|
hk6909
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
651 Posts |
 Posted - 12/14/2006 : 3:33:34 PM
|
Fourth and for the time being final section. Character guide included in section one.
Episode 33-Three the Easy Way or Tomorrow Never Dies Another Day
Summary: There’s something about a monster that dehydrates people, something about a spy parody B.C. is writing, and something about the Scanrangers impersonating the characters. It’s a confusing story.
Monster: KuroTylo
URL: http://www.geocities.com/tetsuokurata/epi33.html
Mistakes, Mysteries, and Weird Stuff
-When SilverScanner fought KuroTylo, the SilverMagnum was called the MagnumBlade.
-Vin was supposed to be staking out the reservoir, but was in the basement of the building when he ran into KuroTylo. Reservoirs are large, outdoor bodies of water.
-Vin was afraid of getting too close to KuroTylo and being affected by its dehydration weapon, but this after he noticed it only worked on people over 25 (Vin is 22 [Or is he? The flow of time is hard to make out]) and while he was grappling with the monster already.
-As the Scanrangers battled KuroTylo it mentioned that his backpack was nearly empty, but didn’t explain why this was significant.
Personal Rants: There were quite a few confusing issues in the story that I didn’t comment on above, because the whole episode feels disconnected from itself and confusing. The integration of the spy motifs into the main story is confusing and disorienting, and the spy story feels almost entirely left out, especially in the end when Vin and Nick try to find out how the story ends, a story we never heard.
Huh?
Trilobyte, pondering MAYHEM’s lack of success.
Trilobyte: “If we can't persuade the humans to give up their resources, then we're going to have to corrupt it in order to claim it for ourselves..”
Episode 34-From Here to Fraternity
Summary: One of Vin’s friends is trying to find his niche, then disappears from the story while Vixen takes control of one of the frat houses.
Monster: KuroDoberman
URL: http://www.geocities.com/tetsuokurata/epi34.html
Mistakes, Mysteries, and Weird Stuff
-Supposedly Tyrone was a Physical Therapy major like Vin, but according to the front page Vin’s major is Film and he has a minor in Physical Education.
-The narration claimed TriloByte was punishing Key for Key’s failure last time, but TriloByte had created KuroTylo.
-Floyd’s name became Cyrus in this episode, yet around the middle Vixen’s henchmen were Cyrus and Floyd.
-The Scanrangers somehow knew Markby referred only to Thunder Dolby and WideScreener when he told them their mecha was undergoing maintenance even though he didn’t provide specifics.
-It’s hard to believe that large, elaborate machines intended for combat like sentai mecha wouldn’t require routine maintenance, making the Scanrangers’ disbelief and Markby’s treating the situation like it was the first time a sentai had performed maintenance on their vehicles somewhat ridiculous.
-Takeshi asked Dr. Markby what we was supposed to do without WideScreener, and in response Markby showed him GinScirocco, a car, which didn’t seem like something that would be much help against a giant monster, and wasn’t ready yet anyway.
-Vixen had said she’d infiltrated one of CJU’s fraternities when getting permission from TriloByte to take the next crack at the Scanrangers, but was looking for one to infiltrate at the pledge drive.
-The Scanrangers were gossiping to each other about the scrapped American version of Sailor Moon (where they would’ve been live people who turned into cartoons, Luna was white and one of the Sailor Senshi was in a wheelchair) and taking another opportunity to lash out at Haim Saban, but the rumors that he was responsible for it are incorrect. (Personal Rant: I’m with Vince Jones on this one. Thank the powers that be that show was never developed)
-After KuroDoberman had subverted Vin, the monster exclaimed, “His will is mine to obey!” Given that he later had Vin fight the other Scanrangers, the monster must have meant it the other way around.
-It was unclear how Takeshi knew where to find Dark Playa, and what difference finding him would make.
-RedScanner’s Cutlass Crash had previously been a combination of all his old attacks (and was again after this episode), but when he used it this time, it was said to be based on an attack from Lord of the Rings.
-SilverScanner was about to call WideScreener when the monster grew, even though he knew it was unavailable because it was in for repairs.
-It was unclear what problems the giant KuroDoberman’s whistle posed; Danger Woman and Phantom Highlander had no trouble calling and operating their mecha, and the Scanrangers were easily able to talk to each other and use the Cinemasher despite the alleged amount of noise.
-“Combined gestalt” is redundant.
Personal Rants: This episode had some potentially interesting subplots that simply never took off. There’s the one about Vin’s friend, but there’s also the one involving half of Scanrangers’ mecha being out of action. That could be a pretty worrisome development now that we’re in the part of the series where the villains are stronger than ever (and they really need to be to justify all of Scanranger’s power-ups). It doesn’t work for a couple reasons. One, we know beforehand that reinforcements in the way of Danger Woman are on the way before the issue is even raised. Two, the Rangers still have BlockBuster, supposedly the superior mecha. Three, the missing mecha isn’t even an issue; the guest heroes take care of all the giant monster-killing duties. That could’ve been cool and shown what was in the rangers’ heads, but for all those factors keeping it down.
-We only know as much about Scanranger’s world as we’re told. In the fight this episode Vixen used an attack called “electric ground shock mode.” I only figured out what that was because of having seen Zyuranger. Maybe that name makes perfect sense to Vince, but not necessarily to people reading his stuff.
Episode 35-Winter Interlude
Summary: It’s the “clip show,” where the characters sit around and reminisce about old adventures. Yeah, there’s a clip show in a fanfiction.
Monster: None
URL: http://www.geocities.com/tetsuokurata/epi35.html
Mistakes, Mysteries, and Weird Stuff
-A good amount of the text in this episode is recycled from earlier ones, since it’s the one where the heroes flashback to significant events in their adventures. Fine. But some were incorrect the first time and weren’t checked before being used again (I.e. Nick supposedly not finishing his sentence when KuroOctopus attacked, even though he did, the “NO TALKING!” bit from Main Street Men).
-In Vin’s section, it was said that the Scanrangers didn’t know each other that well at the time of their first battle to show what a good leader he is for getting them to work together and beat KuroOctopus anyway. Thing is, in the first episode they seem kind of familiar with each other, and there’s the part where B.C. says something “to his friends.”
-It was unclear why the Main Street Men paid Toni a visit.
-Gerry, the MSM manager, thanked Toni for saving “us” from MAYHEM before, but they hadn’t captured him.
-At the end of the episode there was a disclaimer about who the Power Ranger villains B.C. had beat up belonged to, “Just to make sure there's no copyright infringement, people..” Legally, just saying who a copyright belongs to does not allow you to do anything you like with the properties involved (Personal Rant: Not that I think Vince has to worry about being taken to court over it, since Scanranger’s an obscure little fanfic he doesn’t make money from, but that’s still wrong).
Personal Rants: Early in his section, B.C. was complaining about the hack job done to Abaranger when it was turned into Power Rangers, and seemed especially upset about how they abandoned the original’s concept of a little girl being the vessel of the show’s Ultimate Evil. This surprised me because in “Voodoo to You Too,” the Scanrangers agreed that sometimes the Japanese version of something needs to be altered for America’s youth because our sensibilities on what kids should see on TV are different (tell me you’d see anything like how Kai and Houka make sure they’re back to normal after recovering from Toad’s little trick in Magiranger). Maybe Rije getting possessed reminded censors of The Exorcist or something along those lines? That sure isn’t the kind of stuff we want our kids to watch here in the USA.
Episode 36-The Good, The Bad, and General Ug
Summary: The Scanrangers head out to a paintball blitz place for some fun, but Ug is lurking nearby and takes the game out of the war games.
Monster: KuroRhino
URL: http://www.geocities.com/tetsuokurata/epi36.html
Mistakes, Mysteries, and Weird Stuff
-One of the Scanrangers said they couldn’t teleport in the hall, but apparently they could talk about being able to teleport out in the hall.
-Ug was given a spinach-like substance to increase his power, which he also used in “With Maliss Towards All” (ep. 5) and it’s unknown why he didn’t use it all in the time since.
-The narration claims the Scanrangers plowed into battle with MAYHEM’s tank brigade after transforming (“they all shouted going into absolute battle!”), but they actually retreated to come up with a plan to counterattack.
-During the vehicle fight one of the Kinks fell down a fifty-foot pit, and it was never explained how that got there. It’s possible it was a product of film energy.
-Ug used his film energy to create the spider machine from Wild, Wild West, but Wild, Wild West is not a war movie, which is Ug’s genre.
-SilverScanner abandoned GinScirocco, which can transform into armor, to challenge General Ug to single combat.
-Ug ran away from a fight with SilverScanner he (Ug) was winning for no apparent reason, swearing revenge.
Personal Rants: One of the Scanrangers’ one-shot friend is named Mike, but isn’t Kunio. What’s up with that?
-The rangers’ reaction to the awards ceremony at the end seemed out of place because we got to see so little of the mock battle between the students. Again, it was the resolution to a story we didn’t get to read.
Episode 37-The Last Temptation of Kunio Mikimoto
Summary: Vixen targets Kunio for extermination. He’s not actually tempted.
Monster: KuroSkunk
URL: http://www.geocities.com/tetsuokurata/epi37.html
Mistakes, Mysteries, and Weird Stuff
-When Thunder Dolby blasted KuroSkunk, the narration explained that the Scanrangers were in the cockpit, even though one would likely assume that, and the fact that the narration had pointed out they were flying out in the Hollywood Vehicles to battle the monster.
-When WideScreener joined the fight it hacked at KuroSkunk with a sword, but WideScreener had never had a sword before.
-Kunio, still in rehabilitation to walk and bereft of his super powers beating up a group of Kinks who’d been powered up several times of the course of the series seemed a bit far-fetched, especially after “The Destruction of Cape Paramount Base” where they had been slaughtering groups of armed guards.
-It was unclear how Vixen beat Kunio “by his own Film Energy,” since she just defeated him in hand to hand combat without using special attacks, let alone any of his.
Episode 38-The Vengeance of Emperor Toranaza, part 1
Summary: Emperor Toranza, one of the coolest and most powerful sentai villains of all time, decides the time is right to get his revenge on B.C.
Monster: KuroCroc, Dimensional Mammoth
URL: http://www.geocities.com/tetsuokurata/epi38.html
Mistakes, Mysteries, and Weird Stuff
-Birock was described as an “organic-shaped” craft, but “organic” is not a shape.
-When B.C. asked why they couldn’t help Kunio last episode, Vin responded, “Has it ever occurred to you that Vixen knows our secret identities? Have you considered if we'd retailiated, it could not only get us all also expelled, but MAYHEM could also devise a way to put our loved ones in danger?”
He seemed to be saying that if they tried to expose Vixen’s identity, MAYHEM would use its knowledge of the Scanrangers’ true identities against them. Why would an unscrupulous army responsible for the destruction of numerous sentient races wait for a provocation to use knowledge like that against its enemies?
-Toranza “activated the combined Lighkari and Inolife crystals” to trap Aileen, but at the time he only had the Inolife crystal, and (from what I understand) only took the Lighkari crystal from Aileen after he captured her, so how did that work?
-When SilverScanner challenged Toranza, the villain said, “Another new Scanranger, eh?” It’s an odd way to put it with Silver being the first “new” Scanranger he had ever seen.
-During the first battle, the MagnumSabre was called the “LaserMagnum.”
-When Jetman appeared, GreenScanner and PinkScanner expressed, respectively, disbelief and amazement. Given that they were already fighting one of Jetman’s most notorious enemies, these reactions seemed unrealistic.
-Carmen was said to be new to her team when Jetman showed up, although she joined when Kunio was paralyzed, and that had been “the better part of a year” ago according to the episode before.
-Vixen said that they had met Viram “months ago,” but years had clearly passed since then. In episode 18 the Scanrangers went on spring break and in the beginning of 25 they were coming back from spring break the next year (it even mentioned the Hawaii mishap as happening the previous year). Danger Woman said in ep. 34 that the Christmas special happened “years ago.” Again, Annie-droid said in the episode previous to this that they had followed Kunio’s physical rehab for “the better part of a year” (Personal Rant: How long have the Scanrangers been in college? What do their families think?).
-ShogunScanner was called SamuraiScanner.
-Supposedly the Jetmen can’t speak English, so what’s up with lines like, “BLOCKBUSTER! DON'T GIVE UP! GANBARE!” from Blue Swallow?
-Chokan said that the monsters had become more powerful by combining, but she hadn’t arrived with Jetman’s mecha until after the monsters had already combined, so it was odd for her to notice that.
-When B.C. was captured by Toranza, Vin told Carmen, “Even if we did reenergize at 200%, we may never see BlueScanner again!” It’s unclear what good reenergizing to 200% would do.
Personal Rants: In Scanranger vs. Jetman, Vince took it upon himself to explain that the Jetman characters spoke Japanese, and so did the Scanrangers who came from Japanese families. Several times. However, I figured that to be the case before I even clicked the link to start reading. Even most reasonably intelligent newbies can tell “Setting: Tokyo = Local Language: Japanese.” So when Vince continued to remind the reader of the linguistics situation, repeatedly, in the Toranza two-parter, I found it unnecessary, if not patronizing.
Episode 39-The Vengeance of Emperor Toranza, part 2
Summary: B.C.’s friends fear for his safety, spirited away by Toranza as he was. Takeshi fortunately gets an idea and uses WideScreener to travel through time looking for them, for some reason leaving the rest of the team behind.
Monster: None
URL: http://www.geocities.com/tetsuokurata/epi39.html
Mistakes, Mysteries, and Weird Stuff
-The recap has a strange line: “…but at the last minute when the Scanranger's allies parted ways, Toranza abducted B.C. taking them both back to the past.Even with the Jetmen's help, the Scanrangers were powerless to assist BlueScanner.” It just said Jetman had left, but then said even with their help, B.C. was taken captive (they had actually left before Toranza reappeared, and weren’t around to help save B.C.)..
-Why didn’t Takeshi take the rest of the team back in time to find B.C.? WideScreener can seat all six rangers, as seen in “Marooned!”
-Toranza said “death knell” when he meant “deathblow.”
-The SabreMagnum was called the LaserMagnum again.
-Toranza talked about humbling Radiege when he arrived back in his own time (1991), but Takeshi traveled to 1991 to find him and B.C., and did.
-When Silver used J Mode, he was called “SilverScreener.”
-Vin said Takeshi had saved them twice, which is awfully low. He saved them from KuroPirate, both times they were losing to Demolisher, from the giant bugs of Kabutle, from KuroSpider’s force field, made it possible for Thunder Dolby to defeat KuroShark, tipped the scales against KuroGrizzly, and saved the helpless Thunder Dolby from KuroTylo, among other examples (Personal Rant: I’d like to know which times he’s talking about, although I suspect it’s from fighting the Brigade).
-B.C. and Takeshi went back in time to settle some kind of bet, but shook on it without setting any conditions for winning.
-Aileen gave WideScreener power to return to the Scanrangers’ own time. If it needs so much energy to time travel, why were B.C. and Takeshi using it for frivolous amusement at the end?
Personal Rants: At the end of the story B.C. and Takeshi took WideScreener back in time to go out with women from their favorite tokusatsu shows. Ignoring why they’re not making more productive use of this power, don’t the two of them have girlfriends? That’s the impression I got of Kimiko and Mai. So not only do these guys not share important information about the status of allies and weapons, sit around and tell stories with Jetman when they have a matter of hours to save the universe, they cheat on their girlfriends with women from TV shows.
Christmas special-Season’s Greetings! A Super Sentai Scanranger Christmas
Summary: Scanranger, Danger Woman and Phantom Highlander keep MAYHEM from being mean and ruining a Christmas tree. I mean, Christmas.
Monster: KuroTannebaum
URL: http://www.geocities.com/tetsuokurata/xmasepi1.html
-I have almost no idea where this happens in the Scanranger timeline.
Mistakes, Mysteries, and Weird Stuff
-The Scanrangers said they had a special surprise for the visiting children, but it was unclear what this surprise was supposed to be. It seemed like Danger Woman came in order to help fight MAYHEM, and then stuck around to perform because she was already there.
-Toni was skeptical about Sarin’s claims that she had seen a monster. With Toni earlier being sure nothing was wrong with Sarin, not to mention being a superhero who encounters real aliens and monsters all the time, she developed her doubts awfully fast.
-Danger Woman said that PinkScanner knew her true identity, but unless she revealed it to the Scanrangers “off-camera,” that never happened.
-Vin called PinkScanner and told her that Alex and the Christmas tree had disappeared. However, PinkScanner, Sarin and Danger Woman were supposedly in the room with the Christmas tree looking into Sarin’s claims that it had become a monster, while the other rangers were elsewhere. How would he know?
-Key had teleported the school’s Christmas tree away to make it a monster at the beginning of the story, yet it was somehow still there for the students to find at the end so they’d know that the Scanrangers wouldn’t be destroying it by killing KuroTannebaum.
Personal Rants: As noted above, a crisis faced by the rangers was that by destroying the monster, they’d be destroying the school’s Christmas tree. While I like to think I’m both an environmentalist and a big sucker for the Christmas spirit, I don’t think the fact that it produces oxygen or has the kids’ ornaments on it is any reason to let an evil rampaging monster go on living. It would probably hurt the kids’ feelings that their decorations had to be destroyed to stop the monster, but think about the alternative: “I hate you stupid Power Rangers! You let Bobby and Suzie die!” Didn’t “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” teach us anything?
-Not noted above, Danger Woman gives a diatribe on how she, like Sarin, was a differently-abled child, and how she was abused and nearly even executed for it (“They gave me lethal doses of prescription drugs and zapped me with Z-Rays. I too, was also threatened with a death sentence, when the bad people decided to have me put to death…” I swear I didn’t make that up, read the story for yourself). She goes on to say that she had to fight for fair education practices for challenged children, but to my mind it sounded like the problem was catching the people who were running those death camps more than getting special ed. laws passed. Not that that’s not a worthy goal, but what good is it if the kids who need special ed. are being rounded up to be given lethal injections and zapped with Z-rays?
No, as a matter of fact, there has never been one single time where I've been mellow. |
|
Request, section 4 with holiday special
Forum Locked
