Nice reintroduction to HOPR with a season that's basically the beginning of relatively unfamiliar territory for you Lewis. Aside from any details that I didn't notice due to not having seen this season, the only other error I did hear was when you were talking about Tommy in a Dino Thunder-SPD crossover...when you had stated about two times earlier that SPD didn't have any crossovers with the other series. I know you meant the Ninja Storm crossover with Dino Thunder though.
As for why Barbara Goodson didn't voice in, probably again for the fact that with this season as well as SPD, they wanted to keep them separate from all other Power Rangers shows outside of the Kalish shows, with the one cameo from Piggy being the only one. The fact that "Rita" was even in there was probably out of necessity. Least that's the only explanation I can think of.
He claims to have kept a hold of his honour but as you point out he is more talk than action in that regard and not as honourable as he claims.
What it, rather than let him keep his honour the dark forces corrupting him have been slowly chipping away at his honour, unable to take it completely due to his mental and spiritual resistance? Thus his character can be explained by his sense of honour being distorted and twisted into a gross parody of what it once was.
My thoughts, Mystic Force was not as good as SPD, but there were enough plot twists to make it interesting. You'd think with the multiple different villain factions in Operation Overdrive that one would have been interesting too, but no it was just awful.
Power Rangers and Rock work both Hand in Hand. while the rap has a bit of a cheesy factor, so does PR:OO. However, I agree with you, I stopped watching PR: and started watching Megaforce recently BTW: how the heck did they get Peter Weller to voice Robo-Knight? [if its not him,its a damn good impression.] Jungle Fury I honestly never herd of it, all I know is that Jungle Furry Red is going to make an apperece in super Megaforce and thats honestly form a RangerWiki, my guess is that we might see more ranger teams, and see the legend war and gokaiger suits. Again I never herd of JF, so Hearing your own BIAS opinion on it would be wonderful. excellent episdoe and I agree wholeheartly with your review and anaylisis. Cheers Linkara.
Yay, I kinda forgotten about this until it showed up on TGWTG. Welcome back, dude.
Awww I actually liked the theme song, I felt it was quite catchy. Yeah it's hip hop, so what? You said yourself there was a worse version (and I know which one you're referring to) at least this one stays on beat. And besides, a little variety doesn't hurt every now and then, my friend. But like you said, your opinion (Though really did you have to keeping hammering you didn't like it? One notice of this is quite enough. I get its not to your tastes and I understand it was a product of executive meddling that was forced on one of your favorite composers. But you were starting to sound like a broken record. No offense, just saying).
That said though, yeah this season was pretty meh and did feel like the rangers were just sub characters within their own show (save Nick). A lot of good ideas I admit but virtually no build up to anything in this "war of good and bad magic". Felt more like characters just meandering around with some occasional connections to each other. It's not the worst season of PR I've seen but not really up to it's full potential either.
Looking forward to Operation Overdrive review whenever you get around to it. ^_^
I apologize in advance for the following essay sized comment. I just have a lot of feelings about this series okay.
Mystic Force is one of those ones that I watched... but felt very meh about. It was the first Power Rangers show I had actually watched all the Sentai of it for and grew horribly attached to the Japanese characters and there relationships as a family. Seeing the Power Rangers versions I felt the characterization fell a little flat in comparison so I found it really hard to connect to the characters. Though maybe that was because as you said, they tended not to FOCUS on them only which meant not as much character moments. The only character I kind of liked was Chip... and even then he annoyed me sometimes.
When you played a clip of the rock version of the theme... my face fell. That version isn't perfect but SOOO Much better than the song they went with. The rap song just.. BUGS me so much. (I mean, at least it isn't the ear-bleedingly bad Operation Overdrive).
I have to say, I kinda dig there 'uniforms' before they transform. They're pretty neat and the design evoked more 'magic' and fantasy than SOME of the stuff in the show. There transformed outfits have actually been one of my favourites, especially the girls outfits. I think they're super cute.
Most of my problems with the story over all though come out of the fact they bring up some plot points from the sentai... but not the context so it makes some of the things people do seem pointless or contradictory. I felt they needed a bit more editors to keep things constant (Korag is a BIG example of this.). Parts of the series I quite like, but I find it just didn't gel for me. The abundance of extra characters worked better in the original as well... just because they had double the episodes to develop them.
I really wish they had a Team up episode, i watched the SPD Magi Ranger Team up in the Sentai and it was a really neat mix of the future tech and Magic and was a joy to watch. It would have been interesting to see the SPD rangers come back and see how they handled it here. Or Maybe I just miss Bridge okay.
Though the on thing that bugged me more than anything was the plot point of Nick being the one true hero ect ect. It takes the focus away from the TEAM and puts it on the one. Again hate to bring up the sentai again, but they acted as a TEAM, as a FAMILY. (Also... why does Nick not look like... ANYTHING like his parents? Like at ALL?)
I really tried to see this on it's own, but as I had seen the sentai so close to it and enjoyed that so much I found it hard to give an unbiased opinion of it while watching it. Over all though I still enjoyed it more than Operation Overdrive which hurts my soul. Jungle Fury though... I actually kind of liked that one.
Personally, I really liked the theme song from a thematic point of view. While the lyrics and vocals have a very 'modern urban' feel to them, the music and instrumentation are very steampunk fantasy. This blend and clash of worlds really stands for what the season is about, eh?
... I'm not sure if its inclusion was intentional or not, but the expression of the character in part three's still makes me laugh every time I see it.
I really enjoyed this video, but I don't actually have much to say about it. What I do want to ask, though, is will you ever review a Judge Dredd strip? I can't give any reccomendations because really, I can't think of any -bad- Dredd stories off the top of my head.
"However if it was a selfish or bad spell it would backlash them 3 times. Since the Rangers are naturally the good guys its a given that they don't backlash even if they used their powers selfishly like using their wands to clean up their mess at work."
My mind immedtately races to "Fantasia", specifically the segment "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".
When Mickey tries to selfishly use magic to clean the place up, his magic backfires. When the Rangers selfishly use their magic to clean the place up, their magic doesn't backfire.
Nice review as always . . . even on a series that was subpar (one nickname for this series I've read was Mystic Farce). It seemed like "Lord of the Rings" featuring the Power Rangers.
I wish you best of luck on reviewing Operation Overdrive . . . but I'll look forward to who you would have brought back for the "Once a Ranger" veteran Rangers Team.
When you mentioned Wasserman's original theme for the series, I couldn't help but feel a little dread. Personally, I don't like Wasserman's songs in the Kalish era (I still maintain that SPD's theme is trying to rip off Doom's first level theme), but I will agree with you that, at the very least, his rendition of MF's theme would've been better than what was put in its place... except for one thing: the lyrics don't have anything to do with the magical aspect of the season, and in fact has as one of its lyrics "Technology will help them save the day". Technology will help them save the day? In a show where everything dealing with the Rangers - from their powers to their enemies and everything in between - is so steeped in magic and sorcery their morphers are actual wood-and-crystal wands that only APPEAR to be cell phones because of a glamour? FAIL!
As for the lyric "Technology will save the day" being out of place, do realize that the extended version of the theme they did use includes the lyric "Mystic Force from outer space"...
Well, to be fair, listening to the theme again, I got the lyrics wrong; it's not "Technology will help them save the day", it's "Technology will show them all the way". The point still stands, though; nothing about how they gain their powers or how they save the day has anything to do with technology. At least the rap version he did got the lyrics right and acknowledged that it was a purely MAGICAL Ranger show. Anyone ask Ron about that lyric in the rock version and where it came from?
I'm glad to see HoPR back, even if I feel like I've been giving the same reason for why I've been watching a lot of people's work lately. It's true, though, that I do like getting other people's perspectives on things that I would otherwise just dismiss on my own. This time, I dare say you've even got me to partially reconsider my position on the Power Rangers as a franchise.
After seeing this episode, it occurs to me that maybe I'm not really giving Power Rangers the credit it deserves. The Mystic Force era sounds like it had some really good ideas an concepts to it, even if those ideas and concepts didn't get used anywhere nearly as well as they should have.
As I write this, I'm actually considering giving the franchise a serious shot. If I do, I'd probably start with SPD, but I'd have to watch that review again just to refresh my memory as to what it was actually about.
I love it when I can get a new perspective on things, and in this case, that has certainly happened. Thank you, Mr. Lovhaug, for enlightening us. It's much appreciated.
Yeah, I saw what you were saying; notice the second post asking not to have the previous post posted (yeah, that went as planned. >_>) And as I said earlier, I always felt the hip-hop theme was oddly appropriate though I can't explain why (Operation Overdrive's or RPM's, on the other hand...)
May I offer some advice Linkara? I can understand not wanting to watch the Sentai versions of any of the shows cuz you're simply not interested in them (like me preferring the Sentai over Rangers cuz i'm simply not interested in Power Rangers anymore)but that kind reasoning will just make them think you're ignorant and attack you cuz for some strange reason indifference=hate on the internet, which it isn't (90% of the time). So i'm gonna offer reasons why you can't compare Super Sentai to Power Rangers on this show as best as I can so the Sentai fanboys will get off your back Linkara (hopefully).
1. A grand majority of the Super Sentais that were adapted into Power Rangers have not been translated yet and the ones that ARE being fansubbed are either incomplete or most of them subbed by TV-Nihon who are TERRIBLE fansubbers. I'l post a link that explains why TV-Nihon are terrible to save time and they can explain better than I can (http://onoretvn.tumblr.com/post/43769344711/deleted-and-reposted-for-rebloggable-we) but to put it simply: they mistranslate things on purpose to pander to weeaboos and end up creating plotholes as a result when the shows they fansub never had them to begin with. Only 5 Super Sentais that have been fansubbed that are complete, that are not subbed by TV-nihon & given proper treatment are: Zyuranger (subbed by G.U.I.S.), Dairanger (subbed by Hikari-Senshi), Gaoranger (subbed by Gaosoul), Gekiranger (subbed by Gekiknight) & Go-onger (subbed by Go-Anon). So yeah, kinda hard to compare Super Sentai & Power Rangers fairly when only 5 of the Sentais are given full proper fansubs.
2. You already have too much work to do as it is Linkara (AT4W, Longbox of the Damned, the DVDs, crossovers etc) so you don't have time to watch another show on top of Power Rangers (especially since each Sentai series has more episodes than it's American counterparts) just to please the Sentai fans.
3. Super Sentai & Power Rangers are two completely different things. While Power Rangers may use Super Sentai footage, the plots of both franchises are so radically different from each other that comparing them seems pointless cuz you like said all those years ago Linkara "Each series of Power Rangers should be able to stand or fall on it's own".
"And you should have heard the screaming when it was rumored that a Caucasian actor was going to be part of Kyoryuger, the latest Sentai; it turned out to be false, but the comments made were nothing short of blatant racism against non-Asians and cries to boycott the franchise until Toei "saw the light"."
Actually, a Caucasian actor did end up part of Kyoryuger's cast.
Really? REALLY?! "Mystic Force from OUTER SPACE"?! What were they thinking? I mean, it's bad enough that, if and when they actually release a villain figure for the toy sets, they automatically call it an "Evil Space Alien", regardless of their actual origins, but seriously?
Ah, Power Rangers Comedic Relief Force the series that made me stop watching Power Rangers regularly. If the Writer's Strike did happen during this series than its a shame. It feels like this series needed to go through another draft to clean things up, well that or a few more non-filler episodes that went somewhere.
Your story about Camelot and Teen Titans month show the reason why you are my favorite reviewer, you share stories like this that builds connections between yourself and the viewers. It's not some guy with a nice hat telling us what he thinks, its Linkara our friend with the nice hat telling us what he thinks.
Can't wait for the next season. And just a thought if you get through Overdrive, Jungle Fury and RPM before say March maybe you could release an abridged review of the re-release, with the comic book graphics, but have radically different opinions than before. And that release date...April 1st, to celebrate April Fool's Day and the anniversary of the series. Just a thought.
I like both Power Rangers and Super Sentai, but I can understand why you would only focus on Power Rangers. It should stand on its own merit.
Though as seen in this show, it CAN become a problem if the Power Rangers season starts following its counterpart, but only partly, since it can hurt the show's coherence. Then again, following a Sentai show exactly would just make me wonder why they didn't just dub the whole thing...
(Though if you ever start watching Sentai, I can tell you that at least the monsters from the 90s have a tendency to turn into humans and act like Silver Age villains XD )
And what is up with that theme Oo ?!
The rock version could've been more epic (maybe something along the line of Nightwish), but it was overall MUCH better.
I don't mind the capes at all. They're pretty cool looking, actually. (And a bit old school seeing how the first Sentai team wore capes like it was going out of style - with collars no less!)
And yeah, close-up shaky-cam with not a single shot lasting more than 2 seconds? Whoever thought that was a good idea? It puzzles me me how modern cinema spends so much money, time and effort to make those expensive action scenes look as crappy and confusing as possible, just because they believe it's a good idea.
Man, the continuity nods in this show are random o_O
I'm a longtime lurker, but I'd just like to say that I think you're doing a great job on this series. I was a big Power Rangers fan as a kid, although I moved away from it relatively quickly, probably because Mighty Morphin' first premiered when I was ten years old, so I was at the older end of their target audience. I watched the first season obsessively and was still pretty enthusiastic about the second season, though I would miss episodes here and there. I got really sporadic as season three went along (to the point where I completely missed the entire Alien Rangers story arc), and stopped watching altogether a few episodes into Zeo. It's been really fascinating to see what they've done with the show since then, and I think you do a really good job of presenting a good rundown of each season.
I actually think that making each season its own separate story has actually strengthened the series (certain individual seasons notwithstanding), because it allows for more character development and plot advancements. Episodes don't feel quite as formulaic. However, I do see the benefit in allowing those changes to happen more slowly over multiple seasons (especially since there have been TV shows over the years that I consider myself a casual fan of and thus did not watch every single episode).
Mystic Force does look like one of the weaker seasons, though this video is all I have to go on for that assessment. I agree with you that it seems like the Rangers themselves get shoved aside in terms of character focus (Also, I agree with whoever said that one of the background music pieces sounds like the "Across the Stars" track from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, although I also hear a bit of the Harry Potter theme mixed into it). However, this episode, as always, was well worth the wait (And don't worry about installments taking a long time. As a writer for two blogs and a former film student, I understand how life happens and things get backed up).
Again, great job and I'm looking forward to the next one, even if it's just to see why Operation Overdrive is the worst season (I somehow saw the first episode when it first aired, but I know nothing else about it).
I liked this season when I first watched it, but I seem to have a higher tolerance for terrible things, so I'm not the best judge of quality.
Also, it may not have been super important, but I'm surprised you didn't mention that in addition to Toby being Piggy, Daggeron was Doggy Kruger.
I'm not sure why people aren't talking about Jungle Fury. It was an ok season, if not the best. I'll at least always like it for getting me to Sentai, because Jungle Fury's Sentai source is one of my favorites. I saw the "morphers" and thought "ok... different. how do the toys for them loo- oh, those SUCK. ...I wonder what the Japanese version was like. *youtube* ......TO THE SENTAI!"
Also, I respect that you don't want to watch the Sentai, but hopefully someday you might decide to. Like PR, SS has its share of amazing seasons mixed with pure junk, but the good stuff in SS is just wonderful, with My personal faves being Gekiranger, Shinkenger, Gokaiger, and especially Go-Busters.
I loved the review, although I didn't agree on one big thing. I thought the actual ranger team was very boring, with only Xander being interesting (although, looking back, Chip was ok and probably deserved a bit more screen time). To me, the side characters made me keep watching. Udonna, Leanbow, Solaris Knight, Clare, etc. were the reason I made it through the series. They were interesting, and even made Nick a little interesting (and Nick was not a good ranger at all). Without them, its a team that has probably the worst Red Ranger I've ever seen, one notable ranger, and 3 ok rangers who were just fairly boring. Combine that with ok but not amazing villains, and this is definately not my favorite season (that title goes to Lost Galaxy), but it was watchable because the side characters stories kept me coming back.
"I've just found confirmation about the Lesbian Vida thing.... http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ButchLesbian "Vida Rocca from Power Rangers Mystic Force was about as blatant about being this trope as US Moral Guardians will permit." So... yeah.... wow..... EVEN TOEI HASN'T TOUCHED THAT TOPIC YET! Now granted in Kamen Rider Wizard, there is a cross-dresser... but still No legit gay people, and this is from JAPAN people... so... props"
god anytime a woman doesnt fit the traditional sense of feminity she must be a lesbian just because she has short hair and is a dj doesnt make her gay and i love you claim this as confirmation when this is clearly written by someone who had nothing to do with the production of the show so how would they what sexuality the character is also site anything that hints she is a lesbian besides having short hair and being a dj
I agree with Anonymous, there's not a single hint of Vida's sexuality beyond her apperarance and her job as a DJ. in fact, her romantic feeling for Chip, although rushed, feel very sincere.
Linkara, what's your take on this? Do you think Vida is gay or straight?
Dark Wish I can explin why the rangers or other oens could help. Time force didn;t exisit, why? beucase the AoPA present is take over by the dakrness whcih could of whiped future teams out of assistance. the other ranger teams could of given it there all but maybe the ten titans where battling them and since a lot of them don't know about magic,etc it wasn't use. there's your explication. PR:OO god speed Lewis. God Speed. How do you like robo cop/knight so far?
Wait, a book, or Tome, if you will, that is held by what vaguely looks like a hand and essentially writes itself and details an Eternal Darkness? Okay, which came first, this or Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem?...
Why do people hate Operation OVerdrive? I enjoyed it... Loved Will and Ronny, Loved the android revelation, loved the fact that they used real places, LOVED the return of Adam leading the Veteran Rangers as MMPR Black...
Personally, I do like the theme song for this season. But I do agree with Linkara that it doesn't fit the tone of the show itself. Hip hop and fantasy do not mix.
Well Linkara, we meet again... well not exactly meet, but after knowing what you went through, I was tempted to offer to take you our for several large beverages of your choice. Let me elaborate. I had not seen a single episode of Mystic Force prior to watching the review and reading the above comments. Me, being the eternal optimist, thought "It can't be that bad." I went to a certain website and started watching from the beginning. I couldn't make it through the third episode before I had to give up. I swear Vogon poetry is easier to get through, even with having to gnaw my own leg off. As for Overdrive, the only thing I know about it is what I've heard from Johnny Bosch in one of his panels. That said, I will still wait for your review before I dare punish myself further. I would say good luck and may the power protect you, but if I remember the process, you have already watched Overdrive. (And I guess survived it!)
I'm not sure that it would have worked if "Power Rangers: Mystic Force" had all the rangers be siblings the way they were in Magiranger. I'm rusty on my Ranger lore, but aren't the Ranger teams usually multiethnic? Of course, one could have the Mystic Force rangers be adopted siblings, which would account for racial differences, but you'd still have the "Luke, I am Your Father" plot disproportionately affect the Red Ranger.
Hey Link, i have a few questions, after so many videos of history or Power rangers: 1. how far in the seasons are you right now? 2. as someone who only saw 3 or 4 episodes of power rangers samurai, do you believe Saban is taking notes and learning from their mistakes? like, are there still xplosions behind the back in samurai?
I am very much looking forward to what no doubt will be the most harshest and most venomous overview of a Power Rangers season since Power Rangers Turbo. Because Operation Overdrive is so awful it hurts, for all my hatred of Turbo, I'd much rather watch that than Operation Overdrive.
Regarding vida's sexuality, I personally think she might be either a lesbian or bisexual. it's not because she's not what we define as "feminine", but more of because her reaction when Necrolai is in human form. I don't know, it could just be my wanting more lgbt members in power rangers. PS: Lewis, I've got proof that zordon's an asshole http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJgC9LEBTuQ
This was actually the first Power Ranger series I watched to completetion in a long time, and it definitely is a very uneven series. It's at its best when it's actually focusing on the Rangers, and there sadly isn't it.
One thing that bothered me that wasn't touched on was I was kinda disappointed in the Zord selection. The first Megazord was pretty cool, but everything afterward was kinda meh. I was also disappointed there was no super combined Zord a la the original Ultrazord, since I like the idea of all the rangers coming together to form a super zord.
Don't get me wrong, this is a minor complaint compared to the series pacing issues, but it still bothers me.
Mystic Force, if I could summarize it in a word...I wouldn't bother. Why should I put forth the effort the writers didn't?
Still Mystic Force had good ideas at least. I like the theme, but I can understand why you don't. I like all the Rangers except Nick. I like the beginning of the season alright. Love the costumes. Wish they hadn't just copied the Sentai and had tried more original stories.
Still, better then Overdive. Now that season...okay, in MMPR the rangers wanted to keep fighting when they'd lost their powers and were turned into children. In OO, they gave up when they lost their powers even though they had civilian powers. It's going to be a long season for you good sir.
You sounded like you were passing a kidney stone when you mentioned Overdrive. This is gonna be fun, I take it.
Anyway, MF looks like an example of just sloppiness all around. There's so much potential but none of it is realized and there's just so much fluff they could have excised. It's like how Brad always says the Twilight series had great stories IN it, but the writer picks the least interesting one to tell. It really sounded like they needed to rewrite the Rangers, especially Nick.
Anyway, hopefully getting OO's videos won't take so long. I wish you luck on them.
Ok, so I have this idea for a truly awesome 20th Anniversary Special for Power Rangers, and seeing as how you are an official advisor on that power Force thing, I figure you are my best shot at getting it heard. So here it goes.
The original Serpentera returns (not the much smaller and differently coloured one from the 10th Anniveraary, but the original one. Its pioted by a new enemy who installed a new power source which is more than sufficient to maintain full power for a year or more without recharging. This is preceded by a mysterious new red ranger appearing in the ruins of Zordon's Command Center, he uses a metallic wand which looks like a dagger and the command Restorae to restore the Command Center to its former glory. Fully repaired and fully powered, even Alpha is restored.
The Red Ranger then summons the greatest rangers of all time to meet this new threat. Jason, Tommy, Andros, Carter Grayson, Adam, Robert "R.J." James, Dillon and Jayden. Possibly also the other Jungle Fury and Ninja Force rangers. And with a cameo in the episode from Billy.
The new Red Ranger is Adric, the Red Existenal Ranger a brilliant swordsmanm, genius and wizard, he has travelled back in time by several billion years in order to unite the rangers to defeat the greatest of all threats. He uses advanced technology to restore White Tiger morpher and fuze it with the red Zeo crystal and black dragon egg to turn Tommy into the Ultimate Ranger, who's suit includes all three colours and can tap the powers of all three ranger morphs.
All working Zords and Megazords are called in to to the battle, the lesser Megazords act to distract while the Zeo-Thunder Megazord combines with the Red Existanal Zord (which is a megazord in itself) to take the fore.
And... details to be worked out by actual writers.
Just my thought.
Also food for thought, the other Serpentera wasn't destroyed by the flying motorcycle, but the energy backlash flung them to an alternate dimension where the machines have spent 10 years repairing and improving zord and working on a way to get back.
At the conclusion of this series (or at least when it's fully up-to-date with the current Ranger season), do you think you can let us know of your favorite Rangers, Megazords, Episodes, etc.?
That would be interesting... except the "Red Existential Ranger" and "Existential Megazord" would have to be created whole cloth, since judging by the way you describe them, there are clearly no Sentai counterparts for them...
Not to mention, it probably wouldn't happen for several other reasons. Namely, they probably plan to make their version of the Legend War the 20th anniversary special.
Incidentally, there are at least two mistakes I can think of right now for whatever "Screw-Ups of History of Power Rangers" video you might do:
1. The Time Force suits. You never said what you thought of them, the morphing sequence, OR the Chrono Morphers. It's... kind of jarring, and in your Screw-Ups video, you could take the time to give your thoughts on them there.
2. While you're usually pretty good about explaining certain things pertaining to the Sentai counterparts when they're relevant to the production of Power Rangers, there's one thing you probably should've mentioned in your Dino Thunder video. See, in Abaranger, the White Ranger's counterpart remained evil until pretty much the last two episodes (and then he died, but that actually isn't relevant to this). Since Trent's Heel Face Turn came much, much earlier, the production team came up with the clone idea so that they could use more of the Sentai footage featuring him.
...Actually, this would probably reinforce your opinion that the White Ranger clone wasn't really utilized well.
Well, Mystic Force didn't appear to be that bad, but at the same time, it could have used more improvement.
It's a shame that we didn't see an actual team-up between Mystic Force and S.P.D. I would have loved to see Mystic Force react to the future world of S.P.D. or S.P.D. chasing Troobian remnants to Briarwood Forest.
Up next, the hated Operation Overdrive. I think Power Rangers Turbo is the worst show in the franchise, but based on what I've heard about that show (mainly EZ Rider from Toku Time, who did a beatdown on the story arc Once a Ranger as part of his Moonrise storyline), all I can say is this: I'll be praying for you . . .
I hope you din't stop this series because i really like these review's. Also if you need to know info on jungle fury then ask me because i know a lot about that season. Also I know it takes time to watch the season of power rangers but why did you take just about a year for this one? I just like your reviews and can't wait to see your opration overdrive review
I really like your reviews, but why was there just about a 1 year difference between your spd and mystic force reviews? Also if you need any info about jungle fury just ask.
I've spent the last weekend going through the entire History of the Power Rangers videos up to this one. I'm impressed at the coverage Linkara has done despite not looking into the Sentai footage these shows are based on.
I must admit that Mystic Force was where I began to lose interest in Power Rangers. Mostly due to the issues Linkara brought up. I haven't even gotten back into the new Saban produced series like Samurai and Megaforce. Any comments on if those two are worth my time or pass?
Anyway, keep up the great work Linkara. I just hope that the wait for Operation Overdrive isn't as long as this one. ^^;
I like the theme. I think it's a good PR theme and a good song by itself. I don't see how hip-hop/rap can't go with magic but rock/metal can. What exactly does rock do that reminds anyone of middle earth?
Anyway, have you gotten around to watching Sherlock? I know you said you had no interest in it, but it really is a good series.
So why did it take almost a year to make a history of power rangers mystic force? It only took you 8 months for your spd and dino thunder reviews, and even less time for all of your other history of power rangers so why it took so long with this one? I can wait for a long time for operation overdrive review. Just wondering why it took almost a year for this one?
I can;t wait for the next entry and what OO really is, I haven't seen it but I have herd bad things. Anyways brillent job as always and agree with you 1000% LoTPR's seems liek a good cocnept.
i can wait for your next hopr but why did it take a year for this one and good luck with the theme songs operation overdrives sucks but not as much as rpm that one does not have anything it is just get in gear we stand together
First of all mystic force's theme song is a good theme song, second why did it take you a year to finish this one, i get it you have to do an episode of atop the fourth wall every week, and go to the comic cons and your pokemon movie reviews, but it dosn't take a year to finish. sorry i can wait for your next one just wondering why it took a year to finish this one.
Okay, reposting the same thing every day asking me why it took a year is not a good strategy to get on my good side.
It should be plainly obvious just by the things you listed why it took a year.
Every week last summer had a storyline segment. I did Longbox of the Damned every DAY in October. I recovered from that and did conventions, then had to start working on the storyline conclusion. I need to do an episode EVERY WEEK for Atop the Fourth Wall.
History of Power Rangers is and always has been a SIDE PROJECT. It is not the focus of my attention all the time and it gets released when I'm done with it. Simple as that.
I think that the idea of Rita as the Mystic Mother is kinda dumb i mean considering the timeline of Power Rangers she become good of Space but the "mystic land" existed for years before Space so what one she came and proclaimed herself as the Mystic Mother or did she fought the old one and won ? maybe they will explain this Super Megaforce (god that name sucks )
do you still have fun doing this. Sorry if you don't have fun any more with it and good luck with history of power rangers, your pokemon reviews and good luck with atop the fourth wall. And what do you think about mega force theme song. I would say its the worst because its just coping the samurai theme song.
Nice job. I thought you stop doing these. Good luck operation overdrive that one is a bad season. I can wait seance you have a lot of stuff. Good luck with hopr and your pokemon movie reviews and the comic cons. And I seen all of the pokemon movies so when you get up to the 8th movie you will like it. And when you get up to jungle fury you may have mixed feelings about it that one is 50/50.
Sorry but first of all i didn't post all of those. Second I knew that it was a side project and that you only do it for fun. But it looked like you quit it and I know some guies that wouldn't like it either. Any way good luck and i'm sorry its just people want more. And what do you think is the worst theme song cause after mystic force most of the songs got worse.
yea sum of us like to forget jungle fury ever happened. Good luck with that. However, at least for me the arc was good. I am glad your back i thought you stop doing this. Of course it is a side project plus you still have other reviews and comic cons and more. So good luck with operation overdrive.
You know when johnny young beach guest stared on supah ninjas, seance it was airing the same time power rangers samurai was i thought they would have a crossover seance they both aired on nickelodeon. Any way great review and i can wait for the next one just take your time.
Hey I agree with jay there should have been a cross over with supah ninjas and power rangers samurai. Anyway good luck with the next history of power rangers this next one sucks. Just take your time I know its a side project.
johnny young beach reviled on his face book page back on June 26 about some of the stuff that was cut from the turbo movie. Adam and Tanya went to go and resque Kimberly and Jason from divitox, however they failed and there suits were shredded. Meaning that with Kat's zeo powers shorted out, rocky still in the hospital, and Tanya and Adam's powers destroyed, it would mean that Tommy's zeo powers would have been destroyed as well. So Zordon had to give them the turbo powers to beat divitox. Do you think that is the reason, thanks to johnny I think I figured it out.
first time posting. And i didnt know that johnny posted on his face book that. That would explain why Adam didnt use his zeo powers back in alaways a chance and why Tommy still had his in forever red. Any way great review and I can wait for the next one just take your time.
Hey I just found the history of power rangers reviews and just finished watching them all and linkra great reviews just take your time with the next one we all have a lot off things to do in our lives, in your case you had to move into an apartment, finish an episode of Atop the fourth wall Every week, you going to comic con and your pokemon reviews so good luck with all that just take your time. And good luck with the next season the only good part of it is once a ranger. Oh yea and for the past 2 years nicktoons has done this morphonominon, where they re show seasons from the past. What do you think of that
Are you still having fun with these, I only ask that cause when you talked about the police in this you sounded like you gave up on this, its just none of us want you to stop this, your reviews are a hit.
Look i know you don't want to see the senti, but i think i figured out the reason for gingerax and toxica still being around for, in the senti they looked like they died but they cant die. The people behind wild force lets them live to come back in the team up of ninja storm. How ever, seance the work of this show was moved they couldn't do it, how ever, they used the idea from that team up with the last team attacking the current team, even if it wasn't them in the senti they used the idea in thunder storm. You should see gaouranger vs huricanger, imagine all of the wild force zords and all of the ninja storm zods together as one.
Hey have you heard of mmpr fan film, The music is going to be provided by ron wasermen him self. Oh yea and the actor who played lord zed is going to be in it and David felding who voice zordon back in season 1 will once again play zordon in it. And I saw on twitter that the blue samurai ranger will be in it. And judging what has been on face book rhett fisher who played the ryan back in light speed might be in it. Same with matt austin who played bridge back in spd. What do you think about that
Awesome review as always, can't wait for the next one as operation overdrive is in my opinion one of the worst... And it is sad that once a ranger is part of that season. It feels very lackluster.
I am also excited for when you get to RPM after these next two seasons. I personally enjoyed RPM for what we got out of it and feel it is rather underrated. I feel it's more akin to Dino thunder and spd, good but has problems. I guess it's my version of what wild force is for you. Either way, keep up the good work man. :)
I think that anyone who seen rpm enjoyed martyG. Any way good luck with the next one a lot of people that is the worst season as well. But still great review, just take your time i know that it is a side project and you have a lot things to do. Like your pokemon reviews, and lingbox on demand this month.
Matt Austin who played bridge said that Disney would get the cast, milk them and then there gone. That was one of the reasons why there was no team up this season.
Now that i think about it, even though disney had ruined a lot of things about this show, at least they respected the story arc's. Back in wild force, they new the saban era story lines and so they were able to make something good out of all of that which is the crossover from time force. They did it again in operation overdrive. I like once a ranger, to me it was way better then the spd crossover's. Even though disney got bored with this show and cancelled it, they did a good job with the show over all. What do you think Lewis.
You know now that I think about it, even though disney did plenty of bad things in this show. At least they new the story lines and were able to produce good seasons. Lets look back into wild force,they new the saban era seasons, and used them to create a good team up, that being the team up with time force. Now lets go into dino thunder, which is the best season they produced. They had the 500th episode of the franchise, and showed a clip show proving that they new the story arc's of the saban era seasons. Now lets go into operation overdrive, I don't now about you, but i like once a ranger, to me it was way better then both spd team ups. Over all even though disney had canceled this show, at least they new what the other seasons were about and make good team ups. What do you think about this Lewis?
The only reason why some stories in power rangers are like this is because that was what the senti was like. I only gokiger so I don't know what happened. But I know you seen samurai and I would have thought that with saban back they wouldn't keep on coping it. But I only know that through reviews from episode vlogs from samurai. Oh well if they want to use it then let them I will watch it either way. Anyway, great review and have fun with these, just take your time with these I know your busy. Oh yea and I heard suede will post pokemon 4ever by halloween or next month so get ready.
Yea good luck with operation overdrive, in the only good thing about it was once a ranger, and that was out of in my mind best episode of that show, and better then half of jungle fury and mystic force.
You think operation overdrive was the worst, um mega force is making that season look good,do to all the filler episodes, gosei not saying much about his past and it seem's like tensu is more of a help to those ranger's then gosei is. But who am I to make that kind of statement with only 14 episodes in out of 40 episodes.
Mystic force is in my opinion the worst season. I likke to imagine that it never existed.... Like Alien Resurrection
ReplyDeleteI like the theme, it's catchy as hell! It's not the best, but at least it isn't Operation Overdrive (ugh...)
ReplyDeleteI could kiss you, thank Zordon this series has returned lol.
ReplyDeleteMystic Force is one of the shows that falls into the middle ground of "good and bad" for me. My favorite being PRiS, my absolute least favorite being RPM followed closely by Jungle Fury and Operation Overdrive.
Looking forward to the following episodes of History of Power Rangers. (I won't be one of those people to pester you about them though lol.)
Having just finished watching Magiranger reciently and watching this episode of HoPR, i remember why i always turned off Mystic Force.
ReplyDeleteThe series never really felt like it connected some spots to me. And i have to agree on the fact that the theme is kinda "meh" but, in its defence, does go with the Civilian Lives of the rangers. Though, i think this is the only season before Samurai where the Rangers don't outright loose their powers permenantly.
Looking forward to the next episode, whenever you get it done.
Yeah, we don't *Like* To talk about Jungle Fury. We Try to forget that one happened. I'll let you approach that one yourself.
ReplyDeleteAnd once more, I'm sorry on Behalf of Toku viewers on both sides of the fence you had to emphasize for the Sentai fans your preference to focus solely on PR. They should just accept that. I do recommend you try and get to Gokaiger at some point, but if you don't, that's your choice.
Mystic force's theme is catchy, but you're right; hiphop was not a good choice.It's more the beat that carries it than the bad, bad Lyrics.
Xeno translates as Alien or strange...So book of all that is 'alien' to them? It would have made more sense than 'Unknown'.
I liked the Cape's too. IT's something Japanese Source series don't do much (Scarves are more of a thing), and Magiranger/Mystic force did it well enough.
Certainly a cost-cutting thing on the Teamups. Only three have used Sentai Footage as of yet in Power Ranger's Run; Rangers of two worlds (Zeo), Trakeena's revenge (Lightspeed), and Clash of the Red rangers (Samurai). As you've said, less Sentai footage is a no-no when making a show on a budget.
I mentioned this on twitter: Catastros is Loyal to Koragg/Leanbow. While he allows another rider on occasion, he will always return to his master.
The monster form/Ancient Mystic Mode for leanbow, Daggeron, Calindor and Claire's mother was a Sentai thing. Not really important to mystic force.
I'm sort of indifferent to This myself, falling in the middle of the tiers with respect to best-worst. Same with overdrive, Which from your tone of voice is not going to be glowing with good things when you finish it. But the worst is yet to come, Sir Guy With The Hat. For overdrive isn't what was credited with Killing the series' Production and the remaster year...
This is an "eh" show for me. It has good concepts... but it doesn't use them well.
ReplyDeleteYeah this was around the time I started getting tired of Power Rangers. I saw the first episode, the sixth ranger episode, the power up episode, the battilizer episode and the final episode, didn't think I missed much. Then when I started seeing Operation Overdrive figures in stores my first thought was, "Ugh their going back to cars again?".
ReplyDeleteI saw snippits of Overdrive but never really saw anything else until some Jungle Fury episodes thought they were meh and saw some Samurai episodes and thought it could be interesting, I'd have to watch them again. But got to admit, now your my guide to Power Rangers until Samurai cause I have yet to see Overdrive, RPM, and Jungle Fury.
I dunno, I liked Mystic Force; I thought it was really different and tried some new stuff ... but then again I fell out with PR back during Turbo and came back to Ninja Storm, SPD and this, and have been watching old series now based on HoPR (which, thanks, I really liked Time Force!)
ReplyDeleteHuh yeah that theme doesn't fit really any action show. While this is my fav ep of HoPRs I did still enjoy it, I understand you are a very very busy man the wait made me think you had a lot more to talk about it. Seems to be the opposite with there not really being much to work off.
ReplyDeleteI will agree though these might be some of the best suits for the rangers ever, I'm a big fan of capes, jackets or other things that flow in the wind.
All in all I look forward to the next ep and I do still catch myself rewatching older HoPRs ep and while I don't always agree how you feel about some characters I always see where you are coming from and it was nice to learn why you love Camelot so much.
Keep up the good work but keep it at your pace and don't burn yourself out.
Jungle Fury, in my opinion, was actually pretty decent. However, it's forgettable. Probably why people don't talk about it. There are some who hate it, but overall just seems to have been forgotten.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it helped that it was written during the Writer's Strike; the Writer's Strike brought out a slew of bad material.
Still, compared to other shows and movies that came out during the writer's strike, it was pretty good.
I Actually like this season of Power Rangers and with what is going to happen next, Good Luck dude, you're on your own.
ReplyDeleteI would say this is a in between series not good but not bad either. Overdrive is where the series is at its worst.
ReplyDeleteI too felt that Mystic Force could've been a lot better than it was. Hell, Operation Overdrive I felt was better than Mystic Force in so many ways (especially with the 15th anniversary two parter).
ReplyDeleteMystic Force is a mixed bag IMHO and the season can be divided into sixth when discussing good and bad parts. The first 2 sixth of it are good, the third sixth is bad, the fourth sixth is good, the fifth six is bad and the final sixth seems to fluxuate between good and bad with the final unfortunately settling on bad.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with Overdrive, it is probably the weakest season. It had some interesting villains and a great team up episode, but besides that was rather dull. Jungle Furry is much better then Overdrive but is not that great a season
I always thought the supporting characters and villains were as important as the rangers. I liked the focus on them but thought that the sudden face turn by some of the villains was pretty bad.
This is coming from someone who is not a Power Rangers fan, so everything I know about series is from Linkara's videos.
ReplyDelete1) Capes. I like capes, but not because they are giving "superhero" feel. It feels more "wizard" like. Pointy hats on ranger costumes would be ridiculous, but capes looks good with mystic theme.
2) Nick as Red Ranger. I cannot help but notice a patern here: a Red Ranger is always someone maximally different from others. And here is the problem in making Nick follow this patern: he is an outsider (so he is the least likely person the for others to follow) and doesn't believe in magic (so he is the least powerful one, since magic is powered by believes). And making him a secret child of powerful wizards goes into Marty Stu territory (and the only logical reason for him to be Red, but their sorseress mentor didn't know that). From logic's point, Xander was both more expected choice and more suited for the job of team leader.
And it's not my complain to MF only. Like in other Power Rangers (damn, how was they called again?) a character was trained to be Red, but wasn't quite a perfect leader, so to teach him a lesson him mentor chose the worst possible person instead.
3) To see magic before his eyes and still not believing in it. But you answered it yourself, Linkara: to know and to believe are entirely different things! Did you heard people sometimes when facing a fact say: "I refuse to believe it!"? Changing a position you holded for the entire life is not that simple.
4) Other type of enemy mooks introduced after the first type worked well. I don't see a problem here. Some variety in enemy army never hurts.
It is incredible how much effort you put into this. Thank you for going through all that trouble.
ReplyDeleteYou asked, why the older Rangers have alternative monster-forms and I can only speculate myself.
I guess it was just to work in some more Sentai elements.
According to a Sentai-wiki, the japanese versions of Daggeron, Imperious and Leanbow were so-called "Sky Saints". Some of those served as the source of the Rangers' powers.
So, yeah...my best guess is fan-service...kinda.
I'm really curious about the next episodes of HoPR, because I stopped watching Power Rangers after Mystic Force.
And if you could maybe do me a favor? You said there were worse intro songs coming after Mystic Force. In case you were referring to Operation Overdrive, could you go into a little more detail, WHY you don't like it? Because I actually really like the intro and I'd like to know why people seem to have a problem with it.
Didn't expected to have so much to say. Moving on!
ReplyDelete5) Koragg (is that how you spell it?) not killing Rangers kinda make sence with him being good: there is a good part of him trying to fight mind conditioning, and evil part calls it "honor" because it cannot believe he is not entirely evil. Still, it could be done better. Hey, Koragg, you moron! Take their wands like you did with the White Ranger and they'll be powerless, this way you can eluminate the threat without killing them. Speaking of powers...
6) Unmorped fights. I'm not that big fan of them as you, and MF is a series when they have the least sence. Ranger's power is magic that is powered by believes, why they suddenly do kung-fu? It's like making a DnD wizard and putting all your points in strenght, or having Green Lantern to participate in a bar fight.
7) Why Koragg is red when he is good? Because magic.
8) What other Rangers do when current Rangers get their asses kicked? What indeed. Disney fails to deliver on this answer and even when there are team-ups with previous Rangers teams, they are cameos at best. To add insult to injury, Japanise Sentai series ocasionally show what happened to previous teams. They even have a movie with 199 (!) heroes fighting evil together (10-15 minutes or it, but it's still AWESOME!) But Power Rangers? No, they are always alone.
It's not that hard to make each new series to not look like full continuity reboot without using the same team. The idea from Turbo - make Rangers retire for some reason and hire new ones - is actually very good, it's execution of it in Turbo that is bad. But the idea itself can work.
The other variant is to do as in Mazinger USA. They made clear that while Mazinger fights their enemies in America, Mazinger Z in Japan fights Dr. Hell in the same time, and they are other Mazinger teams in other counties too. Hey, Disney, do the same: show in newspaper somewhere that other Ranger team from previous seasons is fighting evil in other town in the same time, so they have their hands full and cannot help. (and you don't even need to shoot any new footage for this, so... profit!)
If I came up with solution and I didn't even need to think, why people that actually write the scenario for Power Rangers cannot do the same?
P.S.: Let me stop here, it became too long already. With new HoPR episode came up, there isn't much I've left to wish for. Except new let's play. Or new Warrior comic review with Spoony.
OMG, I am so glad to see a new HOPR. This series got me into you as a reviewer and TGWTG by extension.
ReplyDeleteAlso the review was great. Keep up the great work.
THANK YOU! I really hate getting into a sentai vs Power Ranger debate. I love Power Rangers, I grew up on Power Rangers, I co-write Power Rangers fanfics therefore I go by the rangers!
ReplyDeleteTechnically, the rangers have monster forms too, we see them during the transformation sequence plus the Mystic Titans are basically mechanical-looking versions of them.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see a crossover between Power Rangers and Doctor Who. I don't know why but seeing Daleks, The Master and Cybermen fighting them just makes me laugh like crazy.
ReplyDeleteHim posting the rock theme pissed Disney off because they didn't want to admit they screwed up in the theme song department. Disney can be pretty stubborn when it comes to admitting they are wrong. Hell look how long it took them to give the series back to Saban.
ReplyDeleteActually, in the case of "Believing in magic." They did a little truth to that. One of the things, Paganism and Wicca have stated that many of their spells and blessings worked more or less because they believe it worked. However because this is hollywood magic, it does take some rules of magic out. For example one rule I personally believe in and every religion has it's own variation is, what goes around comes around. In the case of Magic, what the user casts comes back to them 3 times. For example if someone cast a spell that benefits and helps others, they get three times the backlash from it, since it was a spell for good it would mean they get 3 times more good luck. However if it was a selfish or bad spell it would backlash them 3 times. Since the Rangers are naturally the good guys its a given that they don't backlash even if they used their powers selfishly like using their wands to clean up their mess at work. Realism aside I believe one of the cardinal rules of all Rangers is to never use their power for personal gain.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else get the vibe that Vida is a lesbian.... I mean.... I get a somewhat vibe from her... now... It might just be me... but seriously.... anyone else get the feeling?
ReplyDeleteAlso.... the Rock version of the theme song ACTUALLY sounds a lot more in synch with the opening for Magiranger done by my absolute FAVORITE band from Japan... Psychic Lover.
I pretty much agree with everything you said here. Mystic Force was a flawed but still enjoyable season. The secondary characters managed to be interesting and relevant for the most part but at the cost of making the Rangers as interesting as they should be.
ReplyDeletePacing really seems to have become problematic for almost any media of late. Like the world has decided "we're in too much of a hurry to wait around." Anime, movies, games (maybe even comics), it seems so many stories of late that could be good to excellent are crippled by rushing through them.
And, oh boy! it seems we may agree about Operation Overdrive as well if your ending comments are anything to go by. I have a feeling it will take some time to finish that one.
I feel the need to make a prediction of a recurring motif for next seasons review: "Good ideas executed poorly."
Judging by your tone at the end of part 3, I can tell that Operation Overdrive is going to be a nightmare for you. For that, I wish you luck. You're going to need it.
ReplyDeleteA lot.
I've just found confirmation about the Lesbian Vida thing.... http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ButchLesbian
ReplyDelete"Vida Rocca from Power Rangers Mystic Force was about as blatant about being this trope as US Moral Guardians will permit."
So... yeah.... wow..... EVEN TOEI HASN'T TOUCHED THAT TOPIC YET!
Now granted in Kamen Rider Wizard, there is a cross-dresser... but still No legit gay people, and this is from JAPAN people... so... props
i... liiiiked it.. kinda.. i always thought it was a season of missed opportunities. especially the way they executed magic and that they didnt set up a good ruleset and explanations of their magical boundaries and the other dimension (see the stupid magic game the terrors play). you have to do that with magic- even magic cant stay completely unexplained (thats what i hate about harry potter, too).
ReplyDeleteand cellphone-wands.. are utter garbage, sorry. cant agree with you. even worse than the growlphones imho.
it came kinda weak especially because i returned to powerrangers via spd (my fav season atm- even better than the original imho). mystic force with its forest, the music shop and the one garbagehut-village.. kinda has a small scope feel which should never be the case while defending several dimensional planes. the vampire episode shows that they should have gone all out with their mystical creatures in their magical plane. sadly missed that chance. not that they didnt do anything with mysticism and magic.. but they didnt do anything worthwhile for me. it all happened in the background or wasnt fleshed out enough to matter.. (see the mystic mother or the creatures of the forest and their relationship with humanity/reality)
"fantasy power rangers" was better done by mystic knights imho. plus the characters in mystic knights were more rounded
btw.. i stopped watching powerrangers again shortly after the start of overdrive.. because.. overdrive sucked imho.
p.s. does anyone know why they used the "hook"-theme all the time?
Bees my god. Surprised you didn't use that sound clip I saw "Once A Ranger" and I'm waiting for your explanation on how come Adam has his MMPR back since the power coins were destroyed unless you use the PR in Space explanation. And to hear how this group came to be even if the series is supposedly crap.
ReplyDeleteMystic Force is here at last! Yes, it has way too much mythology. Yes, it focuses too much on peripheral characters rather than on the Rangers themselves. And yes, it has potential to be something good but Disney wastes it. However, despite those facts... I just can't help but think that this season is So Bad, It's Good. Even the theme song, I believe, is So Bad, It's Good.
ReplyDeleteWhy do I think it's So Bad, It's Good? Primarily the theme of the season, which you didn't mention. The theme, I believe, is supposed to be one of balance. The way the creators try to balance out the mythology and characterization failed, but you at least see the season try to do it. Nick, himself, is a key part of the balance theme: he's supposed to be a balance of both magic and might and the human world and the magic world. The Tribunal of Magic is another example of how magic must be maintained in the human world and even the Ten Terrors mention at one point there's a balance of evil. The show tries to balance so much on us... and yet it failed so hard at it that you can't just help but admire it. Wish I could say the same about Operation Overdrive... May the Power protect us all...
Well, of course red is less evil than purple. Superman wears red, Lex Luthor wears purple! Ta-da!
ReplyDeleteAlso, this season sounds like it needed a tighter focus on the story. Maybe another writing draft, or something. There sounds like a lot to like about this, it just kind of falters in execution.
The Doctor Who Master? No! No, Lewis! You had the perfect opportunity to make a Buffy reference and you blew it!!!
ReplyDeleteAlright, I'll do this in a list because...I like lists. :D
ReplyDeleteTheme: I know it's weird, but I don't totally hate it. It's just SOOOO cheesy that when I hear it, I just have to roll my eyes and smile. (Power Rangers needs rock and roll. For sure.)
Suits: I like the suits for the same reason you do- CAPES. I also like that all it's got more black incorporated in it, cause I feel like there's not enough of it on many teams. I liked the Battlizers too, cause DRAGONS!
Story & Such: The only parts I really remember about this season is the Dark Wish arc and when Clare was kicking ass. I loved those ones. Otherwise...no comment I guess. :)
But really, I only have the vaguest memories of this season, since it was the last one on cable (or it's equivalent that didn't require a box) that you could watch. It wasn't bad...I guess average is the best classification for Mystic Force.
Can't wait for the next one...kinda...is it OK to feel conflicted on what we all know is probably the least liked season? *shudders at the thought of that theme song*
Thank you so much for doing these Linkara! > u< b
- pretty good review well worth the wait and I agreed with much of what of what you said, personally i actually did enjoy MF for the most part despite some of its flaws, and i'm definitely glad HOPR is back.
ReplyDelete- The new theme was cool but TBH i kinda missed how all the logos of the past ranger seasons would quickly run across the screen.
- Good call on Gosei's voice, i never really noticed that before, but it probably was his voice, since Gosei is voiced by the same guy who voiced Koragg.
- I thought you might have been just a bit harsh on Nick's character since despite giving up too much there were a few moments where he actually continued to fight even when they were losing, such as during the Gatekeeper Saga as well as during the Dark Wish trilogy,
- Can't say i cared much for the Mystic Force theme either, I got used to it after a while, however I usually liked the background music played during fights, especially when they transformed into Legend warriors, which i thought was just epic.
- overall though a pretty solid review, Looking forward to the OO review, especially if you on a rant similar to the one you had during Turbo, Although I still rank OO over Samurai.
Glad to have a new episode of HOPR. In anticipation of the pending posting of this episode, I actually went back and watched Mystic Force in its entirety before hand. Mind you I was still kind of watching power rangers at the time when this series aired. I was just out of high school mind you when SPD started airing, that puts me at 19 when MF started. Honestly...I lost interest pretty quick. Just...couldn't get into it. After going back and watching the series recently I can kinda see why, and your analysis was pretty accurate. It seemed like a real ADHD show. It bounced all over the place, had WAY too many characters and the focus wasn't where it should be.
ReplyDeleteI back you 100% on Nick. He was a bad red ranger. I think if he and Xander's character would've been switched up it would've been a lot better. Although Xander wasn't on the top of my list of characters, he was better suited to be red ranger than nick. I've not seen Operation Overdrive yet so I'm likely gonna try to start pushing through that season here soon. I have never seen all of Jungle Fury, but did catch some of it here and there with my kids. But I have seen RPM. I cant wait to see your episode on that one. But for now I'm going to, from what other's have said, subject myself to torture and jump into PR:OO in the near future.
The random romance between Nick and Madison at the end came about because their actors were actually dating at the time of production, and Nick's actor (can't remember the actors' names) wanted Madison to have more screen time. Well, that's just hearsay, anyway...
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, while you stated at the very beginning that you don't care about the Sentai, I feel like you SHOULD have mentioned how Magiranger's magic system was very complex and specific, whereas Mystic Force's magic was... not.
I might be the only one that notices this but the background theme in the show almost sounds like that Sappy love theme in Star Wars Episode 2.
ReplyDeleteI just want to say that I don't mean anything malicious when I say this as I honestly enjoy your your work but, its about frikin time.
ReplyDeleteAlso in response to your bit at the beginning of the the first video about 'whether we really need you continue doing these videos', dude no offence but you've kinda brought this to yourself.
I do agree with quite few of your points about Mystic Force, however a lot the questionable things can be explained away as 'that's what Magiranger did'. Mystic Force took practically all its major plot line from its Sentai counterpart, I think more then any other Power Rangers show had before it other then Time Force which borrowed quite a but of its plot from Timeranger.
Udonna doesn't get a whole lot of development but thats probably because her Sentai Counter pater spends most of the series supposedly dead.
Nick has to be the one to stab the Master because his Sentai counterpart Kai because he'd been taught a special sword technique that was supposedly able to kill him.
Your point about the The Ten Terrors Magiranger counter parts, The Hades Gods of the Infershia (Infershia being the name of the place where the evil forces live) the whole game of darkness thing was about , and I quote from Ranger Wiki, "to bring Divine Punishment upon humans while following a self-made code of conduct called the Dark Precept, using the Slab of Judgement to pick the chosen God to execute Divine Punishment" and later which of them would be the vessel for The Master.
Also the there is a Magiranger Dekaranger team up movie they could have used footage from, particularly a fight between Wolzard (Koragg) and Dekamaster (Shadow Ranger), but to be honest its really not that good.
All in all for me Mystic Force is an ok show, its not that great but its still far better then the two shows that followed it.
Finally you think Operation Overdrive is the worst season of Power Rangers, ha ha ha ha. In the words of SFDebris, poor dumb Linkara, I pity your soul when you reach the soul destroying abomination that is Jungle Fury.
PS I know you said you don't care for Super Sentai however is there any chance that before you edit and post the Operation Overdrive review, since that series contains 15th anniversary episodes, is there any chance that you could go watch and comment on its comparison Boukenger vs. Super Sentai just as a comparison to Once a Ranger, I think I can provide you with a Youtube link
There are two small things that I wanted to comment on first:
ReplyDelete1)Sadly, while you did mention the passing of the actress who played Witch Bandora/Rita Repulsa as well as the Magic Mother died, you didn't mention that Peta Rutter, Udonna's actress, passed away herself in 2010. Then again, you also didn't mention that Edward Albert, who played Mr. Collins in Time Force, died in 2006, so I guess we can let that one pass.
2)Not mentioning that Daggeron was played by the same actor who voiced Anubis Cruger in SPD.
Other than that, a pretty good review of the show from the little bit that I did see of it when it aired. Can't wait to see more.
...though I did just think of another thing: Vida did have an arc, albeit a miniscule one. In the start, she hated the color pink. By the end, she dyed her hair pink!
...yeah, just wanted to be silly and mention that.
First Video at 32:08
ReplyDeleteThey had no idea what they were messing with
They had no idea
They didn't know what they were looking at
when they were looking there
They didn't know what they were up against
No, No way, no how
They didn't know what they were messing with
But he was going to tell them now.
Yeah, Camelot may be your favorite musical, but mine is, hands-down, Little Shop of Horrors.
First Video at 32:28
ReplyDeleteI wonder how good her songs are?
Being Vampire Queen and all
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI generally enjoyed Mystic Force. It was a fun series, and I consider it more or less middle of the road as far as Ranger series go. It certainly was flawed, but I don't really think it deserves the sheer level of vitriol that it gets.
ReplyDeleteAs for the theme song though...I'm going to have to disagree with you there. I ADORE the Mystic Force theme, and honestly consider it the best Power Ranger theme, short of maybe just short of the original. It's catchy, it's used perfectly for an action scene in the finale, where the buildup to the singers matches with the team's increase in magic, it was an attempt to try something different, which I can generally appreciate, and lastly, I honestly think that a pop song fits really well with the whole urban fantasy genre. It shows a willingness to step away from the whole classical Tolkienism that forever has the genre in a noose, and I legitimately think that was a nice touch.
As for the two remaining Kalish seasons, yes, Overdrive was terrible, you'll get no arguments from me there. But Jungle Fury was honestly a pretty strong series. It had several well constructed character arcs, both on the heroic and villainous side, made an earnest and I would say generally successful attempt to homage the wuxia genre, and not to mention that it had what was probably the most entertaining mentor character in the franchise to date.
Honestly I feel about Mystic Force and the next few years like I do about Moffat's writing of Dr. Who where there are some grand and cool ideas but they have no idea how to get to them and in the end things just fall flat
ReplyDeleteThe thing about red beeing less evil then purple might actually go back to the Sentai.
ReplyDeleteI never watched the Sentai (or Mystic Force for that matter), but in japan, Purple is a color connected to death and many evil characters and villians make use of this color.
Rayman for example got recolored in the japanese release from Purple to Blue because of that: http://www.vgfacts.com/game/rayman2thegreatescape/
Not that it is so important, but noone commented on it yet, so I thought it might be interesting ^^
you forgot to add to the end: "Bees.....my god......" 8B
ReplyDeleteI can't get over the background musical motif that sounds just like "Across The Stars" from Attack of the Clones. Throws me off every time it comes up.
ReplyDeleteXander is Australian not New Zealand, that may be a minor nitpick but as an Australian I feel obligated to point it out.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteNow I did enjoy Mystic Force and I probably hold it a little higher than Linkara. Still it is not much above average. I liked the idea that the group was less focused on martial arts simply because it gave a new type of battle: Magic. We have had mostly martial arts or militaristic weaponry (the only other season I can think of that has that difference was Lost Galaxy).
Oh dear. Operation Overdrive... I do agree that there is little good about the series but there is one thing about it that is NOT the worst about the PR universe and that is (and before you lash out read the full thing)... the theme song. Yes, while the Operation Overdrive theme is bad, it is NOT as bad as RPM's theme song. Of course RPM more than makes up for its theme with an excellent story but it is something to comment on.
Jungle Fury, on which Linkara edit-commented... well here is some talk. It does something that I recall him complaining didn't happen - it actually gives the three ranger team setup time to develop; maybe too much so but I won't reveal how just in case you didn't get that far even though many of your comments suggest you do. Still Jungle Fury was enjoyable (and I really like its theme song) especially since in my opinion it seems to do right what Ninja Storm did wrong.
I am SO looking forward to the RPM review. That is all that needs to be said there.
Now I recall Linkara having mentioned at the release of the Ninja Storm review that at the time of its release he was "enjoying Power Rangers Samurai" and that brings the question of whether or not he stands by that.
Then of course we will have Megaforce which to be honest is not what it was promising to be (oh well...)
Yay! Good things do come to those who wait! Lol. I personally liked the first half of Mystic Force and thought it was a fun watch. The theme song I thought was fun since I had not heard hip hop in PR; was it appropriate for a show about magic? No, but was still pretty catchy.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the best part of PRMF was the Dark Wish three-parter which felt epic advertised like a movie when it premiered. After that, the intro to the ten terrors was when it fell apart for me. The interchanging of villains was a weak point to this series since it felt like the rangers were only occupying themselves with baddies before the series remembered it actually had a main villain.
As for PRJF, I like it! True, it did have similarities to Ninja Storm with the academy students, but was fun and had some different but cool aspects! I like their morphers (I don't mind if anyone disagrees).
A suggestion for a joke for your PRJF review: at the beginning of the show, the mentor character RJ asks the main characters if they had ever heard of the power rangers. The future red ranger Casey answered, "Yeah, who hasn't?"; replay that scene where Dustin says "Power rangers are real!" In hindsight, I think it's funny the fact (not my joke) that ninja students would not believe in power rangers and yet martial art students that draw power from animal spirits have heard of and believe in them. What? Did the proof of power rangers not reach the ninja academies' side of the mountains?
Furycutter said:
ReplyDeleteI do agree with quite few of your points about Mystic Force, however a lot the questionable things can be explained away as 'that's what Magiranger did'. Mystic Force took practically all its major plot line from its Sentai counterpart...
While I don't nessesary think people that watch Power Rangers should completely ignore Super Sentai, I need to say that: If you are doing PR in a way that requires to watch SS to understand a plot, you fail! If Mystic Force can't tell a story by itself, what point is in watching it? Fans should just watch Magiranger to begin with (assuming there is a good translation for it, but that's not the point).
Now don't get me wrong: I'm not saying borrowing a plot from SS is a bad thing, but if you do so, you don't drop important plot points without filling the resulting holes with something. Like in "To boldly flee" Ma-Ti was needed to plug the plothole.
Okay, I'm sorry for this, but when they kept talking about believing in magic I just kept falling back into my Brony state and declared:
ReplyDelete"Friendship is magic!"
That and I clapped my hands for tinkerbell once... yeah... this was a corny season.
Still glad to see this back though I'm looking forward to watching you rage next time.
Good review. I have to admit that I only saw like two or three episodes in this season. I don't think it was horrible, I really didn't see anything here that was worth watching.
ReplyDeleteThe suits do look cool though. Good luck on Operation Overdrive because... Ugh.
To me Mystic Force is wasted potential.
ReplyDeleteJungle Fury I thought was pretty good, but I'm usually wrong about everything else I like.
Linkara, I am so glad to see this series back in action. Awesome you're doing this for the fans. Please keep up the great work and my humble and deepest sympathy for what you are about to endure with Operation Overdrive. It truly was one of-if not THE WORSE-seasons of ANY show I have ever watched since being born 4 decades years ago. The good thing is that if you are still sane after Overdrive, you're in the home stretch to perhaps the best Power Ranger series RPM.
ReplyDeleteSomething to look forward too.
Are you seriously still getting crap from some Sentai fans? Sigh. Let me just say, in my opinion, what you're doing is the best way to do this. The complainers are the ones who feel the need to constantly weigh each series against its Japanese counterpart...but do so with loaded scales, since they inevitably come away bitching about how PR is just a terrible bastardization of the original Sentai, and that it somehow "destroyed" the Sentai merely by existing. These people are what I like to call "morons". If you want a fine example, look at the comments section of JEFusion, where ANYTHING sets these people off. The news that the Gokaiger suits would be used in Super Megaforce? Well obviously, that destroyed Gokaiger for all time, past present and future. And you should have heard the screaming when it was rumored that a Caucasian actor was going to be part of Kyoryuger, the latest Sentai; it turned out to be false, but the comments made were nothing short of blatant racism against non-Asians and cries to boycott the franchise until Toei "saw the light". Of course, you should only browse those comments if you find yourself needing an excuse to hate humanity.
ReplyDeleteAs for Koragg turning red...um, fire magic? Plus Japan considers red the most heroic color - which is why every single Sentai leader minus JAKQ's Big One is red, and why 9 of the last 14 Kamen Riders have had red armor in either their primary or their ultimate forms (with the staff of one season having to fight Toei in order made the hero a a different color).
Minor nitpick: Xander's Australian, not from New Zealand (or as they say, Kiwi).
ReplyDeleteI'm probably going to be one of the few people who defends OO. I actually, when the episodes were still on Youtube, and I liked it AND Jungle Fury better than Mystic, but on Retrospect I was waaaaay to harsh on it so, thanks to Netflix, I'll see if my opinion changes.
ReplyDeleteAlso I know we're going to disagree on Samurai, but that's a ways off. I think Samurai is absolute dreck because of the awful acting and the dialogue be taken from the sentai and put through Google Translate.
But looking forward to the next!
Quick point about the alternate dimension bit in part 1: There is nowhere in NZ with purple plants and trees. I've lived there for about 17 years and I'm pretty sure I'd have heard about it. It's more likely than not just a filter.
ReplyDeleteAnd before anyone points out that Linkara said it wasn't a filter, there still exists the very real possiblity that there were very talented editors who just adjusted the colour gradiant in the areas around the actor. It's not that difficult of a process, just time-consuming (as evidence by some shots that show the ground immediately around him not being the same purple as ground not so close to him).
About a year ago I wrote a plot outline for a Power Rangers reboot. The idea was to go back to the Mighty Morphing era and retell that story in a way not too dissimilar to Battlestar Galactica.
ReplyDeleteI conceived it as a trilogy (Rangers origin, Green Ranger Saga, Lord Zedd) of films but with a view to possibly doing it as a series. I wanted to do a more "serious" take while paying homage to the original show.
Anyways, I'd be interested to see what you guys think. Give it a read if you'd like:
http://tinyurl.com/d7p4ah3
Plan Xander is the Best gets me laughing each time
ReplyDeleteI watched a handful of episodes of this show while waiting between installments of your reviews. I don't recall having much of an opinion one way or the other outside of not particularly liking the idea that they are their zords. Weirder now that I know that the megazord had an actual cockpit. Do one or the other, not both, is all I'm saying for that bit. It's too bad that this one was so uneven, it did look like it had a lot of potential. The music... Theme? Catchy, just doesn't work for a show about magic. Incidental? Was the composer asleep while trying to match it up to the scene being worked on?
ReplyDeleteI can't think of anything else to say about this at the moment, so I'll say I look forward to whatever you have to say about OO. The good, the bad and the just plain ugly I've heard read and seen, to a limited degree, relating to this one. As always, take your time, just not too long... ;)
Fiery Little One
Yay! HOPR is back:D
ReplyDeleteMystic Force is like Wild Force in that it had potential but had too many flaws.
Still a fun ride for what its worth so no real complaints. Plus I did like Necrolai.
Can't wait to hear you rip Overdrive a new one. Hearing Thrax's 2-parter will be fun:D
*gasp* I had given up on you...
ReplyDeleteAnd 'Who said that? Gosei?'...brilliant...utterly brilliant. I can't wait for 5 years from now when you finally reach megaforce so I can hear what you have to say about gosei.
I greatly enjoyed Mystic Force and the theme song grew on me but the Wassermen one was MUCH better. But yea Operation Overdrive's theme song is sad...but not as sad as RPM...the Demo was SOOOOOOOOOOOO much better.
ReplyDeleteI think the problem fans have with PR adapting Sentai storylines is that they like to watch both and don't want to watch essentially the same thing twice. After watching a lot of your PR videos I thought I'd give it a go and would watch Samurai when it started, but I also decided to watch it's Sentai counterpart for comparison (and that's the first time I watched any Sentai and the only one I've seen all of so far). I ended up ditching Samurai after a few episodes, I have seen a few more since but wasn't following it, and that was because it was pretty much copying the Sentai with a few minor changes. So I don't know if I really mind PR straight up adapting Sentai (if they do it well that should be ok) but I think it's probably better when PR is doing it's own thing.
ReplyDeleteAs for Mystic Force, yeah I don't like the theme song but it does have a good start. Some of the ideas and storylines in there do sound like good ideas, just not too well executed.
i can think of five different reasons why the giants couldn't go all to earth at the same time... if they all had powers similar level to the "master", it would be like putting ten giants bomb together in the same place... there is no point in taking over the world if it's destroyed...
ReplyDeletea really enjoyed this review,i gotta say Dark wish was my favourit story of this season because the message was just really well played...
looking foward to next season... wish i only saw like five episodes i think... s you won't get any spoilers from me...
Thanks a lot I loved this as a kid
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Mystic Force but yeah watch it once and don't watch it for about a year. My fav character was Finacis. I enjoyed the idea that it was just a good old good vs evil. Personal though I wish Zander had more of a role. For operation overdrive I only ever watch the 15 year episode special because I really like seeing Adam back. I'll be blunt I hate operation overdrive and RPM. Jungle Fury is also painful and RJ is the only part I like.
ReplyDeleteSo did this show have a huge anti-adoption message in it aimed at kids?
ReplyDeleteYou know, it's funny that you talk about this show "wasting time" considering Power Rangers is filler incarnate. :P
ReplyDeleteI'd say the best way to handle Sentai is to mention it when footage constraints actually affect the show's plot (like the lack of a pink ranger in Kakuranger affecting MMPR season 3, the whole Sam situation in SPD, etc.) and not when there are just some visual oddities that don't factor into PR's plot but are there because they were there in Sentai (like the Heavenly Saint forms from Magiranger showing up here, or that one time that a monster in MMPR season 3 absorbed some of the rangers' powers and got the Alien Rangers' masks on its head even though they hadn't shown up yet).
ReplyDeleteMystic force and operation overdrive were baaaadddd, but then RPM descended from on high like unto an angel to give us great power rangers again.
ReplyDelete"The zords combining feels like somebody hit the fast forward button on the sentai footage."
ReplyDeleteFunny you should say that because, that's exactly what they did, the combining sequences for the dragon and the Titan Megazord are basically just the Sentai footage sped up.
I feel it's definitely better to look at this show without looking its Sentai counterpart to judge it fairly. I did watch Magiranger from start to end, and I feel Mystic Force trying to follow some its plotlines was a mistake. It had fewer episodes and from the beginning it didn't set it self up in a way that would make it very good for copying Magiranger, with the only good plot it got form being the pink ranger turning into a vampire, but for the most part the Sentai plots were just botched. It feels most PR seasons do best when they don't follow the Sentai and focus on their own ideas, and I'm saying this as somebody who has watched Sentai. I suppose it's also fair to expect more rants about stock voices tones, because the next two shows use a lot of them.
When I first saw the suits and I heard the music I didn't like, but both have grown on me through the years. However I still think the male suits (maybe it's because the M going all down to their legs) so I prefer female versions. And I agree with you the theme while not bad just doesn't fit well in fight scenes and thus lack "the Wasserman effect"
ReplyDeleteAs a whole through, I agree that series while this series bad, it just failed to deliver.
Take Imperious as an example, he was great concept has he was pretty much a nonredeemable power ranger turn evil that was trying to overthrow his dark overlord. To bad they didn't just kill of the master and made him into the ultimate villain.
Great review, Linkara. I never realized that Mystic Force was more about the secondary characters than it was about the rangers themselves, save for Nick.
ReplyDeleteI don't like the idea of comparing every single thing with magic in it to Harry Potter either, but...
ReplyDeleteThat piece of music that plays at about 10:00 in the first video (and repeats at 10:54... probably again later, but I'm typing this while recovering from a vid crash... I hate those!)...
That bit of score is a clear rip of John Williams's Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter. Listen to Prologue from The Philosopher's Stone* and you'll hear it.
~ Mik
* That's what the first one is called everywhere but the U.S.
the legends were true..... you do actually make power rangers history videos!
ReplyDeletelol. couldn't resist there. i do like these videos a whole lot though, almsot as much as the actual linkara videos too. and also it made me somewhat itnersted in power rangers, although i have long since dismissed them; even when i was a little kid i would complain about why are they flipping around and shit and not just hitting it, or them ignoring obvious plot points. obviously i prefer the latter series over what came before, not sure why though.
here, yah i am very disapointed. it all jsut sound so unintersting. boring demon people of evil magic aren't so itneresting. and it is obviosu the borrowed plot points like three times in the series. introduce a group of super baddies, they get killed, new one comes along.
i was also extra disapointed by the rita turning good yet nothing done with it thing. i thoguht that might be itneresting. turns out she just gets killed....... not to mention the idiotic continuity here. i can accept the bug people from galaxy not getting hit by it, or perhaps being more immune as they were not so hardcore evil. but these guys were on earth for god's sake. not to mention the plot hole of when rita became a magic thing mabob......
wait if rita basically became another zordon here, shouldn't he death have created another anti evil wave and just killed the chthulu rip off? jesus.
the fight scene with the red ranger turning bad and donning armor like his originally possessed father thing was just.... stupid. i know it is a power rangers fight, but what moron throwsh is shield when his enemy has one, or abandons it at all? i do no care what fight logic you use, you do not gain the advantage over a guy with a shield by abandoning yours. it would just let the enemy block you attack and slash you with thier free arm while you try to recover to a second attack.
as said i know this is power rangers, where everything blows up when they die even if they re stabbed by a sword or something, but that is incredibly strategically unsound.
random ideas about how the mystic force could have improved:
ReplyDelete*have imperius reason to become evil be that he loved udonna but leanbow came first. so the master tempted him to become evil with the promise of udonna as his prize. he would also know who koragg is, so he wants to kill him so udonna could be his.
*Necrolai loves her daughter and wants her to be happy, but she believes this can only be done if she accepts evil. sort of trakeena and her father. and the reason she turns one of the rangers into a vampire is in part so her daughter can have friends.
*ALL five rangers are the childrens of the original five warriors. yu see, in the sentai(and i do know you don't watch the sentai, but this is important), the five were siblings. so, when the chosen one plot was adapted, since the rangers are not siblings, they don't feel connected to the conflict.
*Daggeron is clare's father...because clare's father is never mentioned...and daggeron needs some depth desperatly
*Clare becomes the new white ranger. which would complete her way from apprentice to master without the whole flashback thing.
*have more plots related about the rangers interacting with the forest creatures.
of course, they are just random ideas.
Hey Lewis, big fan of yours from Australia. You actually caused me to get back into Power Rangers (I gave up partway through Mystic Force originally, so I've had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this season. ) A couple of things I should point out (if you actually read this)
ReplyDelete1) Richard Branticassino (Xander's actor) is actually from Australia, and I'm pretty sure that Xander explicitly mentioned that he was from Australia, I'm not going to find which episode it was, but as an Australian, I really wouldn't go around saying that an Australian is actually a New Zealander. Nothing personal, its just that we have the same relationship to New Zealand as Americans do with Canada (not that I'm trying to offend any of my New Zealand friends out there.....)
2. I noticed that when you brought up Operation Overdrive at the end, you seemed to be dreading it. You have mentioned that you've seen Once a Ranger, I don't know what else you have seen, or if you've already started watching OO, but since you did mention at the beginning that each season will have a chance to impress you, I sincerely hope that you don't have a bias against this season because of your bad experiences with it. Yes, it is not the best that Power Rangers has offered, but like Mystic Force there are some good points (I won't go into what at the moment)
Overall, a great review, Looking forward to the next one, whenever that may be.
Plan Xander actually DID work once - against the giant.
ReplyDeleteI kinda agree that Mystic Force was decent but did a lot wrong and had bad pacing. And that Operation Overdrive was... bad. Having never truly watched Turbo (I lost interest in Power Rangers the first time around shortly after Zeo ended), it's probably my least favorite out of those I've seen. Jungle Fury was at least okay.
I'm surprised, though, to see people maligning RPM here; it was my favorite of the franchise, main theme song notwithstanding. I did try In Space, but wasn't as fond of it as RPM.
And speaking of main theme songs, I don't know why, but somehow I always felt that Mystic Force's was... strangely appropriate somehow. And I can't say why. I'm not into hip-hop, but it just feels right for the series. *shrug*
"I really wouldn't go around saying that an Australian is actually a New Zealander. Nothing personal, its just that we have the same relationship to New Zealand as Americans do with Canada (not that I'm trying to offend any of my New Zealand friends out there.....)"
ReplyDeleteNZ'er here, and I was thinking much the same thing. Although I can see how it might be easy to make the mistake, with the show filmed in NZ (I had a lot of fun seeing how many things I could recognise - actors, locations, the sheep :) ).
The accents are different but then I couldn't differentiate between various European accents until I lived there for a while - I'm guessing Australian and NZ accents probably also sound much the same to someone not familiar with them.
Nice reintroduction to HOPR with a season that's basically the beginning of relatively unfamiliar territory for you Lewis. Aside from any details that I didn't notice due to not having seen this season, the only other error I did hear was when you were talking about Tommy in a Dino Thunder-SPD crossover...when you had stated about two times earlier that SPD didn't have any crossovers with the other series. I know you meant the Ninja Storm crossover with Dino Thunder though.
ReplyDeleteAs for why Barbara Goodson didn't voice in, probably again for the fact that with this season as well as SPD, they wanted to keep them separate from all other Power Rangers shows outside of the Kalish shows, with the one cameo from Piggy being the only one. The fact that "Rita" was even in there was probably out of necessity. Least that's the only explanation I can think of.
I swear to god, the Mystic Force theme sounds like "Toxic" from Britney Spears. I'm not the only one, right?
ReplyDelete@ Linkara: I've got a theory about Koragg.
ReplyDeleteHe claims to have kept a hold of his honour but as you point out he is more talk than action in that regard and not as honourable as he claims.
What it, rather than let him keep his honour the dark forces corrupting him have been slowly chipping away at his honour, unable to take it completely due to his mental and spiritual resistance? Thus his character can be explained by his sense of honour being distorted and twisted into a gross parody of what it once was.
since you also like yugioh could also maybe do a history of yugioh with each episode focusing in each series from the original to zexal.
ReplyDeleteIf youd like to discuss Jungle Fury, I do like it. I also like RPM. Theyre not my favorite but i'll defend them.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts, Mystic Force was not as good as SPD, but there were enough plot twists to make it interesting. You'd think with the multiple different villain factions in Operation Overdrive that one would have been interesting too, but no it was just awful.
ReplyDeletePower Rangers and Rock work both Hand in Hand. while the rap has a bit of a cheesy factor, so does PR:OO. However, I agree with you, I stopped watching PR: and started watching Megaforce recently BTW: how the heck did they get Peter Weller to voice Robo-Knight? [if its not him,its a damn good impression.] Jungle Fury I honestly never herd of it, all I know is that Jungle Furry Red is going to make an apperece in super Megaforce and thats honestly form a RangerWiki, my guess is that we might see more ranger teams, and see the legend war and gokaiger suits. Again I never herd of JF, so Hearing your own BIAS opinion on it would be wonderful. excellent episdoe and I agree wholeheartly with your review and anaylisis. Cheers Linkara.
ReplyDeleteYay, I kinda forgotten about this until it showed up on TGWTG. Welcome back, dude.
ReplyDeleteAwww I actually liked the theme song, I felt it was quite catchy. Yeah it's hip hop, so what? You said yourself there was a worse version (and I know which one you're referring to) at least this one stays on beat. And besides, a little variety doesn't hurt every now and then, my friend. But like you said, your opinion (Though really did you have to keeping hammering you didn't like it? One notice of this is quite enough. I get its not to your tastes and I understand it was a product of executive meddling that was forced on one of your favorite composers. But you were starting to sound like a broken record. No offense, just saying).
That said though, yeah this season was pretty meh and did feel like the rangers were just sub characters within their own show (save Nick). A lot of good ideas I admit but virtually no build up to anything in this "war of good and bad magic". Felt more like characters just meandering around with some occasional connections to each other. It's not the worst season of PR I've seen but not really up to it's full potential either.
Looking forward to Operation Overdrive review whenever you get around to it. ^_^
I apologize in advance for the following essay sized comment. I just have a lot of feelings about this series okay.
ReplyDeleteMystic Force is one of those ones that I watched... but felt very meh about. It was the first Power Rangers show I had actually watched all the Sentai of it for and grew horribly attached to the Japanese characters and there relationships as a family. Seeing the Power Rangers versions I felt the characterization fell a little flat in comparison so I found it really hard to connect to the characters. Though maybe that was because as you said, they tended not to FOCUS on them only which meant not as much character moments. The only character I kind of liked was Chip... and even then he annoyed me sometimes.
When you played a clip of the rock version of the theme... my face fell. That version isn't perfect but SOOO Much better than the song they went with. The rap song just.. BUGS me so much. (I mean, at least it isn't the ear-bleedingly bad Operation Overdrive).
I have to say, I kinda dig there 'uniforms' before they transform. They're pretty neat and the design evoked more 'magic' and fantasy than SOME of the stuff in the show. There transformed outfits have actually been one of my favourites, especially the girls outfits. I think they're super cute.
Most of my problems with the story over all though come out of the fact they bring up some plot points from the sentai... but not the context so it makes some of the things people do seem pointless or contradictory. I felt they needed a bit more editors to keep things constant (Korag is a BIG example of this.). Parts of the series I quite like, but I find it just didn't gel for me. The abundance of extra characters worked better in the original as well... just because they had double the episodes to develop them.
I really wish they had a Team up episode, i watched the SPD Magi Ranger Team up in the Sentai and it was a really neat mix of the future tech and Magic and was a joy to watch. It would have been interesting to see the SPD rangers come back and see how they handled it here. Or Maybe I just miss Bridge okay.
Though the on thing that bugged me more than anything was the plot point of Nick being the one true hero ect ect. It takes the focus away from the TEAM and puts it on the one. Again hate to bring up the sentai again, but they acted as a TEAM, as a FAMILY. (Also... why does Nick not look like... ANYTHING like his parents? Like at ALL?)
I really tried to see this on it's own, but as I had seen the sentai so close to it and enjoyed that so much I found it hard to give an unbiased opinion of it while watching it. Over all though I still enjoyed it more than Operation Overdrive which hurts my soul. Jungle Fury though... I actually kind of liked that one.
Personally, I really liked the theme song from a thematic point of view. While the lyrics and vocals have a very 'modern urban' feel to them, the music and instrumentation are very steampunk fantasy. This blend and clash of worlds really stands for what the season is about, eh?
ReplyDeleteOnly year of waitng but it was worth
ReplyDeleteI hope we don't need to see next time is not after another year
... I'm not sure if its inclusion was intentional or not, but the expression of the character in part three's still makes me laugh every time I see it.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this video, but I don't actually have much to say about it. What I do want to ask, though, is will you ever review a Judge Dredd strip? I can't give any reccomendations because really, I can't think of any -bad- Dredd stories off the top of my head.
ReplyDelete... Or was that piece based on Across the Stars from Episode II?
ReplyDeleteEither way, they've been listening to a LOT of John Williams!
~ Mik
I thought Mystic was an alright season but it didn't develop the rangers that well besides Nick and boy did they spend a lot of time on Nick.
ReplyDeleteAlso, they spent more time developing the minor characters Phineas, Clare, and Leelee than they did Xander, Chip, Vida, and Madison.
"However if it was a selfish or bad spell it would backlash them 3 times. Since the Rangers are naturally the good guys its a given that they don't backlash even if they used their powers selfishly like using their wands to clean up their mess at work."
ReplyDeleteMy mind immedtately races to "Fantasia", specifically the segment "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".
When Mickey tries to selfishly use magic to clean the place up, his magic backfires. When the Rangers selfishly use their magic to clean the place up, their magic doesn't backfire.
Huh.
Nice review as always . . . even on a series that was subpar (one nickname for this series I've read was Mystic Farce). It seemed like "Lord of the Rings" featuring the Power Rangers.
ReplyDeleteI wish you best of luck on reviewing Operation Overdrive . . . but I'll look forward to who you would have brought back for the "Once a Ranger" veteran Rangers Team.
When you mentioned Wasserman's original theme for the series, I couldn't help but feel a little dread. Personally, I don't like Wasserman's songs in the Kalish era (I still maintain that SPD's theme is trying to rip off Doom's first level theme), but I will agree with you that, at the very least, his rendition of MF's theme would've been better than what was put in its place... except for one thing: the lyrics don't have anything to do with the magical aspect of the season, and in fact has as one of its lyrics "Technology will help them save the day". Technology will help them save the day? In a show where everything dealing with the Rangers - from their powers to their enemies and everything in between - is so steeped in magic and sorcery their morphers are actual wood-and-crystal wands that only APPEAR to be cell phones because of a glamour? FAIL!
ReplyDeleteSynjoDeonecros: The line was "Come together to save the day"; not "technology".
ReplyDeleteLINKARA: Remove (or just don't post) my previous post about the song lyric correction; I didn't notice which version of the song he meant.
ReplyDeleteAs for the lyric "Technology will save the day" being out of place, do realize that the extended version of the theme they did use includes the lyric "Mystic Force from outer space"...
ReplyDelete@ HeroicJay:
ReplyDeleteWell, to be fair, listening to the theme again, I got the lyrics wrong; it's not "Technology will help them save the day", it's "Technology will show them all the way". The point still stands, though; nothing about how they gain their powers or how they save the day has anything to do with technology. At least the rap version he did got the lyrics right and acknowledged that it was a purely MAGICAL Ranger show. Anyone ask Ron about that lyric in the rock version and where it came from?
I'm glad to see HoPR back, even if I feel like I've been giving the same reason for why I've been watching a lot of people's work lately. It's true, though, that I do like getting other people's perspectives on things that I would otherwise just dismiss on my own. This time, I dare say you've even got me to partially reconsider my position on the Power Rangers as a franchise.
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing this episode, it occurs to me that maybe I'm not really giving Power Rangers the credit it deserves. The Mystic Force era sounds like it had some really good ideas an concepts to it, even if those ideas and concepts didn't get used anywhere nearly as well as they should have.
As I write this, I'm actually considering giving the franchise a serious shot. If I do, I'd probably start with SPD, but I'd have to watch that review again just to refresh my memory as to what it was actually about.
I love it when I can get a new perspective on things, and in this case, that has certainly happened. Thank you, Mr. Lovhaug, for enlightening us. It's much appreciated.
Yeah, I saw what you were saying; notice the second post asking not to have the previous post posted (yeah, that went as planned. >_>) And as I said earlier, I always felt the hip-hop theme was oddly appropriate though I can't explain why (Operation Overdrive's or RPM's, on the other hand...)
ReplyDeleteI know, HeroicJay, but I prefer to leave a complete history around of what people post, so I decided to leave it around plus your correction.
ReplyDeleteMay I offer some advice Linkara? I can understand not wanting to watch the Sentai versions of any of the shows cuz you're simply not interested in them (like me preferring the Sentai over Rangers cuz i'm simply not interested in Power Rangers anymore)but that kind reasoning will just make them think you're ignorant and attack you cuz for some strange reason indifference=hate on the internet, which it isn't (90% of the time). So i'm gonna offer reasons why you can't compare Super Sentai to Power Rangers on this show as best as I can so the Sentai fanboys will get off your back Linkara (hopefully).
ReplyDelete1. A grand majority of the Super Sentais that were adapted into Power Rangers have not been translated yet and the ones that ARE being fansubbed are either incomplete or most of them subbed by TV-Nihon who are TERRIBLE fansubbers. I'l post a link that explains why TV-Nihon are terrible to save time and they can explain better than I can (http://onoretvn.tumblr.com/post/43769344711/deleted-and-reposted-for-rebloggable-we) but to put it simply: they mistranslate things on purpose to pander to weeaboos and end up creating plotholes as a result when the shows they fansub never had them to begin with. Only 5 Super Sentais that have been fansubbed that are complete, that are not subbed by TV-nihon & given proper treatment are: Zyuranger (subbed by G.U.I.S.), Dairanger (subbed by Hikari-Senshi), Gaoranger (subbed by Gaosoul), Gekiranger (subbed by Gekiknight) & Go-onger (subbed by Go-Anon). So yeah, kinda hard to compare Super Sentai & Power Rangers fairly when only 5 of the Sentais are given full proper fansubs.
2. You already have too much work to do as it is Linkara (AT4W, Longbox of the Damned, the DVDs, crossovers etc) so you don't have time to watch another show on top of Power Rangers (especially since each Sentai series has more episodes than it's American counterparts) just to please the Sentai fans.
3. Super Sentai & Power Rangers are two completely different things. While Power Rangers may use Super Sentai footage, the plots of both franchises are so radically different from each other that comparing them seems pointless cuz you like said all those years ago Linkara "Each series of Power Rangers should be able to stand or fall on it's own".
@AmuroNT1:
ReplyDelete"And you should have heard the screaming when it was rumored that a Caucasian actor was going to be part of Kyoryuger, the latest Sentai; it turned out to be false, but the comments made were nothing short of blatant racism against non-Asians and cries to boycott the franchise until Toei "saw the light"."
Actually, a Caucasian actor did end up part of Kyoryuger's cast.
@Ultimalice:
ReplyDeleteActually, G.U.I.S. also has complete subs of Jetman and Liveman, and Over-Time has complete subs of Gokaiger and Go-Busters.
@ JLH:
ReplyDeleteReally? REALLY?! "Mystic Force from OUTER SPACE"?! What were they thinking? I mean, it's bad enough that, if and when they actually release a villain figure for the toy sets, they automatically call it an "Evil Space Alien", regardless of their actual origins, but seriously?
Ah, Power Rangers Comedic Relief Force the series that made me stop watching Power Rangers regularly. If the Writer's Strike did happen during this series than its a shame. It feels like this series needed to go through another draft to clean things up, well that or a few more non-filler episodes that went somewhere.
ReplyDeleteYour story about Camelot and Teen Titans month show the reason why you are my favorite reviewer, you share stories like this that builds connections between yourself and the viewers. It's not some guy with a nice hat telling us what he thinks, its Linkara our friend with the nice hat telling us what he thinks.
Can't wait for the next season. And just a thought if you get through Overdrive, Jungle Fury and RPM before say March maybe you could release an abridged review of the re-release, with the comic book graphics, but have radically different opinions than before. And that release date...April 1st, to celebrate April Fool's Day and the anniversary of the series. Just a thought.
Operation Overdrive...Oh God have mercy on us all.
ReplyDeleteI like both Power Rangers and Super Sentai, but I can understand why you would only focus on Power Rangers. It should stand on its own merit.
ReplyDeleteThough as seen in this show, it CAN become a problem if the Power Rangers season starts following its counterpart, but only partly, since it can hurt the show's coherence.
Then again, following a Sentai show exactly would just make me wonder why they didn't just dub the whole thing...
(Though if you ever start watching Sentai, I can tell you that at least the monsters from the 90s have a tendency to turn into humans and act like Silver Age villains XD )
And what is up with that theme Oo ?!
The rock version could've been more epic (maybe something along the line of Nightwish), but it was overall MUCH better.
I don't mind the capes at all. They're pretty cool looking, actually.
(And a bit old school seeing how the first Sentai team wore capes like it was going out of style - with collars no less!)
And yeah, close-up shaky-cam with not a single shot lasting more than 2 seconds? Whoever thought that was a good idea? It puzzles me me how modern cinema spends so much money, time and effort to make those expensive action scenes look as crappy and confusing as possible, just because they believe it's a good idea.
Man, the continuity nods in this show are random o_O
I'm a longtime lurker, but I'd just like to say that I think you're doing a great job on this series. I was a big Power Rangers fan as a kid, although I moved away from it relatively quickly, probably because Mighty Morphin' first premiered when I was ten years old, so I was at the older end of their target audience. I watched the first season obsessively and was still pretty enthusiastic about the second season, though I would miss episodes here and there. I got really sporadic as season three went along (to the point where I completely missed the entire Alien Rangers story arc), and stopped watching altogether a few episodes into Zeo. It's been really fascinating to see what they've done with the show since then, and I think you do a really good job of presenting a good rundown of each season.
ReplyDeleteI actually think that making each season its own separate story has actually strengthened the series (certain individual seasons notwithstanding), because it allows for more character development and plot advancements. Episodes don't feel quite as formulaic. However, I do see the benefit in allowing those changes to happen more slowly over multiple seasons (especially since there have been TV shows over the years that I consider myself a casual fan of and thus did not watch every single episode).
Mystic Force does look like one of the weaker seasons, though this video is all I have to go on for that assessment. I agree with you that it seems like the Rangers themselves get shoved aside in terms of character focus (Also, I agree with whoever said that one of the background music pieces sounds like the "Across the Stars" track from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, although I also hear a bit of the Harry Potter theme mixed into it). However, this episode, as always, was well worth the wait (And don't worry about installments taking a long time. As a writer for two blogs and a former film student, I understand how life happens and things get backed up).
Again, great job and I'm looking forward to the next one, even if it's just to see why Operation Overdrive is the worst season (I somehow saw the first episode when it first aired, but I know nothing else about it).
I liked this season when I first watched it, but I seem to have a higher tolerance for terrible things, so I'm not the best judge of quality.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it may not have been super important, but I'm surprised you didn't mention that in addition to Toby being Piggy, Daggeron was Doggy Kruger.
I'm not sure why people aren't talking about Jungle Fury. It was an ok season, if not the best. I'll at least always like it for getting me to Sentai, because Jungle Fury's Sentai source is one of my favorites. I saw the "morphers" and thought "ok... different. how do the toys for them loo- oh, those SUCK. ...I wonder what the Japanese version was like. *youtube* ......TO THE SENTAI!"
Also, I respect that you don't want to watch the Sentai, but hopefully someday you might decide to. Like PR, SS has its share of amazing seasons mixed with pure junk, but the good stuff in SS is just wonderful, with My personal faves being Gekiranger, Shinkenger, Gokaiger, and especially Go-Busters.
I loved the review, although I didn't agree on one big thing. I thought the actual ranger team was very boring, with only Xander being interesting (although, looking back, Chip was ok and probably deserved a bit more screen time). To me, the side characters made me keep watching. Udonna, Leanbow, Solaris Knight, Clare, etc. were the reason I made it through the series. They were interesting, and even made Nick a little interesting (and Nick was not a good ranger at all). Without them, its a team that has probably the worst Red Ranger I've ever seen, one notable ranger, and 3 ok rangers who were just fairly boring. Combine that with ok but not amazing villains, and this is definately not my favorite season (that title goes to Lost Galaxy), but it was watchable because the side characters stories kept me coming back.
ReplyDeleteStill, a great review as always.
"I've just found confirmation about the Lesbian Vida thing.... http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ButchLesbian
ReplyDelete"Vida Rocca from Power Rangers Mystic Force was about as blatant about being this trope as US Moral Guardians will permit."
So... yeah.... wow..... EVEN TOEI HASN'T TOUCHED THAT TOPIC YET!
Now granted in Kamen Rider Wizard, there is a cross-dresser... but still No legit gay people, and this is from JAPAN people... so... props"
god anytime a woman doesnt fit the traditional sense of feminity she must be a lesbian just because she has short hair and is a dj doesnt make her gay and i love you claim this as confirmation when this is clearly written by someone who had nothing to do with the production of the show so how would they what sexuality the character is also site anything that hints she is a lesbian besides having short hair and being a dj
I agree with Anonymous, there's not a single hint of Vida's sexuality beyond her apperarance and her job as a DJ. in fact, her romantic feeling for Chip, although rushed, feel very sincere.
ReplyDeleteLinkara, what's your take on this? Do you think Vida is gay or straight?
Dark Wish I can explin why the rangers or other oens could help. Time force didn;t exisit, why? beucase the AoPA present is take over by the dakrness whcih could of whiped future teams out of assistance. the other ranger teams could of given it there all but maybe the ten titans where battling them and since a lot of them don't know about magic,etc it wasn't use. there's your explication. PR:OO god speed Lewis. God Speed. How do you like robo cop/knight so far?
ReplyDeleteWait, a book, or Tome, if you will, that is held by what vaguely looks like a hand and essentially writes itself and details an Eternal Darkness? Okay, which came first, this or Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem?...
ReplyDeleteWhy do people hate Operation OVerdrive? I enjoyed it... Loved Will and Ronny, Loved the android revelation, loved the fact that they used real places, LOVED the return of Adam leading the Veteran Rangers as MMPR Black...
ReplyDeletePersonally, I do like the theme song for this season. But I do agree with Linkara that it doesn't fit the tone of the show itself. Hip hop and fantasy do not mix.
ReplyDeleteUnless in an intentional parody.
Well Linkara, we meet again... well not exactly meet, but after knowing what you went through, I was tempted to offer to take you our for several large beverages of your choice. Let me elaborate. I had not seen a single episode of Mystic Force prior to watching the review and reading the above comments. Me, being the eternal optimist, thought "It can't be that bad." I went to a certain website and started watching from the beginning. I couldn't make it through the third episode before I had to give up. I swear Vogon poetry is easier to get through, even with having to gnaw my own leg off. As for Overdrive, the only thing I know about it is what I've heard from Johnny Bosch in one of his panels. That said, I will still wait for your review before I dare punish myself further. I would say good luck and may the power protect you, but if I remember the process, you have already watched Overdrive. (And I guess survived it!)
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that it would have worked if "Power Rangers: Mystic Force" had all the rangers be siblings the way they were in Magiranger. I'm rusty on my Ranger lore, but aren't the Ranger teams usually multiethnic? Of course, one could have the Mystic Force rangers be adopted siblings, which would account for racial differences, but you'd still have the "Luke, I am Your Father" plot disproportionately affect the Red Ranger.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it obvious? The reason all the unexplained things make sense is because...um...Lenbow is red.
ReplyDeleteHey Link, i have a few questions, after so many videos of history or Power rangers:
ReplyDelete1. how far in the seasons are you right now?
2. as someone who only saw 3 or 4 episodes of power rangers samurai, do you believe Saban is taking notes and learning from their mistakes? like, are there still xplosions behind the back in samurai?
I am very much looking forward to what no doubt will be the most harshest and most venomous overview of a Power Rangers season since Power Rangers Turbo. Because Operation Overdrive is so awful it hurts, for all my hatred of Turbo, I'd much rather watch that than Operation Overdrive.
ReplyDeleteRegarding vida's sexuality, I personally think she might be either a lesbian or bisexual. it's not because she's not what we define as "feminine", but more of because her reaction when Necrolai is in human form. I don't know, it could just be my wanting more lgbt members in power rangers. PS: Lewis, I've got proof that zordon's an asshole http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJgC9LEBTuQ
ReplyDeleteI wanted to rewatch the Dino Thunder video, and I see you uploaded the Mystic Force one! Fate! It's fate!
ReplyDeleteThis was actually the first Power Ranger series I watched to completetion in a long time, and it definitely is a very uneven series. It's at its best when it's actually focusing on the Rangers, and there sadly isn't it.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that bothered me that wasn't touched on was I was kinda disappointed in the Zord selection. The first Megazord was pretty cool, but everything afterward was kinda meh. I was also disappointed there was no super combined Zord a la the original Ultrazord, since I like the idea of all the rangers coming together to form a super zord.
Don't get me wrong, this is a minor complaint compared to the series pacing issues, but it still bothers me.
We just like to pretend Jungle Fury never existed.
ReplyDeleteFrikkin' sunglasses morphers.
Mystic Force, if I could summarize it in a word...I wouldn't bother. Why should I put forth the effort the writers didn't?
ReplyDeleteStill Mystic Force had good ideas at least. I like the theme, but I can understand why you don't. I like all the Rangers except Nick. I like the beginning of the season alright. Love the costumes. Wish they hadn't just copied the Sentai and had tried more original stories.
Still, better then Overdive. Now that season...okay, in MMPR the rangers wanted to keep fighting when they'd lost their powers and were turned into children. In OO, they gave up when they lost their powers even though they had civilian powers. It's going to be a long season for you good sir.
If nothing else, Bandit Keith will be pleased that the Rangers have started to make flags a part of their wardrobe.
ReplyDeletehttp://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hyou2G9mVRw/UXuDuvUfqVI/AAAAAAAAwFA/5WbTNrcbfGg/s1600/13525935780470.jpg
You sounded like you were passing a kidney stone when you mentioned Overdrive. This is gonna be fun, I take it.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, MF looks like an example of just sloppiness all around. There's so much potential but none of it is realized and there's just so much fluff they could have excised. It's like how Brad always says the Twilight series had great stories IN it, but the writer picks the least interesting one to tell. It really sounded like they needed to rewrite the Rangers, especially Nick.
Anyway, hopefully getting OO's videos won't take so long. I wish you luck on them.
P.S. I can't WAIT to the Legend War in Megaforce.
Ok, so I have this idea for a truly awesome 20th Anniversary Special for Power Rangers, and seeing as how you are an official advisor on that power Force thing, I figure you are my best shot at getting it heard.
ReplyDeleteSo here it goes.
The original Serpentera returns (not the much smaller and differently coloured one from the 10th Anniveraary, but the original one. Its pioted by a new enemy who installed a new power source which is more than sufficient to maintain full power for a year or more without recharging.
This is preceded by a mysterious new red ranger appearing in the ruins of Zordon's Command Center, he uses a metallic wand which looks like a dagger and the command Restorae to restore the Command Center to its former glory. Fully repaired and fully powered, even Alpha is restored.
The Red Ranger then summons the greatest rangers of all time to meet this new threat.
Jason, Tommy, Andros, Carter Grayson, Adam, Robert "R.J." James, Dillon and Jayden.
Possibly also the other Jungle Fury and Ninja Force rangers.
And with a cameo in the episode from Billy.
The new Red Ranger is Adric, the Red Existenal Ranger a brilliant swordsmanm, genius and wizard, he has travelled back in time by several billion years in order to unite the rangers to defeat the greatest of all threats.
He uses advanced technology to restore White Tiger morpher and fuze it with the red Zeo crystal and black dragon egg to turn Tommy into the Ultimate Ranger, who's suit includes all three colours and can tap the powers of all three ranger morphs.
All working Zords and Megazords are called in to to the battle, the lesser Megazords act to distract while the Zeo-Thunder Megazord combines with the Red Existanal Zord (which is a megazord in itself) to take the fore.
And... details to be worked out by actual writers.
Just my thought.
Also food for thought, the other Serpentera wasn't destroyed by the flying motorcycle, but the energy backlash flung them to an alternate dimension where the machines have spent 10 years repairing and improving zord and working on a way to get back.
Hi Linkara,
ReplyDeleteAt the conclusion of this series (or at least when it's fully up-to-date with the current Ranger season), do you think you can let us know of your favorite Rangers, Megazords, Episodes, etc.?
@Sunny Lovett:
ReplyDeleteThat would be interesting... except the "Red Existential Ranger" and "Existential Megazord" would have to be created whole cloth, since judging by the way you describe them, there are clearly no Sentai counterparts for them...
Not to mention, it probably wouldn't happen for several other reasons. Namely, they probably plan to make their version of the Legend War the 20th anniversary special.
Incidentally, there are at least two mistakes I can think of right now for whatever "Screw-Ups of History of Power Rangers" video you might do:
ReplyDelete1. The Time Force suits. You never said what you thought of them, the morphing sequence, OR the Chrono Morphers. It's... kind of jarring, and in your Screw-Ups video, you could take the time to give your thoughts on them there.
2. While you're usually pretty good about explaining certain things pertaining to the Sentai counterparts when they're relevant to the production of Power Rangers, there's one thing you probably should've mentioned in your Dino Thunder video. See, in Abaranger, the White Ranger's counterpart remained evil until pretty much the last two episodes (and then he died, but that actually isn't relevant to this). Since Trent's Heel Face Turn came much, much earlier, the production team came up with the clone idea so that they could use more of the Sentai footage featuring him.
...Actually, this would probably reinforce your opinion that the White Ranger clone wasn't really utilized well.
Well, Mystic Force didn't appear to be that bad, but at the same time, it could have used more improvement.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame that we didn't see an actual team-up between Mystic Force and S.P.D. I would have loved to see Mystic Force react to the future world of S.P.D. or S.P.D. chasing Troobian remnants to Briarwood Forest.
Up next, the hated Operation Overdrive. I think Power Rangers Turbo is the worst show in the franchise, but based on what I've heard about that show (mainly EZ Rider from Toku Time, who did a beatdown on the story arc Once a Ranger as part of his Moonrise storyline), all I can say is this: I'll be praying for you . . .
did you cream in your pants when you heard carter grayson was coming back for super mega force
ReplyDeleteany chance we get your thoughts on the rangers who turned down super meagforce and on the ones who are returning ?
ReplyDelete^so is that a yes or a no ?
ReplyDeleteplease never stop this series i love this series please never stop i love you
ReplyDeleteI hope you din't stop this series because i really like these review's. Also if you need to know info on jungle fury then ask me because i know a lot about that season. Also I know it takes time to watch the season of power rangers but why did you take just about a year for this one? I just like your reviews and can't wait to see your opration overdrive review
ReplyDeleteI really like your reviews, but why was there just about a 1 year difference between your spd and mystic force reviews? Also if you need any info about jungle fury just ask.
ReplyDeleteI've spent the last weekend going through the entire History of the Power Rangers videos up to this one. I'm impressed at the coverage Linkara has done despite not looking into the Sentai footage these shows are based on.
ReplyDeleteI must admit that Mystic Force was where I began to lose interest in Power Rangers. Mostly due to the issues Linkara brought up. I haven't even gotten back into the new Saban produced series like Samurai and Megaforce. Any comments on if those two are worth my time or pass?
Anyway, keep up the great work Linkara. I just hope that the wait for Operation Overdrive isn't as long as this one. ^^;
I like the theme. I think it's a good PR theme and a good song by itself. I don't see how hip-hop/rap can't go with magic but rock/metal can. What exactly does rock do that reminds anyone of middle earth?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, have you gotten around to watching Sherlock? I know you said you had no interest in it, but it really is a good series.
So why did it take almost a year to make a history of power rangers mystic force? It only took you 8 months for your spd and dino thunder reviews, and even less time for all of your other history of power rangers so why it took so long with this one? I can wait for a long time for operation overdrive review. Just wondering why it took almost a year for this one?
ReplyDeletecan't wait for your operation overdrive review
ReplyDeletewhat do you think about mmpr the fan film
ReplyDeletewhat do you think about mmpr fan film. i seen some stuff and it is really good and i heard jason david frank might do it.
ReplyDeletelet me guess you hate operation overdrive theme song. i don't blame you i hate rap. but the worst theme song is RPM
ReplyDeleteI can;t wait for the next entry and what OO really is, I haven't seen it but I have herd bad things. Anyways brillent job as always and agree with you 1000% LoTPR's seems liek a good cocnept.
ReplyDeletei can wait for your next hopr but why did it take a year for this one and good luck with the theme songs operation overdrives sucks but not as much as rpm that one does not have anything it is just get in gear we stand together
ReplyDeleteFirst of all mystic force's theme song is a good theme song, second why did it take you a year to finish this one, i get it you have to do an episode of atop the fourth wall every week, and go to the comic cons and your pokemon movie reviews, but it dosn't take a year to finish. sorry i can wait for your next one just wondering why it took a year to finish this one.
ReplyDeleteOkay, reposting the same thing every day asking me why it took a year is not a good strategy to get on my good side.
ReplyDeleteIt should be plainly obvious just by the things you listed why it took a year.
Every week last summer had a storyline segment. I did Longbox of the Damned every DAY in October. I recovered from that and did conventions, then had to start working on the storyline conclusion. I need to do an episode EVERY WEEK for Atop the Fourth Wall.
History of Power Rangers is and always has been a SIDE PROJECT. It is not the focus of my attention all the time and it gets released when I'm done with it. Simple as that.
I think that the idea of Rita as the Mystic Mother is kinda dumb i mean considering the timeline of Power Rangers she become good of Space but the "mystic land" existed for years before Space so what one she came and proclaimed herself as the Mystic Mother or did she fought the old one and won ?
ReplyDeletemaybe they will explain this Super Megaforce (god that name sucks )
I agree its a voice over they could have saved money by doing it on the phone.
ReplyDeletedo you still have fun doing this. Sorry if you don't have fun any more with it and good luck with history of power rangers, your pokemon reviews and good luck with atop the fourth wall. And what do you think about mega force theme song. I would say its the worst because its just coping the samurai theme song.
ReplyDeleteNice job. I thought you stop doing these. Good luck operation overdrive that one is a bad season. I can wait seance you have a lot of stuff. Good luck with hopr and your pokemon movie reviews and the comic cons. And I seen all of the pokemon movies so when you get up to the 8th movie you will like it. And when you get up to jungle fury you may have mixed feelings about it that one is 50/50.
ReplyDeleteSorry but first of all i didn't post all of those. Second I knew that it was a side project and that you only do it for fun. But it looked like you quit it and I know some guies that wouldn't like it either. Any way good luck and i'm sorry its just people want more. And what do you think is the worst theme song cause after mystic force most of the songs got worse.
ReplyDeleteyea sum of us like to forget jungle fury ever happened. Good luck with that. However, at least for me the arc was good. I am glad your back i thought you stop doing this. Of course it is a side project plus you still have other reviews and comic cons and more. So good luck with operation overdrive.
ReplyDeleteBro you are doing a great job with these side projects.
ReplyDeleteYou know when johnny young beach guest stared on supah ninjas, seance it was airing the same time power rangers samurai was i thought they would have a crossover seance they both aired on nickelodeon. Any way great review and i can wait for the next one just take your time.
ReplyDeleteman good luck with the next one I can wait for it. Back in the wild force review I under stood why it takes so long seance its a side project
ReplyDeleteHey I agree with jay there should have been a cross over with supah ninjas and power rangers samurai. Anyway good luck with the next history of power rangers this next one sucks. Just take your time I know its a side project.
ReplyDeletejohnny young beach reviled on his face book page back on June 26 about some of the stuff that was cut from the turbo movie. Adam and Tanya went to go and resque Kimberly and Jason from divitox, however they failed and there suits were shredded. Meaning that with Kat's zeo powers shorted out, rocky still in the hospital, and Tanya and Adam's powers destroyed, it would mean that Tommy's zeo powers would have been destroyed as well. So Zordon had to give them the turbo powers to beat divitox. Do you think that is the reason, thanks to johnny I think I figured it out.
ReplyDeletefirst time posting. And i didnt know that johnny posted on his face book that. That would explain why Adam didnt use his zeo powers back in alaways a chance and why Tommy still had his in forever red. Any way great review and I can wait for the next one just take your time.
ReplyDeletehave you seen rpm. you said that mystic force operation overdrive and jungle fury, but did you see rpm.
ReplyDeleteHey I just found the history of power rangers reviews and just finished watching them all and linkra great reviews just take your time with the next one we all have a lot off things to do in our lives, in your case you had to move into an apartment, finish an episode of Atop the fourth wall Every week, you going to comic con and your pokemon reviews so good luck with all that just take your time. And good luck with the next season the only good part of it is once a ranger. Oh yea and for the past 2 years nicktoons has done this morphonominon, where they re show seasons from the past. What do you think of that
ReplyDeleteAre you still having fun with these, I only ask that cause when you talked about the police in this you sounded like you gave up on this, its just none of us want you to stop this, your reviews are a hit.
ReplyDeleteLook i know you don't want to see the senti, but i think i figured out the reason for gingerax and toxica still being around for, in the senti they looked like they died but they cant die. The people behind wild force lets them live to come back in the team up of ninja storm. How ever, seance the work of this show was moved they couldn't do it, how ever, they used the idea from that team up with the last team attacking the current team, even if it wasn't them in the senti they used the idea in thunder storm. You should see gaouranger vs huricanger, imagine all of the wild force zords and all of the ninja storm zods together as one.
ReplyDeleteDude nice review. I know that you have to do atop the fourth wall Every Week its nice you had time to do this review.
ReplyDeleteHey have you heard of mmpr fan film, The music is going to be provided by ron wasermen him self. Oh yea and the actor who played lord zed is going to be in it and David felding who voice zordon back in season 1 will once again play zordon in it. And I saw on twitter that the blue samurai ranger will be in it. And judging what has been on face book rhett fisher who played the ryan back in light speed might be in it. Same with matt austin who played bridge back in spd. What do you think about that
ReplyDeleteAwesome review as always, can't wait for the next one as operation overdrive is in my opinion one of the worst... And it is sad that once a ranger is part of that season. It feels very lackluster.
ReplyDeleteI am also excited for when you get to RPM after these next two seasons. I personally enjoyed RPM for what we got out of it and feel it is rather underrated. I feel it's more akin to Dino thunder and spd, good but has problems. I guess it's my version of what wild force is for you. Either way, keep up the good work man. :)
I think that anyone who seen rpm enjoyed martyG. Any way good luck with the next one a lot of people that is the worst season as well. But still great review, just take your time i know that it is a side project and you have a lot things to do. Like your pokemon reviews, and lingbox on demand this month.
ReplyDeleteMatt Austin who played bridge said that Disney would get the cast, milk them and then there gone. That was one of the reasons why there was no team up this season.
ReplyDeleteThis theme song isn't as bad as operation overdrive, and rpm theme songs
ReplyDeleteNone of us like to talk about jungle fury we like to pretend it didnt happen
ReplyDeleteNow that i think about it, even though disney had ruined a lot of things about this show, at least they respected the story arc's. Back in wild force, they new the saban era story lines and so they were able to make something good out of all of that which is the crossover from time force. They did it again in operation overdrive. I like once a ranger, to me it was way better then the spd crossover's. Even though disney got bored with this show and cancelled it, they did a good job with the show over all. What do you think Lewis.
ReplyDeleteYou know now that I think about it, even though disney did plenty of bad things in this show. At least they new the story lines and were able to produce good seasons. Lets look back into wild force,they new the saban era seasons, and used them to create a good team up, that being the team up with time force. Now lets go into dino thunder, which is the best season they produced. They had the 500th episode of the franchise, and showed a clip show proving that they new the story arc's of the saban era seasons. Now lets go into operation overdrive, I don't now about you, but i like once a ranger, to me it was way better then both spd team ups. Over all even though disney had canceled this show, at least they new what the other seasons were about and make good team ups. What do you think about this Lewis?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteOh woops sorry about that.
ReplyDeleteYou got a point there jaden
ReplyDeleteNice review glad this series is back
ReplyDeleteThe only reason why some stories in power rangers are like this is because that was what the senti was like. I only gokiger so I don't know what happened. But I know you seen samurai and I would have thought that with saban back they wouldn't keep on coping it. But I only know that through reviews from episode vlogs from samurai. Oh well if they want to use it then let them I will watch it either way. Anyway, great review and have fun with these, just take your time with these I know your busy. Oh yea and I heard suede will post pokemon 4ever by halloween or next month so get ready.
ReplyDeleteMan like always you do a good job with these reviews, just take your time I know you have a lot of things in your life.
ReplyDeleteDisney was messing around the show at the time, so mabey they used up a lot of money seance spd had 2 crossovers and not just one.
ReplyDeleteYea good luck with operation overdrive, in the only good thing about it was once a ranger, and that was out of in my mind best episode of that show, and better then half of jungle fury and mystic force.
ReplyDeleteYou think operation overdrive was the worst, um mega force is making that season look good,do to all the filler episodes, gosei not saying much about his past and it seem's like tensu is more of a help to those ranger's then gosei is. But who am I to make that kind of statement with only 14 episodes in out of 40 episodes.
ReplyDeleteYou got a point there Jake, but nothing is as bad as operation overdrive. Anyway, great review and just make sure that you still have fun with these.
ReplyDeleteNice review and good luck with the next one.
ReplyDeleteI know that Roger Velasco aka Carlos the green turbo ranger and black space ranger hinted on face book that he will do a cameo.
ReplyDeleteReally Carlos will be doing a cameo, then the I guess Andros will be there to
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think that andros will return damen.
ReplyDeleteThey showed a picture of a figure in a cloke and the actor showed a picture of him self with the red space ranger card. Now you under stand mike?
ReplyDeleteOh sorry damen
ReplyDeleteOK so i made a mistake for when suede post's the next pokemon movie sorry.
ReplyDeleteOperation overdrive is not that bad.
ReplyDelete