Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger VS. Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

I was recently lucky to find all fifty episodes of Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger, the series that started America's Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. I have always been told that the Japanese version had a better story than the American. So I embarked on a 6 month quest to find to either a DVD set or a steaming community.

When it came to America we of course took our scissors and cut the heck out of the series. We also added a bunch of new stuff such as Zordon, Alpha and teenagers with attitude. When I was younger I of course had no problem with how corny it was, how the picture quality would change when they 'morphed', or how they would be in one place and then be somewhere completely different a second later. The story was very simple too, a witch named Rita escaped her prison after ten thousand years and begins trying to destroy planet earth. And all that stands in her way is a group of teenage superheroes. When Rita's monsters seemed to be defeated, she would cast down her staff and make it grow. Then the Rangers would have to call on their powerful Zords, large dinosaur themed robotic beasts, to help and form the Megazord to banish the monster for good.


However, the original story was deeper and had more plot twists. Five young warriors from an ancient civilization of Dinosaur-evolved Humans are awakened during the present day after 170 million years of suspended animation. This is in reaction to their sworn enemy, Bandora the Witch, being inadvertently released from her magical container on Planet Nemesis by two astronauts. The five warriors, the Zyurangers, must summon the power of deities known as Guardian Beasts, each modeled after a different prehistoric beast, and form Daizyujin in order to protect mankind from Bandora's evil forces. A sixth warrior, Burai the Dragon Ranger, later becomes involved with the conflict between the Zyurangers and Bandora.

It is revealed that Burai followed the Zyurangers into suspended animation to seek revenge on Geki, the red ranger and his younger brother. He believed that Geki was responsible for the death of his family. This is because they had been separated when Geki was a baby. Though he was raised by the King and Queen of the Yamato Tribe, he was adopted by them after his birth father rebelled against the Yamato King and was forced to give Geki up for adoption as punishment for his insubordination. His birth father used this as an opportunity to challenge the King and reclaim Geki, only to be killed by the King. But the two resolve their differences and eventually fight along side one another. Later in the series the Zyurangers discover that Burai actually died while he was frozen and was brought back to life at the request of Daizyujin. Burai only has a short amount of time before he must return to the land of the dead, and has to stay in a magical room void of time. But every time he leaves it burns down a candle that measures his time left. Eventually Burai runs out of time, but before he leaves he passes his powers onto Geki.

Wow, what a difference, and I think I still left some things out. To close, I am truly happy I was able to watch this series, it was so much better then what I was subjected to as a child. I feel as though I was cheated, I would have gladly watched this much story and thought put into my programming. Though as my Fiancee and I watched we could not help but recall the different scenes that we remember from our younger days. And could not help but insert the hilariously bad dubbing.

Gatchaman goes Live!!

For those who do not know Gatchaman is a Japanese anime from 1972, inspired by the rise of popularity in henshin (transformation) series' like Kamen Rider. Gatchaman features five young heroes trained in the art of the science ninja technique. They fight for the conservation of nature, environmentalism, and responsible use of technology for progress and advancement. The main antagonist is a group of global terrorist known as Galactor, who use giant mechanoids to try and take control of Earth's natural resources. As you could guess, I am a huge fan of this series. I can remember getting up at four or five in the morning to catch the block of anime shows the local channels had running at the time. There were several, Ronin Warriors, Voltron, to name a few and of course Gatchaman. Though that is not what it was called when it came on TV here in America. It came over to America in several forms, from Battle of the Planets, to Eagle Riders. It was heavily cut for the violence, and they added sequences that were clearly of different quality. By doing so it was made even more into a kid show, cause we all know adults do not watch cartoons right? But I was young then and I did not know what I know now.

What drew me in the most about Gatchaman is that it was different from most superhero, action packed adventures that were out there. It had an on going theme and message, use technology wisely and protect nature. The plot was also continuous and consistent, something that is rare for a kid show and cartoons even today. They always used caution when using their bigger weapons, such as the bird missiles and the powerful phoenix attack. I really liked that they did not just go firing away, they thought about the consequences and any damage it might cause. I had never seen that before in anything, and I think it really taught a valuable lesson of think before you act. 

Back in 2005 ADV films released several DVD volumes with all of the episodes uncut for the first time ever in America. Both in their original subtitled version, and a new dubbed version. I was so excited that this happened, I was finally able to see Gatchaman as it was meant to be seen. And now the even greater news, Gatchaman is getting its own live action adaptation! When I heard about this I nearly jumped around for joy, okay I did a little. The movie is slated for a Japan release on August 24th of this year. They now have a teaser trailer on the official site, as well as some images.

Ken "The Eagle" Washio

Game of Shows

Sunday marked the end of the third season of The Walking Dead, AMC's hit television drama loosely based on the popular comic of the same name. I was disappointed with how it ended, it was very anticlimactic. The episode started strong with some action and explosions and then took a swan dive into drawn out dialog followed by some more dialog. Then they went to Woodbury to strike back and just ended up with more talking. Oh and the "Governor" went from pretty crazy to just plain insane and shot all the people he took with him to hit the prison, just because they ran and did not want to die. I really like the show but the season ender really did not empress me at all. This season was not as impressive as the last two, and did not boast the same amount of zombies, sorry 'walkers', as the previous seasons. It was more talking then anything else, and grasping to find different ways to shock the audience.


Game of Thrones on the other hand started its third season Sunday, at the same time as the Walking Dead finale. I watched GoT first and then stayed up to watch the re-showing of WD, let me say I partly regret the decision to stay up and should have just gone to bed. GoT season premier was by far more entertaining, I am more of a fantasy geek so yeah my opinion might be slightly biased. The show has so many intertwining stories that I tend to only pay attention to my favorite characters, John Snow, Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen and Arya. The show really took off for me during the second season, when they really started to ramp up the fantasy element. And now with Daenerys having her dragons and making a war path, it is really shaping into an exciting season already.

TMNT

I was watching my usual cartoons recently and saw an ad for the new LEGO Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sets based off of the new Nickelodeon series. As I am a huge fan of TMNT and Legos you could imagine my extreme excitement that the two have finally come together. Here is some great behind the scenes videos of the making of the new toys. I have also been watching the new series on Nickelodeon and I am very happy with it, there are some changes to the story but only to modernize it and make it relevant for today.

I am really happy how the turtles are once again making a come back. It was not long ago that they had another series that aired on 4kids TV, but it did not grab the interest they had hoped, though it did air for six years. It even had a season, or two, where the turtles were thrust into the future, but that did not go so well and I was not a fan of that much change to the story. The new series though reboots our turtles to when they are younger, fighting the Shredder and his Foot clan, and aliens called Kraang from a different dimension. We find out the Kraang are working on an invasion, and that the ooz that caused the turtles to mutate and also change Master Splinter from a human to a giant rat is from the Kraang dimension. I like the small changes to the story and characters, as it really doesn't change who and what they are. Mind you though these cartoons are for kids and are only spin offs of the comics, which are darker and bloodier.

As happy as I am about the turtles coming back, I can't help but worry about the impending movie slated for June 2014. It is going to be live action and is to have a mix of puppetry and CGI, as well it will be based more closely to the comics. That is cool, but as with other things from my childhood that he has tainted, Michael Bay is a producer with this project. I have also heard despairing news that the turtles will be aliens themselves. That is not the turtles I grew up with, they are mutants, four baby turtles that came in contact with a strange substance that they call the ooz. Raised by Master Splinter, who was also mutated, and trained in the art of Ninjutsu. That is what I grew up with, that is what I want, stop messing with our childhood Michael Bay!! I thank God he is not directing it too.