Apparently I'm all about connecting to my inner child lately. I just finished Pokemon, albeit with a twist of Yellow. Now I've unexpectedly found myself reconnected with Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, only NOT because I decided to find the source material, Kyouryuu Sentai Zyuranger, the 16th Super Sentai Series, which formed the basis of the stock footage used in the first season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. It's such a surreal experience. Everything seems so familiar because I've seen so much of the footage before, but it's all in an entire different context. The Zyurangers are ancient warriors reawakened rather than five "teenagers with attitude." And I've always known that, in Japan, the yellow ranger was a boy (named Boi, interestingly enough), but when I see him in costume, I'm so used to it being a girl that I can't help but think he is a girl. I just find it fascinating to see these performances meld, especially since I saw it backwards before: Japanese footage mixed with new American footage to create a performance, especially considering that the personalities of some of the Zyurangers don't mesh with their Power Ranger counterparts and how that might translate physically to the rangers in uniform. For example, in Zyuranger, the Black Ranger, Goshi, is the badass warrior, no-nonsense, no sense of humor, whereas Zack, the Black Power Ranger is a hip-hop dancer with all that accompanies. Likewise, Dan, the Blue Zyuranger is reckless and immature, a contrast to cautious and nerdy Billy.

To anyone who grew up on this stuff, I recommend at least checking it out for something completely different yet eerily familiar.