By Rob Bricken in
Daily Lists, TV
Wednesday, Apr. 29 2009 @ 5:00AM
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For some reason, the Power Rangers franchise has yet to find its way into the upper echelons of cherished childhood memories. Perhaps the generation that grew up on Megazords and Rita Repulsa is still too young to get nostalgic and buy the show in convenient DVD box sets. Perhaps the constantly changing Power Rangers series and characters make it hard for an entire nation of kids to attach themselves to Green Rangers as they might idolize Goliath or Dinobot or Pikachu. Perhaps Power Rangers is, in all of its forms, a really terrible thing and every kid realizes that upon turning eleven.
Let's set aside the question or whether Power Rangers is under-appreciated or worse than Stunt Dawgs. Even if Power Rangers were terrible, the popularity of the show still brought about many beneficial effects back in the 1990s. And now, as the Power Rangers juggernaut possibly takes its final lumber through toy aisles and Disney-owned syndication deals everywhere, let's take a look at just what it did for pop culture.
8) It Promoted Even More Ridiculous Japanese Live-Action Stuff
As young fans of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers learned sooner or later, the 1990s series is a Japanese show re-dubbed and spliced with new footage to make it palatable to American sugar-cereal-feeders. Those who dug deeper found that Power Rangers is part of a long tradition of "super sentai" shows, which in turn are part of the entire Japanese tokusatsu school. Wikipedia defines tokusatsu as "live-action Japanese film and television dramas that generally feature superheroes and make considerable use of special effects." A more apt description would be "grown men running around in spandex costumes while fighting giant puppets and people in monster suits, all framed by effects that would've been low-budget by 1970s Doctor Who standards."
Yes, tokusatsu movies and television are often marvelous camp, and Power Rangers introduced many children to this world of rubbery aliens and stiff robots and complete cheese. Most kids see a Godzilla movie or two while growing up, but Power Rangers made tokusatsu into flashy, coveted lunchbox-cover material. And even after the allure of Power Rangers faded, those kids were more likely to notice Japan's silly superhero and monster exports, whether they were Godzilla: Final Wars, the old tokusatsu version of Spider-Man, or just some sentai-hero moments that were a little too extreme for American TV. Moments like this:
7) It Brought Back Good Ol' Irony-Free Violence
During the 1980s, the likes of Transformers and G.I. Joe played up action and conflict to the point where the animation industry got a little sick of it. As the decade closed, the most popular cartoons were comedies and lighthearted adventures, including the often limp satire of Tiny Toon Adventures and the filthy capitalist escapades of Duck Tales. Even the Ninja Turtles punctuated their battles with a repertoire of self-aware quips. Kids had Batman: The Animated Series by 1992, but Batman was familiar territory. Kids wanted something new.
Well, they got that with every Power Rangers episode. It looked like Saved by the Bell with its Archie-esque drama mixed with clips of a Japanese superhero series, but it had plenty of violence.
Bloodless and really stupid violence, but it was still violence without any cutesy Disney cop-outs or sarcastic one-liners to break the fourth wall. Just punching and kicking and other things that you could easily imitate on the playground.
6) It Made Parents Accept Pokémon and Dragonball Z
Parents, teachers, and child psychologists grew to hate the Power Rangers. It wasn't just the violence, either. In the flailing battles between the Rangers and various garish-colored creatures, the older generation saw the many hokey monster flicks of their childhoods, and they decided that they weren't going to let their own spawn be won over by something with even dumber stories and more aggressive marketing. Most parents didn't complain about Power Rangers any more than their own parents had scoffed at Speed Racer or the latest from Sid and Marty Krofft's House of Abominations, but everyone was clearly relieved when the Power Rangers hype eventually died down and gave way to another Japanese import: Pokémon.
Never mind that Pokemon was Nintendo-sponsored cartoon cockfighting. Pokemon had cuddly animals and a theme song about teaching each other some semblance of morals. Heck, even the Vatican approved of it. This parental attitude applied to other Power Rangers successors, including the considerably more gruesome Dragon Ball Z. For some reason, the PTA is less likely to throw a bitchfit over pure nonsense and rampant violence when it's animated.
5) It Helped Show Everyone How Awful Fan Fiction Could Be
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at Topless Robot, we strive to explore the depths to which modern fan-fiction can sink. However, there was a time when fan-created stories weren't held up to widespread mockery; they were kept within the pocket online communities that specialized in writing and giggling over stories about Goku kissing Captain Picard. The more level-headed of us were bound to encounter truly disturbing fan fiction sooner or later, and by chance most encountered it through a notorious tale called "Agony in Pink."
The story first appeared on Usenet in 1994, courtesy of someone known as The Dark Ranger. It can summarized as follows: the Pink Ranger is tortured and ultimately murdered by a monster named Tortura who, needless to say, was created exclusively for the narrative. It's a disturbing journey through graphically described sadism, and the fact that it's all based around Power Rangers makes it both disquieting and laughably absurd. In the 15 years since its publication, "Agony in Pink" has become a touchstone for all terrible fan fiction, and it's even the subject of artwork and amateur MST3K treatments.
It's easy to find all sorts of uproariously bad fan fiction nowadays, based on anything from Mr. Belvedere to Swat Kats, so it's hard to remember that "Agony in Pink" once shocked or stupefied anyone. But it did.
4) It Brought Children Together
Let's face it: most of the respectable children's shows of the 1980s and 1990s didn't really inspire followings as much as the mercenary ones. Duck Tales never had kids arguing over who got to be Uncle Scrooge, but He-Man and every toy-shilling series after it was packed with characters that impressionable youths could imitate, arguing over who got to be Man-At-Arms and who was saddled with the Orko role. This tradition faded in the 1990s as the Ninja Turtles fell in popularity, but Power Rangers brought it all back.
Once again, grade-schoolers could bicker over their favorite roles from a TV show, and they had at least six color-coded parts to assign. Unlike the majority of action-oriented kids' shows, there was more than one character for girls to emulate in schoolyards everywhere (yes, the yellow ranger was male in the Japanese version, which for some kids was like finding out about all the kittens that died to make Milo and Otis). Even if you were delegated the part of the nerdy Blue Ranger, you could still run around and demonstrate Power Ranger techniques until someone had to visit the school nurse. And that's what children's shows are really all about.
Just as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles gave rise to uninventive twaddle like Pre-Teen Dirty Gene Kung-Fu Kangaroos, Power Rangers had its also-rans. The one difference: most of the Power Rangers rip-offs were put out by the show's handlers at Saban Entertainment, which wasn't about to stop at just one amalgamation of Japanese sentai superheroes and new American footage. So the airwaves saw VR Troopers, Masked Rider, The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog, and this...thing.
Of these Power Rangers clones, VR Troopers and the even more insipid Beetleborgs proved the most enduring, as Saban desperately tried to find more inexpensive and unrelated Japanese shows to cut-and-paste into American properties. One has to feel a little sorry for Masked Rider. It's a late-1980s sample from the Kamen Rider franchise, which has legions of TV series, films, and toy lines to its name in Japan. In North America, however, it lasted only half as long as a show about Goosebumps brats turned into metallic roaches by a spectral, blue-faced Jay Leno.
2) It Inspired Some Great Parodies
Mocking Power Rangers and the broader world of sentai shows is a little too easy. Stick characters in colored outfits, throw them in a robot, start the discount fireworks, and you're a champion of satire. It's been roasted to death in Japan's cartoons and live-action shows for decades, and most of these take-offs are downright lazy. A few are amusing, though, and a brief anime series called Shinesman stands out among the better ones.
Shinesman is a parody of sentai run through the Japanese salaryman aesthetic, with a young go-getter chosen as the leader of a superhero combat team just because he likes the color red. Armed with sharp-edged business cards, his fellow armored Power Rangers look-a-likes include Shinesman Gray, Shinesman Salmon Pink, and Shinesman Sepia. Yes, it's contrived and obvious comedy, but it's saved by a rather liberal approach to the English dub, which isn't afraid to play up the silliness of it all and invent some new jokes along the way (even if any and all South Park references stopped being funny in 1999). And, unlike many alleged anime comedies, Shinesman's over before it can wear out its welcome.
As an hour-long comedy based on a much longer manga, Shinesman would have been made even if Power Rangers had flopped in America. In fact, Shinesman might have been released in English even without any Power Rangers pull, since its North American publisher, Media Blasters, bought just about any cheap, short, direct-to-video anime in the late 1990s. Yet Shinesman and its dubbed treatment wouldn't have carried as much appeal without a cultural fixture like Power Rangers for a target.
1) It Got Kids to Love Giant Robots Again
Since the days of Gigantor, robots have risen and fallen in favor among young American generations. After reaching an apex of popularity with the Transformers and dozens of imitators in the 1980s, robot-centric toys and cartoons slid out of power, dethroned by the Ninja Turtles and, shockingly, cartoons that weren't even built around toy properties.
Power Rangers smashed these idols of taste and artistic value. The Rangers had giant robots that formed an even more giant robot to combat equally giant monsters, and all of them were perfect for toys. Voltron had done the same thing for children of the 1980s, but it was never the toy-department wonder that Power Rangers was. Kids could get figures of the Power Rangers, the various creatures, and, most importantly, the huge megazord mecha and its ultrazord accoutrements. And they would break through the load-bearing walls of your home.
These robot dinosaurs and apes helped rally other mecha-based toy lines back to the front. In the years after Power Rangers became huge, Transformers returned with Beast Wars, and even Voltron came back with a CG remake. It may be Voltron that's remembered in the West as the quintessential giant mecha piloted by a team of kids, but it's Power Rangers that reminded everyone why kids loved big robots.
46 comments
Comments
Joe said:
Masked Rider put me off the Kamen Rider franchise until last year, everytime I went to watch some of it on youtube I would just get the horrid flashbacks from the 90's show.
PS what happend to typing in The Force?
Butts_McCracken said:
Oddly enough, the best sentai parody, USA Night Flight's dub of Dynaman, actually pre-dates Power Rangers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi7DpNGZKao
The Red Queen said:
I love the fact that during the Wild Force episode,which features 10 years of Red Rangers, the bad guys are basically wearing Beetle Borg outfits. It's hysterical. Of course, my four-year-old doesn't understand what I'm laughing at.
He's also enjoying Kaman Rider Dragon Knight on the CW4Kids much more than this season's Power Rangers RPM.
blacklantern88 said:
I'd just like to say that I would indeed purchase DVD sets of the Power Rangers. Not all of them, mind you, but the first few seasons, hell yes.
tmaccurt79 said:
It wasn't a Saban produce show but Super Human Samurai Cyber-Squad should be noted for it's awfulness. It was almost as bad as Beetleborgs except it didn't have the retarded pack Universal Monsters.
Jeremy said:
Another good Power Rangers article. Keep them coming. I'm surprised, impressed and horrified that you mentioned "Agony in Pink." Yeah. Wow. It's hard to put in words how disturbing that garbage is.
Just a couple of notes. The spandex is really reserved for super sentai. Most other toku uses more armored suits. Also, the special effects aren't that bad. They've evolved with the time. Present day Kamen Rider especially has some amazing effects. I won't say anymore because I don't want to be one of those nerds that gets up in arms whenever someone says something remotely derrogatory about one of their obsessions.
I agree that Power Rangers is definitely underappreciated. I'd love to see some clips from more current seasons that don't suck like DinoThunder and RPM with the next article.
Keep up the great work.
Crabtree said:
Two of the best parodies of Power Rangers were on Reboot (Nullzilla) and Animaniacs (Super Strong Warner Siblings).
Phong: "Do not worry. I have prepared something for just such an emergency."
Bob: You're prepared for a giant monster made entirely from nulls stomping through Mainframe?"
Phong: "That is correct!"
Bob: "How DO you plan for that?"
Phong: "Ah... Lucky guess?"
Jeremy said:
Sorry. One more thing. There are legions of PR fans out there that have been clamoring for years and years to full season DVD sets. Oddly enough, they're readily available in Europe but not here. The only full season available here is that Operation Overdrive garbage and even that was released in individual volumes.
There's a market for the DVDs. We're still waiting. :(
Frito said:
I loved me some power rangers. I was up early one Saturday a little while ago and happened upon an episode with all the past Red Rangers. I nearly shit my pants.
Billy was the best.
Lonestarr said:
I don't know what's more disturbing: learning that possibly-true factoid about Milo and Otis (and, let me tell you, I fucking loved that movie as a kid) or revisiting the title sequence of "Big Bad Beetleborgs".
Seriously, it's a toss-up.
GalvaTRION said:
Butts_McCracken: You are a wonderful human being.
THE PR0F3550R said:
@Todd Ciolek
I'm not sure I'd qualify it as a best side effect, but I'm sure for many a horny young males here on Topless Robot, the Power Rangers (and it's rip-offs) provided much needed spank material.
Especially with Kimberly Hart (Amy Jo Johnson) who first hooked me into the show, Ashley Hammond (Tracy Lynn Cruz) & Cassie Chan (Patricia Ja Lee) who kept me watching after I stopped caring with the whole Ninja/Shogun/Zeo/Turbo garbage, and Kira Ford (Emma Lahana) who made me interested in watching the show all over again for its nostalgic factor.
BTW, VR Troopers had Kaitlin Star (Sarah Brown) and she was pretty nice to look at too.
Beetleborgs and Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad were some of the dumber rip-offs that I remember.
Dorkus Malorkus said:
Clip #7. Those shorts! Yowza!
chad said:
actually number one is the reason power rangers got teachers and parents hating the show for it was the toys being like cabbage patch dolls that caused hatred. as vr. troopers may have been a bad take off but it was somewhat watchable. and the parodies prove that a show is a hit when it gets made fun of
Lonestarr said:
Another rip-off I kind of remember: USA Network's (yes, the very same) "Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills".
As cheesy as you'd think, but the brunette...top-shelf hotness.
free said:
You forgot what is possibly the worst copycat show. Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills.
Here is part 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkYjeThIHDk&feature=PlayList&p=886925B2B3A32648&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=36
And you can find a few more on youtube if you look around.
Gasstank said:
I swear USA had the worst cartoons ever. I was not sad to see Cartoon Express go.
Henry said:
I don't think anything beats the Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills for shitty rip-offs.
And I see someone beat me to the punch.
Jilliterate said:
Gah! As someone who loves movies, Japanese stuff, and random factoids, how did it slip by me that Milo & Otis was originally Japanese? And the kittens died ???
Well, I've officially been traumatized for the day. Point, TR.
Killgorr said:
Don't forget Shinesman Moss Green!
willroy said:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/70397/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-tue-apr-28-2009#s-p1-so-i0
after the first commercial the power rangers are brought up for a joke. its worth the confusion.
Butts_McCracken said:
GalvaTRION: Glad you loved Dynaman. I think USA only re-dubbed six episodes. I've heard that some fans have put all six on bootleg DVDs, but I have yet to find a copy.
Stephen said:
"It may be Voltron that's remembered in the West as the quintessential giant mecha piloted by a team of kids, but it's Power Rangers that reminded everyone why kids loved big robots."
Well, that's probably because we're about still five years short of the full-on nostalgia kick for Power Rangers (wait until 2013 or so), and that the show's never been off the air like Voltron so fond memories have been tempered by the fact that seeing an episode isn't a rare thing.
MarkTwain'sGhost said:
Giant robots are the best. But you are incorrect about Voltron not having amazing toys. In fact, I had not only the Voltron robots (the Cats, not the lame-ass cars) and some of their wicked robot enemies. The enemies were by far the coolest looking toys I ever had and I kept them long after the lions were garage saled.
eulcedes said:
i remember the superhuman samurai syber squad because even as a snot nosed kid i thought Tim Curry doing the villian's voice was kickass
newave said:
Great having successfully purged from my memory the big bad beetle borgs theme years ago, you have now refreshed said memory and sent my brain into a world of pain where that damn frankenstine monster "BEETLEBORRR" voice repeats over and over and over and over and over.
Strangeman said:
What about people being trampled to death ala Wal-Mart trying to buy a Red Power Ranger?
FuryOfFirestorm said:
There's a great Rangers parody on YouTube with some good effects and costumes despite having a $20 budget....Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers! The guy who plays the Red Emo ranger is a stuntman, so he has the best fight scenes. Best joke...instead of "Putties", the bad guys are called "Hoodies" HA!
Kal said:
Kittends died making Milo and Otis? WTF?
Niko said:
Beetleborgs is your example of the worst knock off? Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills would have to be at top, and even without that, Masked Rider was far worse than Beetleborgs. That could just be my bias though, having loved Beetleborgs. I can definitely see how it doesn't hold up today.
Power Rangers ranks quite highly in my cherished childhood memories. It also has some nostalgia factor with those Hot Topic Power Ranger shirts.
Unfortunately as already stated, there are no box sets of previous seasons, something I am still upset at Disney about. Give us our childhoods back, Disney!
Archer said:
Butts, thanks for the memories. I remember watching the USA Dynaman stuff back in high school and LMAO. That was like 15 years ago now. The 7 Brides of Lucky Pierre... It means Dynapink is wet!
Katie said:
"Perhaps the generation that grew up on Megazords and Rita Repulsa is still too young to get nostalgic and buy the show in convenient DVD box sets. "
If they sold 'em anywhere but Germany, I would be ALL OVER THAT SHIT! As it is, Germany is the only place who has Power Ranger Box Sets.
Until they sell them here, I'll have to be content with my copy of The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie I bought at Target for $5.
AJ said:
Even as a child I could recognize that Big Bad Beetleborgs was a cheap knock off of Power Rangers. Did not stop me from watching it everyday, tho.
When my brothers and I played Power Rangers they'd always fight about who got to be the Red Ranger.
Scortia said:
I had forgotten Big Bad Beetleborgs! Ah nostalgia punch!
Ayame said:
Wow. Last night I watch this [url]http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=225894&title=Your-Government-Not-at-Work---Jane-Harman-Scandal[/url]
And I wake up to this. LOL
(if link doesn't work, I'm sorry)
Saucepolicy said:
Butts_McCraken beat me to the Dynamen shout-out. To GalvaTRION, you'll have much better luck trying to find the episodes if you include "Night Flight" in your search. For instance, check out the Night Flight volume 52 DVD at Subterranean Cinema: http://www.subcin.com/nightflight.html
NeoXorn said:
Shinesman rocks with the Kageyama song!
pokefreaks said:
I used to be a power ranger fan back in the days but i'm still watching Kamen Rider shows (KR:Decade's awesome btw):D
PrfktTear said:
If Painful in Pink is a shipper fan-fic about Lord Zed and the Pink Ranger, I'm going to have a very nice evening with a bottle of wine, some vasoline intensive care hand lotion, and a box of kleenex...
KS said:
I just read Agony in Pink.
The whole thing.
I'm not going to be able to smile again for days.
Asat said:
DUH! You failed to mention the best consequence of Power Rangers. It resulted in the goddamn funniest Perry Bible Fellowship strip of them all - "Guntron Alliance Force".
LBD "Nytetrayn" said:
I see several people have beaten me to the punch on the reality-challenged crack about buying DVD sets. ;P Show me one, and I'll buy it.
And I'm 30 today, btw, so it's not just the rugrats with fond memories.
Asat> I thought that was based on Voltron... given the name and all.
THE PR0F3550R> You have exquisite taste in female Rangers. Those are the ones I would list if asked.
And, as others have said, Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills has to be the worst rip-off. I could never get past the title.
On the other hand, I thought Mystic Knights of Tir na Nog was pretty cool, at least until they added these weird vehicles.
Aaron Pinsky said:
I personally can't explain why my obsession with Power Rangers (and its counterpart Super Sentai) has lasted as long as my obsession with Street Fighter. I guess there's just something about two guys in crazy outfits beating each other up that I just find amusing (actually, pro wrestling sort of follows that too!).
Needless to say, when I got to college and the wonders of youtube came along, I learned about the wonders of Super Sentai and Kamen Rider, and four years later I'm still keeping the tokusatsu love alive. I'm beginning to think I'm never going to outgrow it...
Another amusing article, guys.
Joel said:
"Well, that's probably because we're about still five years short of the full-on nostalgia kick for Power Rangers (wait until 2013 or so), and that the show's never been off the air like Voltron so fond memories have been tempered by the fact that seeing an episode isn't a rare thing."
Excellent points here. I'd say it's just a matter of nostalgia not hitting yet - I was on the ground floor for the initial series, being around seven when it first came on (1993, right?) and obsessing over it. I'm 22 now, and at this point most of my peers are too focused on getting through college, going to grad school, and finding decent jobs to really worry about nostalgia. There will likely be a small nostalgia rush when they graduate college, or high school for the younger ones, but that usually doesn't make people buy things. When everything slows down and they get settled and start hitting the border age of 27, that's when it's going to happen.
And I'm hoping that's when they'll finally release that damned Third Season of The Adventures of Pete & Pete.
Carl said:
My two boys (3 & 2) love Power Rangers and play with the action figures all the time. I can't believe Disney will be finally pulling the plug after RPM. Heck, my two year olds' first complete sentence as "Get In Gear".
Semblance said:
From The Red Queen
I love the fact that during the Wild Force episode,which features 10 years of Red Rangers, the bad guys are basically wearing Beetle Borg outfits. It's hysterical. Of course, my four-year-old doesn't understand what I'm laughing at.
And that wasn't all! Not only were they Beetleborgs, they were Beetleborgs riding horses on the moon. That's right. Beetleborgs. Riding horses. ON THE MOON.
It doesn't get sillier than that.
