YMMV / Power Rangers Ninja Storm

• Anticlimax Boss: Despite the fact that Lothor trying to open the Abyss of Evil was an important part of his plan, when he finally opens it, the army of revived monsters are as weak as Kelzaks and are defeated in less than 5 minutes.
• Ass Pull: The writers were very forthright that the last four episodes of the season (drawing many seemingly insignificant plot threads together) were rewritten in response to fan whining. Though the precise mechanics of Lothor's Evil Plan do fall close to a Gambit Roulette of the highest order, the little details don't work and it's clearly a retcon. (Most of) The fans don't seem to care, making this a fine example of Author's Saving Throw.
• Awesome Music: Marah and Kapri's talent show song is a fun Sarcastic Confession about their criminal nature and probably has catchier lyrics and rhythm than the season's theme song. They probably would have won if they'd really been singing and not lip-syncing.
• Badass Decay: The entirety of Lothor's army in the finale, while retaining Conservation of Ninjutsu is common throughout the franchise, generally did not reach the point where they were as weak as a standard footsoldiers; when Lothor's army was revived for the final battle, they were reduced to being fodder and equals for the most part in power to the in-training students of the ninja academy, who weren't shown beforehand to be even able to take on the Kelzaks, and there's no in-series training ever shown between the start and the end, making it impossible to place the cause of their sudden incompetence on the students getting better.
• Base-Breaking Character: Lothor. People seem divided on whether he was a brilliant case of The Chessmaster in his own right with an awesome Evil Plan (and making use of a plan with an obvious and hidden goal) at the end of the series making him one of the most memorable villains in the show's history, or a complete joke who did nothing but sit around and complain most of the series and his plan towards the end was nonsensical and came out of nowhere. There's also a third faction, that loves him for his personality, plan and fighting skills, but dislike him for not getting out and fighting much.
• Broken Base: The humor. While there are viewers who enjoy the season didn't take itself seriously as the two that preceded it, other viewers felt it was too jokey and the attempts at humor didn't work.
• Crossover Ship: While not a romantic ship (mostly), Dustin and Chip from Mystic Force are commonly written together as good friends due to their nerdy nature (as well as being the only two Earth male Yellows in the franchise, at least prior to Ninja Steel, thanks to Power Rangers gender swapping Male Yellow Rangers from MMPR through Wild Force).
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Zurgane and Vexacus, due to being competent dragons with some humorous Surrounded by Idiots moments.
  • Marah and Kapri (particularly the former) are considered pretty iconic parts of the season.
• Growing the Beard: Usually considered to either be when the Thunder Rangers joined the team or "The Samurai's Journey" three-parter.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In "Eye of the Storm", Shane is subjected to a fear-induced hallucination of his older brother Porter (played by Pua Magasiva's real life brother Robbie Magasiva) scolding him for being a disappointment to their family. This scene is harder to watch with the knowledge that Pua Magasiva was frequently abusive to his wife Elizabeth Sadler before his suicide and had even attacked her in a drunken rage on the night of his death. Sadler also mentioned Magasiva's diary was "full of haunting images, tortured thoughts and self-loathing" which puts Shane's emotional turmoil throughout the episode in a whole new light. Even before the details of Pua's situation were made public, Robbie revealed that he could not only sadly see his brother's downfall coming, but had frequently tried to convince him to seek help only for Pua to refuse, making it look like we are seeing Robbie call Pua out in real time.
• He's Just Hiding: Given how out-of-focus Choobo is when he gets taken out in the finale, many fans believe that he only got knocked down and survived.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • One episode has Marah dreaming of being a ranger herself, complete with a shot of her in a pink version of Tori's suit. A pink ninja-themed ranger? Give it about 12 years. Of course, give it an additional two years and you don't need to leave ''Power Rangers''.
  • A samurai ranger who can become a Super Samurai? It Will Never Catch On.
    • He also isn't the last Green Samurai Ranger with a Super Samurai Mode.
  • The proposal for Hexagon would've included a dark yellow member of the Thunder rangers, but as said proposal was scrapped, the idea wasn't used. Toei apparently thought it was a good idea, since when the Gouraigers (the sentai counterparts to the Thunder rangers) appeared in Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger, they were accompanied by a Canon Immigrant third member, TentoRaiger, whose color was, you guessed it, dark yellow.
  • This won't be the only time Sally Martin portrayed someone named Tori.
  • This was the first series produced completely under Disney. The Rangers used Power Discs to summon weapons and tools for their Megazords. About 10 years later (after Disney had sold the franchise back to Haim Saban), they would have their own versions of Power Discs.
  • Shane and Tori were a fairly common ship but never expressed any attraction to each other in canon. Their actors went on to play friends-turned-lovers in the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street.
  • In "Good Will Hunter", it was mentioned Dustin wrecked his video camera by taping it to his helmet and then slamming into a tree. GoPro, while founded the year before the season aired, was basically born from the same idea (action sports enthusiast wanting to capture high quality footage of their own attempts) — it simply took a while for the technology to catch up before the company's offerings became widespread by the early 2010s.
  • This season features a Zord called the "Dragonforce Vehicle". In 2008, DragonForce^note Formed four years before Ninja Storm aired released the song "Strike The Ninja". Linkara lampshaded this by playing a clip from the song during a scene that featured the Dragonforce Vehicle in his re-uploaded retrospective of Ninja Storm.
• Ho Yay: Hunter is shipped with Cam, Dustin, or both.
• Informed Wrongness: Dustin in "Tongue and Cheek". He's scolded for morphing into his ranger costume to scare away some thugs, who were about to trash Kelly's store. However, Dusten didn't get violent, and simply intimidated the thugs into leaving, which was still upholding the Rangers' principal about not escalating a situation. He's later chewed out, for fighting a monster on his own, instead of asking Shane for help. The problem with this, is that Shane was skateboarding in front of a news crew. If Dustin had interrupted Shane during the filming, it would have ruined Shane's chance to get on TV anyway in addition to running the risk of blowing his cover. Dustin does develop some Acquired Situational Narcissism, but he gets chewed out well-before then (which could explain why he would let the fame go to his head). And the one character really letting him have it is Shane, who later admits to just being jealous.
• Moe:
  • Marah, due to her happy-go-lucky nature, Open Mouth, Insert Foot tendencies, and how she has more moments of emotional vulnerability than the average villain in the franchise.
  • Tori is a particularly capable Action Girl, but her status as a caring and down-to-earth peacemaker who (unusually for the show) is largely devoid of over-the-top moments can still make her count.
• Popularity Polynomial: Much like Lost Galaxy, it was considered a fan favorite when it first aired but has lost a few ranks due to having better received following seasons since (though it's far from being one of the more disliked seasons). However, some fans did adore this season for various reasons (The tone, Lothor's plan, the designs, the Rangers themselves...), as well as the Lighter and Softer approach after the drama-heavy Wild Force. By the 2010's this was back to being beloved, if the Power Rangers Marathon Stream is anything to go by, since the only season that was as anticipated as Ninja Storm was Dino Thunder - yes, you read that right; this season was more anticipated than Power Rangers RPM or Power Rangers in Space. The fact that the next ninja-themed season is currently seen as So Okay, It's Average overall helps this one.
• Retroactive Recognition: Colonel Truman sent Lothor into space!
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The theme song sounds a bit like "Help Me, Rhonda" by The Beach Boys.
• Unintentional Period Piece: Between the slang and the Rangers being into skateboarding, motocross, etc., not to mention the early use of Serkis Folk on Sensei, it's obvious this was the mid-2000s.

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