The Shiba's Deserved Better: A Samurai Discussion 

major point: the whole keeping Lauren a secret thing was almost exactly the same in Shinkenger, with the biggest difference being that Takeru ( Jaden's Sentai counterpart ) was actually a retainer for the true Shiba clan survivor....who was actually barely in her teens. In the end, she straight up adopts Takeru so he can use the sealing power as an actual Shiba. the reason her existence was kept secret was to keep her safe as the NIghloks would have killed her had they known she was out there, a key point that Samurai failed to get across.

This might be a bit minor but I think it's a bit irritating that for what we got out of Lauren, not once was she ever given an actual morphing sequence.

One problem I had with Power Rangers Samurai is that with the exception of Antonio, everyone seemed like they absolutely hated the concept of being a ranger because they were forced to abandon their lives to support Jaden. Yet, this is never expanded on and no one ever seems to voice any objections or issues to this. Sure, this is their individual family duties, but the children who did not make this oath and were forced to support it because of their family would have surely voiced some kind of opposition. The problem is that no one ever does this and it makes it all the more frustrating because there are times when it feels like they do wish they were not part of it.

It looked to me like Antonio was the on'ly one to give Lauren a chance. He missed his friend, but he is lso a very open minded guy. Jayden said to listne to Lauren and so he did. Come to think about it, that cold have been a very interesting romantic arc.

One thing I ended up thinking about post-editing is how much more genuine this season would feel if they had someone Japanese teaching the team very Japanese things. Which naturally led to the thought of Super Sentai, and how plausible it would have been to obtain an old guard, English speaking Sentai Ranger to be a far more legitimate, and likely overall better, version of Mentor Ji. If it's gonna be rooted in Japanese culture, might as well go all in, right?

The power did not protect Lauren. Writers failed.

An idea I had to reconcile having a bunch of racially diverse Americans being the Samurai Rangers was to throw out the idea of everybody being descended from samurai and just limit that bloodline to Jayden and Lauren, with the explanation that their paternal grandfather was an immigrant who married a white woman, and their son married a white woman, and that would explain Jayden and Lauren looking white, but having Japanese last names and heritage. That could also go along with the “Wendy Wu” example you gave of the Shiba siblings being divorced from their heritage and too westernized. Maybe the powers of the other four core Rangers could be powers belonging to the loyal vassals of an ancestor of the Shibas and Jayden recruits a couple of school friends, or those school friends accidentally get mixed up in the situation.

Wendy Wu: Homecoming warrior will always have a special place in my heart 💯🙏

Also if Antonio knew Jayden sense they were kids then why didn’t he know about Lauren?

I see Ji went to the Gosei school of teaching.

Yeah Samurai could've been a personal favorite if they fleshed out the sibling angle with 2 red rangers because I think the sibling rangers thing is one of my favorite dynamics Lost Galaxy is the best example.

Antonio should have been able to tell Jayden he needs to sit down and listen. Who better to tell you that you're being a fuck up than the friend who's known you since childhood?

I think a really interesting if not improbable change/ fix to this season as a whole would have been to introduce Lauren very early on like you suggested, have her failure play out mostly the same, and then instead of having Jaiden take over again and her zooming out faster than Jaiden did to go fight Deker would be a team with 2 reds. It could have created a really interesting dynamic, with siblings on the same side (something that's been done before, yes) but with both siblings having to work together to BOTH be leaders. We still haven't had two members of the same color SUCCESSFULLY lead a team, even since then. Sentai hasn't even gone that far, they're skirting it with their current run but so far no dice on the ONE team with 2 reds :T

There's a rumour that the creator of shinkenger disliked samurai so much that she made go busters (beast morphers sentai) in retaliation to what they did to her creation

It's a shame, because this shows the lack of writing ability in Saban's team at the time. In Shinkenger, ShinkenRed is the Samurai Lord while the others are his retainers. This is accurately shown in the show, and even the other rangers get plenty of development. This I think is why their roles in Samurai were so small honestly. The writers wanted to tell the story of a Samurai Lord and his retainers, but they couldn't mesh that with American culture, so rather than write something like what you suggested, they instead chose the easy/lazy route.

I thought the team was horrible to her, especially Mike (he stepped out of line), they didn't even give her a chance. I think she deserved more help especially after when her brother leaves. Her awkwardness made a lot of sense because she never had a lot of friends (she was separated from her brother). The team made it impossible.

I think Linkara said it best, you just feel damn bad for Lauren because she's trying so hard to fit in and trained all her life with no breaks and no relaxation time. And these four jerks ignore her attempt and keep prattling on and on on how better her little brother is. To them, Jayden leaving was like having a big brother die. They never opened up to the idea of letting Lauren do her job, and theirs, first and then search for Jayden. They KNOW he can take care of himself, yet abandon her, except Kevin to his credit though he does join later, I love Samurai, faults and all, but man, I can't overlook how-pardon my French-shitty Samurai treated Lauren's character.

Every time Samurai is mentioned I just think to the Power Morphicon Blue Ranger panel. They all did their morphs and Samurai blue was next. Once he realised that he had to say 'Go Go Samurai' he immediately looked letdown and embarrassed. Everyone else said something cool, but he has to say 'Go Go Samurai'.

HEY! Kirito had reason to be cocky! He actually had skill, and when he couldn't do it, he knew he needed help.

PR Samurai- Lauren should've been the red ranger.

The best way to fix Samurai would of been just going, 'Your all selected due to being Desendents of Samurai, there were dozens of Samurai of many races who came to Japan to make better lives for themselves, I will be teaching you all how to understand the Samurai and Japanese way the same way your ancestors did'

Saban destroyed the opportunity for a female Red Ranger and it disgusts me.

Great video. The problem with Samurai is that they tried to adapt Samurai Sentai's story elements beat-by-beat. They tried to adapt a very Japanese story and it thematically doesn't work when you make it an American show without the Japanese culture. Yeah they're writing Kanji, but why? This is where having an Asian Japanese red ranger could have filled in some plot points and present interesting themes like clash of cultures. Samurai Sentai Shinkenger is very much a tokusatsu take on a Japanese period drama. Trying to adapt that story word for word without the Japanese isn't going to work. I mean my parents watched Samurai Sentai with me and enjoyed it a lot. That's how Asian-drama it was. And the character development in Samurai Sentai was loads better. -Takeru is a lord and the other rangers are his retainers. Trained for bushido, he knows nothing but the mission. He also feels guilt for his team because of the secret so he keeps his distance. I don't remember much about Samurai but I don't think they ever establish Jayden as any type of nobility. They also didn't commit Jayden to being a loner and standoff'ish like Takeru. -Ryunosuke (blue) was a trained as a traditional samurai since he was a child and trained in kabuki. He's blindly loyal to Takeru because of how he was raised but it's mostly played for comic relief in sentai, until the end where it's actually a great story beat. Ryunosuke was also a bit immature. Kevin never seemed to be a comic relief. -Mako (pink) is the most skeptic of Takeru. She stated that she would have left had she not deemed Takeru worthy to lead. She just wanted a normal life. Also she has some solid character development with her parents. Mia was similar in that she's a bad cook. I don't know if she got the parent story arc Mako had. -Chiaki (green) is young. There was clearly a gap in age and maturity between Takeru and Chiaki that I didn't feel at all with Jayden and Mike. It made for a great dynamic. Chiaki worked well with all the other rangers actually. Like Mako, he doesn't blindly follow Takeru and hates being traditional with samurai training. I couldn't really get a feel on Mike as a character. -Kotoha (yellow) is the youngest. Like Ryunosuke, she blindly believes in Takeru. Clearly the youngest and least experienced, everyone looks out for her. It's also why in the Sentai footage, her katana is the one Takeru always takes when he needs another blade. Her blind loyalty, like taking an attack for Takeru, always makes Takeru feel guilty. I know they made Emily the country bumpkin but I don't remember her interacting with Jayden much. -Genta (gold) is the normal best friend of Takeru who slowly breaks Takeru's lord persona. He is the best friend which is why he also isn't blindly loyal to a lord, which caused him to clash with Ryunosuke who is very traditional. Antonio was pretty solid.

I agree so much. They had such a perfect opportunity to actually make Power Rangers a very educational show. Especially with a big, "Hey kids this is what cultural APPRECIATION looks like, and this is what APPROPRIATION looks like."

Giving Jayden and Lauren the last name of Shiba is not really a big deal. Jayden and Lauren's ancestors could have married into the Shiba family or was adopted by the Shiba family.

If only this series was better-written, better handled by a show-runner and a staff of producers and directors that prefer to give the fans more *ORIGINAL* contexts and story-telling and less-copying and pasting from the sentai, note-for-note and utter-laziness and incompetence. We could have gotten a newer timeless classic for another generation, much like Dino Thunder, In Space and Time Force are to the older generation of Power Rangers fans.

The issue with Taylor is interesting because from what I know, the same thing happened in Gaoranger... except that GaoYellow is a dude.

When it comes down to it its the execution of the characters. They good have been better if they had shifted their personalities or were placed in different situations. If i had written it. I would have made Jayden as cocky as usual but more reckless. If he knows he's the one not meant to be their and is supposed to be replaced then he puts the team first and tries to keep them safe at the expense of himself because he knows lauren has to come and takeover eventually and he wants her have the best team possible. I would have paired him with emily since they share the similar situations but while emily has her doubts, jayden is reckless and emily usually tries to stop him. As a way of introducing Lauren, I would have jayden make the choice of turning into a nighlok in the episode where the nighlok stole Emily's souls. This would force the team into a change that they will need to accept because there was no going back for Jayden. As for the rest of the team, I would have Mike try to leave more. Like he's more lazy and gets frustrated easier. He leaves the team and turns over his samuraizer and zord. He leaves and may actually have to come to terms with his choice, like seeing civilians actually get hurt. Kevin would be more torn. He wants to be the best for the samurai rangers but he also wants to do the swimming. He's also going to call out Jayden more for his recklessness and lack of leadership and team skills because Kevin knows how a team works and knows that Jayden is only making it bad for himself. Antonio would be more about technological and because in this version of samurai they are more old fashioned Antonio will shake up the entire formula. Mia would be a little different. As far as it goes, I'd keep relatively her the same. I'd expand more on her connection with Dayu by having a bloodline relationship between them and also have her ship with spike. With spike, he could accidentally tell mia about her cooking being awful. When she confronts her team about this they admit to her that they have all lied to spare her feelings and it cause a minor conflict between the team and her. Mia could also train spike in actually samurai training in exchange for cooking lessons to improve upon and the two bond. Kind of showing spike surpassed skull in actually dating a ranger. For the villains I'd would keep Serader mostly the same as well as deker and dayu, but I would have deker more antagonize Jayden because he knows is not the true leader. Master xandred would actually be the first Nighlok to attack the human world as he wants to defeat the rangers as fast as possible while they are still inexperienced, but dries out and has to rest in the bottom of the sanzu river and recover. This would add a time limit and force the rangers to work harder because know Xandred could show up at anytime and kick their butts. For octoroo, I'd say he tries to lead the nighlok and pick the monster of the week so the river can overflow but make him actually plan things out ahead and actually be more strategic with his plans. Lauren would replace Jayden earlier like when they try to unlock the black box. The teams acceptance if lauren can be signified with the blackbox eventually being unlocked for them to use. She'd lock heads with Emily and maybe Mike but the others would accept her. And mentor, I don't know what to do for him. Wait. Replace him with Cam. And that's my thoughts.

My feelings on Lauren and Jayden Shiba is that the Samurai team should have been Lauren's from the beginning - in the first episode there should have been no question of who the Red Ranger was, it was Lauren, who had trained the other four while Jayden continued to train under Mentor Ji as a replacement Ranger. When Jayden showed up everyone, except Emily, should have been surprised to see him (Emily knows something like this would happen because Lauren was injured training her). Jayden is the superior Ranger, having trained longer with Mentor Ji, but he has no leadership skills because he was meant to come in mid-campaign to replace one of the others, or as the 6th Ranger, except that the Gold Ranger Morpher was stolen by Antonio (Mentor Ji's son). The show should have followed Jayden trying to become a better leader, with slow development, Emily's guilt over wounding Lauren, Mike taking training more seriously, Kevin deciding to dedicate himself to being a Ranger, Mia . . . actually learning to cook, and Mentor Ji reconciling with Antonio. When Lauren returns, healed by the standards of modern medicine, but not to the standards of being a Ranger, she should be welcomed back with open arms, because Jayden still isn't the leader he could be. After Lauren re-injures herself she gives back the morpher and stays on in a mentor capacity, and this is when we see the greatest improvement among the Rangers.

Another possibility? You could make the Jayden worship be part of the story. A special symbol power crafted to distract nighlok from the sealing power preparations. But they overdid it and affected the team. Jayden leaving could suddenly have a good purpose. He found the side effect and tried to fix it by leaving, but the damage was already done. It would also distract Dekker from the samurai who is supposed to free him and actually does, Kevin.

Now that you mention it, I'd love to see a Ranger team mentored by Bulk and Skull.

I recently started watching Power Rangers Time Force.Im watching old school Saban era, Because I grew up with the Disney era.

Hey DB, are you going to talk about Dino Charge anytime soon? I think it’s a pretty good season in total. Also, besides my high school’s Drama Club, Brennan Mejia is one of my inspirations to pursue acting

This doesn't really have anything to do with this video, per say, but I feel like one thing that would have helped the show is if Mia had decided to try to help Daiube and Decker break their curse without anyone getting hurt. It would have added more depth to her character, plus, they wouldn't have gotten destroyed. Daiube wouldn't have merged with Xandred which would have meant that Lauren's years of training wouldn't have been wasted.

I wish they did the reverse role as a female red ranger takes charge. I would love to see a story about that anyday. Also I feel better acting and consistent character development would help this show majorly.

My way of fixing the fact that the show was based on Japanese culture was to have a Japanese mentor who was the previous red ranger before Jayden. However, his team consisted of Jayden and Lauren's mom or dad but one of them died (or who knows have them be Decker and his wife). The mentor could have come to America (or New Zealand) because of his mission taking him away from Japan. but since he failed in his mission he recruited It would make sense that Jayden and co would not understand Japanese culture but with a mentor as such it would help them understand. Not to mention teach kids (and adults) watching the show about another culture albeit it be simple but it would broaden people's horizon. Also, this Mentor could have his own struggle as he could have adopted Jayden and Lauren because of guilt of getting their parents killed or whatever that he let's Jayden get away with being on his high horse but also pushing Lauren to learn the sealing spell and alienating her from the team. Then when Lauren fails and the core rangers and Antonio call out Jayden on being a jerk their Mentor admits that he was wrong and the Jayden, Lauren, and Mentor come to learn that no one is perfect and yaddy yadda and that they need to work as a team. Like Lauren could be so focused on her duty that she can't interact normally with the team as she was alone for so long. Jayden is a pompous ass and thinks he is the best thing since sliced bread. Like Jayden's character development can be at the beginning and he learns and grows to be less of an ass and the team and him learn to work well. Yet, then when Lauren comes she needs to learn to be a leader like Jayden but in a different way. Sorry for the novel and this is a broad idea that if I thought about could flesh out more.

The funny thing is that earlier they toyed with the idea of Kevin being confrontational with the Red Ranger only to abandon it in a one off gag.

Actor Alex Hartman has said there is no where in the show or in promotion that says what Jayden's last name is. They just call the headquarters. Shiba House.

I'm pretty sure Lauren was kept secret so the niloks wouldn't know about the seal.

I think the secret was kept from them so that they wouldn't think of Jayden not being the real red ranger and actually believe he was, so that the monsters would also buy that he was the actual red ranger. If they had been told, they probably would've messed up and spill the beans to the enemy and then their plan wouldn't have worked. They most likely didn't wanted to risk the plan failing before actually doing it and that's why they didn't told them. It was only after they realized with the fire monster that the attack that was supposed to burn the red ranger to death wasn't working, that they figured out Jayden wasn't the red ranger. However, by that time, Lauren had already mastered the sealing symbol so in a way they succeeded their main goal but forgot what would be the aftermath of their actions as far as the team goes.

im surprised noone is talking more about how wendy wu had TWO disney era female power ranger actresses in it..

The one thing I hated was how they dropped the romance between Kevin and Mia, I thought they were cute together. The question I have though is if they were going to drop it why did they even start it?

I thought it best to have had an all Asian cast of Rangers except Jayden, Lauren and Antonio but be an original plot because this was pretty much a copy and paste version of Shinkenger. My fix is having the surviving descendants of the clans who fought of Master Xandred to near defeat come to the west where he attempts to rise again but to seal him they needed the Red Samurai who to their surprise is a white guy adopted into the sacred bloodline but is the last to carry the Shiba name unlike his sister Lauren who after finding her long-lost brother having been separated at birth becomes the second Red Ranger on the team. Antonio is latino but is the tech guy who became his own Samurai or rather remaining Ronin, unlike the others who have no choice but to call Jaden "Lord". He's the Gold Ranger because of the man who made the modern Samurai Morphers was his mentor in Mexico.

Your right, the series could have been so much better if they made use of Kevin a bit more to be a more challenging figure for Jayden. He was a model icon of discipline and skill and you could even get hints in the senti borrowed footage that him being the team ace was a plot point they probably played up. Red and Blue have an epic fight early on and its Kevin who ultimately takes down Dekker. Jayden having to relearn the same lesson over and over, mentor being a terrible mentor time and time again, and the season premise about family obligations being the eastern theme that's abrasive to western audiences really hurt the series badly more than anything else.

I thought it would be cool if Lauren was introduced at the end of normal samurai and Jayden would get a new color/power like make him the white ranger after going on a short side plot in Super Samurai then he comes back to act as an advisor for Lauren and a bridge between her and the others

I really hated the way Lauren was handled in Samurai, because this was their one chance to make a very interesting deviation from Shinkenger. Unlike Takeru's relationship with Kaoru, Jayden does NOT have any real sort of obligation to hand over his position as leader of the team to Lauren. Lauren isn't forcing him out or anything, they're SIBLINGS after all. This could've been an opportunity to have two Reds on the team, and also to develop Jayden through his new sister being on the team & interacting with her. Sure, it'd be pretty darn late in the game, but still, this badly written character needs it...LOL Instead, what we got was Samurai keeping to script without understanding WHY the script works.....

I think Lauren could be a good candidate for future mentor for a ranger team. She still has a lot of character development she can go through but is also a very skilled and powerful ranger. So hopefully when they adapt a new sentai with some degree of sword focus she can return to become the great character she had the potential to be.

All Hail Jayden of Suburbia

I really appreciate this one 😊 finally someone talked about Lauren Shiba she deserved more space in Samurai Idk what happened to writers 🤦🏻‍♂️

Awesome video Your videos on samurai have been giving ideas for my own version of Samurai

For me, Shinkenger is one of the best series of Super Sentai. Samurai is very cultural. The samurais follow a very strict code of chivalry that makes them worship the head samurai, sort of... All the four were raised on this idea. Even now, the Japanese cannot question authority, e.g. teachers, as it would make them sound like they don't know their place in the society. However, this is not the case in American culture. To submit to tradition is, I would say, the most un-American thing that anyone can do. In Shinkenger, Takeru has the reason to keep Kaoru's identity as a secret. He was the decoy. He was meant to be killed. And with all that has happened, it would be very disheartening for his team that the person whom they convinced themselves to fight with will just die and be replaced by someone. And so, when Kaoru failed her task, we then would realise that the secret is not really Kaoru but teamwork. Remember that Takeru was really meant to die. He was a decoy. On the other hand, it was not really explained why Jaden had to be replaced. It was not like that he'd lost his authority altogether. It felt like he had issues with his sisters.

Yooooo I've been trying to remember that one show I liked. Thanks for making me remember its name The show in question is ofc: Wendy Wu

Great video! I like these kind of videos because of the fact you don't have to cover entire seasons to talk about a specific topic. I know this is something you like because you only have so many seasons that you haven't covered yet. I believe the first episode(s) of Samurai that I watched at random when I was at home watching tv with my nephew, it was the first couple episodes when Lauren showed up. I was like wait...if she is the one with the power to seal away the big bad, why is everyone acting like defeated babies because their red ranger left? Why did he even leave to begin with? Shouldn't he be there to boost moral and support his sis? So, are they gonna whine and cry about Jayden leaving when you have (potentially) the winning card in your hand to stop the bad guy? IDIOTS! Ok, rant over haha but that was what was going through my head at the time lol and that is coming from a guy that did not watch the first 30+ episodes at that point!

I believe a large number of the issues Samurai had comes from the Super Sentai. The red ranger meeting everyone on a white horse was done there, the female red ranger coming out late in the show was done there. They spent too long trying to pay homage to Super Sentai that power rangers itself suffered from it. Random note my sister was an actress (Or attempting to be) and auditioned for the yellow ranger in samurai, I always tell her she's lucky she didn't get the part lol. Having a red female ranger could have been amazing and even how she came in late could have been fine if they had a better story with more developed characters.

Can't wait for a lightspeed rescue video, my favorite season

"White Kirito" Damn, that's harsh. Warranted, but harsh nonetheless.

2:42 this is the exact same effect that was used when tori used her water powers in ninja storm

Can we have Dino Charge / Super Dino Charge review

All of this makes more sense in Shinkenger....

Forgot to mention that they did everything virtually the same way as shinkenger

How can u take one of the most epic sentais in history & turn it into THAT

Really surprised they didn't jump on that high horse bit. Now that you've mentioned it, it's so obvious. For me, Samurai is still the second best series in the Neo-Saban era, but that's only because it's being held up by Shinkengers story, like a house that's only staying on top of the cliff because of one support pillar. I also find it very contrived that five ancient families of samurai have bearers that all happen to be teenagers at the time of the story. If there was ever a time to have a team of rangers that were all different ages then surely it would be here. I know the show likes to do "teenagers with attitude", but considering you could argue a theme of the season is "tradition is a good thing, but you need to know when to break it", it seems fitting. Different ages also put their character traits in a new context. Maybe Jayden is in his late 30s, has been doing this a really long time and is really set in his ways. As an older woman full of regret, perhaps Mia feels like she's missed her chance at marriage and a happy family life. Heck, maybe in the first episode, she shows up to the gathering in a wedding dress, having had to leave her own ceremony to join the team. As much as I like Antonio, I think Spike should have been the gold ranger. If we kept Jayden being older then perhaps it was Bulk who he interacted with as a kid, before Skull ever entered the picture.

I love that you included hyper force in your opening

Honestly to fix this they should've had Jayden switched with Lauren. Imagine how cool it would be to have a female red ranger (for more than one season) be a serious and calculating leader and have her and the team bond. But then..Jayden arrives and threatens to take that away. Have the plot about Lauren feeling guilty and trying to keep her distance to protect her friends and to keep herself from being hurt. Similiar to the Sentai version she feels that she put them all at risk for nothing and she's ashamed and believes that the brother should take the role as a form of redemption. Then when the sealing symbol fails and the team regroups we can see that conflict come to a head. It's much better than a woman immediately joins the rangers and they all complain about how insignificant she is to their precious god Jayden.

Kevin's real crime was him never getting a lineup on his hairline

Got a possible idea for a future video - what would you want to see in adaptations of Zyuohger, Kyuranger, or Lupinranger vs. Patranger?

I loved the Lauren/Jason pairing in Shattered Grid!

I love Wendy Wu homecoming Warrior, that movie was fantastic.

I haven't seen this season yet but now I'm questioning if I should.

Amit Bhaumik had a MUCH better idea for handling the adaptation of Shinkenger. One that didnt just go through the motions of the source material without any of the cultural context, but rather an actual dencent story with the same base foundation for what we got, but carried out in a vastly superior way. He even had a valid reason for the racial diversity of the team and an actual reason to have Bulk and Spike in the show(other than the obvious fan-wank to the Mighty Morphin purists). his proposal can be read here- amitbhaumik.tumblr.com/post/59915514235/original-power-rangers-samurai-proposal

Out of all the seasons of Power Rangers, I think this one offends me the most. Not only is there a lack of dynamic characters with horrible acting, there is no life to it. I don't care about the rangers, because I don't like most of them. Plus the fact that we were soooo close to finally having a female Red Ranger. The costume looks phenomenal, and she seems like a good ranger, but she's never given a chance. I wish the Power Rangers franchise would give us another female Red, but the fact that most of the footage comes from Sentai, the chances of that happening are slim. (As a side note, I don't want Tommy to be female in the movie sequel if we get one. I'd rather have an original female ranger, but that's just me.)

I always saw the Samurai Rangers as people with various amounts of depression. Non of them seem to really want to be Power Rangers and all of them are forced to be there because family and tradition. All of them had to put other dreams and desires on hold without much say so expect for Antonio, the only one who truly wants to be a Samurai Power Ranger. Jason is forced to be the red ranger while the real red ranger, his sister, trains. Kevin had aspirations to be an Olympic Swimmer and was forced to quit. Emily was forced to become the yellow ranger because her sister, the real yellow ranger, fell extremely ill. They never say what she has, but my fan theory is that her sister has cancer. Mia seem to wish for a peaceful and simple life, hence why she always tries and hilariously fails at cooking; because simple doesn't come naturally to someone who was probably forced to train hard since a very young age. Mike seemed to be the goofball ranger who would rather be out with other friends, but is forced to distance himself from his former friends because of ranger duties. That kind of stress on people, especially barely out of high school young people, would be hard to handle. Also they literally fight demons who are hell-bent on flooding the Earth with toxic water made from human tears and misery. You can't tell me there is some form of metaphor narrative for depression and anxiety there whether intentional or not. This is why I think Power Rangers Samurai is much darker and more mature than people realize or give it credit for. And I still love it!

So Jayden's a harem protagonist?

Based on what the sentai (and it's leader worshiping style footage), what would you suggest Samurai have done? Or even: how would YOU execute on the themes and philosophies Samurai was TRYING to demonstrate? I always enjoy your "what ifs" and "Here's what I would do's"

They missed an opportunity to have an entirely Asian cast. Jayden and Lauren at least should have been of Japanese descent.

If jaden and lauren had the ability to be both red just like ninja steel

When are we getting the Light Speed Analysis?

I LOVED shinkenger. I really liked samurai cause it was the first season me and my friends watched of pr

Not disagree but you forgot about shortly after mike ask fight with Kevin asked what are u doing you know jaden doesn't like it when challenged him and he said she not jaden mean he knew she wasn't him at same time he at want to try be her friend or get know her.

Can you do a video about their sentai counterpart

Despite behind the scenes, Jason, Zack, Trini, & Billy were in running, all viewers knew fox wasnt that dumb. Point there WAS build up in the team before switzerland & "Who is OG White, Jo & JDF are my heros.

So Disney Brain, with you above thoughts on how the team kinda failed Jayden and Lauren, and all that, do you think Shinkenger actually did it more effectively? Or do you think some of the same problems were there with the dynamic as well? It's been so long since I watched Shinkenger I couldn't say, but I was curious. Cause generally people who've seen it automatically say Shinkenger was better, and I enjoyed the season but never really tried analyzing it especially when looking at what Samurai became as Shinkenger-Lite.

That was actually a great example Wendy Wu homecoming warrior was actually a really dope movie I don’t even see that shit on Disney+

I don't think Mike challenged Lauren because she's a girl, he was just testing her, and as you've said they all just wanted Jaden back and he was the only leader they would accept.

Sometimes I wonder if there was an alternate universe where Samurai was made with these points in mind, would it be as good as you have described? Also I like the JonTron voice thing:)

Just out of curiosity what are your thoughts on the ninja turtles crossover episode?

"I think that's a new one!" Was...was that a Boy Meets World reference?

one thing i learn that master ji, isn't his actual mentor but the servant and i heard the red ranger in the sentai was not a relative of the shiba family but a poser

I didnt mind samurai but im a fan of shinkenger so im a little biased however i feel that maybe making ji japanese would have worked a bit better and maybe tying him into shinkenger making samurai a some what sequel may have helped them

I'm still watching Samurai!! After that it's time to go Lightspeed!

Agreed on Wendy Wu being underrated. My classmates in English class love horror movies and when asked by my teacher what my favorite movie is, I said Wendy Wu Homecoming Warrior. He asked what that is and another of my classmates responded in a way that’s basically like this: Wendy Wu was a old Disney movie about a high school girl obsessing over homecoming and monks basically being servants. It’s a really simple, underwhelming movie that has no impact on anyone watching it.

It occurs to me that this Power Ranger team was only gathered because of an uprise in Nighlok attacks. I don't think Jayden was ever supposed to work with a team, and they were just put together out of who they could find that was the right age/stage of training. After all, if things had only happened a few months later, Lauren would have been ready.

I was surprised actually, when they continued the Shiba name in the PR

I wish this season had an additional 25 epi to set up Lauren and her splinter team feat. Antonio and 2 -3 new rangers to aid her ? Black , Purple , Orange or maybe Grey ? And Lauren becoming the White Ranger . Jayden's team would be support and Back Up and mixing teams w/ Partners to build up the New Rangers maybe even having Kevin be a better fit on Lauren's team as her 2nd.

There is ONE point of credit I will give to Mentor Ji (though this further solidifies your position on him being unnecessary) When there is an internal conflict he does NOT interfere immediately, he lets the problem play out and lets the two characters in question resolve it themselves without playing mediator I see this as unusually wise because rather than telling them how to figure things out, he lets THEM figure it out with little more than a guiding platitude.

the Shiba siblings should have had intimate feelings for each other that would have been a great plot change

I feel as though Samurai would've been improved if the theme was more focused on traditionalism vs modernism. Have Jayden and Antonio represent the modern side of how the Samurai Rangers is supposed to work while you have the other Rangers represent traditional values and have Mentor Ji be the balance between the two. Once the other Rangers, aside from Lauren, get used to combining the modern ways with traditional traits after Antonio comes along, then add Lauren to the mix who is a hardcore traditionalist and bam: instant culture clash and conflict. Instead we get a confusing mess of Jayden is the chosen one, but isn't, but we still respect him because we've fought with him so long mentality that worked better in Time Force.

Agree, also remember my fanfics? lol

I miss Samurai, that was my childhood! 😂 I wish it was better

I love the opening!