Ninja Steel came in fighting with an interesting lead in story and with memorable and lovable characters! While many will say that the series has already begun to copy the success of Dino Charge’s premiere there were many differences as well. While it used the same formula it seemed to work well for Ninja Steel as the premiere (which was 1.53 Million viewers) surpassed the premiere of Dino Super Charge! Again, as Dino Charge had, this premiere episode was made entirely of Original Footage!
I rather enjoyed the episode, so let’s begin our first review of the season!
Brody’s Past: I really enjoyed the first part of the episode where we hear Brody tell us the tale of his past with his father.
I did get a little bit of Samurai vibes here in the beginning but a lot better, because we got to actually see Dane (Brody’s Father) take on Galvanax in an epic fight scene! One of the best scenes was seeing Dane slashing the Ninja Nexus Star apart, knocking the villains to the ground and then disappearing into a huff of smoke! How dramatic!
How heart broken were you when Brody was dragged away by Ripcon screaming for his brother, Aiden?
But what happened to Aiden? Aiden was entrusted with the metal crust of the Ninja Steel but hasnt been seen since.
The Ninja Nexus Prism: It was quite interesting that the “End Shuriken” was used in this manner for Ninja Steel and I am happy that they are taking a new path and straying a little from the Ninninger story. It was also fantastic to me that they set it up so early that Brody’s father was seen scraping off the Ninja Steel from the Ninja Nexus Prism, which obviously is going to be of great use to plot points later on in the show!
Brody: Brody got off to a soft start to me, he is rather mysterious so far but I rather like that! I don’t want him to be too in my face like other Red Rangers or his Sentai counterpart. He seems as if he will be a good balance with his teammates.
One thing I can gather from him is that he is going to be a dedicated Ninja as well as desperate to find the rest of his family (which yes, has been done many times before.)
I also got the impression from several scenes from this episode that Brody grew up, even with friends like Mick and Redbot, completely lonely, missing his family and the planet he grew up on.
But, you could tell from the final scene of the episode that he is going to be a talented leader and Red Ranger. All the pieces are there.
Mick & Redbot: Mick seems rather silly to me but I do like his ability to transform into different objects. While, I do love Kelson Henderson, Mick seems too much like Boom (from Power Rangers SPD) for my taste. I am hoping that his character will grow and change as time goes on, because at this moment it just seems like a copy+paste character. But, he’s still cute.
Redbot, however, I am living for! He’s rather adorable and totally reminds me of C3PO from the Star Wars Universe! I believe that he is probably the one that has kept Brody sane all these years and will most likely keep him grounded throughout the season, between being a Human and spending all that time in space.
Galaxy Warriors: I was very intrigued to hear about this concept when it was first introduced and it did not disappoint me when it finally came to life. Cosmo Royale, the hostest with the mostest, was full of energy and welcomed everyone to the show where monsters from all over the galaxy compete for their chance to reach into the Ninja Nexus Prism to obtain a Star!
But what stole the show for me was the re-use of monster suits from the hundreds of Power Rangers episodes past! RPM, Overdrive, Jungle Fury and even Mighty Morphin Monsters could be seen cheering and even fighting in the games!
A lot of people took issue with the reuse of monster suits that have no connection to their previous season, but honestly after Sledge’s prisoners I have no issue with it. Plus, this isn’t the first or last time that monster suits will be reused. Don’t sweat the small stuff!
The Villains: Galvanax so far is a foreboding villain that seems like a powerful force amongst the empire he is currently running. He sort of reminds me of Master Xandred, only he gets off his butt and actually does something! He’s the Ultimate Champion of Galaxy Warriors but has not yet been able to remove a Ninja Power Star from the Ninja Nexus Prism!
Madame Odius, who serves as adviser to Galvanax has a smooth voice and wicked sneaky demeanor about her; you can tell she has something up her sleeve when she mentioned she has her own spies and that she had information on the Ninja Steel that could be melted down to create new Ninja Power Stars! I smell treachery from her in the future!
Ripcon, however, I don’t feel like I know much about him. He just seems rather bland to me. So far just a random general with no personality with some comical moments at his expense. Let’s see if he has more to offer in the future.
Preston: Preston was probably my favorite Ranger this episode because he was just plain adorable and fun to watch. It’s kind of funny to write this because it’s obvious why I am gonna write it but; I enjoyed watching him for the same reasons why I enjoyed watching Koda. However, Preston had something different going for him. He had great comical timing! From the moment he trapped the girls on the bus, to handing Sarah the flyer, to transforming into the dragon costume and of course getting the costume snatched off! Peter Sudarso has some great comedic timing and it will do him well on this show! Of course we have to mention here, the homage to Koda in the magic scene with the shirtlesness and of course the burgers on Preston’s boxers was hilarious!
I also loved how Preston is carrying his love for magic even into his Ranger powers, as he believed the morphers appearing was magic! This will most likely be a theme throughout the season and I welcome it!
Sarah: Sarah roared on the scene arriving on her awesome hoverboard modeled after what will soon be her Zord! I loved that she is an inventor and came in like a freight train into the episode!
One thing I loved about Sarah was that she seemed calm and collected and put up with a lot including how she handled Monty and Victor. Victor was totally pushing on her and she never lost her cool, but made it clear she didn’t want anything to do with him. I loved her even more when she interacted with Preston, her kindness showed even more when she demanded that Victor apologize for ruining Preston’s magic show! I simply love their interactions all together from Sarah wanting to help Preston clean up from them taking a crazy hoverboard ride to help Brody out!
Victor & Monty: What can be said about these two? With the short time we had with them they were rather hilarious. Victor was totally the “Gaston” of the school and Monty was his geeky sidekick with the mannerisms of a “Minkus”
However, Monty was totally sassy towards Preston about his magic show and that was pretty hilarious especially with those mannerisms I mentioned. Victor, is again a totally revamped version of “Gaston” and I want to see more of this because it seems as if he has set his eyes on Sarah and I assume he is going to try his hardest to get her; and I know that’s most likely not going to fly with her.
But, I am looking forward to their comedy antics!
The First Auto-Morph: It was rather interesting to me that there were two “morphs” in this episode and they both revolved around being blasted by the villains. Is that how the Ninja Power Stars are unlocked? I am curious if that is how each Star is going to have to be unlocked, by being blasted first. Either way, the first fight was pretty great and the team worked well together!
I laughed a little when the blasters appeared, I will never not laugh at those damn Frog blasters lol.
Under Helmet Shots: Samurai, Dino Charge and many more amongst others have done it and I never get tired of it! I love when we get to look under the helmet and see under the visor to see the Rangers’ eyes! I welcome this in Ninja Steel, plus it looks really cool cause I think it throws back to that classic Ninja look from Mighty Morphin’ Season 3!
Return of the Prism had me rocking in my seat, smiling and at the end I was ready for another episode! The characters introduced so far were interesting and welcoming, the villains for the most part were foreboding, Galaxy Warriors is completely original and amazing and the backstory and set up for the future is bright and intriguing! I cannot wait to see where this story will go, I just hope that the filler will not go the way of Dino Super Charge and keep us on task with plot and not rush into a terrible ending. Keep the story flowing with plot as well as filler, there can be plot intertwined with the filler!
Don’t make the same mistakes! Let the games begin!