Season 12, Episode 19: Lost & Found In Translation

"Lost & Found In Translation"
Episode 19
Air Date: June 19th, 2004

Sometimes, what I really enjoy about this show, is how it experiments with the series itself by either, creating a self contained episode, while familiar, is completely out there for a kid's show, like Lost Galaxy's "The Rescue Mission" or just wholeheartedly embraces the complete nonsensical madness of the Sentai footage they borrow that it's so bad, it's amazing like Turbo's "Trouble By The Slice".  Honestly, Power Rangers down to it's most basic production is laughable and is the reason why this franchise has never truly been taken seriously beyond its children demographic.  But it's episodes like "Lost & Found In Translation" where the writers of the show themselves clearly KNOW this and are finally getting in on the joke as this episode really is too hilarious for words.  Never has an episode of Power Rangers (at least before this one anyway!) been so incredibly creative with the source material they are adapting by not only poking fun at it but how ridiculous the premise of the show truly is when looking at it from face value.  Ethan is busy living his best life to Hayley's new satellite TV, with 900+ channels (Oh the days when cable TV was THAT exciting! lol) at the Cbyerspace when Kira and Connor remind him they should be studying and working on their upcoming social studies assignment.  But soon things take a turn for the absolute weird when Ethan stumbles upon an episode of a Japanese series based on them and their fight against evil.  The priceless part about it is, it's actually a (poorly) dubbed episode of a random Abaranger episode (The Sentai "Dino Thunder" is adapting).

It's just comedy gold on how the writers handle these characters ironically seeing their Japanese counterparts when in reality, they are the adaption and Sentai is the source material.  It's an odd but truly flawlessly humorous narrative for an episode as we get some of the best interaction and dialogue from our trio of teens in a while.  From Connor's hilarious ironic "It wasn't even made here.  What do they know about Power Rangers in Japan" to the too accurate portrayal of America's horrifyingly bad dubbing of Asian entertainment, you can tell the writers were have a blast as they deconstruct the show itself right down to the obvious nature of the monsters being guys in badly made rubber suits.  Seriously, a laugh filled Bravo to the writing team!  The episode that they are watching itself is about their Japanese counterparts facing off against a monster, Ka-Ching, who uses mushrooms to turn people's hair into terribly hideous wigs that make them very greedy.  Oh and there's some famous American baseball player named Whacker Wilson who happens to be visiting and desperately needs the country's best chiropractor to fix his back.  The Blue Ranger, Kenny, assists him since that would be him and fixes his back but is put off by Wilson needs for money.  The episode of course continue as Ethan and Kira are getting more into it while Connor is surprisingly and strongly skeptical about the whole thing.  Luckily, Kira reminds him that how is Ka-Ching anymore stupid and bizarre than what they have faced.....AWESOME!!! :)  Of course, the episode gets more over the top once Whacker (ehhh!! O_O) gets a bad wig cause of the monster and the rangers need to confront Ka-Ching on last time.  Seriously, the writers couldn't have chosen are whacker episode from this Sentai as the sequence of the rangers catching large amounts of change with things like a piggy bank and ancient boxes couldn't be more expressive of how zany those over the top Japanese culture aspects of Sentai could be! lmao!

What's the kicker of it all is Connor by the end, really gets into the show and actually applauds it once the overall message of the episode is clear as there are more important things in life than wealth and being a altruistic person is more valuable.  I know....it's kind of forced but then again, the fact that the writers can proudly acknowledge the absurdity of all this and still keep me entertained by this whole episode makes me easily give it a pass.  So it turns out, Connor even used the episode as the basis for his social studies project as Ethan and Kira both agree while out there, both the show and their lives as rangers aren't so different besides the cultural differences.  Honestly, "Lost & Found In Translation" is a work of unparalleled parody  by a kid's show I've ever seen. The writers effortlessly satire the show's weaknesses while also finally acknowledging the source material of the show in a way that's fun but not insulting to Toei's Sentai franchise.  Really well done and honestly, fantastic ride of hilarity from start to finish! :)

Final Morph: A+