POWER RANGERS SAMURAI offers little hope for the Neo-Saban era

Hasbro uploaded the entire file Samurai from the Power Rangers on YouTube, which meant I was able to watch the first season of the Neo-Saban era. By this time, Saban had reacquired Power Rangers from Disney and the result was a samurai-themed adaptation of the season Samurai Sentai Shinkenger from 2009 to 2010. It’s an interesting concept, but we’ll see if it holds up. The entire season ran for 22 episodes (including two holiday specials) on Nickelodeon in 2011. Let me know in the comments what you think Samurai from the Power Rangers.

Centuries ago in Japan, Nighlok monsters invaded our world, but samurai warriors defeated them with symbols of power, passed down from parent to child. Today the wicked Nighlok have risen once again and plan to flood the land. Fortunately, a new generation of heroes stands in their way. They are the Power Rangers Samurai.

That small portion is read at the beginning of each episode as part of the credits. The Power Rangers Samurai consists of Jayden Shiba (Alex Heartmann) as Red, Kevin (Najee De Tiege) as Blue, Mia Watanabe (Erika Fong) as Pink, Mike (Hector David Jr.) as Green, and Emily (Brittany Anne Pirtle) as Yellow. They are eventually joined by a Gold Ranger named Antonio Garcia (Steven Skyler). I don’t know why, but it really irritates me that three of the six Rangers apparently have no last names. It is also important to note that their mentor is played mentor Ji René Naufahu.

The Rangers must stop the return of Master Xandred and his hordes of Nighloks who are some kind of demons. Nightloks come to our realm through gaps that seem interesting at first, but then it literally seems like every little space between things counts, which begs the question why they don’t literally swarm everywhere

I’ll be blunt. In my opinion, Samurai it is absolute rubbish. The actors are not good, the script is bad and there are no risks even thought of. I understand there were some production issues but this is still very bad. The highlight of the show is the opening of the first episode when Jayden shows up transformed and defeats some Moogers (the foot soldiers of the season). It’s a really great moment and then it turns around and the show just goes downhill from there.

The sad thing is that the two holiday specials are also lame. For Halloween, you have defeated Nighlock monsters sharing stories about fighting the Rangers. Remember “Almost Got ‘im” by Batman: The Animated Series and that look is cool, but it’s just their way of trying to use their clip show episode. What’s even worse is that the continuity is completely screwed up. At this point, Dayu has left Master Xandred but she is here with him as if nothing happened. To anyone who says it takes place before Dayu left, how do you explain Rhinosnorus’ appearance at the party? You can not. Meanwhile, the Christmas episode is Emily reminiscing about her time with the other Rangers as she writes a letter to her sister and it’s just another clip show from the Rangers’ point of view. He’s also very boring even though he has a big moment for Mike. As everyone gets presents, she gets upset that she doesn’t get any, but it is later revealed that she has a motorcycle. He’s excited and goes for a ride, but then walks in covered in snow and no sign of the gift because he ended up giving it away. It’s a small thing, but I appreciate trying to show some sort of growth in the holiday episodes as well.

Another disappointment was the reintroduction of Paul Schrier like in bulk. I love the original Saban era Bulk and Skull. They were fun characters who went through an amazing character arc. Most are restored Samurai to teach Skull’s son Spike (Happy Ryan). That’s not bad in theory, and Ryan looks like he might be related to Paul Narvy’s Skull. However, these characters fall completely flat. First, it seems that Bulk doesn’t really know anything about being a samurai and is instead just a guy who repeats things that he maybe he’s seen in the movies as a way to teach him “grandson” about him. Second, there is no connection between these two characters and the Rangers. Bulk and Skull worked so well in the first few seasons because they were connected to the Rangers. They were the antagonists when Rita wasn’t causing trouble. Then they evolved over time, but there has always been a connection with the other Rangers (except in Lost Galaxy but Bulk’s role is so minor that it doesn’t matter). Here, maybe they interact with the Rangers once? There is an episode where Spike overhears Mike talking about his Samuraizer and realizes a Ranger is nearby, but it just seems to be a bit of casual interest with little to no following. They seem like a lazy attempt to appeal to older fans and attempt to have comic relief characters. There could be more here and I’m sad.

Okay, I want to stop being depressing Samurai. There are some things I like that are worth discussing. Did I mention the first moment is great. Also, I know I’m very critical of story writing, but I want to point out a few small wins for the season. The first happens in episode 16, “Team Spirit”. In this episode, the weekly Nighlok steals Emily’s spirit and then runs to hide in her underworld. To get to the underworld, a human must become a Nighlok which becomes a point of debate among the Rangers. Mike is fully willing to do so, but Antonio shows up just in time and with the help of the ClawZord they are able to bring the Nighloks back to Earth so no one has to become a Nighlok. Honestly, I was much more interested in the aftermath of one of the Rangers having to become a Nighlok than the actual outcome, but even for a few minutes they made me think that maybe something absolutely incredible would happen in the story.

The other story element I want to praise is how they handled Dayu’s story. For most of the season, we think Dayu is just a regular Nighlok general who has a thing for the half-Nighlok Deker. However, in the final two episodes, “Broken Dreams” and “The Ultimate Duel,” we learn her and Deker’s combined backstory. It turns out both were humans and lovers and through some deceptions and a tragic story, they become Nighloks. During this mess, Deker was doomed to lose all memories of him, but Dayu keeps all memories of him, which explains her one-sided affection. This actually shows some depth to the season and I really enjoyed that.

Now I’ve mentioned Deker a few times, so I feel like it’s worth mentioning. As mentioned earlier, he was a human who through a series of unfortunate events ended up being cursed to be a half-Nighlok whose only goal is to have the ultimate duel. He is played by Ricardo Medina Jr. from which I literally just learned it was Cole Wild strength of the Power Rangers. Oh. Medina is actually one of the best actors of the season, but he still goes overboard with the mysterious and evil stranger. Deker’s biggest problem is that he’s really a note with his he only goal being a duel with Jayden. This means that he has no allegiance to anyone and as such he is willing to take down some Moogers in hopes of getting that duel. The form of him Nighlok is actually pretty cool, though I’m not sure why he uses the back side of his sword in dueling Jayden. He has sort of a serration or sawtooth on the back which is nice, but it’s still a katana and so the curve is opposite of what it usually is. It’s like when Kenshin uses the sharp side of the sword with the blade reversed. Deker isn’t an unusual character type in Power Rangers with predecessors like Merrick and the Magna Defender, but he’s not a direct impersonator of any of them and won’t be joining the Rangers by the end of the season.

More interesting things about the season follow. First, the original five Zords are based on origami which introduces an interesting aspect of the design. Also, each of the Rangers has a unique weapon which I think is pretty cool. The costumes are also very beautiful in my opinion. I don’t know how I feel about the spinning discs that Rangers use for all their different weapons. It just looks bulky.

At the end of the day, Samurai from the Power Rangers just not very good in my opinion. There are a few gems inside, but it feels like it really starts with the best timing and then quickly jumps off a cliff. I guess now I can watch Power Ranger Super Samurai and I hope everyone learned to act between seasons.

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

20. Samurai from the Power Rangers