Power Rangers Super Megaforce: Samurai Surprise review

You know, for the past three years I’ve been in various states, from actively despising Power Rangers to just being downright apathetic. That all started to change when Power Rangers Super Megaforce premiered. We started getting some decent pacing and even fun character moments. This week’s episode, “Samurai Surprise,” brought it all together and presented us with our first returning cast member for the season.

Actually, we got two! The episode opens with Jake and Noah shopping, where they run across a familiar motorcycle. That’s right; Mentor Ji from Power Rangers Samurai makes a surprise appearance that even the online fandom didn’t find out about! I follow Power Rangers news online far more than one should, so the fact even I was surprised by this? It made me smile. Thank god Jason David Frank wasn’t around to spoil it.

We get to see more of Prince Vekar this week and he’s quickly turning into one of my favorite Power Rangers villains. He’s such a brat and can barely fight to save his life. He’s trying to impress his father and failing. The Power Rangers even openly mock him to his face and around his subordinates. I don’t think a Ranger team has ever taunted a villain like that and I love every second of it. After the rangers do their super mega roll call he whines, “Super mega hurry up already!” Beauty.

In that same fight we also get our first Mighty Morphin Power Rangers change of the season and it’s delightfully unremarkable. All of the past changes this season have had little fanfare so it’s nice to see MMPR be treated the same way. Even the Samurai change later on doesn’t go all out. Would it be nice to have the theme songs of the various seasons play? Sure, but at least we get lines like, “Power Bow!” Little things go a long way, as I’ve said before.

The second biggest moment of the episode occurs in Ernie’s, where the group is creeped on by Samurai Red Ranger, Jayden. No joke, he actually says, “We’ve been watching you.” It always feels like, somebody’s watchinnn meeeee! He throws them a power disc and disappears until the Zord fight, which he watches with Ji. They somehow give the Rangers the power to make a new megazord combination and even make time to make a reference to Samurai with a joke about Mia’s bad cooking. They then ride off into the distance. Some people may complain it wasn’t enough, but I loved it. It opens up questions about what they’ve been up to, and what exactly Jayden meant when he said he was watching them? World building!

Well, nowhere near as much as the main fight of the episode. Oh yes, the best moment. Not only do we get a reappearance of Power Rangers New Powers (aka Dairanger) but also Power Rangers Blitz New Powers (aka Maskman) and Power Rangers Bet You Didn’t See That One Coming (aka Flashman.) Yep, we get more Sentai teams shown on screen that were never on screen in America and I couldn’t be happier. To me, they aren’t Sentai teams. They’re teams we’ve never seen before and that just opens up the universe of Power Rangers. Where did they come from? Who created them? Well, for now I’ll just say Power Rangers Take Flight is canon, half the teams are from Edenoi, hand picked by Prince Dex, and the Battle Fever suits are the Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters. Prove me wrong. Gorangers on the ACG cards? Five Pink in the opening fight of Megaforce? All those symbols in Tommy’s office during Dino Thunder? The Goranger picture in Sky’s quarters? ALL CANON. It was the master plan.

I haven’t been this excited about the Power Rangers universe or the show itself in a long time. Jason Smith, hats off to you to my good sir. I know the usage of Sentai teams probably had nothing to do with you but hats off to it anyway. The Samurai references were subtle and not overblown (even the use of bad puns and terrible stock music felt right at home.)

Our next episode, featuring Casey the Zookeeper, has a lot to live up to. Can Super Megaforce deliver? For the first time since the premiere of Samurai, I actually have hope.

Let me know what you guys think? Enjoy this episode? Love the inclusion of pre Zyuranger sentai? Think Saban is just lazy? Let me know in the comments!

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