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Description
Starring.

Ann Lin as Jason/Red Ranger.
Daisy Ness as Zack/Black Ranger.
Stella as Trini/Yellow Ranger.
Dom Fury as Kimberly/Pink Ranger.
Espio Manditori as Billy/Blue Ranger.
Aisha "Beretta" Lister as Tommy/Green Ranger.
Bernie Sanders as Zordon.
AlphaOmegaSin as Alpha 5.
as Rita Repulsa.
Cute Yet Offensive Panda as Goldar.
And Kaiju Noir as Cyclopsis.

MMPR: In 3 Panels or Less.

I know the new movie is out, and I'm not watching it. I have no intention of seeing it and I actually don't want to do something negative surrounding its release.
Instead of wasting your time with a predictable rant bashing the new movie, I've chosen instead of do a brief summary of the original run of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. All 3 seasons with its 145 episodes, reduced to around 43 episodes. Think of this as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Kai if you get that joke. The main inspiration for this venture was a video posted by JelloApocalypse called "Nearly Every Disney Movie Reviewed in 10 words or less."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C_9SH…

I liked the idea and kind of borrowed it for this. Yet since I have a rather grim view of Youtube these days, I've decided to do this as a comic as opposed to a video. So it's "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: In 3 Panels or Less!" It won't be EVERY episode but rather the ones nessacary for this summary. As I stated in the journal, the rules for inclusion are the following.

1: The Introduction of a key character.
2: The exit of a character/zords/powers.
3: Left an overall impact on the series.
4: A situation that caused great difficulty for the Rangers.
5: Multiparters.

If I were to include EVERY episode, then I'd have to cancel WinneBobble, the Month Reviews and Unleash the Fury just to work souly on this. Maybe even quit my jobs to sit and watch this shit all day. To quote a tired internet meme "Ain't Nobody Got Time for That!"

Because a BIG problem with the first season of Power Rangers was it didn't establish a coherent idea what it wanted to be and relied souly on the stock footage. By mid season 2, they finally started crafting what the series was meant to be with season 3 argubly being the best (and less cringe worthy) of the bunch. Season 3 would have recieved the longest summary if I had included the Ninja Quest and the Masked Rider introduction. But I've decided to discount Ninja Quest for I'm reviewing the original Power Rangers movie in between seasons 2 and 3, so I didn't want to watch "the same story twice." Not to mention it's a 4 parter that tells a story you could realistically tell in 2 parts, but I will give it a brief mention in the Movie Summary. And I'm discounting Masked Rider because... Well, nobody gives a shit about Masked Rider.

I'm still on the fence about Alien Rangers (aka the second half of season 3) for I have a feeling I'm going to feel burned out by that point. I'm thinking of either glossing over it or just covering it as a Part 4. Let me know which you'd preffer.

To honor the inspiration, I'll be reviewing these chosen episodes "in 10 words or less" in the pages and down here in the description. Before I do that, I will give my brief thoughts on each season and the series as a whole. Season 1's will be the longest summary, for it addresses my overall thoughts on the show's format, while 2 and 3 will focus on new characters and plots.

As I stated in the MMPR: MB game review, I am a fan of Power Rangers. I know it's a complete cheese tray of cringeworthyness (if that's even a word) but I think that's apart of the appeal and charm of the whole thing. I know it's downright goofy and people will tell you it can only be enjoyed by 7 year olds with no attention span, but the show takes advantage of its own insanity. If it were written with adults in mind, they would be able to avoid certain situations. For example, 'If Rita knows who the Rangers are, why doesn't she just kill them in their sleep?'. Saying 'IT'S A KID'S SHOW' shouldn't be an excuse for it, but we have to work with what we have.

Technical things first. I think the debut of Power Rangers was the western world's big introduction to the concept of Super Sentai in terms of mainstream media. Sure it has become the subject of parody and mockery over the years for the over the top fight choreography and the emphasis on martial arts poses with goofy sound effects. Mainly that odd design choice of having the Rangers standing around striking poses and publically announcing every weapon or Zord they wish to summon. Even for the monster to wait patiently for them to finish instead of the logical thing of attack them mid summon/transformation. Even Digimon addressed this issue for crying out loud!

I know we laugh at Power Rangers and mock it (I was called a "Flower Ranger" at School for liking it which shows you the creativity of morons in my day) but this is mainly a difference in culture. This over the top style of presentation can be seen in a lot of Japanese media like DragonBall Z or any stereotypical game show.. I'm pretty sure Batman or The Avengers looks strange to a Japanese audience just as much as Sentai looks weird to us. Yet for a marketing standpoint, the Power Rangers was like catching lightning in a bottle.

Many people blame the Rangers for the death of many beloved shows in the early 90's, Sonic Sat:AM and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being the two big casualties, but then I'd argue they were killed by the Pokemon and Harry Potter crazes that came after them. Kids were excited by this alien new concept for it was, as the song says "A power and a force that you've never seen before!" Yes it's cheesy, it's hokey and horrifically dated by todays standards.... But that's why we loved it.

That's not to say it's a flawless product. Watching the first season and a few episodes of Zyuranger, I think a big issue is the "westernisation" of the concept in ways that seem odd. For instance, in Zyuranger, the heroes are public figures and ancient warriors who were frozen in time. Whereas the Power Rangers adopt a more super hero approach. Secret Identity, teenager/Spider-Man approach and everyday problems which makes the messing of the two sources look... Well, odd. I mean as a kid you don't notice this and say "YAY, BRIGHT COLOURS AND EXPLOSIONS!!!!" yet as an adult you begin to see the problems shining through the cracks in the wall.

The second issue is the obvious shit. I think it's quite dumb to make the rangers dress in colour coded outfits that match their Ranger forms. It was something that bugged me even as a kid because it made it painfully obvious they're the Power Rangers. The diologue certainly hasn't aged well. I love the shit out of Bulk & Skull, but these characters wouldn't work in a 2017 world. Very forceful in how they approach Kimberly and Trini, and just the general "this is a school bully according to a board room!" vibe really makes the characters feel dated. Again, they're my favourtes in the show but they really feel like a product of their time. These days they'd probably be annoying the Rangers with Pepe memes or singing Shadilay!

I like the characters of Jason, Zack, Trini, Billy and Kimberly but much like Bulk & Skull, they feel pretty dated and unrealistic by todays standards. Nobody was this perfect or wholesome when I was in school or college. I think what makes that "Teenagers with Attitude" idea so comical is how they're the complete opposite in the show. So perhaps whatever the new movie versions are like, maybe the moderisation might be for the best despite the fact I have no intention of finding out. It's why I praise the recent Boom Studios run on the MMPR franchise. The comic translates the characters and universe into a modern world with less cringe and authenticity. It's what the series should look like in todays culture as opposed to .... That movie we're not going to speak of for the rest of this summary.

The acting is... Well, 90's standards. In line with shows like Saved by the Bell, Sweet Valley High or Sabrina the Teenage Witch. However I feel that's out of place when you're writing a show about teenage super heroes. Shows like X-Men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles struck this balance nicely and feel less artifical in the process. It's why I can rewatch TMNT, X-Men or hell even Ducktales without having to pause every five minutes to cringe. I think there is a reason I rarely watch Season 1 these days. The writing was not at its strongest and the characters seem very flat in my opinion. They're likeable characters but they haven't found their voice yet.

I have been meaning to track down the full DVD series of Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger to do a comparrison between it and PR to see which is truly the superior show. In watching these episodes, I found the American actor segments not as interesting as the fighting segments. Episode 1 being the worst of the bunch for a lot of it didn't make sense and you can clearly tell it was several episodes of Zyuranger glued together. Granted it was Episode 1 and the show didn't find it's footing just yet but the first half of the episode was difficult to get through. The second half picked up the pace and was at least a 6/10 for me.

Things did improve with the arrival of a certain Green Ranger. Granted we jumped ahead 16 episodes but things definitely got better. Tommy Oliver... My God, this guy chews the scenery harder than Anthony Hopkins on a bender!! I think it was characters like Green Ranger and Venom that started my love for evil doppleganger/rival characters. I found it funny how it never occurred to them that "Hey, this guy sounds like that Tommy kid from school!" Which is why if this was remade today, the character would need to mask his voice or use a voice synthesizer.

Tommy was a lightning rod that increased the show's already reasonable popularity. While I was more of a Zack and Jason fan, Tommy did have a strange appeal that kept people watching when he showed up.

Island of Illusion may seem like the odd one out in this summary. It's here because it introduced Lokar and it did present a difficult challenge for the Rangers. I do admit that the introduction of Titanus was left out of this summary. I only remembered he existed half way through Island of Illusion Part 2 so that's a fault on my part. Nearing the end of this summary, the show really improved from Episode 1's laughable quality. Mainly because they were no longer bound by Zyuranger's plot and had the "Zyu2" footage to work from. For those not in the know, Zyu2 was brand new footage filmed exclusively for MMPR because the shows popularity exploded. Probably higher than Saban had expected. Due to said popularity, Saban didn't want to the show to end and contacted the producers of Zyuranger to make more footage. This will become a problem with Season 2 but we'll get to that when we do. With the Zyu2 footage, it meant Green Ranger returned as a regular fixture and the show slowly began to stand on it's own instead of being "Zyuranger with reshot footage!"

At the end of this summary, I had grown to like the characters more and they all had finally got a defined personality.

Jason was the stoic leader.
Zack was the romantic jokester.
Billy was the techy nerd stereotype.
Kimberly was the Valley Girl who you suspected had some issues underneath it all.
And Tommy was the new kid and a bit of an over achiever.

You'll notice I left Trini out of that summary. I'm sorry to say (and with no disrespect to the late Thui Trang) but I'm still not sure what Trini's character was meant to be. Was she a tomboy? Was she only there to translate Billy's technobabble? Was she a friend for Kimberly? Or was she a bit of all those things? Trini was the character I didn't focus on all that much for there really wasn't anything to her. You could just replace her and I doubt anyone would notice... More on that in season 2.

In conclusion. Season 1 is okay, but it reuses far too many themes. Yeah the Green with Evil saga is the best thing about this season, but it really should have been 3 parts long instead of 5. Being limited to the Sentai footage in a way helped turn Green Ranger into the best part of the series, but the flip side is the show didn't have enough creativity when being stuck with stock footage. Rita's bad lip syncing being the cheif offender in that regard. If you ask me, the first season didn't need to be 60 episodes long but should have stuck with Zyuranger's length of around 40.

The series was still finding it's footing and it thankfully gets better from here.

Season 1. (14 episodes)
Day of the Dumpster.
"Granted it's the first episode, but this was really bad!"

The Green with Evil Saga.
Part 1: "And the main reason we watched this show has arrived!"
Part 2: "Why doesn't Rita use Tommy to just kill the Rangers?"
Part 3: "How can they not tell Tommy is the Green Ranger?"
Part 4: "Seriously? Stop toying with them and just fucking KILL THEM!!
Part 5: "Kind of a weak ending to this saga, but satisfying."

Island of Illusion 1/2: "Every franchise needs at least one clip show in it!" (Funny triva. Lord Zedd's voice debuted in this episode)

The Green Candle 1/2: "Burai had a better farewell than Tommy to be honest!"

Doomsday 1/2: "This should have been the end... But it really wasn't!"

Return of an Old Friend.
Part 1: "Goldar is an epic fucking troll! I love this guy!"
Part 2. "And thus The Tommy Oliver show was born!"

Description
Starring.

Ann Lin as Jason/Red Ranger.
Daisy Ness as Zack/Black Ranger.
Stella as Trini/Yellow Ranger.
Dom Fury as Kimberly/Pink Ranger.
Espio Manditori as Billy/Blue Ranger.
Aisha "Beretta" Lister as Tommy/Green Ranger.
Bernie Sanders as Zordon.
AlphaOmegaSin as Alpha 5.
as Rita Repulsa.
Cute Yet Offensive Panda as Goldar.
And Kaiju Noir as Cyclopsis.

MMPR: In 3 Panels or Less.

I know the new movie is out, and I'm not watching it. I have no intention of seeing it and I actually don't want to do something negative surrounding its release.
Instead of wasting your time with a predictable rant bashing the new movie, I've chosen instead of do a brief summary of the original run of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. All 3 seasons with its 145 episodes, reduced to around 43 episodes. Think of this as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Kai if you get that joke. The main inspiration for this venture was a video posted by JelloApocalypse called "Nearly Every Disney Movie Reviewed in 10 words or less."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C_9SH…

I liked the idea and kind of borrowed it for this. Yet since I have a rather grim view of Youtube these days, I've decided to do this as a comic as opposed to a video. So it's "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: In 3 Panels or Less!" It won't be EVERY episode but rather the ones nessacary for this summary. As I stated in the journal, the rules for inclusion are the following.

1: The Introduction of a key character.
2: The exit of a character/zords/powers.
3: Left an overall impact on the series.
4: A situation that caused great difficulty for the Rangers.
5: Multiparters.

If I were to include EVERY episode, then I'd have to cancel WinneBobble, the Month Reviews and Unleash the Fury just to work souly on this. Maybe even quit my jobs to sit and watch this shit all day. To quote a tired internet meme "Ain't Nobody Got Time for That!"

Because a BIG problem with the first season of Power Rangers was it didn't establish a coherent idea what it wanted to be and relied souly on the stock footage. By mid season 2, they finally started crafting what the series was meant to be with season 3 argubly being the best (and less cringe worthy) of the bunch. Season 3 would have recieved the longest summary if I had included the Ninja Quest and the Masked Rider introduction. But I've decided to discount Ninja Quest for I'm reviewing the original Power Rangers movie in between seasons 2 and 3, so I didn't want to watch "the same story twice." Not to mention it's a 4 parter that tells a story you could realistically tell in 2 parts, but I will give it a brief mention in the Movie Summary. And I'm discounting Masked Rider because... Well, nobody gives a shit about Masked Rider.

I'm still on the fence about Alien Rangers (aka the second half of season 3) for I have a feeling I'm going to feel burned out by that point. I'm thinking of either glossing over it or just covering it as a Part 4. Let me know which you'd preffer.

To honor the inspiration, I'll be reviewing these chosen episodes "in 10 words or less" in the pages and down here in the description. Before I do that, I will give my brief thoughts on each season and the series as a whole. Season 1's will be the longest summary, for it addresses my overall thoughts on the show's format, while 2 and 3 will focus on new characters and plots.

As I stated in the MMPR: MB game review, I am a fan of Power Rangers. I know it's a complete cheese tray of cringeworthyness (if that's even a word) but I think that's apart of the appeal and charm of the whole thing. I know it's downright goofy and people will tell you it can only be enjoyed by 7 year olds with no attention span, but the show takes advantage of its own insanity. If it were written with adults in mind, they would be able to avoid certain situations. For example, 'If Rita knows who the Rangers are, why doesn't she just kill them in their sleep?'. Saying 'IT'S A KID'S SHOW' shouldn't be an excuse for it, but we have to work with what we have.

Technical things first. I think the debut of Power Rangers was the western world's big introduction to the concept of Super Sentai in terms of mainstream media. Sure it has become the subject of parody and mockery over the years for the over the top fight choreography and the emphasis on martial arts poses with goofy sound effects. Mainly that odd design choice of having the Rangers standing around striking poses and publically announcing every weapon or Zord they wish to summon. Even for the monster to wait patiently for them to finish instead of the logical thing of attack them mid summon/transformation. Even Digimon addressed this issue for crying out loud!

I know we laugh at Power Rangers and mock it (I was called a "Flower Ranger" at School for liking it which shows you the creativity of morons in my day) but this is mainly a difference in culture. This over the top style of presentation can be seen in a lot of Japanese media like DragonBall Z or any stereotypical game show.. I'm pretty sure Batman or The Avengers looks strange to a Japanese audience just as much as Sentai looks weird to us. Yet for a marketing standpoint, the Power Rangers was like catching lightning in a bottle.

Many people blame the Rangers for the death of many beloved shows in the early 90's, Sonic Sat:AM and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being the two big casualties, but then I'd argue they were killed by the Pokemon and Harry Potter crazes that came after them. Kids were excited by this alien new concept for it was, as the song says "A power and a force that you've never seen before!" Yes it's cheesy, it's hokey and horrifically dated by todays standards.... But that's why we loved it.

That's not to say it's a flawless product. Watching the first season and a few episodes of Zyuranger, I think a big issue is the "westernisation" of the concept in ways that seem odd. For instance, in Zyuranger, the heroes are public figures and ancient warriors who were frozen in time. Whereas the Power Rangers adopt a more super hero approach. Secret Identity, teenager/Spider-Man approach and everyday problems which makes the messing of the two sources look... Well, odd. I mean as a kid you don't notice this and say "YAY, BRIGHT COLOURS AND EXPLOSIONS!!!!" yet as an adult you begin to see the problems shining through the cracks in the wall.

The second issue is the obvious shit. I think it's quite dumb to make the rangers dress in colour coded outfits that match their Ranger forms. It was something that bugged me even as a kid because it made it painfully obvious they're the Power Rangers. The diologue certainly hasn't aged well. I love the shit out of Bulk & Skull, but these characters wouldn't work in a 2017 world. Very forceful in how they approach Kimberly and Trini, and just the general "this is a school bully according to a board room!" vibe really makes the characters feel dated. Again, they're my favourtes in the show but they really feel like a product of their time. These days they'd probably be annoying the Rangers with Pepe memes or singing Shadilay!

I like the characters of Jason, Zack, Trini, Billy and Kimberly but much like Bulk & Skull, they feel pretty dated and unrealistic by todays standards. Nobody was this perfect or wholesome when I was in school or college. I think what makes that "Teenagers with Attitude" idea so comical is how they're the complete opposite in the show. So perhaps whatever the new movie versions are like, maybe the moderisation might be for the best despite the fact I have no intention of finding out. It's why I praise the recent Boom Studios run on the MMPR franchise. The comic translates the characters and universe into a modern world with less cringe and authenticity. It's what the series should look like in todays culture as opposed to .... That movie we're not going to speak of for the rest of this summary.

The acting is... Well, 90's standards. In line with shows like Saved by the Bell, Sweet Valley High or Sabrina the Teenage Witch. However I feel that's out of place when you're writing a show about teenage super heroes. Shows like X-Men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles struck this balance nicely and feel less artifical in the process. It's why I can rewatch TMNT, X-Men or hell even Ducktales without having to pause every five minutes to cringe. I think there is a reason I rarely watch Season 1 these days. The writing was not at its strongest and the characters seem very flat in my opinion. They're likeable characters but they haven't found their voice yet.

I have been meaning to track down the full DVD series of Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger to do a comparrison between it and PR to see which is truly the superior show. In watching these episodes, I found the American actor segments not as interesting as the fighting segments. Episode 1 being the worst of the bunch for a lot of it didn't make sense and you can clearly tell it was several episodes of Zyuranger glued together. Granted it was Episode 1 and the show didn't find it's footing just yet but the first half of the episode was difficult to get through. The second half picked up the pace and was at least a 6/10 for me.

Things did improve with the arrival of a certain Green Ranger. Granted we jumped ahead 16 episodes but things definitely got better. Tommy Oliver... My God, this guy chews the scenery harder than Anthony Hopkins on a bender!! I think it was characters like Green Ranger and Venom that started my love for evil doppleganger/rival characters. I found it funny how it never occurred to them that "Hey, this guy sounds like that Tommy kid from school!" Which is why if this was remade today, the character would need to mask his voice or use a voice synthesizer.

Tommy was a lightning rod that increased the show's already reasonable popularity. While I was more of a Zack and Jason fan, Tommy did have a strange appeal that kept people watching when he showed up.

Island of Illusion may seem like the odd one out in this summary. It's here because it introduced Lokar and it did present a difficult challenge for the Rangers. I do admit that the introduction of Titanus was left out of this summary. I only remembered he existed half way through Island of Illusion Part 2 so that's a fault on my part. Nearing the end of this summary, the show really improved from Episode 1's laughable quality. Mainly because they were no longer bound by Zyuranger's plot and had the "Zyu2" footage to work from. For those not in the know, Zyu2 was brand new footage filmed exclusively for MMPR because the shows popularity exploded. Probably higher than Saban had expected. Due to said popularity, Saban didn't want to the show to end and contacted the producers of Zyuranger to make more footage. This will become a problem with Season 2 but we'll get to that when we do. With the Zyu2 footage, it meant Green Ranger returned as a regular fixture and the show slowly began to stand on it's own instead of being "Zyuranger with reshot footage!"

At the end of this summary, I had grown to like the characters more and they all had finally got a defined personality.

Jason was the stoic leader.
Zack was the romantic jokester.
Billy was the techy nerd stereotype.
Kimberly was the Valley Girl who you suspected had some issues underneath it all.
And Tommy was the new kid and a bit of an over achiever.

You'll notice I left Trini out of that summary. I'm sorry to say (and with no disrespect to the late Thui Trang) but I'm still not sure what Trini's character was meant to be. Was she a tomboy? Was she only there to translate Billy's technobabble? Was she a friend for Kimberly? Or was she a bit of all those things? Trini was the character I didn't focus on all that much for there really wasn't anything to her. You could just replace her and I doubt anyone would notice... More on that in season 2.

In conclusion. Season 1 is okay, but it reuses far too many themes. Yeah the Green with Evil saga is the best thing about this season, but it really should have been 3 parts long instead of 5. Being limited to the Sentai footage in a way helped turn Green Ranger into the best part of the series, but the flip side is the show didn't have enough creativity when being stuck with stock footage. Rita's bad lip syncing being the cheif offender in that regard. If you ask me, the first season didn't need to be 60 episodes long but should have stuck with Zyuranger's length of around 40.

The series was still finding it's footing and it thankfully gets better from here.

Season 1. (14 episodes)
Day of the Dumpster.
"Granted it's the first episode, but this was really bad!"

The Green with Evil Saga.
Part 1: "And the main reason we watched this show has arrived!"
Part 2: "Why doesn't Rita use Tommy to just kill the Rangers?"
Part 3: "How can they not tell Tommy is the Green Ranger?"
Part 4: "Seriously? Stop toying with them and just fucking KILL THEM!!
Part 5: "Kind of a weak ending to this saga, but satisfying."

Island of Illusion 1/2: "Every franchise needs at least one clip show in it!" (Funny triva. Lord Zedd's voice debuted in this episode)

The Green Candle 1/2: "Burai had a better farewell than Tommy to be honest!"

Doomsday 1/2: "This should have been the end... But it really wasn't!"

Return of an Old Friend.
Part 1: "Goldar is an epic fucking troll! I love this guy!"
Part 2. "And thus The Tommy Oliver show was born!"