Power Rangers Samurai / YMMV

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- When Deker betrays Serrator, is it just a case of Even Evil Has Standards, or did he have a more personal reason for it? While he doesn't remember Dayu at all, he does know he was cursed and once human, and he did learn that Serrator did create Uramasa and thus showed him a cursed existence. So it could be equally likely (perhaps even on a subconscious level) to be payback for making him this way. Also, in The Ultimate Duel, was Deker really going to attack random people if Jayden didn't show up to duel him or did he only say that to scare him into accepting? The later standards he showed when stopping Serrator's world-dooming plan would seem to suggest the latter.
- Is Master Xandred a full-on Bad Boss who cares very little about his minions or does he actually care for the other Nighlok (including Dayu) and is just too much of a being of rage to show it well?
Aluminum Christmas Trees:
- Yes, there is at least one instance of a feudal samurai that wasn't Japanese, as seen here. Japan also had the Nanban Trade Period in the 16th and 17th century, where they traded a lot with the Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch.
- A surprising amount of research into actual samurai went into the show, to the point some people have assumed the writers didn't do their homework due to how obscure certain elements are. For example, the "ninja mask" that appears before the Ranger's helmets appear were actually worn by real samurai to help hold their helmets in place, and the face in the belt of Shogun Mode is based off actual belt buckles worn by certain noble samurai.
- The "ninja mask" was more of a happy accident. One of the early waves of toys was the return of the "Auto-Morphin" figures^*. These were made so early in production that casting hadn't even been finalized yet, so they had to hide their faces with themed balaclavas, then put the masks in the show to justify it.
Awesome Music:
- The opening theme, as well as several of the background themes.
- "Samurai Morphing (Mega Mode/Folding Zords)" is a great piece that features awesome guitar riffs and hoinstrumentation.
Base-Breaking Character:
- Master Xandred. Some consider him to be a menacing villain, but some consider him to be even more inept than Lothor. Basically, he's got a cool design, and his two instances ever of actually doing something either are or aren't enough to overlook 40+ episodes of doing nothing but sitting on his big red behind drinking his "medicine."
- Jayden. He does have a sizable fanbase who like his stoic personality, his leadership and having some sympathetic traits whilst others criticize him for having shreds of the Creator's Pet trope.
Broken Base:
- Fans are divided if Samurai and Super Samurai should be counted as two separate seasons or as one season spread over two years, seeing how it was filmed as a single season, but ultimately broadcast as two (future incarnations would be designed to have two seasons apiece from the outset). For the record, Saban Brands officially considers them to be separate seasons.
- The RPM team-up "Clash of the Red Rangers" started to split fans before it ever aired. Once it was confirmed that none of the RPM actors were planned to return, some people were already saying that if they don't have the RPM actors available, they just shouldn't bother, while others said that we should just wait and see, since they might surprise us. (Turns out they didn't. A never-demorphing Scott went through Shinkenger movie footage that wasn't used to actually tell much of a story, and was confusing due to yet more out-of-order airing.) However, many RPM fans who went in admitted they were at least glad Eka Darville returned, even if he had to use a pseudonym due to a union contract.
Captain Obvious Reveal: Spike isn't revealed to be Skull's son until the final episode, but anybody who watched an episode from the first six seasons was able to figure it out given Skull was Bulk's Only Friend, and there was never any indication Bulk had any siblings, meaning Bulk was more likely to be an Honorary Uncle.
Complete Monster: Serrator, the Nighlok King, outclasses even Master Xandred in terms of evil. A horrible boss, Serrator introduces himself slaughtering an army of Master Xandred's Moogers and will callously throw away the lives of any of his minions if it suits him. Taking pleasure in tormenting the Rangers, Serrator attempts to force a group of Islanders to fight to the death to perfect his new gun weapons. Serrator later betrays Xandred, and attempts to kill Xandred's Co-Dragons Octoroo and Dayu. Serrator reveals to Dayu and Dekker that he is responsible for turning them into accursed Nighloks for all of eternity, taking pleasure in their suffering. Serrator also uses far viler minions than Xandred to attempt mass death and destruction on the populace in order to create cracks in the Earth at specific points, which Serrator plans to use to split the Earth so the Netherworld floods it, in an attempt to take over both worlds. Callous to the potential deaths of billions of human and Nighlok alike due to his plan, and sadistic to horrific degrees, Serrator is one of the nastiest foes to ever face the Rangers.
Contested Sequel: Coming after RPM, this was inevitable. Samurai is often touted as a bad season by fans, and many older fans call it outright one of the worst seasons in the franchise (Tied with or rivaling Turbo, Wild Force, Operation Overdrive and Megaforce)- it's more often than not almost a direct adaptation of Shinkenger (Japanese values not translating well into American culture is a big complaint of this), and the acting of the Rangers at the start is often horrible, with the general exception of the Green and Gold Rangers. For Power Rangers RPM fans, this season is bad because of a teamup named Clash of the Red Rangers, where only the Red RPM Ranger was brought back (and doesn't even de-morph during the production).
- Much like Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, many felt like this was a meh season that still had some good ideas. Bulk's return was welcome, Deker's character arc was well-received, and Lauren was praised for being the first female Red Ranger who was also a good guy.
- And now, Megaforce is considered even worse.
Creepy Awesome: Deker and Serrator.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Deker, played by Rick Medina, also known as Cole from Wild Force is pretty much why people kept watching after he debuted. Wonder why?
- Serrator is very popular due to being a far more interesting and impactful villain than Master Xandred. Many fans wished that Serrator was the Big Bad instead and were disappointed that he ended up being a Disc-One Final Boss.
- For a monster that got one episode, Fiera was pretty well-received for her cool design, powers, and voice actor.
- Lauren, primarily due to being one of the very few female Red Rangers. So much so that she made it in to the Morphing Madness contest and several years later became a prominent figure in the Shattered Grid comic event. She's also the sole Ranger representative for the Samurai team in both Power Rangers: Legacy Wars and Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid.
Epileptic Trees: The second this series was announced, some fans began speculating if Saban would adapt the crossover with Kamen Rider Decade from the source material, either to tie into Masked Rider or something entirely different.
- When it was confirmed that the series would crossover with RPM, and said crossover confirmed that RPM was in an alternate dimension, some fans suspected that RPM was set in the main universe, and Samurai was in the alternate universe - mainly due to the fact that, not only did Samurai reference previous teams as if they were all Samurai rangers, but the confusion expressed by the other rangers about another Red being present during said crossover (while the former could be explained away as them referring to only previous Samurai rangers, if they were in the main universe, they would at least know about some of the other teams). Power Rangers Megaforce jossed this theory, since not only was it shown that Samurai was in the same world as Mighty Morphin-Jungle Fury, but also had the Megaforce rangers visit Corinth (or at least an alternate universe version of Corinth).
Evil Is Cool:
- Deker is a swordsman whose Noble Demon personalty and badass moments have made him very popular with the fandom.
- Serrator. Perhaps the most badass character in the show. He shows his power to Master Xandred by destroying an entire army of moogers. Later, he gets a Moment of Awesome during his fight with the Rangers: he defeats them easily, turns their own attacks against them, and to top it all off, he says that he wasn't even trying.
- Master Xandred took the title of the most badass character in the show from Serrator and makes him look like a mooger. Just watch "The Master Returns".
Fan Nickname: Mentor Mentor; or Mentor, the Mentor.
Fan-Preferred Cut Content: There's also some that feel this way about Amit Bhaumik's proposal for Samurai - of his 3 proposals^note, his Samurai adaptation is seen as the most feasible due to requiring the least amount of original footage^note, and the plot is seen as vastly superior to the end result. Said plot, found here in case you're curious, would've focused on a rivalry between Mark Ozawa (the red of the season) and Keiji Ayakawa (a Jarrod-esque character who would've taken Deker's role and led the Ashura clan), would've still involved Mark's family having generations of samurai (but this generation would be the first generation of Samurai Rangers) and had Mark lead an international team of rangers (with Allison, his cousin, taking the place of Lauren later on). Notably, Bulk would've still been part of the cast, but Spike would've instead been replaced with Bulk's son Eugene (who would take Antonio's place as the Gold Ranger), and Bulk would've taken on a role similar to the kuroko in Shinkenger. Ultimately, Mark would've been revealed to have been Keiji's long-lost brother, and after one final duel, Keiji and Mark would've put aside their differences and settle the feud between the Ozawa clan and the Ashura Clan for good.
Fanon: Given the final episode has Skull shows up in a limousine to pick up Spike most fans assume Skull has become very rich in the time since we last saw him. The most commonly cited theory as the source of his wealth is that Skull refined his piano skills from Power Rangers Zeo and became a professional pianist.
Genius Bonus: Let's count the rangers; Jayden the Red Ranger, Kevin the Blue Ranger, Mai the Pink Ranger, Mike the Green Ranger, Emily the Yellow Ranger, Antonio the Gold Ranger and Lauren, the actual Red Ranger. That makes Seven Samurai (one of which a self-made Rōnin), tasked with defending a town against what are essentially an invading army.
Growing the Beard: Depending on who you ask, some felt Deker's introduction was when the series started to improve. Others think it was when Super Samurai started, when the actors got better with their performances.
Harsher in Hindsight: Ricardo Medina Jr's role as sword-wielding villain, Deker, became this after Medina ended up having an altercation with his roommate, ending with said roommate being killed with a sword and Medina pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter.
He Really Can Act:
- Ricardo Medina. Okay, he's not Oscar-caliber or anything, but he's come quite a ways from Wild Force.
- Hector David, Jr. (Mike) and Steven Skyler (Antonio) are touted even by fans who hate the series as the only good actors on the show.
- Kimberley Crossman does a terrific job as Lauren, specifically playing up the character's sense of abandonment and isolation.
Hilarious in Hindsight: "Party Monsters" was the first real attempt to shake up the Shinkenger formula, by having the Nighloks able to wind up in a "third life", which was little more than a harmless ghost. Actually this had been done in the sentai that came before, Engine Sentai Go-onger, where the recurring villain Hiramechimedes came (arguably) Back from the Dead one last time, as a yuurei or ghost.
- Ironically, while the execution was different, the idea of a "third life" was used in Shinkenger, except it's arguably much more impressive - whereas Samurai has the idea Played for Laughs, in Shinkenger, a third life allowed the user to grow larger than any mech the heroes had. And the episode was adapted into Samurai.
- There was talk about that the Shinkenger's Super Mode would entail, and a few subscribed to the theory that the kanji on their helmets would double up. Cue the Shogun Samurai Rangers forms, which have the kanji doubled up.
- Since Disney took over, fans were clamoring for Saban to reacquire the franchise. Disney finally killed the franchise after Power Rangers RPM, one of the most beloved seasons, only for Saban to pick up the franchise again and produced this season, one of the most despised seasons.
- Many fans have complained (as referenced below) that Samurai is too similar to Shinkenger and they may as well have just dubbed the series. Well, an year later, Kamen Rider Decade received an English Dub courtesy of Hong Kong, which included the Shinkenger crossover.
Ho Yay: Jayden and Antonio
It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Some long-time fans are already criticizing Samurai for being too similar to Shinkenger. Not the first time this criticism has arose to a Power Ranger series that's too similar to their source material, incidentally.
- Others are criticizing it for referencing things that never happened in Samurai but did in Shinkenger, making it closer to They Changed It, Now It Sucks! because it's not the same. For instance, unlike Shinken Green, Mike acts rebellious for all of one episode (that we've seen), but Master Ji continues acting as though Mike is still rebellious, simply because of how Shinken Green behaved in the original script.
- Subverted by Antonio, the Gold Ranger. While he is a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass and Large Ham like Shinken Gold, he's a different kind of ham than Genta. And he's been received somewhat more positively as well.
- It did eventually began to push itself away from Shinkenger in some parts as it's progressed. Among other things, Deker's backstory has been changed drastically making him and Dayu be connected before, during and after becoming Nighloks; with both overall becoming much more sympathetic figures.
Jerkass Woobie:
- Deker, given that he's trapped in a cursed existence and ultimately wants to die; not to mention that he does not remember any of the moments of his life before he was turned into a Nighlok.
- Dayu has it even worse. She lost her husband when trying to save his life after he was caught in their house's fire by making a deal with the Nighlok King only for said husband to become a ruthless, amnesiac Nighlok, Deker, who left her in pursuit of a fight, has to watch Deker die and gives up hope on becoming a human again. Even when her final moments are sacrificing herself to empower Xandred so he can bring about the end of the world since she no longer cares about anything due to Deker's death, it's all shown in a surprisingly sympathetic manner with even Mia showing horror at her end.
Love to Hate: Serrator. One thing PR fans will all universally agree on about Samurai is how badass and evil Serrator is.
Magnificent Bastard: Deker is a swordsman who was cursed to wander the earth as a Human-Nighlok hybrid. Seeking the "Ultimate Duel" to end his curse, Deker declares the Red Ranger Jayden Shiba his rival, constantly saving him from Master Xandred's minions so that he can fight Jayden himself and threatens to harm innocent people should Jayden refuse. Though seemingly killed by Jayden, Deker returns and helps Serrator in his schemes only to betray the Nighlok King once he fixes Deker's sword, foiling his plans in the process. Deker then faces Jayden in one last duel before being killed, accepting his death now that he's free from his curse.
Memetic Mutation:
- Emily and those wacky arms◊ from the episode "The Team Unites" (sort of).
- "Wow! He's so sparkly!" (Emily's line when Antonio first morphs. Also, a very common top comment on YouTube of videos about Antonio.
- Samurai's negative reputation as a whole- listen to some fans and they compare to the end of the universe.
Mis-blamed: Many Power Rangers RPM fans blame the Samurai crossover movie Clash of the Red Rangers for putting RPM in an alternative dimension. The thing is Eddie Guzelian (who wrote for, and executive produced Power Rangers RPM, before getting replaced by Judd Lynn) has said RPM took place in an alternate continuity from the rest of the series when RPM was in production.
- Some fans still blame Saban Brands for splitting Samurai into 2 20-episodes seasons even though that was Nick's decision. Saban also gets blamed for the third episode airing first even though that was also Nick's choice so they could air the first two episodes as an hour long special later.
- In an odd example, some fans correctly blame Toei for the show having more roots in Japanese Culture, but for the wrong reasons. Some fans believe that Toei did so just because Disney tried to meddle with the Sentai footage and tone it down, in an act of retaliation. However, a more likely scenario is that Toei made Shinkenger under the then-correct assumption that the series wouldn't be adapted into Power Rangers^note (in fact, it's possible that this mindset may have continued into Goseiger, which, although angel-themed, had episodes more entrenched in Japanese culture in comparison to, oh say, Dekaranger), since it's evident that starting with Gokaiger, they were filming footage in a more adaptable way^note, and it was just bad luck that Saban happened to regain the rights after Shinkenger had finished airing^note.
Moral Event Horizon: See the page for examples.
Narm: The Monster of the Week's big plan is... making a little boy give up baseball... Made even more narm-y by Mia's line of "This is what you get for making Ryan sad!" (Then again, he lied that by giving up on baseball, the boy's father would return home from the army.)^noteThis made a lot more sense in Shinkenger where not only was the deal to bring back the boy's dead grandfather, but instead of just throwing out his equipment, the deal was to jump off a building and break his leg.
- In "A Fish Out of Water", the new Zord is a swordfish. When it combines with the Megazord in the obligatory boss battle, the final attack has the mech's usual katana attaching to the swordfish helmet which sticks straight up! Someone should dub it "Narwhal Mode" or take a clip of its head-sword-swinging Finishing Move and synch it to Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair."
- "Forest for the Trees" features innocent bystanders wangsting and actively lamenting with a passion usually reserved for the death of loved ones... a sudden downpour. It was caused by a Nighlok, but still... (Of course, it was supernatural rain made to cause wangst.)
- In one episode, a Monster of the Week tries to bring down Yellow Ranger's confidenc with such lines as "Everyone loves to tease you!" Though in his defense, he'd already tried half a dozen other insults on her with no effect.
- Octoroo's big plan in "The Blue and the Gold"? Stealing toys, which from the looks of it, can all be easily replaced. Not that that's much comfort to kids who lost their favorites...^note
Never Live It Down: Mentor Jii will always be known for not letting Antonio into the Samurai Rangers. Any instances of him having faith in Antonio for awakening Claw Zord and the Black Box, being impressed at making a Samuraizer, giving him inspirational speeches, or keeping him from straining himself never happened.
Older Than They Think: This isn't the first Sentai with a samurai theme that we officially got.
One-Scene Wonder: The final episode has Jason Navry come out of retirement to play Skull one final time, with it being shown Navry hasn't lost his talent for playing the character in his decade long absence.
One True Pairing: Jayden and Antonio are the most popular ship of the season. The two have been friends since childhood and share a huge amount of Ho Yay together. Antonio even becomes a Ranger specifically to help Jayden. They have the most fanfiction about them on Archive of Our Own, topping even Official Couple Mike and Emily.
Pandering to the Base: Many people believe that Samurai is playing on people's nostalgia for the original Mighty Morphin by returning to the original "Go Go Power Rangers!" theme song, the morphing call, and bringing back Bulk.
Paranoia Fuel: Any crack or crevice can be a potential portal for a Nighlok... Sweet dreams.
- In "The Blue and the Gold," the monster was in Bulk and Spike's house while they were asleep, completely unnoticed. Although the "unnoticed" part was partly because it was Bulk and Spike. It's not hard to imagine that this was how he stole the children's toys (aside from the ones we saw in the park). Let me repeat that: the monster snuck into houses with children in them without anyone noticing.
The Scrappy: Mentor Ji is considered one of, if not the, worst mentor in the franchise for being a crappy teacher, his blatant favouritism towards Jayden, his self-righteous attitude, his redundant name, and his tendency to put down Antonio for not being born into a Samurai lineage.
Ships That Pass in the Night: Lauren/Mia is surprisingly popular, even though the two barely interact, mainly due to Mia being one of the few members on the team to be kind to Lauren from the start, Lauren being the only one to like Mia's cooking, and it falling into the long-standing tradition of shipping Red and Pink Rangers.
Special Effect Failure: The digital animation sticks out like a sore thumb. On the other hand, one could find it preferable to Shinkenger's.
- In "The Blue and Gold," Octoroo's mouthpiece was changed for a few scenes, ostensibly to make it less creepy. The change was discarded almost immediately.
- There's also the Gold Ranger helmet, which switches between practically mirror-coated and more like frosted glass. It even did so in Shinkenger footage, so it can't be blamed on Japan/US prop differences (They probably used the frosted glass one to avoid accidentally reflecting the camera crew in his helmet.)
- In "Jayden's Challenge," and likely a few other places, when Kevin jumps into battle, it cuts to a second of Kevin's (obvious) stunt actor.◊ The stunt actor does a pretty good job of hiding his face; unfortunately, he does this with his hands. The problem being Kevin's actor is black and the stunt actor is (likely) Japanese. Previous teams actually used makeup tricks◊ to match the stunties to the actors,◊ with results that can be downright creepy,◊ but that might lean a little too close to blackface for the current team (or they were short for time, who knows?)
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Samurai started suffering from this early. When the casting sheets went out, the characters had the names Reese, Parry, Baron, Sadie, and Ava. Fans got a little upset when the names were changed to the slightly more generic Jayden, Mike, Kevin, Mia, and Emily. (Much later, it was revealed that the mentor's name wasn't Takeru, but Ji; and later still the Sixth Ranger's name was shown to have gone from Wesley to Antonio.)
- "Reese", "Parry", and "Baron" could still work as the respective characters' last names.
- Interestingly, there had already been a Ranger called Mike in a past season. Generally, the writers and producers avoid the repetition of names when casting actors/actresses for newer Rangers; in all likelihood, this was probably unintentional given that production for this season was very rushed, so they probably had no time to think about this minor detail.
- The toy designs are also receiving criticism - most understandably in the case of the Megazord, which lost a number of its details in the transition from Shinken-oh, but also for the new Ranger figures, which were given samurai-armor-esque revamps including Shoulders of Doom. This has been given some in-show justification, however (they use the armored form while piloting the zords), and they also made normal Ranger figures.
  - Though that isn't really the series' fault, as rumor has it the figures were made prior to Saban buying back the rights to Power Rangers, when it was expected that Power Rangers RPM was to be the final season.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Clash of the Red Rangers. Where do we even begin? Well, for one thing, at one point in the story the Samurai Rangers (barring Jayden) are sucked into the RPM-verse by Professor Cog's portal. Now, the idea of a team of Samurai crashing into an After the End setting where humanity is fighting for survival against a virus and its army of machines would make for a pretty good plot. And it would also have been great to see how the Samurai Rangers would work with the RPM Rangers. So, what do we get out of this possibly awesome plot thread? The Samurai team returns after being gone for a while, and Emily tells Scott "Your team says hi." That's all we get.
- Scott's comment that he wasn't sure the air was breathable is a carryover from Go-Onger more than RPM. The issue of not de-morphing could have been easily addressed by saying that he might not have enough power to morph again or perhaps have a point about a dwindling power supply for the suit. Either point would have given the loaned power disc in the third act greater significance.
- Also, the footage of the Shinkenger movie was wasted on a Random Events Plot.
- As noted under Artistic License – History on the main page, in real life, traditional Japanese clans would hand down leadership to the first born son of the family - meaning that regardless of how old Lauren was at the time Jayden had been born, he would have gotten priority over Lauren, unless either a), Lauren was Jayden's older Brother, or b), Jayden was not biologically born a member of the Shiba clan. There are 2 possible plots wasted: if Lauren had been made the Red Ranger first and Jayden came in to replace her instead of the other way around (what actually happened), this could have given us our first full-time female Red Ranger; the other plot is that Jayden could have been ADOPTED, and the series could have delivered An Aesop about how being adopted does not make one any lesser than someone biologically born into a family.
Tough Act to Follow: Coming after Shinkenger and RPM and running at the same time as Gokaiger, you bet it is.
Values Dissonance: Inevitable when they're trying to be entirely accurate to Shinkenger.
- One example: In "Sticks and Stones," Emily tells the team how she was bullied as a child and was taught by her sister to ignore what the bullies said. This is a common part of Japanese culture and seems fitting in an American show. Then you realize it seems to be implied that Emily never told anyone else about the bullies. The flashback seems to suggest that only her sister (a Power Ranger in training) helped her out, whereas she could have told her parents, a teacher or some other Reasonable Authority Figure.
  - Sadly, though, this is more or less in tune with children's shows, where Adults Are Useless. And fairly common amongst bullied children in any corner of the world. Many of them will internalize and not tell anybody for several reasons. Parents, who might not understand how severe the bullying is (or assume that it's a rite of passage in childhood), will likely tell children to simply get over it. Similarly, telling a parent or teacher, who usually can do very little to stop it in the first place, can make bullying worse.
Vindicated by History: Inverted. Samurai has been the reason many, many fans have looked back on previously disliked seasons (Turbo, Wild Force and Operation Overdrive are frequently cited, although the Disney Era as a whole has received this outside of Dino Thunder, SPD and RPM) and given them a more positive reception, they hate Samurai that much.
- Played straight now when people flocked to this season after Super/Megaforce, many people citing this season actually had a story (though a carbon copy of Shinkenger that it occasionally diverged from) and good budgeting that led to great production sets, as well as acting that got noticeably better over time. The current opinion of the fandom is mostly So Okay, It's Average these days, as there are things like Deker and the return of Bulk that were liked.
Wangst: An extensive portion of Jayden's characterization is his accepting that he's part of a team, since he doesn't want the others getting involved with the fight against Xandred. Unfortunately, due to Saban replicating the ''Shinkenger'' script all but verbatim without accounting for detail, he ends up learning the exact same teamwork moral under the exact same set of circumstances ''twice'', each time using the "I want to fight alone" excuse, which somewhat dampens the whole arc. ^note
The Woobie: Emily became this in "Sticks and Stones." See Values Dissonance on top for some details.
- Ryan from "Deal with A Nighlok" can be considered one, too.
- Lauren dedicated her entire life to mastering a sealing technique, only for it to fail.

YMMV / Power Rangers Samurai

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