The Sentai Conundrum: Power Rangers Tagging

Alright, this topic is inspired by comment #2483401 and its corresponding edit under post #3189757, because there's a question that's been quasi-avoided for the past 11 years or so. For those unaware, Power Rangers as a series was traditionally made by using footage from a corresponding Super Sentai show, one or multiple even depending on the Rangers show, and as a result, while the suit-wearers and supporting cast between Rangers and Sentai will look different, the actual tokusatsu elements in each are almost 100% the same. The reason why I framed it as "past 11 years" is because, back in topic #10177, Rita Repulsa was aliased to Witch Bandora. This means that her default copytag is Kyouryuu Sentai Zyuranger, but most fanart we have of her is of her MMPR iteration as Rita, which means she gets Mighty Morphin Power Rangers too, meaning that Rita Repulsa fanart gets, at minimum, 4 copytags per post.

If this is the case for Rita Repulsa, what about the Rangers themselves? Historically, there's been very few original Ranger suits (the Dark Rangers and Ninja Rangers from Mighty Morphin', Titanium Ranger from Lightspeed Rescue, the Spirit Rangers in Jungle Fury, and the Cosmic Fury Rangers), which means that, for example, post #8283092 and post #8283122 are fundamentally depicting the same character fanart-wise even if one is canonically MagiRed and the other is canonically Red Mystic Ranger, because they used the same suit. But whether or not we actually tag the Sentai counterpart in a post featuring the Ranger seems currently hit or miss.

What should be done in this case?

Damian0358 said:

Alright, this topic is inspired by comment #2483401 and its corresponding edit under post #3189757, because there's a question that's been quasi-avoided for the past 11 years or so. For those unaware, Power Rangers as a series was traditionally made by using footage from a corresponding Super Sentai show, one or multiple even depending on the Rangers show, and as a result, while the suit-wearers and supporting cast between Rangers and Sentai will look different, the actual tokusatsu elements in each are almost 100% the same. The reason why I framed it as "past 11 years" is because, back in topic #10177, Rita Repulsa was aliased to Witch Bandora. This means that her default copytag is Kyouryuu Sentai Zyuranger, but most fanart we have of her is of her MMPR iteration as Rita, which means she gets Mighty Morphin Power Rangers too, meaning that Rita Repulsa fanart gets, at minimum, 4 copytags per post.

If this is the case for Rita Repulsa, what about the Rangers themselves? Historically, there's been very few original Ranger suits (the Dark Rangers and Ninja Rangers from Mighty Morphin', Titanium Ranger from Lightspeed Rescue, the Spirit Rangers in Jungle Fury, and the Cosmic Fury Rangers), which means that, for example, post #8283092 and post #8283122 are fundamentally depicting the same character fanart-wise even if one is canonically MagiRed and the other is canonically Red Mystic Ranger, because they used the same suit. But whether or not we actually tag the Sentai counterpart in a post featuring the Ranger seems currently hit or miss.

What should be done in this case?

I say we should use the Sentai suits, unless there's fanarts of them being helmet-less, then why use the tags for Power Rangers? Cuz all I see is just for example GokaiRed then Super Mega Red

TheGamingRodent said:

I say we should use the Sentai suits, unless there's fanarts of them being helmet-less, then why use the tags for Power Rangers? Cuz all I see is just for example GokaiRed then Super Mega Red

How would that make sense though if they look exactly the same? If they're depicted helmet-less, that wouldn't change the suit tag in this case, you would just add the corresponding character tag for the show - so, to use a theoretical example following Witch Bandora's example, the Mighty Morphin' Black Ranger would be aliased to the Mammoth Ranger, but then depending on whether the helmet is on or not, in Power Rangers' case, you'd tag Zachary Taylor or Adam Park, while in Zyuranger's case, that'd be Goushi (who I don't think even has a tag). Of course, you'd still tag Mighty Morphin' if the art is explicitly labeled as MMPR art, but since it is Mammoth Ranger now as the tag, you'd have to tag Zyuranger too.

BUR #36514 has been approved by @evazion.

create implication red_ranger -> tyranno_ranger
create implication black_ranger -> mammoth_ranger
create implication blue_ranger -> tricera_ranger
create implication yellow_ranger -> tiger_ranger
create implication pink_ranger -> ptera_ranger
create implication green_ranger -> dragon_ranger
create implication white_ranger -> kiba_ranger

After being reminded that in Korea they literally dub Super Sentai under the Power Rangers brand, I was compelled to actually do something about this tagging conundrum, so here's what I've got. Whether or not the names of the Mighty Morphin' Rangers are ambiguous can be settled after this BUR, this is just a test to see whether we want to go ahead with this.

I'm going to propose implications as opposed to aliases for now because I think there'd probably be some who'd consider aliases a step too far.

I don't have a good answer here, but we should probably treat it similarly to Robotech, another Americanized version of a Japanese show. There it seems we only tag Robotech when it's a clear reference to the American version of the show, and the American characters are tagged with both the American and Japanese names.

evazion said:

I don't have a good answer here, but we should probably treat it similarly to Robotech, another Americanized version of a Japanese show. There it seems we only tag Robotech when it's a clear reference to the American version of the show, and the American characters are tagged with both the American and Japanese names.

Well, in that case, my current proposal for implications as opposed to aliases seem to be on the right track then. Looking at robotech -choujikuu_yousai_macross -kikou_souseiki_mospeada -choujikuu_kidan_southern_cross, there seems to be very few cases where a similar solution for the Robotech characters wouldn't be viable, ex. rick_hunter -ichijou_hikaru, with Lynn Minmay being that case's Witch Bandora.

The bulk update request #36514 (forum #334679) has been approved by @evazion.

BUR #36918 has been approved by @evazion.

rename red_ranger -> mighty_morphin_red_ranger
rename black_ranger -> mighty_morphin_black_ranger
rename blue_ranger -> mighty_morphin_blue_ranger
rename yellow_ranger -> mighty_morphin_yellow_ranger
rename pink_ranger -> mighty_morphin_pink_ranger
rename green_ranger -> mighty_morphin_green_ranger
rename white_ranger -> mighty_morphin_white_ranger

This one might be slightly contentious, but I think it's necessary. Because of the prominence of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, most times when a colored ranger is mentioned, it's assumed to be the MMPR Ranger. Example, attempting to search "Pink Ranger" on Google, most examples I get will be of the Mighty Morphin Pink Ranger.

However, each of these tags has had at least one case where it was used for a non-Mighty Morphin Ranger, as if it's being used as a generic tag for colored rangers, so I think a name change is necessary.

With the approval of the first BUR, I went ahead and gardened the entire Power Rangers tag so that the principle established - tagging the Sentai equivalent of the Ranger suit - was actually in practice. Of the 230 posts under Power Rangers, only 44 remain untagged with Sentai, which I've ultimately boiled down to based on two elements: Ranger-exclusive stuff, and Ranger namedrops/logos with no other visuals.

So things such as the 2017 Power Rangers (Movie), Mighty Morphin exclusive stuff such as Zordon, Alpha 5, and Lord Zedd, and stuff like post #1720909 and post #5912731 currently avoid the Sentai tag. But then there's the things which straddle the line on whether or not Sentai should apply to them:

The first is the stuff introduced in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Boom! Studios), the 2010s/20s comics, and in specific, Lord Drakkon. It's derivative in some fashion of Dragon Ranger and Kiba Ranger, but is that enough to warrant tagging with Sentai? Is the fact that it is a Sentai-style suit enough to warrant tagging? The same question arises for the second thing, which is the Street Fighter crossover stuff for Legacy Wars and Battle for the Grid. The general practice for tagging fanmade Sentai suits has typically been to tag Super Sentai, but would that also make sense here?

Damian0358 said:

With the approval of the first BUR, I went ahead and gardened the entire Power Rangers tag so that the principle established - tagging the Sentai equivalent of the Ranger suit - was actually in practice. Of the 230 posts under Power Rangers, only 44 remain untagged with Sentai, which I've ultimately boiled down to based on two elements: Ranger-exclusive stuff, and Ranger namedrops/logos with no other visuals.

So things such as the 2017 Power Rangers (Movie), Mighty Morphin exclusive stuff such as Zordon, Alpha 5, and Lord Zedd, and stuff like post #1720909 and post #5912731 currently avoid the Sentai tag. But then there's the things which straddle the line on whether or not Sentai should apply to them:

The first is the stuff introduced in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Boom! Studios), the 2010s/20s comics, and in specific, Lord Drakkon. It's derivative in some fashion of Dragon Ranger and Kiba Ranger, but is that enough to warrant tagging with Sentai? Is the fact that it is a Sentai-style suit enough to warrant tagging? The same question arises for the second thing, which is the Street Fighter crossover stuff for Legacy Wars and Battle for the Grid. The general practice for tagging fanmade Sentai suits has typically been to tag Super Sentai, but would that also make sense here?

Don't forget, we also got the Power Ranges movie from the 90s which also features an exclusive villain Ivan Ooze, a complete American-made villain for said movie, and we have Robo-Rita from the anniversary special, which she herself is an American exclusive villain created for the anniversary and is used in the new Mighty Morphin game (and too my knowledge I don't think there is a "Mecha/Robo-Bandora")

TheGamingRodent said:

Don't forget, we also got the Power Ranges movie from the 90s which also features an exclusive villain Ivan Ooze, a complete American-made villain for said movie, and we have Robo-Rita from the anniversary special, which she herself is an American exclusive villain created for the anniversary and is used in the new Mighty Morphin game (and too my knowledge I don't think there is a "Mecha/Robo-Bandora")

I didn't forget them, we just don't have them represented on Danbooru. Regardless, I'd assume Ivan Ooze would fall under Lord Zedd rules. Robo-Rita, given she's derivative of Bandora, would count for Sentai, meanwhile. Neither of which address what I had brought up, essentially.

Damian0358 said:

I didn't forget them, we just don't have them represented on Danbooru. Regardless, I'd assume Ivan Ooze would fall under Lord Zedd rules. Robo-Rita, given she's derivative of Bandora, would count for Sentai, meanwhile. Neither of which address what I had brought up, essentially.

Well for the regards of Sentai inspired suits, maybe keep them in Sentai tags? Ryu and Chun Li Rangers have sense become "official" after being added to Battle for the Grid and the fanmade stuff and are referenced in said games

BUR #36998 has been approved by @evazion.

Well, it had to be done. For the longest time, the Power Ranger entries are completely unlinked to its parent tag. As a result of this, I did this BUR to finally rectify this issue. Much like the Ultra Series implications I did, many moons ago.

The bulk update request #36998 (forum #336333) has been approved by @evazion.

The bulk update request #36918 (forum #336002) has been approved by @evazion.

BUR #37212 has been approved by @evazion.

create implication megazord -> daizyuzin
rename megazord -> dino_megazord
create alias goldar -> grifforzer
create alias serpentera -> daijinryuu
create alias power_morpher -> dino_buckler

May as well imply the Megazord to Daizyuzin as well, per above logic, and disambiguate, as well as aliasing Goldar and Serpentera to their Sentai counterparts ala Rita/Bandora. While I was gardening, I realized we somehow didn't have a tag for the Power Morpher, originally known as the Dino Buckler, so I've made it now, and am proposing this utility alias.

BUR #37214 has been approved by @evazion.

And this is probably the last thing that's necessary now that we're essentially at the end. For some reason, we have a variety of comic copytags, when they could all be collapsed under one collective comic copytag, ala what we do with Western comics in general. The crossover tags as well as The Return can just be collapsed into the main tag, but Shattered Grid was a major event which introduced some of the comics' most iconic exclusive stuff, such as Lord Drakkon, so aliasing it is necessary. Boom! Studios did several concurrent Power Rangers comics, with their main being the Mighty Morphin comic, and it was succeeded by Power Rangers Prime, so aliasing the two into a more general Power Rangers (Boom! Studios) tag seems sensible.

The bulk update request #37214 (forum #337143) has been approved by @evazion.

The bulk update request #37212 (forum #337134) has been approved by @evazion.