The Demo Site

originally poasted February 7, 2006

by Victor Ong

Good morning, readers! It’s past 12a.m. in Malaysia, and I’m here with a report of the latest Power Rangers and Super Sentai developments in Johor Bahru and Singapore.

Back in late 2004, when Saban’s Power Rangers Wild Force began airing every Saturday 6:30p.m. on Malaysia’s TV2, my friends and I made a regular habit of leaving the hostel and entering College to watch the featured episode on overhead television sets in the canteen. The security guards would join us from time to time. The stout Indian lady peddling hotdogs, fries and burgers would crane her neck to catch a bit of the colorful action, while Malay kids back from their regular weekend soccer match would lounge about the canteen pretending to be mature, grown-up teenagers, drinking Coke and isotonic drinks, but still watching Wild Force nevertheless.

The 6:30p.m. viewership base soon expanded to include a CPA Accounting student, Monash University Malaysia undergrads, parents on school seminars (those freaky PTA stuff) and finally some members of Saban’s target audience – the kids of our lecturers. Trust those teachers to leave their tykes with us – we had the perfect childcare environment.

Guards + friendly tuckshop lady + innocent undergrads + cute girls + watchful parents + Power Rangers = wholesome time together. Sweet.

Most of my peers and ALL of my less-than-senior lecturers know what “Power Rangers” is; they just don’t know how far it has ventured post-MMPR. In Malaysia and Singapore, the general impression is “Tommy”, “Kimberly” or “the White Ranger……ah, I remember”, and nothing much besides. In 1998, toy sales began falling. Why? They changed the costumes. Zeo. Weird. Gone were the Power Rangers I knew, and I stopped watching the series. So did a million other kids.

In 2003, Power Rangers resurfaced in my life. It was a renewed interest brought about by MMPR Season 2 VCDs that cost US$1 apiece; I bought all 7 discs on sale at that time, and watched them over one weekend. This experience prompted me to welcome more Power Rangers-related material into my life, till it was saturated with them. An Internet search revealed much. Admittedly, I was shocked by the vast library of PR episodes, the expanse of the PR universe, the increasing complexity of PR plotlines and the upgraded special effects. I began fervent downloading, a habit that lasted quite long.

2004, I tried to lay my hands on episodes I could watch on TV, namely VCDs and DVDs, but many of my efforts were in vain. Singapore’s major cartoon licensees do not market PR, and many popular video stores do not stock them; across the Causeway, the situation is less bleak, with major player Berjaya HVN releasing PR discs every now and then. But subsequent purchases (especially Time Force) revealed poor video quality, lousy color separation and the occasional TV encode.

Toy stores, similarly, had forgotten PR. With the exception of Toys ‘R’ Us, most brand-name toy stores refrained from stocking PR toys and accessories. Don’t think too highly of Toys ‘R’ Us, though – it, too, had a poor catalog of PR merchandise. Fortunately, some of the ‘lesser’ toy outlets imported plenty of imitations, and though I avoided buying them, they gave me a pretty good intro to PR’s exciting counterpart – Super Sentai.

Malaysia and Singapore seemed like a wasteland in the aftermath of MMPR’s demise. Zeo, Turbo, Lost Galaxy all the way to Time Force were like weeds growing in a barren landscape under clouds that refused to give water. Those clouds are, of course, the local fan base.

MMPR left an indelible impression of campiness, silliness and kiddiness that gave what used to be 7-year-olds in 1995, but are now angst-y 12-year-olds in 2000, every reason to avoid Power Rangers and its supposedly immature incarnations.

But no longer. Power Rangers is back in Johor Bahru and Singapore with a vengeance.

-- to be continued --