Super Sentai and Power Rangers: For Better or For Worse

I was thinking of how Super Sentai started and then came Power Rangers.  This is just an iffy post so I'm writing it here and not in my Super Sentai blog.  Now for my iffy analysis:

Pre-Zyuranger era: 

Super Sentai didn't have much of those restrictions and were usually more violent especially the Hirohisa Soda era.  You might consider Goranger had an unusually violent premiere episode or JAKQ had some issues of drug use.  In this era we lost these Sentai warriors to death namely Daigorou/Kiranger II, Kensaku Shiraishi/Battle Cossack I, Mika Koizumi/Yellow Four I (though it was because Yuki Yajima unprofessionally left the set) and not to mention Gai Yuki's rather lame death.

For me this was the era of where stories were pretty intense especially the Hirohisa Soda era starting with Changeman.  Kunio Fuji who sadly never became a head writer was also responsible for introducing intense stories int many of Soda's works.

90s era Sentai and PR:


During this era, we are introduced to where Zyuranger was adapted by Saban Entertainment with Toei's permission into the first season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.  Which of course, featured a much ligher approach to Tokusatsu though at that time, the overextended Zordon arc was created which personally, I find it hard to rewatch.  Of course, this one was pretty much where footages from Zyuranger up to Megaranger were used.  In here, Super Sentai started to influence Power Rangers in a way.

But at the same time, Carranger was introduced as a comedic Tokusatsu as a lighter turn for Super Sentai.  I was just thinking did Power Rangers inspire introducing a secondary combining mecha?  Kakuranger had a secondary combining mecha.

Compared to Megaranger, Power Rangers in Space is a very serious take on the Power Rangers franchise which not only ended the Zordon arc, but also killed Zordon himself.  Power Rangers in Space tried to take some elements like the space sheriff ideas, Astronema is almost like a copy of Shiima from Changeman and sacrificial death.  But of course, that changed how Power Rangers was going to be and I love that change!


Power Rangers started with yearly cast changes and crossovers most of the time.  Lost Galaxy started a new trend for Power Rangers.  When it comes to Power Rangers writing, Judd Lynn actually writes pretty good stuff.

2000-2010 era Sentai and PR:


The 2000s era was actually a stage of full of changes.

For changes, after Timeranger we have again more lighter and softer Super Sentai.  One might consider where anything beyond Timeranger was more or less a 50/50 balance on seriousness and comedy and Go-onger was another attempt on a super duper wacky season.  One might consider that even if Dekaranger was a police drama, it still avoided becoming too dark and edgy either.


This was also much of the era where Power Rangers influenced Super Sentai with new ideas in return for ideas they had gotten back then.  One could count the Decade/Shinkenger crossover (similar to Friend in Need in MMPR) or the Battlizer in Magiranger vs. Dekaranger was taken from Power Rangers SPD.

For Disney's Power Rangers I could say that Ninja Storm is a decent season, Dino Thunder well I think Tommy's overused already.  Then Disney had the Kalish season- Power Rangers SPD was a one shot wonder (but Syd really annoyed me for some time but glad she got better) but the rest were basically either hit or miss.  Mystic Force was too much copy/paste and for Operation Overdrive- nice concepts but failed badly due to bad execution.  Jungle Fury had some nice concepts but Kalish practically undid what he did like Frank Miller and Toshiki Inoue after Agito.

In 2009, Shinkenger was created but the adaptation wasn't readily released because in 2010, Disney remastered MMPR for the worse.  Really all those editing were pretty bad.  At the same time, Toei may have already prepared to hand over to Saban again the rights to Power Rangers for some reason. Also Disney took Power Rangers to a darker direction in Power Rangers RPM.

2011-Present era Sentai and PR:


I thought there was pretty much for better or for worse here for the franchises.  2011 began with Gokaiger the 35th Super Sentai series which for me gets me mixed.  It's nice to have nostalgia and space pirates, maybe I just thought that the villains weren't all that interesting (except Basco) and Gokaiger is honestly my least favorite Super Sentai with Arakawa as its headwriter.  I still like it but for me, I tend not to really enjoy it all that much either.


In 2011, Haim Saban made a major comeback.  I don't know why Toei even approved of the Saban/Nickelodeon deal or should it be called the Toei/Saban/Nickelodeon contract.  I just thought the way Power Rangers Samurai got split into two seasons is NOT amusing at all and they did the same thing to Megaforce.  Oh please don't do that to Dino Charge! XP  On the other hand, are the staff at Toei watching too much Spongebob a show that should have been canceled already?


Gobusters tried to return back to darker and edgier roots with Yasuko Kobayashi but for me, it failed thinking that Kobayashi was probably burned out beyond belief after Shinkenger.  Hmmm Toshiki Inoue should have been Gobusters' secondary writer.  After Gobusters, Kyoryuger came out and is scheduled to be adapted as Power Rangers Dino Charge this 2015 after Super Megaforce ends.


Don't forget also during this era, Super Hero Taisen that really awful non-canon movie came out.  To be honest, Power Rangers The Movie is more watchable than that garbage for me!


As of late we have ToQger which again is trying to become all too wacky with its imagination weapon concepts.  Why do I even feel like the Conductor here is really based on Spongebob huh?!

Comments

  1. Bad news for you" Dino Charge will also be split into two seasons, with the second season being entitled "Dino Supercharge." (I'd personally take that over "Super Megaforce" anyway, which to me is the dumbest title I've ever heard in my entire life...)

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