Power Rangers Zeo Review

Power Rangers Zeo (1996-97) continued MMPR's story and used footage from Ohranger. Zeo was the first season to change the suits, the series title, and theme song every year. Zeo differed slightly from Ohranger's motif in that it wasn't a military organization, but was still largely technology based as well as having its powers centered around the Zeo crystal. Zeo also went back to using mostly Sentai footage as compared to MMPR season's 2 and 3 which used a lot of American footage. It also marked the return of Austin St. John who reprised his role briefly as Jason the Gold Ranger. Zeo tends to be viewed more like Lightspeed Rescue, as a rather average season. Personally, it's one of my favorite seasons and IMO a big step up from the dissapointments of the last half of MMPR S2 and S3 as a whole.

The Good
What I felt really makes this season enjoyable is that it really allowed for all the characters to develop and florish through the whole season. In particular, Rocky and Adam whom both received little development in previous seasons, really got a chance to shine here. The new characters, Tanya and Katherine, received much more development than the new cast received during MMPR S2. It was also refreshing to see the Sentai footage instead of the terrible American ranger fight footage present through the second half of MMPR S2 and S3. Though this season was episodic much like MMPR S1, the episodes were quite good with some very memorable episodes such as Instrument of Destruction and Another Song and Dance. It still had some good story arcs such as the mystery of the Gold Ranger as well as Tommy's relationship with his brother, both made for some interesting drama. Jason's return to the show was a nice touch although he wasn't as awesome as he was as the red ranger. The theme song was pretty descent as well.

The Average
The villains (the Machine Empire) weren't nearly up to the level as Lord Zedd and Rita but they were definitely better than Turbo's villains. It was also a bit of a dissapointment seeing Billy have a reduced roll during this season. Also, Eric Frank's acting, JDF's real life brother who played Tommy's brother, was kinda wooden. Though fortunately he's not present through the majority of the season.

The Ugly
The only major gripe I have about how this season was written was the whole Dear John letter scenario involving Kimberly and Tommy as well as the forced relationship between Tommy and Kat, and the crappy Christmas episode that followed. To be fair, Tommy and Kimberly breaking up was pretty realistic but forcing a relationship between Tommy and Kat was a bit much. What was also very ugly was how David Yost (Billy) was treated behind the scenes by the production crew.

My Rating
B/B+. This is a solid season, that I thouroughly enjoyed watching as a kid and still enjoy watching reruns today. By no means the greatest, but still fun to watch.

My Favorite Episodes
Episodes 1-2, A Zeo Beginning: A Zeo Beginning was a solid start to the season.
Episode 12, Instrument of Destruction: My favorite Bulk and Skull moment ever, involving Bulk's appreciation for Skull's musical talent.
Episode 14, Mr. Billy's Wild Ride: One of the few focus episodes that Billy received during this season, and it was a pretty dramatic one.
Episodes 18-21: A descent story arc concerning Tommy and his brother David.
Episode 28, The Power of Gold: The introduction of the Gold Ranger.
Episodes 33-34: This two parter involved the revelation of the Gold Ranger's true identity as well as Jason's return and assuming the Gold Ranger powers.
Episodes 41-43: A three parter that included Tommy getting kidnapped, brainwashed, and fighting against the rangers once again. Nothing like the Green with Evil arc, but still fascinating.
Episode 46, Another Song and Dance: One of the funnier episodes during PR's early history. This episode included Tanya and Tommy singing their morphing lines as well as zords dancing.
Episodes 47-48, Rangers of Two Worlds: First major team-up in Power Rangers history, involving the Alien Rangers and the Zeo Rangers. It was also Billy's departure, which wasn't well done, but the cool part was the team-up.

Quality of Acting in Power Rangers and Super Sentai

It's no secret even among hardcore fans of Power Rangers and Super Sentai that neither show is an example of good acting. In fact, one of the biggest criticisms against either series is the lack of "quality acting," and it's noticable in some seasons that the acting is outright terrible. It is true that many Power Ranger and Sentai actors and actresses begin and end their careers with Power Rangers/Sentai because they can't get any other roles. While by my own admittance, neither show has what very many people would call "great acting," I also argue that you don't need great acting to make a show, series, or movie good. Don't get me wrong, acting should count for something, but as long as the acting is sufficient and not outright terrible (like Wild Force and Operation Overdrive), the quality of the show, the characters, and the actors/actresses that play them can still be very much enjoyable. In fact, sometimes a show with good or great acting can still be mediocre or awful due to bad execution, story writing, directing, special effects, exc.

One such example from Hollywood would be Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger by no means has Oscar award winning acting talent, and for that matter he wasn't that good of a governor either. However, Schwarzenegger is still a very enjoyable actor to watch. Not because of his acting skills, but because of his big physic, charisma, and because his acting is sufficient, he makes a great action hero. The fact is, 90% of all audiences don't recognize bad acting unless it's painfully obvious.


Sufficient Acting, Good Shows



In Power Rangers the two season's I'd like to point out in particular are Mighty Morphin and In Space. Mighty Morphin especially had mixed acting. Overall, I thought Amy Jo Johnson was as good of an actress that's ever been on Power Rangers, David Yost, Thuy Trang, and Johnny Yong Bosch were descent actors, Walter Jones was ok. Austin St. John and Jason David Frank weren't very good actors initially (although the evil Green Ranger laugh was chilling) but they were both great martial artist which made their fight scenes awesome to watch, and their acting did improve quite a bit over time. Despite the mixed acting during MMPR, the acting did improve overtime and the actors were good enough to make their characters likable. And as mentioned above, hardly anyone is going to recognize bad acting and especially not young children which was the bulk of the demographics watching MMPR.

In Space had better acting than the early days of MMPR, but still didn't have anyone with the same acting quality as Amy Jo Johnson or even Johnny Yong Bosch. However, In Space is a great show, IMO the best PR season ever. The acting was sufficient enough to get the job done and make the characters enjoyable. What really makes In Space great was the quality of the story, the character development, and the awesome villains that this season had.




Sentai, however, has many numerous examples of "sufficient acting, good/great shows." This includes Jetman, Timeranger, Hurricanger, Boukenger, Gekiranger, Go-Onger, and Shinkenger. All of these series, while some have other obvious flaws, tend to be well written, have solid characters and villains, tend to have good stories, and excellent humor (except for Timeranger which doesn't intend to be humorous). Some of these shows have had some mildly good and successful actors. Timeranger had Masahiro Kuranuki (Sion/Time Green), Hurricanger had Nao Nagasawa (Nanami/Hurricane Blue), Boukenger had Haruka Suenaga (Sakura/Bouken Pink), and Gekiranger had Kazue Itoh (Miki of Gekiranger). However, for the most part, these series had PR-like sufficient actors that were good enough to get the job done.

Good Acting, Lower Quality Show



Then there are seasons with good acting but are lower quality seasons compared to others. One such example is Power Rangers SPD, which has very quality acting by PR standards, perhaps the best ever for a PR season. However, YMMV greatly on rather SPD is a good season or a bad season. IMHO, I think it's a descent season. It has many good points and a few interesting characters and story lines, but is still filled with many flaws. The most noticeble being the Omega Ranger scenario and the fact that SPD's story really lost steam as the season progressed. For me, while not a bad season, it's good acting is not nearly enough to overcome the other flaws this season has to make it a great season.

Bad Acting, Low Quality



Then there are seasons like Wild Force, which has bad acting even below MMPR's early day standards. When I say Wild Force has bad acting, I mean even the 90% of all audience members who normally can't recognize bad acting will notice the terrible acting of this series. Particularly by Ricardo Medina (Cole Evans/Wild Force Red) who overacts and is quite often prone to chewing out the scenery, and Ann Marie Crouch (Princess Shayla) whom both overacts and underacts in the majority of her scenes. Besides the terrible acting, there are some rather very cheesy aspects of Wild Force (cheesier than MMPR IMO) that make the viewers cringe, such as reading the story of Animarium from a childrens book, singing a god awful song to the zords, defeating an enemy with a zord used like a soccer ball in a CGI soccer stadium, and the ultra-preachy environmental message from Animus. Many of the guest actors/actresses are also aweful in Wild Force. Still, unlike the next series on this list, Wild Force does have some redeeming qualities, such as the team-ups, the story behind Cole's parents, and the overall dark story behind the series.




Like Wild Force, Operation Overdrive also has considerably noticable bad acting. Almost the entire cast is terrible but most glaringly are Gareth Yuen (Dax Lo/Overdrive Blue) and all the voice actors for the villains and the Sentinal Knight. Unlike Wild Force, simply everything is terrible about this season, including the dialog, the extreme overuse of explosions (Kalishplosions named after writer/producer Bruce Kalish), and very spotty writing. Not even the anniversary team-up, Once A Ranger, was enough to redeem this series.




For Sentai, one series that could be argued to have below par acting is Goseiger. Almost all of the main characters are pretty wooden. However, this can also arguably be blamed on the writers/directors, because most Goseiger characters have pretty bland personalities and the series overall is very weak on character development.

Good Acting, Good Show




Lastly, there are some series where the quality of acting makes an already good show, better. For Power Rangers, the most noticable examples are RPM and Time Force. Unlike previous seasons, the producers of RPM had handpicked already well established Australian and New Zealand actors that had previous experience in other series. All of these actors could show a wide range of emotions. Among the best IMO were Ari Boyland (Flynn), who displayed a convincing Scottish accent, and Milo Cawthorne (Ziggy) who was incredibly funny.

For Timeforce, the performances by Erin Cahill (Jen/Time Force Pink), Jason Faunt (Wesley/Time Force Red), Daniel Southworth (Eric/Quantum Ranger), and Vernon Wells (Ransik) were particularly good and believable. Overall, Time Force is a pretty good series, but personally I think it's on the overrated side due to copying the bulk of it's story from it's Sentai counterpart, Timeranger, and for the lack of character development given to some of it's other main characters such as Lucus, Trip, and Katie.




I may be biased since Dekaranger is my favorite Sentai but I also think Dekaranger had the best acting among any 2000's Sentai. Like RPM, all of the actors were able to show a wide range of emotions, portrayed their characters beautifully, and many have had somewhat successful acting careers. Ayumi Kinoshita (Jasmine), Ryuji Sainei (Ban), and Tsuyoshi Hayashi (Hoji) have appeared in quite a few Japanese movies and TV dramas, while Mika Kikuchi (Umeko), Tetsu Inada (voice of Doggie Krugar), and Ryusei Nakao (voice of Agent Abrera) have had successful voice acting careers in anime. As far as the show itself, it's quite awesome. The characters are lovely, the music is cool, and so are the fight scenes.

Happy New Year, My Thoughts on Power Rangers Samurai and Gokaiger

First, I would like to apologize for my recent decline in posting. First, I was busy with school due to midterms/finals and then after winter break began, I've become more occupied with other things, such as non-Sentai Japanese TV dramas. I haven't forgotten this blog, so don't worry, I'll continue to keep posting. I would also like to wish all my fellow bloggers a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Years. :-) With the new year, I'd like to talk about the upcoming new Power Ranger and Sentai series, PR Samurai and Gokaiger respectively.

First about PR Samurai. I have to admit my excitement that Saban repurchased the Power Rangers series has died down quite a bit. PR Samurai looks like it will be mostly a carbon copy of Shinkenger, with a few minor differences. I was hoping for a more original series. However, I will say that after watching the promo, the dialog and the humor does seem somewhat interesting. I also hope that the rumors that Cole (Wild Force Red) will appear in PR Samurai are not true. But, until the series premiers, the verdict is still out.

With Gokaiger, I also have mixed feelings. I'm a bit skeptical as to rather the pirate motif will actually work with Sentai, but I do think it's cool that the Gokaiger can travel to "different Sentai worlds" like they could in Kamen Rider Decade. I think that would be interesting to see a team-up with a previous Sentai almost every episode. The suits are ok, I think the weapons are awesome, and do really look pirate like. The mecha seems ok, what you would typically expect from Sentai. I do hope, however, that they won't resort to CGI zord use or the mecha overload syndrome that Sentai has done since Gaoranger. Like PR Samurai, until I actually watch the series, the verdict for me is still out.

My Favorite Sentai opening theme songs

The one thing I haven't done a whole lot of is focus on the music of Sentai and Power Rangers. I'll start here with a list of some of my favorite Sentai intros and opening themes. As you can tell, I'm not much of a fan of pre-2000's Sentai music, but 3 90's theme songs still manage to make my list. Enjoy.

Jetman's theme song is pretty cool. The song fits well with both the intro and the fighting songs.

I like Zyuranger's opening theme song, a lot better than its ending theme. It's not quite as cool as Go Go Power Rangers or some of Sentai's other theme songs, but it's still a pretty descent song.

Megaranger's opening theme is by far my favorite 90's Sentai theme song. The song starts out kinda slow but it still has a fun beat.

I like the Timeranger theme song a whole lot better than the Power Rangers Time Force theme song. It has a strong beat, it's fast pace, and goes quite well with the intro. It's a pretty intense song for a pretty intense season.

Dekaranger's opening theme is awesome. It's by Psychic Lover, and just about every song by Psychic Lover is awesome. By far my favorite Sentai theme song and I often catch myself singing along with it. It also surpasses all of my favorite Power Rangers theme songs.

The Gekiranger theme song is also pretty awesome. Like Deka's theme, I often find myself singing along to it and it fits the intro quite well. The intro is also pretty awesome with all the martial arts action, except for some parts in the early part of the intro where the foot soldiers look more like they're dancing instead of fighting.

Go-Onger's theme song is also quite catchy and fun. Much like the series is. Not quite as awesome as the Dekaranger, Gekiranger, or the Shinkenger theme song, but still fits the series quite well.

Shinkenger's theme song is another totally awesome song. It's a collaboration between Psychic Lover and Project R. Catchy and energetic. It's my second favorite Sentai theme behind Dekaranger's. The intro is pretty cool as well.

Happy Birthday Ayumi Kinoshita

Today Ayumi Kinoshita (Jasmine/DekaYellow) turns 28. Three days from now, another Deka alumni, Mika Kikuchi will be celebrating her birthday as well. Happy birthday to both girls.

Executive Meddling, Power Ranger Seasons That Were Screwed by the Network

While Power Rangers has been a successful show, lasting for 18 seasons, there's been times where some of its seasons could have been more successful than they were. Here's a few examples.

Initially, the first half of Lost Galaxy was very successful. At the time, it had the highest ratings ever for a Power Rangers season. However, the ratings during the second half of the season went downhill a bit, not because the second half was bad, but because of some of the behind the scenes moves. The second half aired four months after the first half, which was common for PR seasons at the time. However, advertisement and promotion of the second half of Lost Galaxy was shunned by Saban in favor of promoting Digimon. Also, on set, Danny Slavin (Leo), had a fall out with the production crew and there was the contract dispute with Patricia Ja Lee (Cassie) who was set to replace Kendrix after Valarie Varone left the set due to having leukemia.

Power Rangers SPD also suffered a bit from executive meddling, regarding the Omega Ranger scenario. Disney didn't want an extra actor hanging around on set, so eventually the character Sam (the Omega Ranger) was written as a CGI ball of light whenever he was unmorphed due to time travel. This alienated many fans. Though strangely, Disney did nothing on RPM when there were even more actors on set than SPD.

Power Rangers RPM received an even worst treatment than Lost Galaxy did. Disney thought RPM was going to be the lame duck last season of Power Rangers, so they switched it from Toon Disney to ABC. RPM was also given terrible time slots, such as airing at 5am in some places and other places being subject to ABC's college football broadcast. In fact, in some cities RPM didn't even air. To top it off, promotion and advertisement was poor at best. As a result, RPM had the lowest ratings ever for a PR season, until MMPR v2 came out the next year.

Ideas That Power Rangers and Sentai Borrowed from Each Other

A few weeks ago, Sean Akizuki requested me to do a post on what ideas Power Rangers borrowed from Sentai or vise versa. I haven't had time to post on my blog that much during the last couple months because of school, but now that I'm off for winter break I decided to follow up on his request. So here are some of the ideas that I feel that Power Rangers and Sentai borrowed from each other. For similar posts, check Sean's blog.

Ideas Power Rangers borrowed from Sentai

Ideas Sentai borrowed from Power Rangers

Power Rangers borrowing from Sentai

The most obvious would be changing the cast, suits, stories, themes, and series every year. Changing the suits wasn't done until Zeo, while changing the cast annually started with Lost Galaxy but wasn't completely decided on until after Lost Galaxy was done. The original cast of Lost Galaxy had a two year contract. Every since Lost Galaxy, the franchise has tried to make each season as stand alone as possible.

Another idea taken from Sentai was the annual team-up episodes with the previous year's team. This was first done in Power Rangers Zeo with the two part episode Rangers from Two Worlds when the Zeo rangers teamed up with the Alien rangers. This however, wasn't fully implemented until Lost Galaxy teamed up with In Space during the episodes To the Tenth Power and The Power of Pink. However, when Lost Galaxy came out, originally there were no planned team-ups with In Space. But when actress Valarie Varone (Kendrix/Lost Galaxy Pink) was diagnosed with Leukemia, she had to be replaced quickly. The plan was to have a team up with In Space, kill her character off, and have Cassie (Turbo/In Space Pink) replace her. After the team-up, Patricia Ja Lee filmed one additional episode but then left due to a contract dispute. Despite this, the production crew was still able to use the team-up, and eventually replaced Kendrix with Karone, the former villain Astronema. After lost Galaxy, annual team-ups became a yearly occurence.

Anniversary team-ups such as Forever Red and Once A Ranger were borrowed concepts respectively from Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai and Boukenger vs. Super Sentai respectively. While the plots in each episodes are completely original, the idea of having all red rangers team up, for example, was borrowed from Gaoranger vs SS. The same goes for Once A Ranger.

As mentioned in a previous post, Power Rangers RPM had a very Sentai-like cast with many characters being similar to previous Sentai characters. This includes Dillion being similar to Gai from Jetman, Summer being similar to Ran/Gekiyellow, and hyperactive comic relief power rangers such as Ziggy, Gem, and Gemma that while are pretty common in Sentai, are pretty rare in Power Rangers.

Sentai Borrowing from Power Rangers

Magiranger vs Dekaranger introduced the canon immigrant, literally. Sentai borrowed the red ranger battlizer from Power Rangers SPD to give Ban/DekaRed a new weapon from the Fire Squad that he was promoted to.

Head or floating head like characters such as Mr. Voice from Boukenger and Master Head from Goseiger are likely partly inspired by Zordon.

Jan/GekiRed seems to be inspired by Cole, from Power Rangers Wild Force. Both characters have essentially the same story. Both being red rangers, both being newbies to their teams after growing up in the jungle. Both had their parents killed by their series respective main villains (though the stories are slightly different). Both also tend to overact at times, and both characters were on beast-themed seasons.