Power Rangers Jungle Fury: Welcome to the Jungle Part 2

Welcome back to the jungle Ranger fans, as we continue our look at the two part season opener for Power Rangers Jungle Fury. Last time, our three heroes, Theo, Lily and the inexperienced new recruit Casey, were chosen by their master, Mao, from the ranks of a secret order of kung fu masters to be the protectors of a box that holds an ancient evil. Thanks to Jarrod, an experienced student with a serious chip on his shoulder, attacking the master for choosing him, the evil Dai Shi is unleashed and The Master is killed. The teens are sent to find their new master in the nearby town of Ocean Bluff. Said master turns out to be RJ, a beatnik who owns and operates his own pizza restaurant and is also a secret martial arts badass. RJ is also adept with technology since he was able to develop a means for his three new students to become Power Rangers, and just in time too as Dai Shi, now having possessed Jarrod’s body, sends his Top General Camille, an army of Chinese Vampires called Rinshi and a large humanoid Mantis Creature to attack the city. Theo and Leo manage to morph, but Casey, likely due to his relative inexperience, is unable to do it. I think that’s everything, but just in case, go read the last article.

After the kickass theme song, we pick up where we left off with Casey getting swarmed by Rinshi while the Mantis monster is about to kill Fran, RJ’s best customer. Casey manages to call upon his tiger spirit like he did with Jarrod in part 1 to free himself from the clutches of the Rinshi and tries the whole morphing thing again, this time successfully. With the strength of a Tiger, Casey is, The Jungle Fury Red Ranger. Casey saves Fran, who conveniently did not notice Casey Morphing, keeping his identity secret for the time being, and uses his newfound power to send the Mantis Beast flying. Casey fights the monster one on one for a while as Theo and Lily look on impressed. Eventually, Casey manages to take the monster down, but not for long. However, the Mantis Beast isn’t through yet and if you know anything about this franchise, you know exactly what’s about to happen. MAKE MY MONSTER GROW!! Indeed, the Mantis Beast grows Kaiju sized and starts wrecking what I can only assume is Ocean Bluff’s abandoned buildings district until it’s knocked down by… the ghost of Master Mao? Okay, that was unexpected.

Mao uses his force ghost powers to teleport the Rangers to safety and explains that he has achieved some kind of enlightenment that allows his spirit to linger on the mortal plane or something mystical like that. Lily asks how they’re supposed to fight a bug the size of Dodgers stadium, but Mao says that his time teaching them is done, they must now look to RJ for guidance.

At RJ’s loft, we join RJ in peaceful meditation until his three student barge in ranting and raving about giant bugs and force ghosts and shit. RJ insists that our heroes aren’t yet ready for the “growing ginormous” technique.

Out in the woods, Camille has found the Mantis beast and is ready to squash the big bug under her boot heel, but the Mantis has a new plan, break the city damn cause a massive flood. Camille likes the idea and infuses the beast with more power to help it accomplish its task.

Back at the loft, RJ says that he can’t teach his students the growth technique until they’ve mastered their weapons. Theo gets a pair of tonfas which he immediately demonstrates his proficiency with, same with Lily and her new bo staff. Casey gets a pair of nunchaku, and whacks himself in the shoulder trying to use them. RJ says that the team can’t advance in their training until everyone is on the same level, which Theo seems to think is unfair. RJ explains that a team is like a stool. All three legs must be equal, if they’re not, the team falls on its ass, something RJ demonstrates by kicking one of the legs off the stool Theo is currently sitting in. God I love this guy.

Later, down in the restaurant, RJ chats up Fran, when we learn that she doesn’t have a lot of friends or family to hang out with and mostly likes to keep to herself reading and eating pizza, something RJ seems to feel is unfortunate. In this same scene we see Casey, now a full fledged employee of Jungle Karma Pizza, is actually a natural when it comes to flipping dough, despite being all thumbs with his weapons. Theo continues to criticize Casey’s fighting skill, but Lily makes a point to remind him that he was a rookie once himself. Lily hints that instead of giving Casey shit for his inexperience, he should instead use his own expertise to help him improve. Theo and Casey head out to train, but it’s currently the 12pm lunch rush. A desperate RJ tosses Fran an apron and offers her a job on the spot. Quite a rigorous employee screening process they have over at Jungle Karma Pizza.

At first, nunchaku training doesn’t go too well, but fortunately, Casey is a quick study and, with Theo’s guidance, manages to master his weapon in a relatively short amount of time over the course of a montage. Just in time too as The Mantis Beast has put his plan into motion.

Our Rangers head out to fight the monster, but they’re ambushed by Camille and a battalion of Rinshi. Our heroes morph and fight off the Rinshi as Camille makes a few snide comments. During the fight, each Ranger demonstrates mastery of their new weapon to take down the bad guys. The Rinshi horde is defeated, but there’s still the matter of a giant bug man trying to flood the city.

RJ contacts the team and tells them that since the team is now in sync, they’re ready to go big. Time to combine their animal spirits into one, forming the Jungle Pride Megazord.

Much like the theme song, I personally do not feel that the original Mighty Morphin Megazord has ever been topped or ever will be topped. I mean, have you seen that thing? It looks like Optimus Prime if he were also The Devil. There have been decent ones since, but none can hold a candle to the original, and honestly, after Turbo, most of the Megazords blend together after a while. The Jungle Pride Megazord is a rare exception to this rule because I absolutely love this thing. I think what does it is how it’s significantly less bulky than your average Megazord, instead opting for a nice and sleek, cat-like design. This suit, true to the martial arts theme of the show, is clearly designed for maneuverability, which leads, naturally, to some excellent fight scenes.

During this scene we are also introduced to Flit. Ah Flit, a character who most fans seem to either love or hate. Flit is a talking fly who lives in Camille’s stomach who emerges during zord battles to provide fight commentary like some kind of insectoid Jim Ross. I get why some would find this character annoying, but the wrestling fan in me loves Flit and his cute little color commentary shtick. I should also mention that Flit is voiced by franchise mainstay Kelson Henderson, a New Zealand actor who has played a different side character in just about every season of Power Rangers starting with SPD and stretching all the way to Cosmic Fury. Hats off to you Mr. Henderson, you Morphenomenal son of a gun.

Anywho, The Jungle Pride Megazord and the Mantis Beast have a pretty sweet fight in the flooded city, the Rangers controlling the Zord by moving together as one inside the cockpit. The Megazord even pulls out a segmented staff to knock the monster down before finishing it off by spinning around like a tornado.

With the day won, we cut to Jungle Karma Pizza where Casey is repaying the favor by teaching Theo how to make Pizza like a pro. And so our episode ends back at Dai Shi’s castle where it’s revealed that Dai Shi has indeed possessed Jarrod’s body, something that literally everyone has already figured out by this point.

Welcome to the Jungle parts 1 and 2 form an excellent season opener. Part 1, as we discussed last time, gave us a great introduction to our characters and the threat they face, while this one takes a moment to focus in on our characters, specifically Casey. Indeed, Casey is behind the others in terms of skill level, but Master Mao isn’t stupid and wouldn’t have chosen Casey in the first place if he didn’t recognize his strength and potential. Casey is not without natural talent, as we saw when he was able to use his Tiger spirit to knock Jarrod on his ass in episode one. In addition, Casey also demonstrates a strong instinct to protect others. Note that he was only able to Morph once he saw that Fran was in danger. And in this episode Casey demonstrates yet another skill, adaptability. What Casey lacks in experience, he makes up for in the ability to pick up new skills quickly with the right guidance. He very quickly picked up how to make pizza and did the same with mastering his nunchaku. There’s a common trope in Power Rangers of the Red Ranger and team leader being the least experienced in the group. Normally, it’s a trope I don’t especially care for, but it never bothered me with Casey and this character trait is a big reason as to why. RJ also continues to be awesome and demonstrates himself to be a wise mentor. I like how he is more than happy to give his team guidance, but doesn’t just flat out give them the answers. Top all of this off with a kickass Megazord fight and Jungle Fury is shaping up to be a solid season, but we’ll see if they can continue that streak next time with Sigh of the Tiger.