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Showing posts with the label Power Rangers

Carranger's Fresh Start VS. Power Rangers Turbo's Narrative Clutter (Some Spoilers)

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  Some time ago, I wrote about why I prefer  Choriki Sentai Ohranger over Power Rangers Zeo . As this year is Gekisou Sentai Carranger's 30th anniversary (and sadly, Yuka Motohashi has joined Thuy Trang so soon after she lost her battle to cancer) -- I wanted to write this one. Sure, I wrote about how Power Rangers is better than Super Sentai for the American audience . Now, I thought about revisiting Carranger and Turbo on one aspect: the LATTER'S NARRATIVE CLUTTER. One of the many reasons why I don't like Power Rangers is the NARRATIVE CLUTTER. Some people may remember how Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers actually had three seasons; Zeo was just a continuation of Mighty Morphin' Season 3 (and it made the teenagers look like they would never graduate until Turbo ). Then of course, there's the really atrocious Power Rangers Turbo movie, which would connect into the TV series. I remember watching that film back in 1998 before I learned about Carranger's existenc...

Belated Flashman's 40th Anniversary Tribute: How The Series Makes Me Think Power Rangers Lost Galaxy Is Overrated (Some Spoilers)

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  Last year, I made a post where I mentioned how Dengeki Sentai Changeman made me see Power Rangers in Space as an overrated gamble . Super Sentai being off-air made me think that my IBC-13 post should've been the "swan song" of this blog . However, Super Sentai's hiatus is the standard of "never forgotten" even if the franchise had its closure with No. 1 Sentai Gozyuger . However, Shogo B'Stard's current Chikyu Sentai Fiveman marathon made me want to do some random rants. I wanted to do a Flashman marathon with my own crazy twists. Instead, I decided to do a crazy rambling to talk about what can be an unpopular opinion. Power Rangers Lost Galaxy is widely praised by the Power Rangers community. However, I'd like to share my own post (with some spoilers) how I felt Flashman , a show from 1986, made me feel like Lost Galaxy was overrated clutter. I. The Lost Galaxy theme was played into Flashman's storyline better IMHO Lost Galaxy was hyped in...

Shinichiro Shirakura Acknowledges Power Rangers' Role In Super Sentai's Longevity?

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It's already known I don't like Power Rangers . I'm not GOING TO KEEP PRETENDING that I like it. However, Power Rangers was born out of a NEED because the American market is WAY DIFFERENT than the Japanese market . That's what I wrote in JEFusion before I decided to leave it while still endorsing it!  It's like a certain group of people who talk like a certain cop (warning: LOTS OF CRAZY STUFF).  Here are Shirakura's words, regardless of how I feel about Power Rangers : Shirakura observed that he joined Toei in 1990, when the company was planning the 1992 series Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger. The staff back then thought that it might be the final Sentai entry. So, the younger staffers wanted to try something different, and introduced a sixth regular member mid-story for the first time in the franchise. Shirakura mused that Zyuranger becoming the loose basis for the global phenomenon Power Rangers was divine intervention (literally, "kamikaze") that led to ...

Super Sentai VS. Movies, Power Rangers' Crossover Episodes And Possible Narrative Impacts

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  Super Sentai has its legacy and it's on its 50th birthday for Himitsu Sentai Goranger . So far, there may be no plans yet for the 50th entry of the series. I like ot nitpick a lot of stuff. I may not like Power Rangers,  but I've had a nasty habit of criticizing the Super Sentai VS. Movies for their lack of canonicity. I nitpicked the Super Hero Taisen games to the point I could no longer enjoy it. I had a huge shock when I realized that a lot of the Dragon Ball movies couldn't fit in. I also nitpicked the Dragon Ball movie called  Mystical Adventure -- which had Chiaotzu as a young emperor and Tien KILLING Master Shen with a Kikoho. The Dragon Ball Z movies followed, and I realized that most of them couldn't be canon. That's why I wrote an entry comparing the Dragon Ball Z movies to the Super Sentai crossover movies . However, the same couldn't be said for Power Rangers . Power Rangers chose to deliberately have that "solid continuity" -- except for...

Bomber The Great VS. Louie Kaboom Plot Comparison (Spoilers)

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It's no secret that I find Choriki Sentai Ohranger to be a messy toy commercial. Come on, no one can deny that throwing one Megazord after the other can derail the plot ! It's pretty much overworking the marketing department (and writing too), like what happened with the Buu Saga in Dragon Ball Z . Now, as messy as Ohranger was, I still find it more watchable than Power Rangers Zeo . Zeo tried to continue where Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers  Season 3 left off! I'm still SOURED UP until now over the Dear John letter that was presented in Zeo ! Now, I'd like to write a bit of a rant on Louie Kaboom (the Zeo  counterpart) and Bomber the Great! One of the reasons why I don't like Power Rangers is how often people have to watch previous entries just to understand another entry. Power Rangers Turbo ended with a cliffhanger, while Gekisou Sentai Carranger gave a proper conclusion. I have to watch Turbo to understand Power Rangers in Space ? Not even Tokyu Shirei Solbra...

Professor Henna The Mad Scientist In Ohranger

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Choriki Sentai Ohranger is no questions asked -- a series that was hit by a series of UNFORTUNATE EVENTS. The Sarin Gas Incident in 1995 was no joke. It felt appropriate to water things down BECAUSE people need to recover. Power Rangers Time Force also followed suit because of the September 11 terrorist attack. Before that, I could talk about the gimmicky characters that showed up duriong Ohranger . It's no secret that I watched Power Rangers ZEO before on Studio 23. TV was a form of escapism. I wasn't too surprised to learn of Ohranger either. There were some occasional joke characters. One that was introduced was the mad scientist Kotaro Henna (played by Shoichiro Akaboshi) -- the bald guy used as the top picture. The guy might be typical in some older cartoons with an eccentric scientist -- but given a Japanese twist. Kotaro showed up only in three episoses -- episodes 25, 29, and 30. All these episodes had some of that blatant silliness. Episode 25 was where Ohranger intro...