10 Better Ways to Adapt Shinkenger
Samurai. It is one of the most controversial series in Power Rangers history. It took its source material, the decently popular Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, translated the scripts, watered down the drama and the characters, added some crappy side characters and called it a show. Samurai had it's high points, like the Deker and Dayu story and the Lauren story. A direct translation of a good story is certainly better than no story at all. Sure, it would've been hard to get around the overly Asian influences, but other than that Shinkenger is a pretty decent blank slate that could've been anything. It's been a long time coming, but it's time for Samurai to have its due.
#10 - Samurai Academy Third time's a charm? I personally think it is totally weird that ninja and kung fu academies exist in America, especially when there is no real explanation behind how or why someone gets in. Like is it ninja Hogwarts or is it like a charter boarding school? Like this is definitely the worst premise ever. Anyway. If there was a secret Samurai academy training kids in Symbol Power and then some idiot wants more power or whatever and turns into Deker and then awakens Xandred and so the teacher (there's always only one) has to select his five best students and they become the Samurai Rangers and boom. Instant story, explanation for everyone being not Japanese, everybody happy.
#9 - Tech It Up with Antonio I love Antonio. While characters like Billy, Ethan, and Noah are cliché depictions of what Hollywood things a computer nerd is, Antonio is someone who looks like he belongs in a boy band. And yet he hacked into a Zord, communicates with it through texting, and created artificial Symbol Power to be able to morph in the same fashion as the Samurai Rangers. What if that's where all these powers came from? Similar to how Dino seasons get power from ancient dinosaurs, the Samurai could've gotten hi tech weaponry powered by Japanese mythological creatures and folklore.
#8 - Put 'em on the Beach You got a fisherman Ranger, villains trapped in a river, and more aquatic based Zords than one might realize. Upplaying the aquatic theme might have clashed with the Samurai thing, but these are the same people who put many a fairy tale Sentai in space. What if the dojo was on a boat house? What if ALL the Rangers went fishing together? That'd be cool. Hell, make Octoroo the main villain, because he is a squid face and all. It might not please everyone who ever dreamed of a season based on Atlantis or something like Sea Lab, but it would be close.
#7 - Deker Was Cole All Along It might make no sense at the time but it'll pay off a couple years later.
#6 - The Reverse Time Force Okay, the more I think about this the less it is backwards Time Force and just forwards Zyuranger. Basically, what if instead of being the decendents of long gone Samurai, the Rangers were the same samurai that defeated Xandred centuries ago in Japan. Now they have been revived or brought to the future or whatever... In America for some reason... Yeah. There could be some cool fish out of water stuff a la Koda... I guess the "why aren't they all Japanese" thing would still be an issue. But still, at least it's an idea.
#5 - Ditch the Mentor It's not thatI don't like Ji or anything. Some of the best seasons don't have traditional mentors, and Ji didn't really do much except alert the Rangers to an attack and give them an occasional pep talk. Do we ever see him even pick up a sword? When Rangers are on their own, without guidance, that is when they learn the most and grow the most. When they can make their own mistakes and not have someone to help them pick up the pieces.
#4 - Personify the Zords This has been a common trope in Modern Sentai, with the Kyoryugers having a close bond to their dinosaurs and the Engines in Go-Onger actually talking. The Folding Zords are only occasionally seen in miniature mode, but what if they were around like that all the time? Each one would be a best friend and foil to their respective Rangers, a part of their character development as they grow as Samurai. The only issue here would be how to handle all the auxiliary Zords, although it could be just as simple as having them bond to the other Rangers. Jayden gets the Red Lion and the White Tiger, Kevin gets the Dragon and the Shark... or was it a swordfish? You get the idea. Plus kids would certainly be more inclined to buy them if they were actual characters.
#3 - Tribal Wars This one is for fans of Avatar. Similar to how they could've stripped the angelic themes from Goseiger and kept the different tribes, what if the Samurai Rangers were actually members of six different elemental tribes. Keep the Symbol Power and make the katana just be tribal sabers and cut out the Asian thing all together. Maybe they're all like modern Native Americans, keeping the traditions but still wearing jeans and using cell phones. Deker could be a disgraced member of the Fire Clan, maybe it was the Water Clan that trapped Master Xandred. I mean come on, Bleach had a billion main characters dressed like samurai but they didn't call them samurai and that show had over 350 episodes even though it was terrible.
#2 - Give Them a Villain Master Xandred spent most of the his two year tenure as a main villain sitting down and getting drunk off medicine. I understand, on a budgetary level, keeping the footage when the villains are all in suits, but here there was no real threat to Xandred. Sure, most villains let their minions do their work for them, but when Xandred does a whole lot of nothing the whole time it kind of cheapens his... Everything. They didn't even need to create a new, human-faced villain. Even if they just reused all the suits and filmed new footage of Xandred standing up for once, he could be a more established threat instead of a lamebrain who makes Octomus and Omni look cool.
#1 - Jetman What if Jayden is Japanese, a descendent of the original Shiba clan? All the other clans died out, but there are small traces of them that have in their descendants. The bloodlines are diluted over times, which is why everyone else is not Japanese. Here is where it gets Jetmany. The Red Ranger has been training in the way of the Samurai his whole life, while everyone else is just some rando. A farmer, a high schooler, a socialite, a rapist. Red has to work to turn four strangers who have never held a sword into Samurai warriors. And then, in the end, when they're all standing by his side, that is when his mission, win or lose, will be complete.
This has been a Throwback Thursday Edition Article! Be sure to check out other throwback articles to come!
