Power Rangers Samurai - Broken Dreams - Review

"Broken Dreams"

Dayu defies Xandred and he burns up her shamisen Harmonium. Jayden is still caught up on what Deker said about him being dark too. Dayu comes to the surface world and attacks a musician, to repair her instrument when Mia spots her and transforms. Rhinosnorus is sent to make Dayu sleep but makes the musician sleep. The Rangers arrive and Antonio is put to sleep. Dayu and Mia are also put to sleep after they fight in the Forrest. In the dream world, Mia is setting up a fancy table for a meal she cooked and she steps into a dakr cloud where Deker is carrying Dayu in a wedding dress and he is wearing a tuxedo. Jayden uses his symbol power and creates a portal and they jump in through Antonio. 

Mike and Kevin find themselves in a world with old English people with umbrellas. Antonio holds up a Biggest Fish of the year trophy. Bulk comes in a white horse as a Samurai but he stills falls unto Spike. The monster attacks and Blue and Green transform, with the same cartoonish physics of the original Shinkenger episode. Mia sees Dayu's past, as a human she gave him a sword Uramasa and he gave her her guitar. One night their home was on fire and he was dying, a Nighlok came and made a dirty deal with her, making them both into Nighloks--giving up their humanity, but he would forget who he is and who she is. She would live a punsihed life. Nice effects on Deker's transformation by the way and good acting from Lilia . Those that know Shinkenger, they know they changed her backstory extensively. Blue and Green and the monster come to the real world and his victims awaken as they destroy his mist blower.

He escapes. Antonio wakens for his trophy. Jayden is out of energy and Antonio takes him crippled. Big monsters come out and Jayden and Antonio transform and call their Lion and Clawzord. Mia feels for Dayu and wants to help her. She says she doesn't want it and Emily saves Mia. Dayu escapes. Jayden and Antonio walk around like they are drunk and encounter Deker.

Power Rangers Samurai - Boxed In - Review

"Boxed In"
This episode picks up from where "Tengen Gate" ends, Deker drops Jayden in a lake to refresh from the poison and then takes him inside a cave for a campfire talk. Jayden asks what the heck is up with him wanting to duel him, Deker admits Jayden has something inside of him, a darknesss, something he has not seen in any other Samurai. Dayu listens in and feels sorry for Deker, further linking a past with the two characters. Meanwhile, Antonio tries working on the Black Box (which has a different look from the Inomaru) but isn't strong enough. The Rangers give him their Power Discs and fight the Moogers and a mutated spider monster without them.


Spike offers an old lady to cross the street until the Nighlok start attacking the city. The old lady runs super fast out of there and Bulk and Spike run for cover. Antonio manages to sneak Jayden out of Deker's hands and manages to arrive where the monster is and they return the discs to the others. In the original Shinkenger, Gold manages to make the 'black box' Inomaru work and Red becomes Super Shinken Red, but apparently those outfit assortments won't be included in Samurai. So instead of destroying the monster, the Rangers do a group attack with new footage of Gold swirling around the Quintuaple attack.

They don't even destroy the monster and he runs away. Moogers arrive mega size and instead of combining the Gold zord using Battlewing as a weapon, they destroy them with just them uncombined. This footage is from another episode with mixes of others. So they didn't use the Super mode, maybe because it's 'too Japanese' or maybe 'too feminine' or perhaps it is too thin to be an armor, and they are going to use a Battlizer (Shogun armor). So maybe the next episode the black box will make the Shogun mode for Jayden. That would mean every episode that features the rangers using super mode has to be reshoot, prompting happiness from those fans that want original storytelling and footage and not just a shot-for-shot remake of Shinkenger. Hopefully they will be satisfied but who knows. It looks like no more new episodes for July, hopefully we get the first two episodes somewhere between the summer.

Power Rangers Samurai - Team Spirit - Review

Henshin0 Reviews
Due to personal scheduling conflicts and lines constantly skipping, my review might seem badly done, so I apologize for that in advanced, but please bare with me on this.

Synopsis:

The episode starts off with Emily looking around for the other rangers who seem to be missing. The actuality is that they are sneaking around the Shiba house trying to set up a surprise birthday for her. Mia offers to bake one, but the guys quickly shout "NO!" and save by telling her that "you don't wanna risk it" and Antonio already ordered one from the bakery.
Meanwhile, Octoro warns Dayu about hanging out with Deker while constantly annoying us, the audience with his catch-phrase "ooo-a-ooo". They notice the Sanzu is rising, and the monster, Split-face volunteers to make it go higher.

Elsewhere, Antonio tries to catch a big bass for Emily, and on the way back, he crosses paths with Deker. He mistakes Deker for a shisherman. After being corrected, he offers him lunch and to try his new "baby barracuda" recipe.

Split-face steals peoples' spirits, and splits his body apart and over-powers the rangers and steals Em's spirit. He tells the rangers that the souls will be permanently his in 24-hrs, up to which time, he'll stay in the sanzu river, where no mortal can enter.

While the victims+Emily are in a coma, Antonio tries to use the "Live" symbol to bring clawzord to life. The Sanzu rises higher, while the team tries to figure out how to get the monster to come out. Deker appears, and tells the rangers that a mortal can pass into the sanzu by becoming a Niglock, reveiling that Deker did that once, though he has no memory of it. Antonio tells the rangers to use their sybol powers on clawzord. After putting enough symbol power, the clawzord grows to full size, and Split-face is forced out into the human world. As it turns out, in the earlier battle, Antonio marked one of S-F's parts with a program symbol that not only draws him to the clawzord, but also prevents him from seperating, alowing the rangers to defeat his first life. Sadly, they can't use the megazord to fight the second life without Emily. Antonio then summons clawzord and overpowers S-F until he summons giant moogers. Antonio transforms his zord into claw battlezord east and fight some of them off. then he use west and west fan to protect himself, while the lads summon battlewing to fight off the flying moogers so that he can use south and south katanas to fight S-F and finish him with east claws.
Emily and all of the other victims revived, and celebrated her birthday (with the relief of Mia being "busy" while eating the bakery cake.while the octozord WASN'T stolen by a passerby.

REVIEW:

The episode was pretty nostalogic to episode 20 of shinkenger. It does however, feels weird that Antonio and Deker meet so early on in the translation, but it was just as amusing as Genta and Juzo. I'm not surprised that not only was Emily not in a complete coma, but also in the fact that her sister, Cerina is still alive, because PR always had a history of not killing dead people (save RPM). It was cool how Claw Battlezord uses a compass system, just like Ebi origami. There are particularly two things I didn't like about the episode. One, they didn't have Bulk and Spike again; there are so many ways they could have been in the episode, but weren't. The other is that they didn't have Diend kidnap octozord. In the original episode of Shinkenger, Genta walks out and finds Daiki stealing ikagami calling himself "the passerby kamen rider", leading to the interlude of the crossover of Decade teaming up with shinkengers. Saban bought the footage to the episodes, so why not go with it. I also wonder when they will air the skipped episodes. they did infact film shinkenger episode 1. The commercials on nicktoons even has a brief clip the monster saying Octoroo was hit by an "ugly-stick". Speaking of which, why are Octoroo and Octozord called as such, if they are both squids?

For more, check out the Tengen Gate Review

Power Rangers Samurai - Tengen Gate - Review

The Rangers visit the guardians at the Tengen Gate to find the 'Black box' that will help them become more powerful. Master Xandred is absorbing power and out of commission so a Nighlok tries to seal him, by getting the Red Ranger. But Octoroo poisons Jayden. The four rangers fight the Nighlok. Antonio doesn't know who Deker is and he feeds him, but when Mia calls him, he mentions the Tengen gate and leaves, informing Deker and he goes to kidnap Jayden. Octoroo confronts Jayden, Daisuke and a helper. The Black Box was created by the first Red Samurai Ranger but not completed. Jayden refuses to give in and Antonio transforms in front of Deker and fights Octoroo.


Xandred wakes up and takes the Nighlok back to the River. The four Rangers are weaken and Octoroo bests Antonio in battle. Deker reveals himself in front of Antonio, he transforms into his monster form and leaves with Jayden. Octoroo leaves. Antonio goes to the four, who are knocked out. He drops to his knees and Xandred deals with the spider monster. Xandred calls what Octoroo did as initiative and not betraying him. He tortures the spider dude and more Moogers come out and other monsters. Deker continues to drag Jayden in a river. 'To Be continued'' scrolls across the screen.


Review:
Lots of 'Ranger' history is given but not clarified as to being 'Samurai Ranger' history. Bulk and Spike don't even appear in this episode, I'm informed this is the third episode that they don't appear in. Octoroo's plot was flawed, why poison the guy that needs to give you info and not give him the antidote? Sure, he told him eh would get the antidote but it is a risk. We also hear about Dayu's backstory, I am not sure if it was in Shinkenger. We again hear about Jayden's 'secret.' Interesting in that Genta made the Lobster but in this one, Jii gave the Claw Zord to Antonio. I don't know why they changed it. Maybe to not make Antonio look 'all powerful' or 'too powerful' that he made his own zord.


Here is my man-loving comment, that we see Jayden's butt when Deker takes him just like when Juuzo took Takeru but Takeru's butt was more plump, Jayden's butt is nice but not as plump.

Power Rangers Samurai - The Blue and The Gold - Episode Review

Jii and Antonio announce that Antonio is fixing the Claw Zord (Lobster) that was battle damaged long ago and Jii hid it. Kevin doesn't fully accept Antonio as a 'true Samurai' and think he's just goofing around. The monster of the day steals kids' toys to make them cry and Octoroo trying to find another way to open the Sanzu River through a well. Bulk and Spike are sleeping and their toy panda is stolen and all is left is slime. Dayu visits Deker outside the Sanzu River but around it, he's still injured. Antonio follows Kevin's morning routine to learn what makes him tick. The two end up in the forest finding Octoroo but their morpher signals are blocked. Xandred asks Dayu what she is hiding because her music is off. Dayu remembers talking to Deker, to ask why he is obsessed with Red Ranger.

She asks if he remembers nothing of the past. He says no, all he cares about is his sword. She asks if there is anything else important, he says no and she sighs. Back at the house, Jayden has a 'bad feeling' since Kevin is not back from his morning jog. Antonio has an arm injury. Kevin leaves without Antonio. Antonio and Kevin fight the Moogers, Antonio says to not treat him like a coward. Antonio says there is more to being a Samurai and some Samurai mombo-jumbo. Antonio and Kevin help each other and fight together and face the monster. The others show up on time. Octoroo retreats and the new duo destroy the monster's first life and he grows. They make the OctoSpear Megazord and destroy the slime bucket. And the Rangers return the toys back.


Either footage of episode 15 and 16 was used as well for the scene where Dayu visits Deker, or it was copied. The whole video camera plot is new, but Genta did follow Ryonousuke in the original. The monster steals Bulk and Skull's Sammy the panda (Kungfu panda reference?). Remember on this blog when I said before on this blog that when there is a goofy plot, it is because the original plot was too brutal for America TV. In this episode, they stole kids' toys to make them cry but in the original, the bad guys stole virgins and planned to sacrificed them. For example, in PRMF--the monster made a a parasite that killed victims but it was turned into turning people into feathers. In the original, Genta created the lobster, but in this one, it was an old zord that Jii hid and then gave it to Antonio to fix it. And could 'Slime time' be a reference to Nickelodeon? Maybe. And another change in the megazord bit, in the original the Yellow Ranger made the Blue one imitate a move Gold did.

Power Rangers Samurai - Room For One More - Episode Review

Summary:
The gang wait for Antonio to arrive and he is late, he makes a big entrance in a suit and embarrasses himself. Jii takes his morpher, saying it is too dangerous and he is not a true samurai. As a kid, Jayden gave Antonio the Octo Zord and Antonio promised to become a Samurai. They met at a fish market that Antonio's dad owned. Jayden regrettably tells Antonio he can't do it. Antonio wants to fight Jii for the morpher but the others stop him. Antonio leaves and Mike and Emily go after him. Jayden and Mia spar a bit and have a conversation that becomes everyone surrounding Jayden and saying even though he is leader, they get the risks and he can't control what they do. They defeat the monster and save the day of course. They combine the Octo Zord with the Megazord too (OctoSpear Megazord).


Oh yeah and Spike has a daydream of saving the Pink Ranger.


Review:
There were bits that made me laugh out loud. Like when Antonio needed space to fit for the six to stand lined up. This episode is close to the original, even down to the Red-Pink spar but Mako handled it better. Mia doesn't seem that formidable in this one, Jayden seemed more pissed off than intimidated. Jayden and Antonio do seem to have a camaraderie, a bit different from Takeru and Genta, in which Takeru seemed to have no humor, where Jayden does seem to. Anyway, I liked the Mike moments, I didn't think the fact that Antonio and Mike being both latino. By the way, Steven's Spanish accent sometimes sucks (because in real life, he is half Asian and half German). When he says "Vamos a Comer," (Let's Eat)---he says it bad. I liked it, cool episode.

Power Rangers Samurai - Unexpected Arrival - Episode Reivew

My "Unexpected Arrival" is late because I was busy last Saturday and didn't know they switched new episodes to Saturdays.

Summary:
The Rangers respond to a gap sensor signal but no Nighlok, when they return they return 'See you Soon' letter. Mike says it is 'fishy' and it actually smells like fish. Jayden senses something but no one believes him, he is a bit edgy. The new Nighlok kept feeding his paranoia. The next day, the other four still have the same clothes and pass by Antonio. Emily recognizes the hand writing in Antonio's announcement as the flyers he is passing out. Mia confront him. Antonio throws ice at them to trip them and runs off. Jayden headed off to Spring Valley and Mia and Kevin go. Emily and Mike go after 'the fish guy.' Jayden does symbol power and it fogs up the Nighlok's magic mirror.


Nighlok comes out and Jayden nabs his mirror. Blue and Pink arrive. Jayden says he realized water can block the spell of the Nighlok, that their water is purer than the water from the Sanzu River. And that the holy spring can do it. Antonio wants to make a perfect moment as he hears Mike and Emily leave to help the others. The five are taken down, Jayden especially under the spells and Antonio arrives and morphs into Gold Ranger and fights the Moogers. Trees fall on him and he fights the Nighlok. The five defeat him and Vopez gets big. Vopez beats up the Megazord invisible and Antonio shows off the octozord. At the end of the episode, Antonio asks Jayden if he remembers him, that they were childhood friends. The girls definitely think he is a cool edition.


Review:
I got to give Alex credit, he is getting better with the Jayden character. So far he has been stalwart, wooden and goody-goody, while Takeru was just a dick and serious. In the original episode, everyone believed Takeru but in this one, no one believed Jayden. Could this had been a cultural thing? I liked Mike's lines too. This episode is just like the original, save for that Jayden doesn't take a bath like Takeru does, :(. I would had liked to see Jayden shirtless, some fans have pointed out he has some hair on his chest. This episode feels a bit rushed compared to the original. Antonio really does have a strange accent and his vocieover so weird.


And Kothoa's line 'he's so sparkly' sounds so weird coming out of Emily's mouth. I did feel bromance between Takeru and Genta in the original episode but it didn't continue in the show, it was more like Genta was in love with Takeru but it was one-way. Here, there is a definite shared bromance (how he came up to him and said "You still think you can take me?"). I don't feel the Spangirsh jarring, just Steven's accent. I don't feel he talks too much like fans have said. The New Zealand accent of the kids in the flashback did feel jarring though.

Power Rangers Samurai - Episode Review - Jayden's Challenge

Jii wonders if the burden for Jayden was too much. Jayden is out in the street at night and says what he didn't want to happen happened, he said 'if they only knew.' Meanwhile, Bulk and Spike go into their 'dojo' with 'Samurai' thing which look like sleeping gear. Bulk then goes to sleep, with Spike asking for a bedtime story. Spike snores loudly and dreams of fighting Moogers with Pink Ranger. Bulk covers with his face. In the morning, Mike says Breakfast is important but Kevin is working on combining the zords. Mike says he was working too much. Mia is worry about Jayden, Jii does a 'happy happy' act when Emily awakens, saying Jayden will be fine.

Xandred awakens to find out that Deker was helping the others. He angers and the furry soot things come out. Later, Mike tells Mia how he felt when his friends were hurt. Mia says imagine if the whole world's fate is in your hands. Deker is attacked by Moogers. Xandred personally fights Deker. Deker escapes, the other Nighlok is sent to get Jayden. Jayden has found himself on a beach and hears a little boy crying. The boy says he misses his dad, Jayden says he misses his dad too. He flashbacks to his father giving him advice. He gives him a piece of paper and makes an airplane. Spike is full of energy and Bulk is not feeling great.


Jayden fights Moogers and the Rangers contemplate getting involved. The Nighlok attacks the boy and Jayden takes the boy from danger and fights the Moogers. The Rangers arrive and fight the Moogers. Jayden watches them and flashbacks to his dad again. The Rangers transform and fight the Nighlok and the Moogers. They destroy his first life and fight giant him with the Megazord. Bulk has a neck brace and he and Spike see the battle. Kevin shows the gang his very detailed drawing in how to combine with the Battlewing. They combine together and destroy the monster. Then Jayden and Jii have a talk as he returns.


Review:
Even though it follows Shinkenger, it is not that bad. Jayden's journey felt a little rushed and not much of a journey. It is like he just had a walk around the park. The Bulk and Spike moments were entertaining as always. The drawings of the Megazords were great, they looked a bit like Bandai America illustrations that were colored. Ryuunosuke's drawing in the original episode was child-like, which I think is more realistic but I hope they keep continuity that Kevin is a good artist. I saw this episode online, I do not have Nicktoons.

Power Rangers Samurai - Episode Review - Test of The Leader

Master Xandred goes after Jayden and so do the Moogers. Everyone discovers that Jayden's family has the sealing symbol to seal Master X forever, but his father didn't do it right and no one ever had a strong enough one. The four Rangers want to protect him, but he is not for it, he doesn't want them to bare that burden, he tells them to protect themselves. Not even the octo-whatever bad dude thinks Jayden is strong enough to do the seal.


Bulk gets bit by a bug and says he was injured. He is wrapped up with bandages by Spike like a mummy (because he got distracted thinking about the Pink Ranger), but looks like the Michelin Man.


The Nighlok send a new one, with a Scottish accent and is feared by others, to stop Jayden. The five run to him, Jayden wants to fight him, and ensues the usual fire explosions fans hate from the past few seasons. The four didn't want him to fight and afaird he didn't listen to them. They fight Moogers as Deker looks on. Close caption has the word 'Jason' instead of Jayden when Pink says they need to help Jayden after we see Deker. Interesting. Blue and Yellow fight and they get hurt. Pink and Green fight Deker and fall. Then Jayden fights the Nighlok and Deker. It is then a stand off between the three and the Nighlok Rabtish leaves because he is dried out. Red asks Deker why he helped him, he explains he wants to fight him with his sword.


Mike advises Jayden not to fight him but he does and gets hurt. Deker wants him at his peak, he is too tired now so Deker tells Red to leave. Deker changes to human and says he will leave him and they will duel. Mike asks Mia if he is 'that weird dude' from the Tiger episode ("I got a Spell on Blue"). Mike asks if he is Nighlok. He is Deker, nothing more, nothing less. Mike and Mia come to Emily and Kevin's aid. That night, they are in beds, getting better being looked after by Mike and Mia. Jayden has a bag and jacket and leaves the house. Jii asks for Jayden, no one knows where he is. Jayden hears his call, he says he must do it his way. 'To be continued' appears on the screen.


Review:
Not bad. The monster was not annoying, his voice was more interesting, gave the character more spice did the Japanese version, who found boring. This episode gave the series more explanation and established what Shinkenger is about---the four vassals protecting the Shiba clan head. But here it is just because Jayden has the sealing character. They did say he is of the Shiba famiy, spelled Sheeba in the closed caption, we have yet to hear his last name.