Podcast Sentai Power Rangers: Episode 17

Wow, the audio quality dropped a notch compared to your last podcast. Lower bandwidth?

Wait a minute- isn't Gai's conversation with the Hurricanger ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME as the one he had with Black Knight in the Gingaman ep???
I really don't like Gai. He's as annoying as Genta was in Shinkenger, and I didn't like him either. At least Jan from GekiRanger was not as inflated a character like those other two, and brought the seriously-dramatic stuff once in a while. But with Gai and Genta, they're just there to be funny and they're not. (GD- Gai took so long deciding what to do about the Gingaman power that I started wondering if Hyuuga wasn't a Zangyack in disguise! Such a poorly-written character, Gai.)

So, they put the Hurricanger back in their old ninja outfits, but then their hair is completely different? Hmm...

A KakuRanger/Hurricanger team-up in Gokaiger 25 would be great.

NO LOVE FOR GOSEIGER.

No, it's F***ing impossible to get Gokaiger toys. It's been a problem all year long, even with pre-orders. Doesn't matter where you go, DX weapons, devices, and mecha are VERY difficult to keep in-stock unless it's a shelf warmer (Candy Toys, chibi, playsets, etc.). Granted, Shinkenger and Go-Onger had similar supply-VS-demand issues, but not nearly as bad as Gokaiger's.

Agreed, the Hurricanger appeared too early, and Furai-Maru should have been held back until the next episode.

Furai-Maru has been modified- for no apparent reason- in the same way MagiDragon, Pat Striker, and Gao Lion were, so I take it in stride. (My guess is, since Shurikenger was green and gold, he may have something to do with Furai-Maru's new coloring.)
No, Furai-Maru was always bulky-looking in Hurricanger as well, so his appearance in Gokaiger is similar enough that I'm not concerned.

LoL Rocky discussion.

In the vein of life for an actor after PR, what becomes of most Super Sentai alumni? Are they nobodies when they go in and become high-profile afterwards, or do they stay nobodies? I know most all of the lead female heroes and villains are real models (and supposedly a running production gag is some of them are porn actresses, yes/no?), but other than that what do all these +199 actors do? Is it a point of pride to be a Super Sentai actor, or a joke best kept off of one’s resume?

The big thing that always bugged me about PR games is the Zord battles were so shallow compared to how you played at Ranger levels. Zords are half of any team’s powers, yet they get little attention on their own.
I’ve never watched-or-played any Super Sentai games, so I don’t know how it works in them.

Isn’t Dice-O doing what you guys talked about- each ranger team has unique features and attacks?

In your opinion, will PR Samurai adapt DaiGoyou, or ignore him because he had the big ol’ kanji on his chest?

I’ve given a bit of thought to a Gokaiger adaptation. Maybe it could be treated in a KR Decade type of fashion. The core team- whatever their origins- are travelers who use the Gokai Galleon to travel to different universes/dimensions and meet up with these alternate Rangers. In each universe/dimension, there would be something that the PRGokaiger need to find/recapture or a character lesson that needs to be learned (it’s all about traffic safety, baby!), and in the process of doing this they come across a previous team of Rangers native to this universe.
You wouldn’t necessarily have to re-hire all the original actors, and indeed you could have just one make a cameo like they do in Gokaiger. If they are visiting alternate universes, you can mix-and-match pre-PR teams into the mix without too much worry, since PR crossovers are out of canon as it is and usually take extraordinary circumstances to happen anyways. Also, for established PR teams slight changes to their universes (a la Decade) would allow forgiveness of discrepancies and not have the visiting Gokaiger disrupting the continuity of the shows as originally recorded.
Unfortunately, because of how PR works as far as production value, we probably wouldn’t get to see pre-PR mecha appear or fight UNLESS the original Gokaiger footage has it for a Great Power (which so far has been confined to all shows after 1992).

How does Gokaiger end? Some random guy in an office building wakes up at his desk and says to himself “Whoa, that was a weird dream.”
Honestly, I have no idea. I think it comes down to two options:

1- Will the Legend Sentai get their powers back, and the Gokaiger just be themselves without the ability to tap into them?
2- Will the Gokaiger retain the Great Powers and Ranger Keys, and the Legend Sentai fade gracefully into history, with the Gokaiger succeeding AkaRed in his role as guardian of all Super Sentai powers?

What I don’t want is for The Greatest Treasure in the Universe to be the Gokaiger falling in love with Earth. Right now, the Treasure is playing out like Earth and humanity are to be treated as treasures because that is where the Legend Sentai have been all this time and they are worth preserving. Fighting spirit, friendship, imagination, and all that jazz. That would be a really dissatisfying end, but unfortunately that’s the only ending I can see right now.

I won’t put these in order, but I too think the Gokaiger suits are pretty sweet (though I’m nonplussed about Gokai Silver’s Gold Mode). I thought the Flashman suits had some charm to them, and the KakuRanger suits were a good example of a simple-themed suit (ninja should be unadorned and mysterious, which Hurricanger kinda spoiled with the logos on their chests).

And though not part of Super Sentai, I want to mention that I thought segmented armor-look of the suits in “MMPR-TM” were a good adaptation for a more “realistic” take on ranger suits. While still form-fitting, it’s not a magical stretchy fabric, but they lend credibility to the idea that they do indeed have armor that protects him. (The analogy I would draw is: in most of the comic book versions, Batman just wears a cloth suit that is prone to damage and dramatically being cut up, while all movie incarnations- except the campy Adam West and Burt Ward version- have him wearing some sort of body armor to protect against blades and bullets.) I wish that for at least one year Super Sentai would follow that example beyond just a sixth ranger’s vest armor, and delve more into how it’s done in Kamen Rider (which has always had obviously-segmented armor in some form-or-other).

Please consider this my e-mail question for the podcast (because I’m too lazy to send a separate e-mail):

In the opinion of Podcast Sentai Power Ranger, with precedent set by KakuWhite, TimePink, and Kaori as ShinkenRed, could we see a full-series-run female as Red Ranger for a Super Sentai Series? Or would that just not float in Japan? I know next-to-nothing about the modern culture over there, but I can only imagine that having a Red female - from what I’ve heard- would rock the boat a bit socially. Will/could it happen or no, and why?

Nice podcast!