Power Rangers: Season 1, Episode 7: Big Sisters

One thing about Mighty Morphin Power Rangers that can be appreciated is the transition between the American footage and the Japanese footage.  The series uses a lot of archive footage from the Japanese Super Sentei series.  Many times, the American footage is well placed within the episode among the already existing Japanese footage.  It creates a story that can actually be followed.  Other times, there is a really noticeable change in quality or looks.

This post is about the seventh episode of the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.  This is an episode that shows how some of the editing in the show can feel almost seamless and other editing moments can stand out because of how the two pieces of footage clash.

Season 1, Episode 7: Big Sisters

In a strange turn of events, there is a girl in the Big Sisters program with two big sisters.  These sisters are Kimberly and Trini.  In a less strange turn of events, Rita Repulsa sends some putties to Earth and the putties kidnap the girl.

If you want to know why this all happened it was because Rita Repulsa was trying to use some power eggs but the only way to open the chest they were in was by way of an innocent child.  In order to protect her investment, Rita has a large chicken with scissors.  The Power Rangers must then stop her from getting the eggs, get the girl back, and defeat the chicken.

All of the fighting happens in some sort of work yard.  Perhaps it was a shipping yard.  I’m not really sure.  What I can say is that Rita came to Earth this time, and she brought all of her usual minions with her.  They watch as the fight happens.  She enlarges the chicken, causing the Power Rangers to zord up.  They, of course, defeat the chicken, save the girl, and get rid of the power eggs.  The end.

The reason that I brought up the editing of the American and Japanese clips earlier was because of the fight scene.  Now, I know that all of the shots of the zords coming to the rescue, or Rita’s staff hitting the ground are reused all the time.  I’m not going to get into that outside of these sentences that have already been written.  In the fight the editors were cutting between shots of the original Japanese series, where the girl was in danger, and shots of the American version where the girl was in danger.  The contrast between the shots was really obvious.  You could easily tell that the American shots showed a Caucasian girl, while the Japanese shots showed a Japanese girl.

What I want to ask is this.  Why couldn’t they have cast an American girl of Japanese descent for the role?  When the main cast is as racially diverse as it is, why couldn’t they have matched races in that role?  It would have made the editing feel less jarring when the two different girls appeared on screen.  It would have been more believable.  I’ll never know the answer to this question.

After that, I’m all burned out on writing about that episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.  There are many more episodes to write about.  Next time, I’ll write about another.