The Green with Evil Arc in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

Although I'll admit I still like Zyuranger's version better (and Burai really knows how to do an evil laugh compared to Jason David Frank), I just wanted to write about it:


In the five part "Green with Evil" mini-series of MMPR, I was thinking of how some spliced footage of Zyuranger was used during the series.  Other than that, I can commend the writers for actually not writing Burai's plot piece by piece into Tommy, instead they chose to do the standard "brainwashed and evil".  The rangers just didn't realize that the new ranger they were facing was Rita's own creation against them.  Tommy unlike Burai wasn't aware of his actions until he was freed from them, unlike Burai who willingly turned over which was probably first done in Sentai.  Brainwashed and crazy seems to be the more normal thing in Toku in the 80s.


The idea to create an evil ranger to defeat the good ones is kind of from 80s Sentai.  In Bioman episodes 35-36, Gear used Shota Yamamori to become their puppet evil ranger but he only lasted on episode 36 to defeat the Biomen.  In Tommy's case, Rita after seeing just how kickass Tommy is compared to his would be teammates, he was selected.  Splices of Bandora's chanting to summon Dai Satan with Burai's awakening the spliced into the "Green with Evil" arc.  At least MMPR also copies ideas from previous Sentai rather than rely too much on Zyuranger.  I just thought though that the Green Ranger was a truly terrifying foe but Burai still actually is better than Tommy for me.


So they did integrate the footage of Burai and Geki fighting on suit and I believe the part where Jason blasts off the Sword of Darkness was probably deleted Zyuranger footage.  For me, the whole fight could have been better if Jason and Tommy had some out of suit fight first but nope, I guess some U.S. TV ratings prevented it.  Which for me, Tommy was cool but he can never be as cool as Burai for me.


On the other hand, probably Tommy might actually feel sorry for Burai if he saw Zyuranger.  =(

Comments

  1. Actually, at least that's what I think, the scene where Jason blasts Tommy's Sword of Darkness was original US footage. I can tell by the quality of the footage being higher, the suits in the US are lower quality and the lasers have a different effect in the US footage.

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