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

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The best sentai by far :p France Five!
 
The stuff with Zordon in suits was new footage. It only really started popping up more in Season 2. It's easy to tell now because the quality of the suits in that footage is so much worse.

Pretty much everything with the kaiju creatures, the in-suit fights, and zords were all from Super Sentai.

You can tell the difference. US Suit is felt and even the Green Rangers shield is felt:
power-rangers-of-the-90s.jpg


vs the Zyuranger suits
1118full-kyouryuu-sentai-zyuranger-photo.jpg



US new footage shield vs Zyuranger shield is extremely easy to spot the difference. The US suits are less form fitting and a lesser quality.

Yeah even as a little kid the Green Ranger's shield quality was very noticeable.
It's surprising they couldn't get some of the Japanese suits for the early American filming. Maybe the Japanese production company didn't keep any extra suits or they wanted to sell them to the American production company for more than they were willing to pay?
 
Yeah even as a little kid the Green Ranger's shield quality was very noticeable.
It's surprising they couldn't get some of the Japanese suits for the early American filming. Maybe the Japanese production company didn't keep any extra suits or they wanted to sell them to the American production company for more than they were willing to pay?
Yep, I always thought "WTF is wrong with his gold armour? Why is it spongy and shit?" when I was a kid.
 
Yep, I always thought "WTF is wrong with his gold armour? Why is it spongy and shit?" when I was a kid.
The show had basically zero budget as all the action was lifted from Sentai. But even so just how poorly they attempted to match up with the actual suits, in particular the Green Ranger, was baffling. It's like they didn't even try.

Oh and to the question why they cut in the White Stranger footage from Dairanger: Because Tommy became so popular. The Green Ranger died in Zyuranger and didnt come back after that. But they wanted to keep Tommy so voila they decided to have him be the White Ranger from Dairanger footage.

White Ranger is actually a kid!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JF66vs9KjG8
 
The stuff with Zordon in suits was new footage. It only really started popping up more in Season 2. It's easy to tell now because the quality of the suits in that footage is so much worse.

Pretty much everything with the kaiju creatures, the in-suit fights, and zords were all from Super Sentai.

You can tell the difference. US Suit is felt and even the Green Rangers shield is felt:
power-rangers-of-the-90s.jpg


vs the Zyuranger suits
1118full-kyouryuu-sentai-zyuranger-photo.jpg



US new footage shield vs Zyuranger shield is extremely easy to spot the difference. The US suits are less form fitting and a lesser quality.

Unless some of the actors were against the spandex, I never got why they chose felt. But the US props started getting much better later on, and started using spandex . Zed's entire look was so fucking bad-ass.
 
Friendly reminder that GoBusters is the best season and shameless TokuGAF plug if you want to hang out with us teenagers with attitude.

Back in the days before infomercials, there was a late night program called Night Flight, which was basically 4 hours of strange stuff on Friday and Saturday night

They would show this from time to time. At least a dubbed version called Dynaman
That's yet another super sentai season!

latest
 
Is there a reason why the american Power Rangers series started with Zyuranger and not an earlier or later series?
There was actually multiple attempts. Stan Lee wanted to bring Sun Vulcan to the US back in the 80's as part of the Toei deal they struck to produce that live action Spiderman series in Japan. I think there was even a pilot for that. Saban attempted with Jetman and another earlier series, forget which one. For whatever reason, Zyuranger was the one that stuck.
 
Even as a kid I could instantly spot the difference between the US and Japanese footage. In fact, I started to hate the show because of the increasing amount of terrible US fight scenes. I only started to enjoy it again with Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers. Those costumes were great.
 
Even as a kid I could instantly spit the difference between the US and Japanese footage. In fact, I started to hate the show because of the increasing amount of terrible US fight scenes. I only started to enjoy it again with Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers. Those costumes were great.

Well that is when they gave up trying to create new footage with the Zyuranger suits and embraced the Japanese costume changes so that makes sense.
 
Hong Kong was a wonderland for sentai and tokusatsu in general. The local TV stations had both the Japanese and the American versions. We even got Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad alongside Gridman.

MMPR, Zyuranger, Ultraman, Showa Kamen Rider, you name it, TVB has it.
 
Answer me this, they obviously dubbed scenes for the OG series but to thru still do that till this day? Are current day power rangers still dubbed with only the human scenes being 'new'
 
Yeah but we had a better theme tune.

Answer me this, they obviously dubbed scenes for the OG series but to thru still do that till this day? Are current day power rangers still dubbed with only the human scenes being 'new'
I believe for the most part they are yes, since it helps keep costs down.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong isn't there 3 types of sentai suits used.

The shiny suits were used for filming the non/least amount of action scenes.

The second is the non shiny version where they used for fireworks upon impact and when getting thrown around, rolling in the dirt.

Third one is non shiny and used for stage shows. Thats where the helmets with visible latch is used.

So Saban probably took the stage show suits when filming season 2 and 3.
 
Answer me this, they obviously dubbed scenes for the OG series but to thru still do that till this day? Are current day power rangers still dubbed with only the human scenes being 'new'

You can still spot some Japanese buildings in the newer series during Power Ranger Twitch marathon.
 
Unless some of the actors were against the spandex, I never got why they chose felt. But the US props started getting much better later on, and started using spandex . Zed's entire look was so fucking bad-ass.

It could be something similar to the Original undersized spandex suits used in Star Trek TNG before they switched to wool. Supposedly they were a health hazard and even when cleaning them you could not completely remove the smell.


First time I notice this, though. Nostalgia effect + crappy 14" TV back then.
 
It's not a bad season. But imo it's not nearly as good as Dairanger:
img_0040.png


Or Jetman:
7c557dd1ae390091bb1a44ce71e74624.jpg
I know why we didn't get Dairanger but what was the reasoning behind not adapting Jetman? Those are gorgeous suits! Perhaps the best I've seen yet! And was the Pink and Blue one females? First time a blue ranger I've ever seen been played by a woman!
 
I know why we didn't get Dairanger but what was the reasoning behind not adapting Jetman? Those are gorgeous suits! Perhaps the best I've seen yet! And was the Pink and Blue one females? First time a blue ranger I've ever seen been played by a woman!

Jetman for whatever reason didn't get get past the initial pitch. Could have been the motif or the fact that it was slightly dark for a sentai series.
 
I know why we didn't get Dairanger but what was the reasoning behind not adapting Jetman? Those are gorgeous suits! Perhaps the best I've seen yet! And was the Pink and Blue one females? First time a blue ranger I've ever seen been played by a woman!

There's been a few Blue Rangers that were women.

Blue Dolphin: http://powerrangers.wikia.com/wiki/Megumi_Misaki
Blue Swallow: http://powerrangers.wikia.com/wiki/Ako_Hayasaka
Hurricane Blue: http://powerrangers.wikia.com/wiki/Nanami_Nono
Magi Blue: http://powerrangers.wikia.com/wiki/Urara_Ozu
Zyuoh Shark: http://powerrangers.wikia.com/wiki/Sela
 
I actually scoured YouTube this weekend for a video of"how exactly did they turn an episode of Sentai into Power Rangers?"

Like this seems like it would be a really interesting process to me.
You have your stock footage monster of the week.
You need to write a story around it.
Film new bits to shove into the chopped out footage.
Dub the fight scenes.
Add cheesy 90s guitar riffs randomly and a public service announcement on bullying at the end.

And yet as far as I can tell, no such documentary exists.

This gets even more bonkers when you realize Saban decided to keep the Zyuranger costumes for 3ish seasons? Invented a new Villain in Lord Zed... And then spliced over white ranger footage from the next Sentai season over the Zyuranger cast?
Wha?
Absolutely bonkers method of TV show making...
 
I actually scoured YouTube this weekend for a video of"how exactly did they turn an episode of Sentai into Power Rangers?"

Like this seems like it would be a really interesting process to me.
You have your stock footage monster of the week.
You need to write a story around it.
Film new bits to shove into the chopped out footage.
Dub the fight scenes.
Add cheesy 90s guitar riffs randomly and a public service announcement on bullying at the end.

And yet as far as I can tell, no such documentary exists.

This gets even more bonkers when you realize Saban decided to keep the Zyuranger costumes for 3ish seasons? Invented a new Villain in Lord Zed... And then spliced over white ranger footage from the next Sentai season over the Zyuranger cast?
Wha?
Absolutely bonkers method of TV show making...

I'd love to read a book about all of this stuff.
 
I actually scoured YouTube this weekend for a video of"how exactly did they turn an episode of Sentai into Power Rangers?"

Like this seems like it would be a really interesting process to me.
You have your stock footage monster of the week.
You need to write a story around it.
Film new bits to shove into the chopped out footage.
Dub the fight scenes.
Add cheesy 90s guitar riffs randomly and a public service announcement on bullying at the end.

And yet as far as I can tell, no such documentary exists.

This gets even more bonkers when you realize Saban decided to keep the Zyuranger costumes for 3ish seasons? Invented a new Villain in Lord Zed... And then spliced over white ranger footage from the next Sentai season over the Zyuranger cast?
Wha?
Absolutely bonkers method of TV show making...

To Saban's credit, Lord Zedd is a fantastic villain and has an A+ design
 
Imagine this, Saban stood up in the restaurant and suddenly sang Jetman OP song out loud

That's what happened.



In 1991, Saban made an aggressive move to license super senti footage. His new target was Toei Company's 17th series, Chōjin Sentai Jetman, a show set in 199X (not a typo) about a team of aerial fighters who defended Earth using "Birdonic Wave" technology. According to Tony Oliver, the supervising producer of Mighty Morphin'Power Rangers' first three seasons, Saban personally pitched Shigeru Okada, then President of Toei, and pulled out all the stops.

"[Haim Saban] thought it was a great idea and wanted to license it, and the President of Toei wasn't so sure that Americans would be able to deal with this," Oliver said in a 2016 interview. "So Haim said 'You know why it's gonna happen?' Then, he stood up and he sang the theme to Jetman, [in the restaurant], out loud, in front of him." According to Oliver, the impromptu performance convinced the Okada that "this guy is just about crazy enough to pull this off."
 
I actually scoured YouTube this weekend for a video of"how exactly did they turn an episode of Sentai into Power Rangers?"

Like this seems like it would be a really interesting process to me.
You have your stock footage monster of the week.
You need to write a story around it.
Film new bits to shove into the chopped out footage.
Dub the fight scenes.
Add cheesy 90s guitar riffs randomly and a public service announcement on bullying at the end.

And yet as far as I can tell, no such documentary exists.

This gets even more bonkers when you realize Saban decided to keep the Zyuranger costumes for 3ish seasons? Invented a new Villain in Lord Zed... And then spliced over white ranger footage from the next Sentai season over the Zyuranger cast?
Wha?
Absolutely bonkers method of TV show making...

Yeah, the four part episode Ninja Quest was particularly insane. Using Zyuranger costumes, Dairanger costumes and mechs, and finally Kakuranger costumes and mechs.
It's no wonder that after Season 3, they felt it was cheaper to just do what the Sentai does and have a new team every season.
 
This gets even more bonkers when you realize Saban decided to keep the Zyuranger costumes for 3ish seasons? Invented a new Villain in Lord Zed... And then spliced over white ranger footage from the next Sentai season over the Zyuranger cast?
Wha?
Absolutely bonkers method of TV show making...

He did use the white ranger costume, but didn't season 3 also use mostly original footage? I remember that being a big reason for moving on to Zeo because production costs were getting too high.
Imagine this, Saban stood up in the restaurant and suddenly sang Jetman OP song out loud

That's what happened.
Holy shit, wow, lmao. There has to be a documentary about Saban eventually.
 
He did use the white ranger costume, but didn't season 3 also use mostly original footage? I remember that being a big reason for moving on to Zeo because production costs were getting too high.

I honestly don't know... Because this documentary doesn't exist yet...
I would watch it on Netflix...

Like it's such an interesting idea what they did taking a Japanese show and chopping it up into this American 90s phenomenon.

My little brother was 4 when this show hit in the early 90s, it was real to him. And as far as I know it was sacralidge to even mention parts of Power Rangers was actually some Japanese TV show... It was as taboo as saying "Santa Claus isn't real".
I don't recall the producers of Power Rangers being very forthcoming about their product being a mishmash of Sentai and their own original story, but I honestly don't know. I wasn't paying attention to the production side of Power Rangers at age 13... It was just a show my brother watched after school that I was forced to sit through before I could have access to the TV to play some SNES and Final Fantasy III (VI)...
 
Y'know one thing that annoyed me. The original Megazord. It transformed into a giant tank first, but they never used it as a giant tank. I mean sure the giant robot is cool, but sometimes you just wanna see stuff getting blasted to hell by a giant tank made from 5 robot dinosaurs.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAmCHUBtBqs
Pretty interesting and crazy how they basically cut up the Japanese series and pasted it from everywhere for just 1 American episode.
He says Zyu a million times and it's wrong every single time, that drove me crazy watching the video. It's also a filmed version of Sir Stack's PR footage guide.
Sir Stack deserves credit because he's the one who actually looked up every shot for everything up to Ninja Storm now.


I know why we didn't get Dairanger but what was the reasoning behind not adapting Jetman? Those are gorgeous suits! Perhaps the best I've seen yet! And was the Pink and Blue one females? First time a blue ranger I've ever seen been played by a woman!
Despite all the pink on her suit she's actually a white ranger, the pink on her suit is the secondary color replacing the white the others have.
 
Whoa wait, Zedd is an original villain?? So they spliced footage of him and the other monsters together? Are there any good comparison videos? Although I guess I could just watch the Shout Factory eps.

Also, is there a way to legally watch the 70s and 80s(or hell, any of series) aside from the Zyuranger? I really love how so many of the early Sentai villains are called Fuhrer. I mean, one is called Hell Fuhrer. That sounds imposing as fuck.

It also seems like a lot of the early series where more dark and had a 'seriousness' vibe to it. Is the something all the Sentais have had or did they cut it out as America got involved?
 
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