[Androzani84]

So I’m doing a watch thread again, after 5 years, with the same rules as last time (ie. The episode will have no photos of there are no new toys or developments and you?ll have to settle for reading a synopsis). But this time, there’s a twist.

Inspired by LittleKuriboh’s Super Kuriboh Time video series (in which the eponymous YouTuber reviews both Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger and Mighty Morphin? Power Rangers simultaneously), I’ll be doing two reviews a week. One for an episode of Mirai Sentai Timeranger and one for an episode of Power Rangers Time Force. Though there will be a period where I only do the former, as a measure to make sure both series finish at the same time.

I may need some help acquiring screenshots for Power Rangers though. Not because I can?t find the episodes, but because gathering screenshots for one episode is hard enough. So I?d appreciate the help in lightening my load.

As for what subs I’m using for the former series, since Shot Factory doesn?t distribute Sentai in the Uk, and Over-Time’s videos are mkvs, which won’t play on my iPad, I?ll be using TV-Nihon for Timeranger.

Watch out for the reviews of both episodes soon enough. Since I don?t have a good teaser image to end this on, I?ll just end his first post with Timeranger?s opening narration.

“People from the future of the year 3000 meet a man from the present in order to forge a new destiny.”

And due to the forum’s coding issues, the thread title is now stuck with a question mark instead of an apostrophe. Seriously guys, it’s been 5 years since this problem began recurring. At least give us the option to edit thread titles.

[DreamSword]

I'm always down for Power Rangers content.

[Mesnick]

Great start. Timeranger is one of the top three Super Sentai shows for me. And Time Force, more or less, ranks right up there in Power Rangers. I'll be following this thread with interest.
P.S. This might just be my headcanon, but it makes much more sense to compare MMPR to Turboranger, then Zyuranger. Yes, the costumes are different and there's no official connection, but the plot is much more similar.

[Androzani84]

Timeranger Case File 1: Fugitives from Time, 13/02/2000

Starting off with the one I’m going to need more screenshots for.

We open on a little girl playing in the park, as doves fly by.



Captions inform us that the date is the 13th of February, and the year is 3000 (oh good, I’ll be getting ready for my 1000th birthday by then).



As a narrator tells us by that point, humanity has travelled to space, met alien life and has recently invented the Time Machine, we cut to the offices of the Time Protection Bureau.



The Captain, Ryuya, addresses a crowd of new recruits, informing them that the TPB was set up in response to an accident 10 years ago to monitor and prevent unauthorised use of time travel.



Elsewhere, at Londar Prison (the name being a play on the English word “launder”), Don Dolnero (a play on dollar and dohneiro, the Spanish word for money) is led into the building by armed guards.



Inside, second class criminal D.D Ladis is sentenced to freeze-compression - that is, being transformed into a 5 inch doll and placed in a cryogenic capsule.





Back at the TPB, new recruit Domon tries his luck with Yuri, the sole female human from the rest of the class, and gets turned down.



Fellow new recruit Ayase then offers Domon some advice on how he could ever get a girl.



But before Domon can turn to violence, fellow new recruit Sion recognises him as a former pro-fighter (evidently, some form of futuristic wrestler or boxer) and asks for an autograph (glad to know pens are still used in the future).



Back at the prison, Dolnero is fitted with a sticker on his thigh, as the guard in charge of the freeze-compression machine mocks him.



He states that for his crimes, Dolnero has been sentenced to spend 1000 years in freeze-compression. But the other guard knocks the main one out before the sentence can be carried out, revealing himself to by Dolnero’s right hand robot, Gien (a play on yen and the Japanese word for “donations”), who has been working on a scheme involving time travelling to evade the law.



Noting that they’re waiting for their ally Lila (a play on liera, the official currency of Turkey) to do her part, the pair proceed to beat up the guards that enter to detain them (one of whom is a robot, that Dolnero lays out with one punch). Meanwhile, back at the TPB, Sion is watching an instructional video.



The class gets interrupted from their break as an operator reports on the situation, thanks to an alert from their sister service, the Intercity Police.



Ryuya visits the class in person, and against the advice of his superiors, recruits Ayase, Sion and Domon to capture them as they head back in time. Before he can select a fifth person, Yuri volunteers.



The group learn that Dolnero will be heading for the year 2000, and board the time ship Igrec (the etymology of which eludes me).



Inside, the group pick out suitable clothes, as they get decontaminated for microbes discovered since then and a computer injects relevant information into their brains.





They then take their seats, and after a computerised warning to focus on their mission, a giant robot named Providus prepares to slingshot them into the past with a punch (no, really).



The new recruits then meet their co-pilot.



Igrec is then launched into the Time Gate by Providus… only for the Londar Prison to appear on the runway, resulting in a collision.



As a result, the ship ends up crashing on a beach on the other side of the portal.



Once everyone recovers, Ryuya disables Tock and then beats up Ayase, Sion and Domon, only for Yuri to subdue him, revealing her true identity.



She explains that the Intercity Police caught wind that Dolnero would try to escape to the past using the Time Protection Bureau’s resources, so she was sent undercover to find and stop the plan. Unfortunately, Ryuya is revealed to be Lila in disguise, who subdues the group.



Lila then meets up with Dolnero and Gien, who crashed in the woods and subsequently assumed they landed in an even more primitive era than what they were aiming for.



Back aboard Igrec, as the self-destruct Lila set counts down, Sion is able to use his robotic skills to repair Tock.



But it’s too little, too late. The ship explodes, with the fireball being witnessed by a jogger, who heads over to help.



Once at the beach, he finds that everyone is alright (indeed, the only thing the explosion seems to have destroyed other than the ship is their bonds), and they see that he has the same face as the Captain.



Back at the prison, Gien unveils his new creation, a set of bolts that transform into junk droids known as Zenits (a play on… look, you probably get the whole money naming theme by now), with which Dolnero embarks on a crime wave.



And as for our heroes? They’ve tied their would-be rescuer up, assuming him to be Lila, come back to finish the job.



His lack of knowledge of what they’re talking about convinces Domon, who proves he?s not quite the dumbass Casanova wannabe we saw earlier and concludes that Tatsuya is the Captain’s ancestor. But then Tock interrupts to inform them of Dolnero’s robot parade, prompting Yuri to open the equipment box (that luckily enough survived the total destruction of the ship without a scratch), revealing 5 Chrono Changers and the Time Flier.



Tock talks her through using the Chrono Changers (essentially, they can equip the Time Suits and become Timerangers by simply saying “Chrono Changer”)… but there’s a drawback: The 5 Chrono Changers can only be activated simultaneously with all 5 at once. And so, Yuri recruits a reluctant Tatsuya to help by pointing out the damage and destruction that will happen if he doesn?t help.

And thus, we get our transformation for the season.









Yuri then enlarges the Time Flier so they can ride it into the city (it’s basically an equivalent to the motorcycles previous Sentai used).



They land in front of Dolnero’s gang, and Yuri gives him a short and to the point speech.



A fight then breaks out between the Timerangers and the Zenits, with the heroes quickly getting the upper hand. And then, at Tock’s instructions, they use Chrono Access to summon weapons, with Yuri, Tatsuya and Ayase wielding the Vector Harley, Domon wielding the VolVulcan and Sion wielding the VolPulsar (and since I never clarified who was who, Tatsuya is TimeRed, Ayase is TimeBlue, Domon is TimeYellow and Sion is TimeGreen).



Dolnero?s trio then joins the fray, with Dolnero attacking by… farting. Yeah.



But our heroes prevail, and Yuri finishes the villains off with the Vector End: Beat 6 attack.



Unfortunately, they all survive. Fortunately, Dolnero decides to withdraw for today.



With the day saved, Tatsuya is left wondering what the hell is going on (I don’t blame him. No-one’s told him anything).



And then the episode gets bookended with a shot of a dove flying by.



Final thoughts: For a first episode, there’s a lot happening here. Granted, that’s probably because they spend much of it on world-building, and less so on giving the characters some development. At most, we’ve got that Yuri is an undercover cop, Domon is a former wrestler and Sion’s good with machines. Tatsuya is your standard Kobayashi protagonist and we don’t have much for Ayase yet. And the villains seem fun enough, but they’re also stuck with this being the first episode, and not having much to go on.

Join me later in the week for the Time Force debut.

[Androzani84]

Time Force: Force from the Future, Part 1

(I know it’s the opposite case for long time viewers, but as someone who grew up on the Disney era, that tile reminds me of the Omega Ranger’s introduction)

Anyway, on with what some of you are here for…

We open in the year 3000, with some narration. Only here, the narrator talks about how a peacekeeping group known as Time Force has eradicated all crime from the world (which actually seems impossible).



Well, all except Ransik, played by the Road Warrior himself, Vernon Wells (how Saban and/or Koichi Sakamoto got a guy of his Caliber to do Power Rangers, is a mystery I may never know the answer to). Ransik has a thing that will allow him to conquer the world by travelling back to before Time Force existed and conquering it then.



But before he can use it, he gets accosted by Time Force’s Red Ranger, Alex, who engages him in battle in order to arrest him.



In the midst of the battle, Ransik reveals the ability to generate and pull bone swords out of his legs (I imagine he must have some kind of fast acting healing factor to be able to walk after that without any inconvenience)



As the fight goes on, Alex’s girlfriend Jen arrives, unaware of whats going on.



But her worry turns out to be for nothing, as Alex emerges from the building with Ransik and his device in custody. He then hands the latter over to his superior, Captain Logan, with the two of them discussing how bad it would have been if Ransik had used it.



At least a few hours later (it’s not made clear how much time has passed, but one would assume they’d put some time in to arrange things), Ransik goes before the courts, sending a meaningful look to a pink haired witness (who the opening credits identify as Nadira).





In the stands, Time Force officers Katie and Lucas provide a Greek chorus to the proceedings, with the former hoping Ransik gets put away, while the latter cynically notes that they might let him off (which is probably the most realistic thing about this future so far).



Meanwhile, their fellow officer Trip tries to get his robot owl Circuit (who is the same prop as Tock, but their characterisations are different. Tock is the wise old owl archetype, while Circuit is more of an Alpha 6-esque little brother) a good view of the proceedings.



Elsewhere, just before the recess ends, Alex decides that now he and Jen are out of a job with Ransik and his Mutants (great name for a rock band) behind bars, that he’s upgrading her from girlfriend to fiancee.



The judges appear via hologram to announce that Ransik has been found guilty and will be sentenced to life in cryogenic suspension (given that cryogenic means he?ll be frozen, and thus won’t age or die unless there’s a malfunction in the equipment, how the hell is this an enforceable punishment? At least Dolnero would?ve been let go after a millennium).



Every named character except Alex is charged with safely transporting Ransik back to jail… but Nadira, who turns out to be Ransik’s daughter, tricks them with the old “unconscious woman lying in the road” gambit and springs Ransik.



And to add insult to injury, Ransik’s robotic minion Frax (the counterpart to Gien) reveals he stole back the time core Ransik was experimenting on earlier, essentially making this whole arrest all for nothing.



As Captain Logan fires the quartet for screwing up, and Lucas decides to blame Trip because he’s an alien with psychic powers (racist, much?), Ransik and his crew travel to the prison.

Ransik: It’s my first time here as a visitor.



Inside, the guards are in the process of throwing criminals into the machine to cryogenically freeze and shrink them, including this random monster suit.



The next would be victim is Gluto (who uses Dolnero’s suit, but not much else), who is being imprisoned for apparent shoplifting (he insists he was framed, yet they found all the stolen goods in his car).



But he gets saved when Nadira enters and straight up murders the guards (as in, she shoots them with a laser gun and they drop down on the floor. They may not say it, but those guys are dead), causing a grateful Gluto to swear loyalty to her.



Meanwhile, Trip’s psychic powers kick in to show that Ransik’s crew are retrofitting the prison into a TARDIS (it even has the console in the centre), while Nadira kills the rest of the guards.



Wanting to redeem her failure, Jen pulls over a passing motorist (Reuben Langdon, making him the sole actor to be in Power Rangers and Metal Heroes), and angrily demands he hand over his car.



Katie chides Jen for her lack of tact… before proceeding to literally throw the guy out of his car and steal it (so our protagonists so far are a rabid cop, a racist cop and a carjacker. Yay?). Meanwhile, Alex engages Ransik in a rematch at the prison? and somehow loses.

Alex: You may defeat me, but you?ll never escape the Time Force.

Ransik: Where I’m going, there is no Time Force.

Jen’s team arrives just in time for Ransik to kill Alex by slashing him down the back (and people say Sentai is the darker franchise?).



As Ransik makes his escape into the past with the prison, a dying Alex passes his Morpher on to Jen, telling her that there are 4 others stored within the time ship, making her promise to stop Ransik with his last breath.



The 4 then proceed to steal said time ship (with Jen deciding to have Lucas and Circuit drive it), and against Captain Logan’s orders, fly off to the past, as the episode ends.



Final thoughts: Now I’m not here to say whether the Sentai or the Rangers episodes are better, but the whole point of this review is comparing and contrasting the two.

Most notably, there’s a lot more brisk pacing to Timeranger. Whereas the Time Force team have just set off for the past, by the same point, the Timerangers have transformed and had their first battle (Nadira slashing Lucas and Trip doesn’t count). There’s also some differences in characterisation, which can be chalked up to cultural differences. Most notably, the Timerangers are three rookies and an undercover cop, all of whom are operating by the book as much as they can. Meanwhile, the Time Force team are your standard mavericks going against orders to take down the bad guy out of pride.

Though in terms of the episode on its own, it’s a lot like the Timeranger one. Namely in that everyone appears (except for our Red Ranger for the season, even if his actor does appear as Alex) and we only get a mild glimpse at their personalities. As it’s the first part of a two parter, I’m reserving judgement on the whole thing until I get to the end of the second part.

[Mesnick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

Only here, the narrator talks about how a peacekeeping group known as Time Force has eradicated all crime from the world (which actually seems impossible).

In fact, it's entirely possible, especially given the future. However, it's important to consider the following:
1) This likely means total Time Force control over all aspects of the population's lives. Moreover, this is a case where "Big Brother" is not only constantly watching, but also never blinking.
2) This only applies to organized crime. Crimes of passion, various dangerous psychopaths, and lone criminals will still exist. In fact, Gluto is a prime example of the third type.