Back around 1993, Saban created and aired a little show called Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. No one in there right mind believed this show would get past its first season. Underestimation is a bitch, aint it? So anyway, Hollywood (as it is wanton to do) decided to capitalize on PR’s popularity by, you guessed it, making a bunch of duplicate shows. These ranged from the Creative and Funny (Big Bad Beetleborgs, VR Troopers) to the Abysmal (Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills).
Now one of the particular beastly shows was a little show called Masked Rider, which was basically a Power Rangers-like show using footage from Kamen Rider as opposed to Super Sentai, the particular season of Kamen Rider used being Kamen Rider Black RX, which is considered to be one of the best Heisei era Rider shows. You would think that, with that kind of footage at their disposal, Hollywood could not possibly #### it up.
Well, you’d be grossly underestimating Hollywood’s capacity for #### ups then wouldn’t you. The show was terrible, with horrible characters, cheesy dialogue, and some of the WORST transitions between scenes ever. There are many times in the show where you can CLEARLY see its not the same rider. Anyway, the show ran for 40 episodes and was quickly canceled and ignored like the bucktoothed, redneck step-child it was. And Power Rangers continued to reign on top.
Now skip ahead, oh say about 15-16 years, and Masked Rider is back to fight Power Rangers for the throne of Best American Tokusatsu (which I’ll agree isn’t a very illustrious title at the moment), in the form of Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight.
So what does Kamen Rider Dragon Knight bring to the table? How about drama? From what we’ve been told, Dragon Knight, which will be based on Kamen Rider Ryuki, will be a much more mature story than seen in most Power Rangers seasons. The story (at least what we’ve gotten from the trailer) is about a young man named Kit Taylor (played by Stephen Lunsford) who is searching for his father. While searching for said parent, he finds an Advent Deck and, with it and his Dragon partner, become KAMEN RIDER: DRAGON KNIGHT!
He is accompanied by a young man known only as Len (or technically as Kamen Rider Wing Knight, played by Matt Mullins) who is one of the last Kamen Riders of Ventara, the world behind our mirrors (Where, if the mirror is any indication to me, I’m still just as fat and ugly in that world) after the EEEEEEEVIL Xaviax (You know he’s evil cuz his name has two X’s in it) takes over that world and steals 10 of the Kamen Rider’s Advent Decks, giving them to corrupt men here on earth, with the idea to take over our world too.
Now did any of that last statement catch your attention. That’s right bitches, this aint about evil monsters, or some outer space threat, the Kamen Rider’s in this show will be fighting corrupted, flawed, or otherwise easily manipulated people, a far cry for the Space baddies or demons in Power Rangers. The visuals are also top notch. From what I’ve heard, Dragon Knight had about half the budget of Power Rangers, and they came up with some incredible effects. The characters, though we don’t know too much about them yet, look like they might be some of the most human characters we’ve seen in an American Tokusatsu since…hell since Lightspeed Rescue. To say that I’m excited about this season is to say that fish swim, birds fly, and scouts hurt people.
So can Power Rangers RPM stand up to this onslaught of awesome? Hard to tell, since the last few years’ executive producer Bruch Kalish will be stepping down. While this might seem as a bit of good news for the haters of the “Kalishplosions” of previous years, that leaves the future of PR hanging on a thread. Will the new producer be any better? We’ll he/she be worse? Again, we really won’t know until the show premieres. Fortunantly, I was able to find a small bit of information on RPM on the wonderful Henshin Justice Unlimited Forums, no doubt bartered out of Satan in exchange for the souls of 100 Fanboys:
“In the near future, the mysterious and sinister Venjix Computer Network is attempting to conquer and lay ruin to the entire planet. Mankind has retreated into environmentally-shielded domed cities to protect against the pollution and machines unleashed by Venjix. In the shining city of Corinth, an elite force of Rangers must learn to drive and operate an arsenal of radically advanced biotech vehicles in order to battle the attacking machine army bent on world domination.”
If we take this, and put it together with Engine Sentai Go-Onger, the basis for RPM, we get……………I got nothing. Seriously, if they’re trying to do a more mature series this year, they’re gonna be #### outta luck with the goofiness that is Go-Onger. Hey I’m not saying it’s not possible, I’m just saying they’re going to have to swim up a waterfall. Hey, if salmon can do it…
One little nugget of information comes in the form of the “Venjix Computer Network” Don’t know who Venjix is? Well that’s understandable, he was in, like, one episode of Wild Force. That episode being “Forever Red” not withstanding. He was the leader of the last of the Machine Empire’s generals. What’s awesome about this is that its possible that we will get a reawakening of the machine empire.
One big hurtle that RPM has to jump is Go-Ongers similarity with Power Rangers Turbo. Turbo was BAAAAAD. Like “Slam my head in the oven repeatedly” bad. So bad it almost got Power Rangers cancelled originally. So will RPM be the downfall of PR, or will it rise it back up to heights of In Space proportions. Only time will tell.
So with these two great shows duking it out this year, who eventually wins. Simple: We do. One of the main problems with PR over the years is that it pretty much has a monopoly over American Tokusatsu. This has allowed it to become stale and just plain not fun anymore. Disney has grown lazy with the franchise. But, now that Dragon Knight is coming, which obviously looks like a labor of love from the beginning to end, maybe Disney will wake up and either up the production value or hand it over to a more willing and able company.
Either way, February feels like a long, long ass time away. I can’t wait, and I know you can’t either. So until we reach that clearing at the end of the path, dear reader, Henshin!
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