Monday, June 27, 2011

Power Rangers: Male Non-Rubber Suit Villains

Like I did with Super Sentai, almost all villainesses in Power Rangers are actresses without rubber suits (many are not rubber, but you know what I mean) like the monsters. In Power Rangers, there is quite a few, especially in seasons that the Sentai counterpart didn't have a human male villain.

Ransik (Time Force)
Don Dornero was the main villain of Timeranger, which we know as Gluto, which became a big dumby waste of space. Ransik was added, my personal opinion on why they probably did was to add a big masculine force and also add on to the plot. Later, they tied up Ransik with the Orgs to explain how he took swords out of his bones.

Master Org (Wild Force)
While the 'Master Org' was just a figurehead in Gaoranger, Wild Force's Master Org was an original creation but with the costume of the Emperor in Dairanger. I liked that they tied in Viktor to Cole's story. In the end, he became an Org monster and died.

Lothor (Ninja Storm-Dino Thunder)
The main villain of Hurricanger, Tao Zanto, was not seen in Ninja Storm but his final form did become Lothor's zord. Lothor was played by the same actor that played Sensei, as they were twins. I didn't like his outfit, I don't think it matched with the other villains and his mask looked like a Luchador (wrestler) costume mask.

Mesogog (Dino Thunder)
Mesogog's human form Anton Mercer was not exactly villainous but he was the same actor who voiced Mesogog.

Emperor Grumm (SPD)
Played by the same guy who plays Jii in PRS, he voiced Grumm and showed a human disguise in the Shadow two-parter.

Thrax
Rita and Zedd's son, only appeared in two episodes of PROO. His armor was part of Zeltrax's, had a bit of Zedd's body and bone aspects that could be from his Uncle Rito. You couldn't really see his human face, but he had a rather good looking actor who also does stunts.

Dai Shi/Jarrod (Jungle Fury)
The concept of Dai Shi was exclusive to Power Rangers, he didn't exist in Gekiranger. But of course, he didn't have a costume until the end, the big dragon, but that was from Gekiranger. I personally believe the concept of Dai Shi was to give an excuse for Jarrod to be morally responsible for his evil actions like Rio was. Jarrod is the 1st male human villain to be transferred from Sentai to Power Rangers and to also have a similar costume to his Japanese Counterpart. 'Dai' means great in Japanese and 'Shi' means Lion, so his name could be 'Great Lion,' like I have said before--there is confusing about what Dai Shi and Jarrod did or who was in control, mostly to be blamed on the writers.

Deker
Deker is a Nighlok swordsman that can assume a human form. Considers the Red Ranger to be his greatest challenge for his sword Uramasa. Played by Rick Medina, who played Cole in PRWF. He is the second male human villain to be transferred from Sentai to Power Rangers and to also have a similar costume to his Japanese Counterpart.

3 comments:

henshin0 said...

"shi" also means "death", so his name can be anything between "great lion" and "great death". it makes sense either way, i mean "mao" is manderin for "cat", so it can go both ways. also, mao died (technically), so...yeah

Drunken Lemur said...

It's really too bad Long wasn't included in Jungle Fury. Not enough cute evil guys in Power Rangers.

Anonymous said...

Latham Gaines didn't merely "voice" Mesogog, that was him in the make-up. Same goes for Rene as Gruumm.

And Thrax was a rubber suit villain. He shouldn't be on this list.