Because K-drama (with it's soundtrack) in early 2000's led to the popularity of K-pop music. The idol that acted in K-drama and the soundtrack in K-drama helped K-pop got it's popularity. Also when Korean drama got popular, it led to other Asian dramas like Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese dramas to get audiences outside of Asia.

In Latin/South America, where Korean drama got popular. It led to Taiwanese dramas finding audience in that area:

Politically ignored Taiwan practices soap opera diplomacy, in Spanish

TV drama exports Taiwan culture, soft power to Latin America

TV drama broadcast in Latin America to promote Taiwan soft power


Taiwan has credited Korean dramas for helping Taiwanese dramas finding a major success in Latin/South America. So if Korean drama helped Taiwanese dramas in Latin/South America. K-drama has also helped K-drama fans being open minded to a Chinese fantasy toku show, Ice Fantasy. So both of what I listed should've helped K-drama fans discovered K-toku like Legend Hero find similar success in the US and in the west. Instead I didn't see Legend Hero finding the same success amongst western K-drama fans like it's Korean drama counterpart.

Regarding Legend Hero, it's a little campy but it's more K-drama then some campy kid show. To describe Legend Hero, it doesn't have a monster of the week and the plot is not stand-alone in every episode, the plot of the drama transcend all episodes. So that's why I find it different from other toku show I've watched. But then again, Legend hero is a unique K-toku from the one from Japan.

Well, Ice Fantasy being a Chinese drama it had a lot of toku-like element in there if you watched that show carefully.

That could be another explanation why Legend Hero didn't catch the same attention like Ice Fantasy did. Despite Legend hero is a K-toku, and Ice Fantasy is a Chinese epic fantasy with a lot of toku-like element in it.

So we need more K-toku that feels like Ice Fantasy as in more drama, but less campiness.

I can't speak for those because I never got chance to watch Garo, Also the fact that K-drama fans are able to watch Ice Fantasy with no issue and yet aren't able to watch Legend Hero really doesn't make sense to me.

Librarian, just to let you know. Not all Asian dramas get the same love like K-drama and Taiwanese dramas.

You mention J-dramas, sadly J-dramas have suffered from accessibility issues, and some J-dramas that we do have on streaming sites like Viki, and Netflix. They don't get the same type of love like their K-drama counterpart.

After looking at Tokusatsu show discussion section and seeing this topic. I think maybe this topic does fit better in the Toku show discussion then here. Again, I didn't know if this topic would've fit in the Toku show discussion because I would bring up Korean and Asian drama, so I didn't know if this topic would be appropriate in that section, so I wanted to play it safe. But after seeing some topics in that section, I think I should've had that topic set up on Toku show discussion.

Also, I don't know how many people out there beside me are both fans of Toku and K-drama, but I did found another person. Would like to have this person's perspective on how can Toku get the same type of global popularity like Korean TV dramas and Ice Fantasy.

For me, I don't think Toku shows and K-dramas have the same target audience. I enjoy watching both Toku shows and K-dramas (though I haven't seen any as of late) but I do have many friends who enjoy K-dramas and none of them seem like the type that would enjoy Toku shows. For one, they probably just see them as another "Power Rangers" show which is just full of bad acting, cringy dialogue and superheroes in spandex targeted at kids. I know that's not always the case, especially for Super Sentai and Kamen Rider but it'd be hard to convince to watch it without any bias.

Did you try showing them Legend Hero? Try showing one episode from Youtube and let see how they react. If they liked Legend Hero over the Japanese toku, then maybe that's show that Toku spoken in Korean and set in South Korea could work but need maybe famous K-pop/hallyu idols in it.

I do agree maybe if South Korea can improve and make better toku show and have it market toward K-drama fanbases, it could help get K-drama fans branch out to toku shows.

I did came up with an idea of South Korea adapting Marvel's Silk into a K-drama/K-toku fusion. I want the K-drama adaptation of Silk to be reminiscent of Toei's Spider-man but with less campiness and more drama.

My other idea for South Korea to help Toku gaining a bigger audiences for K-drama fanbase: Do you recall Ultraman: Towards the Future, and Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero? Both of these were co-productions were done between Tsuburaya Productions and another country. Maybe they should do it with South Korea, I think a Korean Ultraman series could work and maybe that alone can get K-drama and K-pop fans to branch out to Toku shows.

But here's how the Korean Ultraman series should cast, I want Tsuburaya and whichever Korean company they worked with to cast one of the 2 K-pop idol from BTS. This K-pop boy group has been getting a lot of attention in the US since 2017, I think if we were to cast either V:

https://www.sbs.com.au/popasia/sites...ime=1515639561

or Jin:

http://fimg4.pann.com/new/download.jsp?FileID=45114507

as Ultraman's human identity in the Korean adaptation. As of now, I only know V is the only one with acting experience since he has done acting in one K-drama. Casting V or Jin as Ultraman alone can attract a lot of K-pop and K-drama fans into watching Toku and that include Korea's Ultraman. BTS is the only K-pop boy group that has gotten mainstream popularity in the US, so if you want Korea's Ultraman to get the same love like any K-drama, you got to have a handsome K-pop idol from that group to play Ultraman. I know it seem like pandering to K-pop fans, but what other way can you get K-drama/K-pop fans to watch toku shows. Just like the Korean adaptation of Silk, I want the Korean Ultraman to be more serious and more dramatic then any of their Japanese counterpart. I want the episode to be tied together, not stand-alone. So that means every episode not only have a happy ending, but also at the end it lead to what will happen in the next episodes.

I also have an idea of doing a K-toku that take place during Korea's Three Kingdom era (not to be confused with China's three kingdom that inspired Romance of the Three Kingdom). Do any of you know Mystic Knight of Tir Na Nog? After watching this, and the K-drama, The Night Watchman's Journal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9mBPm3GK4s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp4JrIzWT_U

If we can combine the sentai squad & format of Mystic Knights and the plot, tone, and atmosphere of The Night Watchman's Journal. Replace Irish period & mythology with Korean mythology and make it take place during pre-Joseon Korea, and remove the campiness and try to match the serious and dark atmosphere of this fantasy period drama. Yes I want a Korean Mystic knight to be like what you're seeing in the 2 video above. Serious and not a lot of campiness.

This is how you can get K-drama fans to get into Toku/K-toku. I don't know who should I cast for my proposed Korean "mystic warriors", but for my female member of the Korea's "Mystic Warriors" squad, I want Nana of After School:

https://0.soompi.io/wp-content/uploa...5616/Nana1.jpg

https://www.wowkeren.com/images/news/00185050.jpg

I want Nana to play a Korean princess similar to Mystic Knight's Deirdre for the K-drama/K-toku of Mystic Warriors.

If South Korea can make a K-drama/K-toku fusion show like what I suggested above, then it can lead to K-drama fans branching out to Toku shows.