Octoplant Pinup

An improved version of a piece originally done in the late 1990s is basically meant for laughs; some fictional magazine published for (and by) the infamous monsters of the "Power Ranger" television series, having itself a swimsuit edition.

Featured on the false cover is Octoplant, a flower / fairy-like plant lady that was unleashed by Rita Repulsa to ultimately cover the world in vines. But as with most villains from this show, Octoplant was defeated / killed by the title heroes and was never seen again.

One major personality trait of the character was her vanity, which was the real reason behind her downfall, as the multi-color-coded teens destroyed her while being distracted by her own reflection on a window-covered building. Because of this, I felt (at the time...) that the Octoplant was the perfect creature for this gag...and even more surprisingly, I won an award ("Power Rangers Time-Force" action figure actually) for this picture by a related web-site contest.

It was only years after the fact did I discovered the terrifying truth behind the Octoplant's original Japanese incarnation, Dora Narcissus, from episode 32 of the 1992 Super Sentai entry "Zyuranger"; SHE WAS A DUDE!!!

Now it's no surprise that Power Rangers took gender liberties with some of its monsters-of-the-week (let alone all those Yellow Rangers), and to be very fair, villains that looked feminine remained so, while the few turned into gals were pretty gender ambiguous in their respective designs...But in the case of Dora Narcissus, he is the Japanese giant monster equivalent to androgynous anime boys!

Still, seeing that the Power Ranger franchise is truly its own beast, spun-off from the Super Sentai one, as oppose to just a simple alternate cut of the original version, we can easily accept the Octoplant as Dora Narcissus's creepy American-raised twin sister...and I already invested way too much time on this picture, so live with it!

Oh, wait a minute...it's like the three incarnations of Mechagodzilla; all the same title, but three very different versions and / or characters (the Showa era alien killing-machine, the Heisei-era man-made military mecha, and the Millennium-era Kiryu cyborg and sympathetic ghost)! See, now Octoplant is less creepy and we can still love her outside that naughty Dora Narcissus...shame on you for messing with our heads Japan!

As for the names listed below (an exclusive to this updated version); as much as I would love to do my personal favorite Itassis (from "Power Rangers Mystic Force") in a revealing two-piece, I'm going to focus on more traditional fan art of the un-loved Sentai monsters; both within the ongoing Kaiju Portraits, and an special, upcoming series of highly unlikely illustrated crossovers.