GKA Articles: NinjaJack

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Why People Still Like Watching Power Rangers

Now many of your are going to be young adults(or older) who have long forgotten that years ago every kid in the neighborhood didn’t want a Pokemon or any anime related ninja getup to wear. They wanted a Mighty Morphin Power Ranger. A show about teenagers who could have come straight from Bayside(only people from the previously mentioned age group will know what show Bayside is located in) that in times when the world was under attack would risk their lives against the forces of Rita Repulsa

About a year goes by and some of these ‘Power Rangers’ take their leave as newbies are called in. The newest villain Lord Zedd finds the one good thing inside him is the true love for his former underling Rita Repulsa , who by the end of the final season is his dearly devoted (and pain in the neck) wife.
And that’s about it…isn’t it?

Theres got to be more…
Ah, but there is more, oh so much more.
This is the one show I’ve followed pretty much without end on televison since it started.
It has outlasted X-Files, Xena, Hercules,Stargate, Babylon 5, Earth Final Conflict... wait, you mean you think I just watch this show for the suits? You think I and others would watch this show if it had no science fiction or dramatic appeal? Please, give us Ranger fans more respect than that. The power suits have a great uniformed look to them of course, but so do the robots in Transformers. That is to say that there are thousands of robotic themed television series but only one with the heart, erm, Spark that gets my TV time the most.

It’s that Spark, or heart that drives the die hard Ranger fan to this show. But when all you see is a cheap 20 minute piece of trash production you’re not looking with your heart. This show is put together by the some of the most dedicated people in Hollywood and New Zealand. Some of them have even worked on Herc and Xena and Lord Of The Rings. The actors have gotten their hands dirty helping out where they could, the cast and crew are a family unit. And most of all they bend over backwards to pull off in little miricles for the fans each year.

I look at a lot of science fiction, I’ve read a fair number of science fiction novels. And I say that this show is deserving ot being established as one of the top science fiction programs out there. Of course it doesn’t always have the depth of Doctor Who or Star Trek, but believe me it certainly is not from a lack of trying. 1998’s Power Rangers in Space is a fantactic ride where the heroes set across the stars to find their leader Zordon who was snatched from his home only to have to sacrifice his life to save the universe in the end. 2005’s Power Rangers SPD was a group of rookies allusion of racial tension and finding out your purpose as a young adult while trying to deal with being a cop in the near future..
Time Force is just awesome.

Now I know PR fans are everywhere but most think they will be embarresed by the show biut I tell you this man, this is one of the shows I want to show my kids. This show that features good vs evil, no cussing, martial arts(done expertly well) honor, loyalty, self sacrifice, love, dealing with hate, racism, grief, regret and positive and negative choices.
Everyboy grows up and everyboy grew up with at least one season close to heart. All the reviews for the latest game Super Legends are surprisingly not directly negative towards the idea of a Power Ranger game. In fact most of the gamers I’ve talked to spoke about how they wanted something against the normal Ranger game. In other words if there was a bad( bad being good) Power Ranger game they’d snatch it up.

See what this show really does at it’s core is talk to the inside of people who might want to do the right thing , who wish they were stronger in times of distress. There is something downright awesome seing the good guys whip the badguys into shape. And this show does it everyday with a whopping 651 episodes.

This is my show and it could be your show is you stopped a looked a few episodes, or even asked a Ranger fan why do we like it so much. You’ll be lglad you did
You can trust this Ninja on this because it’s true.

Give Me Back My Rock Music Well the Operation of Overdrive is finally over and like everyone else I'm looking forword to the new season with Jungle Fury. Of course I liked Operation Overdrive for what it was, it was a fun show with a solid cast and some really endearing villains, good stuff all around. The only gripe I really had with the show was the lack of a good opening theme.

What? wait, wait, I'm sorry you actually liked the music? Why? WHY? As with One Piece and Dragonball GT studio heads seem to be drinking from the same cess pool of ideas.

Hey studio heads, listen up, the kids aren't into lamolicious cornball rap anymore, they're into rock. Just look at Guitar Hero, it's practically been running off the shelves.
look at how Guitar Hero does Power Rangers

There needs to be a return to rock music and if not rock music, music in general.

Operation Overdrive had a really catchy theme, but then after the first episode was over it got stale, the 31 times it was played it got worse. When I watched Once A Ranger and heard all the respective themes for the returning rangers and then cringed at the fact that the last two seasonal themes were no where near as endearing as PRNS to SPD. It's a hope a mine that Power Rangers Jungle Fury goes back to the old status quo, which means good themes that are so good you have to hum it throughout the day.

I remember when I was young and would record Lost Galaxy and rewind the theme over and over just because of how well it was pulled off. I just had to hear those church bells again.

The music in Operation Overdrive did have one thing that was done right and that was sweet BGM that you heard throughout the battles(Things Not Said). The only problem with the BGM was the fact that it tended to be drowned out by the ADR and everything else which made it hard to enjoy for most of the season.

A few years back Ron Wasserman signed on and produced the theme song for SPD, he would have contributed more but somebody in the Disney hierarchy said there was no need. But whats hillarious is that SPD was probably the most overplayed theme since Go Go Power Rangers in seasons 1-3. The fact that they played out the Space Patrol Delta themed proved to me that they knew Ron was good and they knew that his music was perfect for the show, but somebody knew that they should have taken Ron up on his offer but they goofed on that so they overplayedthe theme.
Then when they dropped Ron the next year they wound up hardly, if at all, playing the opening theme throughout the show, hmm I wonder if it was because they were bad?

So lets get the facts straight here:

Power Rangers owns when it comes to music

-SPD was one of the most overplayed songs in Ranger history, it has also become one of the new favorites

-When the Mystic Force rap music appeared, the standard for music in PR fell (tremendously)

-Power Rangers and rock music go together like chocolate and peanut butter, or robots and lasers.

-Overdrive had good but ultimately forgetable background music

So if PR and good music go so well together why don't we hear it? Well you can almost hear the bigwigs right now as they bring over a new anime series "If the kids don't like it, THEN WE WILL MAKE THEM LIKE IT," hey it's worked with pop music right?

I just want something strong and fun for the new season, something like Dino Thunder or Zeo something that I won't forget and won't grate my teeth at everytime it comes on

Race On Power Rangers originally posted August 10, 2007

By NinjaJack

Okay, I know this is going to be a touchy subject that might explode into something terrible such as thought provoking conversation and who knows maybe some resolve. But I`d like to bring something out in the open, set it in front of everyone and hear what has to be said about it.
Race in Power Rangers, how do you think been handled over that last 15 years? Have their been alot of stereotypes good or bad or otherwise? Do you think PR has the best track record for showing people as individuals or just tacking on social standards?

Personally, I love how the show has depicted people from all around the globe. You could say it`s been a tapestry of heroes that have found brotherhood among many differences.
Of course there is always the whole SPD issue alot of us banged on. Things like Sky`s reaction to a black street thug being given a superior position. Was this an issue or were we just reading too much into this? I dunno, since Bruce declared anything like that was never intended, but yet in Reflections it seems like there was something to be said for Jack`s "Heroes come in all colors" line. There were folks who got up in arms of Bridge`s "Reptiles" line but really that was nothing. Over the years PR has given us so many positive looks on people that I think it should have been given an award.

I read that interview from Rhoda Montemayor early this year, if you haven`t read it you should. She talks about how race plays a role in an actor getting a part, and how even if you are Asian a producer will tell you you `re just not Asian enough. (See Hollywood Shuffle)But when it`s come to Power Rangers, from my perspective as someone who isn`t Asian, I think the show has presented more positive characters and roles from people with Asian backgrounds than almost ANY show.

I could say that about my own people too, to a certain extent. Except that I don`t get why ever since Ethan left the scene Disney seems to think in order to be "black" you must talk slick, wear dreads/cornrows and hit on women.

This show I think has done more good for this world than people are willing to give it credit for, providing strong role models and going against social stereotypes being the the most commendable.

I Just Like Power Rangers..

originally posted May 24, 2007

By NinjaJack

Yeah thats right

I`m not going to be going to Power Morphicon in person but I will be there in spirit. I've followed this series ever since High Five and never let go mystic force since. This little 20 minute program has taught that right is always right and true evil must be destroyed and dealt with.
And that sometimes this isn't always the case. Sometimes things do go bad and people do get hurt. Sometimes your friends turn their backs on you and at some point we've all walked down the wrong path in life.

This show is one of the few programs I can watch and sincerely enjoy day after day and come away feeling excited for the next episode. I`m just glad NBC finally figured out having superheroes on the front lines means big business.

I just read an article in one of the major business magazines detailings Marvel's entry into the movie business and how they are banking on the success of these movies on the heroes themselves. If they fail than Marvel wil be bought out. They're doing this on the basis of Marvel as a brand. They know people will go watch a movie about a Marvel hero because people generally love these guys.

You see the very reason any hero connects with it's audience isn`t just their plights and how they survive them. It's the things that make them human and therefore connect with the audiences.

Last night I was in the Star Wars section at Wal-Mart, and I talked to a fellow Star Wars geek for about an hour about science fiction. When Power Rangers came up I told about Countdown to Destruction and Force From The Future and he was pretty impressed. Not so much of the brand but because of the characters humanity.

Thats why I like PR, it has a level of child like innocence mixed in with a very human nature to all the chracters. I think that's why alot of us hated on Kimberly after seeing what that letter did to Tommy. How many of us felt a bit cheeted ourselves when Dustin found out Marah was a sham?

Power Rangers are human heroes who will be your guides through many exciting adventures, it's been 15 years and I still enjoy the ride

Easy Rider On A Hard Road

originally posted August 28, 2005

by NinjaJack

Kamen Rider, one of the key series in numbering fine television from round the globe. The masterpiece of Ishiromori Shotaro it has rode off with the hearts of children and adults alike. A cultural icon only dwarfed by Ultraman, Kamen Rider has a long steep legacy of brave men and women beating the odds on the skin of their teeth and their tire treads.
Such a long successful history overseas would certainly translate to a great show in the West right? RIGHT?
Wrong. The heart of Super Sentai's sense of teamwork broke through the language barrier and The Power Rangers continue to benefit from it till this very day. But Kamen Rider, otherwise Masked Rider, isn't a show about team spirit. In fact it's closer to Batman than the Justice League. Wolverine among the other X-Men, Paris Hilton in a church!
The last time America tried to bring Kamen Rider to the US market it collapsed under it's own weight.

Lets see, a jolly gentle giant married to an Asian women who adapted a African American son after the step mother adopts her step daughter and then they all adopt a 16 year old alien as their older brother, check.

As it`s quite clear to see Masked Rider was all too perfect, too clean cut and pasted to be taken seriously, or even humorously for that matter.
Beetleborgs suffered from laughing at itself, VR Troopers took itself too seriously and Masked Rider never found any solid direction either way.
Toei Co put buggy boy on hiatus and that was just another excuse for Saban to kill the show off and act as if the Rangers never met him.

But around the turn of the century Toei renewed Kamen Rider to full production and bigger budget. Returning to it`s former glory all the while reaching new heights Kamen Rider hasn't put the ball down since he got it back.
Hibiki, Faziu, Blade, Kuga, Agito Ryuki, these are the Riders of the new Japanese millennium, but what about us?

There is hardly a popular game in Japan that doesn't get released here in the states. Anime films by Miyazaki and others come here in bigger releases each yeah. We've seen Ultraman appear in a number of western countries on DVD and television. But after almost ten years I think it's about time to give the US Riders another chance to Riderkick.

A short time ago there was creditable word on an all new Rider series for both Ryuuki and Faizu. But according to the news the folks at Disney deemed the shows just too violent to air here. Kamen Rider has plenty of moments of violence but this isn't Guyver.
After the Power Rangers S.P.D. episode
"Reflections" we know Disney holds a firm lease on the violence in their shows, even the implied violence. So how could there possibly be a chance to bring Kamen Rider back? Even with better writing it still would be sexed down like Dr. Laura in a Las Vegas revue.
But if there is a will there is most certainly a way.

Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Even Disney channel have evolved overtime to support children and older demographics(least of these being Disney our antagonist of course) with slots like Teen Nick and Adult Swim.
Lets try that.

Instead of bringing Masked Rider to a Ranger standard, build it up to a new one. Jetix is a 24/7 machine in other countries and it`s slowly moving into that realm in the states and elsewhere. I say program a prime time block of shows to compete with Teen Nick and eventually Adult Swim. Imagine similar to saturday night Toonami a weekly block of prime time shows aimed at an older audience and that respects both demographics? The kids get the toys the teens and young adults get their high octane action and drama everybody is happy.

Of course speaking openly and honestly, this won't happen with Eisner's goons breathing down Village Roadshow's necks. But in the end if they do open up the resources to everyone not just the kids they`ll benefit the rewards Cartoon Network has been experiencing with their expanded lineup.

Every year Kamen Rider gets better, well the jury is still out on Hibiki, but there is no doubt within me that some day soon we'll be seeing a Rider belt on an American, or Kiwi if production is in New Zealand, shouting "HENSHIN!" or something akin to it. But only when Eisner is really out of power will we see those buggy eyes again.

To Mech Or Not To Mech

originally posted October 2, 2005

By NinjaJack

"Oh no! It's the Zords!"-Goldar Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie

Whether you like to call them Zords, Mechs, Gundams, Evas, MegaDeuces or Giant Robos, the Super Robot is an icon the whole world recognizes.

Starting with TESTUJIN 28 in 1953 children fell in love with the idea of a hero piloting a weapon of mass destruction down major city streets

In 1972 Gô Nagai's creation MAZINGER began the whole idea of jumping inside a super robot and piloting instead of using a remote as with Tetsujin 28. By the end of this landmark decade came the advent of the story driven robo series with the introduction of the evergreen we love to call Gundam. Both Gundam and Mazinger series forged the idea that the pilot was not only to one driving but he was the soul of the machine.

The 80s brought bad taste in clothes and the Transformers who transformed and
rolled into the hearts of children worldwide.
And I don't care if you think robots are "teH suX" now, you were one or knew one of those kids when Transformers first hit. A new dynamic was introduced, living machines that thought for themselves and had their own sense of right and wrong.
The eighties also brought us Voltron and Robotech, two cult classics.

Of course this isn't Pleasentville and everyone on God's green earth sure as certain do not agree on everything. And when it comes to robots on TV you' will find folks on both sides of the fence.

"They get in the way of the story" "Awesome, you mean they can actually combine?"
Above are just a few of the random quotes that seem to spew up whenever a new robot is introduced in ANY series. Lets dissect this just a wee bit and get a better understanding of the basics of this divider among fans.
Why do some people hate the sight of a ten story wrecking machine?
Well lets see it's a machine for starters, machines have no emotion. They destroy without remorse, like the RIAA.
Honestly how many buildings have been crushed both here in the states with Power Rangers and in Japan with all the Robo Anime and Sentai? I bet you can't even begin to think of the estimate.

Lots of explosions and running, and the screaming and the running and the screaming,

"It'`s a waste of budget and time!"
the people who hate giant robots cry out for stories over more scenes of random stock footage.

Take Ishimori Shotaro-San's Kamen Rider Tokusatsu series for instance, it has no mecha aside from a few super vehicles over the years. But the stories in Kamen Rider are still some of the most drawn out and dramatic of the Henshin genre.

As I have already noted above , Giant Robots use quite a bit of stock footage, some people just don't want to sit through the same "BIG O! SHOWTIME!" sequence over and over and over again. The very idea that sometimes producers will actually speed up the sequence when the robot is called more than once in an episode shows that even they know in the end they just really want to sale the toys.

Is that it, is the hatred of the Giant Robo really just a scapegoat? Is the giant robot a simple weapon like a sword or a jetpack? Or is it just the true face of the show`s true purpose to only sale toys that stares us in the face and therefore must be dealt with?

But now one might ask a question as to why do other people LOVE the robots?
"Because they blow stuff up!" a fan might say, but because Rocky had one great line in his Ranger days, when he saw the Shogun Zords for the first time "Yeah, they are awesome alright." We like the big bots because they're cool. Ah but that doesn't get down to the nitty gritty does it?

What purpose do they serve? They're just giant walking pieces of metal.
The purpose is simple, these robots sometimes will take on symbols of justice just as rightfully as their pilots embody.

Looking a the Gundam Wing series would Wufei had been so hell bent on Great Justice if he was not piloting the Shenlong?
Is Optimus Prime any less of a great warrior because he's ten stories tall?
The question I ask isn't if there is a need for giant robots or not. But is it possible to have a great show where Story+Robots coexist?

To Whom It May Concern originally posted November 20, 2005

by NinjaJack

Right now I`m staring at a yet to be filled Christmas candy tin, this could only mean one of two things, it's time I stopped being such a pack rat or it's almost that time of year again when things tend to change or end.
To say that this season has piqued everyone's interests would be a terribly unjustified understatement.
The things that took place in this fandom over the course of a year has left this Ninja exhausted with intrigue and I think just a wee wee bit of envy.
After two conventions, a team up slip, a lady in red, Morphin Grid AND Onyx references on screen plus NINE Power Rangers this season was pretty exciting to watch.

You can /never/ say SPD was a boring season, they gave you 110% as far as crazy stunts and epic battles. There were many episodes I flat out hated, but gee whiz Wally, I loved the gunplay.

Watching the all those matrix moves may grow tiresome to some of you out there, but to me I like the quality of work the stunties put out for us. And whenever the actors shows enough gung ho to pull of a few stunts of their own then more power to you Brandon. That fight between you and the Krybot(I mean Troobian) in Stakeout still stands out as one of my favorite moments all year,
PR has always had stunt work above the usual network standard of one weak kick per episode.

This year we had enough pyrotechnics to declare SPD a war zone. Not to say I would ever want action to take precedence over story development, when lets face it, this year it has.

I`d like to think that when the series launched there was a clear point to all of the characters. That like previous years of PR, hold on wait, I mean as in previous seasons of television, there was a point to every plot or at least the blunt of the plot. That characters were not just created to fill up space for 38 episodes. That somewhere each meant more than just being a talking mannequin.

SPD gave us so many characters, so much heavy meat to bite into. The only problem is the meat was undercooked.
We have unexplained SPD history as far as Doggie and Birdie are concerned. Why isn't Cruger in command if he`s the last surviving member of the founders of SPD? How is it that Sam*cough OMEGA*cough* comes from the future but lands in a time whole stemming from past?

If Grumm had Cruger`s wife all this time what was the big payoff?
Things like this made up the backstories of SPD. Last season the fans helped influence the show, this year the fans are having to make up things as they go along.
"Cruger must have passed up the Supreme Commander title to Birdie" "Maybe Wes gave his morpher to Sky's dad" "Maybe Grumm's missing horn is like his manhood being removed"
As funny as that last quote might have been, I would rather the writers explain these things rather than speculate to this level. Speculation is fine and all, and I love it. But to speculate to SUCH an extent where you the fan are making a story more detailed than folks who are being /paid/ to write for this show, something has to be afoot. It. Just. Has to be.

Jackie Marchand is one of my favorite writers. She's also one of the PR main stays. Like Koichi Sakamoto(greatest stunt genius ever) she's been involved in many previous installments of this show. One half of PR's most dynamic duo "Judd & Jackie", she has provided many great, even breathtaking episodes over the course of the show`s history.
But alas, this season has been different.

I don't have any affiliations with Mrs. Marchand, I have no ties with her. I am just a guy whose noticed the incoherent writing pattern over the course of the last two seasons.
Knowing her style from previous years has caused me to consider someone has been editing her scripts. It could be Bruce Kalish, it could be Disney, I don't know who it is but her writings were NEVER this bad.
A few bad episodes I`ll give you, but something about this season Jackie episodes felt forced, rushed and honestly doctored to match the ideal of the season.

This is most obvious in the episodes that feel like true Jackie scripts amongst eps that don't. HIstory only suffered from time, but it sure made a heck of a lot more sense than Impact didn`t` it? Badge was quality. Now just tell me who really wrote Messenger part 2 and I`ll be happy.

Looking through the episodes this year I`ve come to the conclusion that there was one major plot that was never touched on. There was one consistent thing throughout the year. Space Patrol Delta has some dirty cops.

SPD has not only been the first to have good guys flat out turn on their friends, these were evil evil evil evil people who managed to get inside SPD. Heck five of them managed to pervert Rangerhood while they were at it. Dru was a dirty cop, Icthior was a dirty cop, I thought for a moment Birdie was a dirty cop but he was just fowl.

There was a whole underlining theme of Good Cop vs. Bad Cop. But like today's space program, there are things that are left unexplored.

When I saw Shadow I was pumping my fist in great passion, erm, I was overjoyed with emotion...no..Shadow left me feeling like I needed a cigarette and I don't even smoke. Then I decided that the best storyline in SPD, the one stroyline they'd be consistent with for the rest of the year would be Doggie's.

OK I needed that space to stop and think of something that wouldn`t come out as totally negative. Because basically I don`t see how you possibly can go so long without solving a character's mystery. Heck the payoff we get isn't really much to bark at anyway. Hasso might not be loved by a lot of folks but he once told me " SPD is good at everything but storylines"
But lets talk about the cast before we get back to the stories.

This cast was fantastic, they brought you into the shows world. What SPD lacked in the story department they made up with a cast with a huge on screen chemistry.
One of the best casts in years, and I don't just mean Rangers here. I`m talking the entire cast was awesome. Much like how I viewed the Time Force cast, I loved the supporting guys too. BoomKat forever!

The two casties closest to my heart will always be Monica May and Michelle Langstone. unfortunetly we didn't get much backstory on either of their roles. But I digress.
Monica May and Michelle Langstone are not only pretty faces, those faces saw some of the best emotions emulated on screen this year. Michelle is the best actress I`ve seen on PR period.

Greg did a superb job writing S.W.A.T and working on the sets and costumes, we will miss your work in the next series Greg...seriously come back!

If there was a single character that I hated in SPD, a single person that I think completely ruined the show for me, it would not be the EP. Oh sure he's on the top ten list but thats not the point I`m making. My most hated character, whom I WILL hate for the rest of PR's run, is Cruger complete opposite, Gruumm.

The this lamo is the poorest excuse for a villain I think I have seen. He RENTS his army and has the audacity to call himself Emperor when there's a guy right above him telepathicly pimp-slapping him on a daily basis. And then there's his strange, weird, disturbing relation to Mora. She's not his daughter, obviously, she's his highest ranking general of course. But what the fark is a ten year old doing with some grimey old man in a dark room?

Lets not forget his grudge against Cruger. Wait sorry, sorry the writers forgot his grudge against Cruger. Then again it`s more like Grumm forgot his grudge against Cruger and made up a reason on the fly "Cruger I hate you so much! I took over your planet, I committed genocide on your entire species, I kidnaped your wife, I'm not in prison, but heck I hate you for cutting off my horn." He's a crybaby. Gruumm sucks people.

He WON and still he's ally pissy at Cruger. Give me ONE reason why Grumm is hell bent on destroying Cruger. And don't give the horn answer because we all know thats a cop out.

What was the point of Morgana again?

I will say that this season has really been good for the fandom, it was exercise. Comic Con and PR would never had mixed years ago but somehow they did. Off screen I think this season was way way up there fantastico. But on screen this year was pretty and beautifully done, it just didn't seem to know how to execute and follow through.

Screw the over budgeting, thats been done to death. Please please screw the "It's a kid show" remark because I know, you know and everyone else whose a fanboy of any show that ever aired on Saturday morning knows that "Kid Show" just means you don't have to be sexy.

If Smallville focused more on their Super heroics rather than Lois puppies, then it would be called a kid show for being to much campy. I guess thats why I still watch this "Kid show" up till this season the writers, producers and stunt crews never used that term as an excuse to write shabby or put out cop outs to this level. This show has a target audience? Yeah, so does Justice League, so did X-Men, Gargoyles, Beast Wars, Reboot, The New TMNT, Batman, Thundercats, Robotech. Even Dora the Explorer has more consistency than what we've been given here.

I'd like to think that this season had a purpose. I`d like to think they didn't just tack on Jacks leaving the B-Squad because they had up and forgotten to do so 20 episodes ago. But it does really really look that way to me. It looks like they tried to jam Bridge's headstands into every bit of the last four episodes just to make it seem like he's been doing this all season when he has not.

It almost seems like they wanted you to forget Sam had magically gained a human body at the end of Endings when he clearly didn`t have it all season long.

So Disney wants self contained episodes? Okay, but just because an episode is self contained doesn`t explain why episodes don`t make sense. Why episodes before Shadow seem to contradict episodes around Badge.
Perhaps this season would not have been such a big disappointment if it had not promised so much.

I can't call A-Squad's story justified at all. Building up five character, well hinting at them, for a whole season only to learn that A)They were evil all along right under Doggie's evil sniffing nose and B)You really never learn why because they're gone before you even have a chance to forget they were there to begin with. Omni's whole story sucks, but it`s related to Gruumm and he sucks, so Omni sucks twice as much as Gruumm.

There were plenty of good things about SPD.
Not just the cast, but the music was great. I love hearing Ron's music again on the show. The massive world they lived in was way huger than anything we've seen in PR in recent years.

This world was a living and breathing entity. Bringing up Onyx was just adding to the mix. This season felt futuristic. I liked what I saw, it was a beautifully shot season. The camera shots this year left me in awe.
Everything before Shadow was golden, S.W.A.T was something we needed more of and Reflections was better than most of the season.

[i]S.P.D.you are charged with mishandling plot devices, ignoring characters, giving us Gruumm, giving up on Omega, trying to convince us that a Krybot is Troobian and finally, never giving us a bath scene[/I]
X
O
X
O
X
O
X
[I] Guilty![/i]
My final grade for S.P.D. is
three count`em three Ninja Cookies out of five

Transformers, finally More Than Meets The Eye originally posted August 25, 2005

by NinjaJack

If you’re a young man in your twenties you've probably have heard that term and it's quite likely when you were a boy you held that term very close to your heart.

These Robots In Disguise once were associated with fascinating stories, innovative toys and a well deserved dedicated audience I was in that audience and I bought those innovative toys (though I never could get my hands on the original G2 Optimus Prime)

Between 1985 and 1998 Transformers went through an iconic period of being a toy phenom then
being taken off to air in the states and then being broadcast on Japanese TV only to be brought back in 96 with the epical Beast Wars(Beasties for you Canadians) series.

Then the slag hit the fan.

In 1999 the most utterly confusing, totally immersing and completely ridiculous TF series of all time premiered on Fox Kids entitled Beast Wars( I don't know if it had a Canadian name, but I’m pretty sure it still sucked)

The Transformers plot line for this season was that they had forgotten how to transform. . . .
That’s right, they had somehow forgotten how to a natural function of their bodies. Optmus Prime forgot he was a warrior and became a wise old sage who was trained in the martial art of Transforming.

What the #%$!

As the first four years of the new millennium passed, it had become obvious like a Trekkie at a Star Wars convention that somehow the Autobots had taken a wrong turn on the highway to Sucksville.
After years of beautiful seasons from Mainframe the bots packed up and moved to Asia. Hasbro and Tekera started a new animated series for BigBot and his boys called Robots In Disguise but it suffered from way too much Anime sweat drops way too little story.

Then there was true revamp of TF, if you could call it that. Transformers Armada/Micron Legend
premiered with much fan fare. It was the first TF to be only available on a cable station, so it was treated as one of Cartoon Networks major events even having a mention in Entertainment Weekly(was positive but it was there) I liked the thought of there being a third faction, but they were not much more than tools.

Just last year Cartoon Network aired Transformers Energon, a better series that was written much smoother than it's predecessor. Its drawback was the stilted CGI and far more characters than anyone could care about, mass-produced Transformers didn't work in Beast Machines and they didn't work here.

As a TransFan I pretty much officially disowned this series with Beast Machines. The toys didn't look like the bots on the show anymore. The stories never seemed to make sense. The characters stopped taking themselves seriously. Transformers became a joke.

And you know what made it worse? The fans were the ones laughing, laughing at how these seasons were so bad they COULDN'T have possibly been Transformers. Someone must have resurrected The GoBots and tried to pass them off as craptacular Transformer series. Well, the truth sets your free, but sometimes it hurts. The fans came to accept that the period of excellence had longed passed. And that these supersized Henshin Heroes would never regain rise to greatness ever again.

But from deep out the bowels of Cybertron came the Amazing Gonzo (not the Muppet) Anime Company came into the fold to restore what was ounce thought lost forever to bad writing and plenty of deadweight.

Studio Gonzo is behind many well established animated series that have been critically acclaimed by critics and their fans for beautiful animation coupled with endearing characters.
The first foray into the TF mythos has been a supersized success. Transformers Cybertron/Galaxy Force has vindicated Transformers. After so many years of complete disappointment fans have been jubilant in the return of good stories and characters they(gasp) actually care about!

Megatron isn't the preachy loser as of the last couple of seasons. He finally back to the Megs we knew in Beast Wars.
The kids don’t get in the way
The dialog is actually pretty good, and did I mention the stupid kids don't get in the way?

I’m still in the process of retaining a state of calm after seeing all Transformers Cybertron has to offer. And recognizing that Transformers is no longer a laughing stock.

The Autobots are back on track, no pun intended, and the Decepticons are flying high once again.

"Way to getter dun Starscream!"-Thundercracker
Could not have said it better myself.

Is S.P.D. In Need of An Emergency?

originally posted August 14, 2005

By NinjaJack

When you tune into an episode of S.P.D. you are throughly treated to spiffy characters surrounded by expansive beautiful sets. The towering Doggie Cruger keeps you grounded while Doctor Manx keeps you at attention. Lower squads and cadets scurry about the mammoth fortress of the Command Center as sounds of the day treat your ears to the happenings of the near future.

This kind of thing is what I love about this show, PR is capable of being bold and brave or dull and drab. SPD has been a little of bold to tell the truth.
Personally SPD strikes me as a fine first attempt at bringing PR to a new direction. I`m not sure where that direction will end up but it`s sure different from past PR.
S.P.D seems to suffer from not knowing where PR has been and not exactly being prophet like in knowing where it`s going.

Wired was a good effort that needed less of S.O.P.H.I.E. and more of Bridge. The story was fine, but in the long run it really did not advance any plots now did it?
We need more episodes like Shadow , we need to know that these Rangers face consequences to their actions. If Cruger had stayed with his wife he might today know of her fate. But episodes like Abandoned seem to drive the point this team still has room to grow.
The recent episodes that have aired have been better, well except for Messenger which suffered not so much from bad writing but rather two writers writing two different takes on the episode's set of characters. I just finished watching a true Jackie episode "Reflections", a true classic. Now this is the PR that I am use to seeing. Story before action and action that doesn`t slowdown the plot.

S.P.D. would benefit greatly if Jackie had the influence she had in PRDT(thank you for Fighting Spirit!) and PRTF. Not to mention all the other seasons she`s worked on.

Recently Rangerking, a Rangerposter that shall forever live on in infamy, wanted to initiate a huge boycott on PR because he did not like S.P.D.'s direction. Was his views valid? Maybe.
Was his execution on his complaints a good idea? Perhaps not.
SPD is a fine series with a lot of rough edges, it`s like a Gundam model kit thats missing a few parts. But with a little glue and some love it`s going to make it through just fine. Just as long as the producers are opened to well deserved criticism as much as well deserved praise.

Where`s Gransazers? originally posted August 11, 2005
By NinjaJack

Just under a year ago a poster, Lio Convoy, made a statement that the production company Lions Gate were in the process of bringing Gransazers here to the western world. Where the heck is it?

The most recent development has been Konami`s public remarks about a possible US debut for the henshin heroes
"We (Konami) would like to release the product in all of the territories but with products of this nature it really depends on the TV programming as well. I am waiting to hear from HQ about this but I am not holding my breath at this time. I think if we are to launch it is likely that it will be in the US before Europe (they only have to translate into one language and there is a bigger audience), if successful then they will launch in Europe."

Thanks goes to cleggar for originally posting this on Rangerboard.com

Sounds to me like they`re contemplating on wheather they should bring in a new cast and use the henshined footage the way the Rangers do, or just dub it over like....Ultraman Tiga.

Folks at Toho, I respect you and your genre. You are the godfathers of Tokusatsu. But why hurt your product by dubbing it over with bad VAs and cheeky humor? Tiga was not only cancelled but laughed at because of the terrible, terrible dubbing.
Re-cast and release the raws on DVD.

Lets see if the folks behind the US release can get off their behinds by next August.

The Demo Site

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