OMFG!!! Power Rangers is JAPANESE?!?!

[DarkWolf]

I never really thought much of Power Rangers; I watched it, but to me it was just another show on TV. The only season I ever sat through the whole way was Dino Thunder, which I thought was alright. After watching that my interest peaked a little and for a while I actually watched PR, mainly to admire the costume designs and any dark/suspenseful points in the plot.

It wasn't until 2006 that I was feeling nostalgic and started searching the internet for all the 90s fads, shows and whatnot that I remembered from my childhood. I have retrojunk.com to thank for reintroducing me to Big Bad Beetleborgs (which I had completely forgotten even existed by this point). If my memory serves me right, that sparked a thorough google search for BBB & Power Rangers that landed me in an old Kamen Rider fan site that hadn't been updated since 2000 (the latest rider on there was Kuuga). I thought "this looks neat" and started looking into it more.

Shortly after that, I stumbled upon Centuryking's site and downloaded the first episode of Kamen Rider Black on May. 31, 2006 (I celebrate this as a sort of "2nd birthday" :thumbs: ). I fell in love with it and the rest was history. :buttrock:

 

[Red Sky Ranger]

I stumbled onto YouTube one day and watched a video of some people wearing colored uniforms turn into Power Rangers. I thought, "Hey, This must be the work of Disney.."

Until I realized they were speaking Japanese. And the action and storyline was far from the PR stuff I watched on the Tv. Not to mention the fact that the logo was in moonspeak.

 

[GekiDan]

I know about it since 2007.
when I was searching for SPD pics. Then I stumbled upon a website called SUPERSENTAI.COM then saw there my fave PR, MMPR, w/c is Zyuranger.

 

[Milky Rose]

Well...I just know the Pinoy fans on this board are gonna wanna Rider kick me for being an idiot after they hear my story... ^^;;

So anyways....Back in the good ol' Nanayland (aka The Philippines), I grew up watching (along with my friends) a lot of Tokusatsu -- namely, Choudenshi Bioman Hikari Sentai Maskman, Uchuu Keiji Shaider, Kamen Rider Black, Seiun Kamen Machineman, Ultraman Ace, Kosoku Sentai Turboranger, Chikyu Sentai Fiveman, and Chojin Sentai Jetman. We liked it so much that I'd sometimes do Maskman/Bioman Roleplay with some of my neighborhood friends....after a bit of an argument on who gets to be Red Mask or Red One.

Fast forward to middle 90's and Power Rangers finally gracing Filipino TV screens. At the time, I thought to myself "Cool....America's doing an awesome-looking action show too!"

Now, that should've tipped me off as to it's Super Sentai Origins....but that didn't happen until I read up on an Asiaweek feature article on Bandai corp (which was mostly about the failed edutainment machine Pippin, BTW). There I saw that one bit that said "Power Rangers was based off of Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger".

Another fast forward to the time my mother first had the internet hooked up at our house. I'd spend all day and risked getting every possible computer virus known to mankind at the time looking up Power Rangers, as well as my past Tokusatsu favorites. It was then I began to learn more about the sentai series which many of the Power Rangers seasons were based off off -- including Dairanger, whose Red Ranger (Ryuuranger) intrigued me as to which series he belonged to.

So...there's my short, quirky story of Tokusatsu rediscovery. Or, one could say that my Super Sentai Tamashii never was snuffed out, and was just waiting all this time to burn brighter. :anime:

 

[Gryphman]

I kinda always knew it was Japanese, but didn't know anything about Sentai until we got the net.

What tipped me off, was how the quality of the Japanese footage looked, compared to the US footage. I'm a huge fan of kung fu movies. The footage looked a lot like those, so I figured it was from some part of asia. I'm also a huge Kaiju fan. So when I saw the Zord battles, I was able to instantly tell it was Japanese.

What was a bigger shock to me, was when I found out VR Troopers was actually made out of two shows. Blew my mind that they pulled that off.

 

[Forever 6th Ranger]

was going out shopping and... JAPENESE SPD WTF XD
I had my suspicion on the flat chested yellow rangers...

P.S. the title made me spilled my cofee xD

 

[NathanTZ]

I knew back when MMPR first came out and a TV Guide Article spilled the beans that the show ran out of footage of the Green Ranger, thus they used new footage for the zords and the new white ranger (They in fact spoiled that a new 'White' ranger was going to appear).

 

[warchimedes]

8-9 years ago, 70's mecha anime like voltes v was coming back in my country on local TV. a lot of fans were coming out of the woodwork meeting other fans. i met a sentai fan who was looking other toku fans, since goranger and jakq were also being shown with voltes v here back in the 70's. he had a sentai book with him and he showed it to me.

i knew pr was from sentai, but what i learned from him that i didnt know beforehand was that there was a different team EVERY YEAR.

 

[MattComix]

No, I'm not that dense...Anymore XD Anyways, wondering how everyone found out that power rangers was Japanese?

I pretty much always knew it. Even though Zyuranger was a modern sentai then there was still a certain quality to the footage that immediately reminded me of shows I'd watched like Space Giants and Ultraman.

Also even without having a whole lot of familiarity with anime or Japanese pop culture at the time, having watched Battle of the Planets and Voltron as a little kid there was just something about the five person team of color-coded heroes that felt indigenous to Japan because I knew those two shows were from there. So when I found out for sure PR used footage from Japanese shows it only confirmed what I pretty much thought was true already. Besides, who else has the balls to do guys in robot suits stomping around a foamboard cityscape and make it feel all kinds of awesome?

A couple seasons later this all lead me to the next important question which was "I'm hating this show but I still keep watching it. Why? ..oh yeah! So I wonder if I would like the Japanese shows better. Hmmmm."

Thank god for tapes found at cons and Ctenosaur video a few years later.

 

[Forever Knight]

Thank god for tapes found at cons and Ctenosaur video a few years later.

Good old Ctenosaur Video. Ah the memories. I still got all the tapes I ever bought from them as memorbilia.