Kyouryuu Sentai Zyuranger - The Japanese Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

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.

Wait what?  There's subs past six episodes, Gaff?

This is a bit more light-hearted (mainly due to the upbeat music) than MMPR.  And I love it.  Its theme song is pretty neat too.

I'm not sure, actually.  I've only gotten through episode 4 myself.  I could have sworn I saw up through 26 at least, but I could be wrong. I'll let you know.

And really?  More lighthearted?  I hesitate to say that.  I wouldn't call Zyuranger darker because, let's face it, they're both relatively silly kids' shows, but considering that MMPR has zany teen problems and two ineffectual bullies while Zyuranger's heroes are ancient warriors, I find it hard to say that Zyuranger is lighter.  But I guess that's all just opinion. 

And as far as the music, I find Zyuranger's music to generally be more epic-sounding, while Power Rangers goes for that hard-edged but static electric guitar music that would get passed on to the DBZ dub (makes sense since Shuki Levy did the music for both).  The Zyuranger ending theme is certainly wacky, though.  It cracks me up.  I like the concept of the warriors attempting to fit into the modern world, and I hope that actually becomes a plot point later rather than just being the source of gags over the end credits since I haven't seen much of a chance for these characters to really show who they are yet in the four episodes I've seen.

A great comparison can be found at Sentai Sactorum, which details the differences in plot and characters side-by-side.

I meant it mainly in the music sense... also, may I say Machiko Soga makes a great Bandora?  She's just as silly as Rita, only with a less ear-bleeding-inducing voice.  And she's a Sentai veteran.

Prepare now for the info dump!

M'kay originally Saban was gonna take Jetman and, adapt that series for America. Then Zyuranger came along and, they decided to go with that instead. Super Sentai started in 1975 with a series called Goranger. It has continued on until today and, is still creating new Super Sentai teams. The latest being Shinkenger. Also if you're interested in more surreal experiences you could check out Dairanger. Dairanger's most noted character is the white ranger. Who was adapted for the character Tommy in Power Rangers. Kou or Kibaranger is actually a kid in the original source material. The rest of the Dairanger task force is made up of un-adapted rangers. Saban didn't want to change the Power Ranger team suit entirely becuase of fear kids wouldn't like the change. So the only reason for the change over to using Kakuranger and, Ohranger footage was becuase they ran out of Zyuranger footage to adapt. So they were paying Toei to create more. Meanwhile they wanted to transition the Zords quicker so they spliced the original Megazord/Zyuranger out of the footage they ordered and, spliced in the Thunderzord/Dairanger footage for the zord battles. This footage has since been called Zyu2. It's been theorized that Toei was thinking of making a second Zyuranger season with the footage but, abandoned the idea. Just a rumor thus far. Futhermore there was actually a different pilot filmed for MMPR with a different actress for Trini and, Zordon was called Zoltar. It's up on Youtube if you want to watch it. There's two versions if you search for "Power Rangers unaired pilot" you can see the original version at the top of the search list. The second version was aired as a special with Austin St. John and, Walter Jones. With some violence cut down. It also takes place in a bowling alley. It's been rumored that there actually was a pilot shot for the Jetman footage. If there was it hasn't been leaked at all. About Dairanger in the PR: Lost Galaxy season it was planned to use the unused footage or, suits as the "Ancient Warriors" for Power Rangers. That plan was abandoned for some reason that I don't know. Kakuranger was the source footage for the Alien rangers, some of MMPR's monsters, and Ninjor. From Ohranger onwards it's basically a season to season adaptation from there. In Ohranger the gold ranger is played by a kid too named Riki/King Ranger. The gold ranger was adapted for Jason and, Trey in Zeo. After Time Force/Timeranger Disney bought the Power Rangers series and, continued it with Wild Force until today. The current season of Power Rangers deals with the death of all but one city in the entire world.

End of info dump.

Yep, that's Power Rangers in a nutshell.  What got me back into seeing it firsthand was this review by MarzGurl:

http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/marzgurl/reviews/11041-mightymorphin

I actually went back and watched some season 2 Power Rangers last night because something had been bugging me.  I always knew that Jason, Trini, and Zack had been replaced with Rocky, Aisha, and Adam because they had demanded more money and were fired over it, but, as an adult, I began to think about that and realize that, if they had been fired, how did they pass their powers on to the new rangers.  I remembered that episode!  Jason, Zack, and Trini were there!  I remember them being accepted to the Peace Summit in Switzerland and actively passing their powers on to the new rangers.  It was very emotional.  But how did that make sense?

So I went to YouTube and found the episodes and... holy shit!  They were never there at all!  It was all body doubles and stock footage, and it was very obvious!  They hardly said anything.  When they passed their powers on, they were completely in uniform, so you couldn't see their faces.  Even after they'd passed on their powers, they were still in uniform when it made no sense for them to be.  And before they had the chance to say anything, Zordon just went, "Jason, Zack, Trini.  Goodbye, good luck... get out," and then just teleported them away.

But then I thought about it some more.  I remembered that Rocky, Aisha, and Adam had been introduced before that, and the Peace Summit had been mentioned in earlier episodes as well.  If both those circumstances only existed because Austin, Walter, and Thuy had been shown the door, how were they in those episodes?

Again... they weren't.  When the six had to be shown together, stock footage, body doubles, and silence.  But, for the most part, they didn't even bother.  Tommy, Billy, and Kimberly would be hanging out, meet up with Rocky, Aisha, and Adam.  They'd fight some putties.  The trio would morph and continue fighting.  Then, about halfway through the episode, Zordon would say, "Alpha, contact the other rangers."  Then there would be a stock shot of Jason answering his communicator:  "I read you, Zordon.  We're on our way!"  Then they were in costume, and they'd fight.  The episode would end with, you guessed it, Tommy, Billy, and Kimberly meeting up with Rocky, Aisha, and Adam.  "Gee, guys, thanks for your help.  The other rangers would thank you too, but, they're, um, scuba diving or something."

And they managed to get away with this crap for... EIGHT EPISODES!  And I never noticed!  Sure, you say, you were just a kid.  But I remember watching Back to the Future Part II several years earlier and immediately figuring out that all you saw of George McFly in 1955 were stock images from the first movie and the back of his head, and I knew that he had been replaced by a different actor.  So how the hell did I never notice that half of the Power Rangers simply didn't exist for eight whole episodes?!  It's mind-boggling to me!

Wonderful, ain't it?  While I don't respect the process of ripping apart someone else's work, I must admit that MMPR in many cases turned out awesome.  Did you know Time Force was almost given an adult time slot due to its content?  That could have popularized the series much more, methinks.

I'll admit it.  I loved Wild Force.  Sorry to go slightly off topic, but as Disney's first season (and best) it was truly awesome.  Gaoranger I've only seen bits and pieces of, but I'd be shocked if it was much better than Wild Force.

I watched that review and, it mentions the video quality difference. Well rumor is Disney's gonna fix that and, restore the first 155 episodes of Power Rangers and, air them in their original versions. After Disney took over they re-aired MMPR for a little while but, edited down some voilence. So now it seems they're just gonna undue their alterations for the original and, restore them. That and, there's rumors of them possibly getting another company to produce more Power Ranger stuff. Whether that's adapting Shinkenger, comics, or an animated series I don't know. It's also funny that MarzGurl mentioned Tommy's many appearances. He also came back again into Power Rangers Dino Thunder as the black ranger. What's funny about that is even though it was undoubtibly unplanned for Tommy to be back as the black ranger. The symbol on the ranger's chests for that season is nearly the same as the green ranger's power coin.

About the changeover of actors. It's possible that you just didn't notice because, they had several episodes with already shot footage of them before they got fired. The ADR just wasn't done at that time. So they brought in voice over actors to fill in the gaps. They also had time to do a quick edit on Tommy's White Light episode. So that Zordon made Tommy the leader. I think he was just supposed to become part of the team again originally. Basically, I think that becuase the change was eased into it wasn't immediately noticable at the time for you. I actually noticed at the time but, I assumed that they had gotten sick with something serious and, they were just doing that until the actors got better. When they had to go to the peace confrence that's when I knew they had been fired. Anyways, when a movie does something similar there's not much they can do to ease a person into the change. It's basically one moment George get's nearly an entire movie with Marty. Then the next movie they hardly acknowledge eachother and, George spends most of his time on screen upside down.

Thinking about it right now though. They probably spent just as much money if not, more getting the voice actors, holding auditions for Adam, Rocky, and Aisha, and trying to figure out how to shoot around the fact that they had body doubles for Jason, Zack, and Trini. As they would have had they just gone and, given the actors better pay.

bkev:

I didn't know that about Time Force but, I've heard that they were actually thinking of making a second season of Time Force. They just ran out of Timeranger footage to adapt and, that made it hard to justify another season.

About Wild Force Zen-Aku's arc was good. 

Yeah, I did go back and notice that, even in the last episode where Jason, Zack, and Trini actually appeared with original content, their battle scenes are still dubbed by other people.  But now that you mention that, I'm going to check out the White Ranger episode and see if that looks edited.  I never attributed one with the other.  I remember being annoyed that Jason was usurped as the leader, but I never assumed that had anything to do with his impending departure.

The funniest thing about Tommy's return is that the white ranger in Dairanger was a 9-year-old.  Thus, I'm sure he was shorter than the others; wonder how they pulled it off.

Also, when did they do their own footage besides the scenes with the teens?  I know they had costumes in reserve rented from the Japanese company (you can tell they're different based on the material - and the fact that the teens have their helmets off or appear in the command center), but I wonder if there are any other scenes with them.

^Dairanger image. Any shots you see with the white ranger and, the other rangers in Power Rangers is footage shot by Saban. As for when they started shooting footage with the rangers suits/monsters for power rangers. Well in different drum there's some footage shot with the monster getting the girls into the trap. In Peace, Love, and Woe there's some shots of the ranger's in their suit. Production wise it could've been started at the beggining. Since, Tommy and, Thuy's Trini was casted at the same time. Jason David Frank was actually in the suit fighting Austin St. John in Rita's dark dimension. Jason David Frank talks about that fight here.

Gaffer Tape: I'm not really sure it'd be noticable from an editing point of view. Considering they still had the actor for Zordon. All they'd have to do is get him to read another line. The only thing that kind of gives it away is Jason's attitude about the situation. He not only doesn't acknowledge that Zordon gave away his leadership. He outrightly says "This is great!"

Heh, yeah, when I watched it, I did notice that.  Again, I slightly misremembered that from when I was a kid.  I remember being annoyed that Jason's leadership was taken away, and especially at how calmly he took it.  Apparently he had no reaction at all.

And bkev:  The White Ranger is the same height as the other rangers because the kid would be grown to adult height when he transformed.  Saban would do the same thing themselves a couple of years later when they adapted Carranger into Power Rangers Turbo and had Justin the Blue Ranger grow into an adult while morphed.