Power Rangers Samurai



""Go Go Samurai!" "Gold Power!""

The 18th season (or officially 19th and 20th seasons - it's complicated; see Sequel Number Snarl below) and latest UnCancellation of the Power Rangers franchise, using Ranger, Monster, and Zord footage from Samurai Sentai Shinkenger.

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 flood the human world.

The first season produced by Haim Saban after taking the license back from Disney, it's become clear is that Saban is banking on nostalgia for the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. They've revived the classic theme song and are referencing it in the morph call, and they've gotten Paul Schrier to reprise his role as Bulk, half of the original series' Those Two Guys. In terms of story, it is sticking very close to that of Samurai Sentai Shinkenger (arguably the closest any Power Rangers season has stuck to its Super Sentai counterpart). Your Mileage May Vary on how good or bad that makes it. Unlike the first half, some episodes of Super Samurai differ greatly from their Shinkenger counterparts -- most notably, the episode "Super Samurai," which has an entirely different story than of the episode it uses footage from. Also, "The Rescue" "He's Not Heavy Metal He's My Brother" and a "Strange Case of the Munchies" and to a lesser extent "Shell Game" and even lesser "Runaway Spike" differ from their Sentai counterparts.

The second half of this series is branded as Power Rangers Super Samurai.

Recurring Power Rangers tropes include:

 * Big Bad: Master Xandred
 * Chest Insignia: The team logo on the left over the heart and personal kanji on the face of the helmet.
 * Brought to You by The Letter "S": The kanji qualify.
 * 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.
 * The Dragon: Serrator
 * Evil Plan: Xandred's plan to use humans' tears of despair to make the Sanzu flood the human world.
 * Five-Man Band: There are three Smart Guys on the team.
 * The Hero: Jayden
 * The Big Guy: Kevin
 * The Heart: Mia
 * The Lancer: Mike
 * The Chick: Emily
 * Sixth Ranger: Antonio
 * Five-Token Band: The Red and Yellow Rangers are Caucasian, the Blue Ranger is African-American, the Pink Ranger is Asian, the Green Ranger is Latino, and the Gold Ranger is European Spanish (blatantly and stereotypically so, especially in the interview).
 * 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.
 * Ninja Storm itself is this to the third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, also with an eight year gap. Freaky.
 * Even more amusing, 8 years Disney went with the Japanese heroes motif, then when Saban gets it back, this is what they do.
 * Home Base: the Shiba House
 * Humongous Mecha: The Samurai Megazord
 * Animal Mecha
 * King of Beasts: Lion Zord
 * Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons: Dragon Zord
 * Turtle Power: Turtle Zord
 * Everything's Worse with Bears: Bear Zord
 * Everything's Better with Monkeys: Ape Zord
 * Big Creepy-Crawlies: Beetle Zord
 * The Catfish: Swordfish Zord (it at least takes this role during its debut episode)
 * Panthera Awesome: Tiger Zord
 * Big Badass Bird of Prey: the SamuraiBattlewing, formed from the Beetle, Swordfish, and Tiger Zords
 * Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods: Octozord
 * Giant Enemy Crab (giant arthropod, at any rate): Clawzord
 * Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: Shark Zord
 * A Load of Bull: Bull Zord
 * Combining Mecha: The Folding Zords
 * Mecha Expansion Pack: The Beetle, Tiger, Swordfish, Octo, and Shark Zords
 * Transforming Mecha: The Folding Zords (rather than the usual warrior mode, they change to and from a compact emblem mode), the Clawzord, the Light Zord, and the Bullzord
 * Lull Destruction: During segments utilizing sentai footage (including Megazord fights), everyone is ridiculously chatty, including the Monster of the Week.
 * 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.
 * Mooks: Moogers, including Megazord-sized Giant Mook versions.
 * Motifs: Elemental Powers
 * Playing with Fire: Jayden
 * Making a Splash: Kevin
 * Blow You Away: Mia (who even names the trope in "Origins Part 1")
 * Green Thumb: Mike
 * Dishing Out Dirt: Emily
 * Light'Em Up: Antonio. He also has a seafood motif on top of that.
 * 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.
 * It's also more notable 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.
 * Precursor Heroes: The original samurai
 * Heroic Lineage: ...and their descendants.
 * Recycled in Space!: Power Rangers (Of course.)
 * Sealed Evil in a Can
 * 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.)
 * Weapon of Choice
 * Katanas Are Just Better: Spin Swords
 * BFS: Jayden's Fire Smasher
 * BFG: Fire Smasher Cannon Blast Mode and the Bullzooka
 * The Archer: Kevin's Hydro Bow
 * Paper Fan of Doom: Mia's Sky Fan
 * Blade on a Stick: Mike's Forest Spear
 * Fuuma Shuriken: Emily's Earth Slicer
 * Reverse Grip Iaijutsu Practitioner: Antonio's Barracuda Blade. He uses Sheath Strike, too.
 * Improbable Weapon User: Light Zord's two-piece stand-by mode; a disc-shooting lantern and jitte (essentially a blunt dagger).
 * Whip Sword: Shark Sword
 * Word Power
 * By the Power of Grayskull or Invocation: "Go Go Samurai!" and "Gold Power!"
 * In the Name of the Moon: "Rangers Together! Samurai Forever!"
 * Transformation Name Announcement: "Samurai Ranger, ready!" and "Samurai Megazord! We are united!"

Power Rangers Samurai contains examples of:
"Emily: Wow! He's so sparkly!"
 * AcCENT Upon the Wrong SylLABle: In "The Tengen Gate", everyone pronounces Daisuke as "Dye-SOO-Kay". (It should sound closer to DYE-skay)
 * 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 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.
 * 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.
 * Anachronism Stew: Apparently, Feudal Japan had spandex suits...
 * 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.
 * Avengers Assemble
 * 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
 * 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.
 * See Frothy Mugs of Water down below regarding Doukoku Chimatsuri's sake.
 * 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.
 * Bishie Sparkle: Antonio gets these the first time he morphs. Justified because he's a shiny Chrome Champion.

"Jayden: "Beetle Zord!" Emily: "HEY! A BEETLE!" Mia: "A Zord came out of that disc!""
 * 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".
 * 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.
 * Captain Obvious
 * giant beetle appears*

"Madimot: "When was the last time you had fun Dayu? Three centuries ago? Dayu: "Well, actually, I..." (he interrupts her before she can finish)"
 * The Cast Showoff: Antonio, portrayed by Glee alumnus Steven Skyler, gets a chance to show off his singing chops in "He's Not Heavy Metal, He's My Brother".
 * Cerebus Retcon: In "Trading Places," Antonio has is 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: "Party Monsters", The Villains get together for a Halloween Party to discuss how the Samurai Rangers defeated them. Also "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.
 * Continuity Nod: In the origin episode Bulk mentions he has a history with Power Rangers.
 * Santa is shown as real in the Christmas Episode, something previously seen (and used as a plot-point) in "I'm Dreaming of a White Ranger".
 * 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...
 * Or Black Vikings: We can't rule out the possibility that the original samurai were a Five-Token Band themselves.
 * Aluminum Christmas Trees: Yes, there is at least one instance of a feudal samurai that wasn't Japanese, as seen here.
 * 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. May have been a case of Did Not Do the Research as 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 recurring appearances in Super Samurai.
 * Deal with the Devil: A minor one, a kid makes a deal with a Nighlok  In fact, the episode is called "Deal With A Nighlok".
 * "Broken Dreams" reveals that  made a deal with a Nighlok to save  's life. Of course, the Nighlok being a Nighlok, both of them ended up being cursed.
 * Deliberate Injury Gambit:
 * 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,.
 * 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.
 * Development Gag: When Mia says "every girl wants to get married", it's not meant as Values Dissonance in any way. See Freeze-Frame Bonus below.
 * 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.
 * Don't Think, Feel
 * Dream World: In the episode "Broken Dreams".
 * Dull Surprise: One of the main criticisms of Samurai is the wooden acting from all of the Ranger actors except for Antonio and Mike.
 * 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.
 * 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.)
 * 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).
 * Oddly enough, squid-themed Shitari's been renamed Octoroo and Ika Origami became the Octo Zord, giving the One Steve Limit its second kick in the face.
 * Dutch Angle: While
 * Early-Bird Cameo:
 * 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.
 * CCG Importance Dissonance
 * Epic Fail: The Rangers' first attempt at forming the Samurai Megazord.
 * Everything's Better with Samurai
 * Everything's Better with Spinning: Everything with the Power Discs.
 * 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, only Scott appears and he never demorphs. His excuse is that he's been living in a controlled environment for the past few years and doesn't know if he can handle regular atmosphere.
 * Bizarrely, in the same crossover, Antonio is only ever seen unmorphed from the back, and is dubbed by someone who sounds nothing like Steven Skyler.
 * 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."

"(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.""
 * And the distrust towards Deker.
 * "The Tengen Gate," in addition to reminding viewers about Jayden's secret, also foreshadows a bit of 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". If the show plays out just like Shinkenger, then this doubles as Fridge Brilliance because
 * Freeze-Frame Bonus: As seen here, one bride is named Erica Fong, another Brittany Pirtle, one couple's last names are Wetter and Beaver, 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".
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: When Antonio goes into a Heroic BSOD in "Something Fishy", Emily gets him a drink - of water of course, but the way he knocks it back is almost a signature gesture to some.
 * When did "The Strange Case of the Munchies" debut? April 21, 2012, the day after 4/20. Not very subtle, Nickelodeon and Saban.
 * Doesn't help either when the next episode was called "A Sticky Situation"
 * Gratuitous Spanish: Antonio.
 * 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.
 * 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").
 * 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.
 * 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 sports car (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 have yet to be displayed on 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.
 * 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'.
 * I See London: During the training sequence in "The Team Unites", a rougher stunt causes Kevin's pants to go down, revealing his blue briefs.
 * 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.
 * Mike leans forward to reach a palette of tea in "The Tengen Gate", giving the camera an accidental non-comedic glimpse of the top-back of his boxers for a brief instant.
 * 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 reappears 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 World in "Broken Dreams".
 * Lethal Chef: Mia. The other Rangers don't have the heart to tell her, though.
 * 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. 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?
 * 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":

""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.""
 * Melee a 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: 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 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?
 * New Season, New Name: Samurai to Super Samurai
 * Nice Hat: The Samurai Megazord has a nice samurai helmet, and the Artillery Zords' main contributions to the Samurai Megazord are new helmets.
 * 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.
 * 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 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 - 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).
 * 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.'"
 * Only One Name: We've heard of no surnames for any of the main characters, the only exceptions being Antonio Garcia, long-known Farkus Bulkmeier and Spike's, whose name is from his father, Eugene Skullovich. It's also mentioned in "Test of the Leader" that Jayden is of the Shiba Family, though it's still unknown if this is the family's actual name or if it's just some sort of title.
 * In "The Strange Case of the Munchies", we learn Mia's last name is Watanabe. It will undoubtedly raise questions about whether or not she is related to somebody else who can use Super Samurai powers.
 * Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Mentor Ji does this a lot, though it might be just Not Even Bothering with the Accent.
 * Emily's sister in "Sticks and Stones."
 * The Kids Are New Zealander: 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 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").
 * Opening Narration:
 * Opening Narration:

""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.""
 * There's another variant as well (which is the one that is most commonly used before the non-continued episodes):


 * 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, being more of a court musician than anything else.
 * Out of Order: The first episode that Nickelodeon showed was the third episode Saban made, so we don't learn anything about how the Rangers got their powers or who the villains are. Though some of this information was shown in promos, including one that recapped some of the backstory that aired right before the premiere. This might have been done in an attempt to skip right to the action, but unfortunately results in Lost in Medias Res. The "real" premiere episodes were aired as Origins Specials midseason.
 * "Clash of the Red Rangers" was also aired earlier than its place in the story, with several power-ups and characters appearing out of nowhere.
 * 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.
 * Pint-Sized 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.
 * 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 were 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.
 * 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".
 * 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.
 * Self-Proclaimed Knight: Antonio
 * Sequel Number Snarl: The cause of some big ones for the francise. 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's being stretched over two years as two 20-episode seasons; delaying Samurai's end until 2012 is bringing a lot of questions regarding how they're going to handle potential Goseiger and Gokaiger adaptations if Gokaiger is to be used as a 20th Milestone Celebration in 2013.
 * Ship Tease: So far they've teased Mike with Emily, Jayden with Mia and Kevin with Mia
 * The "Origins" episode hints at Kevin being the Prince Charming figure that Mia is waiting to meet...
 * 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.
 * Shot for Shot Remake: One of the biggest complaints against Samurai is that they're trying to replicate Shinkenger as closely as possible, 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
 * Shout-Out: The Beetle Zord's combination with the Samurai Megazord is called the Beetle Blaster Megazord.
 * Antonio, Large Ham and Gadgeteer Genius, and just to hammer it home, Antonio can also mean "Tony". Interestingly, Mia actually says "this isn't my first rodeo" in "Clash of the Red Rangers", in different context from Agent Coulson of course.
 * One of Spike's Pink Ranger dreams has a tied up Mia proclaiming "Help me, Samurai Warrior, you're my only hope!"
 * In the "Origins" episodes, you can spot Totoro Drive in a map.
 * Negatron adressing a bunch of chicks as "gossip girls"
 * In "Clash of the Red Rangers" at one point Mike yells "Let's rage against this machine!"
 * At the end of the Christmas Episode Bulk and Skull are seen riding the motorcycle Mike gave them past the moon, a la ET the Extraterrestrial.
 * "He Ain't Heavy Metal, He's My Brother" has Bulk and Spike's music act, or should we say Spikey Spike and the Fresh Bulk. And of course they had to include the line 'drop it like it's hot'.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Something Completely Different: 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.
 * The Starscream: Arachnitor is guilty of this regardless how many times Master Xandred punishes him. So after an attempt at betraying Xandred in "The Tengen Gate", Arachnitor was mutated by Xandred as punishment for his attempt at 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.
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Spike for his father, Eugene Skullovitch.
 * Sympathy for the Devil:
 * 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!"
 * Technology Marches On: The Rangers before the present group shown in a flashback are shown using Shinkenger-style Shodophone, complete with brushes, while the current generation uses laser-emitting ones.
 * 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
 * Title Drop: At the conclusion of "The One That Got Away" Jayden looks into the camera and says "We need to be... Super Samurai."
 * 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 Morpher: Ji does this to Mike in "Forest For The Trees", and a variant when he confiscates Antonio's morpher in "Room for One More".
 * 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.
 * The War on Terror: Possibly Level Blue in "Deal With A Nighlok." The boy mentions his dad is in the army, so it's possible that it's referring to this.
 * 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".
 * "The Master Returns" has
 * 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 the titular gate, a sight 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 beingby 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"
 * 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 - which even resembled the natto that Mako made herself eat.
 * Words Can Break My Bones: Symbol Power
 * Worf Had the Flu:
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Possibly serves this purpose to bring less attention to him acting in a non-Screen Actor's Guild show (Medina is a Screen Actor's Guild Member)
 * Daisuke from "The Tengen Gate" is played by Grant McFarland who played both Sensei Kanoi and Big Bad Lothor in Power Rangers Ninja Storm.

""Rangers together, Samurai forever!""