Super Sentai vs Power Rangers part 1 - Ohranger/Zeo

 I'll be doing a series of posts where I watch a Super Sentai series (from the Shout Factory streaming library mentioned in a past post) and write down my thoughts about it... especially when compaired to its Power Rangers counterpart).

Since I watched it first, before I even thought to blog, I'll go with Ohranger (What we adapted here as Power Rangers Zeo... the first season of our franchise NOT to use the "Mighty Morphin'" name.

 


 


Keep in mind, some memories of the Ranger side of things are a little foggy from time, and might be pulled from Wikis, and it's be a bit since i binged Ohranger.

However, the first thing I noticed, the Machine Empire (known in Japan as Baranoia) threatens Earth (not just Japan), unlike in Zeo where the attacks were still mostly localized to Angel Grove (just like during the Mighty Morphin' era)

One stark difference when talking about the Rangers themselves... while the Zeo Rangers were still bound by Zordon's command not to reveal their identities as Rangers to anyone who isn't a similar hero (ie the Aquatarian Rangers, or the Masked Rider that was the focus of the 3 part opener in MMPR season 3), the Ohranger team's identities were known outright as they were chosen by being elite members of the United Airforce Overtech Hardware, a branch of their military that somehow found the powers of an ancient civilization that would eventually be harnessed by the 5 members of the Ohranger team.

Another difference between Zeo and Ohranger: While you know all 5 core Rangers off the top in Zeo (being a continuation of the events of the Alien Rangers mini series and the hunt for the Zeo Crystal), the first episode of Ohranger only had the Red ranger revealed near the middle of it, with the rest of the team receiving their powers in a meeting underground in the second episode.  Similarly, while the Zeo Team were able to summon their first set of Zeo Zords episode 1, it took SEVEN episodes for the same mecha to appear in Ohranger.

And what about the Gold Ranger?  In Ohranger, he's a 600 million year old with the body of a kid from the time of the civilization mentioned up top when it came to the source of the Ohranger powers, as opposed to a bit of both a comeback and a role reversal with Jason (who lead the Mighty Morphin' Team in season 1 only to be outranked by the now-White Ranger Tommy in season 2) becoming the 6th ranger while Tommy would be red.  That is, after Trey of Triforia was forced to give up said powers for a while and Billy's body rejected them due to something involving how he undid the de-aging from the end of MMPR season 3.. which also would be an out for when Billy's actor would want out of the show near the end of the Zeo season),

While I do understand part of the reason for the tonal shift in Ohranger is due to IRL events in Japan...Zeo was just better overall (from my opinion, as well as from those i've heard talk about it online).

The next one I'll cover is the one that started the Morphin' in the States... Zyuranger.

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