During a visit to the mysterious Planet Nemesis, an
expedition team accidentally releases the Witch Bandora from her 170 Million
Year slumber. Dead set on revenge,
Bandora attacks Earth with her band of Monsters. Standing in Bandora’s is her old rival, the
Sage Barza. Though her power might
exceed his own, Barza has an ace up his sleeve.
Five legendary warriors have been sleeping as well, waiting for the day
when they’d be called upon to face Bandora once again. They are Geki, Goushi, Dan, Boi and Mei. Together, with new abilities given to them by
Barza, they become the mighty team known as Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger.
*Special Note: This was written back in March 2022
but I’d like to dedicate this First Impression Friday episode to the memory of
a man who’s character isn’t in this first episode of Zyuranger but who’s
lasting legacy will live on well into the future. Rest in Peace Jason David Frank, May your
Power Protect Us All.*
Welcome, Dear Readers, to 2023 and a brand new season of
First Impression Fridays.
Originally,
todays title was meant to be looked at last year…til I realized Power Rangers
30
th Anniversary was still a year away, so I held off.
That’s right, one of the most popular live
action kids franchises of all time turns 30 this year.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers debuted in 1993
to massive success with kids and has since become a juggernaut still held in
high regard today.
At the time, few even
knew that the bulk of the Ranger fight scenes were actually from Japanese Super
Sentai footage.
It would be easy just to
do a First Impression on the very first episode of MMPR…but I think looking at
the first episode of the show it drew from is much more fun.
Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger is the 16
th entry in
the Super Sentai Series and aired the year before Power Rangers appeared on the
scene in the US.
Much like Beast King
GoLion, the pilot for Zyuranger is vastly different from its American
counterpart.
For one, Bandora is a far
more powerful and dangerous threat than Rita ever was.
In the first ten minutes she kills the two
Astronauts who set her free before descending to Earth and decimating an entire
city.
Woman means business and it’s good
to see this “Rita” be more hands on, as she hardly ever left her castle in the
US series.
I was quite surprised how
much time Bandora spent on Earth right away, even battling Barza one on
one.
We see her castle make its way to
Earth but seeing as how the Sentai footage used in Power Rangers shows it on
the Moon, I think it wont be planet side for very long.
There’s also the matter of the Sentai team
themselves.
Nope, they aren’t five
“Teenagers with Attitude”.
Instead
they’re five warriors who were put to sleep not long after Bandora and have
been in cold storage til the time came to wake up.
The most notable of the group is Boi, the
Yellow Sentai, for obvious reasons.
To
make the Power Rangers a bit more inclusive, the Yellow Ranger was a girl,
Trini, even though the Yellow Sentai suit lacks a skirt same as the Pink
Sentai.
We don’t actually get to know
the team pretty well as theyre quickly woken up and thrown into action pretty
quickly.
Speaking of, the Zyuranger
premiere is very action packed and wastes no time getting down to
business.
The Zyuranger Team shows that
they are more than capable of handling foes with and without their powers.
They don’t actually morph til just before the
end of the episode, believe it or not.
We don’t get to see their version of Zords or the Megazord in the first
episode but we do get our glimpse of their first giant sized foe…and damn does
he look scarier than anything the Rangers ever faced in their US series.
I might peek in on this one from time to time.
Zyuranger looks like a fun little trip to
take if youre interested in Power Ranger history and want to look at the shows
that inspired Mighty Morphin and every subsequent series afterwards.
It’s a very different show, with all the
weirdness and fun a Japanese TV Series would have compared to one in the
US.
If youre a die hard fan of Power Rangers
or just want to see where it all got started, grab your morpher and shout “ITS
MORPHIN TIME”…or as Zyuranger says, “DINO BUCKLER” and enjoy the fun.
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