Why Young Me Liked Power Rangers

 

Many times when people talk about why PR was initially a phenomenon, they tend to say that it’s because it was something that people hadn’t seen before. However, speaking from my own personal experience, I would disagree with that. In fact, many of the aspects of the show were immensely familiar to me. So here are the reasons the young me liked Power Rangers from the moment the first episode aired.

At the time I was aware that PR took its footage from a Japanese show, but I thought it was a direct adaptation in the way Samurai is. Everybody I knew watched Monkey (I was a huge fan), and I assumed that it was the same sort of thing, but they went to the trouble of filming the non-ranger stuff with American actors. I didn’t think about it much, but I assumed Zyuranger (though I didn’t know its name) was based in a high school. Huh. I can be forgiven for this, the information I got at the time was sketchy, and internet connections were non-existent for most people (I heard whispers of people playing Wolfenstein 3D over the phone somehow but that’s it).
 

As I mentioned in my ‘Day of the Dumpster’ review, the setting in a high school was very familiar to me. I watched several shows based in a high school during that period (such as Welcome Back Kotter), so basing the rangers in a high school was a great idea on the part of the producers. There were several shows that were on rotation in the after school slot that were based in schools, so it was very open to that sort of setting, so it fit in really well. Idealised characters were more common in that time so it wasn’t as unusual when compared to the way TV is today. Bulk and Skull annoyed me but I accepted them because once again, the slot of slapstick/silly character was one that had to be filled by someone, since that was what TV was like at the time.

The fighting part wasn’t very new, but it’s what they did with the fighting. I was used to shows I watched having ninjas or ninja turtles fighting their enemies, but in this instance it was normal people who were just thrust into a situation where they save the day over and over. As I mentioned earlier, I watched Monkey and was used to fight scenes, but this was putting it in a different context and made it more relatable. The characters of Monkey were not ones I could relate to in any way (they were well written and engaging), but westernising the context of the Zyuranger stories and putting it in a high school worked incredibly well.

The soundtrack was awesome. What Linkara calls the ‘Wasserman Factor’, I have always loved rocking guitar tracks, and it really attracted me as a kid. The backing track for the Zords was fantastic, and I loved hearing it as they summoned the zords. ‘Go Green Ranger Go’ and ‘Fight’ were imprinted on my brain, and when I got my DVDs I was looking forward to hearing them... though it was many episodes before those songs first appeared.

Of course, the big thing that set it apart was the zords. Zyuranger had some great zord fights, and it makes me forgive some of the awful writing to see a good zord fight. ‘Switching Places’ for instance has a great zord fight that excuses the painfully stock dilemma that Billy and Kimberly faced. It was really cool, and I still have a dragonzord toy to show how much I loved those zords.

I also really liked Scorpina. I was in that transition to where I was starting to like girls, and Scorpina would be the first crush I had on an actor. The female rangers just never did much for me (though I found Trini to be more cute than Kimberly), but Scorpina was totally awesome. She was cute and she could hold her own in a fight, repeatedly showing the rangers what it’s like to go against a real opponent. Seeing her in action was always great because the stunts in Zyuranger were well choreographed. The episodes when she appeared I always liked more than when she didn’t appear. Those times when she would just be in the background just nodding annoyed me because she could be down on Earth fighting! I thought Goldar was awesome and the way the two of them fought together was brilliant (at the time I was not aware that Grifforzer and Lami were married).

So for me it was a combination of the familiar and a bit of difference that attracted me to the show.