This writer vaguely remembers Power Rangers on TV as a child in the '90s, and was surprised to recently discover that the series is still going, and there's a big-budget movie on the way in 2017 - some things just never go out of fashion.
The series originated, back in the day, as a localisation (with some reshoots of course) of the Super Sentai series in Japan, a process that is apparently still used to an extent, albeit with the Western iterations doing more of their own footage. It's slightly confusing, but if you like Power Rangers then you should, by extension, rather like the Super Sentai series.
Many evidently do, and Bandai Namco has released a trailer for the latest tie-in game for 3DS, a download title coming on 7th September for 800 Yen - which is a little under $8. It tries very hard to make matching blocks exciting.
If you want to know what the heck this is tying into, the latest series is called Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger, which adopts a theme of animal powers for our heroes. A trailer is below.
The odds of this coming West seem slim, but you never know. If you're a fan of the series and know much more about it than this writer, meanwhile, by all means correct us in the comments!
Comments 34
Ah, Power Rangers. You can try to tell me Super Sentai is better, but that show is sorely missing Bulk & Skull!
I'm a Power Rangers and Sentai fan, but I gotta say, that one looks pretty darn awful. I think they may finally ran out of ideas out east. Lol.
Though Power Rangers most always adapts it's Sentai counterpart differently and from what I understand about their deal is that Saban can't skip a series unless they can prove the toys won't be profitable for a particular season. For instance Power Rangers is skipping the Train season and will go straight to the Ninja season in February because well... Ninjas > than trains.
The most interesting thing at play here is the suits that the new Sentai Rangers wear are pretty chill.
When will Japan stop with their Power Rangers rip off?
Do a puzzle game while hitting the enemies with Sentai Ranger taste ? Oh my..... I feel dizzy. No wonder latest Sentai Ranger 3DS games from BANDAI was extremely BLAH.
Sentai Ranger trends still exist until today. Well, so does with Mahou Shojou theme like Sailor Moon Crystal. Just wonder if there is a game developer wanna create Sailor Moon Crystal games. Maybe somewhat like 90's era or something different...
@bitleman That was a joke, right?
@MrMario02 I hope it was.
I love me some tokusatsu. and while ultraman is probably my favorite super Sentai is close
Puzzle and Dragon: Jungle Fury
@Sir_JBizzle That just makes it even more confusing that they skipped Go Busters, since that season was based on secret agents. Kids would've eaten that up.
Omg this looks awful.
I loved watching Power Rangers as a child, even played the SNES game. But that show was utter crap.
Then I recently discovered the new Voltron series on Netflix (the original Voltron aired long before Power Rangers), it's quite similar to PR, but so much better! The story, the characters are done well and the looks are just awesome!
So if anyone wants to watch something like this, I definitely recommend Voltron: Legendary Defenders.
@TheHumbleFellow right. I kinda wanted them to adapt Go Busters, but I think it was a rare case of the toys (and I believe the show) bombing in Japan. Plus they went went to Kyoryuger which I would imagine in the West, Dinosaurs > Secret Agents.
@BensonUii did they actually air the older sentai series in your part of the world as a child? If so, I gotta say that's pretty awesome as the 5 year old me would've eaten that stuff up. Probably Ultraman as well, had they aired it in the US.
@Sir_JBizzle they made train themed rangers cool. I wouldn't count them out. Usually for me, the ones that look the worst are the ones I enjoy the most.
@BensonUii yes! I was so grateful they tried to bring ultraman to the US. It failed but I've been a fan ever since!
Edit: @Sir_JBizzle Ultraman did air in the US. One season I think. I watched it as a kid. Circa 91.
@Sir_JBizzle they aired the older SS series in most parts of the world until the US made MMPR. Then the rest of the world inexplicably started airing that instead.
@TheHumbleFellow go busters sorta ripped on mighty morphin and in some ways American pop culture. All I could think when I saw it was "so this is what Americanization looks like to other cultures...huh." So I could see that one being skipped. It was like a parody of big bad beetleborgs, vr troopers, and mighty morphin. I think if the show had gone from a Japanese rip on America to an American adaptation it would have made no sense (or become really Japanese in localization to compensate). Besides Ninninger has a cowboy ninja. It is stupid as all get out but it is funny. I'm used to people having insane views on American culture.
@Ryu_Niiyama I had to look it up, but I actually do remember now that my memory was refreshed. Specifically Ultraman Towards the Future ('92) and Ultraman Tigard ('97). There were two others that preceeded that aired in the US, but I don't recall ever seeing those.
One series I'm sad never took off in the US would have to be the Kamen Rider series.
It will be interesting to see how the Power Rangers adaption of Ninninger tries to explain a "Cowboy Ninja" if they even try to explain it at all...
@shani I'm almost certain its been proven time and time again that Super Sentai came before the cartoon Voltron was adapted from.
No thanks. I was tricked into buying the Gokaiger game for DS a few years back and I'm still regretting it.
Oh hey a Super Sentai tie in that isn't a beat em up. What a pleasant surprise, although it still doesn't seem worth buying a japanese 3ds for though.
Also, the biggest reason that Go-Busters was skipped is because it didn't have a collectable gimmick and it wasn't very popular during its run due to low sales and ratings. Which is curios because they're skipping Toqger for Ninninger even though it reported the worst sales since Timeranger but hey cheeseburger phone morpher.
@UmbreonsPapa Yes and I didn't state otherwise. I was referring to Power Rangers, not Super Sentai.
Super Sentai started in 1975, Power Rangers started to air in 1993 and the original Voltron started in 1984. So we're both right.
But it doesn't really matter, I never understood the point of this discussion between fans. What difference does it make which one came first? The only important thing is quality.
In case you're wondering why I mentioned it in the first place, I only did it for those who only know Power Rangers (like I did until a few months ago), so probably 90% of western audiences.
I haven't even seen the old Voltron or any of the 40 Super Sentai series (unless you count Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, which was adapted into the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers).
I've only seen Mighty Morphin Power Ranges and the 2016 Voltron. And the 2016 Voltron rocks! That old Power Rangers series looks like cheap crap in comparison.
Basically, I just wanted to point out that if anyone watched Power Rangers in their childhood like I did and would like to see a proper version of the underlying idea, they should watch Netflix's Voltron.
Because of this reminder of my favorite thing as a kid, I'm both changing my avatar and posting an awesome cover of the Power Rangers theme song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a883itqqcd4
@Sir_JBizzle @Sir_JBizzle I think one reason Go-Busters didn't do well was because it was too dark for people at the time. It aired several months after the earthquake, I believe, and it was till fresh in people's minds. It also had to compete with the more lighthearted shows on its channel, Kamen Rider Fourze and Smile Pretty Cure, and people seem to go more for those when something tragic like that happens. Kind of similar to what happened with Ohranger back in the 90's, except the toys still sold pretty well, unlike Go-Busters.
Speaking of the toys, the Go-Busters toys did not have their own collectible gimmick like Super Sentai had been regularly having since Go-onger. They just released more Ranger Keys. It's probably one reason that the toys didn't do well.
Also, fun fact: Super Sentai actually has Spider-Man to thank for having giant robots
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/83/e8/1c/83e81c6303b47c49434948ea695030e3.jpg
It wasn't until the third Super Sentai, Battle Fever J, that Super Sentai strted having giant robots, and it was thanks to Spider-Man's popularity the previous year.
What's this? Go go Power Rangeeeeers!
@allav866 this guy gets it right here.
you can't have Power Rangers without Bulk & Skull.
@rjejr Puzzle & Dragon in Space.
@GinHunter That is the coolest thing I've ever seen!
@shani sorry to be that person but beast king go lion came out in 81 and was adapted to voltron. Merely mentioning it because you were talking about source material air dates. But at least it wasn't a mess like robotech.
@CUBANEWYORKER Puzzle & Dragon Megaforce
@Sir_JBizzle considering this is not the first time the series had a cowboy ninja, I am also curious by what they will do. Kakuranger also had a character from "Amerika" and they adapted that show into the alien rangers one. I watched like two eps of that and then used the girl card to get out of explaining to the boys at school why I thought it sucked.
@Ryu_Niiyama Why are you apologizing? You have every right to correct me.
As I wrote before, I'm no expert on either Voltron or the other series, I just recently started to read up on them a little bit.
Still not that much into it to soak everything up quickly like a sponge (which I usually do when something really interests me, like I did in the last two years regarding tons of DC comics or in the past regarding the Turtles etc).
I didn't even know Best King GoLion until now.
I'm not a hardcore SS fan but this seems decent. The show looks bad but the outfits look nice.
I dont fully understand it but gameplay reminds me of P&D. If the gameplay is good enough and reviews are nice for $8 I could get this... If it's even localized.
I'm still a HUGE Power Rangers fan to this day! I wish they would do a beat em up similar to Power Rangers the Movie on Genesis, one of the best of the genre and a solid attempt at making the movie canon.
@CUBANEWYORKER No, "in space" always refers to this.
This is Jungle Fury.
Rather play the GBA games. Those were decent.
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