SFXB Forum

Stinking Youtube - takes an age to stream in the evening. Oh, we have one or two Power Rangers fans stashed around here somewhere.I saw what you mean about 'PPA' and one or two of the other enemies. They seemed to be the enemies from the Masked Rider (which was an appalling series) that just featured in that episode.The ship was a little like Makaras - but I thought it looked a lot more alien.Power Rangers at least had a cool intro and neat hardware, pity about all the other crud that was packed into the show.Yeah, we care about Star Fleet. If people are hawking its ideas and things, we like to know about it. That was well spotted, infact the whole mood of the enemy camp or inside their ship or base or whatever was quite ... reminiscent of Star Fleet (I thought anyway), just the lighting and the atmosphere.

I suspect that were we better versed in Japanese culture and religion etc we'd understand why a lot of concepts recur; there's an anime called Odin that has a flying ship very similar to the Skull. I believe, for example, cherry blossom has some significance which is why you sometimes see it in anime at particular moments. Star Fleet was probably an early example of anime getting converted to 3D - Power Rangers simply takes that and puts it into 3D with human characters, basically. But Star Fleet, whilst being episodic, is about an ongoing story, which is where it does differ quite significantly from the "monster of the week" approach...

That was what killed Power Rangers for me - It wasn't episodes. It was different versions of the same episode.Who's watching Macross Frontier by the way?(If you aren't... GTFO!!!)

So, which came first - Big Dai-X or Zords?   The answer is - neither. Or both. Depending on how you look at it. Or maybe Godzilla came first."Power Rangers" is the Western name for a whole galaxy of Japanese live action superhero shows, popularly referred to as "Sentai" shows.  They first appeared in the 1970s - before X-Bomber - and were themselves developments of the "Ultraman" series of sci-fi action shows, which themselves were the brainchild of Eiji Tsuburaya, the special effects wizard who brought Godzilla to life."Sentai" shows have been running for a long time; practically one a year for decades, at least - and many of which feature giant robots - or, rather, actors dressed in giant robot suits, part of the effects technology that bought Dai-X to life. All are part of the same culture, just as Babylon 5 and Deep Space 9 share surface similarities as they were both children of the Western SF culture. Equally, anime has influenced sentai shows and sentai shows have influenced anime - Gatchaman perhaps being the most famous example, but their traits can also be seen in the likes of Sailor Moon as well. [1]I can't say for certain if there was a direct influence from Star Fleet in this particular episode, but like I say, who is copying who may be a bit of an open question...!   P.S. I've only seen one episode, but Macross Frontier rocks![1] I am not admitting to watching Sailor Moon here. At all.

Regards cherry blossoms - my understanding is that cherry blossoms, which bloom spectacularly in Japan in spring before falling from the trees after a brief few days of splendour, are usually representative of the fragility of life, especially that of youth and doubly especially for mecha pilots, magical girls and other high-insurance risk anime occupations. As a historical example, there was a piloted Japanese rocket bomb during World War I.I. that was also known as "The Cherry Blossom", for much the same reasons.

I agree - the episodes are just same basic plot, alien vs rangers, alien gets big, alien vs zords - with cheesy high school plots at either end. How is this show still going?

ok heres how it played out. Power ranger derived from the japanese source footage Super sentai. its over 30 years old (well 32 now)the first show to have a combing robot in super sentai was Battle Fever J (well it was just a 1 component robot) the 2nd was Denjiman. as for the power rangers zords - 1992. but as it came from a series called zyuranger in japan and it was nothing new in the ranger world of super sentai to have a combining robot. it was X-bomber that copied super sentai X-bomber was out in 82 right? Battle feaver J was the year before.

(Darthdc @ Jun. 29 2008,16:03)QUOTEI agree - the episodes are just same basic plot, alien vs rangers, alien gets big, alien vs zords - with cheesy high school plots at either end. How is this show still going?This is not uncommon for Japan, where some manga and anime series (not to mention some live action movies and TV series) have been going for decades. Perhaps the nearest comparison to the U.K. would be Doctor Who, although with somewhat more repetition. The sentai series are also, in one sense, a vehicle (a transforming, combining one, usually!) to sell toys to children.