Tag Archives: Power Rangers

Legend Untold – Part 1 – NOW POSTED

Legend Untold Part 1 – Veteran Summit is now online here at So We Were Told!

Parts 2 and 3 are finished, they need to be edited to match the style of Part 1. At this point I plan to release them a week apart. But I might get jittery and decide to push the post button early with Megaforce premiering this weekend.

To view Part 1, Look under Entertainment > Legend Untold. Or follow the link Here

Power Rangers Mega Battle (FAN MADE VIDEO)

I was reading Twitter some time last week and a cool guy I follow by the name of Mr. Yellow suggested that someone take some Legend War footage and add Ron Wasserman’s “Fight” song to it. Well I figured I just bought a portion of the Adobe Creative Suite, why not take on this challenge? So after fooling around with After Effects, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro all while searching the Internet for tutorials, templates, and the video clips I needed. This is what I came up with. Go ahead and geek out! I know I did!

(After the Jump)

Random Radio – Episode 4

Random Radio is back with a special topic: the 20th Anniversary of Power Rangers! Jason invited Andy to the show to discuss possible scenarios and ideas as well as his impressions of Gokaiger. So #CheckItOut!

Power Ranger DVD Box Sets

Shout! Factory officially announced their plans to release a Power Rangers DVD Box set. Last week, the release date and price for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season One, Volume One was released. However, Shout! had something better in store. Starting July 30, 2012, fans will be able to purchase the Box Set including all of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Seasons 1-3), Power Rangers Zeo, Power Rangers Turbo, Power Rangers in Space, and Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. That is the first seven seasons!

Random Radio – Episode 3

Random Radio is back with a SOPA update, someone Internet shenanigans, crazy decision made into US law involving comic book characters, a note on an upcoming Power Rangers adaptation, AND 2012 stuff! Plus the usual randomness. ENJOY!

Power Rangers Samurai vs. Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger

Power Rangers Samurai vs. Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger
By: Jason Spencer
4.1.11

Since I spent so much time either working on my Power Rangers fan fiction project: Legend Untold (Look in the Entertainment Section), as well as researching and re-watching the beginnings of the franchise. I decided I would make a concerted effort to watch Power Rangers Samurai and see what Haim Saban had in store for the franchise he had created. Additionally, I decided I would watch the new Sentai Series TOEI was producing, the 35th installment, Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. After watching both for about 7 weeks I can see very clear differences in how Saban and TOEI approach the series.

From the very beginning Power Rangers has been a kid’s show and has featured a certain level of cheesiness to it. However, Samurai seems to have cranked up the amount of cheese they’re adding. If I hadn’t watched the first six seasons of the series, I may have just brushed it off as me being older. I suppose some might say it’s because I have nostalgic feelings for the early years. I can honestly say I don’t think that’s the case. Watching the older episodes, I would have moments where I would laugh at something that wasn’t supposed to be funny or cringe at a stupid plot point, but it didn’t seem to detract from the show’s “enjoyability” factor. Samurai feels very different, as it should as a separate entity in the series, but it’s not a good different. With the exception of one or two characters, most of them seem very rigid. Think about your class mates in high school when reading aloud in class, or performing nervously in a school play. That’s about the same performing ability some of the actors appear to have. Now, I’ve read online a couple of times that it’s believed the producers and directors have asked the cast to talk like they would to children, which I guess could be seen as an excuse. If that is the case, and people want to use that excuse, I would like to direct their attention to Hector David, Jr. who portrays Mike, the Green Ranger. Even if his lines are corny or written for a child, he still delivers it like a pro and it makes his character seem more human than the others. Aside from acting chops, which the show arguably has had issues with before; the whole story dynamic seems off to me. This might just be caused by one essential problem, the fact that we never got an introduction episode. The only thing I know is that the bad guys were gone, and somehow they came back, and that the power the Rangers possess is passed down from family members. Oh, and they’re apparently not allowed to do anything but be Rangers unless they get permission from their Mentor guy, who they ironically call “Mentor.” I don’t exactly get why there are missing Zords, or why they need special Kanji symbols, or why there are numerous discs floating around that anyone can seemingly use. I might be a tad bit on the nit-picky side, but I want the plot to flow and tell a story, not be convenient based on Sentai footage. Perhaps if that was better the dialogue between characters wouldn’t matter because one could just focus on the story. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers didn’t offer many arching plot points, but the ones they did were better than this. Even filler episodes (I know this term is debatable) either allowed for some character growth or didn’t distract you from the overall story. I guess time will tell if Samurai will get any better, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly disappointed with it so far.

I have never watched a season of Super Sentai start to finish. Likewise, I have never watched an episode of Super Sentai before I saw the adapted season of Power Rangers. I must say though, I am really enjoying Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. I haven’t even watched an episode with sub titles and I enjoy it! The characters are very well portrayed by their actors, and I think it makes the show very unique. For those unaware of the show, Gokaiger has a pirate theme, as well as an anniversary theme. The main characters are space pirates who have I guess captured or were given access to powers of past Sentai teams. Their morpher, is of course a phone, but it has a key slot where they can insert different keys that represent different Ranger powers. In addition to this fan-boy friendly theme and story, the fight scenes are absolutely incredible. Even if you can’t find sub titled episodes you can appreciate the stunt choreography they’re pulling out for this show. Having not seen past Sentai and only 6 full Power Ranger seasons, I wasn’t fully aware of this, but the show’s producers are going out of their way to make sure they accurately portray each past team when the Gokaigers change into them, even down to their specific fighting styles. Go stunt people! I can’t comment on the dialogue since I have not seen sub titled episodes, and frankly there is probably a culture difference between Japan and the United States that would probably muck up a comparison. One thing I will comment on is the seemingly lack of dialogue in fight scenes. People have been a bit annoyed by the cheesy one-liners during fight scenes in Samurai that just seem unnecessary. I would agree, and I would point to how Gokaiger seems to stick with the basic “Hi-ya!” jargon we probably all imitated from Season 1 of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. However, one characteristic that Gokaiger has that benefits them in this case is their fighting attitude. Sometimes they may have an “I don’t really care” mentality others they have a sense of showmanship so their physical actions and body language do more for the show than any one-liner could.

These are just some of my initial thoughts on both shows. My opinions may change moving forward, there are still lots of episodes left for both shows. If it were a competition, though, Gokaiger would be winning!