Saturday, April 25, 2009

Power Rangers RPM - Episode 9 - "Ranger Yellow Part 2"



Part 2 Summary:
The boys are fighting the Grinders and they are talking behind Summer's back about the arrangement she made with her parents to marry into a rich family. Ziggy still can't fight and tries his best comically. Ranger Yellow comes in, saying there will be no wedding and fights the Grinders. The 4 boys morph, Blue and Green try to convince her to get married and Black and Red are not for it. Black asks Yellow something that brings her into another flashback, Summer was attacked by a blast and all her dollars fell. Andrews came to the rescue in an ice cream truck. Back in reality, Tenaya gets an upgrade from Venjix.


Summer meets her parents and meets her new groom Chaz and Summer's friend who abandoned her is there too. It just happens to be her rehearsal lunch. Summer catches the ball they were playing. Back at the garage, her parents reveal they are now broke and need the money from Chaz's rich family. They will give her the diamond at the wedding. Her father wants to know what happened. Back to the flashback, Andrews and Summer are on foot because the Ice Cream truck is broken and Summer says she doesn't even know his first name even though he practically raised her through her whole life. She decides to walk instead of laying on his poor old back. Andrews says he is waiting to see who she really is, he says he is happy to wait. The Grinders attack them and Summer fights them the best she can at that time.


She stops them and Andrews can't move, she pleads to him to move. She tells him he still hasn't seen who she is. He says he will be waiting and watching and then dies. She then finally reaches Corinth and reunites with her parents. Back in the present, everyone prepares for the wedding in the garage (Flynn is wearing a KILT! Yay! No, it is not a skirt), especially Tenaya who is disguised---you would think security would be tighter with rich people and the Rangers. After the commercial break, Summer's annoying friend annoys Dr. K and we find out that she was raised in an organization. Dillon is still against the wedding, Scott tells him to back off because it is a family thing, Dillon says he would know about that and they get into each other's faces. Summer tells them to finish the dance at the reception, they stop and look at each other confused. Summer asks Dr. K to pick a gown.


"Summer" comes in with a heavy opaque white veil. The Rangers look unhappy. Her father mentions the 'old summer' and Scott talks about the 'new one.' In a flashback, Summer hears Scott's mayday call and hops on a bike with medic jumpsuit and goes to save Scott. Back in reality, Tenaya gets the diamond and the Grinders attack. Tenaya takes off the veil and it is revealed it is Dr. K. Summer attacks Tenaya, saying no carter would put the cake next to an oil bin. The Rangers fight the Grinders, a new photo robot and Tenaya. The Camera Bot takes the power of the diamond and becomes huge. The Rangers morph as her parents look proud. The two megazords are formed and fight Camera Bot and destroy him.


Tenaya confront Dr. K. Dr. K takes out a violin and blasts Tenaya with a big blast of sound, saying it is the universal language. Back at the garage, Suummer's parents are proud of her and defend her from Chaz's parents. Chaz's mom asks how are they going to survive without money and Summer's mom says it is called having a job. She tosses the bouquet and Summer's annoying ex-friend goes for it and lands on the cake, disappointing poor old Flynn.


"Ranger Yellow Part 1 & 2" Review
So we finally found out that Summer was not military at all nor a medic, she was just some rich girl who finally got her gusto to save people and the first person she ever saved was Scott. Summer being a shallow rich girl first was a bit annoying to me, but I liked the story idea that she had to grow from the bottom to become a better person. I liked the duality of her being rich but lacking as a person to being a full dependent strong person but being 'poor.' It means a lot to me and fans that the lone female gets 2 parts to her flashback story and is about personal growth. Summer's parents are first annoying and snarky but then we grow to love them. Many fans talked about Dillon defending Summer and thought she was going to marry him. I didn't expect Andrews to come back in Part 2 but after he died, it made sense. I expected something different to happen. If I wrote Part 2, Summer would have met a band of thieves and fight them for the diamond and then had trained for months to be a medic to then save Scott, but maybe that would have not made sense with Corinth and stuff.

Where is Part 1?
I had a test that day and decided not to do a summary.
Here is the episode summary on PRC
Also, I am not posting episodes 6-10 anymore, because they are out on DVD--on PRRPM Volume 2 starting September 8 in the U.S. and Canada.

Friday, April 24, 2009

The Eternal Mystery of Zyu 2: The story of extra MMPR footage

Originally posted by me, Lavender Ranger, here at HenshinGrid!!!


In 1994, when Haim Saban was producing the first season of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers," he believed he needed more footage than the 50 episodes of Zyuranger. What had happen was that more episodes were ordered after the 40 episode run, because of its unforeseen popularity. 'Doomsday Part 2' was the original final episode, and it was given an new ending. Originally, like Zyuranger, Rita was going to be sealed up. Also in the end, the Rangers were going to be given the option of giving up their powers (this still kind of stayed). Proof of this was seen in a United Kingdom printed episode guide summarizing this ending. So Saban contacted the Toei Company and Rainbow Productions (which produced the monster suits) to produce more 'Zyuranger' footage. The companies agreed to produce 25 'episodes' with new costumes designed and built with new in-suit battles and 'Megazord' fighting scenes, this was filmed in Japan.

The footage was sent to America and spliced with American footage just like before. Fans have coined the footage as 'Zyu 2,' it is unknown what the Saban company officially called them, if at all they did. The 'Episodes' are not known to have titles but fans have give them titles but they are not the official ones. It was also requested to keep some Ranger personalities like Blue's smarts and the relationship between Pink and Green.

For some unknown reason, Yellow was still not made female and remained male and in the "Bloom of Doom" episode, you can clearly see the stuntMAN's bulge (From the Bloom of Doom episode). Unlike most of the monsters of the Japanese footage, Saban and co. had all the monster costumes in the United States. This is obvious as most of the 'Zyu 2' monsters appeared in later episodes and seasons as background characters. Now, this is where it gets interesting. Saban decided to use the "Dairanger"(1993) footage for the Thunderzords for the second season. The first season had 60 episodes and only 15 out of the 25 'Zyu 2' episode footage had been used.

Using the 'Zyu 2' footage was difficult for the second season, because they couldn't use the footage containing the original Putties due to the change to the 'Z' Putties and the original Megazord footage was exchanged with the Thunder Megazord. So, there was 10 times of monsters awkwardly fighting a megazord since they were never together in the first place. There was not a lot of physical interaction between the two, sometimes you could occasionally see the old Megazord through explosions and smoke. They tried to fix it with some new American footage of the monsters punching the Thunder Megazord, the most obvious use of this was in the episode "The Power Stealer" with the Octophantom. A few years ago, a Japanese book came out with pictures of the monsters and had kanji with names, some were very basic like Parrot Monster, Crayfish Monster, etc.; some had the same name like Soccadillo, Peckster, Pumpkin Rapper, etc.; and some had alternate names like Speed Shark, and Galamander for Saliguana.

Now, there are many many unsolved mysteries with the 'Zyu 2' footage. Some of the monsters had no Megazord footage, making people wonder why. Most of all being Bloom of Doom, there is a rumor Lorkar was used in the battle but this has not been proven. The footage brought great things like in the episode "Oyster Stew," Tommy gave Zack his shield and the Megazord underwater (which never happened in Zyuranger). The above trading card has Zack in a fluffy cotton shield, which is the American shield, while the Japanese shield (which was later used in Dino Thunder) was hard and foam. Zack was never seen in the fluffy shield in that episode, many believe this is just a publicity photo, an re-creation. Or maybe they shot American footage of the scene but it wasn't used. Zack was seen in the hard foam shield thanks to the 'Zyu2' footage.


Toys were made of these monsters, five large 8" figures (Rhino Blaster, Pirantishead, Soccadillo, Goo Fish, Guitardo) and nine 5.5" tall figures (Slippery Shark, Two-Headed Parrot, Grumble Bee, Peckster, Dramole, Invenusable Flytrap, Stag Beetle, Robogoat, and Pythor). Pythor never appeared in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, it is yet another mystery if a suit was made of this monster and if it the footage was filmed. Maybe Pythor is unrelated and had no footage at all and is just a toy. The 'Zyu 2' footage was and has never been seen in Japan in Super Sentai or in any form. I wish this could be answered but I am afraid we may never know any of these answers. Fans will forever be lost in this. Many of the regular public have no idea about this.

UPDATED MAY 1, 2009