Saturday, September 26, 2009

Power Rangers RPM - Episode 26 - "Beyond a Doubt"

A recap is shown of Shifter being banished, Dillon's memories, the two keys, grandpa giving the keys and locket to little 'Dillon' and 'Tenaya' and Tenaya finding out she is not a robot.

Episode Summary:

Tenaya tells the gang that she wants to defeat Venjix. Ziggy is against it, not trusting her, saying she just tried to kill them in the morning. Summer clarifies she might be tricking them, that she might be a spy. Dr. K says the new bot (Horonderthal) created by Shifter might destroy them, taking their weapon info. Dr. K says it wouldn't matter. Tenaya offers the codes to destroy the bot, Dillon offers to go with her. The others are concerned. Dr. K says it wouldn't matter if Dillon doesn't come back. Tenaya tells Dillon to leave his morpher. In front of the base, Dillon asks Tenaya if the personal data said their names. She says no. They run off. In the tunnels, Dillon remembers what happened to them, with Kilobyte attacking her and the Grinders taking Tenaya away. Venjix appoints Kilobyte as his new leader. Crunch says he has seniority. Kilobyte pushes him aside.


Tenaya comes in, saying if he wants results... Grinders have captured Dillon. Tenaya promises all the Rangers. Elsewhere, Shfter's Hyperbot is still big and he plans to destroy the Ranger and then Venjix. Kilobyte and the Grinders put Dillon in a prison cell. The bot attacks Corinth. Scott plans to use the Paleomax. He transforms into Paleomax and fights the bot. Tenaya goes to a info center and gets info on the Hyperbot and downloads it into a disc. Kilobyte finds her, suspecting something, questioning her loyalty... questioning everything about her, saying Dillon was without a scratch.


After the commercials, Tenaya's hand comes to Dillon and releases him from the prison. He follows the hand. Tenaya threatens Kilobyte. Two Grinders arrive and communicate with Kilobyte, saying Dillon escape. Tenaya says she has been with him the whole time. Kilobyte finds her hand. Dillon takes Kilobyte down, saying he left her there once and not again. Her hand reunites. Meanwhile, Shifter puts his device key into the Hyperbot, making it stronger and kicks Scott out of the Paleomax, taking control of it, making it 'evil.' The twins spot Dillon's car (The Fury) heading to Corinth, Grinders attack Tenaya and Dillon while in the car. The defense system (The Barricade) from the first episode attacks them. Tenaya destroys it at its core. The gang is happy as they see Dillon is in.


Shifter comes up to Scott, they fight. Shifter says he will be in control of him. Foreshadowing! Hyperbot attacks the city. Dillon and Tenaya arrive. Tenaya runs off to Dr. K. The gang reunite and morph. We see a six morph on the screen. Tenaya gives Dr. K the programming and disappears. Why Dr. K doesn't use an anti-virus thing on the chip? ValveMax takes hold of PaleoMax but it knocks them down. Red and Shifter continue fighting. Red uses his street saber. Mach Megazord arrives and HyperBot attacks them. They then get beat up by Hyperbot. Dr. K does a jamming wave into the city and it effects Paleomax. Hyperbot sends another signal, making Paleo bad again.


After the long break, Paleo keeps keeping butt on ValveMax. Shifter attacks Red and puts a gear inside him. Red continues fighting Shifter. He knocks Shifter down. Summer and Flynn arrive in their zords. Red activates his Eagle Zord. They make High Octane Megazord. Dr. K is working on something. Valvemax goes after Hyperbot and High Octane fights Paleo. Valvemax and Mach has hold down the HyperBot but, he splits the six zords up. Paleo splits up High Octane. Dr. K sends the signal again and Paleo is good again. It splits up too. Dr. K says they can now combine all 12 zords. Zigy says 12 sounds crazy. They make the RPM Ultrazord, using the codes. Big soundeffects are used for this one. Shifter is upset, that they stole his coding. Hyperbot attacks them, with no effect. Red feels a pain.


Red says he is fine. Red calls for Road Attack and Ultrazord conducts a finisher with it. The seven then use their handle blasters and destroy the hyperbot with the power of the four megazords. The handle key device falls and Shifter picks it up and plugs it into himself, gaining the power of the Hyperbot. After the commercials, I take a nap. Just kidding, well, I will eventually do that, but anyway... The seven walk in the city and they say Tenaya came through in the end. They are happy with the Ultrazord. Tenaya waves at them. Ziggy says now that she isn't attacking them, he realizes she is a babe. Dillon says she is his sister. Ziggy says she is like a sister to him too... Kilobyte restrains her with a energy rope and points his blaster at the seven, the seven run towards him and go down. When the smoke clears, Tenaya and Kilobyte gone.


Quick review:
The ending was predictable, the rest of the episode was smart and cute, the last act was a little weak though.

Power Rangers RPM - Episode 25 - "Key to the Past"



New opening with PaleoMax. A recap is shown of Dillon's sister, the twins telling him about her, the key he found and Tenaya telling Shifter to watch his back.

Episode Summary:

Tenaya is tweaking with the new robot (Horonderthal) Shifter worked on. She leaves the bot once the other generals arrive. Shifter offers it to Venjix for him to enter it. The bot attacks Venjix. Kilobyte attacks the bot. Shifter blames Tenaya. Venjix vanishes Shifter and he takes his new bot away. Venjix sends Tenaya and her heat bot. Back at Corinth, some lady (a mayor?, according to the ending credits, she is the mayor) and Mason have a big thing (event where everyone is present except for Dr. K) with two keys. They put the two keeps to unlock a depot. This gives Dillon an idea, since h has two keys. He puts one key in another, they fit. One key was his sister's. The depot is attacked, the seven morph and go after the Heat Bot. The twins and Summer fight the Grinders while the four boys fight Heat Bot.


Heat Bot runs away. Black goes to check on Yellow. Tenaya attacks Yellow and they fight. Dillon then fights Tenaya. She calls him D44, saying a cyborg hybrid is no match for a robot like her. She blasts him and he protects it with his shield and the blast hits some metal stuff and it falls on her. After the commercial break, Tenaya says human compassion is a weakness and throws debris at Black. She says when she gets damaged, it is a simple repair but when he is damaged, he bleeds. She leaves. Elsewhere, Grinder and his bot are in an area of junk. He has a new device. Dillon puts the two keys in the locket and it plays The FARMER IN THE DELL. He runs off and gets in his car and races off, surprising Ziggy and Summer. Back at the evil lair, a Grinder fixes Tenaya. Crunch and Tenaya spot that Dillon is out in the desert.


Tenaya wants to deal with it herself. Dillon plays the song, she whistles it. He then plays the sad song from the beginning. This triggers memories for her, of her as a child and an grandfather giving it to her and a little boy. He says that she is his sister. He tells her that she is a human, a hybrid. SHe says she is a robot, she blasts at him, he morphs and blocks it. An explosion occurs behind her. They then behin to fight. He doesn't want to fight her but she continues, in a fury. He bests her, de-morphs and she... bleeds. She is shocked. She is shocked and dismayed, she runs off. Dillon returns to the garage, Summer approaches him. She says if he talks to her, she can help. He says he wishes she could, but she can't.


Tenaya returns to the evil base and analyzes herself, the dna match is with D78 and her sibling is D44, video is shown, she is blind and Dillon helped her escape. Kilobyte was involved, he put Dillon down and the Grinders grabbed her. Kilobyte says he will miss her, saying she won't be able to fight Dillon, because she is weak and human, and that Dillon made her remember. She says she has to stop the memories. She has to stop them at the source because she worked way too hard to make Venjix succeed to stop now. Meanwhile, the heat bot fight the seven. The twins manage to freeze him. In the evil base, Kilobyte tells Venjix he will fix things. In Corinth, Tenaya attacks the seven. She says she has come for 'the hybrid.'


After the commercials, the Rangers defend Black, Tenaya sends Grinders and they all fight. Black doesn't want to fight Tenaya, she fights him, determined in getting rid of him. She says she is more concerned with the future than the past. She throws him off a bridge and he de-morphs, she continues to fight him. He goes down and she is about to blast her. The three blast their blaster at her and Dillon blocks it. She falls off the bridge, hangs on to the railing. Dillon is hurt. Summer is concerned, a Grinder grabs her. Dillon reaches his hand out to Tenaya. She refuses but then remembers the Grinders taking her away--cameo from Sat Bot! The Grinders drop her into a vat, Dillon grabs her hand, the Grinders take him away and she fell in the vat.


In real time, she grabs his hand and he helps her up. Everyone takes their helmets off. He reveals to them that she is his sister and they deduce that her eyes are robotic. Heat Bot is made big and they ruse the SkyRev and it goes down. Tenaya looks up at them, distressed. Red boards the Paleozord. He puts the Heat Bot on deep freeze. He makes Paleomax and destroys the Heat Bot. Dillon de-morphs, looking for Tenaya but she is gone. Back with Grinder, he puts his robo online, it is huge and attacks SkyRev. Dillon looks up. The Generation 15 bot (Horonderthal) attacks SkyRev and leaves Corinth.


After the commercial break, Venjix wants Tenaya and Kilobyte to destroy Shifter. Kilobyte reveals that Tenaya knows the truth and unless she destroys D44, they might loose her. Back at the garage, Dillon wants to find her, they have search Corinth. The others tell her if she doesn't want to be found, she is going to be hard to find. Dillon is about the leave, Scott says they will all help find her. Dillon smiles, they walk out until they find Tenaya. She says she wants to help.


Review:
Finally our questions answered, everything about the flashbacks went smoothly. They didn't forget about SatBot. They even added Kilobyte into it. It was clearly new footage shot. But they did not use Tenaya's cane. I have to look back and see if she had it when the Grinders grabbed her in the flashbacks of previous episodes. Great episode, nicely done.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Six Degrees of Marvel

In 1939, Timely Publications began, and by the 1950s, it had generally become known as Atlas Comics. It adapted the name Marvel in 1961, and with the success of Spider-Man (who first appeared in Amazing Fantasy in 1962), it lead to a team-up with Toei Company Limited of Japan in 1978. Spider-Man was adapted into a tokusatsu with a robot and new origin, he would transformed with a brace. It only lasted one year. The second co-production between Marvel and Toei was Battle Fever J, which originally was going to be based on Captain America. It became a group series instead, taking a hint from Goranger and JAKQ, Battle Fever J started the Super Sentai franchise. Until 1994, Goranger and JAKQ were not counted as part of Super Sentai. Anyway, Marvel and Toei never collaborated again, Super Sentai continued but only under Toei's reign. Haim Saban found Sentai and decided to adapt it in the early 90's and made the Power Rangers franchise. In 2002, Disney bought Saban's share of Fox Kids and Fox Family, including the Power Rangers.

Disney started shooting the Power Rangers in New Zealand. In corporation with Disney, Toei shot footage for Mahou Sentai Magiranger (2005) and Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger (2007) in New Zealand. In 2006, Disney teamed up with Toei Animation to Robodiez, an action-adventure series that will combine live-action and CG animation. In 2008 it was announced Disney would make a short children’s animation series to be aired in April in Japan called Fireball. And recently it was announced that Disney bought Marvel. I think it is an interesting cycle. I think only some Spider-Man fans know about the tokustasu and mainstream people are unaware of this connection.

I also forgot to mention that Marvel produced Power Ranger comic book issues, they did it in 1995-1996, did six issues, featuring the Ninja Rangers, and VR Troopers (Season 2). VR Troopers had their own separate comic on the other side. Marvel started doing Power Ranger comics with the adaption of the MMPR Movie, PR comics had already existed before then.

Disney buying Marvel perhaps effecting its relationship with Toei has been discussed in the forum Rangercrew.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Voltron/Power Ranger Spoofs premiere this week

Sunday September 27th 11:30pm
Adult Swim/Cartoon Network
From the creators of Robot Chicken, a stop-motion pastiche of Voltron. Green is chubby, Black and Yellow are female (Black is African-American), and Red and Blue are male. Breckin Meyer plays Palmer (red), Seth Green plays Gibbs (blue), Rachel Leigh Cook (She's All That) plays Jody (yellow) and Eden Espinose ("Rent") plays Sasha (black).


MegaBot
Webisodes premiere Wednesday September 23rd
Stars Fran Kranz from "Dollhouse" and Miles Fisher, who played Tom Cruise in Superhero. Pink is the only female, Black is African-American and Yellow is Asian. It's live-action.

The Future of the Power Rangers 3: Clarifications

Okay, here are couple of confirmations, rumors and speculations...

There were rumors of an animated series, I do not know if it was true or not. I do not know if this illustration above is official or why it looks like a stamp. The picture comes from this YouTube post, link below. Because of the bizarre interpretation of Rita Repulsa, I think this is merely fan-made. Or maybe it was a proposal but wasn't accepted. There was two rumors for 15-minute pilots, one was a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers re-telling and the other was a series in the style of the Super Legends game with Doggie Kruger in charge of a team. These animated series have been dropped, they were not 'picked up.' They will not air on television ever. I say it like this, because many stupid people need to be told repeatedly.
Confirmation: Animated Series NOT Happening.
Possibility on Happening in 2010: 1 out of 100
Possibility on happening in the future: Who knows



Now, why go animated? Rumor is that Disney wanted control of the Power Rangers property. With how it is now and traditionally, they have to share money with Toei, Bandai and Plex (which designs everything). Disney wants to design and make everything. This is the main reason Disney has stopped production on Power Rangers, they wanted to be control of everything and Toei did not want to let them. The rumor is that Toei did not approve of the animated series, because it would cut them out the equation.
Confirmation: A new Live-Action Power Rangers series will not air in 2010. I do not know about later on.
Possibility on a new live-action series in 2010: 1 out of a million
Possibility of new live-action series in the future: 40 to 60%

Now the new rumor according to Morphin Heroes, supposedly when Power Rangers RPM ends, Disney will re-air Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 1, 're-mastered' on ABC Kids. What that means is that it will have 'better quality' and be edited to adhere to FCC regulations. There are things that were excusable back in 1993 that were not these days. And that is concerning, since in 1993, syndication was more lenient than network TV, hence why VR Troopers had more violence. And last I heard, Disney owned the rights to the Power Rangers brand but not the old music, Haim Saban owns the music and background music. That is why when the Black Ranger (Adam) appear in Operation Overdrive, he had different background music than the MMPR kind. So Disney might have to replace the music as well. Now, why are they doing this? To my understanding, it could be to cash into nostalgia and re-introduce MMPR to a younger audience. MMPR re-aired on ABC Family in America back from 2003 (let me know if that's correct) to 2005 but that was part of a special contract.
Rumor: MMPR will re-air.
Possibility on happening: 50/50

UPDATE 5/13/10
MMPR 're-version' aired in 2010 on ABC, with the same music, just visual 'enhancements' that fans consider to be inspired by comic books. And as of May 12, Saban regain Power Rangers from Disney and in 2011, new episodes will air on Nickelodeon.

Related Topics: The Future of the Power Rangers 2 | The Future of the Power Rangers | Power Rangers Comes to an End

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Shadows of AkaRed

AkaRed was a special ranger for the 30th anniversary that appear in Boukenger vs. Super Sentai and was a representation of all Red warriors of past. He transformed into MagiRed and GaoRed. There was no toy, there was no expectation to ever see him again...

But then came Yattai Banki of Engine Sentai Go-Onger. AkaRed's face appeared as a mask on this monster.

For the RangerStrike carding system, AkaRed got his own card. He is part of the 'Mystic Arms,' symbolized by the yellow star to the right side.

Then here he was for Go-Onger vs. Gekiranger press conference.

Another picture. I like his shades of red. AkaRed, 'Aka' means Red in Japanese, so basically his name is Red Red.

RPM---No Teamup, Battlizer nor New Rangers--get used to ti!

On YouTube, where I post the episodes of RPM, I keep reading comments like "I hope Tenaya is Ranger #6, there is a Ranger missing for #6, I hear there will be three new Rangers, when is the teamup?, where is Red Ranger's Battlizer?"

No Teamups
It is all about the budget. Disney barely wanted to make this season. The first Executive producer Eddie went over budget, and anyway, I don't think a teamup was in plans. This is the same reason there was no teamup for Mystic Force nor Jungle Fury--no money! Also some fans believe RPM is not in the same continuity as past seasons. The closest to a teamup is seeing a Jungle Karma Pizza chain inside Corinth. Besides, RPM doesn't really give room for a teamup since it is set in a post-apocalyptic future, it would take a whole episode to explain where all the other Rangers are. It's better they aren't mentioned.
5% likely from happening



No Battlizer
Again, Budget. Not going to happen, if it hasn't happen already, it won't. It hasn't been mentioned in the episode descriptions and they have been very accurate. There are four last episodes that have no description nor title revealed yet, but there hasn't ever been a Battlizer introduced in the last four episodes. Usually battlizers are revealed in Japanese scans, not in these pics.
15% likely from happening


No New Rangers
Triceratops, T-Rex, and Mammoth Rangers toys were made for RPM, they are based on Paleozord, the three zords recently premiered on the series. No mention of the three Rangers are on the episode summaries. It is highly unlikely they will appear. I recently found out from one of my sources, that Bandai America pay for Ranger-exclusive non-Sentai stuff like Battlizers and bikes and the Spirit Rangers. The Jungle Fury Spirit Rangers took the place of the Battlizer for Jungle Fury.
5% likely from happening


#6 and #9
There are no missing Rangers. Gator and Whale are un-manned, they don't need an operator. I am surprised RPM fans don't understand this. It's fun to make up Rangers but don't expect it on a show. If you didn't know, the zords spoke in Go-Onger and the Engines had their own personalities. #6 (Carrigator), #9 (Jumbow-hale), and the last three #10, #11, and #12 had no 'partner'/Ranger, they are special. It's the Engines who the numbers belong to, not to the Rangers.
0% likely from happening
ABOVE IS A FAN PICTURE!!!!

A series don't need all this stuff to be a cool Power Rangers season.

Pre-Images of Super Sentai


UPDATED 12/7/12 
2000 Timeranger
This is the first preview we got to Timeranger, I doctored this pic a bit back when, I couldn't find the original picture. But I doctored out the kanji out long ago. The first news came in December. Spoilers and stuff weren't that rampant back when.

2001 Gaoranger
The first pic was shadowed of the five facing forward. Couldn't find it. There were rumblings but no real spoilers, I don't recall exactly when confirmation came. But it had to be between November-December.

2002 Hurricanger
I think we had one blurry pic of Hurricane Red first. And then later we got this scan. Spoilers and rumblings came around November.

2003 Abaranger
The first pic (above, provided by Gold Samurai of Rangerboard) was a sketch of the three and many people thought it was fake. This was like the second and the third was one of the cast and fourth was on toei.co.jp about the stageshow meet and greet event with the four actors. This around the time Matt (Dukemon22) started supplying rumors and spoilers from Japanese forums.

2004 Dekaranger
Couldn't find the first pic, I think it was a group shot for the toys. I don't recall but I do know it was originally called Sienger. People were okay with the costumes, some weren't nuts about the numbers though. This pic above is provided from Gold Samurai of Rangerboard. Spoilers and rumors started as early as October.

2005 Magiranger
I remember there was a sketch at first but I couldn't find it but this was the first official confirmation. I remember fans didn't believe it. I think there also was a blurry pic of MagiRed kicking out there. The third was the live-action Magiranger with the Majin and MagiKing behind. Spoilers and Rumors came around the fall and early rumblings was a normal animal was going to be a mythical creature.

2006 Boukenger
I really don't remember the first pic we saw. Maybe this was it? I don't recall. People were cool with the costume designs. Rumors began in August, saying it was an insect theme.

2007 Gekiranger
I remember this was the first pic of all three together, and fans were angry with the no belt, nobody liked it at first. Ha, no belt, no service. Rumors began as early as March but confirmations by October. Early rumors was that it was going to be planet-inspired and the second team was a male (in black) and female (in pink). Partially came true but the male and female duo turned out to be the villains and pink was green (Mele).
We did get this sketch before, also provided by Gold Samurai.

2008 Go-Onger
This was the first picture we got and nobody liked the helmets, many said it looked like a rehash of other helmets. Confirmations on the title came in October.
-First mention of "Go-onger" name on October 27th 2007
-1st toy catalog cover on December 6th 2007
-Go-Onger cast revealed in promo video on December 29th 2008
-Go-Onger press conference on January 19th 2008
 

2009 Shinkenger
I remember fans being happy more or less with the illustrations. There were mumbles that they looked like Ohranger helmets but everyone was happy. Rumors and Spoilers began in August. Two rumored titles were Toushi Sentai Gunbaranger (Fighting Spirt Taskforce Gunbaranger) or Gowa Sentai Starranger.

-Series name license revealed on October 2nd 2008
-Leaked concept art of ShinkenOh and Shinkenger team on November 19th
- 1st quarter toy catalog for Shinkenger on December 8th
-Cast confirmed and newspaper flier released on December 27th
-Press conference photos posted on February 2nd 2009
 
An early sketch in 2008 said to be an early sketch for the 2009 Super Sentai, could be preliminary design for Shinkenger.

2010 Goseiger
Title confirmed in September and the picture above was revealed in early of December of 2009.
-Press flyer revealed on December 3rd 2010
-Toy catalog cover on December 6th
-1st quarter toy catalog on December 9th
-Rumored cast becomes the official cast on December 30th
-Cast confirmed on January 1st

These were the rumored sketches in September of 2009, it was debunked around November.

2011 Gokaiger
The title was confirmed in early of September of 2010. We did get this early sketch in September as well, but it resembled the other sketches from 2009 that were not the final designs.

-Series name license revealed on September 9th 2010
-Press flyer revealed on December 2nd 2010
-1st toy catalog pictures released on December 6th
-The rumored cast turned out to be correct on December 22nd 2010

We got this quick sketch from an insider.

We first saw this picture December 1st late night (December 2nd afternoon in Japan). The first drawing we got in September is somewhat similar with minor details that the undershirt is black and the cuffs are silver and boot cuff is different but same basic idea.

 2012 Go-Busters 
The one above is the "leaked" image for Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters on November 6th. But the final product we saw was in December 1st right below. This is the first image we saw of the final designs.
-Go-buster's series title confirmed on September 9th 2011
-Go-buster's 1st toy catalog is leaked on December 1st 2011
-Go-buster's press flier is revealed on December 1st 2011
-Rumor of cast on November 28th
-Go-buster cast confirmed and newspaper flier on December 31st 2011
-Last week of January 2011 and the press conference/stage show/toy exhibit\bouquet handover from past team


2013 Kyouryuger
On November 6, 2012 we got the first leaked image. We already knew it was dinosaur related in September.
http://www.jefusion.com/2012/11/kyouryuger-rumored-first-image-leaked.html


Blurry image came up December 6th and then some catalog pics December 7th.

Of course I must note that many other people have supplied news, spoilers, pics, and etc. other than Dukemon22.