#prbs

And does it begin with one hell of a bang or what?

To start, holding off the theme song well until the first commercial break was a good way to let us just dive into the episode itself and immediately get invested in the story. I almost forgot until eight minutes in so it was a nice surprise. Yes, it includes “Go Go Power Rangers” but better that as a reoccurring leitmotif than a wholesale rendition of Mighty Morphin’s theme song.

Beast Morphers definitely earned major points by embracing that it’s part of a wider Power Rangers universe without compromising itself as a stand-alone storyline. The Morphing Gird itself being at stake was cool enough but I loved that Mayor Daniels mentioned Rita Repulsa, Sledge and Galvanax to stress how this is a universe that knows full well that evil forces are always abound.

I’m guessing this takes place in the main universe with Galvanax mentioned and Sledge briefly tried his takeover with “The Poisy Show,” given Dino Charge is in an alternate dimension. Shame Evox seems to not be Venjix... but with the mention of transporters reaching out to other dimensions (I’m guessing Time Force had a hand in that), I’m not letting that little theory go just yet...

Devon had me with how he was listening to his tunes during karate. While Tyler and Brody were cool, Dev’s giving me Spider-Verse Miles Morales vibes with how he’s a teenager taking life at his own pace and feeling pressured by those around him. He’s like Jack Landors of SPD growing into Scott Truman, a Rookie Red Ranger with a lot to learn. Always a delight in my book, cliche or not.

His fight with Blaze sets up their future confrontations and really impressed me with the unmorphed fights already. Considering more original footage is set to be shown, I should hope the choreography can take cues from RPM and get pretty creative. Wonder if Koichi Sakamoto could swing by in the future...

Ravi and Roxy set up the future bond between Go Buster’s Ryuji and Escape pretty well. A lot better actually since it’s between two lovers who have to keep things professional between them before Evox strikes, not unlike Jetman’s Ryu and Rie. I recall Go Busters giving them a nice rivalry but kinda pushed for a star-crossed romance that did not feel very earned compared to this version.

Evox creating evil Rangers from their friends gives the Rangers the long term goal of saving those who were stolen from them. It reminds me of Code Lyoko where William was made XANA’s warrior. I do feel that keeping their bodies rather than just their corrupted consciousnesses would make for more palpable stakes, making them ponder on how to save their friends if they can at all...

The Rangers’ first battle was one hell of a showstopper. Not only was their no Sentai footage but it was an impressive display of all three of their animal DNA powers along with Nate’s smarts, leading to a victory that relied on little weaponry or flashy final moves. No victory catchphrase though. Not yet...

As for our new intrepid duo, Ben and Betty, well, I can’t imagine fans getting bent out of shape like with Victor and Monty. I’d say they’re more like Boom. Well, so far. One of them’s on the pudgy side and you know what that tends to entails...

Devon takes a job at the car wash to make his dad proud of him, unable to reveal his Ranger identity to him just yet. I do like the moment that they both share bantering with each other while wiping down a car. It does shown how Mayor Daniels can be the usual stick-in-the-mud dad but also able to be a genuinely cool guy even with his son. He’s well-rounded for a side character.

The Rangers salvaging Gigadrone debris is something I honestly love. It both utilizes original Zord footage along with Go Busters Episode 2′s opening where Ryuji and Yoko were on clean-up detail from the previous episode. In addition, it’s something that I feel past teams hardly took into account even with robotic enemies. Of course, it’s something that a organization would take into account.

Blaze gets a chance to have some fun in original battle footage. I do feel like he could be more smug in his performance. Maybe not suave like Enter (nobody can pull off that performance, let’s be real) but a bad guy who enjoys being the bad guy. That said, I love how smart he was to trash the communicators and take his Robodrone on a surprisingly successful Morph-X shopping spree.

We also get a cameo of Beet J. Stag’s head when Nate moves his stuff into the top secret hanger. With him on the buddy system, it’d make sense if he was actually making his own bodyguard. Meaning that J’s showboating would be reinterpreted as him standing before Nate in order to protect his creator. Not bad but I’m still holding onto my Vargoyle theory. Just for now at least...

We also get the individual zords taking on the giant monster once again, Red in his while the others take care of things on the ground. I do feel like the Beast Bots aren’t given much to do and understand that they can only balance so many characters. That said, they could at least be foils for Ben and Betty’s shenanigans where they help with their projects. The straight men perhaps? :P

All the same, I love how we see a Gigadrone getting captured and original footage of it being lowered into the hanger with major victory spoils for our heroes as well as villains. Sadly, Mayor Daniels doesn’t love how his son skipped out on work for no apparent reason to him. It’s harsh but as far as he knows, Devon was just slacking off. Don’t worry, man. He’ll come around soon.

Oh, wait. Guess not, technically speaking. Guess they couldn’t afford any live poultry and asked if any of the crew had a dog.

Anyhow, Evox and his Avatars find themselves trapped in the Cyber Dimmension where Scrozzle, a PR exclusive villain, allies with them in order to avoid confronting another neardowell named Vargoyle. Foreshadowing for Enter Unite’s counterpart and/or Super season villain? You make the call!

It’s intriguing to see them create a new villain from scratch this time since Cosmo Royale was repurposed from a Toqger villain. He could be more like Enter’s counterpart as he creates the Robodrones and even deploys the Gigadrones. I like how the villains are just coming together like the Rangers.

The Beast Bots are introduced maybe a tad too quickly. I get that they’re skipping Go Buster’s premiere but I feel having each bot debut one at a time would’ve let us get to know them better. Though I am enjoying Jax’s snark, I kinda was hoping that Smash was more of a butler-like character not unlike Gorisaki. I do hope that Cruise gets in on the action more at least like Nick.

Ravi and Zoey are at odd on who should be the leader when their weaknesses start to kick in just like in Go Busters except it’s because of Evox’s lingering corrupting. This time though, Devon freezes up at the sight of a dog rather than a chicken. Really though, it’s more of an improvement compared to chickening out over, erm, chickens. I think kids can at least relate to that sort of fear more.

The Sentai Footage skips over to Mission 5 of Go Busters where like Ryuuji, Ravi overheats and gets a major attitude that destroys Cycletron but nearly does in Zoey, likely to showcase their weaknesses right out the gate. It also allows for the zords to debut individually before they later form the Megazord in the future. I get the sense they don’t want this series to seem so Red-Centered.

I still think that Blaze and Roxy should be piloting the Gigadrones but given how Enter and Escape do that in Go-Busters later, I wouldn’t be surprised if its implemented a lot sooner in Beast Morphers. It would give the zord battles a more personal touch, especially in regards to Ravi and Roxy particularly. It’d at least show the villains as not just retreating when things seem more heated.