by Eric Francisco Former Yellow Ranger Karan Ashley Interviews ‘Zyuranger’ Cast on Uncensored Talk!

Full disclosure: As stated in previous posts, former Power Rangers actress Karan Ashley (“Aisha,” the second Yellow Ranger) is a friend of mine.

But objectively, just as a fan of Power Rangers, the Super Sentai series and this whole bizarre niche of sci-fi and fantasy, this is incredible. This past weekend at the Lexington Comic & Toy Convention in Kentucky, both sides of the pacific clashed in a wonderful celebration of these color-coded space ninjas they built their careers upon in Karan Ashley’s Uncensored Talk, a web-based talk show that has featured the likes of Star Trek‘s Nichelle Nichols and other former Power Rangers.

Due to its length (just under 28 minutes) I haven’t had the chance to watch the whole thing yet, so check back later when I update this post with my reaction.

But I can say that when I was 10 years old and just discovering the online Power Rangers fandom (and why in the hell did my mom let me on the internet at 10-years-old?), Super Sentai felt like this weird, underground thing only the real fans knew about. Never mind that it wasn’t, it just felt like it. This was when even mainstream geek culture perceived Power Rangers to be a total Voltron knock-off, so knowing about Super Sentai gave the begrudging fans ammo and cred for years.

Now over a decade later as fandoms have penetrated the mainstream and knowledge of Super Sentai has become more widely known, no one has remained unreachable. That feeling of attainability, to shake the hand of someone you never thought you could, started when Yuta Mochizuki (“Geki” the Tyranno Ranger in 1992’s Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger) appeared at last summer’s Power MorphiCon.

Fast forward a few months later to the hype of the Lexington con and almost out of the blue, Reiko Chiba (“Mei” the Ptera Ranger), Takumi Hashimoto (“Boi” the Tiger Ranger), and Aohisa Takayasu (“Goushi” the Mammoth Ranger) announced they’d be showing up for the convention, and who else but the amazing ball of enthusiasm and energy Karan Ashley sat them down for a half-hour for a truly historic meeting of geek legends.

For every Power Rangers and tokusatsu fan, this recent weekend in Lexington was a historic treat. I saw it all happen on my Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram feeds while I was stuck in New Jersey. I was hella jealous, sure, but I’ll feel better when I pimp out my weekend in San Diego this summer ad nauseam.

For now, enjoy Karan Ashley getting Austin St. John to hang out with the Zyurangers and come back to this post later when I update with my reaction.