Mystic Force The Return Review/Comparison

Power Rangers Mystic Force was the 2006 season of Power Rangers. It adapted Mahou Sentai Magiranger, the Super Sentai season from the previous year. I will be looking at the last three episodes of Mystic Force, and comparing them to their Sentai equivalents, explaining exactly how poorly the series was adapted.

First things first, we need to get the obvious out of the way. Some will say that comparing the Sentai and Power Rangers episodes isn't fair, because Power Rangers usually does tend to go off on its own unique paths. See seasons like SPD, Dino Thunder for how to do that correctly, and seasons like Operation Overdrive and Ninja Steel to how to that... not as well. My point here is that, in this case, it is 100% fair to compare the two. Mystic Force's final three episodes are directly taken, scene by scene, from their Sentai counterparts. I'll get more into it as we get to the more... egregious examples.

The first episode, The Return, covering both episodes 45 and 46 of Magiranger. Already we have a problem. Its been proven multiple times over Power Rangers history that condensing plots down fails a lot more than it works. This applies to seasons like Super Megaforce, where the end result of multiple episodes being mashed together is nothing but fight scenes with no room to breath. Thats how this episode feels.

Alright, before we get to the episode, I just want to talk about the theme song. It sucks. Who thought rap was a good idea for a fantasy themed series? They should be dragged out into the street and shot.

The Return opens with... comic relief, of course! Toby, the guy who runs the record shop the Rangers work at, spouts off exposition in a rapid fire, "trying so hard to be funny" way. Basic rundown of the plot so far: The Red Ranger's daddy got brainwashed into being a bad guy, but he was freed from it during the last arc, and they're trying to find his body. Meanwhile, these jerks named the Ten Terrors showed up and started to try and resurrect the big bad of the season, The Master... who's official name is apparently Octomus, but its never actually said in series.

The entire section isn't funny, despite there being some attempts at jokes. Toby is constantly trying to put on some kind of exaggerated comedy voice, but it just sounds weird. The only amusing part is when Toby throws up the horns while saying "The Master of all evil", and even then that's mostly because its weird they got away with it.

This is followed by the second comedy relief character, Phineas the "Trolblin". This segues to our THIRD comedy relief character, Leelee, who is dating the troll. He HILARIOUSLY comes in to the store with the sound of people screaming, and gives Leelee ONIONS instead of FLOWERS as a gift! ISN'T THIS WACKY!?

It cuts directly to the first scene I can really go in-depth for. The five remaining Ten Terrors are hanging out in their underground base, admiring a fiery orb that is "The energy of the Master". Sculpin (Fish headed guy) and Black Lance (Guy in black armor with a lance. Great name there, guys, really put a lot of thought into that one) talk about how The Master will choose one of them to become his host, and they then proceed to talk about how great that would be. Sculpin and Black Lance have the exact same voice, by the way, so its difficult to tell who's who in this scene. The Master proceeds to play its weekly roulette, choosing up the fluffy headed Matoombo as the next Terror to attack.

This scene is where Magiranger episode 45 opens. The scene accomplishes basically the exact same thing as the one in Mystic Force. The Gods of Hell, as they're called here (Currently consisting of Dagon, Sculpin's counterpart, Sleipnir, Black Lance's counterpart, Titan, Matoombo's counterpart, and two others we'll get to) are admiring the soul of N-Ma, The Master's counterpart. They say basically the same thing, that N-Ma will choose who will be his vessel, and how much of an honor it would be.

However, Magiranger gives us an extra scene! One of the Gods, Wyvern, who has been sitting in the background the whole scene, starts to cough up green blood. As reinstated by a flashback done a few moments later, this was caused by a defeat at the hands of Wolzard. Wyvern's egotism plays a large part of his character, and even being hurt by Wolzard is something he considers inexcusable. This aspect of his character is completely done away with in his Mystic Force counterpart, Gekkor. Comedy villains Night and Mare (Two twins who can fuse into Vancuria, Necrolai's counterpart) ask if he's alright, but he smacks them away.

They are then caught by Titan, who asks them if they are alright, and gently places the smaller villains on the ground. This, my friends, is what we call establishing a character. This goes into N-Ma's roulette, where he chooses Titan. This time, instead of simply declaring that he's next, Titan seems a bit... unsure about doling out his divine wrath. Again, establishing the character. An important thing to note about this scene is the length. The Mystic Force version is around 30 seconds in length, while the Magiranger version is 2 minutes. The Mystic Force scene is quick and efficient, but doesn't really establish the character of Matoombo, or Gekkor's own motivation for the next two episodes. There's also obvious production differences, most notably in the music.

I won't be covering every scene in the Sentai episodes, only the ones that pertain to Mystic Force's versions.

Back in Mystic Force, we go to the secret base of the Rangers, and directly into our FOURTH comedy relief character, Jenji the genie cat! He's drying off laundry with the help of a dragon, and makes a catnip joke! ...Oh, Smokey, what have they done to you?

In actual plot important happenings, Udonna, the team mentor, kind of, and Daggeron, the resident 6th Ranger, are searching for the missing Leanbow, who is the Red Ranger's daddy. They are unsuccessful searching for him on the surface, so Udonna decides to go to hell and look for him. I'm not going to get into Udonna's counterpart, mostly because Udonna's just boring as hell and not worth talking about. I'll cover Daggeron and Leanbow a bit later on. Anyway, Udonna uses a spell to astral project herself into hell.

Back at the record store, the Rangers get Phineas dressed up in the store's uniform, as he is now suddenly an employee with no establishment. Okay then. Comedy ensues when he opens the store, and scares the customers away with his gnome face. Before the audience can DIE of laughter, storm clouds begin to sound, signalling the arrival of another Terror.

I'll briefly talk about the Sentai version of the scene here, mostly to get some establishment out of the way. See, in Magiranger, all five of the main Magirangers are a family. Brothers and sisters who have known each other for their entire lives. In the previous episode, they finally managed to get their mother back after she had been presumed dead the entire season. The mom, by the way, is Udonna's counterpart, and she is a much more interesting character despite having less screen time.

The family aspect is important to the plot, but we'll cover that later. The main importance of this scene, plot wise, is to have their mom go search for their dad, who is Leanbow's counterpart, and the formerly evil knight known as Wolzard. But, what I really want to talk about, is how the episode sets up its moral at the very start. MagiPink, Houka, who's a bit of an air head, but incredibly kind, returns home to a family dinner carrying a busted up chair, claiming that its cute. MagiGreen, Makito, the always concerned older brother, claims that the desires to be in a fire.

Houka says not to judge a book by its cover... even though Makito is right in this case, considering the chair breaks almost instantly. The point of this scene is to establish the moral of not judging a book by its cover, as well as the conflict that Houka and Makito go through in these two episodes. Magiranger loves to pair up its Rangers with each other, entirely to get a better grasp for each of their characters how what they mean to each other. Its really neat, and done well.

The point I'm making with this scene is that, in Mystic Force, this should be Pink and Green focused episode, and technically it is, but... there's no character development here. What little there is is taken directly from the Sentai, even though the characters of Vida and Xander are fairly different from Houka and Makito. Another point is the message itself. Power Rangers usually likes to include morals in episodes, and yet they don't try to do it here. Even though they totally could have, what with the Phineas sub-plot suddenly happening. This happened because this is two episodes mashed into one, it doesn't have time for anything but the main plot.

Giant fight scene time! Matoombo appears on the surface, and hastily explains his plan. He creates an orb of electricity that will collect all the energy from the world, and rain it down in a quick punishment. The Megazords show up, but Matoombo manages to beat them in one shot. As the six Rangers lay on the ground, Matoombo says that if they don't interfere, no one will be hurt. Red and Green both instantly call him a liar, which is a fair assessment. Pink, however, seems unsure about it.

The Sentai scene is, again, nearly exactly the same, minus a few establishing shots, mecha transformation sequences, and the bits that make it good. Titan goes into more details about the plan, most notably that, once the lightning comes down, it will be a quick and painless death for everyone involved. When the mecha attack, Titan only strikes back out of self-defense, showing how powerful he is. Instead of claiming that "No one will get hurt", Titan claims that he hates senseless killing, and would prefer not to kill the Magirangers. Again, MagiRed and MagiGreen call him a liar, while MagiPink seems skeptical. Both scenes end with MagiShine/Solaris Knight telling everyone to split up and look for the monster.

In Magiranger, the fight scene is immediately followed by a scene of us seeing their mother astral project herself in Hell. Just pointing it out for later.

After that, it cuts to Matoombo on a hill, spouting off some exposition about how great the magic in the surface world is. He then spots a kid running into the road, and a car about to hit him. Matoombo shocks the car with lightning, causing it to stop, and he takes the kid to safety. Thankfully, the kid doesn't have any lines, and just gives Matoombo his ball. The Sentai scene is a lot longer, and actually takes up two scenes in Mystic Force, so we'll cover it once we get there.

Next is a short scene where Udonna is astral projecting herself around hell, and manages to sense Leanbow in a pit. The Magiranger scene has the mom astral projecting herself around hell, and sensing Wolzard in a pit. These scenes, no joke, are the exact same in both versions. The single difference is the special effect used for when they drop into the pit, but it is the exact same shot. Its actually kind of shameless, but at least its short!

Cut back to Matoombo, only a second later from the last time we left him. It looks like it might have been the same take. Anyway, Vida shows up, and explains what a ball is, accidentally hitting the Terror in the face with it. He doesn't seem to mind though. Vida says that Matoombo has a good heart, since she saw him save that kid. Before they can shake hands, Green shows up to fight him, but Vida begs him to stop. Well, "beg" might be too strong of a word. It feels very halfhearted. Xander says that he's a monster who's trying to conquer the world, which Matoombo seems to agree with. Vida says that if he really wants to conquer the world, then he'll have to "conquer" her first. And by that she means kill. Not the other thing. The scene cuts off just before Matoombo can kill her.

The Sentai version of this scene is the same, in concept, but again, there's important details that change how it plays in the overall story. For one, instead of saving a kid, showing that he's good in an incredibly hamfisted way, Titan instead simply meets a puppy. He doesn't know what the puppy is, until MagiPink arrives and tells him. The two start to bond over it, Houka saying that Titan understands how precious life is. MagiGreen arrives, and Houka does plead with him to not attack Titan. There's a call back to the chair scene, tying things together. The scene ends with Houka saying that Titan will have to kill her if he wants to unleash his divine punishment.

Oh, is it time to talk about EDITING? It sure is! In Mystic Force, as described above, cuts from Matoombo saving the kid, to Udonna, and then to Vida talking to Matoombo. In Magiranger, the scene goes until MagiGreen shows up and attacks Titan, before cutting to their mom. See, the editing here adds suspense to the story much better than it does in Mystic Force. That's basically it, the editing is really awful.

Scene back at the Terror's base. The scene amounts to "The Master is going to pick who his vessel is now" without anything much else to it. The scene plays out exactly the same way in Magiranger, but there is one change to note. In Mystic Force, The Master's soul flies into his tomb-thing, and Sculpin says "Who's it gonna be?". In Magiranger, the same thing happens, except Dagon instead says "It can't be...". This foreshadows the upcoming plot, and actually makes the scene useful as a storytelling device.

Back with Matoombo and friends, his ball of electricity arrives on the scene before he's able to kill Vida. The Terror makes a split second decision to cancel the conquering, Vida seeming overly proud in how she was correct. before they can celebrate, a blast of evil magic (you can tell its evil because its purple) blasts him and makes him roll down the hill. At the bottom, he finds Gekkor and the last Terror, Itassis. Gekkor asks if Matoombo has betrayed them, which he replies to with a yes.

The Sentai scene has Titan purposely calling in the ball of electricity in order to destroy it. How the scene is shot implies that Titan had to consider it for a while, which shows a lot more of his character than Matoombo's split second decision. Magiranger actually keeps it fairly ambiguous as to whether or not Titan is evil. Obviously, he isn't, but the efforts make it a lot less hamhanded. Titan gets hit with a blast of evil magic (you can tell because it looks like hellfire), which sets him on fire and leaves him running off. The scene with Wyvern and Sphinx (Itassis' counterpart. She's going to be brought up A LOT in a bit) is saved for later.

Another scene with Udonna looking for Leanbow. She finds his body after he lets out a grunt. Guess what, this scene is exactly the same in Magiranger, except a lot better! Mystic Force adds in some dialog, and the goofy grunt Leanbow makes, as well as dramatic music. In Magiranger, the only sounds as their mom looks around is the wind blowing. She spots Wolzard's body, lying dead still and silent.

Vida and Xander follow Matoombo down the hill, and see him fighting with Gekkor. Vida basically forces Xander into helping her, even though he's tossed away in 30 seconds because he's not there for the Sentai footage so WHOOPS!!! The other Rangers arrive, and before Gekkor can destroy Matoombo, Pink summons the Solar Streak Zord (A time travelling, dimension hopping train) to whisk Matoombo to safety. The scene ends with the rangers confused by what's going on (Green is still there, make note of that), and Itassis says that she can help them if she answers a question of hers.

This next scene... this is one of the BIG scenes. This scene ruins the episode in its entirety, for at least three different reasons. First, the scene with Wyvern and Sphinx happens here, but the framing is completely different. Instead of Wyvern just suddenly guessing that Titan is a traitor, they instead explain to him that he needs to be killed in order for N-Ma to be revived. This is never explained in Mystic Force. Seriously, this plot point that drives the second half of the episode is just... never said, you have to infer it.

The bit doesn't end with Titan saying he's a traitor either, but instead with him holding his blade up to his neck, ready to kill himself. Houka and Makito show up, and the Hell Gods actually bother explaining whats going on to them! This doesn't happen in Mystic Force, Vida only saves Matoombo because she just doesn't want him to die. The fight starts when Titan refuses to kill himself, claiming that he doesn't want to die. Wyvern decides to kill Titan himself, because that would mean killing a traitor AND bringing back their god, so he'd get all the credit.

The scene plays out the same, except the fight goes on longer because the episode actually has time for fight scenes. The other Magirangers show up, and this is where the scene changes. Makito goes into an inner monologue, saying that he was just assuming that all Infershians are evil, and that he might be wrong about that (This is a plot point that actually matters by the end of the series by the by!).

MagiPink summons Travelion, and manages to save Titan before Wyvern can kill him. Makito, however, leaps onto the train before it leaves. Before we get into how Mystic Force botched this, we're going to talk about how it botched editing again, this time with Sentai footage!

In Magiranger, when Travelion is summoned, it hits Wyvern. In Mystic Force, he leaps out of the way before it hits (Still doesn't stop you from being able to see him still get hit by the train). How do they show him leaping out of the way? By reversing footage from the NEXT EPISODE, which takes place at a completely different time of day, in a completely different setting than the one they're in.

I... what?

I really only have one question to pose here: WHY COULDN'T HE GET HIT BY THE TRAIN? You USED the footage of him getting hit by the train, so just have him get hit by the train! Was it too violent?? Power Rangers shows more violent acts in every episode, they've even had more violent stuff happen this episode. Ugh.

So, on the train, Pink and Matoombo rest for a bit, until Gekkor shows up and starts a fight in the train car. After nearly getting royally wrecked, Pink is saved by Matoombo, who shocks Gekkor with a lightning bolt. Pink uses a spell to send Gekkor out of the train car, and into space, where he vows that he'll get Matoombo.

This scene is 100% Sentai footage, so I shouldn't have much to talk about, right? Wrong. We're heading back to Bad Editing Boulevard, folks. In Magiranger, Makito shows up in the train, but is knocked aside when Wyvern shows up for the fight. Since he isn't transformed, how did Mystic Force deal with this? By BARELY trying to edit him out of scenes. It makes the fight a lot more awkward, and they do it so poorly that you can still see him in certain shots. Incredible.

Here's another question. This is the only time in Mystic Force that they actually use footage from inside Travelion, due to them not having the set. But the thing is... why not just make a train cart set? Its not like its expensive, its a train cart. Make an original set, and shoot original footage in it. Its not that difficult.

This is where episode 45 ends. There are 9 minutes left in the episode. How exactly are they going to fit 20 minutes into under half the time? Poorly.

The entirety of the next scene is Gekkor saying "He got away" and Sculpin saying "Chill, we know where he is". Of course, the Sentai version is longer, and actually cuts between both the villains and Titan explaining the plan from both their points of views. To make it brief, Matoombo/Titan are heading to an alternate world to find a magic lake that will put him to sleep forever. Effectively, he'll die without actually dying, meaning that The Master/N-Ma can't be revived.

Since Mystic Force CAN'T use the footage of Titan explaining it, since its in the train car set and they don't have a train car set, it cuts to Itassis. SHE is the one who gives the exposition about where Matoombo is going, not Matoombo himself, and also says she'll transport the Rangers to the dimension if they answer her question. Chip, the Yellow Ranger, smartly guesses that, even if they give her the info, they can't trust her to actually transport them there. As a "sign of good will" Itassis transports one of the Rangers immediately. The chosen Ranger is Xander, not for any character reason, but because he's needed for the stock footage.

They also cut two rather important scenes. The first is a villain scene where, after saying that he trusts Wyvern to take care of things, Dagon instantly asks Night and Mare to spy on him and report if he dies. They question this, and Dagon responds by simply saying that he only trusts himself, and N-Ma.

The second plays into episode 46's specific moral/character lesson. Houka and Makito talk on the train with Titan. Makito still doesn't completely trust him, and is only helping them because its his duty as a big brother to support his little sister. Titan asks what support means. This is important, keep it in mind.

Now, we can talk about the Sentai version of the scene with Itassis. Sphinx has given them the information they need to be caught up on the episode (It happens off screen so we don't get a reiteration), but she then demands that her questions be answered. She traps the four remaining Magirangers in her own dimension, which is an infinite black void. The Magirangers are suspended above the void, and if Sphinx doesn't get an answer she likes, she'll drop them all into the screaming, never ending abyss.

Now Matoombo and Vida are in the forest, and then Xander shows up! And then Gekkor shows up, using the same footage as when he leaped away from the train, but its going forward now and makes sense! Fight scene, Matoombo protects Green from an attack, who then uses a spell to help them escape from Gekkor.

The Sentai version starts with Houka talking to Titan about how Makito isn't good at talking about his feelings, and how he feels obligated to be in charge since he's the oldest. The support moral comes in again after Makito trips and falls into a puddle, Houka giving him a hankey to clean up with. Then Wyvern shows up, and the fight plays out the same way, Titan protecting MagiGreen from an attack and them managing to get away. There's an addition afterwards where Vancuria talks to Dago via a walkie talky scale, the God telling her to join the search for Titan with him.

Udonna scene! Leanbow is still grunting, and Udonna decides to do some magic to heal him up. This scene happens at the start of the episode in Magiranger, but hey, at least its shot differently in Mystic Force. That's at least something. It's still way more boring.

Now we get to the second big scene of the episode. The conversation with Itassis continues, her asking a simple question. The Terrors are more powerful than the Rangers, so how do they keep beating them. Nick, the Red Ranger, responds by being an asshole and saying "We're better than you". Itassis says that the wrong answer will cost them dearly, even though they're in the middle of a forest and no danger can actually come to them. The Rangers answer the question... in the form of a riddle. This is admittedly clever, but its ruined by the answer: Courage.

This, my friends, is what we call a copy-paste translation.

In Magiranger, courage is an important part of the mythos, as the Magirangers get their power via courage. Sure, the show definitely stretches what the word means, but its a lot better than Kyoryuger's butchering of the word "Brave". In Mystic Force, the magic is gotten by "believing in magic", so the context of courage as the answer here means... absolutely nothing. Its there because that's what it is in the Sentai.

Except, it isn't.

Now we can go to this scene's Sentai equivalent. It plays out the same in theory, but the context and pacing of the scene make it so much better. Sphinx asks the same question, how the hell are they beating the Gods, and Kai, MagiRed, responds by being an asshole and saying they're stronger. However, instead of false threats, one of Kai's ropes snaps, dropping him closer to the infinite void. Sphinx has an actual reason for them to answer the question, there's an actual, tangible threat here. After a few more flippant answers, Kai is nearly dropped into the void, but Hikaru (MagiShine) and Tsubasa (MagiYellow) Grab hold of the ropes with their teeth to prevent him from falling.

The answer to the question isn't just "courage", its that the MagiRangers have people they love, people who support them and help them make miracles happen. The support of their loved ones gives them courage, demonstrated IN SCENE by two of the Rangers supporting Kai before he falls to his doom. This answer pleases Sphinx, and she teleports them off.

Really, the main reason why the scene doesn't work in Mystic Force is the context. Itassis says she has punishments for wrong answers, but she never does anything. The setting is a forest, compared to the threatening, stark black void, and the answer they give doesn't mean anything in the context of the show. This is supposed to be a character turning point for Itassis/Sphinx in both version, but it only works in Magiranger.

Also, Mystic Force describes courage as "Putting someone else's well being above your own", and that is... not what courage is, at all. Magiranger gets it closer than that. When Itassis asks why you would do that, Nick just says "'cause". It turns what should be a powerful moment in the series into an absolute farce. A Mystic Farce.

Mystic Force cuts out ANOTHER important scene. Titan, Houka, and Makito are running through the forest, just after escaping Wyvern. Makito demands to know why Titan protected him, Titan saying that he wanted to support someone like they do. Makito comes to a full realization that Titan is genuinely trying to protect the surface world, and vows to support him to the lake. As such, the episode's moral has been fully established, and the character arc of it has been completed. Mystic Force's version of this is Xander saying "He protected me!" during the scene where Matoombo protects him.

Back in Mystic Force, Gekkor is flying around the forest, and spots Green and Matoombo running away, so he shoots at them after a bit (The chase is way more of a set piece in Magiranger) before they go flying off a ledge. Gekkor lands, and notices that Matoombo has a pink ribbon around his waist, meaning that he's actually the Pink Ranger in disguise! They say that their distraction has given Matoombo enough time to reach the lake, which Gekkor responds to very negatively.

The scene is mostly the same in Magiranger, mostly just a few cut explosion scenes. The main ut I want to point out is Wyvern's MAJOR freakout about having failed. he starts to glow purple, and yells in absolute rage. The cool he's had the entire series is gone, and now he just wants to kill them. This doesn't really affect anything in Mystic Force, but its a neat character bit.

Cut to Udonna, who's doing magic things. It almost instantly cuts back to the fight. Guess they realized nobody cares about Udonna. There is an equivalent scene in Magiranger, but it lasts around 30 seconds compared to this one's 10, and ends with the mother passing out from using too much magic. Don't want any tension, right kids?

Last fight scene time! After getting their asses kicked by Gekkor for a bit, the other Rangers show up to help Pink and Green defeat him. Even with all 6 of them, Gekkor proves too powerful, and nearly kills them. However, as the final blow clears, Leanbow appears! He transforms into the Wolf Warrior, and manages to defeat Gekkor for good. For some reason his finisher is called Lightning Storm Slash even though its fire themed? I don't really get it.

Also, once he destroys Gekkor he says "Checkmate!". Checkmate is the term the Magirangers would say whenever they defeated a monster. It could be an intentional reference, but judging by what I've seen, I'm entirely certain its just laziness.

This scene has so much more meat to it in Magiranger. First, Vancuria shows up and says that they already know where Titan is, and they can kill him at any time. When Wolzard (Now WolzardFire) shows up, it actually means something. In Mystic Force, Leanbow says "You did good son" to Red, but nothing to the other Rangers, because he has no connection to any of them. Wolzard is related to 5 of the 6 Magirangers, since he's their dad. This means a lot more to them as characters, and they even tie it in with the moral, as their mother supported Wolzard, and Wolzard is supporting them.

The best part of the Mystic Force fight is Gekkor's last words being "THIS ENDED POORLY!"

It sure did, pal.

Matoombo finally reaches the lake, but before he can step in, Sculpin appears and kills him with a generic slash. Mystic Force adds dialog to the scene, when Dagon in Magiranger simply walked up to Titan silently, and stabbed him through the stomach. Sculpin is so generic in this show compared to Dagon. As mentioned above, Dagon doesn't trust anyone besides himself and N-Ma, so of course he's the one to kill Titan. Sculpin in Mystic Force is kind of just the generic bad guy, with this being his only memorable moment in the whole series. Also, Dagon stabs Titan AGAIN after he falls to the ground, because he's hardcore.

The Rangers celebrate having won, and Red's daddy being back, but Vida's upset (Not really, she's not showing any emotion related to being upset) about not being able to see Matoombo again. Then, Matoombo appears on the horizon, hundreds of tentacles burst from him and ripping him apart from the inside out. He begins to melt and crack in half, exploding in a show of blood to reveal... The Master.

Oh, The Master. Talk about wasted potential. Absolute God N-Ma is one of the creepiest villains in Super Sentai history. He talks in monotone, and most of his dialog consists of him talking about how empty and hungry he is. In fact, lets compare their dialog, shall we?

"I AM HERE! HOOHAHAHAHAHA! You will perish, as will Solaris Knight! Take a look... into YOUR FUTURE! And then... GAH! One by one, you will fall! As will your world!"

Here we have pretty generic villain dialog. He's voiced by John Leigh, who's doing his absolute best Paul St. Peter impression. Its a really great voice for an evil villain, and it definitely stands out amongst Power Rangers villains, who mostly suffer from indistinct, growly voices. The writing portrays The Master as a fairly large ham, which is amusing compared with the voice. However, when we compare it to N-Ma's dialog...

"I am the Absolute God. Within my body there is only nothingness. I hunger to feed it."

Yikes. N-Ma is voiced by Daisuke Namikawa, known for roles such as Yu Narukami in the Persona 4 anime adaptations, Anakin Skywalker in everything he's ever been in, Hisoka from Hunter X Hunter, and a number of other popular pretty boy characters in Anime. He even shows up in Sentai a few years later as Speedor from Go-Onger! this is definitely what you'd call playing against the type, as Daisuke plays N-Ma almost completely monotone, making him incredibly eerie to listen to.

There isn't anything BAD about how The Master is portrayed, but its obviously a major step down. N-Ma is an abomination, and his hunger for something to fill his empty void is one of the most abstract villain motivations in the series. Considering what he pulls later, he's only next to Dezumozorlya from Abaranger in terms of terrifying and abstract.

But, back to the episode comparison itself. As mentioned in his dialog, The Master proceeds to show Daggeron, the Solaris Knight, a vision of himself dying at The Master's tentacles. The vision is in Magiranger, but it just happens. Its implied that just gazing upon N-Ma caused MagiShine to see his own death, much like how gazing on Cthulhu causes madness. This vision is incredibly important in Magiranger, but is basically a footnote in Mystic Force.

So, The Master/N-Ma flies off, and everyone is left terrified. End of episode! But we aren't done yet.

No, we have to talk about the next episode... of Magiranger. This is where the importance of that vision comes in. Hikaru plans on leaving, but keeps it a secret that its because he saw his own death. When he tells the other, he abandons them because he doesn't want them to be hurt when he does die. This absolutely devastates Urara, MagiBlue, as her and Hikaru were becoming a couple. At the end, Hikaru returns, and the two have an impromptu magic wedding before the final fight starts.

Meanwhile, Sphinx starts to doubt the power of N-Ma after Urara tells her more about courage and family, and is ultimately killed off by Dagon, as Vancuria watches. This is kept in Mystic Force, but all the things leading up to her face-turn making sense were cut!

You might notice how I haven't really talked about MagiBlue or the Blue Ranger yet. Well, in Magiranger's case its because the episode wasn't focused on her, so its fair. She has a bunch of character episodes, the one described above being one of her best. In Mystic Force's case, its because the Blue Ranger, Madison, did absolutely nothing the entire season.

And no, that isn't an exaggeration. She has exactly one focus episode in the entire season, and most of it she spends turned to stone.

Like, honestly? Fuck off with that bullshit. You don't just do something like that in your team based show. There's a lot more to complain about in regards to the Red and Blue Rangers, but we'll have to cover that next time.