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akinoamePreface: Thought you could avoid this now that I'm not working off a fansub, eh? No luck, guys. There are a couple of important things you should know about before I start these reviews.
First, and most importantly, I am not a fan of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Sorry. When it first aired when I was six, I had no interest whatsoever. PRiS was my first real experience with the series, and even then, I lasted only then and through Lightspeed Rescue and Time Force (Lost Galaxy didn't come until a few years ago and of course, RPM in '09 and I'm giving Super Megaforce a try now that it's '14 and Rangers I liked are coming back). So I have a very different perspective of the series than many other fans. I've seen a lot of long-time Power Rangers fans lament the passing of Zordon or want tighter ties to continuity and such—just look at Linkara's History of Power Rangers or Amit Bhaumik's blog. To them, PRiS was the end of an era—it was the last season featuring Zordon, it was the last of the long story arc featuring a war against evil going back ten-thousand years.
To me, all of that means nothing. I have no special attachment to Zordon, to Tommy or Jason, to even the phrase "It's morphin' time!" And I know for many fans, just the very thought of a newcomer to the series, who doesn't understand the rules of the Power, who doesn't see why dinosaurs are so cool, who doesn't give a damn whether Tommy hooked up with Kimberly or Kat—that thought is terrifying and sad. But for me, that's Power Rangers' greatest strength. For any series to run for more than twenty years, they have to be able to appeal to new fans. Homages are great and all, and you really do need to tie things to an overall sense of both the Rangers and fans belonging to something bigger than they are. But at the same time, you can't lock out newbies, and that's what a lot of MMPR fans in favor of tighter continuity are doing. The same would hold true in, say, Kamen Rider if every Rider had to be tied to Takeshi Hongo and Hayato Ichimonji somehow—Kuuga pulled off a great little shout-out by having Professor Hongo be referred to as Sakurako and Enokida's old teacher, but it never referenced a Rider before Yusuke; Agito had Hiroshi Fujioka cameo in the movie as the police commissioner and give his approval to Hikawa and Shoichi to do what they had to (giving the audience the implicit approval of Kamen Rider 1 to G3-X and Agito), but it was only left as that—as a subtle wink to the audience. Every season until Decade was allowed to tell their own stories their own way, with a little nod here and there to past Riders, but without needing this sense that it's all a really tight continuity—not until W through Fourze tried to tighten things up a little more, but in the end, it looks like...well, like Power Rangers' continuity: loose, but the sense that everyone's part of something greater than themselves.
For me, PRiS was the beginning of an era, not the end. It took the Rangers off-world, giving this higher sense of purpose. It isn't just Earth, but the whole universe on the line. It's what makes the attack on Earth in "Countdown to Destruction" so damn poignant—for a while, they get you so caught up in the big picture that you forget that their homeworld is also in danger, and that's why Astronema stages her attack there—to hit the Rangers close to home, where it hurts. Whole new character types are created—Andros is a very different Red Ranger than anything that came before and quite a few who came after, and Astronema sets the standard for villains-turned-heroes and long-lost siblings. The battlizer—originally just the name of Andros's weapon and now the term for any power-up for the Rangers; Red, in particular—was introduced and was a staple of the Red Ranger's power-set up until Jungle Fury. It was the start of more complex plots, deeper connections between the heroes and villains, blurring the lines between good and evil while still making the good guys very good, better character development, and overall good storytelling. Gone were the days of "Rita creates a monster to ruin the Rangers' day." Now it was "Darkonda blackmails Andros with information about his sister but Ecliptor runs interference and saves Andros while trying to sabotage Darkonda and Astronema actually saves somebody and holy shit, you'll never believe what happened to Karone!" It's why I have such a hard time watching Samurai and Megaforce: because they're trying to capture a lost era that should be allowed to evolve. I don't mind if we move onto other worlds, like in RPM; I'll say this in Kamen Rider Decade too: You can still do some amazing stories to connect the others while taking advantage of the opportunity for greater worldbuilding that separate universes allow—that was one of the few things I really, really liked about Kabuto. The more the writers and fans try to cling to MMPR, the more I feel left out simply by coming in later.
And second, if you survived my Ryuki reviews, congratulations. And I'm sorry. You may have noticed that I have a thing for the angsty character with a mission who has a hard time making friends with the others but overall ends up coming around despite making a shitload of mistakes. Basically, Ren. Well...that came from somewhere; everything comes from somewhere. While it doesn't hold true as much anymore, when I was eleven and first watching PRiS back in 1998, Andros was my favorite. I really got into his character arc, and the difference between him and the other Rangers really stood out to me. Since then, I've revised my opinion on him somewhat, particularly after seeing later characters in other shows who tended to learn their lesson faster, but in short? I've been working on Andros's analysis for over fifteen years. I'm very, very sorry.
Finally, I've decided to begin listing the directors for each episode—something I really should have done in Lost Galaxy and Ryuki, since I noticed things that certain directors (particularly Koichi Sakamoto and Ryuta Tasaki) tend to favor. And I think this really helps the overall storytelling too—directorial choice matters just as much as writer's choice, and in "Countdown to Destruction," I think it explains a lot about why that episode worked so well.
I'm working off the Time Life DVD set spanning MMPR season 1 through LG. Why did I get this when, as stated, I really don't care for MMPR? Well, actually, I didn't. There were quite a few fans who bought the DVD set just for the original series and the eighth DVD of extras, then put the remaining seasons up on eBay, and that's where I picked up PRiS and LG for about $25 each. In my opinion, that is an amazing deal, considering that the whole thing was originally selling for about $220 (as of this writing, it has now dropped to about $175, which is roughly what I'd pay for $25 a season, plus the bonus disc for free). And honestly, it's a huge rip-off to get them directly from Time Life, and for two reasons.
First, the seasons are being rereleased in other DVD packs. You can buy a grouped season set (MMPR, Zeo through LG, LR through DT, and the Kalish era and RPM) that includes bonus features for a listed $119 (still pretty expensive) and currently dropped to $89—at least for MMPR; the other seasons vary. There's also now the special 20 year anniversary set in Jason/Rocky's helmet that covers everything from MMPR through Megaforce, at a listed price of $650, which is a deal if you really, really want every single PR episode from 1993 – 2013. But for those who really don't want to spend money on seasons they don't like, you can go the really antiquated route of buying volumes of each season for roughly $20 each. To be fair, these are three discs each and have a fair amount of episodes on them, but there's still no bonus features.
Which brings me to point number two: There's really no incentive to buy these DVDs. Any of them. Sure, if you want to get the big Time Life package or Legacy Collection or the grouped seasons, you get a disc of bonus features, but it's still a lot of money for just that extra DVD. But if you decide to opt for just a single season/volume, you're really getting ripped off. Hell, there's not even subtitles for the hearing-impaired! Worse, the video quality isn't great—at least in the first Saban era, way before digital recording took off. I know I've been spoiled by the current HD filming by both Power Rangers and Super Sentai, and it's good to see that they cleaned it up as well as they could for syndication, but...this is a nighttime shot from Lost Galaxy.
It's grainy. I paid money for video of this quality. Admittedly, yeah, the flaws mostly show when it's dark, but really. If you're selling this, you could really stand to clean it up better. The rest of the video footage isn't much better—it's the exact quality you'd get watching it in syndication. What's the point in buying it (either on DVD, on iTunes, or paying for Hulu Plus or the like) when you get the exact same quality for free watching Vortexx? Why spend even $25? These are older seasons; kids aren't exactly begging their parents to go and buy Zeo or anything—it's the adult fans who are buying them; there should be more effort put into this if you want to try to sell to them.
What I'm saying is, if there's a particular season you really love and want to own--not to stream—or you want to icon, or something of that sort, then buy the DVDs. Just don't expect fantastic quality or anything special. I had to do a LOT of Photoshop work to make my icons look relatively good. It's better than what you'll find on the internet, but it's really not worth the money unless you're really that dedicated. As for me, I'll probably only pick up RPM after this and see about watching other seasons online.
All that said, reviews will start soon. Enjoy!
First, and most importantly, I am not a fan of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Sorry. When it first aired when I was six, I had no interest whatsoever. PRiS was my first real experience with the series, and even then, I lasted only then and through Lightspeed Rescue and Time Force (Lost Galaxy didn't come until a few years ago and of course, RPM in '09 and I'm giving Super Megaforce a try now that it's '14 and Rangers I liked are coming back). So I have a very different perspective of the series than many other fans. I've seen a lot of long-time Power Rangers fans lament the passing of Zordon or want tighter ties to continuity and such—just look at Linkara's History of Power Rangers or Amit Bhaumik's blog. To them, PRiS was the end of an era—it was the last season featuring Zordon, it was the last of the long story arc featuring a war against evil going back ten-thousand years.
To me, all of that means nothing. I have no special attachment to Zordon, to Tommy or Jason, to even the phrase "It's morphin' time!" And I know for many fans, just the very thought of a newcomer to the series, who doesn't understand the rules of the Power, who doesn't see why dinosaurs are so cool, who doesn't give a damn whether Tommy hooked up with Kimberly or Kat—that thought is terrifying and sad. But for me, that's Power Rangers' greatest strength. For any series to run for more than twenty years, they have to be able to appeal to new fans. Homages are great and all, and you really do need to tie things to an overall sense of both the Rangers and fans belonging to something bigger than they are. But at the same time, you can't lock out newbies, and that's what a lot of MMPR fans in favor of tighter continuity are doing. The same would hold true in, say, Kamen Rider if every Rider had to be tied to Takeshi Hongo and Hayato Ichimonji somehow—Kuuga pulled off a great little shout-out by having Professor Hongo be referred to as Sakurako and Enokida's old teacher, but it never referenced a Rider before Yusuke; Agito had Hiroshi Fujioka cameo in the movie as the police commissioner and give his approval to Hikawa and Shoichi to do what they had to (giving the audience the implicit approval of Kamen Rider 1 to G3-X and Agito), but it was only left as that—as a subtle wink to the audience. Every season until Decade was allowed to tell their own stories their own way, with a little nod here and there to past Riders, but without needing this sense that it's all a really tight continuity—not until W through Fourze tried to tighten things up a little more, but in the end, it looks like...well, like Power Rangers' continuity: loose, but the sense that everyone's part of something greater than themselves.
For me, PRiS was the beginning of an era, not the end. It took the Rangers off-world, giving this higher sense of purpose. It isn't just Earth, but the whole universe on the line. It's what makes the attack on Earth in "Countdown to Destruction" so damn poignant—for a while, they get you so caught up in the big picture that you forget that their homeworld is also in danger, and that's why Astronema stages her attack there—to hit the Rangers close to home, where it hurts. Whole new character types are created—Andros is a very different Red Ranger than anything that came before and quite a few who came after, and Astronema sets the standard for villains-turned-heroes and long-lost siblings. The battlizer—originally just the name of Andros's weapon and now the term for any power-up for the Rangers; Red, in particular—was introduced and was a staple of the Red Ranger's power-set up until Jungle Fury. It was the start of more complex plots, deeper connections between the heroes and villains, blurring the lines between good and evil while still making the good guys very good, better character development, and overall good storytelling. Gone were the days of "Rita creates a monster to ruin the Rangers' day." Now it was "Darkonda blackmails Andros with information about his sister but Ecliptor runs interference and saves Andros while trying to sabotage Darkonda and Astronema actually saves somebody and holy shit, you'll never believe what happened to Karone!" It's why I have such a hard time watching Samurai and Megaforce: because they're trying to capture a lost era that should be allowed to evolve. I don't mind if we move onto other worlds, like in RPM; I'll say this in Kamen Rider Decade too: You can still do some amazing stories to connect the others while taking advantage of the opportunity for greater worldbuilding that separate universes allow—that was one of the few things I really, really liked about Kabuto. The more the writers and fans try to cling to MMPR, the more I feel left out simply by coming in later.
And second, if you survived my Ryuki reviews, congratulations. And I'm sorry. You may have noticed that I have a thing for the angsty character with a mission who has a hard time making friends with the others but overall ends up coming around despite making a shitload of mistakes. Basically, Ren. Well...that came from somewhere; everything comes from somewhere. While it doesn't hold true as much anymore, when I was eleven and first watching PRiS back in 1998, Andros was my favorite. I really got into his character arc, and the difference between him and the other Rangers really stood out to me. Since then, I've revised my opinion on him somewhat, particularly after seeing later characters in other shows who tended to learn their lesson faster, but in short? I've been working on Andros's analysis for over fifteen years. I'm very, very sorry.
Finally, I've decided to begin listing the directors for each episode—something I really should have done in Lost Galaxy and Ryuki, since I noticed things that certain directors (particularly Koichi Sakamoto and Ryuta Tasaki) tend to favor. And I think this really helps the overall storytelling too—directorial choice matters just as much as writer's choice, and in "Countdown to Destruction," I think it explains a lot about why that episode worked so well.
I'm working off the Time Life DVD set spanning MMPR season 1 through LG. Why did I get this when, as stated, I really don't care for MMPR? Well, actually, I didn't. There were quite a few fans who bought the DVD set just for the original series and the eighth DVD of extras, then put the remaining seasons up on eBay, and that's where I picked up PRiS and LG for about $25 each. In my opinion, that is an amazing deal, considering that the whole thing was originally selling for about $220 (as of this writing, it has now dropped to about $175, which is roughly what I'd pay for $25 a season, plus the bonus disc for free). And honestly, it's a huge rip-off to get them directly from Time Life, and for two reasons.
First, the seasons are being rereleased in other DVD packs. You can buy a grouped season set (MMPR, Zeo through LG, LR through DT, and the Kalish era and RPM) that includes bonus features for a listed $119 (still pretty expensive) and currently dropped to $89—at least for MMPR; the other seasons vary. There's also now the special 20 year anniversary set in Jason/Rocky's helmet that covers everything from MMPR through Megaforce, at a listed price of $650, which is a deal if you really, really want every single PR episode from 1993 – 2013. But for those who really don't want to spend money on seasons they don't like, you can go the really antiquated route of buying volumes of each season for roughly $20 each. To be fair, these are three discs each and have a fair amount of episodes on them, but there's still no bonus features.
Which brings me to point number two: There's really no incentive to buy these DVDs. Any of them. Sure, if you want to get the big Time Life package or Legacy Collection or the grouped seasons, you get a disc of bonus features, but it's still a lot of money for just that extra DVD. But if you decide to opt for just a single season/volume, you're really getting ripped off. Hell, there's not even subtitles for the hearing-impaired! Worse, the video quality isn't great—at least in the first Saban era, way before digital recording took off. I know I've been spoiled by the current HD filming by both Power Rangers and Super Sentai, and it's good to see that they cleaned it up as well as they could for syndication, but...this is a nighttime shot from Lost Galaxy.
It's grainy. I paid money for video of this quality. Admittedly, yeah, the flaws mostly show when it's dark, but really. If you're selling this, you could really stand to clean it up better. The rest of the video footage isn't much better—it's the exact quality you'd get watching it in syndication. What's the point in buying it (either on DVD, on iTunes, or paying for Hulu Plus or the like) when you get the exact same quality for free watching Vortexx? Why spend even $25? These are older seasons; kids aren't exactly begging their parents to go and buy Zeo or anything—it's the adult fans who are buying them; there should be more effort put into this if you want to try to sell to them.
What I'm saying is, if there's a particular season you really love and want to own--not to stream—or you want to icon, or something of that sort, then buy the DVDs. Just don't expect fantastic quality or anything special. I had to do a LOT of Photoshop work to make my icons look relatively good. It's better than what you'll find on the internet, but it's really not worth the money unless you're really that dedicated. As for me, I'll probably only pick up RPM after this and see about watching other seasons online.
All that said, reviews will start soon. Enjoy!
(no subject)
Date: 2014-01-31 05:42 pm (UTC)"I'll say this in Kamen Rider Decade too: You can still do some amazing stories to connect the others while taking advantage of the opportunity for greater worldbuilding that separate universes allow—that was one of the few things I really, really liked about Kabuto." - Uh, is that a positive or negative thing you're saying about Decade there?
Anyway, looking forward to PRiS review - I saw it for the first time last year. Especially looking forward to you commenting on "The Craterite Invasion" which is the standard Star Trek Holodeck Malfunction Plot... only instead of "The holodeck's created intelligent life, let's debate if it's sentient, the right thing to do..." it's "The holodeck created intelligent life. KILL IT!" :p