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A Look Back at the Original "Real" Power Rangers: Super Sentai

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J

Jacce

Banned
With all the Power Rangers nostalgia going on I think it would be nice to talk about and appreciate the original Japanese Power Rangers. As pretty much everyone knows Power Rangers has always been an adaption of the Japanese series Super Sentai where the in-suit, monster, and mech scenes are all dubbed and the human only scenes replaced. But not many outside of Japan have actually watched it.

There are endless Super Sentai series but with the movie hype I am going to focus this initial post on the main series Might Morphin' was adapted from...ZYURANGER.

Zyuranger.png

%5BGUIS%5D+Kyouryuu+Sentai+Zyuranger-+50+(EC816382).mkv_snapshot_06.47_%5B2012.11.29_21.46.29%5D.jpg
%5BGUIS%5D+Kyouryuu+Sentai+Zyuranger-+50+(EC816382).mkv_snapshot_10.23_%5B2012.11.29_21.57.35%5D.jpg


Ever wonder why only the Pink Ranger had a skirt and a female build in MMPR? The Yellow Ranger was actually a male too.


Instead of Rita Repulsa we have the witch Bandora:
zyu142.png


Instead of Zordon we have the sage Barza:
sentai2282.jpg


The original of course also had a Green Ranger under the control of Bandora but this time instead of a random teen it was the Red Rangers brother:
8548554870_1d7fb37b9a.jpg

odkr027x8xhlrDoRf27-o.jpg


Original Zyuranger opening theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ2w_aIfwPg

How the Red Ranger vs. Green Ranger battle played out in Zyuranger:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOjBcWEJzLg

Every episode subtitled can be watched for free on Shout Factory's website:
http://www.shoutfactorytv.com/series/super-sentai-zyuranger
 
P

PBalfredo

Member
What's up with their out-of-ranger costumes? They're certainly going for something that's different than the ordinary-teen look of MMPR, but I can't tell what that something is suppose to be.
 
J

Jacce

Banned
PBalfredo said:
What's up with their out-of-ranger costumes? They're certainly going for something that's different than the ordinary-teen look of MMPR, but I can't tell what that something is suppose to be.
Click to expand...
They aren't random teens in the original Zyuranger. But ancient warriors that were woke up when Bandoda/Rita was released.

Basically instead of the Zordon character gathering s group of random teens to fight Bandora/Rita when she was released he woke up ancient warriors he has been guarding over who faught her in the past.
 
T

the_sun_king

Member
PBalfredo said:
What's up with their out-of-ranger costumes? They're certainly going for something that's different than the ordinary-teen look of MMPR, but I can't tell what that something is suppose to be.
Click to expand...

They're warriors from the past who reawaken in present day (at the time) Japan.

Edit: Beaten lol
 
K

Kuntz

Member
Choudenshi Bioman is the shits, most french kids grew up with in the mid 80 so the everyone was already familiar with the ranger concept so Power rangers was well received (and everyone was into dinosaurs as well so good recipe).
Dang, now I want to watch super sentai from the beginning...
 
B

broncobuster

Banned
Is it true Zyuranger isn't thought of highly among other Super Sentai shows? And that Dairanger, which was skipped out on aside from zords and the white ranger, is considered one of the better ones?
 
T

the_sun_king

Member
broncobuster said:
Is it true Zyuranger isn't thought of highly among other Super Sentai shows? And that Dairanger, which was skipped out on aside from zords and the white ranger, is considered one of the better ones?
Click to expand...
Zyuranger is considered an "average" season. Not bad, but not a stand-out Sentai. That's why Japan's reaction to the new movie was "Why Zyuranger?" lol
 
N

Not

Banned
Those designs will alway be cool.

Props to the makers of Super Sentai for figuring out how to make cool as fuck costumes so early on
 
W

WillyFive

Member
Zyuranger is an ok show. Better than MMPR, but it's not saying much.

For true greatness, consider the show that aired the year before.
 
J

Jacce

Banned
broncobuster said:
Is it true Zyuranger isn't thought of highly among other Super Sentai shows? And that Dairanger, which was skipped out on aside from zords and the white ranger, is considered one of the better ones?
Click to expand...
It's not a bad season. But imo it's not nearly as good as Dairanger:
img_0040.png


Or Jetman:
7c557dd1ae390091bb1a44ce71e74624.jpg
 
P

Pop-O-Matic

Banned
Kuntz said:
Choudenshi Bioman is the shits, most french kids grew up with in the mid 80 so the everyone was already familiar with the ranger concept so Power rangers was well received (and everyone was into dinosaurs as well so good recipe).
Click to expand...

Fun fact: Bioman was originally gonna be the series adapted by Saban back in the 80s, but apparently it never panned out.

C7poT1ZXUAAgUU6.jpg

C7poT1VXQAAMMBu.jpg
 
B

Big One

Banned
Zyyranger is alright. For its time it's theme was unique for sentai and the designs for everything are fantastic all around. As a series it just fell a bit flat compared to Maskman, Liveman and Jetman
 
S

Sgt. Kabukiman

Banned
Hell yeah, Bioman was awesome. I just rewatched the French dub of the first episode and was surprised by how violent it was. People getting murdered and actual blood spatter. 80s tv was dope. Liveman was pretty cool too.

I've been trying to get into Zyuranger. Is it streaming somewhere, is there a dvd set?
 
W

WillyFive

Member
Host Samurai said:
Is there a reason why the american Power Rangers series started with Zyuranger and not an earlier or later series?
Click to expand...

Jurassic Park

Toxi said:
How does Super Sentai compare to Kamen Rider (In general, not specific series)?
Click to expand...

Sentai is more like a superhero action spectacle while Rider is more into soap drama; Sentai is more lighthearted while Rider loves to have it's characters fight each other with more conflict.
 
K

Killthee

helped a brotha out on multiple separate occasions!
Sgt. Kabukiman said:
Hell yeah, Bioman was awesome. I just rewatched the French dub of the first episode and was surprised by how violent it was. People getting murdered and actual blood spatter. 80s tv was dope. Liveman was pretty cool too.

I've been trying to get into Zyuranger. Is it streaming somewhere, is there a dvd set?
Click to expand...
Jacce said:
Every episode subtitled can be watched for free on Shout Factory's website:
http://www.shoutfactorytv.com/series/super-sentai-zyuranger
Click to expand...
.
 
F

flintstryker

Banned
I remember a few years ago while watching some Kamen Rider season I decided to watch a few episode of Shinkenger that was ongoing at the time it was pretty good?
 
S

SigmasonicX

Member
Random trivia I'm aware of:
* Turbo's Sentai equivalent was a goofy comedy, which Turbo desperately fought against and failed.
* In Space's Sentai was actually based on video games and electronics, not space.
* Probably obvious, but Lost Galaxy's Sentai had nothing to do with space. It was about super hippies.
* RPM's Sentai was also a goofy comedy. RPM fought against that more successfully.
* Two series were skipped during the Neo Saban era. One is spy themed, and probably shouldn't have been skipped. The other is train themed, and celebrates public transportation, so it's understandable why they skipped that. They are probably going to skip a recent animal-themed Sentai, but the suits look like ass, so I'm fine with that.
 
T

Toki767

Member
Bioman was actually dubbed in English in Asia (really bad dubbing) but that was actually the first Sentai series I recall watching.
 
NeonZ

NeonZ

Member
Host Samurai said:
Is there a reason why the american Power Rangers series started with Zyuranger and not an earlier or later series?
Click to expand...

It was probably just coincidence due to the timing, but Zyuranger actually influenced in big ways the shows that followed (like mobile animal zords and the 6th Ranger), so starting from there likely was a good move for them, even though Zyuranger is not a fan favorite.
 
G

Gengahrrr

Member
I read that the Sentai Green Ranger died after a certain number of hours after he turned good. That's why that cheap looking American green ranger suit appeared so much because there was very little sentai footage to work with.
 
T

Toxi

Banned
WillyFive said:
Sentai is more like a superhero action spectacle while Rider is more into soap drama; Sentai is more lighthearted while Rider loves to have it's characters fight each other with more conflict.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I like most of the Kamen Rider series I've seen. Might give a Super Sentai series a try.
 
F

Frozenprince

Banned
Also of note that the green candle in Zyouranger was quite literally Burai's lifeforce because he had died before the events of the show even began, and his powers were all that kept him alive. Which is why they had to steal Dairanger white, because they didn't have any more footage of Burai to use.
 
J

Jacce

Banned
Frozenprince said:
Also of note that the green candle in Zyouranger was quite literally Burai's lifeforce because he had died before the events of the show even began, and his powers were all that kept him alive. Which is why they had to steal Dairanger white, because they didn't have any more footage of Burai to use.
Click to expand...
Even as a kid you could tell how awful the suit was in the added US footage.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
WillyFive said:
Zyuranger is an ok show. Better than MMPR, but it's not saying much.

For true greatness, consider the show that aired the year before.
Click to expand...

Is it entertaining without the MMPR Saved by the Bell/Sentai hybrid? Serious question. I liked that about MMPR.
 
J

Jacce

Banned
cj_iwakura said:
Is it entertaining without the MMPR Saved by the Bell/Sentai hybrid? Serious question. I liked that about MMPR.
Click to expand...
Yes. While campy the plots are more coherent. Power Rangers had to cut around all the Zyuranger fighting footage and in many times it did so very poorly.

I liked the saved by the bell aspect of PR too, but Sentai just works better as a coherent pulpy martial arts/sci-fish series.
 
N

Nairume

Banned
Pop-O-Matic said:
Fun fact: Bioman was originally gonna be the series adapted by Saban back in the 80s, but apparently it never panned out.
Click to expand...
If I'm not mistaken, Jetman was also in the works after the Bioman localization failed but they ended up passing on it and worked on adapting Zyuranger instead.

I wonder if they would have continued with Jetman if Jurassic Park wasn't about to reignite dinosaur fever in the west.

cj_iwakura said:
Is it entertaining without the MMPR Saved by the Bell/Sentai hybrid? Serious question. I liked that about MMPR.
Click to expand...
Honestly, I thought it lost something without it. While I've been able to watch other sentai and not really missed the kind of things that PR usually adds in, the characters in Zyuranger never really caught on for me, and I feel like, for better or worse, MMPR's teen drama made those characters more memorable.
 
F

FyreWulff

Member
I remember having my mind blown that the White Ranger is a morphed kid in the sentai so he's fighting with an adult body but a kid's mind, which is why the sword talks to him to help him out.

MMPR basically was just "yeah the sword is there and it talks"
 
B

broncobuster

Banned
Jacce said:
It's not a bad season. But imo it's not nearly as good as Dairanger:
https://tucsonpowerzealot.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/img_0040.png[/img

Or Jetman:
[img]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/7c/55/7d/7c557dd1ae390091bb1a44ce71e74624.jpg[/img[/QUOTE]

The Dairanger suits are so good. Even as a youngster the white ranger suit looked killer. Learning they had colors for the rest, I wish they switched to them.
Click to expand...
 
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