Power Rangers Samurai and Super Samurai Review

Ladies and gentlemen from the command center

episode 21 is tagged explicit We do use foul

language in this episode So if you have kids

or if you don't like foul language, please turn

the podcast off. I'm sorry It's Power Rangers

samurai people. How can we not use F bombs and

S bombs and a -holes and hell yeah hell noes

and whatever else so you've been warned the show

is explicit Welcome to a collaboration between

the GeekCast Radio Network and the Pop Culture

Network. This is from the Command Center of the

podcast, episode 21. I am your host, TF2, and

Mike, and joining me live for the first time

is the Super Sentai guy, Spada the Bolt Matrix.

Hello. Hello. Konnichiwa. How are you, sir? What?

Konnichiwa. Yes. Scotty Cash had a family emergency

and he could not make it this evening, so it'll

be Spada and I talking about samurai. Oh, samurai.

Oh god. They tried? They tried. They failed.

So before we get into it, we do have some feedback.

This is from the Pop Culture Network's forums

over at popculturenetwork .com. Crunchman61 says,

Having gone through and re -watched RPM, in anticipation

for your episode, I have to say that this season

is hands down one of the best seasons ever made.

Definitely in my top 3. It felt like the writers

decided to write a show that felt more friendly

to older audiences. The action was amazing. Dylan

Rankes is my favorite ranger of all time and

the story was very well done. Ranger Blue being

my favorite episode, seriously, anyone who hasn't

seen this has to watch that episode. It's a shame

that after such a great season, Disney didn't

continue the series as I feel they would have

made a much better product out of Shinkenger

than Saban did. If you were to ask me what my

top Ranger seasons are, I'd give you In Space,

RPM, and Time Force. Great episode as always

and can't wait to hear you tear Samurai apart.

Oh, yeah, that's going to happen. Well, I do

have a very interesting tidbit. I don't know

how much I got. I can't remember how much I got

into this in my go on your talk for when you're

talking about RPM. But there was no plot. RPM

did not. I'm sorry. Go on your did not have a

plot. There was nothing tying the series together.

It was just a. It was what was known as a comedy

series, so it was just a bunch of gags and funny

episodes with very minuscule little things thrown

in. There was no point to the show. Yeah, apparently

not. And we also have, as always, we have notes

from Chaotix as well, and we'll have notes from

him at the very end of the podcast. He says,

great episode, guys. While I still personally

view it as one of the best seasons, it was fun

to see your differing opinions on RPM and the

discussion that came from them. Agreed with Scottie

and RPM's comedy, it seriously is some of the

best in the franchise's history, if only Saban's

current writing staff would follow its lead rather

than failing to recapture those slapsticky moments

from the MMPR days in Samurai. Then the show

might have come out a little bit less awkward.

Didn't really understand your gripes about pointless

episodes, as I found the most of them, minus

the dome dolls and action, of course. held important

plot points regardless of whom they focused on

or where the ranger zord fights were all that

important in the grand scheme of things but hey

different views and all that that's all i got

for you this month stay tuned to the fttc thread

on the pc and forums for my final thoughts on

samurai and i'll look forward to your episode

on it should be quite interesting to say the

least keep up the super work just as a note um

even though scotty is not here i know that scotty

does not like samurai i'm sure there might be

certain things that he likes certain aspects

he likes about it but as far as i can tell his

overall opinion on it he does not like it whatsoever

uh... and because scotty is not here this time

around next month when we do our countdowns i

will we will be able to have uh... uh... scottie's

general opinion of of of samurai then so samurai

is the Technically 19th season, right? About

that, yeah. Well, because you don't count the

MMPR re - image or the Transformers Generation

2 version of MMPR. That was originally counted

as the 18th season. Technically, if you have

93 to 96 and count that as one season, This is

technically the 16th season. Oh wow, geez. So,

anyway, with Saban Brands buying back the franchise,

the show was produced by SCG Power Rangers and

began airing on Nickelodeon and Nicktoons on

February 7th, 2011. As with all Power Rangers

programs, Power Rangers Samurai is based on one

of the entries in the Super Sentai series, in

the case of Samurai the Source series being,

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger. uh... samarans has

said that the show will have a brighter tone

and gets infusion of fun and comedy that wasn't

present in season sixteen and seventeen uh...

god somebody shoot me now but but but but but

but somebody just just take a uh... cure x blaster

and just shoot me now holy shit uh... and yes

we are cursing in this i did put a uh... A disclaimer

at the beginning of the episode saying that this

would be a rant -filled, curse -filled episode.

So, yeah. I guess you could count this as a plus,

Feta. Power Rangers Samurai is the first season

to be shot and broadcast in HD. I guess that's

a plus. Okay. I don't know. And that would be

because Shinkenger was also the first episode,

or first Super Sentai to be shot in SD. I'm sorry,

HD. HD. Yeah. The samurai is split into two 20

episode season the second set of 20 episodes

began on February 18th 2012 and is called Power

Rangers Super Samurai Okay, so pretty much what

they did was they took a single series and stretched

it over what one and a half to two years two

seasons now this is where it gets confusing because

it counts Samurai itself, the first 20 episodes,

they count that as the 18th season. This is how

they're getting to Megaforce being the 20th overall

season. They count Samurai itself, the first

20 episodes, season 18. They count Super Samurai,

season 19. Well, that's just dumb. It's the same

freaking series! I, like... Don't know that makes

absolutely no sense, but You have to I think

that what they're doing here is they're looking

at the way television works and a season or a

Series if you have one series from one series

to another there has to be a certain amount of

time Between the airings like four to six months

before you can call it another series or season

Exactly, and that's just that's just the way

TV works. That's the way television here in the

US has worked for many years But I mean if you've

got So they were calling it a different series,

right? Not a different season No, it says in

here in the Wikipedia article It says samurai

is split into two 20 episode seasons the second

set of 20 episodes began on February 18th 2012

and is called Power Rangers Super Samurai Okay,

if they're calling which is being called a new

season samurai is considered to be the 19th season

Super samurai super samurai is considered to

be the 19th season. Oh, that's just stupid Mean

it would be it would be I would be more incredulous

and angry if they called it the 19th series Yeah,

but if they're just saying seasons, it's just

saying see they could get away with the calling

it seasons Yeah, it's just saying it's just saying

seasons What were your initial impressions of

this series when he first saw it? To be honest,

not that positive when I first saw it. And I

kind of felt the same way about Samurai that

I felt about almost all of the other Power Rangers

seasons that Disney got a hold of. And that first

episode is always very awkward. We saw it with

Megaforce this past week, and we've seen it with

all the other... All the other series we saw

it with jungle fury with overdrive with mystic

force with SPD Not so much with dino thunder

back because I think the quality of actors was

better But the quality of acting in those first

few episodes is always terrible well the problem

Because I completely ignored samurai after we're

seeing quote -unquote first episode on nickelodeon

i'd just completely ignored it until it hit netflix

uh... the problem i had with samurai is that

they start out airing episode three the team

unite yet if you look a little bit a lot in had

done all these promos and you saw these pros

all all over the internet of arrows flying by

in the team being summoned and then you see the

team unites they did not show origins part one

and part two until like episode 19 and 20 of

the series and then they retroactively go back

because it's now fixed on netflix where origins

part one and part two is at the top of the list

instead of listed it as 19 it's the 19th and

the 20th that's one of the reasons why i just

didn't give a shit about samurai and that's that

would explain why i was fucked it up that would

be explaining why i was so confused when I first

watched it, what, two years ago? Yeah. Because

I was intrinsically familiar with Shinkenger,

because at that point, Gohsager was already almost

done, I think. Or was that, that was what, 2011

when it first aired? Or when did that air? Was

it 2011? What, Samurai? Yeah. Yeah. Samurai started

in 2011. So Gohkaiger would have just started.

in February of 2011. So... So Sentai was already

two seasons ahead. Wow. And, well, right now

they're two seasons ahead, because Gobuster is

finishing, and then Kyoryuger is going to be

starting. Which, I'll tell you about that after

the show, it sounds like it's going to be insane.

Hopefully. But... Samurai... When it started

I sat there and I went okay Okay, so this is

the red guy. This is the blue guy. This is the

okay. These are all the colors and oh, hey, they've

even got a GG or the the trainer Mentor mentor

he would there and oh, hey, he likes motorcycles.

That's straight out of shinkenger and they're

at a dojo Okay, straight out of shinkenger And

then they went into the mega When they got into

the Megazord, they went into their Megasuits.

I'm like, huh. That wasn't in Shinkenger. Now,

I actually like the Megasuits. I think that's

interesting. And I kind of wish they fought in

those all the time. I do too. I'm right there

with you. I'm like, these... These regular suits

are just so boring and bland and just so filled

with spandex and the mega suits, the mega mode

suits, those are more almost like armor, kind

of like what we had with Mighty Morphin the movie.

The one thing I do find that's funny is the female

costumes have chiseled boobs. It's like what?

Shinkenger just kind of scratches my I scratch

my head at Shinkenger because it feels like Saban

didn't know what they were doing They had an

idea. They had a basic plot Synopsis they had

the footage, but they didn't know what to do

to bring it to America mm -hmm and I Think that

was also represented in the toys Yeah. Because

the toys, now the Shinkenger toys versus the

samurai toys are vastly different. Just incredibly

vastly different. They're so different that Bandai

of America is now releasing a $69 version of

the Japanese samurai Megazord over here. Oh,

wow. So it's kind of like Takara and Hasbro.

I kind of yeah that would be um Except if Takara

used completely different molds for all the toys

That would be a better analogy yeah, but it just

it feels very disjointed it feels like they didn't

know what they were doing and then they went

oh crap we we gotta stretch this out we gotta

make we we spent so much money to do this we

need to stretch out all of the money that we

have let's make it two seasons because apparently

it was not doing well in the ratings yeah that's

that's nuts um Going back and having watched

all 40 episodes plus The clash of the Red Rangers

movie Which that's the one thing I I can't stand

about about samurai super samurai is because

they wanted to make it two seasons that they

have to Split everything like there's like seven

different entries for the samurai stuff on netflix

there's the clash the red ranger movie which

is an individual thing there's the halloween

episode there's the christmas episode there's

like all these different things and then you

have samurai itself and super samurai itself

as the two separate seasons and i'm thinking

why didn't you morons just streamline this stuff

put it all under one banner like every other

season is in netflix to like um like just off

the top of my head how I'm thinking Dino Thunder

was listed episode like it was all listed under

one episodes 1 through 25 and then 26 through

32 was the remainder what however many episodes

were in you see what I'm saying where it's one

listing instead of all this stuff. I was like,

oh my God, because I went through and I watched

all 40 episodes first. And then I'm like, wait,

where's the crossover? Scotty told me there was

a crossover with RPM. And it's a separate frigging

listing in Netflix. And that movie was based

on the Schenkenger versus Gohanjer movie. Right.

I don't know. I really don't know. I'm wondering

if this was actually something that Nickelodeon

forced on them. It probably I'm not I'm not I'm

not blaming Netflix. I am so no I mean, I mean,

yeah, I'm wondering if Nickelodeon forced the

name change on Saban. Oh Hmm in order to drum

up re in order to select, you know kind of rebrand

it because the current theory now is that is

that Megaforce in like November is going to become

Super Megaforce and pick up, I don't know, it's

going to pick up the Gokaiger costumes. And the

reason that thought process is happening is because

we've already got all the toys that would have

come out for this series before the show even

aired. Like, the show just aired, and I have

half of the Zords that are supposed to be in

the show. It's crazy. Alright, let's talk about

the Rangers themselves. You have Jayden, who

is the Red Samurai Ranger. Supposedly. What did

you think of Jayden as the leader? Very typical.

Very typical of what they were trying to do But

I will give the actor credit Yeah, because the

Schenkenger Red Ranger was very similar Okay,

very driven very Kind of a kind of a party pooper

Mm -hmm, and Jayden was kind of that way as well

but he was more open and kinder? Yeah, there

were times when he was just brooding around,

but I - Oh, that's straight out of Schenkenger.

Right, right. That is straight out of Schenkenger,

that whole brooding. Yeah, the times when he

was brooding, I'm flashing back to 2006 and,

oh my god, it's Brandon Routh in the Superman

suit, holy crap! Uh... Can we not talk about

that? Um... It he's an okay character But if

you notice if you watch some of the episodes

the episode I know I haven't seen all 50 episodes.

I've seen about half of them, maybe 20 to 25

Hmm if you notice that he like becomes less and

less tan and then gets more tan and then becomes

less and less tan Did you notice that? Yes, I

I don't know if they were just Now, this was

all filmed in New Zealand, so I'm wondering if

he just went into a tan booth or something? I

don't know. Possibly. Alright, next up is Kevin

the Blue Samurai Ranger, portrayed by Najee D.

Tiege, I think that's how you say his name? Bless

you. Yeah, yeah, that's you. Devoted swordsman

who dreamt of becoming an Olympic swimmer before

being summoned to fight against the nylocks.

Kevin is the one ranger that has a sword stuck

up his ass half the time. You think he's bad?

You should have seen Ryosuke from Shinkenger.

Let me tell you about a bamboo sword stuck up

your ass. Now, the one thing I'm very glad that

they didn't bring over from Shinkenger is the

tight pants. The actor that played Samurai Blue

wore an outfit of a black windbreaker and blue

jean pants. They were so tight that the actor

actually said afterwards that there were times

where he was having problems walking because

the pants were too tight. He'd lost like feeling

in his legs and it took him a couple months to

recover from shooting Wow, and he also had an

enormous head You know the old the lollipop girl

yeah, we had a lollipop guy Ranger inching like

And he was a dick Ladies and gentlemen, you now

understand why, outside of the whole language

barrier, why I don't watch Sentai. But Kevin,

the Blue Ranger, was just kind of an ass. He

was, yeah. He was bitter and he was not likable.

Again, that was very, very much from Schenkenger,

but the character never really grew. When he

tried to be likable or when he tried to be nice

or try to you know have an upbeat attitude The

actor I'm sorry the actor just failed at at portraying

it was it seemed like it was so forced Like there

was an episode where they're all going on like

the mentor told them to take a day off and Kevin's

like well I got a train I got to do this. I did

it like the whole that whole episode It took

him so long to just sit back relax and be able

to take a day off and it was just so Forced the

acting was so bad. I'm sorry Whatever your name

is. I think that might have I don't know if that

was just him being a bad actor or him being given

bad direction possibly possibly Next up is me.

Oh want to Nave the pink samurai ranger played

by Erica Fong who is The worst cook in the world?

Which is completely contrary to Shinkenger, where

the Pink Ranger is a fantastic cook, and she

also... The big sister feel between the two characters

is the same, but I... What is with them having

Asian girls as the Pink Ranger? Yeah, I don't

get that That's like that. It's that's the way

it is in Megaforce. That's the way it isn't in

Samurai And wasn't that the way it was in? That's

the way it was in space Isn't that the way it

was in? Oh, what was the show we both hate? No,

not in space in space was Kendra Oh, she was

like no. No. No, you're that's lost galaxy. Oh,

yeah What was the oh, okay. Yeah. I remember

in space now. Yeah. Okay. I got it. And then

yeah, I don't know. It's like ever since Kimberly.

It's like Kimberly and Kat from MMPR. We can't

have a yeah. Oh, yeah. And then in Dino Thunder,

there was no Pink Ranger. No, no, there wasn't.

But that's beside the point. Yeah. I don't know.

It really She did the actress played the character.

Okay. Yeah, I mean Mia really didn't have anything

to do No, she was just kind of there She really

had in all honesty. She really had nothing to

contribute other than I'm the pink ranger The

only time that she actually got decent backstory

or decent Characterization is when her brother

showed up and they found out that she used to

be in a band I mean, that's really the only real

character development I've ever seen out of her

in the entire series, other than the finale episode

where she's like, yeah, I'm gonna go to cooking

school and learn to be better. Yay. And that

the brother showing up was the exact same thing

that happened in Schenkenger. Are you noticing

a pattern yet, people? Yeah, they pretty much

copied. everything for the most part. We move

on to Mike, the green samurai ranger, who is

my favorite male ranger out of this cast. I love

Mike. Mike is awesome. I agree with you. He is

by far the best of all of the rangers. He is

not only the most likable, he's the most relatable,

because he seems to actually have the most depth

as a human being, as opposed to all the others.

Yeah, exactly and and and and he's just awesome

just awesome And then you have his girlfriend

Emily. Oh wait spoilers Yeah, that was an engine

canger. I mean, but I knew that was like after

like the 15th or 16th episode I was like, yeah,

that's a thing now Emily is portrayed by Brittany

Anne Pertle, a sweet, innocent country girl who

becomes a ranger by chance. She replaces her

sick sister Serena, who was destined for the

position. Oh my god, that is the exact same thing

that happened in Shinkenger. I mean, to the letter

and the country girl aspect, the Shinkenger character

was from fucking Osaka, Japan, which is considered

the country in Japan. Their dialect, or their

accent, is actually kind of similar to our Southern

accent, believe it or not. If you want to melt

your brain that way. Jeez, that's crazy. But,

I just, god, argh! Well, I liked Emily. I thought

she was kind of cool. I liked her more than Mia.

Did she have a severe confidence problem? Yes,

Emily is the one with the con - No! No, Emily

is not - In her past, she did. That's why she

doesn't when the confidence monster tries to

hurt her. In her past, she did. She had a severe

confidence problem because people used to pick

on her as a kid, but as a ranger, she doesn't.

Okay, that is different than Shinkenger because

in Shinkenger, the Yellow Ranger has a severe

confidence problem through most of the series,

actually. And it's only within the last, like,

15 to 20 episodes that she - that that's when

the confidence monster shows up yeah and then

we have quite possibly the worst gold ranger

in history Antonio Garcia oh god a hispanic sushi

chef there's something fishy about that folks

I need to explain this a little bit um go ahead

take it away in shinkenger the gold ranger was

a was a was a sushi chef who had a cart that

he would travel around and that that happens

that is it that you know these types of carts

like food carts are everywhere in japan they

like just pull them up unfold them and they're

benches and everything for people to sit and

eat and he was a very accomplished sushi sushi

chef god sushi chef But when the Gold Ranger

was going to appear, I tuned in, originally tuned

in to Samurai because Nickelodeon, or I saw an

ad for it, I think Nickelodeon actually kind

of made a little bit of a big deal about it at

first. And then he showed up and I'm just sitting

there going, what are you fucking kidding me?

bannock sushi chef okay fine fine sure we need

to have our multicultural rangers sure go ahead

just go ahead everything this guy did this i

really feel bad for this actor because he was

set up to fail Because the Gold Ranger is this

bombastic, larger -than -life character who is

very bubbly. He is the exact polar opposite of

the ultra stoic Red Ranger. Yeah. It's like Ren

and Stimpy. I don't know if any of our listeners

are young enough to know what the hell I'm talking

about. Yeah. But... To give... instead of trying

to work with that and make him, I don't know,

just make him tone him down a little, no. They

bring in a guy who looks like he belongs out

of fucking Twilight and tell him, okay, go with

it. It's like, go with what? I don't know, do

something wacky. It's like, what? No. Who directed

this is what I wanna know because it really feels

like Shinkenger, it really feels like the direction

on Shinkenger was, okay, go. How was that? Oh,

it was great. We'll just, we'll fix it in post,

move along. It's like they took one or two shots

for a scene and just went, okay, that's a wrap,

we're done. And they ended up with terrible dialogue,

terrible looks, Not looks but terrible Acting

and it just it feels like a rushed production.

Yeah, none of these actors Except for the guy

playing the Green Ranger connect Yeah, Hector

David jr. Is played by plays Mike. Um, you know,

I One thing I don't understand and I'm kind of

going backwards here a bit something I forgot

to mention with Jaden Young Jaden sounds like

he's from Australia or New Zealand or that what

what he has an accent adult Teenage whatever

the fuck Jaden has no accent Well, okay. I I

know from experience, you know pocket on Harvard.

Yeah, I lost a lot of that when I moved from

Massachusetts to Kentucky, but most of the time

an accent that damn strong is not going to just

disappear even if you're you know even if you

go through puberty and your voice drops out yes

yes yes it can um when when i was in college

we had a guy from georgia yeah and he there was

a part of our group he was a guy from georgia

and he was a really great guy and he spoke exactly

like anyone from the north or Yankee country

would speak. And I asked him and I said, how

hard are you trying to not do your native accent

from your hometown? And he said, that is beaten

out of you in high school. In a lot of high schools

down south, they have accent or you can take

a class where you learn to lose the accent because

people in the other parts of the country will

not take you seriously if you've got that accent.

Yeah. And he said he it took about six months

for him to lose it. Now, when he when he got

tired or inebriated, it was hysterical because

that accent would come back. And I myself from

Baltimore, when I get tired, you can hear the

Baltimore accent. I do like when I do like about

the gold ranger specifically not necessarily

Antonio but the gold ranger I like the fact that

he has to that he used tagging he was able to

you know train himself I like that aspect of

it I think that's a cool way then not necessarily

the traditional way of doing the samurai stuff

I thought that was pretty cool and that again

is from Shinkenger the gold ranger was taught

a little bit by his dad who was good friends

with the red rangers dad right but he learned

pretty much his entire fighting style and all

of his abilities by himself now that begs the

question of where the hell did he get a morpher

but you know we can only go so far in an in antonio's

case he found a cell phone and and did something

i have a cell phone i have I have their three

cell phones in my house. None of these put me

in golden colored spandex. Unless there's an

app for that. There probably is. And then finally,

you have Lauren, the red samurai ranger. This

is the big secret Jaden was keeping. He's not

the real Red Ranger. His sister is. I swear to

God, it's a complete copy. of... When you and

your sister were a little baby, Horak came in

and stole your sister from us and turned her...

It's... Okay, it's not the evil bark of Lorne

isn't evil, but it's like that whole super secret

of brother -sister thing. And I just... I was

like, seriously? This is where they're going

with this? Again, that whole plot twist is from...

Shinkenger. But... Shinkenger actually has historical

There's a historical precedent for that Mm -hmm

in Japan what they had I can't remember the word

for it. I'm trying to look it up while I'm talking

here, but in order to protect like the Shoguns

and The real people in charge they would they

would promote copies or not dummies, but there

would be someone of equal age raised along with

the royalty trained to become, you know, really

good and just as equal as on par with the royalty.

But if shit went down, that person would take

the place of the royalty for the royalty to escape

and the opposing force would think, oh, we defeated

the royalty, we killed them. Yeah. And for the

life of me, I can't remember the name of it.

But there is actual precedent in Japanese history

and Japanese lore for stuff like that, for that.

Yeah. As far as allies, you have Mentor G, the

ranger's sensei who helps them in their samurai

training and provides the team with information

on their enemies. Raised Jaden from a young age

and trained him to take arms as the red samurai

ranger. Like the ranger, he can use symbol power

to perform various tasks. The best moment I think

Mentor G ever had was when he got Antonio out

of his funk. There was an episode where... I

don't know if you've seen this one. There's an

episode where a monster turned people and the

Rangers into physical things. Imagine, um, the

transforming blender from Revenge of the Fallen.

Oh, yes. Okay. Okay. So like Antonio, he got

turned into a fish. And when he got changed back,

he, like all of his confidence was just gone.

He couldn't do anything, couldn't do this, couldn't

do that. whatever else and mentor G finally said

okay well i'm gonna get him back on his game

basically came up to him you know grabbed his

shoulder forced him around said here eat this

sushi and go help your friends i love that about

mentor G that was so awesome that varies i know

what scene you're talking about i have seen that

episode i have seen that scene the same exact

fucking thing happened in shinkenger line and

when this originally happened I went way and

I fired up my the episode that I had on my on

my other computer and I went oh my god it's line

for line shot for shot the same and I found the

word it is a kage musha otherwise known as a

political decoy Oh, so kind of like Amidala and

Padme. Oops. We don't talk about episode one

around here Yes Yeah, not well Amidama and Padme

are the same thing. Um, well remember in the

third episode where where they were the Princess

supposedly walked down and then got blowed up.

Yeah, that that's that's it. Yeah, exactly All

right, so Gonna put a little disclaimer here

because the next character we have to talk about

we've known Since our childhoods since the original

MMP our days, and I do eventually want to interview

Paul Schrier I would actually love to interview

Jason Harvey and Paul Schrier together as Not

necessarily as their characters, but just do

the interview with them together I loved bulk

as a kid Don't get me wrong. He was a neat little

adversary thing to the rangers and bulk amongst

his time from mmpr through was it in space or

was it through um turbo i forget he was all the

way through lost galaxy okay okay lost galaxy

okay um bulk from mmpr to lost galaxy he they

wrote him up he his character developed over

time he he and skull didn't just want to find

out who the rangers were they were actually going

to go help the rangers and everything else so

i think it's nice that they decided to bring

paul back to reprise bulk but i don't like the

writing for bulk i don't they're basically trying

to create nineteen ninety three all over again

with bulk instead of him being a kid or younger

you know He's now his adult self and you basically

erase all of the character development. He's

had in the last 20 years Yeah, pretty much. It's

like he's it's like it's like he had a like a

stroke or something and reverted back to high

school Pretty much. Yeah, you know what it would

have been a much better use of bulk If he was

the if he was the mentor to the Rangers Think

about that for a little bit because if you see

him as a mature adult having been through 10

plus years of being around the rangers and then

is contacted by a ranger society or a society

to train rangers and he acts as more of a father

figure and he can and then you could get all

these throwbacks to the original times that he

could tell the time of that he and skull were

transported to a different planet and the two

of them had to fight it out with a fellow gladiator

in order to get home the time that they saved

the power rangers they i think they've done that

two or three times yes they have the time they

had to save a baby on roller blades Yeah Yeah,

you're right it would have made a much better

storyline and it would have made It would have

made things more interesting with his nephew

because you have his nephew is his godson He's

trying to I don't remember was the godson there

for like summer vacation or something Did they

ever say it was the way it was portrayed to me

was? He came to Bulk to learn the samurai ways.

It's kind of like a summer camp thing kind of

deal. Well, then that would even make more sense

because you have Bulk and you could come up with

some great comedy bits where Bulk is trying to

prevent his nephew from finding out that the

people he has been training with or he has been

at camp with quote unquote are actually the Rangers.

And he's, you know, teaching this kid life lessons

and trying to teach this kid to be, you know,

a better person because let's face it, when you're

a teenager, your faculties haven't actually developed

yet. That that's a scientific fact. Yeah, but

it would have made a much better show. It would

have it just would have made everything so much

more cohesive. It would be like, OK. Bulk is

here for a reason. It is not just an homage.

He is here for a legitimate reason. And then,

you know, a couple of episodes could be showing

just how badass Bulk has become in the past 10

years. How much he has learned. Like a monster

could show up and Bulk is able to take or make

the monster flee with his bare hands. Yeah. yeah

they could have done so much with bulk and then

they could have still had that finale episode

where skull shows up and then they just kind

of fall back into their old ways that would have

made which they do in the finale episode they

fall back into their old ways they stumble over

each other they fall down whatever it is the

old classic bulk and skull and that's great it's

fine for a finale episode I agree with you they

should have written him a little bit better and

spike Oh, I don't care for the style of comedy.

I just it's I Know Samurai supposedly they're

trying to create Power Rangers for the next generation

for like if You know geeks of our age have kids

they can show this to their kids, which I hope

they never do actually You know I understand

they were going for that with spike, but I just

don't care for spikes style of humor at all it

just Reminds me of the 90s too much and not in

a good way It's just yeah, we've Serena is Emily

Emily's older sister. We talked about her Kevin's

father Jayden's father Daisuke is the elder guardian

of the Tenjin gate or the first samurai Rangers

battled the Nihiluk army Of course, you got Scott

Truman from RPM coming over I like this next

part about Cody and Cody's father. The fact that

they're guardians of the first samurai zord.

I like that little plot line that they did there.

I thought that was cool. And it was an interesting

way to find a zord. And then you got Terry Watanabe,

which is me as brother for villains. You've got

the nylox and Master Xandred. Who live in an

alternate dimension? They live in It's so weird.

I The way Schenkenger tells it is these are the

creatures that exist within the cracks of the

world and That's an actual ancient lore in Japan.

It did like it's like an old not a fairy tale,

but it's It's something that is kind of like

The Boogeyman, you could say. They're malevolent

spirits, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They sail

along the Sanzu River. And all these names are

steeped in remnants of Japanese lore. But even

in Shinkenger, most of these villains were really

boring. Most of them are really boring and samurai,

too. And oh my god, Octoroo, I wanted to cut

that guy's tentacles off and just shove him down

his throat. Oh my god, I hate that character.

He wasn't that annoying in Shakenger. He was

just kind of there. He was the one that would

go into the real world, you know, while everybody

else just stayed back on the ship. Octoroo to

me is kind of like if you pushed squat and babu

together and made one character. Yes I was thinking

that That's what that that's what he's supposed

to be and that's what his his voice is kind of

like a combination of squat and babu's voice

and that's all right But just after a while it

just kind of created on me Dayu is the female

of the villains Supposedly she used to be human.

Yeah, that was the same way in shinkanger. She

has a tragic past blah blah blah Speaking of

tragic past you have Cole Evans red wild forest

ranger. Oh, I'm sorry Decker Okay, so that that

is him It is okay. It is it is Rick Ricardo Medina

jr. Credited as Rick Medina. It is Cole Evans

red red wild forest ranger The only reason why

I knew it was him Besides seeing him unlike no

pink spandex or other Power Rangers websites

was I kept hearing him talk and I kept hearing

him say, Oramasa, and I just recognized his voice.

Then I actually looked at him like, hey, that's

cool. Awesome. I like Decker. I think Decker,

it's one of the more interesting plot twists

where he's a human and a nylock. I thought that

was interesting. Yeah, that is actually interesting.

Unfortunately, guess where that comes from? The

Sentai. The Sentai is a little different. He's

kind of like this in between a human and a demon.

I guess they're demons. I can't remember. They're

called the Gedoshu. Whatever. He's kind of evil

spirits. They're evil spirits. He's kind of stuck

between. And he can move freely between human

and and spirit so as opposed to decker who is

both yeah um and then you have serator who is

essentially kind of like the darkonda of this

series yep yep um he's responsible for cursing

decker and turning dai you into a nylock serator

was all right but he for me kind of falls in

the middle of I don't necessarily like him to

the point of oh my god best character ever at

the same time I don't I don't necessarily hate

him to where oh my god this is the dumbest thing

in Power Rangers history he was good he was alright

yeah in the Sentai he was just more of a he was

more of like a political strategist behind the

scenes very strong don't get me wrong yeah but

he was more he was more just things going on

behind the scenes yeah um and then you have fur

balls or furbies or plush toys and furry warts

so we don't need to talk about those things the

moogers are masters androids foot soldiers these

are muka muka muka muka muka muka 21st century

putties um yeah worst toys ever Oh my god, that's

so funny. Uh, Spitfangs are the alternate foot

soldiers that Master Xandred has. Um, they're

like, they're like what if you had a nightmare

and Goomba, a nightmarish Goomba is the best

way to describe it. Oh, that's funny. And then,

uh, Pappy Rocks, which are Serator's personal

giant minions, created from paper cutouts! Yay!

The henchmen in this series, just like the rest

of the series for the most part, suck. They actually

look a little bit on the scary side. I mean,

that whole gaping mouth thing. I mean, they're

definitely a little more scary than, say, a putty.

Or, oh, what were the things from Lost Galaxy?

Those were stupid -looking. Oh, the Sting Wingers!

Was it Lost Galaxy? Well, then they're the Lugies.

Yeah. In Megaforce. Yeah, well, we'll talk about

Megaforce at the end of this episode a little

bit. So let's get into the Zords. First of all,

folding Zords, really? Folding Zords? Dude, the

toys are awesome! The toys may be awesome, but

the execution in the show just... The execution

in Shinkenger is much better. It is much better,

believe me. But the toys themselves are awesome.

The Japanese version of the toys, that is. So

you got the lion, dragon, turtle, bear, and ape

folding zords. I don't like the name Folding

Zords, that's... That's what I don't like! The

Zords themselves, they look cool, but just the

name, Folding Zords, it just, it sounds like...

It just sounds stupid to me. Oh, it's plenty

stupid. I agree. And then you have the Beetle

Zord, the Swordfish Zord, the Tiger Zord, the

Octazord, the Claw Zord, the Shark Zord... The

light zord and the bull zord The light zord.

Oh die go yo Yeah He's In shinkenger. He is actually

very entertaining. He's pretty cool. He the toy

is a lot of fun But I I completely forgot that

they even had this in the show, yeah I can't

imagine it was any good. It's Antonio's sentient

sword. It wasn't able to be opened due to the

fact that no other samurai had light power. It

was part of the reason how Antonio got over his

fear of fish and is normally in a form that resembles

a hand -held fish cooler and can to use Antonio's

sword to transform into a humanoid battle form.

No, it isn't. That's not a hand cooler. That's

a Chinese lantern, you jackasses. I know. And

I know what it was supposed to be, but yeah.

I'm sorry, not a Chinese lantern, just a lantern.

A lantern, yes. Because it's called Light Zord.

Why would it be a fish, handheld fish cooler?

And can use to told Antonio's... yeah, that makes

no sense. Wikipedia, get your shit right. It's

just full of fish! Yes. Out of all the Zords

in this series, like the individual Zord form,

like... Not even Megazord stuff, just the regular

Zord forms. I like most of them. I think Octazord

was my favorite probably if I had to really pick

one. I thought that was really interesting. Do

you have a favorite individual Zord? An individual

Zord? Not really. I kind of like them all. I

think the only one I don't like is the Shark

Zord. Okay. I don't know why they call it a Shark

Zord when it's got feet. But okay. Now, initially,

the shark sword only showed up in the movie,

the Shinkenger movie, and then showed up like

once or twice in the show. Ah, so that's probably

that's why you didn't see it used that much.

Yeah, the bulls or is I don't care for the Bullzord.

It's supposed to be an ox pulling a cart. Yeah.

But I've never really cared for it, especially

considering the fact that when you see it moving,

it doesn't look like it's actually running. Its

legs are just kind of shifting up and down, and

the wheels on its feet are spinning. Yeah. That's

very true. And it's like a giant bus with missile

launchers. So the Megazord formations. You have

the Samurai Megazord. It's Form of the Rangers.

Write the Kanji for Unite. That's the other thing.

I don't mean to be disrespectful to the Samurai

way of life or whatever else, but I'm sorry.

That's one thing I could not get past in this

series is the whole symbol power thing. That

was a Shinkanger thing. I know. They couldn't

get past it. There's no way, there's very little

way they could do the series. If they're supposed

to be samurai, you've got to have Kanji in there

somehow. Yeah. And I don't think it worked in

the US. I think it was kind of dumb. I think

they could have gone the way Jungle Force did

and just did a different morpher. I think watchmorphers

would have been a better idea. as opposed to

a cell phone that turns into a brush that you

write kanji for the kanji for henshin or transform

yeah in the air and the kanji isn't unite the

kanji is gatai which is g -a -t -t -i which is

a play on words in japan for combine or come

together So the samurai Megazord best thing is

or not one of my favorite Megazords of all time

Really? Yes. I love the look of this Megazord

He comes with a giant ass sword that is an actual

katana and just a fun Megazord the Shinkano Which

is what the Megazord is called in Japan is just

one of my favorite favorite Zord Megazords it's

up there with the Zeo Megazord for me Oh, interesting.

I liked it. I thought it was interesting even

though I'm not too fond of it having shoulder

pads or what looked to be shoulder pads out of

the... They're not really shoulder pads. I know

it's the pink zord in the whatever the one makes.

I know they're really not but just seeing how

the pink folding zord folds out and then seeing

it become the right arm of the zord and just

seeing how it looks like it's a shoulder pad.

And then we've got the Beetle Blaster Megazord

where the Megazord combines with the Beetle,

the Swordfish Fencer Megazord, the Tiger Drill

Megazord, the Octo Spear Megazord, and the Samurai

Shark Megazord. All of these are kind of silly.

Yeah, they are they're all interchange. They're

essentially the samurai Megazord, but they're

all interchangeable It's kind of like interchangeable

weapon packs. Yeah pretty much And then there's

the samurai battle wing of hey we need to fly

we need to add something to this So so this is

the combination of the beetle the swordfish and

the tiger They all merge together into a flying

chicken Yes and of course after that is the battle

wing mega zord which you take the flying chicken

and put it on the back of the samurai zord and

there you go it flies yeah pretty much oh and

it gets drill nipples i'm not kidding i know

that's so weird uh we have the claw battle zord

the humanoid battle mode of the claw zord is

different modes named after compass directions

where it utilizes different weapons to adapt

to different situations. So Claw Battlezord West

has a giant fan. Claw Battlezord South has two

giant swords. Claw Battlezord North combines

with the octopus to form a giant octopus spear.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the octopus spear charge. And

then East is its default form. where it can then

flip out the pincers over its arms. I don't like

this. This is just so stupid. I want to say the

toy is good, but it is really dumb. Just on basis

of watching it in the show, it's like, first

of all, no opponent is going to give you time.

to switch claw battles or east west north no

opponent is going to give you the time to have

your equipment switch and well not only that

but if you're in the middle of battle and you're

you're say you're in the south mode with the

two swords or swords and then you want to switch

to east or say you want to switch back to or

up to north you got to move that that gold ranger

has got to move that dial two spaces and it's

just like you're right There is not enough time

in the day Oh, excuse me, not enough time in

battle for this to happen. No The claw armor

Megazord is formed when the samurai Megazord

and the claw battlezord utilize super samurai

combination in Order to utilize the super samurai

combination one of the Rangers must be in super

mega mode to unite both Megazords Wait, I thought

this was wait super mega mode That's what it

says. I'm just reading what it says on the on

the on the internet, dude What the hell is super

mega mode? I don't know. I know there's Super

no snow super mega mo. Yeah, that's um Is that

we're in there in mega mode and then they put

on the white? Yes Yes, that's the white dresses.

Yeah because the claw armor zord kinda happened

like once super samurai starts that second season

so yeah that's what happened okay that never

happened in shinkenger they all ended up with

the super mode at one point yeah but okay the

claw armor mega zord I dubbed cowboy hao because

if you pull up You go and look at my review of

it. It looks like a very the Japanese interpretation

of what a cowboy samurai would be It really really

does if you stop and look at it for a second

And I mean the full cowboy getup like you're

at a rodeo where you've got the chaps and the

giant furry pant legs and the huge hat and the

big shoulder pads like you're going to ride a

bull. Yeah. Maybe a rodeo Megazord would be a

better name. Ain't that the truth? Because I

mean, seriously, it looks like a cowboy. Yeah,

it does. It does. I agree. Because because pretty

much all outside of the Gigazord, all of the

other Megazord formations can get on the bull

and ride it. A light Megazord. It obeys any command

from Antonio and is skilled in hand -to -hand

combat. Its weapons are Blazing Light, Megaspin

Attack, Battle Disc Attack, and Scattershot.

Now with the Light Megazord, I did like the Scattershot

attack. I thought that was really cool. Is that

the one where he shoots all the discs and they're

hovering around the enemy and then they converge?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that is a cool attack. Yeah,

that was a cool attack. The Samurai Light Zord.

The Light Zord can combine with the Dragon Turtle,

Bear, and Ape Folding Zords to form the Samurai

Light Zord. Eh. Eh. Eh. Bull Mega Zord. No one

cares. Which one? Bull Mega Zord. The Humanoid

Battle Mode of the Bull Zord, normally controlled

by Jaden in Shogun Mode. has a great strength

and shows off his primal power. Its weapons are

shoulder blasters and revolving laser blaster.

It can also wield. So that means Jaden's full

of bull. Oh, that makes so much sense. Pretty

much. Now, going down these, before we get to

the last one, the penultimate Zord here, what

I've noticed and what I noticed watching all

the episodes in the series is that you have the

regular ranger outfits you have the mega mode

outfits you have the super mega mode outfit which

is essentially just one of them wearing a white

dress um... you have uh... what is it's uh...

you have the shogun mode so they're basically

the shogun mode is like a shogun warrior outfit

that they can wear uh... basically what it's

doing is it's combining almost every aspect of

the armor ups that happened from Mighty Morphin

Season 1 through Season 3. Is the Shogun mode

the... Okay. Okay. The Shogun mode is the one

with the giant shoulder pads. Giant shoulder

pads and giant helmet. Okay. That's insane. Yes.

And then you have the Samurai Gigazord. Worst

name ever. Giga Zord is formed when the Claw

Armor Megazord, the Samurai Battle Cannon, and

the Bull Megazord utilize the Ultimate Samurai

combination in order to utilize this combination.

One of the Rangers must be in Super Mega Mode

to unite all the Zords, and is in that form of

a standard Humanoid Megazord on a moving -wheeled

platform, attacks with Samurai Strike, Tiger

Drill Charge, Pinsir Claws, Claw Pinsir Slash,

and Ultimate Samurai Slash. It can also leap

into the air and Somersault to deliver a final

blow. When the Rangers in super mega when the

Ranger in super mega mode goes to Shogun mode

the samurai gigazord attacks with the symbol

power mega strike slash Shogun strike combining

the symbol power of all the Zords That was awesome

the combination of every single Zord that is

an awesome visual in the show. It was so cool

The Zords, I don't know For those of you who

have listened to the podcast up to this point

most of you know that I fall on the side of I

like stuff like SPD like like vehicle Zords and

and and Scotty likes the animal Zords and There

are times like Dino Thunder. I like the animal

Zords in that you know Obviously Mighty Morphin.

I like all the animal Zords in that but there

are just some series in Power Rangers that just

have the weirdest things for animal Zords RPM

says hi. Yeah, that was a little weird combination.

Vehicle and animal. It has eyes. It's alive.

And in the Japanese version, they talk. Yeah.

All right. All right. So this is about the point

in the show where we actually would go to a clip

of Spada talking about the Sentai, but he is

here live. So is there anything about Shinkenger

that you want to bring up that the people should

know about? I already brought up a whole lot

about Shinkenger. Really not much, because quite

frankly, there's not much difference between

the two shows. There really isn't. There are

some minor things here and there. I think the

acting in Shinkenger is better, but I would recommend

going onto YouTube and seeing if you can find

some episodes of Shinkenger just to see the Gold

Ranger. because the Gold Ranger is he's really

actually kind of funny at times and then sometimes

he's just plain annoying but it's definitely

worth a look just don't get too invested because

really there's not much to the plot if you don't

think there's a lot of plot in Power Rangers

Samurai there's just as little plot in Super

Sentai or I'm sorry Samurai Sentai Shinkenger

Mean there there's really not a lot going on

on in either show. Oh And the other thing is

um you might want to watch it just to see how?

Just to see the differences between the characters

Or lack of difference between the characters.

I should say Yeah, that's that's true out of

the episodes of samurai that you watch do you

have any favorites? The last one because it ended

In all honesty, the last... It was hard to watch.

It was very hard to watch because for me, Samurai

is as bad as Magic Force. Magic Force, which...

Are you talking about Mystic Force? Mystic Force.

I can't even get the name right, it's so bad.

Um, yeah, because I really didn't like Mystic

Force and I honestly I didn't real I didn't really

like Shinkenger either. Um as about Unfortunately,

you could kind of see the the whole there's something

up with the Red Ranger from the first episode

really Yeah, pretty much and the last episode

of samurai went just as quickly as the last episode

of Shinkenger. And I have to say that Samurai

and Shinkenger both had probably the most anti

-climactic endings ever. I think my favorite

part about the ending of the Samurai series,

because I refuse to call it Samurai and Super

Samurai. I refuse. It's Samurai. It's one friggin'

series. I do not blame you. what i loved about

the end uh... i love all the decker stuff i love

that whole i would say the last i don't know

maybe ten episodes of samurai where they're actually

telling a story of how masters and it's gonna

come back in the setting of the area that's all

well and good and done fine i really love the

character of decker thought that was really it

was an interesting twist instead of having all

You know Decker was Tommy you are going to be

my evil Green Ranger and then turning Tommy You

know what I mean? It's like Decker was a cool

character, and I think Decker was a very cool

character I think they pulled off Decker better

in Samurai than they did in Shinkenger Right

and then as I said before the best part about

it was the end because Jason Narvey reprises

his role as Eugene Skolovich You know that was

You know it and the funny thing is the Samurai

Forever was available on DVD and streaming before

the television debut, so I saw Samurai Forever

a week before it aired. Wasn't I the one that

tweeted you that? Somebody did. I think that

was me, because I saw it on jefusion .com or

one of the Super Sentai sites, and I'm like,

what? Yeah, exactly. Alright, so let's jump over

to the music and talk about the theme song I

do like you know Is this Ron Wasserman doing

this or is this somebody else? Because it says

in the credits in the show that it's somebody

else that does the music I don't know if it's

like they got him to do the theme and then they

got somebody else to do the series I don't know.

I think it's somebody else Okay, well it has

the feel of Mighty Morphin because they added

back in the go -go Power Rangers thing I kind

of like it. I think it's cool. I think the Samurai

forever thing is kind of like that whole lyric

and the whole that's that's lame But I don't

know I it's not the worst theme song that Power

Rangers has ever had but it's not the best So

I guess it's middle of the road for me. What

about you? Yeah, it's okay the intro isn't bad

if if i wasn't sitting here going that's just

kind of a remix well it but it is the samurai

theme is a remix of gogo power rangers but it's

a remix that again just like bulk pays homage

to the nearly 20 year legacy i think i would

i would have a different opinion of it if they

didn't use the same exact thing for mega force

yeah i mean they use the same song They just

changed the voiceovers. They didn't change the

lyrics, they changed the voiceovers. No, they

changed the lyrics. Not much. Instead of Samurai,

it says Megaforce. Go -go Megaforce as opposed

to go -go Samurai? Yeah. Well, that's not really

much of a change. Well, no, but I'm saying like

they they use the same song but they had to change

the lyrics to fit the series lazy All right You

know, you've mentioned a little bit about the

toys. Do you want to talk about those for Sam?

Sam or I had was very interesting because of

the I would have to say abysmal failure of the

anniversary series That was that was a traumatic

failure, but the samurai toys weren't were actually

a pretty good quality And I think they were actually

better quality than say some of the other stuff

and I had been producing like thundercats The

toys unfortunately saw a massive reduction in

size for the most part Because they were all

like the individual figures were reduced from

a six inch figure down to a four and a half inch

figure Now I understand that that's because of

cost cutting and whatnot, but the figures themselves

were okay. They're made for little kids They're

not made for collectors like the original Power

Rangers stuff was this stuff wouldn't last you

I mean it it's not gonna hold up. It just isn't

Yeah, the Megazord itself Was a bit of a disappointment

in in the fact that they took in So let me let

me start again here The reason I say it's a little

bit of a disappointment, even though I like it,

it's doing that the thing that Bandai of America

has been doing lately where anything that combines

has to have a peg sticking off of it. Oh, jeez.

As opposed to the Japanese figures, which fit

together really well and have some very innovative

or interesting engineering, the US versions,

they're just plastic pegs sticking off the sides

and they don't fold up anywhere. They're one

solid molded piece of plastic into the leg. And

also the US versions of the folding zords don't

fold. So that's an issue. Unfortunately, I didn't

bother to get the Clawzord or any of the Auxiliary

Zords. There is a set for a hundred, I want to

say a hundred and twenty bucks that you can buy

all of the Zords in one box. If that dropped

down to like sixty bucks, I would get it. If

it goes on clearance, I'll buy it, but I'm not

going to buy it unless it goes on clearance because

I'm not paying that amount of money for when

I pay a hundred dollars for one figure from japan

yeah so the thing the toys of samurai they're

not bad but they're divided up in such a way

that is really kind of price gouging so you have

the mega zord it's in a box then you've got the

beetle zord that comes with the green ranger

then you've got the fish sword that comes with

the blue ranger then you've got a tiger sword

that comes with the red ranger but those rangers

aren't poseable they're kind of like i think

they're in a static pose wow so you've got those

so you've got that and you've got of course a

bunch of other different toys and whatnot but

i'm not going to get into that because that would

get a little bit too crazy Yeah. Plus, let's

face it, Bandai, not the best toy company in

the world. Bandai of America? No. Probably my

favorite figures from the toy line are the Mega

Ranger figures. They were the first figures that

were released. There were six figures in the

line. Red, blue, green, pink, yellow, and then

a moogie. Or a mooger. Yeah. And those figures

were pretty cool. They were fairly posable, they

came with good weapons, and they were nice. I

liked them. Some of the other individual figures

were okay, but I wouldn't say run out and get

them. And then there was that Rita Repulsa figure,

which was, oh my god, she has no face. Now I

do need to make a correction. I did find the

I did find pictures of the of the individual

zords that came with figures and the figures

are posable. OK, so I was wrong with that. I

think I think the toy line as a whole wasn't

bad. My favorite by no means, but it wasn't bad.

I mean, the I think the figures could be a little

bigger and I think the weapons could have that

they came with could have used paint. But other

than that, I think this line was solid. My biggest

complaint, though, all of the plastic on these

figures feel a little cheap. Yeah. And unfortunately,

that's just something Bandai of America has been

doing as of in these past few years. I don't

know why, but all of their toys in every whatever

toy line it is, all of their figures feel cheap.

Yeah. I don't you know. at least they didn't

at least they didn't decide to do the problem

of hey we can't decide what size to make these

six inch eight inch seven inch nine inch anyway

all right bad thundercats joke there uh so we're

gonna go to a quick ad break you're gonna hear

some other podcast ad and other stuff and we'll

come back to final thoughts and close the show

we'll be back after this okay Yes. Shut up. Beyond

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We are covering everything in the Knight Rider

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Kid yes, Michael. Just keep driving Hey guys,

Dirt here. You know, every week a bunch of stuff

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Radio. Don't forget to enter promo code KEYCASTRADIO

when you register. So we are back and before

we give our final thoughts, Chaotix chimes in

once again. Samurai so far is decent, the acting

is weak in the first half of the season and I

would have preferred to branch out a bit from

the Sentai. Though Clash of the Red Rangers certainly

did, the second half is said to be so well so

we'll see. I like it well enough, the team up

was pretty awesome and it was great to see that

Saban cared enough to respect RPM's story and

characters even though they didn't produce it.

To put it simply, Samurai slash Super Samurai

is lazy. With such an interesting theme that

Saban could have easily done, so much was, uh,

so much with your craft of season that would

go down as one of the greatest, it's just a disappointment

to find that all they did was take the Sentai

scripts, plots, characters, copy them wholesale,

read tool bits of the story, insert some PR terms,

and add scenes with bulk. It is awkwardly acted,

especially Kevin and G, just yikes, and the characters

feel so distant from the rest of the world, the

villains are complete jokes and the editing is

horribly random. And the bulk and spike scenes

add nothing most of the time, however, with that

said, there are occasional bright spots. The

HD visuals, production values, and music were

top notch. The mega mode, super mega mode, and

shogun mode suits all looked awesome, even though

they were pretty pointless. I quite enjoyed Antonio's

character, and the team -up special with Scott

from RPM brought back fond memories of much better

season. As a whole, though, Samurai is easily

one of the absolute worst seasons. A bad showing

is Saban's first season since Time Force. Here's

hoping that Megaforce can rise above it and give

us an anniversary to remember. Yeah, I would

have to say that Samurai, I would much rather

watch Turbo over Samurai any day of the week

at this point. I think I might know why Samurai

was so... lazy. Okay. There were six different

directors, and there were 16 different writers,

according to IMDB. Jesus Christ. So... if you've

got six different directors... That would explain

why some episodes are better than others and

some... And the actors have so much trouble with

nailing down a character. Yeah. And it also doesn't

help that none of these people were working for

almost nothing. Yeah. Like I said before, my

two favorite Rangers out of the series are Mike

and Emily. I like them the best. I like Mike.

Emily is okay. I can deal with her. She's fine.

They did not choose good actors. No, not at all.

Alright, you want to pimp out your other stuff

that you do on the internet? Sure! You guys can

find me at a variety of places. You can talk

to me over on Twitter at Twitter .com slash BoltMatrix.

You can find me on Facebook at Facebook .com

forward slash BoltMatrixReviews, all one word.

And then you can find all of my reviews, all

of my Power Rangers, Super Sentai, Kamen Rider,

Transformers, GoBots, Gundams, and every other

robot you can think of at youtube .com forward

slash bolt matrix i'm pretty much easy to find

so go ahead and check out my reviews i have reviewed

both the samurai ha oh um And I have also reviewed

the Power Rangers Samurai Zord figure. So it

would be a good idea for you guys to check those

reviews out. Go to my channel and look under

the playlists under Super Sentai Power Rangers.

They should show up there. Awesome. Awesome.

Thank you for joining us here on From the Command

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favorite Top 20 Power Rangers Seasons. For now,

I am TFD1 Mike with Spade of the Ball Matrix.

Thank you for listening, until next time. Those

Samurai Power Rangers really saved us. Yeah,

I mean, I can't believe everything's back to

normal. Well, we had quite a time, didn't we,

Spike? I, uh... I'll never forget training to

be a Samurai with you. I just can't believe it's

over already, Sensei Bulk. Uncle Bulk. You know,

it seems just like yesterday, I was standing

here waiting for you to get off that bus, and

now... your dad's coming to take you back home?

I'm gonna miss you, Uncle Bulk! Me too, Spiky!

Me too! Oh, nice! changed a bit either have you

skull of itch hey thanks for taking care of spike

bulky you'll come visit right I'd love to catch

up I would love to I hate to say it, but, uh,

it's time to go. You go! You're still here? It's

over. Go home. you still doing listening to this

podcast oh yeah that's right mega force has finally

premiered i thought it was okay i don't know

if i'll continue watching it week to week but

meh was okay i say meh um i it wasn't bad there

are obvious homages to the original mmpr but

the acting was terrible i have never just I am

going to buy that girl a milkshake yeah it's

like oh so far the best part about Megaforce

is the girls that's really like some of the guys

just can't act at all pink is my favorite color

I'm not sure if I really care for the giant Tiki

as the mentor. Oh, you mean freaky Tiki? Yeah.

I get that they're obviously ghost side great

as part of the ghost sager or whatever else or

whatever, wherever the hell the Sentai comes

from. It comes from hell. Yeah. It reminds me

of just a cheap imitation. Zord on head. Yeah,

it's pretty much just a cheap imitation zord

on head with flashing lights behind it Yeah,

what I'm interested to see with mega force if

that quote -unquote dream battle Will ever really

happen in the series which dream battle? The

one that the dude keeps having of all the past

Rangers. Oh that Believe it or not. That was

never in go Sager. That was that Dream battle

was from the very first episode of go kaiger

Right So they're eventually gonna take go Sager

is season 1 and go kaiger is gonna be season

2 right rumor that yeah the current rumor so

I Don't know I I think if they Obviously, you

know, we can't speak to what Saban would pay

actors or whatever else but if they really if

the The people in charge at Saban really want

to pay, you know, homage and really celebrate

the 20th anniversary of their franchise. They

would go to great lengths to procure as many

past Rangers as they can, even if it's just in

one battle scene, like everybody comes back just

for one scene in one episode. You know what I

mean? Oh, man, that would be a lot. Well, they

can't because a couple of Trini's dead. Well,

that's why I said every possible past ranger

possible that's why i said i'm sure i'm sure

jason david frank would come by i'm sure um oh

who's the guy who played adam johnny young bosh

johnny young bosh would come i doubt steve cardenas

i'm sorry maybe steve cardenas rocky yeah i bet

he would come i'm sure some would come but i

doubt I would very much be surprised if anyone

besides Jason David Frank came from the original

cast. Well, I don't know. I think Amy Jo might.

Like if you were going to do like a, hey, here's

what happened after the fact. And you know what

I mean? It's like somehow if they did some sort

of reunion film, even if it was like a special

outside of Megaforce. Where hey, it's 20 years

later and Tommy and I are married, you know There's

some some storylines somehow that ties the old

characters together with the new ones Just something

that pays homage to the fact that it's a 20 year

long history You know what I mean is something

give us something and that's well the other even

if it's a one -off the other problem They run

into is they are using I don't know if you noticed

but in that dream sequence, they're using suits

from and Rangers from well before Mighty Morphin.

Oh, so they're using Sentai stuff too. All of

those suits are from Sentai. And you've got to

remember that True Ranger, which was made into

Super Sentai, or MMPR, was like the 23rd Super

Sentai series. Oh, Jesus. So, I don't know. We'll

see. I mean, we'll see. It's just going to take

either either way. I'm I'm I'm interested. I'll

probably watch, you know, I'm more interested

in seeing how they're going to do the hyper goes

a great figure considering the US isn't going

to get data, which is a talking arcade machine.

I'm really curious on how they're going to handle

that. I really hope it's not that Wally iPad

connect ripoff thing. I mean, seriously, all

they did was take Wally. replace his tread with

wheels, remove his hands, put two iPads on his

back, and put a Kinect for a head. Oh, you're

talking about the robot. Tensei or Tensour or

something like that? Yeah, Tensour, Tensai, it's

a poor excuse for an Alpha -7. Tensei or something

like that? Yeah, something like that. It's a

poor excuse, because the whole point of Megaforce,

at least to me, is... Freaky Tiki is the Zordon

type of character. The little robot is supposed

to be an Alpha -like, but it's like, why not

just get an Alpha -8 or an Alpha -9 or hell,

like they did in Forever Red. Revive Alpha -5.

Or, I mean, at least update him some way, and

make him not annoying, and make him not CG. Yes.

You know ten so ten so I always thought I thought

they said Tencent But I don't know I don't know

what they said and I honestly I was looking at

this thing. I was thinking How is this thing

useful? What is it? So there you go folks mega

force thoughts from spade and myself and uh Yeah,

that'll be that let the power protect you