Power Rangers

Published on: 12th April, 2009

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Power Rangers, a long-running American children’s television series, originated from the Japanese tokusatsu Super Sentai Series. The American producers did not simply make an English dub of the original, but rather put together a “new” production with English-speaking actors spliced in with the original Japanese footage in varying ratios. Due to the very Japanese nature of many of the Super Sentai Series’ stories and design, the American shows vary detail to appeal to a Western audience. However, they typically dub many of the action sequences featuring the characters in costume and the mecha (referred to as “Zords” in the English series).A Power Ranger, a fictional individual, “morphs” from a person into a powerful superhero — generally wearing a color-coded battle suit usually made of spandex or other skin-tight material and a helmet with an opaque visor.[6] In many cases, the helmet serves to protect his or her secret identity. In some cases, more powerful Rangers may have extra shielding on their suit to protect them from strong blows.

A morphed Ranger generally possesses superhuman strength, durability, and ability in hand-to-hand combat. Starting with the Disney-created series, unmorphed Rangers usually possess superhuman abilities such as super-speed or teleportation unrelated to their Ranger abilities.[7]

Rangers appear to retain their original physiology beneath their suits when in morphed form: viewers have seen Rangers’ helmets removed or broken on numerous occasions,[8] revealing his or her natural form underneath.[9] Helmets aside, the suits are donned and removed nearly instantaneously with a glow of light or some other effect. Rangers can also be “de-morphed” involuntarily when suffering significant physical damage.

Rangers regularly operate in teams of five, with a special sixth Ranger frequently joining the team part way into the series.[10] More recently[update] a core team of three will later expand to include additional Rangers. Each Ranger’s suit and energy spectrum will match a specific color, with red, yellow, and blue joined by some combination of pink, green, black, or white. Rangers may be named after their respective colors, such as Red Ranger, Blue Ranger, etc., but numbers or other names may also be used. There is usually no more than one Ranger of a given color on a team, but exceptions of this rule are generally given alternate names (in Time Force, there were two Rangers with red-colored costumes; the first was the Red Time Force Ranger, the second was the Quantum Ranger). Each team’s costumes are nearly identical aside from color and helmet design (most notably the shape of the opaque visor) and perhaps a numerical designation. Any additional Rangers will regularly have additional costume modifications, usually some form of altered suit design and/or armor.

The Rangers’ color designation influences their wardrobe throughout the series: their civilian clothing often features the same color as their Ranger color. A joke highlighted this correlation in “Dino Thunder” when Tommy Oliver (a former Green Ranger, White Ranger, and twice a Red Ranger) became the new Black Dino Ranger; he said that he had to go shopping because he did not own enough black-colored clothing.

Elements of a Power Rangers season

Each team of Power Rangers, with a few exceptions, obeys a general set of conventions, outlined at the beginning of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and implied, though not stated explicitly, throughout many of the other incarnations. Thus the Power Rangers may not use their Ranger powers for personal gain or for escalating a fight, which explains why the Rangers do not simply crush the small monsters by means of their Megazord. Nor may the Power Rangers disclose their identities to the general public, barring extenuating circumstances, although this rule was disregarded in Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue, Power Rangers: S.P.D., Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive and Power Rangers: RPM, in which they were public servants (rescue squad, police officers, etc.) Following a Spartacus-inspired scene by Angel Grove’s townspeople, this rule was also disregarded at the conclusion of Power Rangers in Space and, to a lesser extent, Power Rangers: Mystic Force. The penalty for disobeying these rules, at least in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, would be the loss of their power.

The Power Rangers have a somewhat standardized arsenal: each Ranger generally carries a weapon such as a laser gun and/or a sword. Each Ranger also has a secondary set of weapons that can often combine to form a larger weapon (usually a cannon). As the series progresses, one or more of the Rangers are also usually given a motorcycle for long-distance travel, as well as individual Zords. In many series, a Ranger is also given additional Zords or weapons. In some cases, one Ranger may receive something that other Rangers may not have; an example of this is the Battlizer given to the Red Ranger of each series since Power Rangers in Space. Although much of the arsenal can also be found in Super Sentai, there are usually at least some that are not, generally added for the express purpose of marketing toys designed and sold by Bandai America.

Episodes always include carry-overs from the Japanese source-material. Less commonly, some series use only the Sentai designs and footage, though despite this some sets have to be replicated for original footage if needed. In one instance, in order to maintain the trend of the Sixth Ranger for a series where only five existed in the source footage, the Titanium Ranger was created especially for Lightspeed Rescue.

In seasons following Power Rangers in Space (1998), it became common for each team to follow a separate storyline from those of previous incarnations. In later seasons, it became a tradition for two teams of Power Rangers to team up to take on a villain. In Power Rangers: Wild Force, the tenth incarnation of Power Rangers, this moves to the next level, as ten Red Rangers teamed up in the episode “Forever Red”; and in Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive a team of former rangers from various incarnations of the series teamed up with the Overdrive Rangers to defeat an alliance formed by the son of Rita & Lord Zedd, Thrax, in the episode Once a Ranger. The only seasons thus far to not feature such a team-up are Power Rangers: Ninja Storm, due to a shift back to non-SAG talent when production moved to New Zealand, Power Rangers: Mystic Force and Power Rangers: Jungle Fury, due to budgetary reasons. This was somewhat rectified when Xander, the Green Mystic Force Ranger, and Tori, the Blue Ninja Storm Ranger, appeared in the Operation Overdrive crossover two-parter, “Once A Ranger”.

Traditionally the arsenal of a Ranger team, especially the Zords, gets destroyed at the end of the season in order to destroy the final monster (often the main villain). The Rangers also tend to give up their powers, though they remain available for later team-ups (for instance, at the end of Ninja Storm, the Rangers sacrificed their powers to imprison Lothor. Once Lothor was freed, however, they were able to get their powers back in order to fight him).

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