This is a bit of a rage post on Samurai, so feel free to skip.
Quote:
Originally Posted by yusiko
im surprised at how much people dont like samurai
i mean ive never seen samurai but i hear its pretty much a shot for shot remake of samurai sentai shinkenger
and shinkenger was great
but maybe samurai just couldnt capture the same charm shinkenger had.
also RPM is nothing like its super sentai counterpart
it was a weak sentai season and a great power ranger season
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I can't speak for the Samurai-only crowd because I watched all of Shinkenger and loved it, but for me watching Samurai is just a chore. It's not that everything is a shot-for-shot remake of Shinkenger. I wouldn't mind that if it were completely true. Samurai removes most of the things that made Shinkenger more fun than average.
Samurai's actors and characters are the most wooden and vanilla I've ever seen in Power Rangers. Hector David Jr. is the best with what he's got, but it's helped that he's got a fun character with at least some personality. Jaden is leader. Blue's serious business. Yellow's clumsy and lacks confidence. Pink... can't cook? Everyone's just extremely toned down from the Sentai counterparts, especially Mike and Not-Ryuunosuke. Hell, I can't help thinking Blue and Pink hate being there every time they're on screen. Mike's at least having fun.
Can't completely fault them though for bad acting when the writing's the cheesiest ever. And Mentor Jii... *facepalm*
If Saban was trying to recapture the original spirit of MMPR, which itself was hokey, they did it all wrong: the actors aren't marvelous fighters, the plots are so strictly tied to the Sentai that there's no new creativity, half the cast seems to hate it (where the original team always seemed to be having a blast), Bulk & Spike's time on the show fails because they never ever interact with the others (even if it often is the best two minutes of every episode), and Ron Wasserman cannot save them.
The problem with Samurai is not that it's not RPM. It's that it's terrible. Period. But again, I'm biased by the Sentai footage and having seen everything once before. I don't have fresh eyes.
Also, if the Richard Brown episode never happens with Bulk and/or Spike in his role, Saban completely messed up. There's no forgiving such strict adherence to the source material while adding a humorous wannabe Samurai Ranger without doing the episode about the humorous Samurai wannabe.
tl;dr - The shot-for-shot remake is ruined by massively toned down characters, characters where nice is the one of the most definable character traits, half the cast doesn't seem to be having fun, and the dialogue is written absolutely terribly.
P.S. - And somehow, even while re-using and updating the original MMPR theme... Shinkenger's theme is more kickass. I'm not sure how that is possible. I would not say that about any other Sentai theme.
It's just my opinion, but you can decide for yourself:
Samurai -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUKQWZeJtC0
Shinkenger -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6NFcsOXxXQ