Oh man, I'm gonna get that torrent STARTED.

What is episode zero?

I didn't watch Ep 0. I think it's like a 5min intro to the series? Though I really have no idea.

Megaranger! Mega Silver's debut!

I'm not gonna lie. I'm not a fan. He just seems too...Hmm...I don't know what it is.
He feels like a fan made character. He's in a prototype suit, but somehow superior (Despite the given explanation for why he alone could take down the MotW, he still has a weapon that exceeds everyone else's), he knows all the rangers' secret identities due to his connection with INET (But it's a secret division, so no one knows about it beyond INET's head), and he know's the villain's strategy despite having no way of finding out before the rangers.
I know I'm only basing this on his debut and further episodes could elaborate, but at the moment, he feels like the kind of character a 10 year old would make. Strong, smart, uniquely colored (At the time), and armed with a gunblade. The only thing he's missing is a mecha that's inherently better than the main rangers'.

However, he's not completely unlikable, which is good. He's a complete spaz and not at all the brooding 6th (Very similar to Utsusemimaru. Not as happy-go-lucky as Gai, but not cold like DekaBreak (Whose name I forgot :lol), making him worth watching, and his powers have a strict time limit, giving his fight scenes a sense of urgency, which I like.

That's rule of japanese fiction number 5 :lol. Anything that is a prototype is superior to the mass production version.

*cough cough* Gundam *cough cough*

*coughcoughanymechaanimecoughcough*

I guess after 1986 Ixa and Proto-Birth from KR, I was just expecting prototype to not be Japanese for "God mode" :p

*cougheveryprotoKamenRiderbesidesprotobirthcough*

Yep, that is also why AbareKiller was superior as well. He was in a prototype suit. And honestly, prototypes are more powerful because they are unstable. Unlike in Aba though, MegaSilver is not going to go boom at any moment's notice.

Man, I guess I took a break on Maskman right when everything was about to get badass.

Episode 17 takes us to Kenta's childhood home. Which is a shack. In the woods. Under a magnificent rock face. Where he was trained from childhood in Okinawan Kobudo by brutal, magical monk.

While visiting Kenta's mentor, the Maskmen are attacked by Baraba and his MOW. MOW is like Parasite from Superman comics. He steals each of the Maskmen's Aura Power, except for Kenta. The Maskmen go to recuperate while Black Mask takes on the MOW by himself.

Pretty boilerplate episode here. It's cool seeing Kenta's past with his martial arts mentor. And framing him as badass enough to go after Baraba on his own is fun.

Once again we see a Maskman's back story, and once again it's lonely and brutal. These guys didn't have much of a childhood. They were bread to be weapons. It's a bit sad.

The unsuited action was the highlight of the episode. Really fun fights all around. Black Mask continues to be one of the best designed Sentai members in history.

Overall: A fun, if somewhat empty, episode.

3/5 flaccid Masky Rods.