Monday, May 10, 2010

Similar Looking Evil Sentai/Rangers

UPDATE Oct 8, 2011 10PM EST
Here is a list of 'Evil Sentai' or evil Power Rangers that looked just like the main team. Note: The Nejiranger/Psycho Rangers also originally looked like the Megaranger/PR but later took other forms. Gingaman of Fiveman also briefly looked like Fiveman.

[No Pictures]
Fake Jackers

In episode 22 of JAKQ Dengekitai, thanks to Scrap. They had powers of invisibility.

Fake Battle FeverEpisode 9 of Battle Fever J had 3 ordinary men who were brainwashed into pretending to be the Battle Fever team. They never actually wore the suits though.

The Death Dark V
They appeared in Ep 45 of Goggle V. Goggle Red was a monster named Tanukimozuh.

Fake Dynaman
In Episode 24 of Dynaman, Kitsuneshinka, who could disguise himself as any of the Dynaman, including the Dynarobo.

Shadow Jetman
Light Armadillo made five copies of the Jetman, they had black suits with everythign else the same but with darkened helmets.

Twin Man's Evil Rangers
In Zyuranger (1992) and MMPR (1993), Dora Mirage/Twin Man's clones of Red, Blue, Yellow, Pink, and Black. I don't have a picture. We saw their human forms.

Mutant Rangers
Only exclusively to Power Rangers, Putties became Rangers thanks to Commander Crayfish. Crayfish was the equivalent of Red, there was only Blue, Yellow, Pink, Black and Green. Only Green, Blue and Black grew big. This was from footage that fans call 'Zyu2.'

The Copy Empress made multiple evil exact copies (no variations) of the Dairanger (2003). The monster is best known as Photomare of MMPR Season 2. We saw their human forms. There were Red, Pink, Yellow, Green and Blue.

Shadow Rangers
In Turbo (1997), a Chromite or Robot Warrior made copies out of the shadows of the Turbo Rangers. Only exclusive to the Power Rangers. There was no Red one, only Yellow, Green, Pink and Blue. They had faded white helmets.


Cyborg Rangers
Robotic Rangers meant to replace Lightspeed (2000). They turned bad and the Rangers had to stop them. They had head antennas, things on their chests, black belts, gloves and boots. They were exclusive to Power Rangers. There were Red, Pink, Yellow, Green and Blue.


In Timeranger (2000) and Time Force (2001), a villain made evil copies of the heroes in another dimension. They look exactly like them, no variation. There were Red, Pink, Yellow, Green and Blue.

Copy Sentai Copyrangers
In Gaoranger (2001), they face the Copy Org and he made these copies. Didn't appear in Power Rangers. There was Red, Blue, Yellow, White, and Black. They had horns on their heads.

Shade Rangers / Shadow Rangers
In Gaoranger and Wild Force (2002), Duke Org Dorodoro/Onikage sent these six on the heroes. There was Red, Blue, Silver, Yellow, White, and Black. They wore all black and their helmets were partially black.

In Hurricanger (2002), Saandaru and Madogi made six Ranger clones (no variations) out of six feathers. They controlled them by neck bracelets. They then put the neck braces on the real team. Didn't appear in Power Rangers. There was Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Kabutoraijer and Kuwagataraijer.

In Magiranger (2005), when they went to get their mom, they had to face evil clones of themselves with black necks thanks to Toad. In Mystic Force (2006), they appeared when they fought Hekatoid. There was Red, Blue, Yellow, Pink, and Green.

The Western Ashu/Crazar made these copies of the Boukenger (2006)/PROO (2007), they had black necks. There was Red, Blue, Yellow, Pink, and Black.

Gedou Shinken Red
In Goseiger Vs. Shinkenger, Takeru was forced to be evil.

Original-Looking Evil Sentai/Power Rangers

Here are six evil Sentai in Super Sentai that had uniforms that weren't simply copies of the main Rangers. Next I will cover when Super Sentai have been copied, clones, otherwise.
Galaxy Sentai Gingaman (Fiveman, 1990)
Not to be confused by the Gingaman of 1998, they were a comedic all male evil Squadron of five aliens who first formed by Doldora as part of her plan to hypnotize the masses. But they would later return to serve Chevalier. They were killed by the Fivemen near finale. They appeared from episodes 9 to 47.

Dark Rangers (MMPR, 1994)
I have cover them before here. In Season 2, Zedd got five teens to become Dark Rangers but we never saw them fight. They were re-painted Putties and stunt coordinator says they tried to do fighting footage but it didn't look so hot. There was Red, Blue, Yellow, Pink, and Black.

Flowery Kunoichi Team (Kakuranger, 1994)
Most commonly known as Hanarangers, they were Gasha Dokuro's personal ninja team he created from cats. Transform by the command "Battle Change!" (Battle Henge). The Sanshinshou turned them back into cats during the finale. They appeared in Episodes 15-16, 20-53. Their colors were pink, purple, blue, green and orange.

Boso (Reckless Driving) Sentai Zokuranger (Carranger, 1996) / Creeps
Within a Sentai series that was in of itself a parody, the Zokuranger were a parody of 'evil Sentai.' Other than SS Pamaan, the other members were made out of the Gorotsuki that have hung out in the BB Saloon for the entire series. After SS Pamaan was killed, the others continued living with the Bowzock. They appeared as a team in one episode. In Turbo, they became the 'Creeps.'

Jaden (Dark-Powered) Sentai Nejiranger (Megaranger, 1997) / Psycho Rangers
The most stylized of the evil Sentai, they were exact copies of the Megaranger fighting-wise and targeted their colors. They had monster forms as well. The MegaRangers manage to digitize them, preserving them as DataCards. Hinelar found the cards soon and sent them to where no one would ever find them. In Power Rangers, the Psycho Rangers returned in Lost Galaxy, Psycho Pink even caused the death of Kendrix.


Renaissance Trinoid Wicked Life Squadron Evoranger
revived Trinoids 3, 10 and 11 resurrected as "Renaisse Trinoid" used to test AbareKiller in Abare Mode's powers. They were killed by AbareKiller.

A-Squad SPD Rangers (SPD, 2005)
Okay, so not completely original costumes (because the helmets are of Megaranger/PRiS), but they are a evil Sentai team in context of SPD.

Some Sentai Parodies

There are plenty of Super Sentai parodies out there, here are a few:

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness NijiRanger/Prism Rangers
The Prism Rangers are a troupe of gag characters which appear in the video games Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (2003), Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, and Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice. Each of the members are named after the colors of the rainbow with the word Prism preceding it. Outside of the in-game battle, the Prism Rangers tend to be portrayed as weak, having been taken down in one shot or being unable to do the slightest bit of damage to their opponent.

Dragon Ball Z
Ginyū Tokusentai (Ginyu Force)

The Ginyu Force is a team of five mercenaries who are hired by Frieza.

Excel Saga
Shiritsu Sentai Daitenjin (Municipal Force Daitenzin)

It is an adult-only, sentai dōjinshi by Rikudo Koshi, also the author of Excel Saga. Essentially, it is the basis of Excel Saga: Many of the characters designs that appeared in Excel Saga originated from the dōjinshi.

Negima!: Magister Negi
Magi
Mahora Sentai Bakaranger
They were also featured in the television drama adaptation of Negima! titled MAGISTER NEGI MAGI: Mahou Sensei Negima!! As you may know 'Baka' means stupid.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Kajiō Sentai Onoranger

In Japan, they are known as the Onoranger. In the US, the characters are known as the Axem Rangers. They appear in the video game Super Mario RPG: Legend of the 7 stars.

Tentai Senshi Sun Red (Astro Fighter Sun Red)
It is a manga created by Makoto Kubota that got an Anime adaptation produced by AIC A.S.T.A. that aired in 2008-2009.

UPDATED 5/11/10 5PM EST

Killer7
Handsome Men
Killer7 is a video game. The Handsome Men are an eight-man assassination group in killer7. Their stories focus on groups of fighters in brightly colored, form-fitting uniforms. There include Handsome Pink (female), Handsome Purple, Handsome Light Brown (female), Handsome Red, Handsome Blue, Handsome Dead, Handsome White Pearl, Handsome Gold and Handsome Black. Which seems to be 9, not 8.

Kanjani Eight Kanjani Sentai Eight Ranger
Since 2005, the Japanese musical group Kanjani Eight have created a series of performances at their concerts where they dress in different colored outfits and call themselves Kanjani Sentai Eight Ranger.

Bihada Sentai Sparanger
Toei has also parodied their work by using it in a series of shorts on various spas and onsen (hot springs) around Japan as the Bihada (Handsome Muscle Spring) Sentai Sparanger. This series has tokusatsu actors such as Takashi Hagino (Choukou Senshi Changerion and Kamen Rider Ouja of Kamen Rider Ryuki) as SpaRed, Kento Handa (Kamen Rider Faiz) as SpaBlue, Kengo Ohkuchi (played trapped subway worker Kazushi Mizuno in Kamen Rider 555) as SpaGreen, Masashi Mikami (BoukenBlue) as SpaYellow, and Kohei Murakami (Kamen Rider Kaixa) as SpaMurasaki ("purple" or "violet" in Japanese, a running joke would involve people referring to him as SpaPurple).

Non-Toei Tokusatsu from Japan, Thailand, and France


Aikoku Sentai Dai-Nippon (1982)
Aikoku Sentai Dai-Nippon (Patriot Squadron Great Japan) was produced by Daicon Films (now Gainax). It was a Sentai Pastiche or homage. Check out more about it at this Japanese site.

Jushi Sentai France Five (2000)
At firt glance I thought this was a fanfiction film, but actually they are four episodes in France. It was produced by Buki X-1 Productions in 2000s. It is an homage to Toei's ever-popular Super Sentai Series, which was extremely popular in France in the 1980s. This series is said to be a nod to another Sentai pastiche, Aikoku Sentai Dai-Nippon. The series has become kind of popular in Japan, with singer Akira Kushida singing an original theme for Episode 4. Prior to that point, the themes were French remixes of older Sentai theme songs (Choujin Sentai Jetman and Choudenshi Bioman) with an original French theme.

Chouseishin Series (2003-2006)
2003 was a heck of a year for Tokusatsu, there was Abaranger, Kamen Rider Faiz, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon and Gransezar. The Super Star God Series were produced by Toho Company, Ltd., in association with Konami. They had three series: Gransezar, Justirizer and Sazer-X. Gransezar had lots of warriors, females in white and red, blue, orange & fuschia, males in blue, indigo, purple, red, yellow and yellow-orange; Justirizer had a girl in blue, males in red and black; Sazer-X only had males (Orange, White and Blue).

Squadron Sport Ranger ขบวนการ สปอร์ตเรนเจอร์ (2006)
It had sixteen episodes in Thailand in 2006 and was the first original tokusatsu from Thailand in a while, but it was first to look the most like Super Sentai. Many fans have asked me to mention this series. Starhunter is an alien tribe that steals all life energy on other planets, gathering the energy through medals. One medal was split into five and when Starhunter came to Earth, the Sport Ranger were formed to fight them. Red, Yellow, Green were male and Pink and Blue were female.

Wecker Signa (2007)
The third installment of the Wecker series, it is the only one where the girls are actually suited up with helmets. Their colors were pink, orange, purple and black. They made toys of both their regular forms and armored forms. This aired in Japan.

Tomica Hero: Rescue Force and Tomica Hero: Rescue Fire (2008-2010)
Broadcast on Japan's TV Aichi, the Tomica Hero series based on Takara Tomy's Tomica toy car line. Rescue Force started out April 2008 and was followed by the sequel Rescue Fire. Rescue Force is deployed to protect human lives from various disasters too extreme for normal rescue workers, started with blue, silver, black, gold were men and red and white were female. Both series had 51 episodes and a movie. In Fire, orange, silver, cyan and black were male and green is female. There was Rescue Aqua planned, I don't know if it went into production but now the project is on hold.

Super Sentai On-going concepts transferred to Power Rangers

There was a lot of Super Sentai rules, elements or traditions that didn't quickly transition into Power Rangers until later on, some took until Disney took over. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers started in 1993. There were plenty of other elements that it had already started with (robot friend, tragic love, ambiguous villain ending, bad finales and kid Ranger.)

1. Changing suits ever year
In Sentai, a series lasts only once a year. MMPR didn't follow this initially, Saban feared kids wouldn't like the change if they did it in Season 2. One of the crew actually suggested changing suits and everything in 1995 and that became Zeo.

2. Destroying a monster with the blaster and then the Megazord
In MMPR, either they destroyed the monster with the power blaster or power cannon or with the Megazord. In Sentai, they had to destroy the monster twice, once with the cannon and then the robot. So, by Zeo (1996) or Turbo, they started that, having two destructions.

3. Not mentioning individual Morphing Call
In Sentai, the Ranger didn't have to do individual calls after the initial Morphing call, like MMPR Rangers did ('Dragonzord,' 'Mastodon,' etc.). The last time they did this was Turbo. In Space (1998), they stop doing it.

4. Changing cast, unrelated to past casts
In Turbo, they changed almost the entire cast and in Lost Galaxy too, but they were still connected somewhat to past casts. Lightspeed Rescue (2000) was the first to have a whole new cast, and new city and new villains that were not space aliens.

5. Roll Call
Roll calls of each Ranger was pretty common in Sentai, even in Zyuranger. Remember that footage they would use when the Rangers would call their Thunderzords? Well, that was when they would say they own names. Sometimes, they would say their real name as well. This wasn't used until Space (1998) and then again SPD (2006). The last time they did this was for Jungle Fury.

6. Battle Damage
In Sentai, when the Rangers are hurt, they bleed. This rarely happened in Power Rangers. In MMPR with the Green With Evil Saga, when the Dinozords were incapacitated, the Rangers were clean, no bruises, no dirt nothing. They didn't start getting a little dusty until the Command Center blew up. It didn't become a common thing until In Space, more specifically the episode "Chase Into Space." Wild Force (2002) and RPM (2009) were the only seasons to have blood.

7. Rangers actually dying
Even though Kendrix and Mike came back, they were the first to actually die. The first Magna Defender died all together. In Sentai, this was common practice. Death continued in SPD, Mystic Force and RPM.

I am probably missing a bunch so let me know.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Power Rangers SPD on Lost Season One


This is old news but I wanted to address this because I am a Lost fan and Lost is ending soon. In the first season finale, "Exodus Part 1" we see a flashback of Michael and Walt on the morning of the flight. Walt turns on the TV and is watching Power Rangers SPD. The episode took place in September 22, 2004. The specific footage was of the episode "Beginnings, Part II", premiered on February 2, 2005. This mistake was caught by Power Ranger and Lost fans alike. The producers were always about no mistakes, I wanted to catch at least one mistake, I was glad with this mistake, since it was Power Ranger related. Lost producers clearly did not noticed this, they had access of the footage through Disney, but probably didn't realize the show was time-sensitive. Oh it is not the only mistake--apparently on the episode, a cameraman (part of the film crew) can be seen on the beach filming the survivors attempt to launch the raft.


UPDATED JULY 28, 2010
"Ji-Yeon" Season 4 Episode 7
I didn't notice this. This picture is from Lost: Nerd Winks - UGO.Com but they mistakenly put a picture of the sentai Turborangers which never became Power Rangers. In this episode, Jin goes and looks for a Panda stuffed toy and in the toy aisle behind him are Power Rangers Mystic Force and Operation Overdrive toys.