Super Sentai Zyuranger

I've been a Power Rangers fan my whole life, with the show beginning the year after I was born. Since I lived and breathed this show for so many years, it's ironic that I was never aware of it's source, Super Sentai, until I was well into high school. I didn't think I'd ever get the chance to see the show, but I'm glad that Shout Factory has proven me wrong!Apparently drunk off their success with the Power Rangers DVD sets, Shout Factory has apparently decided that the next logical step was to bring the source material stateside. But how would you market something that the masses has never heard of? Obviously, by banking it on it's link with an established property.For those who don't know, Power Rangers is not a wholly American creation. The show uses action footage from the Japanese series Super Sentai, which is dubbed over with American actors, while simultaneously filming new scenes with the American actors to create an entirely different show. And boy, are they different!Though both are children's shows, Zyuranger (the series in this set, and the primary inspiration for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) has a much darker tone and deeper story and mythology than MMPR, as well as simply being downright bizarre. Whereas MMPR featured "teenagers with attitude," Zyuranger had five warriors from the past revived from suspended animation to fight the Witch Bandora (Rita in MMPR) and her gang of minions. Much like the Power Rangers, the Zyurangers of the title use a morpher to transform into super powered warriors who pilot giant machines that combine to form an even bigger robot.Those familiar with MMPR will recognize the action and that gives this show an air of familiarity. But the all-new, darker (sometimes downright bleak and depressing) story, as well as the serialized style of the episodes, gives the whole thing a fresh feel. It's also great to compare Zyuranger with MMPR Season 1 to see how the footage was adapted for the American show, and some could even come away with a new appreciation for the creators of MMPR, having to get clever at times with their story writing and editing to make the scenes fit. And the fifty episodes are spread over 10 discs, making the twenty-something year old show look crystal clear.Though the set is light on special features, which consists of a sole taping of a convention panel, fans of Power Rangers, be they young or old, new or old-school, should definitely make this 10-disc set a must-own for their Power Rangers DVD collection, but casual viewers might be a bit pit off by the bizarreness of the show. Though, fans of the cheesy Saturday night Sy-Fy channel B-movies would definitely dig this.

I recently revisited Mighty Morphin Power Rangers for the first time as an adult, and found it to be anywhere from slightly amusing due to nostalgia, to completely incomprehensible and/or unwatchable. Out of curiosity, I decided to check out Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger after remembering that Shout! Factory had released this set a few years ago.I'd never seen any season of Super Sentai until watching Zyuranger, and I was completely shocked by it. I've always assumed that Saban had created Power Rangers by simply reshooting the non-action scenes with American actors, more or less. In fact, Super Sentai and Power Rangers couldn't be much more different. Saban ripped the entire Zyuranger story out; replacing it with shallow and one-dimensional characters, endlessly obnoxious campy writing, and terrible music; all stitched together by unintelligible editing and riddled with continuity errors. The severity of this crime is truly revealed if you watch both shows in tandem.With Zyuranger, you get a fairly competent villain with an interesting backstory, who actually interacts with the Zyurangers instead of just hanging out on the moon and screaming at her henchmen. The Zyurangers themselves are ancient warriors aided by mystical forces. The giant robots are sentient god-beings. The Dragon Ranger's story arc is an epic tale of revenge and redemption which spans most of the series. The stories actually make sense, and the stakes are much higher than Power Rangers, because not every episode returns to the safety of the status quo at the end.tl;dr, Zyuranger is amazing. It's still a kids show, but it doesn't assume that children are shallow and superficial idiots who are incapable of comprehending morality, honor, suffering, sacrifice, life, death, or anything that doesn't end with a fat guy falling face-first into a sheet cake every episode.

So, I'm a pretty big Power Rangers fan. I was born in the 90s when the show began (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers began in '93, and I was born in '94). In the long run of the series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers has always been my favorite incarnation of the series. It wasn't until I started high school that I learned about Super Sentai and its relationship with Power Rangers.Now, in 2017, with Saban's Power Rangers film hitting theaters, I'm feeling both nostalgic and curious, so I decided to check Zyuranger (the incarnation of Super Sentai that would become Mighty Morphin Power Rangers). Let me tell you, I am so happy I did. I love the series. In all honesty, I may even love it more than Power Rangers.It has some of the same corniness that Power Rangers has, along with some of the more childish elements, but it also aims at adult audiences as well with its darker themes and imagery (Satan is a character for example, and the villain constantly conspires to murder children-- nothing too graphic mind you).The acting is really good too. It's much better than in Power Rangers (I'm not going to call the cast bad actors, for many of them, it was their first acting gig, so they were learning as they went along). Speaking of acting, much of my praise at this series is aimed at Machiko Soga, who plays the series main villain, Witch Bandora (whose stock footage would later be used for Rita Repulsa). She is the best part of the series and gives the best (and most fun) performance in the entire cast.Overall, I'm so happy I bought this. If you love Japanese shows and storytelling, or if you're a curious Power Rangers fan, I highly recommend it.