So, after watching the new Power Rangers Samurai last Monday on Nick, I was compelled to writ this article.  BTW, if there’s something here that may confuse you, I have inserted a few weblinks in the article to help you understand better… Enjoy! 😀

Super Spamtai – By DJ Ranma S

Back in 1993, I remember turning it to FOX 5 to see five people fight these monsters, transform into suited heroes, and then summon these robots which formed a giant fighting robot. This was called “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers”. I called it freaking awesome. I watched as many episodes that I could. I was fascinated by it. One of my first thoughts were “Holy crap, they’re like Voltron, but better!” But then I realized that nothing could be Voltron. At that time, I genuinely believed that nothing could ever beat Voltron. You’d think that too if you got up at 6am to watch that show as a kid. I’d still watch MMPR, but still think that Voltron could beat them.

Bout a couple or so years later, Antarctic Press put out a short lived magazine called MangaZine (or at least I think it was that). In that was a complete, in depth review of Power Rangers and the original Japanese series, Sentai. The original series was called ZyuRanger. The second season was called DaiRanger. I still watched as much as I could until I grew out of it and moved on.

Skip ahead to 2004-2005, I stumble upon the TV-Nihon site where they were fansubbing Super Sentai. The first series that I watched that they had were Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger. Think of it as Power Rangers as a police force if you didn’t see Power Rangers SPD. I continued to watch the series and everything else the subbed. And then I would watch the American counterpart, or as I like to call it… Spamtai.

Okay, Spam is a hybrid of spiced ham, along with other types of meat. Weird Al explains it much better in song form. Spamtai is when you take the original sentai show, remover everything except for the ranger sequence, add in American scenes and possibly new villains… Thus Spamtai!

Now back to the matter at hand… The only reason I’d watch it is to see how different it would be. I’d only watch a couple of episodes. The only series I watch the most of was Mahou Sentai Magiranger / Power Rangers: Mystic Force. The only thing I really hated that they removed Nai and Mare. Oh well. The one I really hated was Engine Sentai Go-Onger / Power Rangers RPM. They turned a campy sentai show that got series into an all serious show. From that point on, I stopped caring. Yes, I watched my Super Sentai, but not the American stuff.

And this brings me to this article. Rumblings of a remake. Samurai Sentai Shinkenger to beome Power Rangers Samurai. I watched the first episode, won’t do it again. I think what really bothered me the most is the removal of a lot of Japanese influence. They removed the original Japanese transformation phrase, the team assembling in traditional Japanese clothing. Hell, in the US version, they gave the rangers chest armor, something that was not even remotely in the original version. But I will give kudos to the fact that Saban did give homage to the original Power Rangers with a rock remake of the original theme song.

If you’re wondering what my point is, this is it… How hard is it to keep much of the original storyline intact?! Hell, I would have completely accepted the red ranger as Japanese! They even started out the series where the team was already assembled! For shame Saban, for shame… I do understand that some elements will not translate well, so covering it was something American is completely acceptable. I mean if anime companies can do that with dubbed titles, surely this would be acceptable here.  Hell, Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight was 80% accurate!

After watching the first episode, I have no desire to continue watching. God help them when they bring over Tensou Sentai Goseiger and Kaizoku Sentai Gokager. Saban, Nickelodeon / Viacom, or anyone from those companies, listen to a longtime fan of these shows. Try to keep it as close to the original series as possible. I promise you, the final product will come out much more impressive.

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DJ Ranma S is a long time cosplayer on the East Coast.  He also spends his time working diligently on Anime Jam Session.  When he’s not podcasting or cosplaying, you can find him hanging out, plotting world domination.  His personal blog is here – www.djranmas.net