POWER RANGERS SUPER SAMURAI is Unable to Redeem the Original
I did it! I know it’s been a long time, but I finally finished Power Rangers Super Samurai. This was a rough season for me to finish in all honesty. The season is a continuation of Power Rangers Samurai and was likewise adapted from Samurai Sentai Shinkenger. Let me know in the comments below what you think of Super Samurai.
This one will be relatively short as not much changes from Samurai. We have the same cast of characters, the same villain, the same goals, etc. Due to this fact, I think the rest of the Neo-Saban era seasons will be done with both seasons sharing an article. Shall we dive into my thoughts for Super Samurai though?
As I said, not much has changed. Many of my previous complaints still stand. I do want to talk about some things I did like about Super Samurai. First, I like the Super Samurai mode that the Rangers get. The white coat really looks cool on each one. I also appreciate that while the whole team couldn’t use it at the same time, every Ranger got to use it a couple of times. It’s nice to have something that’s not strictly a Red Ranger power up. Another thing that I liked was the addition at the end of Lauren Shiba (played by Kimberley Crossman). It brought in some extra drama that worked well (for the most part) to shake things up in the last few episodes and it does make some degree of sense.
This time around I also enjoyed the two holiday specials. The Halloween one wasn’t just a villain-centered clip show! It had some fun moments such as having the Rangers morphed, but dressed up as animals. Meanwhile, the Christmas episode was a clip show, but wasn’t bad. I actually like the premise of Bulk and Spike going to the dojo to give Mia a present. They are then welcomed inside by Mentor and try to help him decorate for the holidays as the Rangers are stuck in the Megazord. My one complaint really is the fact that we don’t get to know what Spike gave Mia. It bothers me because it felt like a pretty big deal was made of it.
My final point that I liked was how everything wrapped up. We get to learn where the Rangers are going now that the Nighlocks have been defeated and overall it makes sense. Emily is going back to take care of her sister, Mike is going with her because he likes her, Mia wants to go to culinary school, Kevin is going to train for the Olympics, Antonio is going to do fishing across the world, and Jayden doesn’t really know what to do. I think that last one is key. Jayden was raised with a single purpose, to defeat the Nighlocks. That’s done now, so he is left a little unsure about what’s next for him.
Unfortunately, there were still problems with Super Samurai. For starters, while I like that Jason Narvy reprised his role as Skull, that ending still felt forced. It felt like the team tried to better connect Bulk and Spike to everything, but ultimately, there was still such a large disconnect that I couldn’t really find much enjoyment in the brief scene with Bulk and Skull reuniting.
In addition, while I like the addition of Lauren in a lot of ways, I’m extremely frustrated with the whole “Jayden’s got a dark secret” storyline. We find out that his secret is that he has an older sister who has been in hiding, perfecting the Sealing Powers of the Shiba clan. Up until then, we are put on this journey knowing that Jayden has some dark secret, and it’s just that he’s been lying about the Sealing Power because that’s what his sister’s been doing. It felt more like something where Jayden was losing his powers, or he was part Nighlock, or had an inner demon with how they were building it up. I can understand and appreciate subverting expectations, but for me, it didn’t land this time around. It’s especially frustrating because Jayden acts like the Rangers would hate him if they knew and then in the end, they all rally around him and are jerks towards Lauren. It tried, but in the end it fell flat for me.
At the end of the day, Super Samurai was just more Samurai. It did some cool things, but I don’t know that it did enough to raise the score. I know on the list it technically is below Operation Overdrive, but they’re probably tied for the bottom of the list for me. It can only go up from here, right? Next is Power Rangers Megaforce.
Current Power Rangers Ranking:
Power Rangers In Space
Power Rangers Zeo
Power Rangers RPM
Power Rangers Time Force
Power Rangers Beast Morphers Season 1
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 3
Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue
Power Rangers Dino Thunder
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 2
Power Rangers Ninja Storm
Power Rangers Jungle Fury
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1
Power Rangers Wild Force
Power Rangers S.P.D.
Power Rangers Turbo
Power Rangers Lost Galaxy
Power Rangers Beast Morphers Season 2
Power Rangers Mystic Force
Power Rangers Operation Overdrive
Power Rangers (Super) Samurai