I'm David, welcome to my brain. Here I write to not only show that I can but to share my opinions on various topics. Mostly Video Games, Anime, Movies and Tokusatsu. Though I am open to suggestions and never afraid to admit when I'm wrong. Have a good time in here and be sure not to mess with my memory, it's bad enough as it is.
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So anything of importance that I missed last time? NOPE just dumbass characters acting like dumbasses. Speaking of; Chief Dumbass rolls into the demon theme park and finally meets the mastermind and resident Ninja Nerd.
NERRRRRRRD! Wait Mavro; SUPER MEGAFORCEEEEEE FLASHBAAAAAAAKSSSS!!! KILL HIM NOW I DON'T CARE WHO!!!
Aside from sharing the name of one of the worst villains in Power Rangers history this guy is clearly insane because why in the name of all that's good would ANYONE want to spend time with Takaharu unless he owes them money? Speaking of he tries to fight Mavro but is stoped by Mavro's Ninja clones. But since they're based off of ACTUAL (and one mythological but far more legit) NINJAS Takaharu gets his ass kicked. Mavro then extracts his Shadow from Takaharu and combines them with the three clones to create an Evil Clone of Takaharu, DARK AKANINGER!!!
Unfortunately Takaharu manages to separate himself from the Clone. So while he's not under Mavro's control he's lost all his Nintality to the Clone, but no problem since according to Mavro all he is now is just Leftovers.
Well dude Sonya and the American fanbase agrees and quite frankly with how your show progressed I'm right there with them so from now on we dub thee Leftovers!
With his new evil Ninninger Mavro leaves Leftovers to fade into nothing but just as Saitama is about to throw Leftovers out Wrong (Since I hate Right just as much as everyone else hates Leftovers I'm calling him Wrong from now on as well) saves him and gets the two out of there. We then cut back to Kyuemon finishing the exposition dump about how Leftovers will be reduced to nothing unless Dark Akaninger is destroyed. Yet the three look horrified for some reason I'd personally break out a Piñata but that's just me.
Back at their base the two groups try to come up with a plan to save Leftovers but are coming up dry. The Toqgers tell the Niningers to stay back while they take care of it but they insist on coming as well and so they do. Meanwhile Leftovers wakes up to see Wrongs punchable Justin Bieber face and the two talk and bond about how hopelessly stupid they are. After some banter between the two groups of competent team members we cut back to Dark Akaninger starting to cover the world in darkness. Kyuemon expresses his concerns about interference but Mavro's got it covered, he recreated the Shadow Line Generals with additional Ninja skills to guard the area. Kyuemon then takes off to make sure his check from Toei doesn't bounce and leaves with Wanyūdō.
The two reds manage to reach Mavro and Dark but Dark attacks and overpowers the two. The others manage to get past the Shadow Line Clones with their own varying degrees of stupidity including leaving Schwartz to being BOILED ALIVE, DAMN! The two reds actually hold their own against Dark, but before Marvo can interfere Akira (who thankfully has stoped using his "This is where I die" catchphrase) takes him on instead. Elsewhere Kyuemon sends Wanyūdō to attack the city to collect fear energy but are stoped by a loud and powerful battlecry!
No no; it's time for the Early bird cameo of the new team, the Zyuohgers who are so badass they make quick work of Wanyūdō in less time it takes to nuke a Hot-pocket. But like all good things this appearance of the 40th Anniversary team must come to an end as we go back to the two clown troops calling themselves Sentai. Dark is beating Wrong and Leftovers like a drum telling Leftovers that if he dies he goes with him. The teams finally catch up with the Niningers firing the Toqgers cannon at Dark while imagining what Leftovers hates, which of course reduces our Badass villain Ranger Clone; into a pepper that Leftovers then destroys with an "I AM A MAN" punch.
My hatred of this resolution knows no bounds!
But as if a sign of mercy from the Emperor himself Leftovers fades away into nothingness.
Yep, no going back now Leftovers's dead and all's well that ends well.
Nope, you think you'll be rid of this dipshit so easily? Not while there's still some of your faith in humanity I can squash!
Just when I though he wouldn't show up and this movie might actually be tolerable Old Ninja shows up again and somehow, don't ask me how, brings Leftovers back with the power of IMAGINATION!!!!!! Now you might be thinking that this is where I'll use the Deadfall clip of Nick Cage screaming "Fuck" as loud and over the top as he can. But no, this plot point is so dumb, so infuriating and so stupid I cannot express my anger properly. So thus I leave this task to a true master of anger. Take it away Ren.
BUT FIRST, FIIIIIRRRRRRSSSTTTTTTTT, I'm going to take a wizz. Don't you go anywhere, as next time we'll see how much more these two teams can drive me closer to getting a visit from a Red Lantern ring. Super Sentai is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. Beauty and the Beast (1992) is owned by Goodtimes entertainment, Golden Films and Sony. Looney Toons is owned by Warner Brothers and the Vitaphone Corporation. Kazumi Magica The Innocent Malice is owned by Masaki Hiramatsu, Takashi Tensugi, Magica Quartet and Yen Press. Mortal Kombat is owned by Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios. One-Punch Man is owned by ONE, Viz Media and Shueisha. The Ren & Stimpy show is owned by Bob Camp, John Kricfalusi,Spümcø, Games Animation and Nickelodeon. The Tick: The Animated Series is propriety of Hank Tucker, Sunbow Entertainment, Graz Entertainment, Fox Children’s Productions and Disney Media Distribution
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
Our next topic of discussion is the unholy fuzzball himself, Kyubey.
The incubator as it's actually called is a race of aliens who's sole mission is to gather the energy released by magical girls who fall into despair and become witches to prevent entropy.
The reason why they only target human girls is through their research they've discovered that human females between the ages of 5 and 16 experience great fluctuations of hope and despair in their lives. The incubators then appear to those who either can potentially generate a sufficient amount of despair or to those who are desperate enough to make the contract, making them less like deals with the devil but more like an answer from on high. They then make the contract, incubator rips out their soul to become the soul gem and BAM more wood to throw on the universe's fire.
The incubators are essentially the unholy mixture of Mr Spock, Shang Tsung and a Furby.
Now you may be asking why did they come to earth in the first place? Because emotions are needed to generate the energy the incubators need and like pure blood Vulcans they only know logic, in fact emotions are considered to be a mental illness within their collective. The way they work is by giving prospective girls the basic explanation but not the full truth, because who would honesty agree to give up their souls for a single wish only to eventually become the monsters they hunt unless they're truly desperate? They only tell them that to become a magical girl they make one wish to it, it's granted and in exchange they take up the job of defeating witches. Now they don't have the capacity to lie so they only tell the truth selectively to push the girls to its true goal. The incubators by our definition are sociopaths but unfortunately I can't hate them as much as I should. They're just doing what they do to keep the universe going I mean what's the sacrifice of about 1000 or so compared to the rest of the universe?
and that only makes me more mortified by them, by all accounts they are the villains but they aren't, not if you take their motivations and their ultimate end goal into account. But still FUCK YOU KYUBEY!!!
From that satanic fuzzball to our title character Madoka.
So, much, Pink!!!
Aside from being dangerous with too much pink Madoka by all accounts has nothing all that special about her, she's a middle school girl with friends and has her own issues of what she wants to do with her life like most people. Yet Homura and the incubators want her badly! The incubators want her to become a magical girl and Homura is willing to let the world rot just to make sure she doesn't contract. At first when Sayaka contracts she seems like she'd just be the best friend sidekick that one would normally see in a magical girl show. Yet as the events unfold Madoka and Sayaka's life start to spiral out of control and it seems like every time Madoka tried to help it only made things worse until Sayaka crossed the point of no return, Homura and Kyoko bring back her corpse and after Sayaka's funeral she is completely devastated. There's a very good reason why Madoka is the current face of the "break the cutie" trope on TV Tropes.
The reason why the incubators want her to contract is all due to Homura. See her power is the ability to manipulate time.
Such as I, Dio? I Dio may have lost to a vampire hunter maid but that doesn't mean that I Dio could lose to one such as her.
Nope her time manipulation powers make The World look like a cheap stopwatch and on top of that she has an arsenal bigger then every single 80's action hero who ever existed.
But like every great rock star she didn't start out that way.
Homura started out as a very sickly girl who was about to be eaten by a witch until she was saved by two magical girls, Mami and her apprentice of one week; Madoka Kaname. Like Madoka and Sayaka as we know them Homura tagged along with the two afterwords and the three became close friends, that is until an insanely powerful witch called Walpurgisnacht appeared in town. This witch is a legend among magical girls; a witch so powerful it doesn't need a labyrinth and its mere presence is enough to cause hurricanes, earthquakes and drive people with weak hearts to kill themselves out of shear despair. Madoka died fighting this beast and Homura was devastated losing the one person who honestly cared for her. The incubator then appeared before Homura and asked if she would like to make a wish. She wished for the chance to go back to redo her first meeting with Madoka, so she can be the one to protect her and not the other way around, so she was sent back in time one month and sure enough she met with Madoka again and joined with her and Mami. However no matter how many times she tried, no matter how much stronger she got, no matter how many of the same witches she killed over and over again, and no matter how many times she saw her friends die and Madoka driven to despair Homura never gave up. She kept repeating the same month over and over again in a desperate attempt to save the one person on earth she loves more then anyone else. But because of this the more power accumulated in Madoka. With every overlapping time loop focused on saving Madoka Homura kept putting more karmic power on Madoka's soul to the point where if she wanted to she could rewrite the universe if she wanted. With every timeline Madoka's potential grew until she became the most powerful Magical girl on earth, and by proxy the most powerful witch who ever existed; powerful enough to destroy the entire earth in 10 days.
You might be thinking, "why didn't she try to warn them about Kyubey?" Because every time Homura tried to warn the others about Kyubey's true motives they either didn't believe her or when confronted with the truth they broke down or as previously said with Mami go nuts and try to kill each other. But no matter who lives or dies the end is always the same Madoka + Whalpurgusnaught = Death or history eraser button with pink hair. And she'll have to face the hard fact that her efforts are ultimately... what's the word I'm looking for again?
Thank you, and when she finally realizes that fact she'll finally become a witch and Madoka/the world is doomed. Now even with all that said there is a way out of this, but because this is such a major twist and of course how the show ends I'm not going to spoil it but I will say this; even in the deepest darkness hope will shine through. But I will give it away later when I discuss the movie Rebellion. Oh boy rebellion, for now let's say that it's this series' equivalent of End of Evangelion only good and not made out of spite to people telling the series' creator to kill himself because his show didn't go in the direction the fans wanted it to. (No joke Hideki Anno got death threats over End of Evangelion, wtf?) So for now look forward to me covering more of this series' spin offs in the following months, starting with... well the one I've been mentioning throughout this two parter. Puella Magi Madoka Magica is owned by Gen Urobutchi, Studio Shaft, and Studio Aniplex. Star Trek is owned by Gene Roddenberry, Paramount Domestic Television, and CBS Television Distribution. Mortal Kombat is owned by Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios. Power Rangers is owned by is owned by Saban Entertainment, Haim Saban, Renaissance Atlantic Entertainment, Toei Company, Ltd. and MMPR Productions, Inc. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is propriety of Hirohiko Araki, David Production, Tokyo MX, Warner Bros Entertainment and Viz Media.
Toei seems to have created a new tradition. The Kamen Rider/Sentai crossover special to promote their latest movies, and of the two that have been made so far at the time of this entry at least one is somewhat better then the movie itself. Last year we had a crossover special between Kamen Rider Gaim (my personal favorite Rider series) and Ressha Sentai Toqger a series that makes me want to lobotomize myself with a chainsaw. There was some stupidity, plot points that made no sense and scenes that only a bottle of absinthe could calm me down from. Now we have a new crossover movie out in Japan, Super Hero Taisen GP: Kamen Rider 3, which considering that this movie is being written and directed by the same assholes that wrote the last Taisen Film, Shoji Yonemura and Takayuki Shibasaki respectively, involves Time Travel, Shocker and the Den-O crew, and in the past those plot elements created a concoction about as loved as Judge Doom's Dip, I think that Havik can sum up my thoughts rather eloquently.
Now this is my initial thoughts on this of course but I do have a sixth degree black belt in bullshit and can thus usually tell when a movie, show or meal is going to suck. If Kamen Rider Taisen GP is good then great, but given the history that Toei has with Shoji Yonemura and his work on these Rider movies I don't have the highest hopes for them. Enough negativity time to give my thoughts on Drive and Ninninger before I cover the special. Now you may recall that I've already given my thoughts on Drive's first episode a few months back, if not, here's the link. Now for the details of what have happened since then, be warned there will be Spoilers out the wazoo here so this is your last chance.
It turns out that the Belt is actually the remaining consciousness of a scientist named Krim Steinbelt who helped create the 108 Roidmudes with his colleague Dr. Banno. Apparently the Roidmudes, like the Robot Masters were originally created to help mankind, somehow since the number of them is most likely a reference to the 108 malas of Buddhism I'm still not to clear on the actual helping details. But unlike the Robot Masters the Roidmudes seem to have gone Maverick and have developed, well a certain mindset.
However unlike Mecha Ryan; the Roidmudes don't want to completely destroy humanity, just replace them, as Homo Superior or something like that, to that end the Roidmudes are trying to evolve into more powerful forms that are more; how they consider human. I say consider because 9 times out of 10 the humans they copy tend to be sociopaths, murderers or generally bad people and the Roidmudes consider coping evil people to be a good thing, since like Xemnas they believe that anger, lust, greed and other negative emotions are what humans generally act upon. Their ultimate goal being to find the Promised Number which will allow the Roidmudes to whip out humanity and take over. This actually leads to what many people consider to be a huge problem with Drive. See when the Roidmude leaders Heart, his main squeeze Medic and his #2 man Brain discover that a Roidmude isn't evolving to their standards they send out their Grim Reaper, Mashin Chaser.
"He was a one eyed, one horned, drivin Purple Roidmude eater, one eyed, one horned, drivin Purple Roidmude eater,a one eyed, one horned, drivin Purple Roidmude eater sure looked strange to me."
Chaser is revealed to be Shinnosuke's successor Kamen Rider Proto-Drive and the Roidmudes prototype, number 000. After the Global Freeze Chaser was captured by the Roidmudes and was reprogrammed to destroy ones that are either not evolving properly, evolving too closely to others or ones that don't evolve at all, the difference between Chaser and Drive is that Chase only destroys their bodies but he leaves their Viral Cores, the actual bodies and souls of the Roidmudes intact so that their programing can be whipped clean and have a new chance to evolve in a unique way. Eventually Chase remembers that he was originally created to destroy Roidmudes, so Medic decided to reprogram him in a new way. She changed his core programing so instead of protecting humans, Chase now thinks that he has to protect Roidmudes. Eventually Shinnosuke was forced into destroying Chase completely, but now Chase is alive somehow, and ugggggghhhh. You can start to see what the problem is, there is waaaay too much focus on the Chase subplot and less is given to the actual main characters and the other villains. And any development that is given seems to have had little to no foreshadowing, like Brain's rivalry with Medic for taking too much of Hearts attention from him. We don't see why someone like Brain, who seems to be a cold logical thinker would react to Medic's success like he has, should he not care who does a better job as long as it gets done? That would make more sense in regards to his characterization then suddenly being jealous over Medic taking Heart's attention? I want to like Drive as a show but it's just coming off as clumsy in its story execution. But there are somethings that I do like about Drive so far. I like the actual investigations preceding the Roidmude fights, it lets us see that our heroes aren't idiots and that Shinnosuke is slowly returning to his old persona with every case, him displaying less of the lazy personality traits that he was displaying when we first saw him, another good thing is that Kiriko is actively taking part in combat and at times is more capable then Drive and Mach ( Drive's secondary Rider and Kiriko's younger brother). I also like the variety of powers provided by the shift cars, from ice powers, teleportation and healing, and each can complement Drive's different forms perfectly, with Type Wild working with Shift Cars that help his offensive stats, Type Technic uses cars that have powers for specific situations like bomb disarming and gravity control. I don't know it's like if Micro-machines gave people superpowers, but then again.
That's enough of the Rider, now for the newest Sentai, the Ninjas that rampage in the sun instead of hide in the shadows, Shuriken Sentai Ninninger.
Ninninger tells the tale of five siblings that are descended from "The Last Ninja."
You just know this Sentai is going to be badass if the team is descended from a guy that looks like he can kill you just by fucking looking at you.
Wait what? That's not their last Ninja? Okay hold on.
Here we go.
So our Sentai stars a group of Ninja antique dealers who are sought out by a US government agency
after a team of scientists are taken hostage by terrorists. Wait that's not the plot either? Hold on a second here, sometimes being a master of bullshit comes with a price, I have a tendency to seek out references like a bear is drawn to Honey glazed Salmon. Okay our team isn't descended from an obscure NES game, Swan from the Warriors, Sonny from Xanadu (thank Zeus) or the almighty glory that is Mako.
Nope it turns out that they are descended from this guy.
BUONGIORNO BITCHES!
Yoshitaka Igasaki, the man who used the 48 sealing shurikens to seal away the reborn enemy of the Igasaki clan, Kibaoni Gengetsu and his Yokai army. Now in 2015 the seal is broken by Gengetsu's last surviving General; Izayoi, and the evil will of Gengetsu which was contained in the sealing shurikens has corrupted them and are scattered around possessing inanimate objects to resurrect his Yokai army so they can collect enough fear to not only resurrect his Generals but also Gengetsu himself and unite the world in all consuming fear of him and his monster army. Since of course his age has caught up to him Yoshitaka decides to have his grandchildren who have also been studying the ways of the Ninja (to varying degrees of diligence) to take up his mantle, defeat Gengetsu and his Yokai and claim the title of "Last Ninja".
Let's go down the list here, first there's our AkaNinger Takaharu Igasaki, he's the red of the group (duh) and is the only one among the group that wants to become the Last Ninja more than anything else and has spent his entire life to practice his Grandfather's craft, to the detriment of anything else, yeah we have another idiot Red on our hands, but unlike Right and Daigo, Takaharu so far is much more tolerable then them, (especially Right GOD I HATE HIM!!!) The big difference is that unlike Right who was just an asshole Takaharu does have focus and an actual drive to improve himself in his Shinobi skills. It's not that he's an idiot; he just sees other skills as unnecessary, kind of like Goku, and like Goku Takaharu does excel on the battlefield. Next is our blue dude, Yakumo Katou aka Cloud. He's our Seto Kaiba of the group, he's an elite jerk, has a rivalry with Takaharu just to spite the guy, thinks the Ninja training is useless compared to his magic skills (yeah before all this he was studying magic in England, my guess is that he was in Ravenclaw.) He even has a giant blue dragon as his mech.
SCREW THE NINJAS I HAVE A DRAGON!
Uncanny ain't it? As I said everyone aside from Takaharu doesn't really give a crap about being the last Ninja and are basically just doing this to protect the world, not to see who will take their Grandpa's title. Overall Cloud seems to be a good balance for Takaharu's well, hotheadedness. Now for our Yellow Ranger Nagi Matsuo, unfortunately I don't really have very much to say about him, we do know that true to his designation on the team, he's a coward initially too scared to take part int he fight until he was encouraged by Takaharu. Though like me he does try a variety of job to gain different experiences that may come in handy later down the line. I'm guessing that might be the plot device the writers will use as to how Nagi has the knowledge to solve certain situations, he does have several licenses and certifications in various fields. Now for our White Ranger, the first Female White Ninja Ranger since Tsuruhime in the first Ninja Sentai, (what a coincidence :3) Fuuka Igasaki. And much like the real leader of the Kakurangers Fuuka seems to be the mother hen of the group and is usually the first one that refuses put up with Takaharu's crap; especially since she had to grow up with the dude. Again we haven't really had many episodes with her yet to flush her out but if I were a betting man she might just develop that way, but there goes me and my logic again. Last but not least is Kasumi Momochi our MomoNinger (a bit on the nose ain't it?) She's the more technologically inclined of the group and the most blunt and direct when it comes to calling people out. From what is shown so far she will probably take up the same role that Billy did in the Mighty Morphen days, using her mechanical expertise to create devices that will aid the Ninningers when their Ninja skills can't cut the mustard. Now for me to talk about the suits themselves.
IT'S NOT THE TOQGER'S THEY WIN BY DEFAULT!
But in all honesty I really do like the designs of the Ninninger suits. I see they've taken inspiration from the Gaoranger/Wild Force suits with their emblem on an actual sash that they wear. Most of the suits is their primary color with black in certain areas to make the main colors pop, specifically the arms and gloves. The girls also get more black around the thighs to help give their legs more of a high boot look. And their helmet's visors are designed as different shaped Shurikens to help the rangers have their own unique look with a white point on the top of the shurikens shaped in a way to convey a facial expression on the visors. Striking, cool and far more creative then the Toqger's suits. Now that I'm done gushing about that time to talk about their mechs, their Otomo Nin. Since this is the 39th Sentai with big #40 coming right after this the designers decided to make each of their mechs a tribute to previous motifs of Sentai Mechs. In story Yoshitaka designed each of the primary Otomo Nin to match the interests of his Grandchildren, they and all the other Otomo Nin were each reverse engineered off of UFOmaru which was given to him by Aliens. GOD DO I LOVE THIS FRANCHISE!( Personally I hope that they expand on this plot point with maybe the aliens that designed UFOmaru themselves showing up asking for help or something, don't just leave this plot point open like that, expand on it, at least I would.) Anyway, first is Takaharu's mech, representing Humanoid mecha is Shinobimaru.
Previous examples is the Giant Beast Generals from Kakuranger (cute I see what you did there) and the Majin forms of Magiranger.
Dragomaru (which I showed earlier) is Cloud's mech representing mechs based off of Mythological animals such as the Mythical Ki Beasts from Dairanger, and the various Dragon mechs in Sentai's history. Next is Dumpmaru Nagi's Otomo Nin.
Dumpmaru pays homage to the various mechs based off of construction and service vehicles such as VRV Robo from Carranger, the GoGo vehicles from Boukenger and the 99machienes from GoGo Five.
Then comes Robo Koromaru aka Wanmaru.
Wanmaru represents the mechs based off of non mystical animals such as the mechs from Liveman, the Star Beasts from Gingaman and the Gao animals from Gaoranger.
Finally there is Byunmaru. Which represents mechs based off of advanced technology like the Jet Machines from Jetman, the Changers from Changeman and Mega Voyager from MegaRanger.
Trains, why did it have to be a train? And so soon at that?
Together they form Shurikenjin.
This proves that having inconsistent mech themes can actually work. At least it's better then, well you know.
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. Super Sentai is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. Mortal Kombat is owned by Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios. Ratchet and Clank Up Your Arsenal is owned by Insomniac Games and Sony Computer Entertainment. Micromachines is owned by Hasbro. The Last Ninja (1983) is owned by Paramount Television and William A. Graham. The Last Ninja (NES) is owned by Activision and Superior Software. Nostalgia Critic is owned by Doug Walker, Channel Awesome, Blip.tv, and The Walt Disney Company
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
Now for me to talk about my favorite Jungle Fury ranger. The mentor, the calm cool voice of reason who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty.
RAI, oops sorry wrong cool jokey mentor.
There we go, RJ, my favorite Jungle Fury ranger.
Now as I was saying last time some of the main characters from Jungle Fury do remind me quite a bit of the characters in Mortal Kombat Konquest and RJ definitely reminds me of Jeffrey Meeks Raiden. He looks like a laid back dude but knows far more then what he lets on; he is the seasoned voice of guidance and when needed he can lend in some humor with clever snarky banter. Writing wise one of the great things I like about RJ is that we got some time with him before he became a ranger and he didn't just become the wolf ranger right away, and we also got a reason why. He and his wolf spirit were not exactly on good terms. This conflict was exacerbated in "Ghost of a Chance" part 2 when Dai-Shi tried to take the spirit from RJ. Afterwords RJ started turning into a Werewolf as his spirit was starting to gain control. It was only after Fran broke through to RJ and reminded him of his better nature in "Friends Don't Fade Away" were he finally rebalanced his spirit, pulled out his morpher and became the Wolf Ranger. Now for the one complaint I do have about RJ, and it's the wolf ranger uniform. Now it's not the color or the knee and shoulder pads. Since RJ uses a Muay-Tai fighting style the pads make sense since Muay-Tai involves using your knees and shoulders for strikes. No it's the tassels on the arms.
I mean are they really necessary?
Now I don't know what the designer of the outfit was going for but I just have to wonder about the tassels. I mean granted they're nowhere near as ridiculous and distracting as Kamen Rider Super-1's tassels but I still have to ask, why? Also he gets his own Megazord, sort of. To form the Wolf Pride Megazord he summons his wolf spirit, Casey's Tiger spirit and Theo's Jaguar spirit. How exactly does that work? I mean on its own the Wolf Zord is just another leg attachment on the Jungle Pride Megazord, just replacing Lily's Cheetah Zord in the configuration. What; is the wolf Zord just strong enough on it's own that it can create duplicates of the other two animal spirits? Whatever it's Power Rangers. Aside from those; good mentor, good ranger and my favorite for this season. Now for the opposite side of the coin.
"What the hell am I looking at?"
Now let me just get one thing clear. I don't hate Dominic; he's just the character that I have the most problems with, and most of them come form his lack of development. He comes in at the half way point of the show, goes on about how getting the Rhino powers is his destiny, (HOW?? how does getting the Rhino powers equal his destiny? Usually the powers are supposed to help a character with achieving their destiny. Like gaining the power of a god to slay a great evil or protect a certain person or something like that. Power in and of itself is a pretty lame destiny.) He gets his ranger powers and his Rhino Zord and development wise that's about it until the end of the show which I don't want to give away. Though in "Path of the Righteous" his words to Casey about what he knew about Jarrod from his time at the Pai-Zhua academy was what helped convince Casey to attack Dai-Shi's temple to try to get through to Jarrod. To solve the lack of development thing I personally would have Dominic enter the show sooner then he did, like around episode 6 or so. Just introduce him as an old friend of RJ and have him work at the Pizza shop for a little while before he becomes the White Rhino Ranger at episode 19. As is it honestly felt like all the extra time and development that RJ got was because they shaved that time off from introducing Dominic. Though Dominic does have my favorite moment of the show. In "Maryl and the Monkeys" Dominic has to convince a scientist that he saved earlier as the White Ranger to tell him how a formula that Camille stole from her works. Of course she doesn't listen at first. While I was watching this my exact words were "oh god why don't you just morph and tell her the truth you mook?" and sure enough he morphed to convince her that he wasn't kidding around. My reaction after seeing that went something like this "OH MY GOD, ACTUAL COMMON SENSE THANK YOU!" I honestly could not tell you people who are reading this how flabbergasted I was when that happened. So for the problems that I see with Dominic I do like the guy, I just wish they did more with him then what the show did. Now before I get to the villains I'll just cover the Spirit Rangers quickly.
I don't hate these guys.
Now don't get me wrong I can see how people can't stand these guys in concept, on character and just on why they were created in the first place. But personally I kind of like them. I mean esthetically they look really damn good and just like the Titanium Ranger all the way back in Lightspeed Rescue if I never saw the Sentai I would never be able to tell that they didn't come from the same source. "But they were just made to sell toys and they suck for that" well then I guess that means you hate Battleizers too then. "The masters these guys were based on were boring" I...... can't really argue with that I will admit there wasn't a lot to the masters that generated these guys. But again it's the same problem with Dominic, if we saw them interact with the Rangers more onscreen we could have solved this problem. But long story short I don't hate the Spirit Rangers despite their flaws. Now that the heroes are done with time for dessert. Time to talk about the villains. Our big bad is a monstrous, ancient, imposing entity who's HQ is a dark evil temple who with his faithful servant and army of demonic creatures seek nothing short of total domination.
Damn it why do I keep doing that?
NO I mean this guy. Jarrod/Dai-Shi.
I want that coat.
That's better, confession time here; when I first saw Jarrod I thought to myself "oh god please tell me that this whiny little toad isn't going to be our main bad guy." But then we saw him getting possessed by Dai-Shi and I was so relieved. Dai-Shi is definitely one of the better Power Rangers villains I've seen in a while. We know that 10,000 years earlier he was a badass, but now he's not only out of practice but when he doesn't look like Paralax in the Green Lantern movie; he's possessing a human (granted a strong human) so now he has to handle a body whose host is not only alive and has his own emotions and memories holding him back but on top of that he now has a completely different physiology to adapt to. Thus he decided to seek the help of the three overlords to bring himself back up to snuff. It's very rare in these shows that we get a villain that acknowledges their weaknesses and seek to improve themselves. Hell in Power Rangers for example we haven't had a villain like this since Trakeena waaaaay back in Lost Galaxy. Though I never really was able to figure out who was in the drivers seat most of the time. It seems like we either had one of three forms with this guy, first we had Dai-Shi in the beginning where he was fully in control, then Jarrod being influenced by Dai-Shi; bringing his worst character traits out like in "The Spirit of Kindness" where Dai-Shi steals the Rinzen power of Whiger for not killing Casey as revenge for getting kicked out of the Pai-Zhua and finally we had Dai-Shi being held back by Jarrod which is shown in "Good Karma Bad Karma" where when he resurrects Carnisoar the Sky overlord his training was to modify Jarrod's memories to make him more ruthless thus letting Dai-Shi's evil flow within Jarrod's body unfiltered. But in the end Dai-Shi/ Jarrod was a pretty good villain that gave us some moments to think about with him.
Sorry there Gecko Girl.
Unfortunately I can't say much about Dai-Shi's second in command Camille. Mostly because the stuff that I do want to talk about comes at the end of the series and anything else would be just repeating whatever Linkara said, both cases I want to avoid as much as possible. So short and sweet I like Camille and don't really have much to complain with her except that she should have gotten a mouthpiece so that Flit couldn't get out as easily. But I do want to talk about the three Overlords before I wrap this up. And no I'm not going to talk about the Phantom Beast Generals, mostly because aside from not really having much too talk about, I just want people to deal with them their own way.
Paging Dr Howard, Dr Fine, and Dr Howard.
I personally see these three as inversions of the core three rangers, each being the core part of the trio but emphasizing the negative trait of their respective roles and the virtues they emphasize in training Dai-Shi (or not but we'll cover that later). First is the Sky Overlord Carnisoar; the brains of the trio. His training seems to revolve around making Dai-Shi into a more cold and ruthless warrior by developing a mindset that would make making terrible, evil choices much easier, and he starts this by messing with Jarrod's memories so that he took the more selfish, easy choices in his childhood. However the one I call bull on is where Jarrod refused to fight a bunch of bullies because he wanted to uphold his code about using his fighting skills against inferior opponents. I would argue that being overwhelmed by superior numbers who were attacking him first without provocation would be an exception to that little rule. There's a reason why people learn Martial arts as a form of SELF defense. But there goes me and my logic again. Anyway after that was done Carnisoar seemed to just keep attacking Dai-Shi for the rest of his training until Jellica arrived and agreed to train Dai-Shi. Jellica, the Sea Overlord was the black heart of the three. When she was introduced in "Pushed to the Edge" she was dead set on making Camille her student instead of Dai-Shi. However this was part of her training, she didn't want Dai-Shi to ask to be her student, she wanted him to demand it by using Camille to manipulate Dai-Shi into a point where he was demanding her to be his master. Her training was about showing Dai-Shi how to manipulate people by exploiting their heart's weaknesses. She seems to be the most manipulative and cunning of the three and tried to emphasize that to Dai-Shi, that it takes more then just strength and wisdom to become a proper evil ruler. And last there's Grizzaka the Earth Overlord, who refused to help Dai-Shi in anyway, shape or form. Now he was willing to do this at first when Camille revived him, but when he discovered that Dai-Shi was possessing a human, he went nuts, kicked Dai-Shi around like a football with his Zocado powers and took control of the evil forces for a while. Grizzaka was the dark soul/strength of the three and this is shown in his behavior and demeanor. He was always the most easily riled of the three and was always the first to just beat up anything that got in his way which showed not only that he had a rather weak soul but also was a firm believer that might is always right, and when he found out that his old master was using the body of what he used to consider to be a weaker being he lost all loyalty to what he considered to be just another human. In fact he may have convinced Carnisoar and Jellica of this because when the two accused Dai-Shi of betraying them in "Race to the Nexus" the betrayal in question could have been accepting Grizzaka's view of the being that once wanted to dominate humans is using one as his host, this could have been seen as that betrayal, of his principals and views. In other words, they refused to follow a hypocrite. However I could argue that they could have tried to separate Dai-Shi from Jarrod and have him possess something else, but whatever. All and all, good evil mentors and not creatures that you wanted to screw with.
As for my final thoughts on Jungle Fury, all of the negative aspects of the Kalish era seems to have been really toned down during this season and thank Zordon for it. I mean they were still there and it really was annoying when they did show up but it was still a MASSIVE improvement over Overdrive. The acting was pretty good, the story structure was also good but rushed towards the end. Overall I honestly do give a solid recommendation to Jungle Fury. It's not In Space or RPM but it's still better then Lightspeed Rescue and light-years above Turbo, Samurai, Megaforce and ESPECIALLY Overdrive. Now I will cover Gekiranger in the future but not immediately, I want to wait a few months, maybe around July to get my thoughts on Jungle Fury out of my head so I can go in with a somewhat fresh perspective. As for next time, well, let me see what's on T.V maybe that'll give me some inspiration.
Ok, might as well see what the hype is all about.
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon. Power Rangers Jungle Fury is owned
by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, Renaissance Atlantic Entertainment,
Toei Company, Ltd, and Ranger Productions, Ltd. Mortal
Combat Conquest is owned by Threshold Entertainment, New Line
Television and Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. UHF is owned by Weird Al Yankovic, Orion Pictures, MGM, Shout Factory and Cinecorp. Jetix is owned by The Walt Disney Corporation.
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
I mean that subtitle in the best possible way, after the pure unfiltered pain that was Operation Overdrive, Jungle Fury is a tremendous breath of fresh air. Now don't get me wrong; like every season in the Kalish era there were some problems I had with this season. Namely the Kalishplosions and the rushed pace towards the finale. But other then that this season was far better handled then what I've seen so far from the Disney era. Granted the only season I saw in full was Dino Thunder and that was years ago, and the others I saw were either random episodes (usually the first) or from reviews, and from what I've seen so far my favorite Disney era season is still RPM but Jungle Fury is still in the top five in my book in terms of Disney season favorites.
Granted when your competition includes Mystic Force and Overdrive that's not much to say. Now for this review I think I'll just go over the characters, my feelings about them and what I generally like and dislike about the season over all instead of an episode by episode format. Mostly for two reasons, 1 I always want people to try to go into a topic and see for themselves whether it's good or not and form their own opinions so I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, 2 because I know that my review will just get lost in the shuffle when a certain other, more well-known reviewer releases his review of this. Now for the premise; 10,000 years ago a monster named Dai-Shi lead an army of beast warriors to exterminate humanity. However a secret kung-fu clan known as the Pai-Zhua (pronounced pie shu-wa) used the powers of their own inner animal spirits to destroy the army and seal Dai-Shi in a mystic box which they kept sealed underneath their grand temple.
Cut to 2008 where Master Mao selects three students of his to carry on guarding Dai-Shi, Lilly who has the Cheetah spirit, Theo who has the Jaguar spirit and Jarrod who has the Lion Spirit. However Jarrod also has the spirit of the jackass, so Mao chooses a rookie named Casey that stood up to Jarrod when he was abusing his authority. Jarrod, not exactly being the most rational of losers confronts Mao and the three students, accidentally releasing Dai-Shi from his prison. After Mao is critically injured trying to stop Dai-Shi from escaping Jarrod runs off. Mao's last words to his students are to go to a city called Ocean Bluff where they can find their new master.
While the three wait for their new Master at the Jungle Karma pizza shop Jarrod becomes possessed by Dai-Shi and becomes his vessel. Dai-Shi, with his new human body returns to his temple lair where he's greeted by his loyal second-in command Camile and he sends his army of the dead, the Rinshi to terrorize humans to absorb their fear and grow stronger. The three students try to fight off the Rinshi but fail, they are however saved by the pizza shop owner RJ who reveals that he is the master that Mao sent the three to find. Once the day is saved, RJ brings the three back to the Pizza parlor and not only agrees to train them but also gives them the Solar Morphers that he created so that they can become Power Rangers. Now that the premise stuff is out of the way time for us to get started on the Characters, let's start off with our Red Ranger, Casey.
Dull Surprise!
Casey is one of the better Disney era Red Rangers. He seemed like a competent fighter, always was looking for ways to improve and never made the same mistake twice. Though he is the newest and most inexperienced member of the team that only pushed himself harder to catch up with his teammates. One of his better moments for me was near the end of the series in "Path of the Righteous" where he still thinks that he can save Jarrod after he saw Jarrod save Camile from some monsters sent to kill her. Everyone else thinks that Casey is being naive and is just acting out over not getting his masters stripes. Even the Spirit of Master Mao is telling him that Dai-Shi has completely taken over and Jarrod is a lost cause.
But of course Casey refuses to listen and he proceeds on to Dai-Shi's temple anyway. I'm not going to give away what happens but it definitely proves why he's the leader and soul of the team. Another point in Casey's favor? He's the first Red Ranger since TJ to not get a battlizer. That definitely gets a lot of points in my book because it seems like since In Space every Red is required to have one. Granted most of the time the enemies they fight require the extra fire power and is perfectly valid there. However in the Disney Era it seems like they are mostly just using them on enemies that didn't really require the Power that a Battlizer dishes out, mostly just on lots of goons and the big bad. So it was nice to remind us that not every Red Ranger needs giant armor and what not to fight evil. Yet whatever points Casey might have gained were immediately lost when he got this stupid thing, the Strike Rider.
Moychendizing, Moychendizing, Moychendizing
Look I get that these shows are driven by toy sales and I'm perfectly cool with that, money makes the world go round after all. But if you are going to make a toy at least make it look better then this or have the character do something one of a kind impressive with it, not just use it on foot solders most of the time. That's why I can let Cole's flying motorcycle from Wild Force slide, because we see him use it to destroy Serpentera. Sure the execution was sloppy and the moychendizing was as blatant here but when you still look at it on paper, the Wild Force rider did something truly extraordinary and destroyed a powerful, iconic weapon left behind by one of the most memorable villains in the franchise and not just use it on random goons and occasionally the big bad or his generals. Another point in Cole's bike's favor? It doesn't remind me of those stupid unicycles from Venus Wars when it transforms.
The only difference is that the Strike Rider has a tiny wheel at the front when it transforms, that's it.
Sure design wise it makes sense but aesthetically, yeah no. But we're done talking about Red Rangers on Motorcycles.
RED RANGERS ON MOTORCYCLLLLLLLLLES!
........Yeah, now for us to talk about a funny comparison I was making while watching this show. Some of the characters reminded me of some of the characters on Mortal Kombat Conquest. Not everyone thankfully but the comparisons can still be made. So let's start with our blue ranger.
THEO THE GREATEST POWER RANGERS JUNGLE FURY CHARACTER!
Though thankfully Theo learned his lesson early on and avoided being too similar to Mr Pride Shine (he also learned it without having to blow up Noob Sabot, point Theo) At the beginning like Siro, Theo was arrogant and more then a bit of an asshole. He also had some of his own quirks like being a perfectionist, a stick in the mud and was more then a little condescending to Casey since he's the new guy and felt that he was stepping in between him and Lily. But he started to change his tune in "Can't win them all" where he gets owned by a monster and starts being a whiny moron and giving up when there's still the problem of a ancient evil trying to wipe out mankind. Thankfully RJ gets Theo back in gear by teaching the schmuck that everybody fails at some point.
So he does get back on. But every so often he needs to take another bite of humble pie and remember that his way isn't always the best way like in "Dash for the Dagger" where he lost a powerful artifact because he thought that the guy originally holding it wasn't being careful enough, even though he managed to hold on to the damn thing up until now just fine. And guess what when Theo took the artifact from the guy who was holding it, it got lost and nearly fell into Dai-Shi's hands. I mean Dai-Shi still got the thing but the point is that if Theo had just left the guy to his own methods instead of micromanaging there would have been less of a chance of the thing getting stolen. I'm more inclined to give Theo a pass because trust me, there are worse Rangers out there. He kind of strikes a balance where he isn't a Gary-Stu.
You heard me!
Nor is he an arrogant and impulsive idiot that never learns his lesson and never tries to improve himself.
Though to be honest, I would love to see a ranger do something like this. It just sounds too funny.
All I'll say for the brains of the team is that I think they originally belonged to Abby Normal. Moving on to the heart of the Jungle Fury trio, Lily.
She brings the gift of balance.
Yeah, Lily is the third part of this trifecta of power, Lily is the heart of the team and acts like a big sister to the rest of the cast. She mostly tries to keep Casey and Theo in line and she succeeds in this area. Though her kindness does tend to lean towards Naivete like in "Pushed to the Edge" where she accidentally inspires Camile (who was in disguise at the time) to release a new evil master for Dai-Shi since she was kicked out by Dai-Shi's master Carnisoar. But other then that for the most part Lily tends to be the voice of compassion, though she can kick several kinds of ass when the need arises so don't go thinking that she's all sunshine and rainbows. She also has a deep comradery with Theo, before the whole Dai-Shi situation came up the two purportedly went out for monthly lunches and often hung out with each other.
This was also a key reason behind Theo's apprehension regarding Casey. He thought that since Lily was hanging out with Casey more he thought Casey was trying to move in. Lily assures him that nothing has changed and that the three are still friends. Now I'm not going to say anything about what happens in the end, but rest assured that it doesn't go into bad Lifetime Channel original movie territory. Now for me to take a break now that I have the main three out of the way. Next time I'll give my thoughts on the other rangers, the villains and my overall recommendation of this series.
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon. Power Rangers Jungle Fury is owned by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, Renaissance Atlantic Entertainment, Toei Company, Ltd, and Ranger Productions, Ltd. Star Wars is Created by George Lucas, owned by Lucas film, the Walt Disney Company and 20th Century Fox. Kamen Rider Kabuto is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. Venus Wars is owned by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, Triangle Staff and is licensed byDiscotek Media. Yu-gi-oh! 5D's is owned by Katsumi Ono, Konami and Studio Gallop Zoolander is owned by Village Roadshow Pictures, VH1 Films and Paramount Pictures. Mortal Combat Conquest is owned by Threshold Entertainment, New Line Television and Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. Phelous and the Movies is owned by Phelan Portland and Channel Awesome Batman (TV Series) is owned by Greenway Productions, 20th Century Fox Television and Warner Bros. Television Distribution.
