Power Rangers Jungle Fury: Friends Don’t Fade Away

I would like to start today by apologizing for the long gaps between updates. As some of you may know, lately I have been undergoing the very time consuming and stressful process of moving to another state which has occupied the majority of my time over the course of the past month. While there is still more to do, the chaos has died down a bit and hopefully soon, things will get back to a more consistent schedule, but no promises. Anywho, all that out of the way, welcome back to the jungle Ranger Fans, where today, we continue our ongoing look at Power Rangers Jungle Fury. Last time, lots of things happened, not all of them plot relevant. The things that are important to remember are as follows. Camille used the last remaining life talon to resurrect The Bear Overlord of the Land, Grizzaka, who attacked her shorty after waking up. The Rangers encountered a mysterious Wolf Beast who doesn’t seem to be affiliated with Dai Shi and RJ is still suffering from the wound he suffered during his fight with Dai Shi which has caused him to act strangely. Everybody got that? Too bad, we’re moving on.

We open in Dai Shi’s castle where we finally get a good look at Grizzaka after he tosses Camille through the door. Jellica and Carnisoar welcome him back to the world of the living, but Old Grizz just punches them both in the gut. Grizz here is not exactly a social animal, and his emotional state seems to range between “pissed off” and “even more pissed off.” Grizzaka is about to pledge his loyalty to Dai Shi, but is furious to learn that his former boss is now a human. Dai Shi demands his loyalty, but Grizzaka is having none of it and tosses his old master to the floor and immediately declares himself the new ruler. Even though Grizz is a raging asshole of the highest caliber, he does still make a surprisingly good point. Back when Dai Shi was in charge, he lost the great battle, and now that he’s human, he’s even weaker than he was back then. So, Grizz reasons that instead of wasting their time helping their weakling loser boss get back to full strength, let’s kick him to the curb and let someone new, namely him, take over. Well, as you can probably imagine, Dai Shi is not about to give up his throne without a fight and challenges Grizzaka to a duel. Even for as strong as we know Dai Shi to be, Grizzaka still makes him look like a complete chump, especially once he unleashes his Zocato Power. What’s Zocato Power? Well, even though it’s treated as a big deal, it’s not really clearly defined exactly what Zocato Power is. Best I can figure, it’s some kind of dark aura that increases the strength of one’s attacks and takes great skill to master. Dai Shi insists Grizzaka teach him this power, but Grizz is adamant that Dai Shi is of no use to him. Now that he’s firmly established himself as the new big swinging dick around these parts, Grizzaka summons a Snow Monkey Beast to go into the city and gather human fear so he may grow stronger.

Over in Ocean Bluff, we see RJ waking up in a pile of trash. So, I may as well let you in on this now, as most of you have probably already figured it out. The mysterious Wolf Beast is RJ. Dai Shi’s attack apparently threw his connection to his animal spirit out of whack, causing him to shift into the wolf form unpredictably.

Back at Jungle Karma. The Rangers continue to treat Fran like shit and demonstrate a liberal interpretation of the No Shirt, No Shoes rule, particularly RJ, who walks in with his clothes in tatters. RJ walks upstairs, still trying to keep the whole Wolf thing to himself, but a news report about an attack by a strange and vicious animal gives him pause. Clearly, this problem is not going away, and now people are getting hurt as a consequence.

We next see RJ packing up his things, likely hoping to skip town and go somewhere he won’t be a danger to others. Fran catches him and, appealing to their friendship, gets RJ to come clean. RJ doesn’t want the Rangers to know about his condition because he thinks that it’ll cause them to focus on him and not the mission.

On his way out of town, RJ encounters the Snow Monkey, and, seeing that its claw marks match the ones shown in the news report, realizes that it was this monkey who was attacking people, not him. RJ attacks the Snow Monkey but his condition starts acting up. Fortunately, the Rangers arrive to help. RJ assists his students, but an attack from the monkey forces him into his wolf form, outing his secret to the Rangers. Well, now that Lily’s here, she can just get drunk and make out with him. No I will not explain that joke, go watch Cabin in the Woods. RJ attacks the Rangers in his feral state, allowing the Monkey to escape. After a brief fight, RJ reverts to human form and collapses.

Back at the loft, RJ tells our heroes that his condition is actually worse than we thought. His wolf spirit isn’t just out of balance, it’s slowly taking over. If RJ doesn’t get this fixed and fast, next time, he might not turn back. The Rangers insist on helping RJ but he says that only he can rebalance his human and animal spirits. Besides, right now, the Rangers need to focus on the six and a half foot tall killer monkey running amok in their city. And with that, The Rangers head out, Fran staying to look after RJ.

As the Rangers fight Harold the Yeti’s Kung Fu Fighting Cousin, Fran is attacked by RJ’s wolf form. While she’s clearly terrified, Fran refuses to back down as she tries desperately to get through to RJ’s humanity, reminding him that he is the kindest person she knows and the closest thing she has to family. The Wolf lunges at Fran, but it seems her words got through to him as he’s able to stop himself before the Wolf delivers a killing blow. RJ reverts to his human form and it seems that his animal spirit is back to normal. Well that’s nice, but there’s still the big angry monkey to deal with. RJ heads out to assist the Rangers, but not before grabbing a box out of the cupboard.

Back in the city, the Snow Monkey is tossing the Rangers around like rag dolls when RJ arrives, retrieving from that box, a Morpher. A Morpher that, oddly enough, is NOT a pair of sunglasses. I don’t think either Morphers are any better or worse at than the other, I just felt like I should point that out. Anywho, RJ straps on his Morpher and, my friends, it is my great honor to officially introduce you to The Jungle Fury Wolf Ranger, the first official Purple Ranger and my single favorite Ranger in the entire Power Rangers and Sentai canon. I love this outfit. It’s got this whole track suit thing going on with added armor on the feet and forearms to look like they’ve been taped up, fitting as RJ’s fighting style of choice is Muay Thai. The Monkey sends a huge Rinshi battalion after the new Ranger but RJ solos the baddies without breaking a sweat, even showing off a few new tricks like shooting a beam of purple fire out of his wrist and finishing off the Monkey with what looks like a huge Destructo Disc. Nice!

I’m assuming you all know the drill by now. The Monkey grows giant sized and the Rangers call the Jungle Pride Megazord. Oh, and Flit is back to provide commentary. Always great to have you back little guy. Unfortunately, the Monkey damages Lily’s cheetah spirit, which just so happens to form the leg of the Megazord. With their leg fading out of existence, the Rangers are in trouble. However, RJ once again comes to the rescue, swapping out the damaged Cheetah Spirit for his Wolf Spirit, forming the new leg, which comes with a nifty buzz saw attachment, sweet. The newly renamed Wolf Pride Megazord quickly cuts the Monkey down to size, and the day is won.

And so our episode ends with an enraged Dai Shi training to harness Grizzaka’s Zocato power on his own.

This episode had A LOT going on. We introduced a new villain right off the bat, and while Old Grizz is not quite as nuanced as Dai Shi, he makes up for that with sheer ruthless aggression. Maybe he was hanging out with John Cena in 2002, who knows. However, the real big selling point here was the introduction of The Jungle Fury Wolf Ranger. RJ cemented himself as my favorite character long before this, but this just made me love him even more. The Jungle Fury Wolf Ranger is a total badass, even more so than any incarnation of Tommy Oliver in my opinion. Also, I really like that RJ doesn’t officially become a Ranger until the half way point of the series. Why is that significant? Well, Power Rangers Jungle Fury is not the first show to have a core team of three as opposed to the traditional five. However, shows like Ninja Storm and Dino Thunder didn’t really play around that much with that new dynamic before introducing new Rangers. Here, we actually got a chance to let the three Ranger concept breath a bit. Good stuff. I also really thought Fran got to shine here too. Fran may not be a Power Ranger or a master martial artist, but she still bravely faces off against an angry werewolf, and ultimately helps RJ get back to himself. Overall, one of the better episodes of the season so far. Next time, RJ continues to adjust to his new Ranger powers in No “I” in Leader. Until then, may the power protect you.