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''VR Troopers'' (Virtual Reality Troopers) is a syndicated live action superhero television series produced and distributed by Saban Entertainment from 1994 to 1996. The show tried to profit from the fascination with virtual reality in the early 1990s as well as the success of Saban's other property, ''Power Rangers''. ''VR Troopers'' was the first official "sister series" to ''Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers''. Much like it, this was an Americanization of a Japanese tokusatsu children's program series by Toei. The series is a co-production of Toei Company and Cyberprod. The show featured early CGI and video effects mixed with Japanese stock footage from three different Metal Hero Series: ''Superhuman Machine Metalder'', ''Dimensional Warrior Spielban'' and ''Space Sheriff Shaider''. On May 7, 2010 the copyright for VR Troopers was transferred from BVS Entertainment to Saban Capital Group. The series was deemed successful, but not as successful as the Power Rangers franchise. One issue was that the Japanese footage was quickly exhausted due to extreme cases where multiple tokusatsu scenes were put together in one episode to the extent where stock footage had to be reused multiple times throughout the series. ''Big Bad Beetleborgs'', another Saban adaptation of a Metal Heroes series, encountered similar problems. The show spawned a toy line and a video game for the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive) and Sega Game Gear. As of 2015, repeats of VR Troopers currently air on Kabillion video-on-demand service. ==Plot== The show focused on three young adults in their late teens, Ryan Steele, Kaitlin Star, and J.B. Reese, living in the fictional West Coast town of Cross World City. They regularly attended and were teachers at "Tao's Dojo", a karate studio. Ryan was the most focused martial artist; J.B. was the computer wizard; while Kaitlin was a photographer & budding reporter for the local newspaper, the ''Underground Voice Daily''. One day, Ryan's search for his long-missing father led him and his two friends to a strange laboratory. Inside, a digitized head of Professor Horatio Hart, a friend of Ryan's father, Tyler, explained the truth about his life's work of having developed extremely advanced virtual reality technology in secret. "VR" is a dimension existing alongside our own; within it lie mutants bent on conquering both worlds. The main ruler of these is a creature known as Grimlord, who, unbeknownst to anyone on Earth, has a human identity as billionaire industrialist Karl Ziktor. As Karl Ziktor tries to overcome the barriers of the true reality to allow his armies easy passage from virtual world, the responsibility falls to Ryan, Kaitlin, and J.B. of defending the planet on both sides of the dimensional barrier. They have assistance in the form of armored bodies having incredible firepower. This included eventual additions to their arsenal, such as a Turbo Cycle, Techno Bazooka, VR Troopertron, VR Shoulder Cannon, VR Battlecruiser/Interceptop and a flying, laser-blasting Skybase. Other regular characters on the show included Zeb as Jeb, Ryan's hound dog, who, after an accident in Prof. Hart's lab, was now capable of human speech; Woody Stocker, Kaitlin's wacky hat-loving boss at the ''Underground Voice Daily''; Percy Rooney, the local mayor's nephew and Kaitlin's bumbling rival reporter; and Tao, the wise martial arts sensei who owns the dojo and a family friend of the Steele Family. Recurring villains include General Ivar, Colonel Icebot, Decimator, the Skugs, and more throughout. During the second season, the show changed format very slightly. Ryan's father was finally found and restored to normal. Then, he quickly left to help the government research further Virtual Reality based technology. With him came Ryan's new V.R. armor and an upgrade to his powers. Grimlord's base of operations switched from the virtual dungeon to a massive spacecraft, and added new Generals such as Oraclon, Despera, Doom Master and his Vixens. The Skugs now had the ability to become more powerful in the form of Ultra Skugs. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「VR Troopers」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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