It sucked.
This show blew harder than Teenage Tattooed Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills. (Well, not that bad, but it was a close second.)
But, like any honest review, I'll weigh the good with the bad then let you guys decide.
Overview:
Power Rangers Samurai is the 18th Season of Power Rangers (Super Samurai being the 19th), also marking the return of Saban to the PR circuit. It features footage and stories from Samurai Sentai Shikenger, along with a few new gemicks made strictly for toy sales, which almost any and every kids show does, but I digress. This time, Saban decided to take the show back to Power Ranger roots, meaning that he wanted to focus on a younger demographic (children ages 3-10) instead of trying to mix the show so it targeted both new and older fans of the show, which, depending on your opinion, is a good or bad move.
(Note, some topics may be used more than once.)
The Good:
Return of Bulk- I loved the fact that Bulk himself returned to the Power Rangers as a comic relief. It was great seeing him back in is old role.
Decker (Juzo) & Dayu Relationship- This was an interesting turn for Saban to take, and a welcome one at that. This was a relationship that spawned many fan-fictions while Shikenger was running, and once I saw that Saban decided to take that extra step and have them be married, then betrayed and cursed, I was glad. It brought back the usual 'failed romance in tokusatsu' gimick that sputtered and died after Mighty Morphing.
Incorporation of the Ebi Origami/Lobsterzord- This was something that was initially overlooked in Shikenger, especially in later episodes where
Spoiler
Jii brought out a scroll depicting all the origami combining, yet the Ebi Origami was created by Genta while training to be a samurai
Sentai Story- They incorporated many of Shikengers elements and episodes, like Pink's inability to cook or the episode where the boy was missing his father (making him a soldier was a nice touch as well.)
Naming of the Megazord combinations (at least, two of them)- Beetle Blaster Megazord sat well with me. I don't know why, but it just did.
Mike and Emily (A.K.A. Shiken Yellow settles down with Shiken Green)- This was another of those moments Shikenger missed out on. Sure, Kotoha was more like the 'Little Sister' of the team, and Chiaki Tanibut the connection between them
That was the good of the series. Now for the bad.
The addition of Spike- With Bulk back in the game, we had to have someone to match him. That someone was NOT Spike. Where Skull was funny and a good side-kick for Bulk, Spike was just plain annoying. Whenever he laughed, I felt like stabbing my ears with rusty metal nails and running a current through them.
Mega Modes- The design was awesome, but the functionality of it in show was pretty much nill. It was pretty much only there for toy sales. Saban would've had something really good going if he gave it more use outside of Megazord control, like a team-power up/armor for the later half of the series.
The Puns- The whole show was full of annoying and irritating puns. I haven't heard any that bad since the 'We're gonna toss your salad remark from Power Rangers Turbo (look it up. It exists) To show just how bad they were, take this quote from TheLastTatlFan, a fellow user here on the forums:
Spoiler
TheLastTatlFan wrote:Spoiler
"They had me all tied up, and I was in knots! And that was KNOTS fair!"
Now, lemme walk you through that.
Somebody. Wrote that line. Intentionally typed it up, read it back and thought to themselves "Yeah, this is totally quality work worth submitting that won't get me fired."
And then, someone else read it and thought "Yeah, this is PERFECT! This is totally a good line!" And paid someone else to record it.
They do, indeed, assume that their target audience of young American children is the only audience that matters.
And they believe the children of America are retarded.
Specials- These were pretty much Saban flexing his Monetary Muscle and adding some more American Exclusive things to Power Rangers. These half-hour shows were pretty much the definition of 'filler episodes.' All of them were either full of bad puns and textbook flashbacks that really weren't needed or just incorperating extra footage from Shikenger (it wasn't even edited right in some points).
Weapon and Attack Names- I get that this was a kids show, but some of the names were just plain basic. No imagination to them whatsoever. I mean, Fire Smasher? Dragon Splash? Airway? Tree/Earth Symbol Striker? You can do better than that. WAY better.
Symbol Power- Hearing that was irritating. What was worse was the fact that they actually admitted to the symbols being kanji in the last two episodes of Super Samurai, a fact that I think could have been added at the start of the series.
No talking Daigoyou- I guess this really isn't something new, considering that in Dino Fury the Dinosaurs were supposed to communicate with their rangers, but it still ticked me off that we get another Mute assistant.
Now, some may think that this is over here. Trust me, it gets worse.
The Ugly.
Master Xandread: I absolutely hated the way his character was. I know it's a kids show, but they completely screwed over Doukoku. The thing I despised was how they pretty much removed the minor compassion he showed for Tayu (or Daiou) and just left him pretty much like Bredoran. That just really pissed me off.
Cast innacuracies- This show was pretty much a carbon copy of Shikenger, so why is there only one person that looks like they have some Asain roots? If these guys are decendents of samurai from Japan, shouldn't they show more Japanese heritage? From my understanding, most high class samurai clans didn't exactly allow marriges to outsiders or people of a forigen blood.
The Toys- I disliked the fact that saban decided to cut corners and remove the origami folding gimick. And remove the lights and sounds from the Lobsterzord and the 'charging' effect from the bullzord. He could've made some serious money there.
Now for a section that is kinda self explanatory in the title.
Things That couldn't be helped.
The 'medicine'- This was something that I completely understood had to be changed. These days, most American kids lack something called 'common sense and discipline.' If it was known that Xandread had a drinking problem, I'm quite certain that many little kids would be raiding their parents liquor/wine cabinets just to see how it felt to be Xandread for a moment.
Editing of the second Halloween Episode- This filler episode featured some (badly edited) clips from Shikenger Returns and Saban had to do something with the footage. Although, I don't really agree with the use of Mako's dream to cover for some of that, namely just almost whiting her out instead of having Mia actually sing on stage (the have the film lot for it. We can see that by the number of American Extras that were there.) And the Cross-dressing thing? That was never gonna fly in the states.
The Clash of the Red Rangers 1hr special/movie: This was one of those things that could have waited until every actor was in place. The entire thing felt rushed and unorganized. I understand why Saban had to do it this way, but at the same time, he should have done better. If every person from the past season of rangers is missing, you can easily skip around this team-up and save it for a later date (or just not do it at all.)
Overall, for Sabans return to the saddle, I felt that he really screwed the pooch here. Disney had it right seeing how they targeted not only kids, but the older generations that still watch and follow the show. Power Rangers has it's knack for standing out against it's Super Sentai counterparts, but this time Saban tried too hard and failed to deliver a show really deserving of the title 'Power Rangers.'