Someone recommended Power Rangers RPM to me

[RespectTheIMD]

Said it was actually pretty mature and a surprisingly good show. Is she full of ****?

[Zelos_Zensation]

hmm. Looked it up, and considering it's a Power Rangers show, doesn't seem half bad. Has a completely different premise than other Power Rangers and the characters seem to have stuff going on. Might as well give it a shot.

[Pinflan]

She tells the truth. It's also legitimately funny.

[yusiko]

it tries to be as dark as a kids show can possibly be and that actually works for the show
it has alot of the same problems other power ranger seasons have but all in all its one of the if not the best season of power rangers. one that adults can enjoy with their kids.

for one it has on screen death
not many but characters that die stay dead. hell there is even blood in a scene but its only a little bit.

you know how power rangers usually have the rangers fighting to stop an evil being from taking over the world
well RPM takes place in a world where the bad guys have already won
the entire human population has been killed except for a few humans who were made into slaves.
the world is a barren wasteland where plant life cant grow
the only save haven is the dome city of koren which is sealed inside of an impenetrable dome and the last human city.
naturally the monsters want to destroy koren and finally wipe out the the few humans that remain alive inside the dome.

similar to how in time force had the pink ranger be the main character this series has the black ranger be the series protagonist

[STT_Zidane]

Recommend yourself

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdtfm9gpBbY

[Mega Mana]

Episodes 10 & 11 are easily in my top ten episodes for the entire series, probably top 5.

[Lord Seth]

I recommend checking it out. It's my favorite season of the show.

It's really sad to see that we went from a season this good to a season as weak as Samurai...

[yusiko]

im surprised at how much people dont like samurai
i mean ive never seen samurai but i hear its pretty much a shot for shot remake of samurai sentai shinkenger

and shinkenger was great
but maybe samurai just couldnt capture the same charm shinkenger had.

also RPM is nothing like its super sentai counterpart
it was a weak sentai season and a great power ranger season

[EternalNether]

Originally Posted by yusiko

im surprised at how much people dont like samurai
i mean ive never seen samurai but i hear its pretty much a shot for shot remake of samurai sentai shinkenger

and shinkenger was great
but maybe samurai just couldnt capture the same charm shinkenger had.

also RPM is nothing like its super sentai counterpart
it was a weak sentai season and a great power ranger season

I think the hate for Samurai mostly comes from the older audience that was a fan of RPM's style. Samurai isn't necessarily bad, but it is definitely trying to appeal to the younger crowd, and rightfully so, since it's on Nickelodeon. I haven't been keeping up with it much, though.

[Mega Mana]

This is a bit of a rage post on Samurai, so feel free to skip.

Originally Posted by yusiko

im surprised at how much people dont like samurai
i mean ive never seen samurai but i hear its pretty much a shot for shot remake of samurai sentai shinkenger

and shinkenger was great
but maybe samurai just couldnt capture the same charm shinkenger had.

also RPM is nothing like its super sentai counterpart
it was a weak sentai season and a great power ranger season

I can't speak for the Samurai-only crowd because I watched all of Shinkenger and loved it, but for me watching Samurai is just a chore. It's not that everything is a shot-for-shot remake of Shinkenger. I wouldn't mind that if it were completely true. Samurai removes most of the things that made Shinkenger more fun than average.

Samurai's actors and characters are the most wooden and vanilla I've ever seen in Power Rangers. Hector David Jr. is the best with what he's got, but it's helped that he's got a fun character with at least some personality. Jaden is leader. Blue's serious business. Yellow's clumsy and lacks confidence. Pink... can't cook? Everyone's just extremely toned down from the Sentai counterparts, especially Mike and Not-Ryuunosuke. Hell, I can't help thinking Blue and Pink hate being there every time they're on screen. Mike's at least having fun.

Can't completely fault them though for bad acting when the writing's the cheesiest ever. And Mentor Jii... *facepalm*

If Saban was trying to recapture the original spirit of MMPR, which itself was hokey, they did it all wrong: the actors aren't marvelous fighters, the plots are so strictly tied to the Sentai that there's no new creativity, half the cast seems to hate it (where the original team always seemed to be having a blast), Bulk & Spike's time on the show fails because they never ever interact with the others (even if it often is the best two minutes of every episode), and Ron Wasserman cannot save them.

The problem with Samurai is not that it's not RPM. It's that it's terrible. Period. But again, I'm biased by the Sentai footage and having seen everything once before. I don't have fresh eyes.

Also, if the Richard Brown episode never happens with Bulk and/or Spike in his role, Saban completely messed up. There's no forgiving such strict adherence to the source material while adding a humorous wannabe Samurai Ranger without doing the episode about the humorous Samurai wannabe.


tl;dr - The shot-for-shot remake is ruined by massively toned down characters, characters where nice is the one of the most definable character traits, half the cast doesn't seem to be having fun, and the dialogue is written absolutely terribly.

P.S. - And somehow, even while re-using and updating the original MMPR theme... Shinkenger's theme is more kickass. I'm not sure how that is possible. I would not say that about any other Sentai theme.

It's just my opinion, but you can decide for yourself:

Samurai - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUKQWZeJtC0
Shinkenger - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6NFcsOXxXQ