Power Rangers Ninja Storm Overview

Power Rangers Ninja Storm: Season 11
Episode Count: 38
Air Date: February 15th, 2003-November 15th, 2003

Ninja Storm is one of the first seasons full of the show's biggest changes after almost 10 years of filming in California.  Now the show being shot in New Zealand, the cast and crew are now predominately locals to New Zealand as well as Australia.  Not to mention, this is the officially start of the Disney Era, as while Disney help produce most of the season, it was the last to feature creator Haim Saban's involvement until Samurai and shooting of the show's location being in America.  Which is got to say right off the bat, is both a good and especially bad thing from a technical stand point.  New Zealand is a gorgeous country with such beautiful landscapes and multitude of areas that definitely give the show a more stunning looking vibe...possibly even a bit grander in scope.  But unfortunately, with the cast and production now done in there, we get actors who now must put on an American accent to cover their New Zealand ones and often times, it's not only noticeable but awkward! O_O Megan Nicol in particular can't help but slip back into her native speech patterns during some of her scenes.  Also, the dialogue and ADR for the show feels more forced and distant at times.  I'm guessing this was the writing team's extreme effort to make the New Zealand actors sound more American with phrases like "Dude", "Bro", etc. being thrown around left and right whenever the rangers talk but this was not the way to do it, once again, making our heroes slip out of character at times trying to sound like stereotypical California natives.  I heard also the ADR of the series had issues the first couple of seasons because the team there were getting use to the process and recordings, but it often can be distracting from the show.  ...And what did I think of the show itself you ask???

Ninja Storm was....actually pretty good! :) Not great, not a complete misfire, just a season that was just above average for me given that we gotten a season with a much lighter tone and whimsical nature to it than the previous seasons that were darker in terms of storytelling ("Time Force") or had unforeseen moments of morbidity despite taking itself too seriously with it's narrow minded themes ("Wild Force").  So it was nice to get a season that was more focus being a lot brighter than usual (At least for this show anyway), which gave us a show was that has more fun for once unlike being unintentionally funny like Turbo's first half was. Don't get me wrong, this more carefree look and feel of the show didn't always work and you should know from by reviews of the season what exactly I'm talking about. -_-  But before I get to that, I want to the positives of the season work because while Ninja Storm is more or less a season that's not unanimously loved or universally loathed by the fandom by usually falling in the middle of the franchise in terms of quality seasons, there is surprisingly  A LOT to love here...it's just the bad can be so bad at times, it spoils a season that could have truly fun but only has moments of the greatness it should have inspired to all season.  But I'm getting ahead of myself and should just talk about our team of heroes this season.

Starting with Shane, who I really liked....as well as rest the rangers! Yes, I liked or outright loved every character on the ranger team this season.  Shane, who is your stereotypical extreme sports athlete at the beginning of the season but quickly learns his role as team leader as well as knowing when to lean on his team for guidance and help, like in the solid second episode "No "I" in Team".  It was just refreshing to see a ranger, let alone the red ranger, being so self centered and prideful; thinking he could handle being a hero on his own instead of working with Tori and Dustin as a team.  It's a lesson he has to learn the hard way when he is seriously losing in battle and finally calls on his friends for their aid.  We next see Shane having issues with Hunter, who being the one calling the shots for the duo of Thunder Rangers, because they both are at odds when it comes how to led their respective team of rangers in "Boxing Bopp-A-Boo".  I loved how Shane stepped up and made a great impression by showing Hunter they need to learn how to work together now that they are on the same team, which shows in how the 5 rangers are able to work to together by combining their weapons for the first time.  We also get the solid if not unnecessary semi-backstory of Shane's youth in "Shane Karma, Part 1 and 2" when he must protect Skyla from Vexacus but learns as a boy he already saved her before.  Would have been nice to further explore that little known fact instead of just meandering around a possible romance that goes now and being simply a build up to a new battlizer, but we do see a Shane with a greater sense of responsibility and compassion since when he first became a ranger.  The highlight of Shane's personal arc this season comes in the awesome "Eye of the Storm" where his brother Portor comes into town and Shane must literally face his greatest fear of being a disappointment to his family.  It not only shows Shane at his weakest, but at his strongest, able to not only ultimately overcome his fear but help the other rangers' face there's to once again save the day.  Shane also learns even the people we fear we will disappoint feel the same way about us and that was a genuinely heartwarming moment between the two brothers. Also, I love how in "Tongue and Cheek", despite being a Dustin centered episode, Shane is mature and keeps remembering what he learned in "No "I" In Team" to remind Dustin of what's really important and not just being a solo hero for the fame and respect he feels he deserves. Speaking of Dustin...

...As much as I want to keep talking about Shane, Dustin shined much brighter as a character for me.  Honestly, he could be one of my Top 10 favorite rangers of the franchise so far actually!!! O_O I think what I love about Dustin is he reminds me of myself at one point in my life.  Young, energetic and ridiculously friendly but also very naive, overly trusting and yes, often irresponsible. He's the team's self proclaimed "comic book geek" in the pilot but Dustin grows up to be sooo much more this season.  I honestly can say, out of my 3 favorite character centered episodes this season, two of them are centered around Dustin and it's because he is just so enormously lovable because his characterization seems so real and relating so well to the young viewers watching. In "All About Beevil", we see Dustin paying the price not once but twice when he loses his motorcross bike after trusting some random stranger to fix it while Marah then manipulates him into believing she wants to help the rangers stop Beevil.  You honestly real terrible for Dustin once it's revealed she made a fool out of him all along but it's a lesson that Dustin learns quickly, giving him the strength to led the team in defeating Beevil once and for all.  Hey and even in the end, it turns out his instincts were right and the stranger just gave him the wrong address by mistake.  Huh, it proves that Dustin's blind faith in people isn't always misguided as even Marah turns out to actually really have cared for him....awwww.  Then you have the superb "Tongue and Cheek" where Dustin unforeseen fame after a random good deed he does for Kelly as the Yellow Ranger leads him to become self centered and desperate for attention.  You see the reason behind Dustin's sudden out of character behavior is simply his need to stand and gain some respect for a change instead of being constantly laughed and lectured to by everyone, including Sensei and that....makes so much sense for his character. It makes you gain a lot more insight into Dustin on how being that type of person can feel like, especially compared to his other friends and the Sensei on how they see him. But Dustin was always there when it mattered and always was ready to take things seriously, even if he didn't want to at first and made a joke before gaining focus.  Like I said, he was just sooo lovable as a character and you couldn't help but always root for the easy going Yellow Ranger. :)

The last of the original trio of rangers is Tori, our first female Blue Ranger of the show's history at that point and the first series to have only one female on the team.  And I have to say, I really like that aspect of the show as it made Tori not only standout more for that reason, but her great sense of responsibility and reason made her the heart of the team as she kept the guys in line most of the time.  Nice! "Beauty and The Beach" is pretty humorous episode that gives us our first insight on how Tori feels about the guys seeing her NOT like the usual girl and wanting to prove herself.  While we see Tori finding out how smart and resilient she is by finding her way out of being captured but we also get some truly hilarious moments with her evil clone that Shane and Dustin can't help but be afraid of. You could tell Sally Martin was having fun with not only playing both Tori's opposite each other but just being so remarkably mean and shrill to the point of genuine hilarity. I also loved seeing how brave and resourceful she was during the excellent "The Wild Wipeout" as she finds herself trapped in a world where the rangers are evil and Lothor and his forces are good. She handles herself not only well against the 5 evil counterparts on her own but in both unmorphed and morphed form in some really awesome fight scenes! Wow! It's the reason why Sensei chose her to go on a solo mission on her own to find the legendary Jade Turtle in "Snip It, Snip It Good".  Oh these episodes titles this season! lol Of course, there are some missteps in her character arc, even tho she didn't really need much development at all.  In "Pork Chopped", she foolishly uses her ninja powers to try to go out with Blake AND make it to Shane's extreme skating competition.  Why Tori would do this is out of character for no reason besides maybe besides showing how strong her feelings for Blake are; making her lose all sense of reason for the first time.  But lesson she learns it what's always been inside of her from the beginning so the episode's message was pointless! O_o Anyway, onto our Thunder Rangers....

Blake and Hunter were another first for the show this season as they both started out as not one but TWO evil rangers sent by Lothor after the rangers. What made it so cool was how the show, once again, for the first time starts out with only 3 rangers instead of the usual 5 core ones at the beginning of the show.  While it would have been nice to explore this new dynamic with only 3 rangers to start with for a while, Blake and Hunter definitely made the show A LOT more interesting during their tenure as the rangers' greatest adversaries this season.  Yes, the reformed Thunder ninjas were the best villains this season...more on that in a few.  I enjoyed Blake and Hunter because of their brotherhood dynamic as well as their individual personalities.  Blake being the more outgoing and talkative of the two while Hunter was more stoic and standoff-ish at first.  What made their initial arc as evil rangers so interesting was how they weren't mind controlled or under some kind of spell, but simply joined Lothor out of their own free will when he told them the Wind Rangers' Sensei killed their parents. Tho again, one wonders why Blake and Hunter would believe a psychopath who just captured all their friends, Sensei and destroyed the only home they've known all their lives but whatever...I guess vengeance seriously clouded their judgement...and common sense apparently for a while??? O_o But what I did really enjoy was seeing the Thunders getting involved in the rangers' lives by prior to showing themselves in their ranger forms by earning Dustin's trust quickly of course and Blake romancing Tori; leaving Shane mistrustful of the two. Of course, everything from capturing the Sensei and realizing Lothor was the one who killed them along was rushed, the "Return of Thunder" Saga nicely brought them back by forcing Blake and Hunter to destroy the rangers in a Battle Royal type of mystical island. Once the Thunder Rangers join the Wind Rangers, we get a new dynamic and of course get to explore the brother individually.  "Good Will Hunter" sees Hunter of course, trying to connect a young boy who lost his father while Blake learns to master the Thunder Blade with difficulty in "Double-Edged Blake".  We get a very cute building romance between Tori and Blake that was highly enjoyable to watch but as usual, their coupling goes no where when them dancing around their feelings for each other...of course! -_- "A Gem of a Day" could have been a nice Hunter epilogue episode in terms of closing out that story with their dead parents but whatever, they were both entertaining and well written characters for the most part as the Crimson and Navy Thunder Rangers. :)

Lastly, you have possibly my most favorite ranger/character of the show in Cam...which is hilarious considering how unlikable he started out. O_O Cam, as the technical support and resentful son of the rangers' mentor, seemed to take every opportunity on screen to ridicule and put down the rangers, especially during the "Thunder Strangers" 3-part arc.  But soon we get glimpses of a Cam who is not only vastly intelligent in technology but a master fighter who can handle himself on his own.  He only resents the rangers because of his father's inability to let him be a ranger and one that Cam gets to prove himself at the peak of the show's run in "The Samurai's Journey, Part 1 and 2".  Here, we not only see Cam at his most heroic but get a great backstory on the origins of Lothor and the dark truth of his family.  It was action packed, intense and full of great heartwarming moments that more than made up for Cam's stubborn and pretentious behavior earlier on.  What was also great was when the focus was on him and his relationship with his father, Sensei Watonabe...if only he wasn't just a CGI Guinea Pig for most of the season.  Yeah, I know it's Power Rangers and I should be use to these kind of mentors; especially considering last season's nature powered pacifist who was a princess of God knows what and could fight for only an episode before being captured a third or fourth time. -_- But it was just plain laughable seeing a group of superheroes taking advice and orders from a 6 year old's pet??? O_o  That's like the Avengers taking orders from a talking Raccoon......wait...never-mind.....LOL. Also, his ninja philosophy and random ninja psychic powers were just so forced and made no sense.  But whatever, the writers were trying to make this season lighter than usual for the show and I can forgive it only because Guinea Pig mentors was the least problematic of this season.

No...if I had any huge issues with this season and they were a HUGE damper on the overall quality of the show...that would be the villains....  You know, Lightspeed gets a lot of flack for it's villains that year, but outside of the horrendous line delivery of Jennifer Yen's Vipra, the villains were harmlessly average like most of that season.  Here, Lothor, his generals and especially his nieces. are.  TERRIBLE!!! -_- I'm sorry, I know there are fans who liked...even loved (yeah, I don't know what's wrong with them either! O_O) but how could you possibly find this guy threatening or intimidating unless you happen to go to some Chucky Cheese knock off with some idiot in badly made luchador outfit.  Lothor spends literally all season doing either nothing or making himself look like a fool as the main antagonist of the rangers while the insufferable Marah and Kapri perform terribly written sitcom scenarios on his ship.  Delivering unfunny one liners and blaming his generals for his own failures! -_- Oh but in the two part finale, we learn it was ALL apart of his plan as he knew he would win in the end given the Scroll of Destiny...that was missing a piece the whole time and doesn't even confirms if he wins you neanderthal!!! -_- I just don't understand how Lothor went from this truly menacing and viciously ambitious Kiya when he was a former student into at the Wind Ninja Academy....to this hysterically dumb looking villain that plays more like a sitcom dad than anything to really worry about saving the world from!!?? O_O I just......moving on!!! -_- As for his generals...and the unneeded abundance of them, Zurgane was the most proactive and interesting but always got forced to be looked at like a joke because Lothor would rather be ridiculous than fight the rangers sometimes, Choobo....moving on....Vexacus; awesome debut, lame tenure on the show.  Such missed opportunity there.  The only thing Shimazu did was use 3 monsters to fight the rangers and after they were defeated...he's practically useless and gets destroyed by the nieces of all people! WOW! Motordrone, badass but a pitiful demise at the hand of Vexacus.  Like I said, the Thunder Rangers were the only villains this season to truly give the rangers a real challenge and that's mostly because of the extremely wonderful fight choreography this season. I mean truly stellar fight sequences over the breathtaking landscapes of New Zealand. Really did sell the idea that these were not only rangers but ninjas so kudos to the writers. The Kelzacks were passable foot soldiers, if not to be seriously outdone by the Kelzack Furies who looked more colorful (what! :P) and tougher than the average Kelzack.

Also another thing that was nice about the show was giving each ranger their own pass time from Tori's surfing to Cam's....Cyber Cam??? Oh Cyber Cam....now that was priceless! :) Lastly tho, I want to talk about the zords of course.  The Storm Megazord was cool, if not outdone by the Thunder Megazord!  The Samurai Star Chopper was awesome as well as the new formations like the Thunderstorm Megazord, Samurai Storm Megazord, Samurai Thunder Megazord as well as the Hurricane Megazord.  Although, that guitar from the cave along with the Mammothzord is sooooo random! Could have honestly have done without it. So the rangers' zord arsenal was greatoverall as well as the Tsunami Cycles, Dragonforce Vehicle and Shane's battlizer I guess.  Though, hunter's Gilder Cycle...bye! All and All, Ninja Storm is definitely flawed as hell but the bits that worked for me made this a fun ride in the end and probably rank it higher than Lightspeed Rescue just based on my utter contentment with the main cast of rangers despite one of the worst season in terms of baddies.

Pros:

• A fun filled season in terms of tone and atmosphere
• A wonderful cast of realistic rangers with individual good characteristics
• The tremendous stunt and fight choreography at hand.
• A beautiful introduction to the show's new location with the stunning visuals of New Zealand
• "The Samurai's Journey, Part 1 and 2"
• The Thunder Rangers are villains! :)
• MUCH better acting compared to last season's mostly disastrous performances

Cons:

• Awful villains that make the ones prior seem so much more sinister in retrospect.
• The unnecessary final Parts of "Return of Thunder" and especially "The Samurai's Journey".
• Some mediocre episodes such as "I Love Lothor" and "Pork Chopped"
• The overabundance of generals that amounted to all of nothing in the end. -_-
• The Scroll of Destiny reveal and reason behind Lothor's dangerously sad incompetence

Best Episodes:

1. "The Samurai's Journey. Part 1 and 2"-Cam's mission into the past to retrieve the Samurai Amulet was the most adventurous and exciting arc of episodes this season by far.

2. "Eye of the Storm"-Shane's inner battle to face his own worst fear as well as making amends with his brother Portor after finding out his brother is a Power Ranger was a very strong late season outing for the show. 

3. "The Wild Wipeout"-Tori's weird and wondrously entertaining journey into a dimension where her friends are villains and her enemies are her unlikely allies surprising worked really well. Go figure!? O_o

4. "Tongue and Cheek"-A fine episode centered on the very flawed and often misunderstood Dustin! What's not to love about this one???  :)

5. "Return of Thunder, Part 1-3"-The final showdown between the Wind Rangers and mind controlled Thunder Rangers set our heroes and antagonists on a mysterious island that is sinking; which forcing the two teams to find common ground in an action filled saga.

Honorable Mention(s): "Scent of A Ranger", "Storm Before the Storm, Part 1 and 2"

Worst Episodes:

1. "Pork Chopped"-A huge MEH! episode as Tori makes some surprisingly poor decisions when she could have told one of her friends she could hang out with them another time? I mean...what!? O_o

2. "I Love Lothor"-Awwww an episode focused on making the masses love Lothor through some dumb spell made by Mr. Ratwell.....yeah! Next!

3. "Good Will Hunter"-Wanna know how pathetic these villains are?? Little boy scares Marah and Kapri off instead of just you know, taking that damn controller from him.  I just.....-_-

4. "Down and Dirty"-A weak penultimate episode that feels more filler than a final run toward the last two episodes. Oh well!

5. "The Samurai's Journey, Part 3"-A 3rd Part to a trilogy of episodes that just really wasn't needed honestly. I mean after Cam owns in the first 2 parts, he spends Part 3 turning into a bug? Nuff said.

Honorable Mention(s): "Nowhere to Grow", "Return To Thunder, Part 4"

"As the official dawn of the Disney era of Power Rangers, the show's 11th incarnation, "Ninja Storm", feels like an unlikely detour from the Saban Era seasons shot in the USA.  While the New Zealand actors try their best to sound American, they often just slip back in their native accents and the production quality suffers in terms of ADR.  But it you can get passed the most horrendous line-up of enemies a team of rangers has ever faced yet, you'll find the lighthearted take of the series and its group of extremely likable heroes is worth the watch for the most part as New Zealand just shines bright for what's to come for the future of the show at that point."

Final Season Verdict: C+