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Series / Power Rangers Samurai

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"Rangers together! Samurai forever!"
"Go Go Samurai!"
"Gold Power!"
— Morphing calls, Power Rangers Samurai

The 18th and 19th season of the Power Rangers franchise, using Ranger, Monster, and Zord footage from Samurai Sentai Shinkenger. It was the first season since Power Rangers Wild Force to be entirely directed and produced by Jonathon Tzachor.

In feudal Japan, Nighloks from the otherworldly Sanzu River emerged from cracks in the human world and terrorized the populace until a group of Samurai united to stop them. When the Nighloks begin appearing again in the present day, five young descendants of those samurai are gathered to train in the ways of their families' "Samurai Symbols of Power" and stop the Nighloks' efforts of using humans' tears of despair to make the Sanzu River flood the human world.

The first season produced by Haim Saban after taking the license back from Disney, Saban was banking on nostalgia for the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. They revived the classic theme song and referenced it in the morph call, and they got Paul Schrier to reprise his role as Bulk, half of the original series' Those Two Guys. The approach appeared to pay off where it counted, as Samurai did pull in solid ratings, unlike Jungle Fury and RPM, and easily got renewed.

Due to some oddities with how Nickelodeon handles episode orders, the show and future seasons are split into two and the second half of this series is branded as Power Rangers Super Samurai.

Succeeded by Power Rangers Megaforce.

Recurring Power Rangers tropes include:

  • Adapted Out: ShinkenGold's Transformation Trinket, the Sushi Changer, was replaced with a recolored and modified version of the Samuraizer called the Samurai Morpher. Oddly enough, the toys of both were visually based on the Samurai Morpher, despite having some physical differences in the show besides color.
  • Big Bad: Master Xandred.
  • Big "WHAT?!": Commonly uttered by the villains.
  • Chest Insignia: The team logo on the left over the heart and personal kanji on the face of the helmet.
  • Chrome Champion: The Gold Ranger has a lot of blue on his suit (black in Mega Mode), but enough shiny gold bits to count.
  • City of Adventure: Panorama City. Its name wasn't revealed until episode 30, visible on close-up shots of Mia's driver's license.
  • Comic-Book Adaptation: Had a run in the UK Power Rangers Magazine.
    • Two graphic novels were published by Papercutz.
  • Compressed Adaptation: A downplayed example. Samurai was given 2 seasons of 20 regular episodes, a Christmas Special and Halloween Special each to Shinkenger's 49. There's also the Clash of the Red Rangers TV movie, which combines a regular episode of Shinkengernote  with supplementary materialnote .
  • The Dragon: Serrator
  • Evil Plan: Xandred's plan to use humans' tears of despair to make the Sanzu flood the human world.
  • Filling the Silence: During segments utilizing sentai footage (including Megazord fights), everyone is ridiculously chatty, including the Monster of the Week. Tropes Are Not Bad, though - the main fight scene in "A Sticky Situation" involved the Green and Blue Rangers having to coordinate attacks, so the addition of them giving each other instructions on what to do next helped.
  • Five-Token Band: The Red and Yellow Rangers are Caucasian, the Blue Ranger is African-American, the Green Ranger is Latino, the Pink Ranger is Asian, and the Gold Ranger is Mexican-American (blatantly and stereotypically so). Despite this, the premise implies that all of them can trace their lineage back to Japan.
  • Fleeting Demographic Rule: The last time that Power Rangers had this many puns and this much Japanese culture was Power Rangers Ninja Storm, eight years before. Incidentally, Ninja Storm was also the only previous season to have a Samurai-based Ranger.
  • Home Base: The Shiba House
  • Humongous Mecha: The Samurai Megazord
  • Make My Monster Grow: The "second life" concept from Shinkenger carries over here - the monsters just kinda grow on their own after blowing up.
  • The Mentor: Ji, though Everyone Calls Him "Mentor" more often than not.
  • Mini Dress Of Power: Part of the Samurai Ranger girls' suits. Of course, this includes the female Red Ranger.
  • Mooks: Moogers, including Megazord-sized Giant Mook versions.
  • Motifs: Elemental Powers
  • Never Say "Die":
    • Sure, pretty standard fare for Power Rangers, but it's especially noticable with the kids in "Deal with a Nighlok" and "Jayden's Challenge"; their problems were switched to fathers far away for their jobs from a dead grandfather in the former, and in the latter a father who'd actually died in a recent monster attack. It's especially baffling given that other series haven't shied away from people having someone die in the backstory, and Never Say "Die" has usually presented as simply finding alternatives to the word. Pretending nothing really bad ever has or can happen to anyone is definitely new. But the second half goes Darker and Edgier and bad things definitely do happen to good people.
    • It's also noticable because of a plot point: Jayden doesn't want his friends to die for him, and as such tried to abandon the team. Since we can't say "die", we get a lot of "Don't want to put them in harm's way"s, or "We know the risks". Sometimes it can get even confusing. That said, the origin makes references to Jayden's dad's "last words" and his "final battle". They don't use the word dead (as usual), but there's really no other way to take it.
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: As Saban has taken to hire Americans for the primary cast here in, this doesn't come up as much compared to the Disney era. However, the show is still shot in Auckland, so this is now mostly reserved for the guest characters. Could also apply to Mentor Ji, though in his case it might be just Not Even Bothering with the Accent.
    • Emily's sister in "Sticks and Stones."
    • The Kids Are American: Basically the majority of the kids so far, whether they're portraying younger versions of the Rangers or regular kids, have been unable to hide their New Zealand accents. Especially noticable when compared to the American accents used by adults in the same scene (Ryan and his dad in "Deal with a Nighlok" and Young!- and current-Jayden and Antonio in "Unexpected Arrival").
  • Precursor Heroes: The original samurai
  • Recycled IN SPACE!: Power Rangers as SAMURAI! (Of course.)
  • Sealed Evil in a Can:
    • The Sanzu River is one to the Nighloks, as nobody can last long away from the river before they dry out. Only a monster and some Mooks are able to go out at a time, trying to increase peoples' despair and sorrow in order to make the Sanzu's water level rise until it seeps into and floods the human world.
    • Master Xandred was sealed in the river by Jayden's father. Due to the seal being done wrong (which stems from the previous Red Ranger having insufficient power at the time), it causes him headaches.
      • "The Master Returns" seems to imply that he's still trapped to some degree, as flashbacks show he could previously leave the Sanzu River without drying out, a problem he has now.
  • Super Mode: Literally called "Super Mode", with a long white vest over the regular Ranger suit. There's also a red version called "Shark Attack Mode", and both of these have their own Mega Mode versions. (The Mega Modes and Shogun Mode look like this, but since they're not actually used for fighting, they don't count. Jayden uses the Shogun Mode at the final episode, though.)
  • Thememobile: Averted; the Samurai Rangers have some transportation at their disposal (a Van in Black and Ji's Cool Bike), but no special Ranger vehicles.
  • Villains Act, Heroes React: As is the norm for Power Rangers, we generally get a MOTW appearing with an Evil Plan Once an Episode, with our heroes then arriving on the scene to stop them.
  • Word Power

Power Rangers Samurai contains examples of:

  • AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle: In "The Tengen Gate", everyone pronounces Daisuke as "Dye-SOO-Kay". (It should sound closer to DYE-skay)
  • Adaptation Induced Plothole:
    • By virtue of being almost a note for note translation of Shinkenger, elements that were present in the source material but not here become glaringly obvious when one knows about both. There are several, but probably the biggest, as noted down in Artistic License – History, is that Jayden and Lauren being siblings messes up the twist at the end quite a bit. In Shinkenger, Takeru is a Body Double for Kaoru and wasn't a real Shiba, thus his reasons for not wanting the other Shinkengers to fight with him is based on his feelings that they shouldn't risk their lives over a lie. The omission of a direct counterpart to Tanba also cuts out much of the tension between Kaoru/Lauren and the other Shinkengers/Samurai Rangers, while Lauren is also much friendlier than Kaoru was (at first, anyway), so Lauren choosing to step down from the role of leader comes off as confusing, considering how well she was getting along with everyone.
    • The above change also causes a smaller one just before, regarding Octoroo's attempt to take out Jayden by burning him up with his own Shiba symbol power. In Shinkenger, Shitari's plan fails because Takeru isn't actually a member of the Shiba family, and therefore doesn't have their hereditary Scriptomancy. In Samurai, however, Jayden is part of the Shiba family, but the plan still somehow fails, even though there's no reason why he wouldn't have inherited the same symbol power as his sister. Hilariously, Octoroo then concludes that Jayden isn't the real head of the Shiba family quicker than Shitari did in Shinkenger!
    • A smaller one is the much maligned decision by Mentor Ji to take Antonio's morpher away. While it does happen in Shinkenger, Jii does have much stronger reasons for doing it. Namely that Genta is an even bigger doofusnote  than Antonio is, and the Sushi Changer was at least partially created using the power of both the Octopus Origami and a Hidden Disk that Takeru had given him, so Jii at least is taking back something that rightfully belongs to the Shiba household because of its origin. The omission of the tinier details causes the scene to take on a very different tone than the original, making Mentor Ji out to be an Elitist Jerkass rather than well intentioned but harsh.note 
  • Adaptation Species Change:
    • The Kyoryu (Dinosaur) Origami is now the Shark Sword/Zord. Its toy got some fins added to it to look more sharklike, but the TV footage wasn't altered at all. (The toy version of the Light Zord similarly got retooled to become something else - a paper lantern to a spider - but this change doesn't apply to the show.)
    • Oddly enough, squid-themed Shitari's been renamed Octoroo and Ika Origaminote  became the Octo Zord, giving the One-Steve Limit its second kick in the face.
  • Aesop Amnesia: Due to the Compressed Adaptation involved in translating Shinken Red's characterization to Samurai Red, Jayden is forced to essentially learn to accept being part of a team twice in a row. note 
  • An Aesop: Before the show began, one of the producers mentioned that Saban was going to use the show as a platform to encourage healthy eating and exercise to kids. Since it was mentioned so early in production, there was a little concern that the show might become ham-fisted and preachy (but not much, since environmentalism and other Aesops have been part of the show since day 1. The exercise aspect has been pushed through a series of videos titled Power Rangers emPOWER on Saban's Power Rangers YouTube account, but it's been mentioned very little in the show so far, and the Rangers are seen eating cotton candy and chasing down an ice cream truck at various times.note 
  • All Your Powers Combined: The upgrades provided by the Black Box are described as this.
    • The Gigazord, a combination of the Megazord, Battlewing, Clawzord, Octozord, and Bullzord for an 11-in-1 ultimate combo. It's finisher attack focuses these powers through its sword.
      • The Shark Zord replaces the normal sword in the final battle against Serrator, bringing this trope full-circle.
  • And I Must Scream: In "Trading Places," the new Nighlok can place human souls into inanimate objects. While the victims can still talk and be heard by other victims, everyone else can't hear them and has no idea what has happened. Worse, destroying the object means death for the affected person - leading to lots of unheard pleas for help.
  • Artistic License – History: In the case of traditional Japanese clans, such as those who can trace their lineage to samurai, the title of clan leadership passes down first to the first son of the family. Even if the son has a older sister, the son will still be the leader of that clan/family. Girls can only become the leaders if there is no male heir (by birth or adoption). In other words when one actually follows samurai lore, there shouldn't have even been a debate about Jayden's position as leader, since his older sibling is a female. The only way this would be a problem would be if Jayden wasn't really a Shiba at all (again by birth or adoption). Shinkenger's version of the plotline was historically accurate, but it's considered unacceptably sexist in modern America and so had to be changed.
  • Art Shift: First season of PR to be shot in HD.
  • Ascended Extra: Well, Lauren's counterpart was hardly an extra, but we got to know Lauren a lot better than we did Kaoru.
  • Ax-Crazy: Arachnitor, post-mutation.
  • Badass Longcoat: The Super Samurai Mode provides the person using it a vest with long coat tails. Same goes for Shark Attack Mode but in red.
  • Batman Gambit:
    • Following the one made in Shinkenger to a T in "There Go the Brides" (except they didn't have Kevin playing the other bride): they set up two fake brides - Mia as the obvious decoy and Emily as the "real" bride.
    • This is also attempted by the Nighlok Eyescar in "The Rescue" as he sets up a trap where the only apparent way to save the captured Antonio and Ji is to follow the trail that leads into an army of Mooks. It fails because Jayden sees right through it and destroys them all with an aerial strike from the Samurai Battlewing.
  • Behind the Black: In Antonio's introductory episode he's on the run from Kevin and Emily. They stop to have a loud discussion about where Jayden is and what kind of help he needs before running off. Antonio promptly emerges from behind a wall that they really should have been able to see past, especially considering he's dragging his fish cart along with him.
  • Bottle Episode:
    • Done with "Trickster Treat", which may have been a contractual obligation; shot well after production had wrapped and not long before Power Rangers Megaforce started shooting. The episode uses no original footage recyling stuff from other episodes of Samurai, even recycling stuff from Samurai Sentai Shinkenger that normally would've been edited out, such as the Kuroko. It even features Mako standing in for Mia at one point, with only clever editing attempting to hide it. Only the main 6 Rangers were in this with no supporting characters.
    • "Stuck on Christmas" did it as well, though it actually used original footage, mainly the Megazord cockpit and the Shiba house intertwined into a Clip Show. Also of note this episode used very little Shinkenger footage and the main unmorphed fight scene was recycled from an earlier episode. Plus none of the actors minus those for Ji, Bulk and Spike appeared in this with the ranger actors once again confined to the audio booth with Antonio mysteriously missing most likely due to the Shinkenger footage not featuring Shinken Gold.
  • Bowdlerize:
    • In "The Blue and the Gold," Antberry has to chop up thirty toys to create a portal to the Sanzu River from a well. In Shinkenger, however, this plan involved chopping up a group of young girls, something that probably would have been considered too sinister for a children's show on American TV.
    • Dayu and Deker's backstories, too. Considering Shinkenger!Dayuu fell to Gedou burning the wedding reception of the lover who scorned her to the ground, taking him with her as her shamisen and Juzo (Deker) fell to Gedou because he was an assassin who cared for nothing but killing, and Uramasa was his unspecified female family member's soul in blade form. Basically, they were mistaken by the heroes for being more sympathetic than they were, when actually they were unrepentant murderers who became monsters by basically the Shinkenger version of falling to the Dark Side in Star Wars. Deker's counterpart Juzo in particular was only there for Jayden's counterpart's development - Takeru, no longer Shinken Red as of the counterpart of the Lauren storyline, continued to fight Juzo because fighting was all he had left, after a season of refusing to fight him just for the sake of fighting. He ran the risk of becoming like his foe, the previous warrior who fought for the sake of fighting. The red energy that appeared during Dayuu and Juzo's transformation was starting to rise around Takeru when the others reached him to talk him down, saving him seconds before he'd have basically become the new Juzo. However, this makes Deker and Dayu more sympathetic, and therefore more tragic when they can't be saved.
    • See Frothy Mugs of Water down below regarding Doukoku Chimatsuri's sake. Interestingly, it's replaced with something a little darker - Xandred's "medicine" is for the constant pain he is in because of the previous generation's seal. Now you know why he has such a bad temper.
  • Bilingual Bonus: The Symbols of Power used by the Rangers are never exactly translated. One can get a basic understanding of what they mean by seeing the context they're used in, but they're rarely given an outright translation. However, sometimes the Ranger will yell out the translation when writing the kanji. Also, even when the kanji are different from the ones used in sentai, they do still properly translate into what's being done.
  • Bishie Sparkle: Antonio gets these the first time he morphs. Justified because he's a shiny Chrome Champion.
    Emily: Wow! He's so sparkly!
  • Black Box: The name of the Applied Phlebotinum du jour of Super Samurai. It seemed to fill the "nobody knows how it works" trope prior to that before Antonio worked on it.
  • Blood Knight: Deker seeks a battle with a worthy opponent, for its own sake, and once he has his sights set on Jayden he'll even attack other Nighloks to keep them away from his destined rival.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: After making short work with Moogers in "Room For One More", Antonio turns to the camera and gives an instant replay that slows down the fight, allowing audiences to see what had happened.
  • Bride and Switch: Double pulled by Mia and Emily on Dayu in "There Go The Brides".
  • Broken Aesop:
    • The Red Ranger stays behind to train on his day off while all the other Rangers go to an amusement park. His master says that in order to master his weapon, he needs balance in his life and should have more fun. The Ranger shrugs him off and eventually masters the weapon with more training, even after all these hints that in order to master his weapon, he needed to have more fun.
    • "Kevin's Choice" is about Kevin having to accept that his being a Ranger meant putting certain life things on hold for the greater good, (in this case, a potential swimming tournament) as his presence in such a public situation could put the citizenry in danger. The ending of the Episode however involves Kevin accepting this necessity.... and then competing in the tournament anyway after the MOTW is defeated, doing the exact thing the Episode had been warning him against the entire time without any justification, note  rendering the whole Episode's conflict completely pointless.note 
  • Butt Biter: During the Megazord battle with Eyescar, he has a grip on the Claw Battlezord, using it as a Human Shield (so to speak) against the Samurai Megazord. Cue the summoning of the Sharkzord, which runs around behind him and chomps him on the backside so he'll let go.
  • Call-Back:
    • In "Christmas Together, Friends Forever", Mike gives the motorcycle he received away to Bulk and Spike (who had lamented over not being able to afford one at the beginning of the episode). Bulk and Skull had a motorcycle they used as a patrol bike back in Power Rangers Zeo.
    • In "Runaway Spike", Spike's attempts to hold a job recall those of his father and Bulk in Power Rangers Turbo.
    • Mia is an Asian samurai Ranger whose last name is shown on her driver's licence to be Watanabe. Power Rangers Ninja Storm had Cameron Watanabe, an Asian samurai Ranger.
    • In "A Crack in the World", Antonio morphs in a photo booth, a nod to an episode of Power Rangers in Space where Carlos doing that (and the energy causing the booth to photograph it) was a plot point.
  • Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Two examples...
    • Dayu's shamisen is referred to as a "harmonium."
    • The Kyoryu ("dinosaur") Disc becomes known as the "Shark Disc." By extension, this also applies to the Kyoryu Origami becoming the Shark Zord.
  • Calling Your Attacks: The show has an odd variant - the characters write their attacks in Japanese kanji. Justified as that's the way magic works for them.
  • The Cameo: Jason Narvy as Skull in the last episode!
  • Captain Obvious
    Jayden: "Beetle Zord!"
    *giant beetle appears*
    Emily: "HEY! A BEETLE!"
    Mia: "A Zord came out of that disc!"
  • Cerebus Retcon: In "Trading Places," Antonio has his soul placed in a fish. The majority of it is played for laughs, especially when he starts to spoil, up to and including nearly getting eaten by a cat (his faint after changing back was one of the funniest parts of the episode.) In the next episode, "Something Fishy," Antonio is completely shell-shocked by the whole thing, and the situation's played almost entirely seriously.
  • The Chains of Commanding: Multiple episodes see Jayden angst about sending his friends into danger.
  • Clip Show: The first set of holiday episodes: "Party Monsters", where the villains get together for a Halloween Party to discuss how the Samurai Rangers defeated them; and "Christmas Together, Friends Forever".
  • Combat Commentator: Deker during the Jayden/Kevin fight in "I've Got A Spell On Blue", though he's doing more color/analysis than play-by-play.
  • Comedic Underwear Exposure:
    • During the training sequence in "The Team Unites", a rougher stunt causes Kevin's pants to go down, revealing his blue boxer shorts.
    • Happens to Bulk and Spike when Negatron blasts them with an insult.
    • And Antonio inadvertently rips his own pants when he arrives at the Shiba house in #12.
  • Continuity Nod: In the origin episode Bulk mentions he has a history with Power Rangers.
  • Contrived Coincidence: The fact that a group of ancient samurai mingled with non-Japanese to have descendants that make the perfect Five-Token Band. Granted, this is the same show that says the British colonized California, but still...
  • Christmas Special: Two of them actually, since this series was split into two seasons, they were panned for being Clip Shows but worth noting because this was the first time Power Rangers had done Christmas specials since Power Rangers Zeo.
  • Culture Chop Suey: The Nighlok Robtish, who can be described as a Scottish Samurai.
  • Cultural Translation: Dayu's Harmonium is a Shamishen as named in Samurai Sentai Shinkenger. (A harmonium is a type of keyboard instrument, not a guitar or banjo like instrument.)
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Xandred performs one to show exactly why he's the Big Bad in "The Master Returns".
  • Cute Kitten: A neighborhood stray makes a few appearances in early episodes of Super Samurai.
  • Deal with the Devil: A minor one, a kid makes a deal with a Nighlok in which if he throws away his baseball things (and therefore, his dream), he would see his father again. In fact, the episode is called "Deal With A Nighlok".
    • "Broken Dreams" reveals that Dayu made a deal with a Nighlok to save Deker's life. Of course, the Nighlok being a Nighlok, both of them ended up being cursed.
  • Deliberate Injury Gambit: How Jayden beats Deker in their duel.
  • Designated Girl Fight: Dayu brings out a female Nighlok on the same week that Lauren debuts just to kick her tail.
  • Detachment Combat: The Samurai Megazord is able to split off its limbs, as shown in "Sticks and Stones" against Negatron.
  • Determinator: In addition to the Rangers themselves, Negatron earns special mention. He just keeps trying to insult Emily despite the fact she doesn't feel any emotional pain from them rendering his powers useless. Taken to crazy extremes when he actually tries to insult the Megazord itself! Emily herself also counts because even when his insults do strike true she pushes through to continue the fight, and after the fight, she passes out due to how much she took.
    • Emily has her spirit (soul) taken and manages to wake up to give a pep talk to her team... sort of.
    • Jayden staying up all night to master the Beetle Disk kind of counts, but presents a surprising deconstruction (or Broken Aesop, depending on how cynical you are) as the moral of the episode is that it's actually not very useful to push yourself too far.
    • Kevin spends so much time and energy focusing on catching the Swordfish Zord, he ends up suffering from heat stroke, and even then goes right back to his mission the minute he wakes up.
  • Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Like the communicator signal back in Mighty Morphin', the "Go Go Power Rangers!" riff is used in several places whenever a little jingle is needed for a scene.
  • Disappeared Dad: It's stated as clearly as possible for a Never Say "Die" show that Jayden's dad (the previous Red Ranger) didn't survive his final battle with Xandred.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Bulk paying Bikers $5 in "He's Not Heavy Metal He's My Brother" to act as bodyguards is eerily similar to when The Rolling Stones hired the Hells Angels to work security at Altmaont
  • Don't Think, Feel
  • Downer Ending: Episode 17 "The Tengen Gate" ends with Jayden poisoned and kidnapped by Deker, Mia, Emily, Mike and Kevin defeated by Aracnator and Master Xandred unleashing a bunch of giant moogers and spitfangs.
  • Dream Land: In the episode "Broken Dreams".
  • Dual Wielding: In the final episode, Jayden uses a disk to wield two Fire Smashers.
  • Dub Name Change: The Green Ranger's element has been changed from "Wood" to "Forest", likely because it avoids possible Double Entendre jokes or just sounds cooler. It even works with the kanji, as 森 (mori; the "forest" kanji) is pretty much a large 木 (ki; the "wood"/"tree" kanji, used in Shinkenger) stacked on two smaller 木.
    • Averted with Dayu, Ji, the Sanzu River, and the Shiba family, who all keep their Shinkenger names in some form or another (the Usukawa part of the Japanese Dayu's name didn't carry over, and Ji was just a nickname in Shinkenger).
  • Dub Species Change: The Italian dub changes the Beetle Zord into a scarab and the Octo Zord into a squid (that is what it's actually supposed to be, as seen in Adaptation Species Change)
  • Dull Surprise: One of the main criticisms of Samurai is the wooden acting from all of the Ranger actors except for Antonio and Mike.
  • Dutch Angle: While Kevin was controlled in "I've Got a Spell on Blue".
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Serrator in "Broken Dreams".
  • Environment-Specific Action Figure: Played with, as the Zord-piloting "Mega Mode" armor is the standard in the toy line, and the basic Ranger suits are treated as the less-common variant.
  • Epic Fail: The Rangers' first attempt at forming the Samurai Megazord.
  • Everything's Better with Samurai
  • Expy: Armadevil is one of Soccadillo, though the method of weakening his shell is more like what was done to Turbanshell (both from Mighty Morphin').
  • Fake Shemp: In the Power Rangers RPM crossover Antonio is only ever seen unmorphed from the back, and is dubbed by someone who sounds nothing like Steven Skyler. It's also thought to happen to Scott, credited as someone else and never demorphing, but that's more to union rules limiting the actor's appearance combined with the Shot-for-Shot Remake syndrome (for most of the episode, he's less Scott and more Sousuke Esumi by way of Scott's actor, and feels very un-Scott despite the same actor.)
  • Foreshadowing: Like in the original Sentai series, during a fight with Negatron, Jayden was called a liar and was said to have a secret. Episode 10 even ends with Ji telling him "we'll tell them when the time is right". Many episodes after have references to "the secret".
    • Not to mention all the times they refer to Dayu's past in "There Go The Brides".
      • And this exchange between Dayu and Monster of the Week Madimot from "I've Got A Spell On Blue."
      Madimot: "When was the last time you had fun Dayu? Three centuries ago?
      Dayu: "Well, actually, I..." (he interrupts her before she can finish)
    • And the distrust towards Deker.
    • "The Tengen Gate," in addition to reminding viewers about Jayden's secret, also foreshadows a bit of Dayu and Deker's back story, which is fleshed out in "Broken Dreams".
    • "Origins Part 1", like its counterpart, gives us the line from Kevin "I didn't know the Red Ranger was a girl". Part of Jayden's secret is that the true Red Ranger really IS a girl.
  • Formula-Breaking Episode: While a Clip Show or other How We Got Here moments aren't unique, "Party Monsters" stands out by being told from the villain's perspective. Instead of the Rangers sitting around talking about their various battles, it takes places at a party in the afterlife, where the monsters are talking about how they were defeated.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: As seen here◊, one bride is named Erica Fong, another Brittany Pirtle, one couple's last names are Wetter and Beaver, and Aleisha Fraser's getting married twice in one day.
  • Frothy Mugs of Water: In Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, Dokoku Chimatsuri calms himself by drinking sake (rice wine). As Master Xandred, he's supposedly taking his "medicine".
  • Gratuitous Spanish: Antonio the Gold Ranger. ¡Fantastico!
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: When Dayu and a Monster of the Week are arguing, Xandred throws a Mooger at them to shut them up.
  • Gross-Up Close-Up: Invoked in "Party Monsters" with real worms served up as snacks. Twice.
  • Half the Man He Used to Be: Serrator's demise thanks to the Samurai Shark Gigazord. He even takes the time to hang a lampshade on it before exploding.
    Serrator: NO! I WAS SUPPOSED TO SPLIT OPEN YOUR WORLD! YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO DO IT TO ME! *BOOM*
  • Handicapped Badass: In "The Master Returns" Xandred was crippled with drying out yet still manages to wipe the floor with Jayden.
  • Harsh Word Impact: Negatron has a power of Snarkiness that sends his victims flying with insults, physically. During its first fight against the Rangers, he was able to slam down the Rangers with those insults, except Emily.
  • Hero Secret Service: Though not nearly to the extent of Shinkenger, the Samurai Rangers seem to have a small support network of allies (seen in "The Tengen Gate" and "The BullZord").
  • Hero Worship: When Lauren steps in to replace an injured Jayden, the other rangers seemingly cannot go a few minutes without citing how awesome or amazing they think he is. This becomes especially grating when they compare him against Lauren with her still in the room. (See The Woobie).
  • Hijacked by Jesus: A mild but interesting instance. The antagonists of Shinkenger were overall themed around Youkai, but Xandred on the other hand was given a few traits of a Big Red Devil. This leads straight into the rewrite of Juzo/Deker and Dayu's relationship. Shinkenger's Juzo and Dayu were humans whose respective sinful obsessions warped them into monsters (a common origin in quite a few Japanese folk tales), while Dayu in Samurai was made a sympathetic character who made a Deal with the Devil with Xandred, something he hardly had the ability to do in the original show.
  • Hurricane of Puns: The Rangers and every Monster of the Week so far are guilty of this during the action sequences, which is no surprise due to the old school feel they're going for.
  • I Know Mortal Kombat: Bulk claims to be an expert in samurais when he told Spike after he arrived in Panorama City. Although he did state it out loud that he's an expert by watching most samurai movies.
  • Imagination-Based Superpower: Symbol Power can do almost anything as long as you have enough energy and know the proper kanji. Including using "red pony" to summon a Ford Mustang (though the actual kanji used was that for "vehicle").
  • Informed Ability: Some of the characters are described with traits that match their Shinkenger counterparts... but said traits haven't been displayed in Samurai.
    • Also, Octoroo everytime tells Dayu or Master Xandred (and the audience) that the Monster of the Week is really evil, threatening and big and bad. Some monsters of the week also proclaim that they are very menacing, but they are shown to be the jerks at worst and are easily defeated and don't do anything that puts them to being actually evil.
      • Averted more with the monsters that serve under Serrator. Heck the first of his monsters to appear wanted to get humans killed by other humans without even realizing it by switching their souls into objects.
    • Also, Xandred is The Dreaded but in practice does nothing but sit around and complain in the vast majority of episodes. Yeah, he's unable to leave the Sanzu River (or, as we'll find out later, unable to leave it for long and then only at great cost) but the Big Bad of the previous series was one of the most menacing despite spending most of the series as a red light on a wall because he was quite a mastermind.
  • Informed Flaw: At the end of the first season, Jayden implies that he somewhat enjoyed his duel with Deker. However, not only is there no indication of this during the duel in question, but Jayden all but ignores this implication for the rest of the show while the other rangers don't even believe that it's true. Despite a Call-Back to these feelings made by Deker before their final fight, It's in no way built upon for the entirety of the battle, the one place where it ought to be relevant
  • Insult Backfire: A plot point in "Sticks and Stones", when the Nighlok Negatron converts mental anguish, caused by insults, into physical pain. Emily is immune, because her sister helped her when she was bullied as a child. He even lampshades it with his last words: "My insults backfired!"
    • Also happens when one of the Rangers calls Negatron a bully. He replies that its 'the nicest thing anyone's ever said about me'.
  • ISO-Standard Urban Groceries: Mia's bag in "Shell Game" has a french loaf sticking out of it, even though Jayden looks in and only sees the "oysters, chocolate sauce and Brussels sprouts". The french loaf also appears in "A Sticky Situation".
  • Jesus Taboo: Played with in "There Go the Brides"; no mention of any religious figures, but the Cold Open takes place in what is explicitly referred to as a church, and the minister begins quoting 1 Corinthians 13 at one point.
  • Juggle Fu: Used in the Zord summoning sequence; as the Rangers toss their Spin Swords, transform into Mega Mode, and then catch the swords on the way to their Zords.
  • Lampshade Hanging: During "Party Monsters" the villains reference how the Rangers always turn away right before they explode, referring to it again later as "The Pose".
  • Large Ham: Antonio is hammier than even most Power Rangers characters, which is really saying something. Does he know his theme is seafood and not pork?
    • Also, Bulk can be pretty hammy sometimes. Check his appearance in the Dream Land in "Broken Dreams".
  • Last Minute Hook Up: Emily & Mike, with Mike deciding to leave with Emily after they've finally defeated Xandred. Even though Mike denies there's anything romantic going on, the two are clearly holding hands & the other Rangers have looks on their faces that imply they aren't buying his protests.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: With the show being an almost Shot-for-Shot Remake of Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, it was hard for many people to avoid spoilers and those who had seen Shinkenger knew exactly where the series was going.
    • Also the series started airing the final episodes in Latin America a couple months before the United States.
  • Lethal Chef: Mia. The other Rangers don't have the heart to tell her, though. Negatron, however, does.
  • Let's You and Him Fight: The Nighlok in "I've Got a Spell on Blue" takes over Kevin's mind and sets up a fight between him an Jayden. He also sets up a fight between Jayden's Lion Zord and the Tiger Zord.
    • And Jayden gets caught up in another one with Scott. Of course, with a title like "Clash of the Red Rangers", what do you expect?
  • Lost in Translation: Much of Shinkenger's references to Japanese Mythology don't really cross over well into Samurai, in part because the symbolism just isn't that well known in the West. For example, the main villains of the season are based on the Seven Gods of Luck, while the Sanzu River is analogous to the River Styx.
  • Love Bubbles: Well, little floating hearts, but in Spike's first Imagine Spot of the Pink Ranger, they're there, even as she's slashing Moogers.
  • Magic A Is Magic A: Unlike with Mystic Force, Samurai sticks with the magic system set by Shinkenger. For example, the symbol to enlarge the Zords has been changed from 大 (dai, or "big") to 超 (which Shinkenger used to merge the support Origami with Shinken-Oh), but it fits as it means chō or "super", accounting for the Rangers' Mega Mode as well.
    • Of note also are the different kanji that Kevin tries to use to reel in the Swordfish Zord in "Fish Out of Water" - most of them are related to fishing.
  • Magical Foreign Words: The Symbols of Power, even if the show hasn't acknowledged them as actual words.
  • Mass "Oh, Crap!": Everyone's reaction to Master Xandred finally coming to Earth himself. Including Serrator!
  • Meaningful Echo: in "Clash of the Red Rangers":
    (15 minutes in) Mike: "I still don't trust him. And I don't like the way he looks at you." Emily: "He's wearing a helmet. How can you tell?"
    (44 minutes in) Scott: "I do have eyes under here, you know. I've seen the way she looks at you."
  • Mêlée à Trois: Done near the end of "Test of the Leader", between Jayden, Deker, and Robtish.
  • Mid-Season Upgrade: The Black Box provides the team with stronger powers, spiffy jackets, new mega armor and new Zord combinations.
  • Mundane Solution: In the early episodes at least, Nighlok spells and curses are repeatedly shown to be cleansed by pure water.
  • Mundane Utility: Mia uses her katana to make food in the kitchen.
    • Sentient, pocket-sized mecha that can move on their own make excellent game pieces.
  • Mythology Gag
    • Xandred regularly has a headache. And in "Deal With A Nighlok", the monster throws his staff into the ground in a particularly familiar fashion.
    • Similarly, "Day Off" has Bulk and Spike chowing down on cotton candy much like the clip used in the original's title sequence (from the first season episode "No Clowning Around").
    • The new Samurai Rangers do the classic Mighty Morphin' hand-stack thing, albeit with their "Rangers Together, Samurai Forever" in place of shouting "Power Rangers!"
    • The use of the phrase "Go Go Samurai" recalls the original theme song, which might make it the easiest morphing call to remember.
    • Not only does the whip-wielding Nighlok that can mind-control Ranger and Zord alike in "I've Got a Spell on Blue" parallel the Lion Tamer Org, but this episode also features the full-fledged debut of Ricardo Medina Jr., previously the Red Wild Force Ranger, as Deker.
    • The monster in #12 actually utters Tommy's "Aww man!"
    • The Megazord's battle helmets' idea originated from Zeo, although it's style is closer to that of of Jungle Fury's zord combinations.
    • Spike has a crush on the Pink Ranger. In Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Spike's dad had a crush on Kimberly, who was the first Pink Ranger ever.
    • Bulk uses a video camera to spy on the Rangers, though this time its to learn their moves rather than their identities.
    • While Mako's greatest fear was natto, Mia is afraid of frogs. She even kisses it, not on top like Madison did, but full on the mouth for the first liplock in Power Rangers since Tommy and Kimberly!
    • Mia's driving licence in "A Strange Case of the Munchies" reveals her last name as Watanabe - any chance she's related to Sensei and Cam?
    • Bulk strikes the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers' morphing pose with a handful of gumballs in "Stroke of Fate". IT'S CHEWING TIME!
    • In the Netherworld scenes, you can vaguely make out a few bars of Rita Repulsa's background music.
  • New Season, New Name: Samurai to Super Samurai. The first PR series since Power Rangers in Space to officialy have this trope, as the seasons from Lost Galaxy and RPM were more-along-examples of Sequel Series.
  • No Full Name Given: We've heard of no surnames for half of the main characters. The ones we do know are Antonio Garcia, Jayden Shiba, Mia Watanabe; and long-known Farkus Bulkmeier and Spike Skullovitch, by virtue of his father Eugene. Kevin, Mike, Emily, and Ji, nor Deker and Dayu haven't had theirs mentioned.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Splitface receives this from the Rangers as revenge for stealing Emily's spirit.
  • No Swastikas: The background of the morphing sequence is based on that used in Shinkenger, but edited to remove the manji-like patterns (The Nintendo DS game, however, still has them).
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Every. Single. Child Actor who appears in Samurai will not even bother trying to hide their kiwi accents which can stick out like a sore thumb. Especially when we see flashbacks to young Jayden who suddenly has a Kiwi accent despite having an American accent as an adult.
  • Not So Stoic: Jayden. While he is more serious than his teammates, he isn't immune from engaging in witty banter during battle (which may be a step up from Shinkenger - in which it makes him seem more receptive to the team - or down - in which it saps authority that he must have as team leader - from Takeru's initial Ineffectual Loner behavior).
  • Official Couple: In flashback, Deker and Dayu are shown as this, until the tragedy that changed their lives forever.
    • After being teased off and on for nearly the entire run of the series, Mike and Emily finally become this in the finale.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The Samurai Rangers except for Jayden get to visit the RPM-verse in the crossover, but all we get is "The other RPM Rangers say 'Hi.'"
  • Opening Narration:
    "Three hundred years ago in Japan, the evil Nighlok monsters invaded. Only five had the power to stand against them. They are the Power Rangers Samurai."
    • There's another variant as well (which is the one that is most commonly used before the non-continued episodes):
      "Centuries ago in Japan, Nighlok monsters invaded our world. But samurai warriors defeated them with Power Symbols, passed down from parent to child. Today, the evil Nighlok have risen once again and plan to flood the Earth. Luckily, a new generation of heroes stand in their way. They are the Power Rangers Samurai."
  • Orcus on His Throne: Xandred can't leave the Sanzu, but even so he doesn't do much beyond nursing his headache. Sure, he authorizes Nighloks to go to the human world, but he doesn't exactly think up attack plans. Dayu does even less in most episodes, being more of a court musician than anything else, but even she masterminds more plans than Xandred.
  • Paranoia Gambit: The Nighlok Vulpes' plan was to make Jayden paranoid enough to reveal the Sealing Symbol.
  • Percussive Maintenance: The Light Zord sometimes gets its discs jammed, requiring a swift smack to its butt.
  • Pintsized Powerhouse: Octoroo. As The Smart Guy of the villains in a series that really doesn't need a monster-maker 'cause monsters just show up, can grow on their own, and Mooks are created by Xandred's bad temper, he often has little to do. He's also waist-high. Then he comes up with the poisoning plot and takes the field personally. And he is a really powerful fighter, doing more damage than Dayu or Deker, the more standard Dragons.
  • Plan B Resolution: Much like its Super Sentai counterpart, a driving theme was that it seemed the only thing that could stop Master Xandred for good was the sealing symbol of the Red Ranger. Unfortunately, when Lauren used it on Xandred, it had no affect on him as he was no longer pure Nighlok due to absorbing Dayu. Fortunately, Jayden had a plan B: taking him out with brute force by striking the spot where Dayu was absorbed.
    Jayden: Forget sealing [Xandred]. If we can strike that spot with a strong enough blow, we may be able to destroy him.
  • Potty Emergency: Kevin has one in "A Sticky Situation". While he and Mike are stuck together, by their wrists, front-to-front. Mike was not happy.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: The morph. The original uses ink brushes that somehow writes colorful Japanese characters in the air. The American version uses a colorful LED that writes colorful Japanese characters in the air. Calligraphy brushes aren't as culturally important in America, but also the devices (which are otherwise identical despite the visual effect) look like complicated cell phones instead of magic wands.
    • To be fair, the original Sentai's morphers were cell phones that happened to contain a magic calligraphy brush.
    • And the previous set of Samurai Rangers (and Lauren) are shown using the ink brush style morphers as opposed to the modern one.
    • Special mention must be made of adapting the Green-stuck-with-Blue battle in "A Sticky Situation", as Mike and Kevin now yell commands at each other to pull off the whole thing. In the original, the less talkative Shinkengers would have to have been using telepathy.note 
  • Put on a Bus: Dayu and Deker basically disappeared from the first stretch of Super Samurai, Dayu having ditched Xandred and Deker presumably "destroyed", before both of them turning up in "Kevin's Choice". Later, Xandred took some episodes off to recover after overexerting himself in "The Master Returns".
  • Real Life Writes the Plot:
    • Weird example. The automorph toys had masks covering their "civilian" faces because they were being made while casting was still going on, so the toy makers couldn't know what the unmorphed Rangers looked like. As a result, the masks were added to the show's Transformation Sequence to justify their presence.
    • The reason why Bulk's scenes are so limited, and he rarely interacts with the rangers (despite having done so multiple times at this point in the franchise) is due to Paul Schrier being unable to relocate to New Zealand - meaning that either they come up with an entirely new character, or they include him, but in a very limited way (they went with the latter).
  • Rearrange the Song: The theme tune is a remix of MMPR's with the lyrics altered to replace any mention of Mighty Morphin with "Rangers Together, Samurai Forever". Bulk and Spike's theme also reuses some lines from Bulk and Skull's original theme.
  • The Rest Shall Pass: While Mike invokes this against a monster and is ultimately the one who brings it down in both the on-foot and Zord fights, he has help both times from Jayden and the rest of the Rangers respectively.
  • Samurai Shinobi: All the Rangers are called samurai in this season. However, one episode has Antonio escape by using a smoke grenade.
  • Sealed Cast in a Multipack: With new zords being discovered and tamed and/or busted and unfinished equipment being brought out and repaired as the plot demands.
  • Self-Proclaimed Knight: Antonio
  • Sequel Number Snarl: The cause of some big ones for the franchise. First, it was referred to as Season 19 when it launched, placing the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Re-Cut as an official season. Second, it was stretched over two years as two 20-episode seasons; and delaying Samurai's end until 2012 brought a lot of questions regarding how they were going to handle potential Goseiger and Gokaiger adaptations if Gokaiger was to be used as a 20th Milestone Celebration in 2013. They ultimately merged both Goseiger and Gokaiger into Power Rangers Megaforce.
    • As of Megaforce Samurai Mighty Morphin' Re-Cut is no longer considered a numbered season.
  • Sham Wedding: In one episode, the villains have been abducting women at their weddings, and so the Rangers arrange a fake ceremony between Jayden and Mia to lure the monsters to them.
  • Ship Tease: Mike with Emily, Jayden with Mia, Kevin with Mia, and Antonio with Lauren.
    • In "Clash of the Red Rangers" Scott basically out right states that Emily and Mike have a thing for each other.
    • Mia often disusses Jayden's problems like when she practices with him after he rejects Antonio from the team and in "Trust Me".
    • Kevin and Mia are sort of shipped in "Deal With A Nighlok".
    • Antonio and Lauren talk about Jayden and his past, and Antonio calls Lauren cool.
  • Shot-for-Shot Remake: One of the biggest complaints against Samurai is that they're trying to replicate Shinkenger as closely as possible. Not only does this make it basically reruns for anyone who's seen Shinkenger, but because of Values Dissonance, they simply aren't able to do it as well.
    • As of "Boxed In", this trope is subverted to some degree (while Genta manages to finish the Inroumaru in the corresponding episode, Antonio is unable to do the same for the Black Box, thus delaying the team's Super Mode). The next episode pretty much completely rewrites Dayu and Deker's histories, making both quite sympathetic.
  • Shout-Out: The Beetle Zord's combination with the Samurai Megazord is called the Beetle Blaster Megazord.
  • Shown Their Work: Samurai changes some of the kanji used in Shinkenger, but the new kanji are still relevant to the action onscreen. Let's take an example from "Broken Dreams": in the original, Takeru writes 夢 ("dream") to allow Ryunosuke and Chiaki to jump into Genta's dream; in the adaptation, Jayden writes 門 ("portal" as he calls it, but loosely it means "gate") to open the passage for Kevin and Mike to enter Antonio's dream.
    • The face in the belt of Shogun Mode is based off actual belt buckles worn by certain noble samurai.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: The monster of "Sticks and Stones" attacks by giving short Hannibal Lectures and converting the emotional pain into physical pain. This leads to Emily using this trope to help defeat it.
  • Sleep Cute: Kevin and Mia.
    • Emily, riding piggyback on Mike. Okay, he isn't sleeping, but she's so Squee-tastic while she's asleep... Until the ice cream truck passes by and she wakes up.
  • Single Tear: Jayden produces one every so often.
  • The Snack Is More Interesting: "A Sticky Situation". Mike seems to think munching an apple during sword training makes him more badass. He actually sticks it on Kevin's sword to catch him off guard.
  • Soap Opera Disease: The vaguely defined sickness that caused Emily's sister to give up Ranger duty.
  • Spectacular Spinning: Everything with the Power Discs.
  • The Starscream:
    • Arachnitor is an interesting example of a Monster of the Week that actually tried his hand at becoming Starscreamy to Master Xandred. Sadly, his attempt to overthrow him and become the new leader of the Nighloks didn't end so well for him, and he ended up being mutated through Cold-Blooded Torture as punishment for his betrayal.
    • Serrator later turns out to be this.
  • Stating the Simple Solution: When Madimot brainwashes Kevin, Dayu suggests he just make him "turn his blade on himself". Madimot shoots the idea down because he likes making the Rangers fight each other For the Evulz.
  • Sticky Situation: Thanks to a glue monster in - what else? - "A Sticky Situation". The main one featured was Kevin and Mike stuck together.
  • Stock Footage: While the use of Sentai footage is a given, the two Super Samurai specials, "Trickster Treat" and "Stuck on Christmas" use footage from previous episodes of Samurai, the former almost entirely made up of Stock Footage from both Shinkenger (there's even a quick shot of an untransformed Mako left in; her face is blurred, though) and Samurai. The latter actually does use quite a bit of original footage. See Bottle Episode above.
  • Sublime Rhyme: The team's rallying cry of "Rangers together, Samurai forever!"
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Spike for his father, Eugene Skullovitch.
  • Sympathy for the Devil: Mia discovers Dayu and Deker were once husband and wife, but a fire in their house mortally wounded Deker. As a result, Dayu made a Deal with the Devil, selling her soul to save Deker's life, unknowingly cursing him to be a half Nighlok who would forget he ever knew her. Mia actually feels sorry for Dayu after this.
  • Techno Wizard: Antonio. Particularly noticable because more than once there's been a broken piece of gear and someone's said "I bet Antonio might be able to fix this!"
  • Tempting Fate: happens right off the bat in "I've Got A Spell On Blue" and again in "Shell Game".
  • Theme Tune Roll Call
  • This Is Unforgivable!: Said by Mia to Doubletone, after finding out he lied to a little boy that he'd let him see his father again in exchange for him giving up baseball.
  • Title Drop: In the middle of "Super Samurai" note  "Jayden looks into the camera and says "We need to be... Super Samurai."
    • In "Fight Fire With Fire", Octoroo says the name of the episode.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Mia and Emily.
  • Training from Hell: Self-enforced by Jayden, when he tries to master the Secret Beetle Disc in "Day Off". He gets thrown back by its sheer force too many times to count, but he just won't give up.
    • Played for laughs in "A Strange Case of the Munchies" to distract Bulk and Spike when they wander straight into the Shiba house. Bonus points for the horse stance and the eggs, taken straight out of the Jackie Chan training handbook.
  • Turn in Your Badge: Ji makes Mike hand over his Samuraizer in "Forest For The Trees", and a variant when he confiscates Antonio's morpher in "Room for One More".
  • Underworld River: The Sanzu river is a giant river which flows through the Netherworld and is in a hell dimension connected by cracks to the human world. The river consists of human tears and when monsters attack the human world it causes it to overflow.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: In episode 8 several civilians are in plain sight of the Nighlok fighting the Rangers and are too busy crying from the fact that the monster made it rain to run away. Justified in that said rain is supposed to make them feel too hopeless to even think of doing anything else.
    • In "Jayden's Challenge," the young boy Jayden meets seems more interested in the paper airplane Jayden made than the fact that he made the plane from paper he summoned by drawing it in the air with his Samuraizer. Even though Jayden did tell him it was a trick of his, we don't hear anything like "wow! How did you do that?" from the kid.
  • Van in Black: Kevin gets a ride in one at the beginning of "Fish Out Of Water." Mia rides in one to meet the other Rangers in the origin.
  • Verbal Tic: Octoroo tends to pepper his lines with "ooh-ah-ooh!"
  • Vomit Indiscretion Shot: A first for Power Rangers, as Kevin makes himself eat Mia's cooking only to hork it back up later.
  • Weaponized Headgear: The Swordfish combination's finisher involves sticking its sword on its head and waving it around like that, while the Beetle forms a massive energy cannon. The Tiger's armaments are more on the shoulders, though.
  • Wedding Smashers: Dayu's scheme in "There Go the Brides." The Cold Open makes use of Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace, as well.
  • Wham Episode: "The Tengen Gate". Jayden is poisoned by Octoroo and is taken away somewhere else by Deker, while Mike, Mia, Kevin and Emily are defeated by the Monster of the Week and knocked unconscious.
    • "The Master Returns" has Xandred temporarily arriving on Earth to effortlessly beat all the Rangers, shrug off all of their attacks, hitting Jayden hard enough to de-morph and seriously injure him, and sending Serrator running in fear. Note that he does all of this while rapidly drying out!
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: In "Clash of the Red Rangers", Sharkjaw isn't so much as mentioned again after jumping off Xandred's boat.
  • Where the Hell Is Springfield?: There are conflicting pieces of information as to what country it's located in. The citizens and English writing of the town suggest that it is in America, but there are some locations that imply it to be in Japan. Notably, "The Tengen Gate" implies that the titular gate, the site of the Nighlok's first defeat, is not too far from the Samurai Rangers' hometown. However, the introduction in each episode points out that the Nighloks first appeared in feudal Japan, making things more difficult to sort out. There is also the temple in "There Go The Brides," as well as the torii seen in "An Unexpected Arrival," to add to the confusion.
    • "The Bullzord" gives us the titular zord, "first brought into being by symbol power" then locked up by the original samurais... and apparently it's within walking distance of the Shiba house since a 9 year old boy run away from home to the Shiba house to get help releasing it.
    • "The Strange Case of the Munchies" adds more confusion as Mia's driver's license says her address is Panorama City, PR 649815. Problem here is that no American city has a 6-digit ZIP code and since Antonio is the only person on the show to speak Spanish, albeit badly, that pretty much rules out Puerto Rico.
    • American money is seen on at least a couple of occasions such as when Bulk pays some bikers $5 to be security in "He's Not Heavy Metal He's My Brother".
    • "A Crack in the World" reuses Shinkenger footage of a bird's-eye view of Honshu, though the entire island is never seen all at once so those who don't know better might see it as just a peninsula somewhere.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: "Something Fishy" deserves special mention for adapting the corresponding arc from Shinkenger without losing the context. While Genta's fear of his own Sushi Changer stemmed from his soul getting trapped in sushi that was almost eaten, Antonio developed a fear of his weapon (the fish-shaped Barracuda Blade) instead, after being trapped in a regular fish. The other Rangers' fears have been changed (the haunted house is swapped for regular old spiders for Jayden), with a Call-Back to boot as Kevin's test of courage involves Mia's cooking.
  • Words Can Break My Bones: Symbol Power
  • Worf Had the Flu: When Master Xandred makes his first appearence to the Rangers in "The Master Returns" he rapidly dries out moments after getting to Earth due to the previous generation's seal on him. However, far from being weaker than expected, he was immensely powerful and his needing to retreat to avoid crumbling away is the only reason that the Rangers survived! The final episode was played more straight: after absorbing Dayu and becoming part human, he gained immunity to drying out and the sealing spell, but his power was reduced, making him a very difficult but ultimately beatable foe.
  • You Look Familiar: Rene Naufahu, playing Ji, once threatened Rangers as Emperor Gruumm. There was even an episode where Gruumm took human form, allowing Naufahu to walk around out-of-costume.
    • Related to the above, the Grand Shogun is played by Jim Mclarty, who played Broodwing.
    • Cole's actor, Ricardo Medina Jr., returns as Deker's human form. It should be noted that the slicked back hair & goatee make him look distinctly different to when he last appeared as Cole, and coupled with the fact that he's credited as "Rick Medina" here, it could be enough to throw anyone who didn't know it was the same actor.
    • Daisuke from "The Tengen Gate" is played by Grant McFarland who played both Sensei Kanoi and Big Bad Lothor in Power Rangers Ninja Storm. Why do they keep having him play Asian people?

"Rangers together, Samurai forever!"

 
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Nighlok Self Growth

As explained by Jayden in the first episode of Samurai, a Nighlok has two lives. Destroy them on the ground and they will revive into a giant.

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Make My Monster Grow

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Samurai Rangers

Alternative Title(s): Power Rangers Super Samurai

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Nighlok Self Growth

As explained by Jayden in the first episode of Samurai, a Nighlok has two lives. Destroy them on the ground and they will revive into a giant.

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Nighlok Self Gr...

Golden Samurai ...

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Samurai Rangers

Samurai Rangers