Ninja Storm was almost completely perfect. If you
disagree with that statement then please stop reading now, because this
retrospective is going to be almost completely praise for this season with only
very minor complaints, if any at all.
Let’s try something different this time, though. Normally I address premieres and finales and episode arcs but the more I thought about it, the more I thought “why?” I’ve already talked about those and sometimes I feel like I stretch in my retrospectives to say more than I previously did, so this time we’re going to just get into the meat of things. Let’s start with the rangers themselves.
I said it a million times in my reviews but the thing I loved the most about the Power Rangers this season was that they were portrayed as real people, and as believable teenagers (maybe not always in appearance, but in attitude). For the majority of the series, the rangers are always usually just... rangers. They showed interest in things outside of their lives as soldiers but only every now and then. Ninja Storm is the first time in quite a few years that we’ve gotten a team of heroes who are more defined by their personal hobbies; Shane’s skateboarding and Dustin’s motocross career are constant points of conversation. They save the world but they still find time to unwind and have fun, and I absolutely loved that.
Shane was an asshole at the beginning of the season. He was cocky and overconfident and over-controlling and I fucking loved it. Not just because he was an asshole, I hated him for that, but because it was refreshing to see a leader of a team of Power Rangers not be a complete team player at times. We’d never had that before outside of Alex and he was only that way in a few episodes. He grew out of the role over time but always maintained little bits of it for the rest of the season. He became cocky again when Hunter joined the team. When Dustin went solo, he took it upon himself to discipline his best friend in the whole world. Shane was a different kind of red ranger who could be selfish and loyal at the same time, and never took his duties lightly even though he really, really wanted to be a damn professional skateboarder. Because of the different way he was portrayed and the fantastic performance by Pua in the role, Shane is easily one of my favorite red rangers of all time.
Let’s try something different this time, though. Normally I address premieres and finales and episode arcs but the more I thought about it, the more I thought “why?” I’ve already talked about those and sometimes I feel like I stretch in my retrospectives to say more than I previously did, so this time we’re going to just get into the meat of things. Let’s start with the rangers themselves.
I said it a million times in my reviews but the thing I loved the most about the Power Rangers this season was that they were portrayed as real people, and as believable teenagers (maybe not always in appearance, but in attitude). For the majority of the series, the rangers are always usually just... rangers. They showed interest in things outside of their lives as soldiers but only every now and then. Ninja Storm is the first time in quite a few years that we’ve gotten a team of heroes who are more defined by their personal hobbies; Shane’s skateboarding and Dustin’s motocross career are constant points of conversation. They save the world but they still find time to unwind and have fun, and I absolutely loved that.
Shane was an asshole at the beginning of the season. He was cocky and overconfident and over-controlling and I fucking loved it. Not just because he was an asshole, I hated him for that, but because it was refreshing to see a leader of a team of Power Rangers not be a complete team player at times. We’d never had that before outside of Alex and he was only that way in a few episodes. He grew out of the role over time but always maintained little bits of it for the rest of the season. He became cocky again when Hunter joined the team. When Dustin went solo, he took it upon himself to discipline his best friend in the whole world. Shane was a different kind of red ranger who could be selfish and loyal at the same time, and never took his duties lightly even though he really, really wanted to be a damn professional skateboarder. Because of the different way he was portrayed and the fantastic performance by Pua in the role, Shane is easily one of my favorite red rangers of all time.
Dustin was a complete and total moron... except he wasn't. At all. I'm going to get this out of the way right now; as of writing this I am three episodes into Jungle Fury and I still have not loved a ranger more than I have loved Dustin. He is, at this point, my number one favorite Power Ranger. Why? Because he was flawed. He had judgment issues. He was gullible. He didn't take things seriously. But when he did take something seriously, watch out. He was trusting. He was caring, kind, and forgiving. He always put others ahead of himself, all while being completely aloof but in the best way. The acting this season was absolute top-notch in my mind but I believe Glenn was the best. Nobody, and I repeat absolutely nobody, could have played Dustin better.
What does it tell you when the least developed character of the season is still strong? Tori had a fairly weak presence for the most part, but she was still present and involved. She still had a character, just not as strong as the others. She operated more as the warmth of the team, their heart, which in some ways screams cliche girl role, but... it worked for her. Tori was at her best as the voice of reason amongst issues with the other rangers. She would often serve as a mediator between conflicts, even if she didn't know exactly how to handle them herself. She just wanted everything to be okay. Like I said, she was still fairly plain but she still had a pretty decent impact.
Blake and Hunter were interesting characters because they were the same and yet so different. The brother aspect made them really fun to watch. While Hunter was more of the brooding solo type (at least towards the beginning of their run), Blake liked to have fun and was more apt to be a team player. Both were fiercely loyal but they showed it in different ways. But they also suffer from Tori syndrome to an extent; they're present but not completely? Neither one really has a definitive, solid personality every single episode, but those basic personality traits (Hunter's preference to be alone and Blake's fun-loving attitude) also never completely disappear. Not the best characters ever, but also not the worst.
Then there's Cam. Something absolutely unique to the world of Power Rangers and proof that character is where this season shines. Starting off almost antagonistic towards the Power Rangers but only out of jealousy that they can actually do something about the end of the world, whereas he was raised in a school of ninjas... and never allowed to be a ninja. He literally had to sit there and watch while every single person he knew was fighting for something bigger than themselves. Sure, he had this vast amount of knowledge and did his part to help the team, but he wanted more. When he was the only hope of restoring the rangers' powers, he didn't even hesitate. He immediately thought to travel back and gain the powers of the Green Samurai Ranger. Even when he had to juggle both roles as a ranger and semi-mentor, he didn't complain. He was just glad to be helping. In the 20+ years this show has been on the air, I cannot think of a single other ranger who had to go through what Cam had to endure and then came out so well on the other side. I don't know how this works... but while Dustin remains my favorite Power Ranger, I think Cam is my favorite Ninja Storm character.
The only thing I can think of where I think Ninja Storm dropped the ball was a lot of the villains. Not all of them, mind you...
I will receive a lot of flack for this, but I will stand by my opinion. Lothor is one of my all-time favorite Power Rangers villains. He spends an entire season acting like a total fucking idiot, coming up with stupid plans and taking his time but always having the smug grin stuck on his face like he knows he's still going to win. Why? Because he had a plan. An... actually not bad plan. Wear the rangers down slowly over time and then launch an all-out assault to finish them. Forget that it didn't work. Forget that it easily could have been made up by the writers at the last minute. Take into consideration the fact that despite all this, he still planned. He still had a legitimate end goal outside of just "destroy the planet". He knew exactly how he was going to do it all along. Add onto that the fact that he could still handle himself well in battle, and the fact that his troops still feared him and that all adds up to a villain that doesn't get near as much attention as he truly deserves.
I felt bad for Zurgane. He tries so insanely hard to get things done for
Lothor and his plans and ideas (all of which actually greatly outdo Lothor’s)
are always shot down. But that's about the extent of my opinion on him. Outside of being a villain that could have done a lot more, there's nothing more to him. It's the same with Vexacus. He came in with the possibility of being this anti-villain to Lothor; someone to oppose him. We could have seen a lot of cool things happening with treachery but he just becomes another lackey and then suddenly decides to make a move. Marah and Kapri "pretending" to be stupid didn't make much sense when it turns out that they really are that stupid, so it makes you wonder if they were ever pretending at all. Don't even get me started on the other villains. Shimazu, Motordrone... I don't even know why they were there. The villains were for the most part just a lot of missed potential.
But that didn't take away from my enjoyment. It was such a fun ride all around. I think the reason that I love Ninja Storm so much is that it didn't really have a lot to do. It was mostly episodic, without an overarching plot to adhere to until the last few episodes, so it could focus a lot of its efforts on its characters and that was by far the season's strong part... for the most part. The writing was fresh, the action was nice, the humor was believable, and there were a lot of problems that were just so unbelievably relatable (Shane trying to prove himself to his brother, Dustin struggling with trusting Marah, Blake's secret training to make Sensei Omino proud). It was consistent, it never took itself too seriously or tried to be something that it wasn't... It was just a damn fun show with a lot of fun characters and a lot of great episodes to look back on fondly. Speaking of which...
Best Episode - Eye of the Storm
This was the episode that brought a lot of clarity to Shane's character, at least in my mind. He's been seen throughout the season to be a little cocky, tending to sometimes take matters into his own hands when that's not the best decision. Here we find out it's because he's unsure of himself. He has doubts because of all the great things his brother has done. The interactions between Pua and his real life brother just cranked the realism up to 11 in this episode, the pacing is wonderful, and it all just felt so natural. Definitely one of the episodes I could just sit down and watch any time.
Worst Episode - Down and Dirty
Let me clarify that there is absolutely no episode of Ninja Storm I didn't enjoy. I loved them all. So I really had to pick the one I just found the most flaws in, and it's the one where suddenly Hunter hates that Blake is suddenly a better rider than him and suddenly Marah and Kapri aren't really stupid and suddenly Dustin wants to change professions. See the pattern? Just a lot of stuff happening out of nowhere that easily could have been built up to at least a little bit throughout the season, or even in the prior few episodes. And I still loved it, go figure.
But if this is a season where I have almost no complaints, I guess it's because I needed a lot to bitch about next season...
But that didn't take away from my enjoyment. It was such a fun ride all around. I think the reason that I love Ninja Storm so much is that it didn't really have a lot to do. It was mostly episodic, without an overarching plot to adhere to until the last few episodes, so it could focus a lot of its efforts on its characters and that was by far the season's strong part... for the most part. The writing was fresh, the action was nice, the humor was believable, and there were a lot of problems that were just so unbelievably relatable (Shane trying to prove himself to his brother, Dustin struggling with trusting Marah, Blake's secret training to make Sensei Omino proud). It was consistent, it never took itself too seriously or tried to be something that it wasn't... It was just a damn fun show with a lot of fun characters and a lot of great episodes to look back on fondly. Speaking of which...
Best Episode - Eye of the Storm
This was the episode that brought a lot of clarity to Shane's character, at least in my mind. He's been seen throughout the season to be a little cocky, tending to sometimes take matters into his own hands when that's not the best decision. Here we find out it's because he's unsure of himself. He has doubts because of all the great things his brother has done. The interactions between Pua and his real life brother just cranked the realism up to 11 in this episode, the pacing is wonderful, and it all just felt so natural. Definitely one of the episodes I could just sit down and watch any time.
Worst Episode - Down and Dirty
Let me clarify that there is absolutely no episode of Ninja Storm I didn't enjoy. I loved them all. So I really had to pick the one I just found the most flaws in, and it's the one where suddenly Hunter hates that Blake is suddenly a better rider than him and suddenly Marah and Kapri aren't really stupid and suddenly Dustin wants to change professions. See the pattern? Just a lot of stuff happening out of nowhere that easily could have been built up to at least a little bit throughout the season, or even in the prior few episodes. And I still loved it, go figure.
But if this is a season where I have almost no complaints, I guess it's because I needed a lot to bitch about next season...
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