As a Kid I always loved a Monster of the week show, that was all there was on TV at the Time. Seeing all those creative ways of beating the uniquely powered monsters was a visual treat for my eyes. While looking back at Power Rangers I remember at the young age of 6 how I noticed the quality change of the camera when they changed to fight scenes. Now I know that Power Rangers was ripped from another show from Japan called Kyouryu Sentai Zyuu Ranger. As a fan of a good story I’m always curious the difference in plot, characters and explanations to any adaptation, with that said let’s watch MMPR against KSZR and weigh the difference.
I’m sure you know the story of Power Rangers; 5 teenagers in their early twenties are summoned by a being known as Zordon and given power over Dinosaur Robots known as Zords (love that word) to defend the earth against the evil witch Rita and her henchmen Goldar, Finster and later in the show Scorpina. It’s what you’d expect of a plot from the ‘90s cut and dry, my best comparison would be a superhero themed Saved by the Bell series. Zyuu Ranger is a bit different.
The Evil witch Bandora is freed after astronauts discover her on a new planet, The white wizard Barza releases the greatest warriors of ancient tribes from what looks like the Phantom Zone from the superman movies, to defend the Earth from Bandora once more.
Obviously a big difference in the heroes instead of being ancient legends to everyday teenagers creating some different story elements including a fish out of water scenario, a need for secret identities, or the infamous prom date episodes.
The characters themselves aren’t that different from each other the Redrangers are still the leaders both Jason and Burai needing to learn how to take command of a situation and maybe control their rash behavior. Zack and Goushi both tend to leap before they look though Zack is more a party guy like Michelangelo from TMNT and Goushi seems to be an honor bound warrior. Kimberly and Mei are the typical girls in this situation while Dan and Billy are pretty different with Billy being an atypical nerd saying big words that only Trini can understand and Dan being a goofy prankster. Of course the biggest difference is Trini and *chuckles* Boi, while there is the obvious difference in gender it’s not that the producers made a mistake, it is more likely they changed the gender for an appeal to both male and female demographics. Their personalities are pretty different with Trini being a little more wise from her background of scientist martial artist relatives (like she was raised by Gatchaman) and Boi being the youngest and there fore more curious about his surroundings than Trini.
Since we are Talking about Characters I should also take this time to mention the acting. This must be said that Power Rangers has the best cast of yelling actors ever. I’m serious, when you think back you remember all the actors yelling their dinosaurs and Zords and that was some of the fun things to hear as it got me excited every time I watched. That’s not to say that Zyuuranger doesn’t have some great yelling but it doesn’t feel Iconic like Power Rangers. Both series are over the top and cartoony but despite that what about the serious moments? I do gotta say Power Rangers takes the lead as tone it down while in Zyuuranger they are still chewing the scenery even in the most serious of moments.
However there is an element is more appreciated in Zyuurangers which is a stronger character development. As Power Rangers Continued on each time they came across an enemy that was too powerful they just teleported back to the command center and got better weapons, however in Zyuuranger each time they needed new weapons or powers it was a quest with many perils and a lesson to be learned from the experience. These episodes made it much more memorable for their toyline, I.e. can you remember the first episode power rangers used the power canon? Zyuurangers makes it more of an event with a better payoff as a result.
Even the villains have better back story in Zyuuranger than in Power Rangers. Rita and Bandora have the same seal they were freed from in episode one but Rita only wants to rule the world while Bandora is trying to destroy it because her evil master commands it and has promised to reunite Bandora with her deceased son. This moment becomes a tragedy when the Zyuurangers win (yeah I don’t think it’s a spoiler when it’s obvious) because the the moment she is separated from her son is a very sad and tragic moment yet it’s played like it’s nothing as she is banished again into space. Even the romance between Goldar and Scorpina is given depth as Griffozer has stayed mute until he is reunited with his wife Lamie. Though it only comes up every once in a while the villains back story helps me to admire them and the story of Zyuuranger as a whole.
It’s obvious what can’t be passed up is mentioning the green rangers Tommy and Burai. Without a shadow of a doubt their part is the best in both Zyuuranger and Power Rangers. Tommy is a new kid in town who we meet at a martial arts tournament and after a fight against Jason it becomes obvious they will be good friends. On his way home Tommy is corrupted by Rita and becomes her evil sixth green Ranger. Something that always bugged me was the fact that Rita had a power coin. I just wonder where she got it from, did she kill the previous sixth ranger, did she make it herself, or is it just a plot device I shouldn't be expecting a children’s show to explain? Either way, Tommy’s Green with Evil arc really puts the pressure on the rangers by taking out Zordon, trapping Jason, and destroying the megazord from the inside out. Of course Tommy becomes a good guy but damn, that was a pretty intense story arc.
With Burai he turned out to be evil from the get go. Burai is actually red ranger Geki’s older brother who feels Geki betrayed him after being adopted by a rival family. Bandora uses this hatred to further corrupt Burai which is constantly forcing Geki to hesitate in the middle of battles. Burai soon goes mad with evil and is attacked by both Rangers and Bandora, and after recieving his mech Dragon Ceaser becomes a good guy after realizing his brother’s love. Despite this the Green Ranger is slowly dieing and comes out to fight when his friends are in danger. Knowing this now is kinda funny looking back on Power Rangers and realizing how many times Tommy was busy with detention, karate lessons, a date etc. because the writers always had to come up with one reason or another to keep Tommy out of the fight with some being boring plot devices. Still it’s funny to say “Sorry Zordon I can’t save the world, I got detention”.
As I’ve stated these are the best episodes of the series as both Rangers become so badly beaten and out matched that it become exciting to see their victory. Still one problem that always stuck out was the fact that both the Megazord and Daizyujin are solar powered. The moment the solar eclipse occurs both become weak and are destroyed or badly damaged. A robot fit for combat should have plenty of power to manage an enemy even on a cloudy day. it just seems like to big a design flaw to ignore when the solution is so simple, give him batteries.
Now up to this point I’ve been praising Zyuurangers for a better plot and characters but it’s far from perfect. Some episodes are just weird like Run Egg Prince or Monkey No More involving characters that aren’t funny and stick out like a sore thumb. Even one kid from the Sixth Hero episode just feels out of place to add in the sixth ranger. Also the plot of Zyuurangers is not only to protect the Earth from Bandora but to revive the Dinosaur race from extinction. This is done by running around chasing eggs and protecting them from Bandora. Although this plot fits the over all tone of Zyuurangers I find it a little disurbing that a 25-50ft tall tyrannosaurus is going to roam the land in modern times. I know it’s more of a spiritual thing but still you are talking about bringing onto this Earth monsters of extraordinary size and power and calling it a holy mission. Jeff Goldblum in Jurrasic Park had a point, if they’re dead their’s probably a good reason why but whatever, it seemed alright for people in Dragon Ball.
It’s funny when thinking of the strange characters of the week in comparison to Bulk and Skull. I think Bulk and Skull are not needed in Power Rangers but they work better in Power Rangers with just their charm alone. In Zyuurangers the extra comedy relief characters can be strange like the boy who freed Burai was wearing what looked like a diaper and was being chased by two old men in a tank, while Bulk and Skull always seemed funny even when I didn’t laugh. The actors Paul Shrier (Bulk) and Jason Narvy (Skull) had great chemistry and seemed to compliment each other’s personalities even when one was out shined by the other it just feels like they wouldn’t have worked as well with out each other which is evident in Lost Galaxy or Samuari but that’s another story.
Probably the most important part of any story is it’s ending, the conclusion to all the fighting and destruction from all the previous episodes. Well both series are pretty good and pit the heroes against impossible odds. In Power Rangers Rita captures all the citizens of Angel Grove just as they were celebrating the heroes. While they are gone Goldar gets his own Zord powered by an evil spirit named Lokar and defeats the megazord. Here’s the thing this isn’t the last episode. although they use the footage from the last episode of Zyuuranger the show continued on for many episodes more (more on that later).
In Zyuuranger Bandora summons her master Daisatan who in turn revives her son Kai. Kai hypnotizes several children to help him pilot a large mech that defeats and seals the Zyuurangers robot. This is as serious as the show gets as their mechs are dismantled the rangers in both countries are badly beaten and their morale low. Not much to say of difference since the stakes are high on both sides for different reasons. The obvious difference is the fact that while Zyuurangers ends Power Rangers continues on.
After Doomsday in Power Rangers the team continued on doing their saving the world. How is this since Power Rangers used up all the Sentai footage? Well Saban Called up Toei and had them make entirely new footage specifically for Power Rangers. When watching those specific American commissioned episodes you can see a great improvement on dubbing and body language probably because the writers were specific in what they wanted for those episodes.
Of course with these newly made fight scenes they brought back the most popular Tommy. In the episode Green Once More Rita kidnaps the Rangers parents forcing them to relinquish their power coins, all save one. Since the dragon coin has no power Rita brushed it off but by returning it to Tommy and channeling Zordon's personal energy into it they are temporarily able to bring back the Green Ranger power and rescue their parents.
Esthetically the episodes are much more pleasing as they don’t struggle with the Sentai footage and instead flow into one another with greater ease (despite the constant change in quality to the fight scenes). I especially like the episode Mighty Morphin’ Mutants where en the Power Rangers are attacked by evil Putty-Rangers and a evil lobster. It sums up my love and hate for Power Rangers as a whole; it’s a fun to watch as it falls into the cheesy cliche’ fan service but the solution of making weapons that look exactly the same as the older weapons but better feels cheap when it could have been a moment for the characters to go through a team building moment (or sold another toy).
Now which do I like better? Power Rangers is a cobbled together mess with some poor transitions into the Japanese footage and Zyuuranger is a strange culmination of serious and childish scenes and situations. I guess I have to say Zyuuranger only because of it’s mythology. Zordon has briefly said that he had a history before became a head in a tube but it’s not touched on as much as the culture and back story of each Zyuuranger member. I’m always a sucker for those elements in a show but otherwise I feel they are very nearly equal in quality and in story.
