POWER RANGERS RPM has truly hit the road as the best vehicle-themed season yet

I finally got to see Power Rangers RPM! After waiting patiently, Hasbro has finally uploaded the seventeenth season of Power Rangers on Youtube. This series seems to be a bit controversial but many fans seem to really love this season. RPM was the final season of the Disney era on which it is based Sentai Go-Onger engineand ran for 32 episodes. The main cast includes Eka Darville like RPM Red Scott Truman, Ari Boyland as RPM Blue Flynn McAllistair, Rosa McIver like RPM Yellow Summer Landsdown, Milo Cawthorne as RPM Green Ziggy Grover, Daniele Ewing like RPM Black Dillon, Mike Gin like RPM gold gem, Li Ming Hu such as RPM Silver Gemma, Olivia Tennet as Dr. K, James Gaylin as Colonel Mason Truman, Adelaide Kane such as Tenaya 7/15, e Andrea Laing like Venjix’s voice.

RPMs takes place in a different dimension in the not too distant future compared to the other seasons. The Venjix virus has basically made the world insecure except within the domed city of Corinth. There, Earth’s last hope for humanity is the Power Rangers who fend off Venjix and his army of Grinders and Attack Bots. The season is often seen as one of Power Rangers‘ darker and more mature, which is one of the reasons fans tend to love it.

I have to admit I walked in RPMs with pretty high hopes and expectations due to all the hype I heard. In my opinion, it lives up to that hype. My understanding is that RPMs was supposed to be the last season of Power Rangers, and I think we can see a pattern emerging. A season should be the last, the team makes a great season because they’re usually able to take more liberties and write more of what they want, and the fans love it. In the space it had to be the end and it’s one of the best seasons out there. Wild force it was also supposed to be the end and while i personally don’t have it in my top 10, a lot of fans love it. Also, I have to admit that all three had darker and more serious tones. Perhaps Power Rangers should learn something from this.

We start the season basically following Dillon trying to find Corinth and then meeting Ziggy who takes him back to town and there, we are first introduced to Scott, Flynn and Summer who are already Power Rangers. Episode two has Dillon going RPM Black and then from episode four, we have our core team of five with Ziggy going RPM Green. As the season went on, I realized that Go-Onger must be a I heard which begins with three main Rangers such as Abaranger eventually growing to five and then seven. The morphers are different, some details about the suits are different, etc. However, I really like that RPM didn’t really spend time with just three Rangers and quickly gave us a core five without it feeling rushed like other seasons.

Dillon’s story is that he doesn’t remember anything from his past, not even his name, and he’s trying to figure it out. Eventually, he discovers that he is a cyborg (human/robot hybrid) with part of the Venjix virus inside him. He also learns that he has a sister and it turns out that she is Tenaya 7, which creates an interesting dynamic that seems to be borrowed from In Space. Ranger discovers that their long lost sister is one of the bad guys, convinces sister of this, she starts to become good, bad guys kidnap her and make her more bad, towards the end of the season sister goes back to the good side. She worked really well for In the space and it also works well (although not as well in my opinion) in here RPMs. My main issue is that I felt like Ewing’s performance was one of the weakest of all and therefore I didn’t care too much about her character.

One thing I really liked is that over the course of the first 11 episodes, we get an episode (or two if you’re Summer) that spotlights Ranger’s (and Doctor K’s) backstory. The one exception is Dillon because so much of the season is about his backstory and the mystery that is there. We learn that Scott was a fighter pilot whose brother died trying to fend off Venjix. This helps illustrate the tension with his father, Colonel Truman. Summer was a spoiled rich girl with a saintly butler who helped her realize that she could be so much more and that she could become someone who helps others. Flynn has always been one to help others even at his own expense, sometimes like when he loses countless jobs for doing the right thing. Ziggy has a heart of gold and went behind the back of a crime boss to help an orphanage. Eventually, Dr. K grew up in a bunker because she was a genius and created Venjix. I’ve really enjoyed having these episodes early in the season to help us get involved in them early on and it doesn’t detract from the larger story later when it’s going strong. In fact, there are times when it helps serve up those bigger stories like the constant return of aforementioned Fresno crime boss Bob trying to even the score with Ziggy. The latter is especially useful and useful as it creates a second antagonist to make trouble for the Rangers without it always being Venjix and Tenaya.

Now, many talk about how RPMs it’s darker and more serious, but not without its brevity and fun. In fact, it’s a pretty fun season. Ziggy is meant to be a comic relief character and he fills that role fantastically. In the episode “Ranger Blue” we have the Rangers asking Dr. K a few questions (clip below) about their suits, morphing, Zords, and more to poke fun at the franchise and break the fourth wall a bit. Then, later in the episode, Tenaya 7 is talking to Flynn during a fight (clip below) and once again teases the Power Ranger meta by listing what stereotypical role each of the other Rangers fill and asks what their role is at to which he replies “I’m Scottish!” This is really funny. There’s also the obligatory clipshow episode, “And… Action!” This episode is very different from the previous ones because instead of the Rangers reminiscing about previous fights and moments, this is more of an extra behind-the-scenes feature that you would find on a DVD. The weird thing is, they do it in character. I’m not Cawthorne, McIver, etc. showing us the crew doing their amazing job or how special effects are implemented, etc. They are Ziggy, Summer, Flynn, etc. It makes for a fun and very weird experience because it makes you wonder if RPM is really a reality show or an in-universe TV show or something.

It’s time to talk about Ranger items and gadgets. Overall, I really like the theme of combining an animal with a vehicle. I think it lends itself well to a few different ideas and works overall. Helmets for Rangers are quite cool and distinct. I like them. Main suits are something I’m not a fan of. I like cool stylized numbers, but I think the shoulder pads are what kills me. I get that it’s designed to be like some cool racing seat belts, but I don’t care. I do like the cogs and wheels on the ends of the gloves and boots though and how they serve a function. There are times when Rangers use them in fights or sometimes it helps signal that the Ranger will use their special power. I like them. The dresses aren’t my favorite because of the seat belts, but I like many of the other design choices. The individual weapons are pretty cool, but I feel like we don’t see them used very often. I think Scott and Ziggy use theirs more independently, but most of the time these weapons are brought out, used to immediately form the Road Blaster, Turbo Plasma Launcher or RPM Enforcer. The Morphers are pretty cool and I definitely prefer the Rev Morpher (green and black) to the others, but none of the Morphers feel iconic or noteworthy.

Now let’s talk about Zords. Overall, I like Zords. I don’t care about the eyes. I know they are really optical field scan sensors, but I agree with the Rangers. Those are eyes! The overall designs are fine, although I feel like the Wolf Cruiser doesn’t look like a wolf at all and the Lion Hauler is pretty lackluster too. I think my favorite might be the Eagle Racer. It’s also funny that there are four different Megazords (six if you count when combining 2+ Megazords) in the series, although none of them replace any of the others as many previous seasons have seen. The only one that isn’t connected to a Ranger’s Zord core is the PaleoMax Megazord, and it looks like a smooth addition instead of a replacement for the other Megazords. None of the Megazords really hold my attention. They all seemed “meh” design-wise to me.

One area I haven’t really talked about is Gem and Gemma. I honestly don’t like them very much. They have cool aspects like being friends/pseudo-family to Dr. K in his younger days and have solid moments with other Rangers like in “Heroes Among Us” and “Not So Simple”. However, their general personality of acting first and asking questions later mixed with Siamese phrases just wasn’t for me.

Overall, RPMs it’s a great season. The story is beautifully crafted and each character is given plenty of room to shine and grow. We see the character arcs work out by the end, there’s a lot of humor and he does a good job of sprinkling enough drama. It seems like a show that doesn’t take itself seriously, but everyone who worked on it took the project seriously and gave it their all. There are a lot of great moments in the season that subtly tell us about the relationships between the characters as well (like when Summer lies about what Dr. K’s password is to the other Rangers) and everyone seemed to have good chemistry. I highly recommend watching RPMs. Now I have to wait Samurai from the Power Rangers to load.

Current Power Rangers Ranking:

1. Power Rangers in space

2. Power Rangers Zeos

3. Power Rangers RPM

4. Power Rangers Time Force

5. Power Rangers Beast Morphers Season 1

6. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 3

7. Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue

8. Power Rangers Dino Thunder

9. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 2

10. Ninja Storm from Power Rangers

11. Power Rangers Jungle Fury

12. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1

13. Wild strength of the Power Rangers

14. SPD Power Rangers

15. Power Ranger Turbo

16. The Power Rangers have lost the galaxy

17. Power Rangers Beast Morphers Season 2

18. Mystical force of the Power Rangers

19. Power Rangers Operation Overdrive