KingdomRider's list of underrated Power Rangers seasons

DancingAlienDude did a similar post, I agree with Lightspeed and SPD he covered, but I felt that there are more than just those seasons that are underrated.

Power Rangers Mystic Force

Surprised by this one, aren't you? I certainly am. I've underrated this season before, only because it focused on Nick too much. But I looked over the first ten episodes again and, it's okay. The plot and story for this season is a little more difficult to understand then previous seasons. One of the main reasons why this season is underrated because it's a Disney season and 'butchered' Magiranger, as fans like to put it. I think one of the reasons why Mystic Force is underrated because this season is a little difficult to understand because past Power Rangers seasons have been simple. You understood the story right from the beginning. Even Operation Overdrive was fairly simple to understand. This story has to be one of the most defined and also one of the most fun, especially if you are a fan of fantasy shows. I think one of the things that distinguishes this season from past seasons is that it is not really the most action filled season out of all of them. Mystic Force is very much based on mostly story.

One of the issues with this season is that the acting is really not that good. Firass Dirani, Nic Sampson, Melanie Vallejo, Angie Diaz, and Richard Brancatisano who play the main rangers are not really that talented in the acting department. They do have some moments of good acting especially in the season finale "Mystic Fate" but most of it is just hard to watch. Another issue is the Red Ranger focus. There was just too much revolving around Nick and for me, I didn't like it. But I learned that it doesn't bother me as much as it did before.

Power Rangers Ninja Storm

When I first heard about Ninja Storm I was very excited. I thought it would be dark, mysterious with action packed fight scenes. However when I started watching it i soon found that this wasn't the case. PRNS was too comical for my liking back then, the villains were to slapstick comedy funny and the rangers themselves seemed too laid back all the time, that's why it's underrated. Looking at Ninja Storm now, it's pretty good, actually. Because if you're a fan of MMPR or happen to like MMPR, you'll like this too. A villain with strong cynical intentions like Lord Zedd would have been great in this though.

Power Rangers Lost Galaxy

Lost Galaxy is probably one of the most underrated PR series due to it just coming off of Space and starting the standalone series. Despite plot holes it continued some stuff In Space started: teamups with past alumni, sympathetic villains, and the grand feeling of a space adventure. Sure it may not have that end all feeling that Space had, and no matter how many plot holes this season had, I LOVE this season. One of my favorites and made me continue watching the show today. I think there are a lot of reasons, but a big one would have to be Trakeena, who's pretty much my favorite non-MMPR villain. I was honestly kind of sad when she took a nosedive into crazyville; it's hard to imagine that she went from being a fairly background sort of villain to getting so good at swordplay that she could take down two monsters at once.

Power Rangers Jungle Fury

Surprised by this one too? I'm not. Because this is probably the best and my favorite season Kalish produced. Main reason why it's usually underreated is because it's a Disney season and 'butchered' Gekiranger. The writers strike is one reason why this season is underrated, there were a few episodes that just didn't seem to move things along, or tried to hard on the message. There was a rumor that Chip came back and wrote a few episodes, which makes the season a little more enjoyable. But the season was a success for me. In a few ways, it almost seemed to pay tribute to the old days of Power Rangers, with RJ inventing weapons or working on them, and the Rangers actually having to train and master skills before getting new levels or gear. The grouped story arcs played out very good. The Jarrod and Dai Shi conflict was handled well. I enjoyed that. All the characters were very relatable, and at times I found myself being just as interested in Jarrod and Camille as I was the Rangers. The season isn't bad, it's just people are biased.


So the next time you see a Power Rangers season that you think 'butchered' Sentai, don't complain about it, or how it doesn't work because of such and such a reason. Enjoy PR for what it is...it's own show with a very interesting over arcing tied story.

Originality in Power Rangers

This post is somewhat similar to the one FantasyLeader did a few months ago, talking about the originality in Power Rangers. Fans like to complain that Power Rangers is never good unless it's exactly like it's counterpart.

Some fans tend to complain that Power Rangers is better when it stays true to the original content. I fully disagree to this. I mean, yes, we had some good seasons like Lightspeed and Time Force. But sometimes it feels like I'm watching GoGo V and Timeranger with a different cast.

Fans also complain that Power Rangers is too campy and cheesy. This, makes no sense...at all. Since the campiness and cheesiness make Power Rangers unique.

Here's an example, when the producers and writers saw Megaranger, they thought is was a space season. But when they actually saw footage of the show, it wasn't, exactly. Megaranger was video-game themed. They never left Earth, their ship was in orbit, it just flew down to Earth for the fights. There was no footage of the ships sailing the stars, no alien landscapes or monsters, no space at all from the Sentai that was destined to be 'Power Rangers in Space.' But since the producers thought that it was gonna be the last season of Power Rangers, they went ahead and still went with the space idea. Shot their own footage of space and such. It looked bad, but it worked. It's also loved as the best season of Power Rangers ever.

Another example would be Power Rangers RPM. Disney hired Eddie Guzelian who had worked with a few Disney shows such as American Dragon: Jake Long and Kim Possible. When Guzelian first saw footage of Go-Onger, he basically went nuts. He wasn't sure on how to make it into a Power Rangers season. He defied the Sentai material, changed Go-Onger significantly. Go-Onger was turned into a post apocalyptic setting with a mature tone, a Terminator/Mad Max feel and a new villain named Venjix. The season was serious, yet lighthearted, serious, yet funny. This season was the best we've seen in years. It's said that Eddie had some other plans for the show (like an ending totally different from Go-Onger's and the one that Chip wrote, another story arc between Dillon and Tenaya, revelation of Dr. K's actually name, etc). If he hadn't gotten fired, we most likely would've seen those happen. It was a good season. It was unique in it's own way, and it didn't need to copy elements from the Sentai material.

And finally, my last example, Power Rangers Operation Overdrive. The basic premise of a millionaire relic hunter funding his own team of rangers to find the jewels of the Corona Aurora was amazing in theory. What we got was FAR different than that. The rangers weren't very likeable, the story was muddy, and I feel like a lot of the characters were so one note it felt like I was watching the same episode with a different adjective each week. This season is just absolutely terrible, but it did show Power Rangers' true colors. It had so much potential, and it all went down the drain.

Overall, Power Rangers doesn't need to stay true to the original material Sentai offers. It's just some of the writers and producers (I'm looking right at you, Tzachor and Kalish) are just lazy to come up with something original. Yes, we did have some good seasons that stayed true to the original content like Lost Galaxy and Time Force, but it's just we want to see something new and interesting. I'm hoping that we'll see something new and creative for Season 18. If not, make it a good adaptation, Tzachor.

Why I Think the Disney Seasons Were Berated Badly

The fact is the Disney-PR era was deemed to be really bad and Saban's era was better. So let's get down what I think caused it:

When Bruce Kalish took over, there was PLENTY of bad writing. Operation Overdrive stands out for this. Scripts were that short. The only respectable series was SPD.

Starting with Ninja Storm, there were a good number of overacting girls. They were really ruining the whole show. Overacting cast members ruin a good show, the higher the overacting, the more damage done to a script. Bad writing and overacting made it worse. I agree with DancingAlienDude in comparing Disney and Nickelodeon acting. I have to admit that overacting existed in Saban's era of PR or Super Sentai but it wasn't this bad IMO.

During this era, I felt many of the characters lacked development. Take Hoji and Sky for example. Hoji revealed more of plus and minus points than Sky for me IMO. Why? Well Sky as great as he is as an officer with a cocky attitude at the start, his character didn't show much development for some time and just shifts too fast. Hoji was shown to have more personality from the good points (the you're all more important than me personality) to the bad points (like his being cocky and overconfident at times), which makes him more developed for a character as well as some of the tragic incidents in his add drama which shape him up.

I think it has to do with the wasteful way of running things. Just imagine that Tetsu was a real guy, in SPD the Omega Ranger was just a ball of light because they could not hire another actor from too many explosions.

The pros and cons of each Disney season

Hello everyone! KingdomRider here doing my first post on the Power Rangers Union blog! My first post is about the pros and cons of each Disney season. Not all are bad. Bear in mind this is completely a subjective. But this is what I feel anyway. In order from the best till worst. Can I make it clear this is NOT the order of which seasons I PREFER MYSELF, it's the order I feel the production and show quality was best.

1) RPM

Pros: It was dark, yet light-hearted. Serious, yet funny. All in a good way. The actors played their parts really well, and the jokes all come in at perfect times, and none of them seem really out of character. The story went to where no other season has done before: The bad guy had won, and the good guys are simply trying to defend the last bastion of humanity. This is a season I couldn't recommend highly enough, just all around good stuff.

Cons: At times, it just feels like a 30 minute toy commercial.

2) Dino Thunder

Pros: It helped restore continuity, exploring a true account of a past forgetful and childish ranger, having had a long absence, coming back as someone much more maturer, to guide Disney rangers in the right direction. It was a season where they were on top of things, with characters that were likable. It felt like it was a revamped version of MMPR, and I enjoyed it way better.

Cons: Overrated by too many people BECAUSE of that return, but then in that case (because most of the appreciation is JUST for that return and not for the content of the season ITSELF) it's not a true con for the season's run.

3) SPD

Pros: AMAZING dynamic between the cast. Possibly the best inter-group dynamic we've ever had. Again, the story was well thought out in places.

Cons: The way they handled Sam was handled extremely poorly, but even the producer admitted that. The theme (in this case, police) might not warm to everyone.

4) Ninja Storm

Pros: Such an upbeat and charismatic feel, but still felt natural and not forced. Amazing characters.

Cons: The whole "dude" and "extreme sports" thing got a bit tired after a while.

5) Mystic Force

Pros: Well, the story, the twists, alot of it is well thought out.

Cons: People criticize it because it focused too much on Nick, in comparison to the others. I was bothered by this, just a little bit. But I guess my criticism of it was that (like SPD) the whole magic theme might not be to everyone's taste.

6) Jungle Fury

Pros: The series had some great characters and a good story. The theme was really cool, the suits were new and different, and the complete fanboy ideas of it linking with Ninja Storm by the schools just elated me.

Cons: Because of the writer strike, things felt kinda rushed. Things appearing one minute, then not important the next.

7) Operation Overdrive

Pros: It, er...made you appreciate the existence of every other season, ever?

Cons: It had so much potential, but bad acting, and general half arsed effort, made it a failure. Operation Overdrive is probably one of the seasons that sounded cool, on paper.

I realized that I missed Wild Force since it is considered a Disney season. I, however, still consider it a Saban season since it was still under Saban's production. I may go over Saban's next, or if someone else wants to they can?

3 Reasons (more coming soon) Why Disney's Power Rangers IS NOT racist to Asians.

Sorry for not blogging in a while, but I've had some serious stuff on my shoulders lately.

(No offense, Sean.) But a lot of whiny fans on Sean Akizuki's Super Sentai Blog used to have complained much about Disney showing hate towards Asians. As an Asian, myself, I take no offense to it. I also have very good reasoning why they're not racist AND they're not portaying Asians as idiots.

Furthermore, Power Rangers is not the only TV show to portray other races as such.

1. Ashley Tisdale, a famous blonde actress for Disney, is often portrayed as a "dumb blonde" in many of her shows. High School Musical and the Suite Life of Zack and Cody, for example, both portay her the same way any Asian in Power Rangers would.

2. Had anybody forgotten about Boom and Chip? Both PR actors are white, and are often portrayed as nuisances and sometimes a comic book geek. Boom, especially, is an overweight character of SPD who acts like a pathetic wannabe ranger. Does that not go the same for Gem and Gemma?

3. Now for those who say that Disney has never had an Asian lead role. This has nothing to do with Power Rangers, BUT... Jake Long from American Dragon, a popular Disney show, is part Chinese and white. He's often portrayed as a kick-ass fighter and dragon who kicks major butt. Of course, he can be an annoyance from time-to-time, but does that make him different from the other kinds of humor from the show?

_____________________________________

Please support your opinions as long as it doesn't bash mine. All I'm gonna say.

Also, my reasoning may not be the best. So if you ever find another reason or one reason should not be here than please state so.

Also, as a fan of Super Sentai, also, I am in no means bashing the fans. Only pointing out some important details in areas. I am also not racist or are attacking any ethnicity in particular.

~*DancingAlienDude*~