Entertainment

POWER RANGERS JUNGLE FURY is a light and fun season, fun and full of animals

Louie

September 5, 2022

POWER RANGERS JUNGLE FURY is a light and fun season, fun and full of animals

Power Rangers Jungle Fury it was the sixteenth season of Power Rangers and is considered part of the Disney era. Is based on Juken Sentai Gekiranger and stars Jason Smith like Casey Rhodes, Anna Hutchison like Lily Chilman, Aljin Abella like Theo Martin, David de Lautour like Robert James (RJ), Nikolaj Nikolaeff like Domenico, Bede Skinner like Jarrod, e Holly Shanahan like Camillo. I recently finished it in my quest to watch all the various seasons of Power Rangers and you can find my thoughts below.

For Fury of the junglelet’s start with an idea similar to Storm Ninja. We have three students in a martial arts school who become the Power Rangers. Heck, even the acronyms are similar in terms of tone. However, some differences are worth noting. First, instead of being connected to the elements, the different students and styles are tied to the spirits of the animals with our main Rangers based on big cats. Second, Casey is in a lower grade than Lily and Theo when we start. Indeed, Jarrod is a fellow student who is chosen along with Lily and Theo to become guardians who keep the evil spirit Dai Shi sealed, but after some bullying, Jarrod is replaced with Casey, Jarrod gets angry and through a series of events he ends up. for accidentally unleashing Dai Shi who defeats Master Mao quite easily and then eventually owns Jarrod. We now have our 3 main Rangers: Casey, Lily and Theo facing the possessed Jarrod who we will mainly call Dai Shi from now on. While the beginning has some vibrations similar to those in Storm Ninja, Fury of the jungle it does a good job of being distinct enough to be a thing of its own.

After being defeated, but before he apparently dies, Master Mao tells the Rangers to find their new master in the city of Ocean Bluff. Here they find RJ, the owner of Jungle Karma Pizza. RJ also ends up being their new master Pai Zhuq and their mentor Ranger providing them with their Morphers, weapons, Zords, etc. Eventually, RJ joins them as a Power Ranger. More episodes occur and the team is more or less completed with the addition of Dominic as 5th Ranger.

As a quick rundown of animal spirits, we start with Casey as Red with the spirit of the Tiger, Lily is Yellow with the spirit of the Cheetah, and Theo is Blue with the spirit of the Jaguar. RJ then joins as Purple with the spirit of the Wolf and finally Dominic is White with the spirit of the Rhino. Meanwhile, Dai Shi has possessed Jarrod who has the spirit of the Lion and his main general is Camille who is a chameleon. A bunch of villains rotate with additional animals, so there’s a lot of animal representation this season.

I think a general configuration is enough to move on to various aspects. Overall, Fury of the jungle it’s a very fun season to watch. It looks very upbeat and light in a good way. There really aren’t any silly characters other than maybe Flit being used sparingly, especially in later episodes when they start to ramp up the seriousness. Flit is a fly who provides commentary to Camille during the episode’s big monster fight. This is a fun touch of nonsense to keep things light and is never very long, so it doesn’t stay too welcome. Yes, there are other funny jokes and moments, but whenever we have something like this it’s usually done in moderation, so it doesn’t seem ridiculous.

Ranger gear is interesting this season. I am not a fan of the main suits. Overall, the design isn’t awful, but I don’t like having a break somewhere like a belt. RJ and Dominic both have this and it helps me appreciate their outfits a lot more. Lily has something of a thing since her top has a weird skirt-like approach, but honestly it looks too different from the red and blue Rangers that hook it in places, plus it’s not very noticeable. Each Ranger has a unique weapon which is something I like and they have brought very unique weapons to the table. Casey uses nunchucks, Lily uses a bo and Theo has tonfa. Then, each of them also acquires a second unique weapon although the Spirit Rangers also use them: a mace, a pair of fans, and a pair of sabers. Again, very interesting choices. RJ doesn’t really have a weapon even though he can fire beams from his Morpher. Meanwhile, Dominic’s Morpher has a few different modes that act as weapons. Interestingly enough, there are no universal blasters or sidearms until the main Rangers unlock Master Mode and get the Claw Boosters. While I appreciate the season’s unique weapons, I think they look a little out of place, and the Jungle Bo in particular looks odd with what appear to be designated picks. It doesn’t help that the Junglechucks seem more themed for the Red Ranger than Tonfa or Bo does for the Blue and Yellow Rangers respectfully. Based on what I’ve read on the Power Rangers Wiki, it appears that some of the lack of cohesion that I feel may be due to the fact that the Tonfa and Bo counterparts in Gekiranger are a universal sidearm with various configurations while the Junglechucks is not. one of those configurations.

I already mentioned the Jungle Master mode, which is a push to get around Episode 14. The suits for the Master mode actually look a bit better even though the jets were a bit weird in my opinion. They were mostly weird because they didn’t seem to do much. It was implied that they added maneuverability and / or speed when activated, but it didn’t seem like any of that was provided. It looked like they just added a jetpack flame visual effect. It would have been nice if the jets seemed to be doing something.

The Zords for Fury of the jungle they are fine with nothing really sticking out with one exception. When they unlock Jungle Master mode, Lily is able to harness the spirit of the Penguin courtesy of Master Guin (Michelle Langstone). Damn Penguin Zord rides a flying snowboard and wears headphones! The best Zord!

As for the villains, Dai Shi and Camille are really the only ones you care about. There are other villains that rotate like the Overlords and then the Phantom Beasts and it’s a little hard to take care of them. Interestingly though, the typical monsters actually come from infantry called Rinshi. I really like that idea and its realization.

Now the question that probably few are asking, what’s the story like? Well, alright. I’ve already shared how the season starts and then for most of the season his unique Monster of the Week storylines with some slightly bigger bows like Five Fingers of Poison. Many of these are fun like “Bad to the Bone” where Lily is influenced by the skill of a monster and goes from being overly nice to a rough and hardcore biker girl. Once you hit the last few episodes though, things really start to pick up. Jarrod begins to free himself more and more of Dai Shi, Camille begins to realize that she actually likes Jarrod and not Dai Shi, Casey fails her test to become a Master and has yet to grow and prove herself, and more. I loved the last few episodes! The problem for me was the ending. In all fairness, the final battle was underwhelming and there were a lot of moments in the epilogue that seemed to stick together because some plot threads had been initiated, but not fully developed, but the writers wanted to make sure there were no problems. I can appreciate that up to a point, but I wish some of these things had been handled better over the course of the season. For example, at first we discover that Theo has a crush on Lily, but then he is never shown, touched, developed, etc. until the last couple of episodes. It makes the gain seem very cheap in my opinion.

The clip show episode is funny because the premise is that the Rangers get sucked into a game show run by Camille and monsters, but it feels so disjointed. I’m in the game show, the monsters cheat to take them off, and after Casey (the last Ranger not to be “erased”) steals the monster’s remote and wipes out the monster and Camille, the Rangers are all back to normal world and a fade in black (presumably in a commercial). When we return, the group throws a very small luau-style party in the loft for Lily as a first nod to what it seems like forever Theo has a thing for her. That’s all. The clip show episode looks very rushed and unthinkable. I was excited about the game show look, but it didn’t flow well in the end and felt jarring to watch.

There are other characters I would like to talk about. First, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Fran (Sarah Thomson) who also works at Jungle Karma Pizza and eventually discovers the identity of the Rangers. She is a great character. She helps play an Ernie-like character while RJ has a more Zordon-like role in the season. When people have problems, she helps them talk about it or even fights Lily (in some way) in the above episode. There is a group of Rangers that show up towards the end called the Spirit Rangers who are like the animal spirits of the leading Ranger masters personified as Rangers, in a way. It’s a little confusing for me if I’m being honest.

I really like RJ as a mentor most of the time. The character of a weird young hippie may be a little weird at first, but he’s definitely a good mentor. As a Red Ranger, I actually like Casey a lot. In a way he always grows to the end and in my opinion he is the one who grows the most. I’m not a big fan of Theo though. He just felt annoyed the whole time. In the end, I felt that all the actors did a great job in their roles. Skinner was particularly good as Jarrod possessed by Dai Shi, although I felt that his performance was a little worse after Dai Shi was exorcised by Jarrod.

At the end of the day, I enjoyed watching Fury of the jungle. It’s not perfect, but definitely a winner for the Disney era Power Rangers. As always, remember this is just my opinion and I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions on it Fury of the jungle in the comments below.

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