The Possible Exchange Of Ideas Between Super Sentai And Power Rangers?

Toei Ltd. hasn't been completely original in its shows. If you notice, even in the early shows you can see how some villains were based on some 70s fictional villains, some are just obviously based on some American idea and you have lot of ideas like Toei's own version of Spiderman, they had Robocop inspired heroes in Janperson and Jiban, the Rescue Police Trilogy may have copied ideas from some other Western shows and many more. I'll share some possible exchanges of ideas from each other. Note I deleted two previous articles and decided to create this one instead.

Ideas Power Rangers borrowed from Super Sentai

Since Power Rangers is Toei's and Saban's show based on Super Sentai, there's really bound to be some ideas taken from other Super Sentai seasons, not just the parent source. There's some that you can name.


Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers deviated from Zyuranger's storyline adding a teenagers with attitude theme from Turboranger. Jason was typically alike to the red rangers of Hirohisa Soda's era - reliable and trustworthy. He may not be Geki in Zyuranger but he may be compared to either Shiro (Bioman) or any of the typical red rangers of that era.


The show also had the assistant android in Alpha Five who I think was somewhat derived from Peebo in Bioman or any of the long list of assistant androids.


Lord Zedd's methodology of making monsters may have been slightly copied from Jetman. He uses his evil energy to produce them from either animals or inanimate objects.


Power Rangers Turbo aside well from just "Turbo" from Turboranger, the one idea that felt like it was taken straight from Super Sentai was Justin. Kou in Dairanger was also another child ranger.


Power Rangers in Space deviated from Megaranger's electronics theme in exchange for a space theme. The space theme may have came from Changeman of the pre-Zyuranger era. Some characters in Power Rangers in Space were similar to some Changeman characters.


Dark Specter is similar to Star King Bazoo. Astronema like Shiima was kidnapped at a young age and was brainwashed to become evil. Ecliptor also played the part of Adjutant Buuba in Changeman where he's the red ranger's rival while he cares about Astronema, the same way Buuba cares about Shiima.


Power Rangers Lost Galaxy started the tradition of Power Rangers having that yearly cast change, yearly crossover, started to get more serious than usual (but not too serious) and it had some Soda themes attached to it. There was the military theme from Changeman and the lost galaxy concept from Flashman. Though it was based on Gingaman, good thing the show copied from other Super Sentai shows before Zyuranger started. In the case of Kai as the hesitant nice guy, who do I feel like that's somewhat derived from Gai Yuki?


Trakeena herself may be viewed as Power Rangers' own version of Queen Ahames. Sly, scheming, manipulative and will do anything for her own personal agenda yet with some degree of loyalty towards her race. If she appeared earlier, she may even exploit Astronema just to kill the Power Rangers. Her betrayal of her own comrades and her aggressive approach makes her a truly fearsome foe for both the Gingamen and the Lost Galaxy Rangers.


Having an aquatics blue ranger is not something that was originally in Power Rangers. Instead, Chad Lee somehow gives a shoutout to glorious blue rangers who are into water sports plus Mike Chat is really Japan Action Club material. You may have references to Ryuta Nanbara or Ken Hoshikawa. I guess that explains why he's really that badass aside from the actor himself.


The Disney era of Power Rangers later gave civilian superpowers to the rangers. The concept might have been taken from Flashman where the rangers growing up in some lost galaxy (the Flash Solar System) gave them certain powers even when they were not morphed. The practice was later continued with Go-Busters.


In the case of Dekaranger, I guess they decided to get Grumm's outfit as inspired by Vulgar from the Dekaranger movie. IMO, it was a good idea though they could have used Brandel, Zeen and Whinskey to have American counterparts as well.


Power Rangers SPD revived the whole idea of a disembodied brain being the literal brain behind the puppet rules. In Sun Vulcan, the "Black Sun God" and later calling itself "The Omnipotent God of Black Magma" where Hell Saturn was just a puppet emperor. Omni in Power Rangers SPD was also the literal brain be the real ruler behind Emperor Grumm, another puppet emperor. I guess the Sun Vulcan team didn't really get rid of Black Sun God after all huh?

Ideas Super Sentai borrowed from Power Rangers

Power Rangers isn't really copy/paste unless you've got Jonathan Tzachor. Some Power Rangers producers and writers might be best called as "ahead of their time" or they had some original ideas. In due fairness, Bruce Kalish's Power Rangers SPD is a one-shot wonder. I guess the bigger problem during Disney wasn't Kalish but the executives.


Super Sentai starting to get less serious and I believe it needed to do that. After Ohranger which for me felt pretty serious in spite of the retools, Carranger ends up as a comedy season. I felt like Super Sentai can't always remain serious so learning something from Power Rangers is part of it.


Megaranger was released after Carranger. I just thought did Mighty Morphin' inspire Toei's producers to come up with another Sentai with teenagers with attitude? If so Megaranger may have been that season to do so. Even the prefix "Mega" somewhat makes me think of the Megazord while the show had some similarities to Turboranger and Bioman. Oh, there were also two local school bully wannabees that occasionally showed up. Coincidence?


Toning down violence and seriousness. I might want to say that Judd Lynn's post-Zordon era is to be given credit for showing Super Sentai how to do Super Sentai after Timeranger. Gaoranger was the start of the era where violence and seriousness were toned down. I call this the Power Rangerized era of Super Sentai.


Magiranger vs. Dekaranger took the idea of the Battlizer from Power Rangers SPD. The reason for that is something I can't fathom.


Moak in Gingaman appears to be a Zordon-type mentor. He's immobile, he's just there and he tells his warriors to look at the viewing globe. I find it weird that Moak's sacrifice came after Zordon sacrificed himself in Power Rangers in Space. Was it a tribute? Considering Power Rangers in Space ended while Gingaman aired so there's a possibility. We had other Zordon types in Mr. Voice and Gosei Head.


Ryuon in Boukenger may have taken inspiration from Mesogog in Power Rangers Dino Thunder. Both were humans who experimented on dinosaur genes on themselves. In Ryuon's case, it's with a mythical dragon.


Shinkenger ends up with some Power Rangers nostalgia on its own. Mako for me ends up as Sentai's own version of Kimberly, I felt like Genta was what if Skull had a son with a Japanese woman, Mr. Brown felt like a tribute to Bulk in Mighty Morphin' except he was a guest. It was also the first Super Sentai to have an official team-up with Kamen Rider. ToQGer and Ninninger would later have crossovers with Kamen Rider Gaim and Kamen Rider Drive respectively.


Go-Busters started out having some references to Power Rangers RPM and Power Rangers itself. Like why is every mecha called a Megazord regardless of which side it belonged to? The use of the phrase "It's Morphin' Time" is another taken straight out of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. They even had their commanding officer Takeshi Kuroki and assistant Tohru Mirashita who are the show's versions of Colonel Truman and Dr. K.


Some of the villains in Go-Busters felt like they came from Power Rangers RPM. Messiah for one like Venjix started out as a deadly epidemic seeking to conquer the world. Messiah would later transfer himself into several bodies like Venjix did. Escape might have been a fully synthetic version of Tenaya from Power Rangers RPM. Enter on the other hand feels like a villain that might even outsmart Venjix.

Comments

  1. "Escape might have been a fully synthetic version of Escape." - is that supposed to refer to Tenaya?

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  2. From 1998-2001, Saban was actually getting creative of the 5 minutes material I have seen and read. It is sort of done between Changeman and Flashman and Gokaigers.The In Space gimmick that is totally Star Trek / Space Academy with a space explorer theme Sentai need to be done again definitely. Go Go V is the one that did it and started it all with a family of Thunderbirds oriented rescuers.
    But LSR made it much more intense and they filled the 6th void with the Titanium Ranger as Kyoko never kept the Sieg Jeanne powers.

    Time Rangers is good but the villain in Time Force is much more.

    The only lowdown with Saban is using the B- Fighters as villains for the All Red anniversary special!

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  3. I got the idea that Zedd has some influence from Count Radiguet minus the Maria storyline.

    He's a cruel and sadistic monster who doesn't sit on the throne all the time.

    Note: I think Lord Zedd was meh as a villain.

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  4. "Power Rangers isn't really copy/paste unless you've got Jonathan Tzachor." - Haha! True enough! XD

    Really hate that guy after the blunder that was Super Megaforce....

    ReplyDelete

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