Saturday, September 13, 2014

Power Rangers Super Megaforce - Love is in the Air - Episode Review

 
 
 Episode Summary:
Jake kicks a ball through the school window to a goal post, hitting Mr. Burley's head. In the main Armada ship, Vekar wants to do better, he assigns Levira to make a plan. Later, Jake kicks balls into trash cans while Noah takes video. Vekar's new butler spots Levira, who was his childhood crush. He makes a love potion, which makes her falls for the first he sees, which ends up being Jake--she was observing him. She sends the butler to capture Jake. X-Borgs attack, Noah tries helping Jake but the X-Borgs aren't that interested in him. Noah morphs and then Jake, the others arrive and then they go Super Mega mode. They go Mighty Morphin and Troy slashes the monster, who says he is a lover, not a fighter. Levira is mad. She says Jake is hunky and the monster hears this.

Monster is in the garbage and a woman (from the footage) talks to him. Later the others talk about the monster and why they want Jake (Emma says he is cute). The monster returns but is burning up and runs through the Rangers. Levira defends Jake, the monster thinks she used him and he turns up the heat and throws it at Levira and a ragdoll of Jake. The other four just watch. Noah thinks a human-alien triangle is gross. Damaras thinks it is a spell. Jake runs around from Levira as she fights the monster. Levira tells the Rangers to help so they morph into Megaforce. Argus thinks they should let this play out, Damaras says they have to take action, Argus says they can't without the Prince's approval (maybe foreshadowing?) So the Rangers go Super Mega and fight the monster. The monster does a fire attack.

The Rangers turn into Turbo (Carranger) and do an attack involving bicycles, unicycle, skates and a skateboard. Troy does the final attack and they go back to Super Mega. Levira runs back for Jake. Vekar makes the monster big. Jake tries to fix the problem by having the monster ask Levira on a date which he does. But then the monster attacks the Rangers and the they call the Megazord. They do the Turbo Spin Out but doesn't call it that and knock him out of the park, he lands inside the ship without being big anymore. Levira is over the spell. At the Brain Freeze, Jake is about to ask Gia on a date (by Emma's encouragement) BUT Noah interrupts with a viral video of Jake which somehow makes the Rangers including Troy cheer.

Episode Review:
Fans loved the last ep and not so much this one, complaining of its laziness and it being a filler episode and not resolving much of the Jake-Gia relationship. While some find it funny, some didn't like how the gang just stood and stared at Levira swing Jake around, also what Noah said about alien-human romance. I am not surprised they used the Carranger/Turbo sequence of Rangers on bike and unicycle. Fans liked that they didn't use the Sentai Turboranger and also hated that they didn't call the Turbo Megazord-inspired final attack as "Turbo Spinout." I am surprised they didn't use the backstory flashback scene of Levira and the butler in school clothes, I guess that was too weird for the Super Megaforce producers (even though they did use the unicycles and bicycles).


 
Another complaint is too much changing back and forth, from Megaforce to Super Mega which is just redundant. I think they could have made it funnier, by having Emma and Gia egg on Jake even more. Noah repeating that he was ignored was a bit dumb. Also, with all the new footage they did today, they could've done more in earlier episodes (to replace Pre-Zyu Sentai) or even in this ep by adding Silver!! Fans also complained where Silver was. As in the original episode, Silver was not present as it was BEFORE Silver made his debut. But they could've at least made an excuse for Orion like they used for Antonio on Samurai. Oh also, the scene of the woman talking to the 'dumped' monster was from the Japanese series, the woman was from the footage. Oh also, the Jake ragdoll was hilarious.

Pictures from:
http://www.megaforcecast.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=975

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Facial Hair in Power Rangers

Yoshi Sudarso (Blue Dino Charge Ranger) joked that he was made to shave for Power Rangers, it made me think which Rangers had facial hair before. Most of them being Disney Era Rangers. Most of them are Sixth or Auxiliary Rangers. RJ is the only main Ranger of the core team to have facial hair. The majority of main teams are clean shaven. Only Jack of SPD look like he just shaved his moustache or had to.
 
Merrick (Phillip Andrew)/Lunar Wolf Ranger of Wild Force had a goatee which does not include a moustache.
 
Dr. O/Tommy Oliver (Jason David Frank)/Black Dino Ranger in Dino Thunder had occasional facial hair and sometimes a goatee.
 
 
 Daggeron (John Tui)/Solaris Knight in Mystic Force had a Van Dyke which includes the moustache.
 
Leanbow/Wolf Warrior (Chris Graham) in Mystic Force had a Van Dyke but more emphasized chin hair.

 RJ/Violet Ranger (David De Latour) of Jungle Fury had facial hair, a slight Van Dyke but lighter.
 

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Poll Results: PMC Live/Early PRSM Eps/Doug Sloan/Solid Color Keys



Doug Sloan said at a PMC that kids don't play with toys as much as they did in 1993, do you agree?
Yes
  49 (58%)
 
No
  23 (27%)
 
Maybe
  26 (30%)

What do you think about Super Megaforce episodes released a week earlier?
Good Idea
  51 (67%)
 
I Like It
  21 (27%)
 
So-So
  16 (21%)
 
Makes No Sense
  14 (18%)
 
Not Good
  7 (9%)
 What do you think the All-color Blue, Pink and Silver keys coming with the Halloween Costumes?
Dumb
  26 (24%)
 
Who Cares
  38 (36%)
 
Real Cool
  47 (44%)
 
Too much Money
  29 (27%)
 

If you saw the Power Morphicon Live thanks to Shout! Factory, did you like it?
Loved it
  29 (35%)
 
It was okay
  13 (16%)
 
Confusing
  14 (17%)
 
Didn't catch it
  48 (59%)


Lavender Ranger's Editioral: Pre-Zyu and Dairanger Theories in Super Megaforce

UPDATED 9/19/14 
Fellow Power Force member Eric Berry of Ranger Command Power Hour has an inspirational theory on the use of previously non-Power Rangers (Dairanger and any Sentai before Zyuranger) used in Super Megaforce. A while back in Dino Thunder, specifically episode "Bully for Ethan," Tommy had files with logos of pre-Zyu teams like Liveman, Changeman, Maskman, Goggle V, Flashman and After-Zyu like Dairanger. So one fan-theory can be that these teams are somehow canon in Power Rangers. Since Dairanger, Liveman and Flashman have been seen, these are excusable. So if they use any other team (like Jetman or Turboranger), then that defeats this theory. Above image I found on Deviantart but couldn't find who made it. But the logos are clearly from my website as I scanned them from a book that had blue background.
 
 
Now so far in Super Megaforce, we have seen...
Gia has become Yellow Mask of Maskman.

Emma has become Pink Flash of Flashman.
 
Green Flash of Flashman in "Power of Six"
 

 "Legendary Squadron"
Dairanger have been dubbed "Legendary Squadron." Four of them appear in "Earth Fights Back," Troy becomes Red in "Samurai Surprise," and all five appear in "The Perfect Storm." Orion becomes  "Mighty Morphin White Ranger" without any connection to the team mentioned. (In Japan, they were all the same team of Dairanger)


Turboranger has only appeared for a few seconds. They appeared briefly in "A Lion's Alliance" where the Rangers fall off the Anamarium and when the Rangers turn into Saban's Turbo (Carranger) in "Love is in the Air" and we see Jake hold the Turbo Black key. But I don't count them.

For More changes, Spoilers when you press 'Read More'
 
My Questions
  • Was it planned ahead which Sentai would be used?
  • If it wasn't planned ahead of time, did they then planned to do the full team?
  • Do the producers refer them by their Sentai names and did they have to clear rights?
 
My Theories
One reason they could had used this teams was there was no budget to remove them and replace them with existing Power Rangers. One theory that can be that the Sentai was used wasn't planned, that scripts were re-written at last minute. I think what happened was that with whole thing of using the Megaforce (Goseiger) suits before transforming into Super Megaforce (Gokaiger) suits, ate up the budget. What they could have done was they lost the Megaforce powers and they became keys and just use the Super Megaforce powers so they didn't have to shoot new footage of Megaforce Rangers fighting X-Borgs or have the awkwardness of Robo Knight on Orion's Gold Armor chest. Also. you see the all-Green photo above? Even though only two were Power Rangers, given two were already used in SM like Dairanger and Flashman, I think this might be used. Episode Description of "Emperor Marvo" suggests Damaras will be defeated, the Japanese footage with that has the Gokaiger becoming Shurikenger/Green Samurai Ranger (NS), Green Flash, Midoranger, Denji Green, Shinken Green/Green Samurai Ranger and Shishiranger. Goranger and Denjiman suits are kind of old and strange looking but oh well, they have done stranger things. Or they could be replaced like Megaforce Red was replaced with Operation Overdrive Red in "Super Megaforce" episode.