''Power Rangers Samurai'' is the eighteenth season of the

children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evenin ...

Power Rangers ''Power Rangers'' is an entertainment and merchandising franchise built around a live-action superhero television series, based on the Japanese tokusatsu franchise '' Super Sentai''. Produced first by Saban Entertainment, second by BVS E ...

'', which is based on the Japanese ''

Super Sentai is a Japanese superhero team metaseries and media franchise consisting of television series and films produced by Toei Company, and Bandai, and aired by TV Asahi ("Sentai" is the Japanese word for "task force" or "fighting squadron"). The ...

Series''. The season was the first to be produced by SCG Power Rangers, after

Saban Brands Saban Capital Group LLC is an American investment firm based in Los Angeles, California focused on media, entertainment, and communications investments. Formed in 2010 by Haim Saban, Saban Capital Group owns Saban Films, part of Univision Commu ...

(a successor to the original production company,

Saban Entertainment Saban Entertainment, Inc. (along with Saban International; currently operating under the legal name is BVS Entertainment, Inc.) was a worldwide-served independent American-Israeli television production company formed in 1980 by Haim Saban and ...

) acquired the franchise. The season marks the franchise's debut on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

, premiering on the main network and

Nicktoons Nicktoons is a collective name used by Nickelodeon for their original animated series. All Nicktoons are produced partly at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio and list Nickelodeon's parent company (Viacom, now known as Paramount Global) in their ...

on February 7, 2011. ''Samurai'' uses props, footage and characteristics from '' Samurai Sentai Shinkenger'' and, according to press material, had a "brighter tone and an infusion of fun and comedy that wasn't present in seasons 16 and 17." ''Samurai'' is also the first season to be shot and broadcast in HD. Though 2006's '' Boukenger'' (which was adapted into '' Operation Overdrive'') was the first Super Sentai series to be shot in HD, preceding ''Power Rangers'' seasons were not. ''Samurai'' also returns the series to a multi-seasonal format; the second season, titled ''Power Rangers Super Samurai'', began on February 18, 2012 and is officially considered the nineteenth season overall.

Plot

The Samurai Power Rangers–Red Ranger Jayden Shiba, the stoic leader; Blue Ranger Kevin Douglas, the devoted second-in-command; Pink Ranger Mia Watanabe, the big sister; Green Ranger Mike Fernandez, the creative rebel; Yellow Ranger Emily Stewart, the youngest and most innocent; and Gold Ranger Antonio Garcia, the expressive fisherman/tech wiz– fight the evil Master Xandred and his army of Nighloks, who want to flood the planet with the waters of the Sanzu River to bring about the end of civilization.

Promotion

Saban announced they would be enacting an "aggressive" multimedia focus, with planned apps, games, streaming content, and social media content in addition to live shows and a feature film. The run-up to the new series was promoted by 145 Days of Power Rangers, a daily airing of every ''Mighty Morphin'' episode in order. An official Power Rangers

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...

page was also created. On November 24, 2010, the Power Rangers website placed a trailer for the show online, hosted on

Yahoo! Kids Yahoo! Kids (known as Yahoo!きっず in Japan) is a public web portal provided by Yahoo! Japan to find age appropriate online content for children between the ages of 4 and 12. This site was formerly available in English via Yahoo!, where it wa ...

. The new Samurai Rangers also appeared at the 2010

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is an annual parade in New York City presented by the U.S.-based department store chain Macy's. The Parade first took place in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States wit ...

Paul Schrier Paul Schrier II (born June 1, 1970) is an American actor, director, and artist. He is known for his role of Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier in the ''Power Rangers'' series. He portrayed the character for seven seasons from 1993–1999, returning in 20 ...

has a recurring role in the season, reprising his role as

Bulk Bulk can refer to: Industry * Bulk cargo * Bulk liquids * Bulk mail * Bulk material handling * Bulk pack, packaged bulk materials/products * Bulk purchasing * Baking * Bulk fermentation, the period after mixing when dough is left alone to fer ...

originating from ''

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers ''Mighty Power Rangers'' (''MMPR'') is a superhero television series that premiered on August 28, 1993, on the Fox Kids programming block. It is the first entry of the ''Power Rangers'' franchise, and became a 1990s pop culture phenomenon along ...

''. Jason Narvy subsequently reprised his role as Skull in the final episode. For the second batch of episodes airing in 2012, Saban began promoting the season with the title of "Super Samurai" to reflect the upgrades to the Rangers powers (glimpsed already in "Clash of the Red Rangers The Movie"). Actor Hector David, Jr., released an official teaser poster for "Super Samurai" on his Facebook profile.

Cast and characters

Rangers

*Alex Heartman as Jayden Shiba, the first Red Samurai Ranger. *Erika Fong as Mia Watanabe, the Pink Samurai Ranger. *Hector David Jr. as Mike Fernandez, the Green Samurai Ranger. *Najee De-Tiege as Kevin Douglas, the Blue Samurai Ranger. *Brittany Anne Pirtle as Emily Stewart, the Yellow Samurai Ranger. *Steven Skyler as Antonio Garcia, the Gold Samurai Ranger. *

Kimberley Crossman Kimberley Frances Crossman (born May 1990) is a New Zealand actress and presenter who is best known for her role as Sophie McKay on the New Zealand soap opera '' Shortland Street''. She is the co-founder of Joyable. In August 2021, it was annou ...

as Lauren Shiba, the second Red Samurai Ranger.

Supporting characters

Rene Naufahu Rene Naufahu (born May 1970) is a New Zealand actor, screenwriter and director. Career Naufahu is perhaps best known for being an original cast member of the New Zealand soap opera ''Shortland Street'', playing paramedic Sam Aleni for the show ...

as Mentor Ji *Felix Ryan as Spike Skullovitch *

Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier and Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch are fictional characters in the Power Rangers universe. They appeared as permanent cast members from ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers'' until '' Power Rangers in Space''. Bulk was a recurring ...

Eka Darville Eka Darville (born 11 April 1989) is an Australian actor. He is best known for his roles as Scott Truman in ''Power Rangers RPM,'' Pip in ''Mr. Pip'', Malcolm Ducasse in ''Jessica Jones'' and Diego in '' The Originals''. Biography Early lif ...

as Scott Truman/Ranger Operator Series Red * Jason Narvy as Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch

Villains

* Rick Medina as Deker * Jeff Szusterman as the voices of Master Xandred and Octoroo * Kate Elliott as the voice of Dayu *Derek Judge as the voice of Serrator *

Cameron Rhodes Cameron Rhodes (born 1 August 1967) is a New Zealand film and theatrical actor and director. Life and career Rhodes graduated from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in 1987 with a Diploma in Acting. He has appeared in various TV shows (in ...

as the voice of Professor Cog *

Geoff Dolan Geoffrey Patrick Dolan (known as Geoff Dolan) (born 29 December 1964 in Lower Hutt, New Zealand) is a New Zealand actor, singer and corporate entertainer who is probably best known in recent times as recurring character, Derrick/ Thor in The Al ...

as the voice of Sergeant Tread *John Dybvig as the voice of General Gut

Episodes

''Power Rangers Samurai'' (Season 18, 2011)

''Power Rangers Super Samurai'' (Season 19, 2012)

Reception

By 2012, ''Power Rangers'' had an average of 2 million viewers. The highest rated episode was the May 15, 2011 broadcast of "The Blue and the Gold", with 3.7 million viewers.

Comic book

Papercutz produced two issues of a comic book based on ''Power Rangers Super Samurai''. The Samurai Rangers also played a role in the 2018 comic Book Event "Shattered Grid", celebrating 25 years of the Power Rangers franchise.

Awards and nominations

Home media

The complete season of ''Super Samurai'' was released on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

on December 4, 2012 and DVD on January 7, 2014 by

Lionsgate Home Entertainment Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

References

External links

Official Power Rangers Website

at Power Rangers Official Website

at Power Rangers Official Website
Power Rangers Samurai
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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Power Rangers Samurai

Samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They ...

2011 American television series debuts 2012 American television series endings 2010s American science fiction television series 2010s Nickelodeon original programming Japanese mythology in popular culture Fiction about size change American children's action television series American children's adventure television series American children's fantasy television series Martial arts television series Television series created by Haim Saban