Eiga Sentai Scanranger: Difference between revisions

Written by Vince Jones, who was outraged at how [[Tokusatsu]] programming was watered down into the ''[[Power Rangers]]'' before making it to American airwaves. Ran from 1997-2006, releasing 39 “episodes,” a Christmas special and a crossover “movie” with ''[[Choujin Sentai Jetman]]''. The last two episodes finished were basically revisiting the crossover movie.

 

 

 

It should be noted that while he continues to try to share his story with the internet, the author's hatred of ''[[Power Rangers]]'' has [[Old Shame|petered off a lot in the intervening years]].

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=== '''Recurring''' [[Super Sentai]] tropes: ===

* [[A Mech by Any Other Name]]: Hollywood Vehicles (based on studio mascots), Box Office Smashers (based on the rangers' movie genres).

* [[Broken Aesop]]: The episode after Carmen joins is supposed to be about her learning the value of teamwork. Not only does she do almost everything herself (everybody but Takeshi has been captured and as usual he’s barely around himself), what help she does get is confusing and pointless (why are they pretending Carmen's betraying the team...to save the team?), and the main group has their [[Sixth Ranger]] and a [[Humongous Mecha]] that’s already there sit out the giant battle. Not to mention Vin [[You Just Had to Say It|just had to say they]] could’ve gotten out of their predicament without Carmen’s help.

* [[Captain Ersatz]]: [[Backstreet Boys|The Main Street Men]].

* [[Catch Phrase]]: "I can't tell you that..Ancient Japanese secret..”

** ”Got caught in rush hour traffic..."

* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: To name just one, Playstation games didn't come on cassette.

** The author seems to be one of the people who thought the Toon Makers version of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' was perpetrated by Saban.

** At one point Yellowscanner makes up a new attack based on the Kaioken attack from ''[[Dragonball Z]]''. The problem is, rather than something that briefly multiplies his strength, what he creates is a basic chi fireball attack.

** According to this story crocodiles and alligators are only differentiated by where they're found in the wild.

** The writer had sections of his site devoted to ''[[Kamen Rider Black]]'' and its sequel ''[[Kamen Rider Black RX]]''. And his villains have an insect-like space fortress.

* [[Genre Blindness]]: The Scanrangers show very little awareness of the conventions of Sentai. Surprising, what with the [[Ascended Fanboy]] thing. This line from "Scanranger vs. Jetman" says it all:

* [[Gratuitous Japanese]]: The Japanese Scanrangers sometimes slip back into their native tongue, and more noticeable that Team Nightmare (created by a British villain in a story set in America) say “Nightmare Gattai!” to combine. Taken to an extreme in "Scanranger vs. Jetman" where a character will often say something in Japanese, [[You Are the Translated Foreign Word|then say the same thing in English]] after a friendly alien uses her powers to tear down the language barrier.

** There’s also how when he needed to come up with an “alien” sort of name, Vince would often pick a word tenuously related to what he had in mind, then splice the English and Japanese versions of the word together (e.g. Kagamirron = "Kagami"/"Mirror" for a parallel Earth, Lighkari = "Light"/"Hikari" for a race of “good” aliens, Futurai presumably = "Future"/"Mirai" for an alien race that gives Nick the secrets of higher technology).

* [[Left Hanging]]: Work stopped just a little before they were due to hit the home stretch.

* [[Limited Social Circle]]: Toni's friend Monisha is the only friend outside the team we see when the friend didn't [[Victim of the Week|show up for the sole purpose]] of getting mixed up in that episode's [[Evil Plan]], and even she stops appearing after the tenth episode. The rangers go to their secret base or Alex's office to hang out, and Toni and Alex went away on summer break together.

* [[Magic Meteor]]: Film Energy (and Blackorg) came to Earth in meteors.

* [[Mid-Season Upgrade]]: The “Power Upgrade” arc, naturally. Pretty standard, except Thunder Dolby, the Scanrangers’ original robot, is completely destroyed, and then not only do they get a brand new never-before-seen robot, Blockbuster, but {{spoiler|a new and improved Thunder Dolby is rebuilt an episode and a half after its destruction}}.

* [[Never Trust a Trailer]] : More than once a recap or preview mentioned something that hadn't happened yet or never happened at all.

* [[No OSHA Compliance]]: In one episode B.C. and a supporting character are walking through the base when suddenly B.C. gets tackled. Turns out B.C. accidentally walked into the path of a laser cannon just as it was being test fired. And we're asked to believe these guys are the ones trying to SAVE people?

* [[The Not-Secret]]: The Scanrangers say their true identities must be kept a secret and are likewise defensive about revealing them, even though MAYHEM's been exploiting the knowledge of their secret identities since at least the third episode.

* [[Offscreen Villain Dark Matter]]: MAYHEM is here because they want to steal our natural resources. In spite of the strain presumably put on their stockpiles by failed scheme after failed scheme, the idea is never broached of leaving and raiding another planet where the natives aren't as technologically advanced as they are.

* [[Paper-Thin Disguise]]: Vixen gets a job teaching at the Scanrangers’ school as Professor Vivian Fox. During the interview the story basically comes out and says it’s a disguise the audience would see through automatically.

** The time Anark Key masquerades as TV pitchman Eric [[Sdrawkcab Name|Meyham]].

** It doesn't help that the writer's idea of parody is having Not-Bond take off his tuxedo to reveal a wetsuit instead of the other way around and Not-Lara toting .44s instead of .45s.

* [[Personality Powers]]: The area covered by a character’s Film Energy tends to echo whatever trait makes them unique. Vin’s a man of action, Nick’s super smart, B.C.’s the class clown, Kunio’s an artist, Toni’s a girl, Peter’s a devout Christian, and so on.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Fanfic]]