After the failure of Operation Overdrive, Linkara takes a look at Power Rangers Jungle Fury, a season he feel deserves more recognition.
Tropes:
- Alternate Character Interpretation: Notes that the nature of Dai Shi's possession of Jarrod means that it's unclear just how much of what was seen through the season was actually Dai Shi and how much was an amalgamation of the two personalities, with one example being Dai Shi's code of honor and if it was actually his code or just part of Jarrod's personality shining through.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Linkara jokes how this is averted since the Jungle Fury rangers acknowledge the existence of past teams even before becoming rangers while some ranger teams in the past showed this.
- The Atoner: He thinks Casey has elements of this, what with his viewing Jarrod being possessed by Dai Shi as his own fault, and that his attacking Dai Shi's palace was atonement for his actions.
- Awesome Music: Likes the theme song, and considers it a step above the Overdrive theme (though given his hatred of that theme, that's not really saying much). Alongside this, he really likes the overall fight music, barring a few odd cases like the Spirit Ranger's debut fight.
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Broken Aesop: Complains about this with regards to Dai Shi/Jarrod breaking a code as a child to not use martial arts skills on bullies because they were inferior opponents when Power Rangers is about using violence against evil. - The Cast Show Off: Loves the greater focus on strict and straight-forward martial arts, rather than the excessive use of "Kalish-splosions" and Wire Fu.
- Character Development: He was very pleased with the character development this season, as everyone got an arc or at least a strong demonstration of their personality and contributions to the group.
- Continuity Nod: He speculates that R.J.'s Hand Wave about how he created the morphers was meant to tie into Doctor Hartford of Operation Overdrive. He also notes that Dai Shi's flag actually has a pizza on it, believing it might be the source of the evil pizzas that could not withstand a red light in Turbo.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: R.J. is about as far removed from what you would expect a martial arts master to be as you can get but proves to be highly skilled and a great teacher in his own right.
- Eccentric Mentor: Praises the use of this trope in R.J., feeling that it's a good change of pace from the usual serious mentor as he manages to have an entertaining laid-back personality while still being an effective teacher.
- He Really Can Act: Praises the cast for their work, and notes that there were very few instances of cringeworthy acting in the season, outside of a few one-shot characters. While reviewing Samurai, he talks about actors who have played different roles in more than one series and admits that he did not even recognize actress Holly Shannahan, who played Camille, as the same actress who played LeeLee in Mystic Force until someone actually pointed it out to him, noting her (and every other repeat actor's) versatility.
- Inferred Holocaust:
- Points out that by the end of the pilot episode, the Rangers haven't done anything to solve the problem with the city getting flooded.
- When the Megazords are fighting Grizzaka, he notes that they sent him flying through several buildings.
- It's the Same, So It Sucks: Averted - Lewis notes that Jungle Fury uses some of the same tropes as the preceding Operation Overdrive in several instances, such as the season's serialized nature and the use of multiple villain factions, but feels that it comes across as Operation Overdrive being a dry run for several ideas that Jungle Fury used in a much better fashion.
- Koan: Discusses this trope, implicitly comparing it to the Meaningless Meaningful Words used in Ninja Storm. R.J. always offers useful advice, even if it takes some time for them to understand the lesson. The Stinger for the video even shows a scene of R.J. mocking Dai Shi by saying "By tomorrow, today will be yesterday." and capping it off by saying he likes to leave people with a phrase that confuses them.
- Lethally Stupid: Considers Master Mao pulling the box containing Dia Shi out to show the students as the equivalent of giving someone a big red button and telling them not to push it.
- Narm / "No. Just… No" Reaction: Responds to the Spirit Masters transforming into anthropomorphic animals as their highest level by just repeating "No. No. No." in a disappointed tone for about a minute, and later notes that the idea was just kinda dumb with how little the animal forms are on screen.
- Needs More Love: He brings up how this series is sandwiched between the highly disliked Operation Overdrive and the awesome RPM, and as such is rarely discussed. But he found the acting to be above par with some great character arcs, and that it returns the series' focus more to martial arts skills instead of excessive explosions and wirework.
- Pragmatic Hero: Considers both sides of the debate to have good points in regards to Casey's skill level at the start of the season; Theo for saying that a beginner shouldn't be holding the team back, as the villains won't wait for them to catch up; and RJ for saying that if they don't work as a team, they won't win anyway.
- Remember the New Guy?: Is bothered by the Rangers knowing who Grizzaka is when they first see him since they haven't actually met him before like they have the other overlords.
- Rookie Red Ranger: Points out that the trope is again used with Casey, and that Jungle Fury deconstructs the concept by having it immediately pointed out that the skill gap between Casey and his teammates is a major problem when the team is faced with the immediate threat of Dai Shi.
- Running Gag:
- Dubbing Master Mao over with Shadis from Attack on Titan Abridged due to visual similarities.
- Being unable to remember the names of various martial arts words that are brought up, screwing up the names deliberately.
- Brings back the "Neeeeeeeever coming back again" gag when one of the baddies is sucked into a crystal.
- Sixth Ranger: He enjoys that RJ and Dominic were brought on board much later into the season rather than becoming rangers early on like the Thunderstorm rangers in Ninja Storm and Tommy in Dino Thunder, as it allowed the rangers to grow as characters on their own and even let the audience have a good portion of the season with only three rangers rather than the traditional five.
- Strawman Has a Point: As brought up in Pragmatic Hero above, Theo is treated as being wrong for not wanting Casey's inexperience to hold the team back, and while Lewis admits RJ has a point, Theo also does since the villains won't wait for Casey to catch up.
- Take That!: He takes several jabs at the Neo-Saban era of the show (particularly Megaforce) during this review.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
- Averted - Lewis notes that Jungle Fury plays against several longstanding conventions of the franchise, such as the team consisting of the original three Rangers until the halfway point being the longest Power Rangers has gone with such a small group of Rangers, but praises the season for doing so.
- Lewis makes a point of mentioning this being the fan reaction to the season's morphers; however, he states that he's okay with the changes to the morphers from Gekiranger, liking the sunglasses design as a change of pace after the standard fare with the morphers, plus that they're objects that are easy to conceal and won't stand out.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- Notes that the subplot of R.J. transforming into a werewolf is wrapped up too quickly, lasting a total of two episodes.
- Praises the introduction of the Spirit Master Rangers and their addition to the team, but notes that since they were original creations for Jungle Fury and their actors were still guest stars, the show was limited in what they could do with them by both their budget and Gekiranger footage.
- Trash the Set: Notes that in an interesting inversion, in this season it's not the Rangers' headquarters that get trashed, blown up, or otherwise destroyed, but the Villains'.
- Troubled Production: Notes that the difficulty with the TV Strikes made some plot points kind of drop out in the middle episodes and resurface towards the end, But also that he can't tell any discernible change in quality between any given episode, making it not so big of a problem.
- Truth in Television: Referenced when talking about Jarrod in the character section. "He was a bully because of the bullying he received when he was younger, showing how damaging and detrimental that can be to children."
- Vindicated by History: Ends by describing Jungle Fury as an underrated season that's rarely spoken about and by praising the fight scenes, story, music and acting.
- WTH, Costuming Department?: While he praises the Ranger uniforms this year, Lewis notes that R.J. and Theo's Ranger suits look more like tracksuits than a superhero costume (which ironically was indeed the case in Gekiranger, where the costumes were made by a sports company). This was eventually acknowledged in the 2018 YouTube re-upload. He also makes the point that the Rangers' standard uniforms (primarily their color with a black design) using a white-collar while their Jungle Master uniforms (primarily white with a design in their ranger color) use a black collar doesn't make much sense.
