Power Rangers Super Megaforce: A Lion’s Alliance

Blessfully, Power Rangers Super Megaforce ditches doing over Megaforce episodes and heads in a new direction with the Rangers seeking out new powers for use in the battle against the Armada. Gosei sends them to the island of… AniMARIa. (More on that in a bit). This involves the most enjoyable bit of “A Lion’s Alliance,” four of the Rangers sitting in the crow’s nest of the Skyship searching for the island. We haven’t gotten an extended scene with the Rangers helmetless outside the command center in a long time so seeing them circle the earth 2.98 times like that was a welcome return. Although seriously Emma, you think that little camera is going to help at all?

In this scene we see Jake leering at Gia, a recurring element since the very first episode of Megaforce. Jake wants to get with Gia but he’s made little headway. It’s still creepy every time he does it, especially with that perv smile he makes whenever he even touches Gia. I get that Jake is supposed to be a teenage boy and thus an idiot, but I wish Super Megaforce would finally show some consequence for his actions. Gia looking slightly annoyed is a little too subtle, we need her to call Jake out about how creeped out she clearly feels around him. Power Rangers has a rare chance to tackle an issue that would be extremely important not only for the boys (and adult males) in the audience but also girls. If a guy acts like that? Call him out! If we get to the end of the season and Jake somehow ends up with Gia without even a passing mention of what he was doing was wrong, Power Rangers will have missed a MEGA opportunity.

I will give Jake this though; his reaction to them getting to search the world on the Skyship was delightfully enthusiastic. He almost reminded me of Benny from The Lego Movie. Picture that, Jake jumping up and down in the crow’s nest crying out, “SKY SHIPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!” I need fan art, stat!

The rangers reach AniMARIa and… okay let’s just address this now. Super Megaforce has been more or less right in getting the names of attacks and catchphrases correct but really? It’s called the Animarium. This shouldn’t be hard to figure out, its name is all over Wild Force! Thankfully that was the only major hiccup in the episode. And no, the one-second footage use of the TurboRangers (The Sentai team, not Power Rangers Turbo) is not a knock against the episode. Power Rangers has always been filled with strange edits like that…Season 2 especially was filled with them. It’s not that noticeable and we as PR fans have had to ignore a lot worse over the years. Or you could actually have fun with the show and try to reason up an explanation for it instead of needlessly complaining! What a concept!

We get a fun change into former black rangers and then the main attraction, the full team change into Wild Force! Again, fans may complain about the lack of the Wild Force theme song and while it would be a nice addition, it isn’t make or break for me. The fight was enjoyable and we even got a Savage Slash call back with the sword. Little things like that go a long way.

We end the episode with another corny MMPR style punch line with Jake making a terrible joke about the Red Lion Zord. I’m enjoying the little tag scenes in Super Megaforce, all they need is a freeze frame and executive producer credit.

Also of note, the monster of the week was voiced by James Gaylyn who’s had various roles in the New Zealand seasons of Power Rangers, most noticeably as the voice of Zeltrax in Dino Thunder and Mason Truman in RPM. He elevates the silly looking monster into being a competent threat with his voice alone. Also, were you aware at all that James Gaylyn is a singer? How did I not know this until today?

Overall, “A Lion’s Alliance” isn’t a bad episode of Super Megaforce. It’s entertaining enough but not a game changer. Next week we get the return of Alex Heartman as Jayden so here’s hoping they give him something significant to do and not just have him scowl the whole time.

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