This, ladies and gentlemen, is Ninjor. To hear it from Zordon and Alpha5, he was the man who created the original power coins that gave the power rangers their power.
He’s also got the single silliest voice any MMPR character has ever been given. And believe me, that’s saying a LOT. Seriously, watch a clip of the guy on YouTube or Tubi or whatever, and tell me with a straight face that that voice and that body belong together. It reminds me of something from Kung Pow: Enter the fist, except at least THAT was SUPPOSED to be funny. But whatever.
When we last left our heroes, their thunder zords had been demolished, the command center’s equipment had fallen apart after Alpha’s various attempts to superglue everything finally came back to haunt him, and Rita Repulsa’s dumbass brother was crashing in Lord Zedd’s place after his landlord finally got sick of his shit.
SIDE NOTE: When Rito Revolto asked him if he could at least go in and gather up his stuff, the landlord assured him that the only things he saw in there were a jar of mustard and a bunch of dirty magazines. Rito’s response: “Whoa! I had mustard?”
With nowhere else to go, the rangers asked Zordon where the original power coins came from. Zordon tells them the tale of Ninjor, and they decide to track him down.
“Uh, guys?” said Zordon. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Ninjor lives in The Desert of Despair. Trust me, that place fucking sucks, bruh.”
“Come on, man!” says Tommy. “Help a brutha out.”
“Okay,” says Zordon, “but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Okay, that’s not EXACTLY how the conversation goes, but it’s close enough.
The rangers find themselves in The Desert of Despair. And sure enough, it fucking sucks, bruh. Then again, what were you expecting? It’s a fucking desert. deserts by default are the worst. Sand, heat, no water, scorpions, dudes in expensive red cars going down the freeway high on acid and swatting at imaginary bats… You name it, the desert has it.
But they do eventually find their way to Ninjor’s place. And after hearing their story, Ninjor’s response is basically the Y7 equivalent of “sit and spin.”
“But we’re the power rangers!” Tommy protests.
“Which means what, exactly?” says Ninjor, unimpressed.
In Ninjor’s defense, it’s been a few thousand years since he’s had any visitors. He probably doesn’t even know what indoor plumbing and the refrigerator are, let alone that Lord Zedd came back to resume his attempts at conquering the Earth, only to get married to last season’s villain out of the blue and become a joke.
But after a heartfelt speech from Tommy in an attempt at keeping his team’s spirits up, Ninjor has a change of heart. He realizes the rangers aren’t just going to use the power coins as an excuse to pick up chicks, and lets them have access to his super awesome ninja powers.
He goes on a very lengthy speech about how these powers aren’t replacements for their old powers, but in fact, are brand new powers. Rather than being based on brute strength like the dinosaurs, or the power of thunder, these powers are based on the cunning and grace of the ninja. It’s a pretty awesome moment, watching them receive their new ninja powers. Kind of sucks it gets completely negated at the very end of part 3 of this series, but for the moment, we’re presented with the rangers’ new ninja forms.
I’ll level with you, dear reader, I like the ninja forms. I was actually kind of hoping these would be the new default for the power rangers from this moment forward.
Sadly, this form would act as an in-between of sorts. It gave them the strength to fight the tengas, and MAYBE Rito Revolto whenever he happened to be involved, but once the monster of the week showed up, it was back to the status quo. Hell, when they morphed, they didn’t even call out their animal anymore! It was just “White ranger power!”, “black ranger power!”, and so on down the line.
You could make the argument that it was for name brand recognition or whatever, but spoiler: the very next season would abandon the old costumes completely. It’s a baffling decision… But trust me, it’s just the tip of that iceberg.
Oh, and the theme song they gave the tenga battles from this point onward fucking rocks. No surprise, considering the track record of the show thus far, but definitely one of my personal favorites. A rocking tune that simultaneously explains what a tenga is and makes fun of them for being bird brains (pun very much intended). Well worth a listen all on its own.
The rangers use their newfound powers to beat the shit out of the tengas, then hightail it over to Angel Grove to fight Rito. And there, they unveil the shiny new megazord for the season: The Ninja Megazord.
And can I just say, the ninja megazord is such an improvement over that ugly-ass thunder megazord. Hell, the thunder zords in general, outside the tiger zord, were kind of lame, upon retrospect. But this zord right here? This remains in my S-tier for megazords.
Even its finishing move is badass. Rather than a generic sword slash, or cannon blast, it connects with the falcon zord, flies at the opponent at full speed, and proceeds to deliver a flying double punch that sends the monster soring backwords.
We already discussed how Rito lost the battle last week, so we won’t go too far into that today. However, before the tengas bailed on Ninjor’s palace, they did manage to leave behind one last nasty little surprise. That surprise? An egg that ended up hatching, and giving us this disgusting little fella right here.
This ugly bastard right here is Vampirus. For all intents and purposes, he’s this four-parter’s monster of the day. He hatches from his egg, and picks a fight with Ninjor. Zedd and Rita make him big, thinking it’ll give him the advantage. Except…
Yip, turns out Ninjor can grow too. Furthermore…
Yip, Ninjor has a secondary mode where he can unleash his ultimate attack: a fireball that leaves the monster all but completely beaten. Turns out Ninjor’s battle mode suffers from a lethal case of Tuxedo Mask syndrome. IE, he does everything else to the monster, and lets the Ninja Megazord deliver the finishing blow.
Vampirus falls victim to Ninja Megazord’s wolf and ape double punch move, Vampirus goes kablooy, and… Rito is surprisingly a good sport about it.
“Ah, cheer up, Edd,” he says. “We’ll get ’em next time.”
Zedd proceeds to bitch him out for not being able to remember his name, all while having second thoughts about letting him crash here till he can get back on his feet. Because he knows deep down, he never will, and he’s just going to keep taking advantage of the situation, no matter…
Sorry, lost my train of thought. Anyway…
From that point on, Ninjor would act as a sort of seventh power ranger. Whether the monster is huge, or regular sized, all the other rangers had to do was call out his name, and he’d show up. Sometimes, he’d even out the playing field. Other times, he’d end up a victim of circumstance just like the other rangers. Regardless, he did what he could to help out.
Until he eventually got kidnapped. But we’ll get to that next week.
Honestly, of all the additions season 3 introduced, Ninjor was probably my favorite. The voice they gave him is something that takes some getting used to, but once you see your way past it, Ninjor is actually pretty cool. I kind of wish he contributed more than he did, but I guess they only had so much stock footage to work with. Especially since his counterpart in Kakuranger doesn’t show up until WAY late in the series.
Don’t worry: next week, we’re finally moving past the four parter that kicked off season 3. It only gets more awkward from here, though.
How About That Thing? 
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