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Rangers vs Sentai: Who Did it Better?
 8  8.8  7.2 Season One Better Heroes?  The Zyuranger cast are just bland. Yes, even Burai (Green), don't throw stones at me. However, Boi (Yellow) does shine a bit during his focus episodes. And while Mei (Pink) is just the token girl most of the time, she just turns bad ass during her focus episodes. Early Kim just didn't stand a chance against her.  Chris Hansen would be all over Bandora if she was around these days, so I have to go with Rita. Although, at least Grifforzar wasn't Geki's bitch like Goldar was with Jason. 
606 5.6 5.6 MMPR Season One only Better Supporting Cast?  Zyuranger didn't really have a supporting cast. MMPR had Zordon, Alpha, Ernie, Bulk, Skull, Angela, Mr. Kaplan and Ms. Appleby in the first season alone. Neither have too much of a story, but as I said above, Zyuranger makes me paranoid that Chris Hansen will show up out of nowhere. Yes, MMPR had the occasional kid of the week. But one, they were usually closer in age; and two, they already had some sort of relationship with the heroes. Jenn's rating:
 
4 9.7 6.6 Better Heroes?  Wes and Eric are probably the closest to their Japanese counterparts, but are just handled better in America. Yuuri (Pink) and Ayase (Blue) were handled best in Japan, as Yuuri was more stoic and Ayase just had more to do. Green and Yellow are probably the most different once you get inside their heads, and I like the way both shows handled them equally.  While Ransik was an original creation, he does overlap slightly with Don, making Gluto completely useless in Time Force. Also, while Frax and Gien were both human-turned-robots, Frax just wanted revenge while Gien was kind of mentally retarded and started to go crazy after becoming a machine. And Lira and Nadira were basically the same character, but Nadira was actually willing to get her nails dirty (just not broken). Jenn's rating:
 
44 6 5.8 Better Supporting Cast?  Ryuuya does seem to have the better story than Alex, but it's just tacked onto the end. Alex is more woven into the overall plot. And much like Wes and Eric, Mr. Collins is the same as his counterpart, but is also allowed to grow. Timeranger's main story tends to split off into individual character stories, while Time Force pushes half of the main cast back so that Red and Pink's stories are the main story. Yes, it's a little frustrating, but somehow both ways just work. Jenn's rating:
4 9 4.4 Better Heroes?  With the exception of Cole (Red) and Taylor (Yellow), the Wild Force team are more templates of a character than actual characters. On the other hand, the Gaorangers have great personalities and can stand on their own. Okay, Yellow is a bit underused, but when he is used, everything is gold. Although, Gao Blue needs to make up his mind on what his character actually is!     I really could care less for the Gaoranger villains. Although, the first one wasn't bad. However, Wild Force went above and beyond with Master Org and his fantastic arc. Jenn's rating:
 
32 6.2 5.1 Better Supporting Cast?   This is more or less just the Shaman vs the Princess. And while I like Shayla, and prefer her solo fight over the one from Gaoranger, I just love Tetom and her trolling ways. Also, Fuutaro was far less annoying than Kite for that certain arc. While they did shove people to the background, for the most part, Wild Force had a damn good main arc. However, the Zen-Aku and Kite mini-arcs were a bit too condensed compared to their Gaoranger countparts. It got to the point where Kite was just shoved down our throats to get all of Fuutaro's character development in. Jenn's rating:
4 9.3 6.5 Better Heroes?  With Hurricaneger, I love the entire cast as a whole; but with Ninja Storm I'm actually able to love everyone individually, as well.  All of the Hurricaneger villains are bland, while Ninja Storm gives them some sort of personality. Except Shimazu. I honestly can't remember anything of importance that he did in Ninja Storm. Jenn's rating:
33 6.8 5.4 Better Supporting Cast?  CGI beats puppet. Also, Oboro was just a boring character. I know she's supposed to be the tomboy to Nanami's girly girl, but she's just not that interesting. Also, Yousuke and Nanami's bosses were just kind of tacked on, whereas Kelly was still tacked on, but felt like a natural fit and appeared more often. While there was no real story with the core three in either show (other than the school being attacked), Ikkou and Isshu had a great one centered around their father, along with Shurikenger revealing his boss. Jenn's rating:
 
6 9.8 7.5 Better Heroes?  Honestly, the S.P.D. Rangers are extremely unlikeable with zero growth, while you can't not fall in love with the Dekarangers. Although, swapping out Green, switching Swan with Kat, and using the American Doggie suit, would make the perfect team. (I don't hate Sen and Swan. I just prefer Bridge and Kat.)  As much as I hate to admit it, at least S.P.D. had villains. As opposed to Agent Aburera just popping up and going "hey, I'm the Big Bad now." Jenn's rating:
29 5.6 5.3 Better Supporting Cast?  Most of the support cast, for both shows, were also Rangers. The ones that were not are a guy in a rubber/furry suit (except Boom). Because of this, I'll have to give the nod to S.P.D. because of Greg Aronowitz's great costumes. Because, lets be honest, it's a little easier to look at them with a straight face. Who are we kidding here? S.P.D. had no story other than "wah, wah, wah. I wanna be Red Ranger" from Sky. Whereas Dekaranger actually did stuff with their characters instead of hit the reset button all the time. Jenn's rating:
 
6 8.5 6.6 Better Heroes?  To be honest, both teams are actually quite good. It's just that Magiranger has two members that completely ruin it for it's season. Houka (Pink) is Annoying with a capital A, while Hikaru (MagiShine) is a grade-A jerkass. Although, he does evolve into just a regular jerk by the end. It also seems like Urara (Blue) doesn't even exist half the time. At least Madison had a slightly bigger presence in Mystic Force... if not by much.  Both shows have entirely rubber suit villain factions, but Vancuria's ability to transform into Nai & Mare gives the edge to Magiranger. If only because I wouldn't really consider Leelee from Mystic Force an actual villain. Jenn's rating:
 
31 6 5.8 Better Supporting Cast?  Power Rangers had a much larger support cast. Magiranger's mostly consisted of Kai's crush, Mandora Boy, Rin and Smoky. And even then, only two were regular cast members. Mystic Force had Jenji, Clare, Phineas, Toby and Leelee all appearing in just about every episode since their debut. All five even played a significant role in at least one episode. While the story more-or-less stayed the same in both shows, and kept a family theme, Magiranger was a team of siblings. (Whereas Mystic Force only had two sisters.) Therefore you have a different dynamic and way to treat things. And yes, there are things that an entire team of siblings can do to stand out. However, I really think that having an entire five person team be siblings can really hurt the show, too. Mystic Force wasn't as in your face with family, but it was still there in different ways, which helped out a great deal. Jenn's rating:
4 8.5 7.3 Better Heroes?  I know I'm in the minority on this by I love the chemistry of the Overdrive team. They also come off as realistic. We were never told about any "super BFF" pairings, but we can see the strong bonds between them come across through the actors. The Boukengers on the other hand... not so much. The three veterans are just boring (although, Pink does have some nice episodes), while Black and Yellow's bond is the heart of this season; and how can you not like Eiji (Silver) and his vegetables? It's also nice that Overdrive gave Sentinel Knight an actual character over Zubaan being a live action Pokemon creature.   The Ashu/Fearcats and ninja factions are both about equal to me, but with the other two that couldn't be future from the truth. While Flurious may have just sat on his throne all day, Gajah makes him look like a mastermind by comparison. And on the other side of the coin, Moltor isn't bad, but Ryuuwon is just leagues more interesting. Jenn's rating:
20 6 4.9 Better Supporting Cast?   Despite being a large, computer screen, Mr. Voice is actually a far better mentor than Andrew Hartford. Conversely, Morio isn't much more than Mr. Fixit, while Spencer is actually allowed to play around with his character. Boukenger has no overall story. Instead it follows each character on their own journey in a very episodic feel. On the other hand, Overdrive had an entire quest, and no treasure was ever truly random. Both are fine ways of doing things, but an episodic series does not really work for a treasure hunting show. Overdrive may have had some problems, but at least it felt like treasure hunting. Jenn's rating:
7 9 6.1 Better Heroes?  This is really a tough call. Red and Yellow are both pretty much negative images of their countparts, while Blue is mostly the same, save for a few personality quirks. Geki Violet and Geki Chopper/Rhino Ranger are pretty much useless to the overall story, but at least Chopper and Rhino are interesting. Violet just doesn't really matter, unlike his counterpart (Wolf Ranger), who couldn't be more of the opposite.   The two main villains of Jungle Fury (Dai Shi and Camille) are far more interesting than their Gekiranger counterparts. Although, it might have something to do with Rio's costume being far more S&M inspired, while Mele's only reason for even being was to latch onto Rio. However, once Gekiranger revealed Long, there was nothing JF could do to top him. The three Kenma/Overlords that appeared earlier, though, I could care less about either way. Jenn's rating:
17 6.2 5.2 Better Supporting Cast?   Regarding only the regular appearing characters, I'd go with Jungle Fury. Miki was just your basic retired hero, while Fran eventually played secret keeper to the heroes. And then there's Mao who could kill Shafu with one finger. (That's not a Chuck Norris joke. He actually poked someone and they flew across the room.) With the other six kenma/masters, it gets a little interesting. The first three masters in Jungle Fury could astral project themselves into Rangers, while the first two kenma were perverted and creepy, respectively. However, you can't help but love Sharkie. The second group of three has an awesome gorilla and average penguin (on both sides), but Geki's Pyon has a bit more character than JF's Lope. Jungle Fury was a bit hindered in this department because of the writer's strike. However, they were still able to crank out two pretty decent arcs surrounding the first group of three masters. The villain's story was basically Dai Shi constantly bettering himself, only to realize he needs to be better than the new guy now. This had interjections of Camille becoming more and more untrusting of each new villain. On the other hand, Gekiranger's story was centered around two rival schools, and started rather slow. That was, until Long showed up and later revealed that he had manipulated everything in Rio and Jan's past because he was immortal and bored. It changed everything and became awesome in the process. Jenn's rating:
6 9.7 5.5 Better Heroes?  This is hard because I grew to love both of these teams so much. So in the end, it's just all personal preference in how I like my heroes. Although, I love Go-on Black for subverting the typical bad ass, loner type by making him the silliest of the group... and then R.P.M. Black had to go and play that trope completely straight.   Shifter and Crunch were basically just those two guys until the final arc. Yogostein had far more focus than Shifter, and while I can't really remember anything Kitaneidas actually did, he's still a few steps ahead of Crunch, who called his own reflection ugly (along with Shifter). When it comes to the lone female, the opposite is in effect. It's Tenaya that is the interesting one, while Kegalesia was mostly gratuitous fanservice. (It isn't really shocking, once you realize the actress is an AV star.) Which leads us to R.P.M.'s Big Bad, Venjix. Mostly an original creation, but took the body of Go-ongers bigger two MOTW (okay, one was the real Big Bad) in an interesting twist. And there's also Kilobyte, who was elevated to General over Kireizky's three episodes in Go-onger. Jenn's rating:
17 4.9 6.3 Better Supporting Cast?   Is there really a choice here? As much as I love Bomper, he doesn't really stand a chance against a bad ass, eighteen-year-old genius and the head of the military. Even if you included the engines in Go-onger, I think my answer would still remain the same. I know most people would automatically think "apocalypse FTW" and that would be the end of it. And really, it is... for RPM. I'm not saying that I don't like RPM, because I do. It just borrows from so much else already out there. The overall plot from Go-onger wasn't actually vapid for a lighthearted, comedy season, either. We've got the last of the Gaiark race, a handful of sentient engines from Machine World, and a ragtag bunch of misfits from Human World that got caught up in everything. Because Go-onger is a comedy that occasionally throws us a curve ball, and RPM wants to be a drama that blatantly uses comedy to keep the rating Y7, I really have a simple choice. Jenn's rating:
12 9 7.3 Better Heroes?  Honestly, even though they are the same basic archetypes, I don't like the Japanese versions of those archetypes. Although, I do like Shinken Pink. The others just don't gel with me. Not to mention the fact that I really don't like when sentai pulls the "serious red" card; and Takeru is a shining example. On the other hand, the American versions of these characters I can really get behind. (Even if their acting is "so bad, it's good.") The only exception being Green; which is mostly because of just running the scripts through a translator and not removing the fact that the "slacker" is looked down upon in Japan, since he's treated like the "cool guy" in America. Better Villains?  I like Dayu and Deker in PR. I like Dayuu in Shinkenger. I don't care for anyone else. And because I just don't even remember the pure rubber suit Shinkenger villains, I can't really give this a proper decision. Jenn's rating:
18 4.5 4.4 Better Supporting Cast?   While I love Mentor-Ji and the fact that he really stepped up -- and brought a lot of the comedy -- in the second half of Samurai, I have to go with Shinkenger. Jii and the kuroko actually did stuff, and when Kaoru and Tanba showed up later, it was awesome. As apposed to Lauren's lackluster character in PR. Better Story? It's the same story! The only difference is that the twist at the end is now worthless because of changes made due to cultural differences. You could probably just watch the beginning and end of Shinkenger, stick the middle of Samurai in between them, and get the best of both worlds without really missing much. |
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