So never?:lol

More american henshin heroes shows would be awesome.

It would be interesting to see what a Henshin Hero show built from the ground up to appeal to westerners would do differently.

People can get that vibe off of any toku suit you show them. I was looking at a picture of Kamen Rider Decade once and someone asked if they were a Power Ranger. To me, the two look vastly different, but I guess there's enough baseline similarities to trigger that response in non-fans.

It would be nice if it had a wider audience, since that would mean more legit releases on affordable platforms.

That said though, I don't really think that it's possible for tokusatsu to become mainstream in the United States. Most tokusatsu are relatively low budget shows aimed at young children and can be baffling for the uninitiated.

Given that South Korea has already made K-dramas found a big audiences beyond Asia and got popular amongst non-Asian American demographic. Also the Chinese fantasy drama, Ice Fantasy has gotten popular amongst non-Asian audiences and that include K-drama fanbases. Ice Fantasy can be considered a toku because of the special effect used in the series. So yes, I think toku could gain more audiences beyond a niche audiences. One Korean Toku show, Legend Hero had been on Youtube with English subtitle for a while. But here's the saddest part, a lot of K-drama fans branch out to Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese drama, but they never branch out to K-toku like Legend Hero.

I don't understand how fans of K-drama and K-pop didn't branch out to K-toku. That's the thing that made me scratch my head.

So here's the questions:

How do we get western fans of Korean TV dramas, and fans of Ice Fantasy to branch out to Tokusatsu?

How can South Korea make K-toku more attractive and appealing to K-drama fans so toku can gain more international acceptance?

That's why I raised that issues and question on this thread: If Korean TV dramas are popular internationally, why is Toku not getting the same?

It seem like Toku fandom and K-drama fandom don't interact with each other at all. I seem to be the only person that is both a toku fan and a K-drama fan.

Most people i met underestimate tokusatsu because they think "transforming" is stupid especially mecha fights. They don't know that a lot of tokusatsu have cool story.

Judging by how they butchered super sentai already, I would rather have toku remain niche as americans have proven they cannot be trusted to handle japanese kids shows in any reasonable way.

Eh, I HIGHLY disagree, we got Time Force and RPM, and while the former's mostly the same from the source material, RPM uses a completely different story and tone from the wacky Go-Onger. The problem with the west adapting Japanese kid shows is cultural differences, what flies in Japan doesn't always fly in America, Dragon Ball ended up saying "Fuck it we'll make it seem more mature and aim to older kids and teens, this isn't acceptable for young kids here"

You baby

What would happen if South Korea made Toku shows mainstream thanks to the Hallyu/Korean Wave? Would you change your mind?

Oh, and my thoughts on the matter. Obviously yes, the more popular toku becomes, the better it can get. The only issue is that it's VERY niche now. Should it be popular, then that means we can get all kinds of toku from different companies, and because they're trying to beat each other, they'd need to try to be good

No, because that won't change the fact saban is alive and america has a horrible tendency to butcher any sort of adaptation made.

I mean, if they personally throw saban into a pit of starving jackals, that might help.

... Have you not heard the news? Hasbro owns Power Rangers now. Though the Kyu Ranger trademark is odd

japan also makes a number of terrible adaptations of their own works you know

I have heard the news. Lets just hope hasbo sticks 100% to the script of go busters and maybe I won't despise power rangers as much.

Saban still needs to be thrown into a pit of starving jackals for butchering sentai though.

Japan butchered our shows too, how does does that make it any better?

Also did you forget Japan "re-dubbed" Power Rangers back to Japan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPBM_UVQ2B0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVOLyNBkFA8

So does that means Japan deserve to go to hell for dubbing Power Rangers back to Japanese?

I think the point is "terrible adaptations"

Sticking 100 percent doesn't always work though. Amd from what I hear, Lost Galaxy is considered better tham Gingaman soooooo...

stick to the sentai footage and you get samurai and the last few episodes of mystic force aka really bad power rangers. every time power rangers has tried to be exactly like the sentai its been bad, why do you want this

and i mean you're out of luck already if you want themto make gobusters the exact same lol

Well tbf Samurai was boned regardless of what they did considering the whole Japan motive

they adapted Kakuranger and Hurricanger pretty well, and those are heavily Japan-based

Kakuranger was barely adapted and Hurricanger's stuff was ninjas. Not kanji, origami and Japanese family values iirc

Kakuranger was only used for 10 episodes. And they managed to spin their suits in Alien gear. Hurricanger, as Ninja Storm, was done the way it was because it went off the idea that people can be trained to be a ninja. But with Samurai being heavily motived with kanji and the like, it was an uphill battle. Maybe if they hadn't made them samurai in the US adaptation, it wouldn't have been so bad.

They could have embraced it and done a new plot, and not just do shinkenger's plot but remove the cultural context that made it work

Time Force is considered one of the better Power Rangers series, and isn't it a pretty straight adaptation of Timeranger?

Yeah, it is. Then again, Wild Force is a pretty similar adaptation, and no-one really seems to like that. I guess it depends on the original series.

Honestly I don't understand why someone would want the Power Ranger adaption to just be the same as the Japanese version?

Like I don't watch PR but at that point, just watch the original Japanese show?

Let PR be it's own thing and let it take elements and stuff from the Japanese show but not copy it and remake it wholesale.

its actually just writing quality

That would be fine, if american writers could actually write worth a damn in kids shows. Avatar the last airbender is probably the only GOOD american kids show I have seen, everything else is just utter vomit.

I would rather have a 1:1 copy of the japanese show over a butchered american version because japanese kids shows tend to have an actual plot and don't treat the viewer as a goddamn idiot.

I am NOT saying every sentai is perfect, what I am saying is that sentai at least tries to be more than a glorified commercial at times.

I can see why people don't like Power Rangers and like Sentai better. It's like with Robotech and Macross where they took a great sci-fi series with a lot of depth and turn into a dumb Saturday morning cartoon. Zyuranger may have been a dumb kids show, but I still take it over MMPR.

I don't care for the PR series at all, but at least there is some good stuff in the series (Even though there is not many in my opinion). So I don't hate the franchise.

With Dragon Ball, Funimation Americanize it to appeal to kids in America. That's why they replace the music and added a lot of dumb corny dialogue to make it more American friendly. Chris Sabat and other people who work on the series confirmed it. Heck, I was even on old Dragon Ball websites over 15 years ago when people hated Funimation for watering down Dragon Ball to be TV-G (or was it TV-Y) on Cartoon Network.

How are you enjoying Kamen Rider "Lets introduce a toy every episode no matter if it makes sense to the plot" Build

besides, saying that every north american children's series is bad is over-generalization. You're willfully ignoring the numerous great Transformers series made overseas (and how the japanese Transformers series tend to universally be worse), alongside things like Adventure Time, Regular Show, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Power Rangers RPM, and a lot of others. In turn, I can also reference a lot of kids media in Japan that sucks.

Don't try to make it sound like you're better, you're just upset that Power Rangers makes you realize you like watching shows for 7 year olds

Alright, this will be the last post I make here as its getting too heated.

Let me clarify; I did not intend to say ALL american kids shows are bad, I am saying that from what I have personally seen with my own two eyeballs is utter vomit.

Build has definitely gone downhill but was decent near the middle. I am not better than anyone in any regards and merely feel american kids shows are much worse than japanese kids shows.

Eh, I feel like Batman: TAS, Samurai Jack (Pre-Adult Swim revival), Animaniacs, the original Ren & Stimpy, Rocko's Modern Life, and few others are good shows. While I do agree that Japan does make better shows for kids (I hate sounding like a weeb), but that is probably because Japan is more layback to content in kids shows. My Hero Academia is aim for kids and it has some scenes that won't work on a channel in America like Nick or Disney XD without being edited.

you have not watched enough television my friend

I know it's 2021, but I need to revive this topic again in light of the K-drama
 

I know the last post was in 2018. But I need to revive this topic again because I've been watching and observing tokusatsu and K-dramas (along with C-dramas, Taiwanese dramas, and non-Asian/non-English European dramas on streaming).

There's one thing that bother me: It seems like toku fans and K-dramas fandom never overlapped one another.

It really bother me a lot because I seem to be the only one in toku fans (I'm sure there maybe other) that is also an avid K-drama/Hallyu fan too. I never seen any toku fandom helping K-drama fans to branch out to tokusatsu shows. I've seen K-drama fans branch out to Taiwanese dramas, Chinese dramas, but not tokusatsu shows. I've seen fans of K-dramas branching out and watching Ice Fantasy (think of a Chinese combined version of Avatar: the Last Airbender, and Game of Thrones), but not Kamen Rider or Ultraman.

I never seen tokusatsu fans even bringing up certain K-dramas shows (or even fantasy wuxia show like Ice Fantasy) in their discussion circle. Like for example, Kingdom (you know on Netflix), Arthdal Chronicles (another fantasy K-drama on Netflix that is highly regarded in the US), Hwayugi/A Korean Odyssey (another fantasy K-drama that you can watch on Netflix). There are other fantasy K-drama that came out recently that borderline to tokusatsu territory (and worthy of discussion in tokusatsu fandom circle, and yes all of them are on Netflix for you to watch):

Abyss

Rugal

Sweet Home (this apocalypse K-drama may appeal to any toku fans that have a Netflix subscription)

The Uncanny Counter

Memories of the Alhambra

The School Nurse Files (this 6 episode Netflix K-drama would really appeal to toku fan)

It's not only K-drama, I found some fantasy wuxia and Chinese-language show that borderline to tokusatsu territory like for example (these have been on Netflix in recent years):

Once Upon a Time in Lingjian Mountain (yep, you can watch it on Netflix)

Word of Honor (Another Chinese fantasy wuxia TV drama, 36 episodes long and on Netflix)

The Devil Punisher (this one is from Taiwan and this fantasy Taiwanese drama borderline to tokusatsu territory, and yes you can watch it on Netflix)

So why am I bringing this up in this thread, it's because some of these fantasy/sci-fi K-drama and wuxia C-drama would probably caused tokusatsu fans discussing and talking about should these be considered as tokusatsu.

We're seeing non-Asian Americans watching fantasy/sci-fi K-dramas and wuxia C-dramas on streaming for the last few years and nobody in tokusatsu fandom in the US have brought this up!!!??? I mean one blogger I stumbled upon a few years back brought up this topic:

Should Fans of Also Consider Wuxia Series and Sci-Fi Series as Tokusatsu?

Mind Hurts: Why Do I Even Call Certain Fantasy-Based K-Drama And C-Drama As Toku?!

I mean this blogger is correct (and I agree with him) and with the K-dramas and C-dramas I listed above being borderline to tokusatsu territory. I was baffled why not a single tokusatsu fan in the US have never brought this up. Am I the only one in toku fandom that watch K-drama and been observing the trend. I was also surprised despite the blogger post, nobody in tokusatsu fandom has brought this up or even cited this blog to discuss K-dramas and wuxia C-dramas when comparing those to Japanese tokusatsu.

So you're telling me that no tokusatsu fans branch out to K-drama and C-dramas with fantasy or sci-fi elements (or stuff that reminds them of tokusatsu). You're telling me that no K-drama or wuxia fans branch out to tokusatsu, and you're telling me that no toku fans have made no attempt to help K-drama and wuxia fans branch out to tokusatsu shows.

Also doesn't it bother you that Netflix are not picking up tokusatsu shows from Japan for worldwide streaming when the same Netflix are picking up K-dramas and wuxia dramas for worldwide audiences.

How the hell is it not possible that tokusatsu fandom are ignorance of K-drama and wuxia C-drama being widespread on Netflix but not bother that Netflix isn't getting any tokusatsu?
It really bother me and really ticks me off. It really make me scratch my head why nobody in toku fandom has never brought this up except me.

All I care about is whether or not it has a good story. I don't care whether or not it's animated, flash animated, puppetry, live action, CGI or stop motion. As long as the story is good, whatever goes. If the story is crap, forget it.

Of course, this is my opinion and not a representation of the tokusatsu community at large.

I suppose yes I want toku to be more mainstream, but at least from a British perspective I also don't want people to get the wrong idea about it because of a bad adaptation or something that's better not being popular because it's only on something like Netflix and not actually on a normal TV channel at a time where your average person might have otherwise watched it! My main objection to Power Rangers is on principle, I think, whereas I can see that some PR shows are better than the original though I do think Mighty Morphin is overrated and hasn't been all good for the reputation of the genre in all parts of the world. Plus animated Power Rangers I can safely say I will not watch, I'm not here for cartoons! :lol

About the thing of other genres classed as toku though, I do like various forms of international TV especially if it's in a language I'm learning, like I've watched the Welsh-language soap opera Pobol Y Cwm on and off for over 10 years now although Welsh I'm fairly good at anyway whereas something like Thai I just haven't put the time in! :lolol I did consider things like the Sarah Jane Adventures,Wizards vs Aliens and classic series Doctor Who borderline(could perhaps be a bit of crossover given the half-hour format) but I'm not too knowledgable about Korean dramas as such, I have only completed both Rooftop Prince and the Korean version of Hana Kimi (both funnily enough from 2012!) but I do sometimes struggle to find a variety of things to watch in different languages.

OK, can I ask you a question. How is it impossible for a tokusatsu fan like you to not have branch out to K-dramas when I see many anime fans branch out to K-dramas, but toku fans don't.

2nd question: do you have a Netflix subscription (or do you share anyone's Netflix account to watch stuff on Netflix), or maybe a Amazon Prime Video subscription?

Because like I mention in my previous post, there's been a rise in Korean (and wuxia Chinese) TV dramas border lining to tokusatsu territory.

I mean you're telling me that you didn't know that K-dramas has been gaining popularity with non-Asian audiences in the west for the last few years thanks to streaming nor did you not know that K-drama has been experimenting with genre like sci-fi & fantasy that would borderline to toku territory.

I'm kind of shocked that nobody in toku fandom has never even discussed Kingdom, or The School Nurse Files (both Korean drama), or even wuxia drama on discussion circle.

Not on board with the "PR-Is-Bad-For-International-Toku-Representation" interpretation, but I also don't want PR to be the catch-all regarding Toku as it's only one aspect and an outlier. I want Toku to go up in understanding and popularity, so that you can see franchises like Kamen Rider get the love and respect of more common manga/anime franchises like My Hero Academia or Dragon Ball. We're seeing MHA figures on Walmart shelves and that's not considered atypical these days! We're also (occasionally) seeing more Ultraman on shelves (usually just the MEGOs and series sets, but still). That's a level of commendable representation cause while MHA and Ultraman are still relatively niche, they're not total unknowns and can share space with more recognizable franchises like Superman or Avengers. What is concerning is whether or not it will keep its acquired momentum and if it can remain true to itself without the meddling of Western corporations and Western nitpickers who judge what they don't understand.