MovieChat Forums > Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993) Discussion > Why did this show become so popular?

Why did this show become so popular?

posted 10 years ago by Blueghost
18 replies | jump to latest

Please don't misunderstand my topic title. I am not criticizing the show, just curious.

I grew up with a lot of anime and imported live action Japanese shows where I live (most of it imported and shown on the local Asian channels), and I happen to see the original form of this show when it was called Super Sentai; no subtitles, and a scantly clad Japanese girl in addition to the monsters and witch.

These shows are (or were) a dime a dozen at the time. But it seems like only Power Rangers gets shown in the US, and dominates that genre.

I'm kind of lost as to how it gained so much popularity with no competition coming from similar produced shows.

Can someone enlighten me here?

[–] TrickyDicky007 10 years ago

At the time in at first came out, it was unique at the time in the US, which is why it became so huge. But after a a time, about two years, the popularity died away.

Watching your vicious bastard die gave me more relief than a thousand lying whores

[–] Blueghost 10 years ago

Well, I just remember in the 70s and 80s seeing shows predating this one, and which were similar. But it's like this is the one that managed to strike a deal and stick. It's kind of weird, because this one wasn't even the biggest in Japan, and its production values were about the same as its competitors.

Oh well. Thanks for the response.

[–] cyberdynesystems101 10 years ago

Well, I just remember in the 70s and 80s seeing shows predating this one, and which were similar. But it's like this is the one that managed to strike a deal and stick. It's kind of weird, because this one wasn't even the biggest in Japan, and its production values were about the same as its competitors.

None of those were aired worldwide. All the sentai series aired in Japan and only a few other forign countries. Power Rangers was distributed worldwide, and was the first time many kids saw this kind of show before.

[–] byson5186 10 years ago

I feel like the Japanese have better ways of writing action shows than Americans. At the time, the things we saw on this show were new. I mean we were seeing Martial Arts action by real life actors facing off against the Puddies. The action we saw from that show of zords fighting enemies was new. Also, we seemed to really like the cast when the show first started, Tommy was the most popular and he was a really cool Power Ranger. The rest of the cast was great, we liked Jason, Kimberly was a hot girl. I mean you can watch the episodes years later and it still looks cool and takes you down memory lane, but you also realize how cheesy it is. I just saw an interview where kids from today who wouldn't have been alive when Power Rangers reacted to the show. They felt like it was repetitive as almost all the monsters were taken down by the Power Sword.

[–] Blueghost 10 years ago

Look, why even post this? You're not making yourself look better, and I seriously doubt you're going to win over any opinions.

It was meant as a show for pre-teen Japanese boys. Maybe you ought to go watch something more your speed, like Barney the Dinosaur.

[–] TrickyDicky007 10 years ago

Put the troll on ignore man. No joke, he's been on this board for about 7-8 years. Clearly he has no life at all.

Watching your vicious bastard die gave me more relief than a thousand lying whores

[–] Blueghost 10 years ago

If he gets out of hand, I will.

Trolling for 7 to 8 years?

Oh my.

[–] TrickyDicky007 10 years ago

Indeed, at one time he had multiple accounts and just made the same threads over and over again (hence why I put him on ignore).

Watching your vicious bastard die gave me more relief than a thousand lying whores

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[–] PowerRangersAreDumber 9 years ago

I actually prefer Super Sentai a thousand times more than power rangers.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] neomusic 9 years ago

Cause it was a kids show, that had real live action and kids tend to believe in superheroes. It was different cause most kids shows in the 80's and 90's was mainly cartoons.

Another was the martial arts emphasis which became popular.

[–] watcher101 9 years ago

Popular with kids because it gave us action without violence. Popular with parents for their kids for the same reason while also providing good role models and promoting good life lessons.

[–] PowerRangersAreDumber 9 years ago

I don't know watcher, I remember a lot of parents who wanted to ban power rangers from kids television because the martial arts violence was so controversial at the time.

[–] DarklordRB 9 years ago

When I was young, I thought it looked cool, because it seemed like a live action Voltron which I was into as well. After watching a few episodes, I got hooked on it because of the monster fighting, zords and megazord battles, etc. I think it had something to with the monster vs robot thing, and the kids being superheroes battling powerful evil beings.

[–] Blueghost 9 years ago

That's a good answer. The thing that I keep missing, and I have to remind myself, is that there were other shows like this in Japan which were essentially the exact same thing. Only they didn't get imported to the US, so Power Rangers (and Voltron) got international exposure, while those other shows faded into Japanese broadcast history.

And the reason I bring that up is because here in the Bay Area there used to be a couple of shows that broadcast non-dubbed / original language anime for kids. Voltron was one of those shows. And there were a couple others, but I don't know their titles, that again had the exact same theme; giant robots coming together to form a superrobot to fight monsters.

Thanks for the reply.

[–] DarklordRB 9 years ago

You're Welcome.