Reach the unreachable stars

I finally tracked down the first mention of the rumored Eddie Guzelian ending of RPM, "Ranger Black."

Late October 2009.

Posted by CmdrCrayfish to Funaroboard, which no longer exists.

When I do the review, I will have something to say about it. But right now, my eyes hurt and I am exhausted.

So it's a good thing for me that Hasbro's Lightning Collection still has shitty looking faces, because I do not want to buy another Astronema and Ecliptor, even though that's my favorite character and her dad.

They gave her a smirk this time and it just looks horrible. Why do Power Rangers toys suck so much?

Edit: Also why are they releasing a Psycho Silver? IT WAS NOT A REAL PSYCHO RANGER. It was just a costume Zhane spray-painted! He stayed in that disguise for less time than he could stay in-morph at the beginning!

In regards to the upcoming Power Rangers 30th anniversary special, some important casting news.

Now, naturally, I'm really happy to see David Yost come back. And Walter Emmanuel Jones since, what? The premiere of the pilot episode some 20-odd years ago?

But please take a moment and see who else is coming back. For the first time since the finale of Power Rangers in Space in 1998, we have Barbara Goodson as Rita Repulsa.

AH! AFTER 25 YEARS, SHE'S FREE! IT'S TIME TO CONQUER EARTH!

yes I went out and made an icon specifically for this, no I regret nothing

So I got the Power Rangers 2018 Annual #1 this week, thinking I was actually getting the one with Karone. But this had RPM and PRiS in it, so okay. Didn't mind. Read it.

Had some issues.

( Read more... )

All right, these are the tentative plans for the next set of reviews, and my goals:

Goal 1: Finish Power Rangers in Space by the end of the year. I know I keep saying it, but I need to actually stick to a schedule. I might have to binge episodes on Saturdays if I want to make sure that I actually make it through the Endpoint Analysis, and I'll try to go simpler on those images; OOO was way too complex. Ultimately, though, this is a really hard season to do because while I like it, there's frustratingly little to analyze that doesn't have to do with Andros, Astronema, or Ecliptor. I have five batches left to do. If I can marathon and take notes, I can put together everything after, like I did with OOO.

Goal 2: After I've rested a little, review Ultraman Orb. Just the original 20-odd episode run first, with a Season Summation instead of an Endpoint Analysis--this because I have to purposely avoid talking about any other installments of the Orb saga.

Goal 3: Kamen Rider Gaim, which I suspect will be just as frustratingly difficult to analyze as PRiS has been--I don't want to say that I hate them now that I have to break them down, but I will say that neither show holds up quite as well as I thought now that I analyze them. Again, I will have to make the images simpler than I wanted, so I'll probably grab from the opening sequence.

Goal 4: Ultraman Orb: The Origin Saga. The plot of this is acually really similar to Gaim's plot, so it'll be fun doing their analyses together. I suspect a lot of it will be compare and contrast.

Goal 5: Orb movie, because I love Sadeath and I will really enjoy talking about him after screaming at Andros and Kaito.

So I just finished up South Korea's first original foray in the Power Rangers/Super Sentai franchise: Dino Force Brave. Yes, it has its problems. It goes too fast, and just about every character other than Juyong, Juhyeuk, Deisaurus, and occasionally Torin feels extraneous. Purun and Dohee are probably the worst offenders, since at least Sechang and Hyunjun were beginning to get personalities--those two never really developed.

But the acting is pretty good. I think it's probably the hardest thing to act well in anything that has this number of special effects and people in costumes. There's this inherent sense of "...you know I'm talking to a giant bird with hair coming out of his eyes," and the focus on action makes it hard to develop chemistry between the cast. But I think as far as it went with everyone coming to trust Juhyeuk and how badly he realized he needed their trust and friendship--that was done well.

The final battle does have me wondering if the last battle in any Sentai season should eschew traditional effects and rely heavily on CG. It is thrilling...but at the same time, everything is going by so quickly that it's really hard to see anything. I think if Sentai can figure out a better balance of that, they could make the most boring part of the show, the giant robot vs. monster battle, one of the most exciting.

Also, props to the casts of Dino Force Brave and Zyuohger for one of the best hand-offs in history. The Sentai hand-offs are a tradition, usually between the Reds of each team. As far as Power Rangers is concerned, the only real hand-offs have happened in a meta sense, with one season's cast announcing the next during conventions, and the Sudarso brothers putting together their own Blue Ranger hand-off from Dino Charge to Ninja Steel. But I like how Juyong and Juhyeuk handled theirs to "Animal Force," or the Zyuohgers. It's a good way to get everyone pumped for the next season, and it looks like they tried to have at least Yamato's actor flown out to South Korea for the hand-off. It's cute.

Overall, don't expect anything mesmerizing. A lot of the issues with Sentai and Power Rangers as a whole are still there, but it's still pretty memorable. It's just meant to have fun, and that's sometimes what you want to see most.

So more money does not make Juhyuek stronger? Well, that's a shame. Still, I do like that Juyong pointed out everyone's strengths and had them coordinate them in battle...while Sechang had to insist that his wasn't charisma, but grace. It would have been better if he'd defeated Juhyeuk by flirting or something. Still sorry to see it all coming down to Red as always, but at least up until that point, both the suit and zord battles were great.