What can be expected from this episode is exactly what you get! “The Grass is always Greener…or Bluer” is a basic fun episode that allows us to live a question you may or may not have been asking yourself: What would happen if Jake and Noah switched bodies!? Certain aspects of this episode seem a bit rushed in parts but it all comes together amidst what would seem like chaos. Not only are two episodes combined into one from the Sentai, a Megazord combo is introduced, two monsters attack and new New Powers appear!
The Noah & Jake switch: While I love this premise in any show, I was still a little sad that it was not a boy/girl switch as it had been in Gokaiger. It has been done before with Kimberly and Billy in MMPR and that episode was hilarious! But, it was the moments between Doc and Luka of Gokaiger that gave me pause when I found out it was going to be the Green and Blue Rangers switching places. How crazy would it have been to see Jake and Gia switch places?!
However, the switch between two very different Rangers was still hilarious in its own right.
Jake as Noah: Somehow, inside Jake’s closet, there is an exact replica of Noah’s outfit. Am I the only one that finds that idea a little creepy? Jake suddenly has his hair parted to the side, which Noah normally doesn’t do to himself. I did love Azim’s interpretation of Noah especially during the scenes where he is working on the Super Mega Cannon!
Noah as Jake: For some reason I was most happy with John Mark’s interpretation of Jake. I really bought the idea that Jake was inside Noah’s body. Plus it was pretty interesting to see John Mark without glasses, which is how he normally looks. It was also interesting to see him in looser clothes. Not that I’m complaining but Noah’s wardrobe is rather tight, again not complaining, so it was strange to see Noah in Jake’s comfortable attire.
The Super Mega Cannon: I really enjoyed these scenes for more than one reason. One, was because I loved seeing Noah “as Jake” working diligently in the command center to get the cannon to work. Second, was I that I loved the team dynamic in these scenes. How adorable was it when Troy feeds the cracker and gives Noah a sip?
Legendary Ranger Mode, Dragon Power: We finally are getting some sort of information on these random Ranger teams that are appearing. As you can see, the Dragon Rangers are the Changeman suits. While it was interesting to get a name for one of these teams I only wish that we would’ve gotten a full team change of a Power Ranger team or perhaps this team would’ve been given a back story.
The Blurring of Two Episodes: I do have to give the production team a kudos for this episode because it combines two different episodes from Gokaiger into one. Gokaiger’s body swap episode and the Gokai Galleon Buster creation episode. Both did center around the Green Ranger which apparently is how this worked out so well. I was happy with beginning scenes with Transferer, which is Gokaiger footage, but actually looks as if it were original footage because of the people in the scene. A lot of the footage that appeared to be a World Conference was seamlessly inserted into these scenes. It was actually smart to use this scene to save time and money, I was just surprised that occurred to the producers.
Legendary Ninja Megazord: I have to say that I love this combination. I have an even more love for it because of the resurgence of the Furai Maru voice which gave me hope that we would not only get a Ninja Storm episode, but a return of Mini-Zord with his awesome voice. None of these things happened in this episode. The now dubbed “Ninja Zord” has no voice and we got no connection to actual Ninja Storm during this episode. The Rangers just suddenly unlocked these powers while fighting Transferer.
Final Thoughts
Having finished Super Megaforce already through the Russian downloads of the show, I have taken to looking at these episodes a little differently now that I review them. A little time has passed between my first viewing and now. While I find the filler episodes time-wasting, during a season in which time wasting is not a luxury we have, it does still annoy me but I can still enjoy them. I am still quite salty over the treatment of Ninja Storm during this episode. No theme song, No change and a crappy tribute to the Mini-Zord. One thing that I am finding is that the New Zealand production team is not very good at creating content out of scenarios that were handed to them on a silver platter. The Hurricangers even came during the Japanese Episode and that footage would’ve been handled any number of ways.
However, taking this episode as a stand alone and minusing all of the disappointments of this season, the episode was rather enjoyable. Funny and a good time to watch!
Scores:
Story: 8/10
Action: 9/10
Monsters: 9/10
All Together: 8.6/10