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MMPR vs. Zyuranger
16 years ago
General
(JUST FOR FUN - you can read this aloud in the Simpson's Comic Guy's voice for added effect on just how ridiculously nerdy this entire thing is. Go ahead. :B )
I was told recently that in order to truly appreciate Power Rangers, you need to trace it back to its Super Sentai source. I've heard this countless times before about various things. Like that The Ring was terrible in comparison to Ringu, for instance. So i was prepared to put this in the same vein as I put dubbed anime versus subbed anime -- basically watching the same thing with different voices and a few line changes here and there.
However in this particular case, I was wrong. Zyuranger is vastly different from its American counterpart, and in a good way. Let me firstly say that I love the Power Ranger series....I honestly do, and have for years. Yes, I should grow up etc. etc. (It isn't my lifestyle, ffs. I don't secretly believe in the morphing grid, its just a guilty pleasure I'm not all that ashamed of anymore). Anyway, I love it for its campiness and its diverse cast of characters....but its always lacked one thing I really desired to see - some strong character evolution.
There WAS character evolution, don't get me wrong....but it was usually pretty sporadic and poorly-done. Or sprung on you out of nowhere. That and it seemed, in some cases, it was less evolution and more devolution (my fellow fans would be quick to point out Goldar's steady journey from Badass Warrior to Bumbling Dumbbell....or maybe Zedd's backslide from Scariest Kids' Villain Of The 90's into Skinless Comedic Relief Man Who Yells A Lot.). Anyway....the characters (the villains especially) had little drive for what they did. They were evil for the sake of being evil and dammit they loved their job no matter how badly they failed at it.
Right away, Zyuranger differs in this aspect. The main villainess, Bandora (who was dubbed into Rita Repulsa), has big reasons for why she does the things she does. Driven insane by the death of her son, she made a pact with Dai Satan (best name ever) to turn her into a witch so she could properly avenge her boy's demise. The price for this pact was he wanted her to destroy Earth's children, which suited Bandora fine because the loss of her son had made her bitter toward seeing happy families. Many of Bandora's plans, therefore, are focused on meddling in the lives of kids....and most of them were utterly ridiculous. In this aspect, they were not shy about pointing out that she was, in fact, INSANE. Her henchmen, many times, seem to be well-aware of the fact they're setting sail for fail, but none of them really have the guts to try and get HER to see that.
Even the henchmen have more dimension to them. Puripurikan (Finster) is an eccentric artist who is....actually a pretty moody little fella. He's the one person in Bandora's court who's not afraid of telling her to STFU when she tries to rush him on his projects, to the point of actually YELLING at her sometimes. He gets upset when his monsters are destroyed, because he honestly does see them as his "art" and not just as throwaway creations made solely for pleasing his queen. If you ever wondered why it seems like Finster is making a lot of violent head/hand gestures in earlier footage when he's saying something appropriately meek and submissive, its likely because Puripuri was cussing Bandora out in the original footage :B
Totpat (Baboo) is a vampire who's never tasted blood. It is speculated that this is why his wings are crippled and undeveloped, and he's a bit on the stupid side. He's tried on a couple of occasions to taste the blood of a youth and been stopped.
Griffazor...or is it Griffazer? (Goldar) is a griffin warrior (which makes a lot more sense than him being a monkey, given his design). For several episodes, he was mute, refusing to speak in anything but grunts and growls. It was not until his wife, Lami (Scorpina), was returned to him that he finally spoke because he was saving his voice for her to hear. Griffazor is less of a growling badass and more of a "let's get this crap done" sort of character. He is not shy about the fact he dearly loves his wife, but he does not let it blind him in battle or distract him from his duties. But apparently when up on the moon and not fighting teenagers in spandex, openly cuddling with Lami is not out of the question.
As far as the Rangers themselves go, they were not randomly appointed by a floating mage's head in a tube. They were the five strongest warriors from the five original tribes of humans that existed since the time of the dinosaurs. With their combined forces, they were able to defeat and imprison Bandora for millions of years, after which they were placed into magical stasis to be awakened should she ever escape so that they could defeat her once again.
Geki, Mei, Boi, Dan, and Goushi stick out like sore thumbs in present day. They dress in their old tribal clothing, they are unfamiliar with the ways of the world, and really aren't shy about butting into other people's personal business because they come from a time when people weren't quite so private about their lives as the tribes took care of one another. The fact they're the Zyurangers is not really a secret, its just that people don't really seem to stop in awe of them as they're too busy PANICKING ABOUT THE FUCKING MONSTERS ATTACKING THE CITY.
....that's another thing. The monsters. They're still campy foamrubber suits, yes, but they are campy foamrubber suits that are actually made to be formidable and probably would have scared the crap out of me if I was a small child when I was introduced to them. King Sphinx...hardly worth a mention on the American show. He growled a lot and blew a few people into another dimension when he flapped his wings. On Zyuranger, his reign of terror spanned two episodes in which he artfully divided his time between being an effeminate man who cornered children to ask them riddles, and if they got the answer incorrectly, would assume his monster form to blow them away and entrap them in trees that were slated to be cut down. And he filled an entire forest with crying, mewling trees....this damned sphinx was set to commit mass murder here. The Zyurangers finally tricked him by turning his riddles around on him and getting him to reveal where his weak spot was so that they could destroy him.
Pudgy Pig? MMPR's episode featuring him has become iconic with how ridiculously hilarious it was. He ate a food festival and made a few people's day crappy. The rangers made him barf by feeding him spicy food and saved the day. In Zyuranger, this pig caused a bit more trouble....it moved too quickly to be seen by the human eye, so as far as people were concerned, their food supply was just rapidly diminishing for no reason. It bred distrust and anger toward one another and caused people to start fighting one another while STARVING IN THE STREETS. The rangers placed its source as a beast called a Circe that originally appeared in Greek mythology and found that it had been destroyed by feeding it a Mola root, which was poisonous to it. The only mola root was owned by a gnome in the woods who refused to give it to them unless they beat him in an eating contest. The reason Bandora neglected to MAKE MY MONSTER GROOOOW this time? She was too weak and dizzy to throw her wand to earth because she'd been on a crash diet starving herself.
....
NOW...aside from all of the darker aspects of Zyuranger, it also manages to recognize that its purpose is to entertain children. It makes little attempt to take itself seriously and is, by and large, a very silly show unless its trying to pound in the gravity of the world being in peril. No "what have we learned today?", none of that. If you want further proof, go watch Episode 23 for some hot Man-on-Motorcycle Sidecar action. The combination of character quirks and ridiculousness make it, honestly, a delight to watch. I would happily watch this with my kids if it were a show on TV today.
Its worth a look, and about 20 of the episodes have been subbed by the fan community and put on Youtube. I'm still making my way through the series, but liking it quite a bit. XD
...and....well....I don't really know where I was going with this I just felt like yammering about it. *slithers back into her hole*
I was told recently that in order to truly appreciate Power Rangers, you need to trace it back to its Super Sentai source. I've heard this countless times before about various things. Like that The Ring was terrible in comparison to Ringu, for instance. So i was prepared to put this in the same vein as I put dubbed anime versus subbed anime -- basically watching the same thing with different voices and a few line changes here and there.
However in this particular case, I was wrong. Zyuranger is vastly different from its American counterpart, and in a good way. Let me firstly say that I love the Power Ranger series....I honestly do, and have for years. Yes, I should grow up etc. etc. (It isn't my lifestyle, ffs. I don't secretly believe in the morphing grid, its just a guilty pleasure I'm not all that ashamed of anymore). Anyway, I love it for its campiness and its diverse cast of characters....but its always lacked one thing I really desired to see - some strong character evolution.
There WAS character evolution, don't get me wrong....but it was usually pretty sporadic and poorly-done. Or sprung on you out of nowhere. That and it seemed, in some cases, it was less evolution and more devolution (my fellow fans would be quick to point out Goldar's steady journey from Badass Warrior to Bumbling Dumbbell....or maybe Zedd's backslide from Scariest Kids' Villain Of The 90's into Skinless Comedic Relief Man Who Yells A Lot.). Anyway....the characters (the villains especially) had little drive for what they did. They were evil for the sake of being evil and dammit they loved their job no matter how badly they failed at it.
Right away, Zyuranger differs in this aspect. The main villainess, Bandora (who was dubbed into Rita Repulsa), has big reasons for why she does the things she does. Driven insane by the death of her son, she made a pact with Dai Satan (best name ever) to turn her into a witch so she could properly avenge her boy's demise. The price for this pact was he wanted her to destroy Earth's children, which suited Bandora fine because the loss of her son had made her bitter toward seeing happy families. Many of Bandora's plans, therefore, are focused on meddling in the lives of kids....and most of them were utterly ridiculous. In this aspect, they were not shy about pointing out that she was, in fact, INSANE. Her henchmen, many times, seem to be well-aware of the fact they're setting sail for fail, but none of them really have the guts to try and get HER to see that.
Even the henchmen have more dimension to them. Puripurikan (Finster) is an eccentric artist who is....actually a pretty moody little fella. He's the one person in Bandora's court who's not afraid of telling her to STFU when she tries to rush him on his projects, to the point of actually YELLING at her sometimes. He gets upset when his monsters are destroyed, because he honestly does see them as his "art" and not just as throwaway creations made solely for pleasing his queen. If you ever wondered why it seems like Finster is making a lot of violent head/hand gestures in earlier footage when he's saying something appropriately meek and submissive, its likely because Puripuri was cussing Bandora out in the original footage :B
Totpat (Baboo) is a vampire who's never tasted blood. It is speculated that this is why his wings are crippled and undeveloped, and he's a bit on the stupid side. He's tried on a couple of occasions to taste the blood of a youth and been stopped.
Griffazor...or is it Griffazer? (Goldar) is a griffin warrior (which makes a lot more sense than him being a monkey, given his design). For several episodes, he was mute, refusing to speak in anything but grunts and growls. It was not until his wife, Lami (Scorpina), was returned to him that he finally spoke because he was saving his voice for her to hear. Griffazor is less of a growling badass and more of a "let's get this crap done" sort of character. He is not shy about the fact he dearly loves his wife, but he does not let it blind him in battle or distract him from his duties. But apparently when up on the moon and not fighting teenagers in spandex, openly cuddling with Lami is not out of the question.
As far as the Rangers themselves go, they were not randomly appointed by a floating mage's head in a tube. They were the five strongest warriors from the five original tribes of humans that existed since the time of the dinosaurs. With their combined forces, they were able to defeat and imprison Bandora for millions of years, after which they were placed into magical stasis to be awakened should she ever escape so that they could defeat her once again.
Geki, Mei, Boi, Dan, and Goushi stick out like sore thumbs in present day. They dress in their old tribal clothing, they are unfamiliar with the ways of the world, and really aren't shy about butting into other people's personal business because they come from a time when people weren't quite so private about their lives as the tribes took care of one another. The fact they're the Zyurangers is not really a secret, its just that people don't really seem to stop in awe of them as they're too busy PANICKING ABOUT THE FUCKING MONSTERS ATTACKING THE CITY.
....that's another thing. The monsters. They're still campy foamrubber suits, yes, but they are campy foamrubber suits that are actually made to be formidable and probably would have scared the crap out of me if I was a small child when I was introduced to them. King Sphinx...hardly worth a mention on the American show. He growled a lot and blew a few people into another dimension when he flapped his wings. On Zyuranger, his reign of terror spanned two episodes in which he artfully divided his time between being an effeminate man who cornered children to ask them riddles, and if they got the answer incorrectly, would assume his monster form to blow them away and entrap them in trees that were slated to be cut down. And he filled an entire forest with crying, mewling trees....this damned sphinx was set to commit mass murder here. The Zyurangers finally tricked him by turning his riddles around on him and getting him to reveal where his weak spot was so that they could destroy him.
Pudgy Pig? MMPR's episode featuring him has become iconic with how ridiculously hilarious it was. He ate a food festival and made a few people's day crappy. The rangers made him barf by feeding him spicy food and saved the day. In Zyuranger, this pig caused a bit more trouble....it moved too quickly to be seen by the human eye, so as far as people were concerned, their food supply was just rapidly diminishing for no reason. It bred distrust and anger toward one another and caused people to start fighting one another while STARVING IN THE STREETS. The rangers placed its source as a beast called a Circe that originally appeared in Greek mythology and found that it had been destroyed by feeding it a Mola root, which was poisonous to it. The only mola root was owned by a gnome in the woods who refused to give it to them unless they beat him in an eating contest. The reason Bandora neglected to MAKE MY MONSTER GROOOOW this time? She was too weak and dizzy to throw her wand to earth because she'd been on a crash diet starving herself.
....
NOW...aside from all of the darker aspects of Zyuranger, it also manages to recognize that its purpose is to entertain children. It makes little attempt to take itself seriously and is, by and large, a very silly show unless its trying to pound in the gravity of the world being in peril. No "what have we learned today?", none of that. If you want further proof, go watch Episode 23 for some hot Man-on-Motorcycle Sidecar action. The combination of character quirks and ridiculousness make it, honestly, a delight to watch. I would happily watch this with my kids if it were a show on TV today.
Its worth a look, and about 20 of the episodes have been subbed by the fan community and put on Youtube. I'm still making my way through the series, but liking it quite a bit. XD
...and....well....I don't really know where I was going with this I just felt like yammering about it. *slithers back into her hole*
