Current Events > ITT: Fun differences between Power Rangers and Super Sentai

(+) Yeah! (+)

In Power Rangers, the Frankenstein Monster is a one-off villain for a Halloween-themed episode.

In Super Sentai, Dora Franken is the antagonist of a multi-part story line, and Rita summons Satan to help, who rips off his skin and powers him up into a horrifying new monster. (Satan and the new monster would be shown in PR's "Island of Illusion" episodes, sans skin-ripping)

Green ranger dies in Zyuranger instead of "losing his powers"

Which I get why they wouldn't want to kill off Tommy in PR especially given his popularity, but the whole Burai storyline is so much more impactful and deep in Zyuranger

Phantom36 posted...

Green ranger dies in Zyuranger instead of "losing his powers"

Which I get why they wouldn't want to kill off Tommy in PR especially given his popularity, but the whole Burai storyline is so much more impactful and deep in Zyuranger

The funniest thing about this whole ordeal (I'll put the rest in spoiler tags, but disclaimer for mods, the Green Ranger's death isn't treated as a spoiler by Toei anymore)

The Green Ranger is "dying" because he was accidentally killed when he was hibernating for millions of years, and the Green Candle was essentially magic borrowed time before he finally went to the afterlife. He had roughly a day or so of accumulated time to spend, which isn't a lot.

But! Despite the fact that he would die within a day of leaving the candle chamber, the Megazord (who is a god in Sentai) was so fucking worried about DragonRanger getting revived that he was willing to murder a small child just to make sure he stayed in the ground.

>_>

In the Sentai show, Rita Repulsa actually has the coolest name for a character like her

She is the Witch Bandora

Xethuminra posted...

In the Sentai show, Rita Repulsa actually has the coolest name for a character like her

She is the Witch Bandora

Obligatory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBtR3GVOhDk

I would imagine without having watched Sentai, that it was a much better show than Power Rangers. Don't get me wrong PR has its moments, but the later years with Megaforce didn't help.

Im injecting the greatest moment in sentai history is when they had a megazord made from forcibly joining the enemies zord into our heroes.

He actively tries to fight the heroes while being forced to combine with their zord.

Its absolutely amazing.

Lairen posted...

Im injecting the greatest moment in sentai history is when they had a megazord made from forcibly joining the enemies zord into our heroes.

He actively tries to fight the heroes while being forced to combine with their zord.

Its absolutely amazing.

This sounds like Kiramager. Anyone who hasn't seen it probably should >_>

https://youtu.be/MxXBdTBuruc

Ivany2008 posted...

I would imagine without having watched Sentai, that it was a much better show than Power Rangers. Don't get me wrong PR has its moments, but the later years with Megaforce didn't help.

I'd say Sentai is better the majority of the time. Personally I'm always pretty interested in the adaptation process, so how certain content gets borrowed/recontextualized is always cool to me, especially early on when they really didn't give any fucks.

Like in one of the episodes you see a giant fat kid hanging out with the Megazord because in the Sentai plot the monster embiggened him, which never happened in Power Rangers. <_<

Or in the "Blue and Pink Ranger turn into bullies" episode which is pretty much a direct adaptation of the Sentai episode, right down to using footage of the Sentai's Zordon equivalent saving the day as a "flashback" of how Zordon previously solved the problem. The Sentai version has Blue and Pink go around doing random criminal acts, including gunning down a bunch of Yakuza for no reason lol

Kim_Seong-a posted...

Obligatory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBtR3GVOhDk

What was going through Saban's head when they were trying to adapt this I wonder

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/5/9/AAeInaAADeR7.jpg

So sexy

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the inclusion of a Nazi robot with a chainsaw flamethrower is probably the biggest difference between Power Rangers and Super Sentai.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/6/3/AAdlC_AADeR_.jpg

<____<

FortuneCookie posted...

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the inclusion of a Nazi robot with a chainsaw flamethrower is probably the biggest difference between Power Rangers and Super Sentai.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/6/3/AAdlC_AADeR_.jpg

<____<

Holy shit! Im speechless.

I summon @yusiko and @Airhammy for the good of this topic

FortuneCookie posted...

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the inclusion of a Nazi robot with a chainsaw flamethrower is probably the biggest difference between Power Rangers and Super Sentai.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/6/3/AAdlC_AADeR_.jpg

<____<

well, they both doesn't have the "Nazi robot with a chainsaw flamethrower " either.
that image is from Danger 5.

In Dekaranger the Pink Ranger has multiple bathing scenes >_>

Blue_Target posted...

In Dekaranger the Pink Ranger has multiple bathing scenes >_>

..censored right? lol

Is there another link for the Kiramager thing? It's blocked by TOEI.

AlCalavicci posted...

..censored right? lol

nothing to censor, she's having a bubble bath do nothing is seen shoulder down

After the Green Ranger dies the Dragon Zord goes on a grief stricken rampage till Red Ranger calms him down with a song on the Dragon Flute and the whole thing is heart breaking.

fun fact power rangers almost had a completely different costume design
they went with zyuranger for the first power rangers show but they almost went with jetman which came before zyuranger and had a female white and blue ranger
jetman is one of my favorite sentais.

Ivany2008 posted...

I would imagine without having watched Sentai, that it was a much better show than Power Rangers. Don't get me wrong PR has its moments, but the later years with Megaforce didn't help.

it depends on the sentai. some seasons are worse than power rangers and some are better
as a rule sentai does goofy seasons better and power rangers does serious seasons better

Kim_Seong-a posted...

Obligatory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBtR3GVOhDk

The fuck did I just watch, also that had some weird playing next stuff

Ricemills posted...

that image is from Danger 5.

I have lost face...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/5/7/AAdlC_AADeTd.jpg

I like how Sentai took it's time to build a story and showcase characters a certain way. Saban on the other hand wanted to get kids invested fast and rushed to get the Megazord on screen in the first episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxNpkdj6LfE

Spoilers for Timeforce and OhRanger (Zeo's Sentai equivalent) below:

In Power Rangers TimeForce, on of the biggest turning points in the finale is when Nadira, the villain's daughter, helps a civilian woman who goes into labor in the middle of a clothing store and assists delivering the baby. Seeing an innocent new life makes her completely rethink how she's viewed the conflict between mutants and humans, and she's instrumental in convincing her father to stop fighting and surrender.

A pretty similar thing happens in OhRanger's finale, funnily enough. The (now retired) Queen of the Machine Empire has been taking care of her grandchild, a baby robot, as the Prince and Princess continue their conquest of Earth. Taking care of the baby changes her heart towards conflict, and it's her desire that the fighting would stop. When the Prince is defeated, he says that since machines don't truly die, the Empire will return. But the Queen surrenders so long as the baby will be taken care of.

The main difference is that in TimeForce, Ransik atones for his crimes be letting himself be arrested, and in Ohranger, Queen Hysteria atones for her crimes by comitting suicide. >_>

t;;dr: babies

In DaiRanger the White Ranger is a child

Then in Power Rangers Turbo a couple years later the Blue Ranger is a child

Gold as well in Ohranger.

Japanese audiences didn't mind, but in the west Justin and the Beetleborgs didn't fair too well.

Rito Repulso from MMPR season 3 was largely a buffoon, but his Sentai counterpart was deathly serious and was the primary antagonist of the series for the middle stretch before the Yokai Daimaou appeared.

He's also supposed to be based on this

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/5/0/AAe6eNAADeYC.jpg

Funnily enough, the main antagonist of Timeranger was reduced to a comic relief side character. That blue shark that was always following Ransik around was a mafia don lol

In some PR seasons, the yellow ranger was a girl whereas in the Sentai it was a guy. Pretty much any PR season where the yellow ranger doesn't have a skirt on her costume means it was a guy in Sentai. The only exception I can think of was Dekaranger where the yellow ranger was female but didn't have a skirt. Though the pink ranger didn't have a skirt as well.

KCJ5062 posted...

In some PR seasons, the yellow ranger was a girl whereas in the Sentai it was a guy. Pretty much any PR season where the yellow ranger doesn't have a skirt on her costume means it was a guy in Sentai. The only exception I can think of was Dekaranger where the yellow ranger was female but didn't have a skirt. Though the pink ranger didn't have a skirt as well.

Makes sense since the colors are ranks in Dekaranger/SPD, so the suits are unisex (so theoretically a guy could end up as the pink ranger)

Kim_Seong-a posted...

Funnily enough, the main antagonist of Timeranger was reduced to a comic relief side character. That blue shark that was always following Ransik around was a mafia don lol

Yup, Gluto

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/6/1/AAIagbAADeYN.png

Then there's Dr. Hinelar from Space's counterpart Megaranger. Saban replaced him with Astronema, but his monster form was used as Furio on Lost Galaxy.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/6/2/AAIagbAADeYO.jpg

In Carranger the Bowzock were comprised of Gynamo, Zelmoda, and Grotch. Their costumes were made to look slightly less menacing and they were reduced to bumbling minions in Turbo while Divatox was created as their leader.

During American filmed fight scenes in Turbo they used Zelmoda's head on the Elgar stunt costume.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/6/3/AAIagbAADeYP.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/6/4/AAIagbAADeYQ.jpg

FortuneCookie posted...

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the inclusion of a Nazi robot with a chainsaw flamethrower is probably the biggest difference between Power Rangers and Super Sentai.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/6/3/AAdlC_AADeR_.jpg

<____<

lmao God bless Japan

Airhammy posted...

Then there's Dr. Hinelar from Space's counterpart Megaranger. Saban replaced him with Astronema, but his monster form was used as Furio on Lost Galaxy.

Speaking of Furio, IIRC, they didn't have the costume for Villamax during the early production stages of Lost Galaxy so they went with the Furio costume instead. As his role in Lost Galaxy was similar to Villamax's Gingaman's counterpart. Even the majority of the monsters he used were ones used by Villamax in Gingaman.

Something like this also happened in In Space. They didn't have Ecliptor's costume right from the start. As he only appeared in Megaranger footage in his first few appearances. This was probably why they put Elgar with Astronema. Once they got Ecliptor's costume and he started to make more appearances, Elgar would pretty much only appear just to remind viewers that he was still around.

Reading through this topic, I must say, it's pretty impressive what people can do with a whole lot of stock footage and maybe a little bit of new material. Demoting major villains to one-offs or buffoonish henchmen, turning a one-shot villain into a recurring henchman, etc.

This would be like if somebody had thirty years' worth of footage from a masked wrestling league and selectively reedited the footage as they pleased -- maybe with a body double or two. Over here, he's a comical heavy guy who loses all the time. Over there, he was a dominant bad guy with an 80% success rate. They just only showed the matches he lost and dubbed in comical dialogue for the interviews.

FortuneCookie posted...

Reading through this topic, I must say, it's pretty impressive what people can do with a whole lot of stock footage and maybe a little bit of new material. Demoting major villains to one-offs or buffoonish henchmen, turning a one-shot villain into a recurring henchman, etc.

This would be like if somebody had thirty years' worth of footage from a masked wrestling league and selectively reedited the footage as they pleased -- maybe with a body double or two. Over here, he's a comical heavy guy who loses all the time. Over there, he was a dominant bad guy with an 80% success rate. They just only showed the matches he lost and dubbed in comical dialogue for the interviews.

I want this now

Another fun fact: Stan Lee himself was trying to get Super Sentai adapted for years before MMPR came out

Another fun fact: the Toei Spider-Man series, of all things, is why Power Rangers/Super Sentai has Megazords. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe zords weren't formally introduced until Zyuranger

That's what makes S2 of Mighty Morphin so odd.

These were the villains of Dairanger, the Gorma Tribe.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/2/2/AAIagbAADeZK.jpg

and their foot soldiers, the Cotpotros

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/2/3/AAIagbAADeZL.jpg

Saban however decided to keep the Dino Ranger costumes and scrapped using footage of these villains, so Lord Zedd and the Z-Putties were created to take their place while Goldar, Finster and the others were kept on using American actors (Scorpina only making one other appearance).

Each of the Gorma members had a metallic form as well.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/2/4/AAIagbAADeZM.jpg

Shadam's form seen here would be used in a very odd 2-part Power Rangers episode called Storybook Rangers where Kimberly, Tommy and Rocky are trapped in a book. They befriend the protagonist Grumble the Magic Elf (a blue repaint of Mr. Ticklesneezer from S1), and they're being followed by the Shadam form called Mondo the Magician. At the end Zedd brings Mondo out of the book to fight the Thunder Megazord.

Speaking of the Megazord we only ever see the Rangers in the combined cockpit. Saban didn't bother making individual cockpits. The ones in Dairanger were the same as Tommy's counterpart.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/2/5/AAIagbAADeZN.jpg

Then there's the first 13 episodes of the season being Zyu2 footage mixed with Dairanger.

One of the most awkward moments is when you see "Jason" face off against Lipsyncher. All American footage of Jason is filmed in a California park on a nice Spring/Summer day, but when they cut to Dairanger footage showing Lipsyncher who is meant to be standing only a few feet away it's a cloudy day in Fall or Winter. and by this point they were dubbing in voices for Jason, Zack, and Trini which just makes it weirder. (The scenes with the Rangers facing Pursehead weren't any better as they didn't even bother using footage of the monster and wasted the character)

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

Another fun fact: Stan Lee himself was trying to get Super Sentai adapted for years before MMPR came out

Another fun fact: the Toei Spider-Man series, of all things, is why Power Rangers/Super Sentai has Megazords. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe zords weren't formally introduced until Zyuranger

Toei Spider-Man is where the giant mecha trope for Sentai originated. But Sentai would get its first mecha in the third series, Battle Fever J, but it was just a single mech.

I forget the specifics but the first combining mecha came a little while after.

Zyuranger is interesting though because the production values of Daizyujin are so far and beyond anything that came before it in terms of both quality and complexity. There was absolutely nothing like it in any previous series.

(Okay Live Lion was pretty cool but that was just one piece.)

Airhammy posted...

Then there's the first 13 episodes of the season being Zyu2 footage mixed with Dairanger.

They also did this in later episodes with not just Zyu2 footage, but Zyuranger footage as well.

In The Ninja Encounter part 2 when the rangers were fighting the Hatchasaurus, there's a part where the monster fires some lasers and you can clearly see that it's the original Megazord and not the Thunder Megazord. They didn't even bother trying to hide it there. Lol.

I dropped the show when they fucked up the reveal of The Gold Ranger. I waiting forever waiting to see who it was, and got. . .that

BTW, is there a really good deep dive on the US series? Would be fun to go back and re-visit my childhood memories

Bad_Mojo posted...

BTW, is there a really good deep dive on the US series? Would be fun to go back and re-visit my childhood memories

if you want to rewatch the show the episodes are on the official power ranger youtube channel
if you want an in depth examination and break down of the series then watch linkaras history of power rangers

yusiko posted...

if you want to rewatch the show the episodes are on the official power ranger youtube channel
if you want an in depth examination and break down of the series then watch linkaras history of power rangers

https://www.youtube.com/c/PowerRangersOfficial/playlists?view=50&sort=dd&shelf_id=1
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxCy3y2-ZD2FdM9TzvPaDdGwO6B3-9Mez

Bad_Mojo posted...

BTW, is there a really good deep dive on the US series? Would be fun to go back and re-visit my childhood memories

If you just want a retrospective of the series itself, Linkara's History of Power Rangers is pretty detailed, though his personality/gimmick can be grating. He mainly goes over the story bits, but there's a decent amount of interesting production trivia in there as well.

Gold Ranger did suck though lol. Built up as this huge mystery and then it's some literally who. >_>

Also, fun thing about the Zyu2 footage from the second half of season 1 and the beginning of season 2: Saban gave Toei some details on the American characters to incorporate into the commissioned footage. Stuff like Blue being a techy genius, Pink and Green being in a relationship, and them having wrist-mounted communicators were all shown in the morphed action scenes in Zyu2 that were never part of Zyuranger.

My personal favorite part about MMPR's Zyu2 era is that there's Toei-made fight footage of the Green Ranger. Outside of his introduction arc his only contribution is standing on buildings and playing the flute, so it's great to see him in real action for the first time since like, episode fucking 13. :P

Incase it wasn't clear the Nazi robot is not from Super Sentai:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF2IbaQdvFA

there were so many power rangers rip offs back in the day

big bad beetleborgs
VR troopers
super human samurai syber squad
mystic knights of tir na nog
tattooed teenage alien fighters from beverly hills

yusiko posted...

there were so many power rangers rip offs back in the day

I know what you mean but at the same time I always feel the need to speak up as ripoff would be the incorrect term.

Sentai started in 1975, but Ultraman began in 1966. Both are totally different concepts. Gridman is a spin-off of Ultraman. DiC took this, added in a high school setting similar to Saved by the Bell and created Superhuman Samurai. Meanwhile Kamen Rider started in 1971 and Metal Heroes in 1982. In all these were vastly different eastern superhero programs. The west merely adapted them. Same with Sailor Moon.

TTAFFBH and Mystic Knights on the other hand are original creations inspired by the western versions of these shows.

A ripoff would be if a production company saw this set of knockoff toys, and made a show about these "Super Warriors" using the same logo, MMPR suits, all with a Green Ranger type shield, and they battled a witch named Lita.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/3/1/AAIagbAADea3.jpg

Also with this subject up...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XnkxVF3ALE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C17eRigyvfg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGTE1k1sbhA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suudueSihn4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMLNJpYn02k

FortuneCookie posted...

I have lost face...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/5/7/AAdlC_AADeTd.jpg

as consolation, japan did have a Starfish Hitler from tokusatsu series, Kamen Rider X.

https://youtu.be/6Vo7ppZ6aQ8

Airhammy posted...

Gold as well in Ohranger.

Japanese audiences didn't mind, but in the west Justin and the Beetleborgs didn't fair too well.

Didn't know this, haven't watched Ohranger

Kim_Seong-a posted...

Rito Repulso from MMPR season 3 was largely a buffoon, but his Sentai counterpart was deathly serious and was the primary antagonist of the series for the middle stretch before the Yokai Daimaou appeared.

Which Sentai did Rito originate from?

AlCalavicci posted...

Didn't know this, haven't watched Ohranger

Which Sentai did Rito originate from?

I'm guessing Kakuranger? Since MMPRs3 was loosely based on that

bioshockjack posted...

I want this now

<_<

Me too.

Ricemills posted...

as consolation, japan did have a Starfish Hitler from tokusatsu series, Kamen Rider X.

https://youtu.be/6Vo7ppZ6aQ8

"If anyone expected this, theyre lying"

That about sums it up.