Power Rangers Samurai

Power Rangers Samurai is the eighteenth season of the American children's television series Power Rangers.^[1] With Saban Brands buying back the franchise, the show is produced by SCG Power Rangers and began airing on Nickelodeon and Nicktoons on February 7, 2011, making it the first to use the Saban name since the first half of Power Rangers: Wild Force.^[2] As with all Power Rangers programs, Power Rangers Samurai is based on one of the entries of the Super Sentai Series; in the case of Samurai, the source series is Samurai Sentai Shinkenger. Saban Brands have said the show will have a "brighter tone and gets an infusion of fun and comedy that wasn't present in seasons 16 and 17."^[3]

Power Rangers Samurai is the first Power Rangers season to be shot and broadcast in HD and to be airing on Nickelodeon. Samurai is split into two 20-episode seasons; the second set of 20 episodes began on February 18, 2012.^[4] and is called Power Rangers Super Samurai,^[5][6] Super Samurai is considered the nineteenth season.

By 2012, the show had an average of 2 million viewers on Nickelodeon.^[7] The highest rated episode was the May 15, 2011 broadcast of "The Blue and the Gold", with 3.7 million viewers.^[8]

Plot

The Samurai Power Rangers–Red Ranger Jayden, the stoic leader; Blue Ranger Kevin, the devoted second-in-command; Pink Ranger Mia, the big sister; Green Ranger Mike, the creative rebel; Yellow Ranger Emily, the youngest and most innocent; and Gold Ranger Antonio, the expressive fisherman/tech wiz– fight the evil Master Xandred and his army of Nighloks, who want to flood the planet with the waters of the Sanzu River to bring about the end of civilization.

Promotion

Saban announced they would be enacting an "aggressive" multimedia focus, with planned apps, games, streaming content, and social media content in addition to live shows and a feature film.^[3][9] The run-up to the new series was promoted by 145 Days of Power Rangers, a daily airing of every Mighty Morphin episode in order. An official Power Rangers Facebook page was also created.^[10]

On November 24, 2010, the Power Rangers website placed a trailer for the show online, hosted on Yahoo! Kids. The new Samurai Rangers also appeared at the 2010 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.^[11]

Paul Schrier has a recurring role in the season, reprising his role as Bulk originating from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.^[12]

For the second batch of episodes airing in 2012, Saban began promoting the season with the title of "Super Samurai" to reflect the upgrades to the Rangers powers (glimpsed already in "Clash of the Red Rangers The Movie"). Actor Hector David, Jr., released an official teaser poster for "Super Samurai" on his Facebook profile.

Amit Bhaumik proposal

Saban had originally asked Amit Bhuamik, script editor for Power Rangers Wild Force, to work out a treatment for a Shinkenger update; this went unused as Jonathan Tzachor had other plans. The Bhaumik treatment would have had an international team of Rangers (US, UK, Austria, Nigeria, Mexico) with samurai backgrounds uniting to defend Stone Canyon against the Ashura Clan monsters; Master Xandred would have been defeated years ago (and return for the final) and Octomancer (Octoroo) was in charge, with the Red Ranger's friend Keiki Awakawa (the Deker equivalent) being the heir to the Ashura throne and happily taking the role. Bulk's return was in this treatment but as a comic relief ally of the Rangers, while his "eager idiot" son Eugene would become the Gold Ranger. The female Red Ranger would become permanent leader in the last ten episodes, while the male Red would learn he was descended from the Ashura clan and use this to end the feud.^[13] Den of Geek would later question how much of the pitch had been done at the time and how much was "reactionary after the fact", pointing out that Bulk was not part of the original Samurai casting documents and was unlikely to be in an older pitch.^[14]

Cast

Samurai Rangers

Jayden

The Red Samurai and Super Samurai Ranger I, portrayed by Alex Heartman.

Mia

The Pink Samurai and Super Samurai Ranger, portrayed by Erika Fong.

Mike

The Green Samurai and Super Samurai Ranger, portrayed by Hector David Jr..

Kevin

The Blue Samurai and Super Samurai Ranger, portrayed by Najee De-Tiege.

Emily

The Yellow Samurai and Super Samurai Ranger, portrayed by Brittany Anne Pirtle.

Antonio

The Gold Samurai and Super Samurai Ranger, portrayed by Steven Skyler.

Lauren

The Red Samurai and Super Samurai Ranger II, portrayed by Kimberly Crossman.

Allies

• Rene Naufahu as Mentor Ji
• Felix Ryan as Spike Skullovitch
• Paul Schrier as Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier
• Eka Darville as Scott Truman, Ranger Operator Series Red.
• Jason Narvy as Engene "Skull" Skullovitch

Villains

• Rick Medina as Deker
• Jeff Szusterman as the voices of Master Xandred and Octoroo
• Kate Elliott as the voice of Dayu
• Derek Judge as the voice of Serrator

Comic book

Papercutz produced two issues of a comic book based on Power Rangers Super Samurai.

Awards and Nominations

References

External links

• Power Rangers Samurai at Power Rangers Official Website
• Power Rangers Super Samurai at Power Rangers Official Website
• Power Rangers Samurai at Nickelodeon
• Power Rangers Samurai at the Internet Movie Database