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Power Rangers Ninja Storm

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PR2020 logo This article is about a/an series entry (the 11th) in the Power Rangers franchise.

Power Rangers Ninja Storm is an American superhero drama serving as an adaptation of the 26th Super Sentai series, and is the 11th installment of Power Rangers. It is the first season to be fully produced by Disney following its acquisition of the franchise mid-season into Wild Force, and aired exclusively on ABC Kids from beginning to end.

The series follows a group of ninja-school students chosen as Power Rangers to defend the world from Lothor.

Production

After acquiring Power Rangers in 2002 as part of their purchase of the Fox Kids franchise, Disney decided to cancel the show at the conclusion of Power Rangers Wild Force, but were convinced to continue with the show when informed they could produce it for a fraction of the previous cost by moving production to New Zealand. As well as this, Disney chose to make the show non-union, which resulted in much of the crew (including long-time producer Jonathan Tzachor) being let go. Ninja Storm was based on the Super Sentai series Ninpū Sentai Hurricanger. A subsidiary of Disney named Buena Vista Entertainment managed the Power Rangers property after Disney took over, and MMPR Productions was dissolved. Doug Sloan, the production manager from the show's inception until the midway mark of Turbo, and Ann Austen (another past production team member) returned to Power Rangers for the first time in years as the head of the show for Disney. A few past writers were also brought back into the fold. Jackie Marchand returned to be the story editor. Koichi Sakamoto (the leader of Alpha Stunts team and producer) remained on the show. Ninja Storm brought a lot of light-heartedness to Power Rangers. This was met with mixed reception from fans. Nevertheless, Ninja Storm aired on ABC and ABC Family like Wild Force before it. Due to union and cost issues, Ninja Storm was the first season to not feature a team-up with the previous year's team since the trend began in Lost Galaxy. Due to the new ownership and its lighthearted story, the series brought new interest to the franchise as ratings and toy sales went up.

Doug Sloan would interact heavily with fans at this point, posting on Rangerboard and the Newsgroup. Sally Martin and Jason Chan (Tori and Cam on Ninja Storm) would also make appearances on Rangerboard. Doug would interact with fans for the rest of his run until the end of Dino Thunder.

An unavoidable change that came with moving the production to New Zealand was the process and criteria for casting the show. Tony Oliver would elaborate on this at the 2007 Power Morphicon, as he got to witness this process on his occasional visits to the production. “With Saban, we had a particular set of criteria for each season. Each actor had to have martial arts, dance, or gymnastics in their background to be a Ranger. We kept this criteria even in the later seasons so that the actors would be able to do a smaller stunt, if necessary. And we would pick from a huge pool of actors out of Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, Orlando, and parts of Canada.

When Disney took over, this created a different criteria and also a different set of problems. They shoot the show in New Zealand now. So they now cast out of that area and also have access to a huge pool of British/Commonwealth actors. So, you’re not going to get a lot stunt prepared actors. I know some fans might not like that, but it’s a safer form of production, which is what Disney wants.”

An early episode in Ninja Storm's run was cut by the censors. It was later re-edited and shown out of production order. Originally it dealt with a peace conference to avoid a war, however, was held back due to the outbreak of the Iraq War as it was felt an anti-war message would not be appropriate. The episode, 'Snip It, Snip It Good' aired later in the run, with the peace conference substituted with an environmental conference.

Synopsis

"Deep in the mountains, secret ninja academies train our future protectors. Ancient scrolls told of three who would be chosen above the others. Three who would become..."
―Narrator[src]

A skateboarder (Shane Clarke), a surfer (Tori Hanson) and a dirt biker (Dustin Brooks), are students of the Wind Ninja Academy under the tutelage of Sensei Kanoi Watanabe and his son Cam. Although it seems as if they will never be good enough to be a full-fledged ninja, they are the only three left when the evil ninja master, Lothor arrives on Earth and captures all the other students. Their sensei, who was transformed into a guinea pig by Lothor, decides that they must become Wind Power Rangers and gives them Wind Morphers to allow them to transform. As the Wind Rangers, they fight to save the world from Lothor and his space minions, using Zords created by Cam for emergencies.

Over time, they are joined by the Thunder Rangers, Hunter, and Blake as well as Cam, who gains Green Samurai powers in a trip to the past.

The show marks a turning point for the franchise with a willingness to make fun of itself and its history (a theme that would return in "Dino Thunder".) Of special note is that Lothor, instead of being the standard melodramatic evil emperor, has a sense of humor and often had lines that set up the show. After making a monster grow, he seems to turn to the camera and says, "What'd you expect? It wasn't going to get smaller." In the final episode, when piloting a robot against the Zords, he yells, "This is the most fun I've had all season!"

Eventually, the Rangers manage to defeat all of Lothor's minions, unwittingly overloading the Abyss of Evil (to which they were all sent upon their demise.) The Wind Rangers are able to stop evil from spreading across the Earth and seal Lothor away in the Abyss of Evil along with their own powers.

Now powerless, Shane, Tori, and Dustin become teachers at the rebuilt Wind Ninja Academy aided by Cam and a newly human Sensei. Hunter takes a job as the head teacher at the Thunder Ninja Academy while his brother Blake continues his racing career.

Characters

Rangers

Ninja Rangers

1190711 640px

Ninja Storm Rangers

Storm Rangers 6

Civilian Ninja Rangers

Main article: Ninja Rangers
Designation Name Actor
Red Wind Ranger Shane Clarke Pua Magasiva
Blue Wind Ranger Tori Hanson Sally Martin
Yellow Wind Ranger Dustin Brooks Glenn McMillan
Crimson Thunder Ranger Hunter Bradley Adam Tuominen
Navy Thunder Ranger Blake Bradley Jorgito Vargas Jr.
Green Samurai Ranger Cameron Watanabe Jason Chan

Evil Ninja Rangers

Main article: Evil Ninja Rangers (30)
Designation Name Actor
Red Wind Ranger Evil Shane Clarke Pua Magasiva
Yellow Wind Ranger Evil Dustin Brooks Glenn McMillan
Crimson Thunder Ranger Evil Hunter Bradley Adam Tuominen
Navy Thunder Ranger Evil Blake Bradley Jorgito Vargas Jr.
Green Samurai Ranger Evil Cameron Watanabe Jason Chan

Allies

Ninja Ops

Main article: Ninja Ops

Wind Ninja Academy

Main article: Wind Ninja Academy

Thunder Ninja Academy

Main article: Thunder Ninja Academy

Dino Rangers

Main article: Dino Rangers (Dino Thunder 31-32)
Designation Name Actor
Red Dino Ranger Conner McKnight James Napier
Blue Dino Ranger Ethan James Kevin Duhaney
Yellow Dino Ranger Kira Ford Emma Lahana
Black Dino Ranger Tommy Oliver Jason David Frank
White Dino Ranger Trent Fernandez-Mercer Jeffrey Parazzo

Others

Civilians

Main article: Blue Bay Harbor

Villains

Arsenal

Main article: Arsenal (Ninja Storm)

Morphers

Multi-Use Devices

Sidearms

Individual Weapons and Team Blasters

Special Weapons

Power-up

Vehicles

Zords

Main article: Zords (Ninja Storm)
Legend:◆ piloted zord, ❖ aux zord, ➲ carrier zord, ◇ combo-assist zord; see Style Guide for rules on icon colors

Ninja Zord System

Main article: Power Spheres

Additional Formations

Storm Megazord
Thunder Megazord
Samurai Star Megazord
Thunderstorm Megazord
Toy-Exclusive

Alternate Formations


Episodes

  1. Prelude to a Storm
  2. There's No “I” In Team
  3. Beauty and the Beach
  4. Looming Thunder
  5. Thunder Strangers, Part I
  6. Thunder Strangers, Part II
  7. Thunder Strangers, Part III
  8. Nowhere to Grow
  9. Snip It, Snip It Good
  10. Return of Thunder, Part I
  11. Return of Thunder, Part II
  12. Return of Thunder, Part III
  13. Return of Thunder, Part IV
  14. Boxing Bopp-a-Roo
  15. Pork Chopped
  16. The Samurai's Journey, Part I
  17. The Samurai's Journey, Part II
  18. The Samurai's Journey, Part III
  19. Scent of a Ranger
  20. I Love Lothor
  21. Good Will Hunter
  22. All About Beevil
  23. Sensei Switcheroo
  24. Tongue and Cheek
  25. Brothers In Arms
  26. Shane's Karma, Part I
  27. Shane's Karma, Part II
  28. Shimazu Returns, Part I
  29. Shimazu Returns, Part II
  30. The Wild Wipeout
  31. Double-Edged Blake
  32. Eye of the Storm
  33. General Deception, Part I
  34. General Deception, Part II
  35. A Gem of a Day
  36. Down and Dirty
  37. Storm Before the Calm, Part I
  38. Storm Before the Calm, Part II

Comics

VHS/DVD/Youtube Releases

DVD

Youtube

Notes

  • This is the first Power Rangers series to feature neither a Pink Ranger nor a White Ranger. All prior incarnations have either included a Pink Ranger or a White Ranger.
  • Ninja Storm is the first season that does not have any interaction with Rangers or characters from a previous incarnation.
  • This is the first time that a series starts with only three Rangers (although the standard six are in place by the series finale).
  • This is the first series to be aired on Jetix and Toon Disney. Thus, it is considered by many fans to be the official start of the "Disney Era" of the Power Rangers.
  • This is the first team to be assembled from three different factions of Rangers (Wind Rangers, Thunder Rangers, and Samurai Ranger) rather than one group from the same power source. However, there are noticeable similarities in their suits.
  • It is the first and currently only season to have exactly three morphing calls.
  • Early in Ninja Storm, it is suggested that all previous series were just comic books thereby retconning them out of the series canon and making Ninja Storm the first "real" Power Rangers series; however, this proved highly controversial and the concept was abandoned.
  • One of the reasons there was no team up between Ninja Storm and Wild Force is because of the transition in filming location for Power Rangers from Los Angeles, California to Auckland, New Zealand, thus Disney's unwillingness to pay the Wild Force cast to fly to New Zealand to produce such a special.
  • An early concept for adapting Ninpu Sentai Hurricaneger, called Hexagon, was drafted by Forever Red writer Amit Bhaumik. It would keep the core three Rangers but would deviate heavily from Hurricanger. Bhaumik's plot involved the return of Tommy Oliver joining forces with different previous Rangers to form a larger organization called the Hexagon. However, the Beetle Rangers (Thunder Rangers) would oppose this, starting a civil war between the two Ranger factions. This idea was discarded in production due to the unforeseen complications and expenses of using the American actors as well as producing all new non-Sentai footage.[1]
  • This is the first Power Rangers series to feature a female Blue Ranger.
  • This is the first season in which every Ranger had a special power.
  • This is the only season to have both a second Red Ranger (crimson) and a second Blue Ranger (navy) on the same team.

See Also

External links

References

  1. ↑ http://amitbhaumik.tumblr.com/post/38658236644/hexagon

Footnotes


PR2020 logo
Mighty Morphin (s01) • Mighty Morphin (s02) • Mighty Morphin (s03) • Alien Rangers (mini-series) • Zeo • Turbo
• In Space • Lost Galaxy • Lightspeed Rescue • Time Force • Wild Force • Ninja Storm • Dino Thunder • S.P.D. •
Mystic Force • Operation Overdrive • Jungle Fury • RPM • Samurai • Super Samurai • Megaforce • Super Megaforce • Dino Charge • Dino Super Charge • Ninja Steel • Super Ninja Steel • Beast Morphers • Dino Fury • Cosmic Fury

Power Rangers: The Movie (alternate continuity) • Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie • 2017 movie (alternate continuity)

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