You are not looking at this like a business (which it is...all toku are 30 minute-long toy commercials, lol) extra rangers and extra role play items and mechs = extra money. There are way too many people that have to have a complete set, for Toei not to take advantage of that. If the extra rangers add to the story, then I don't see a problem with them. If nothing else, it gives large groups of kids more characters to pretend to be when they play together.

Older sentai isn't the trend anymore; the minimalistic toys on screen and deep rooted stories are a thing of the past for now. ToQGer didn't have a ton of rangers, but they did have a bunch of mechs (even villain mechs) and a lot of toys to buy. It had flashes of older seasons, but it was still very much like the modern seasons in the "collectible era" (which I have coined Hurricaneger to the present, lol)

Deep stories rooted are things of past for now maybe but who knows in future.

A lot of toys will always make more money than less toys though.

Deep rooted stories are a thing of the past? This is not true. There are modern Sentai with deep storylines as well as there are older shows with pretty shallow stories.

I should better explain what I mean by deep; Liveman had a very deep story. Every character on screen had development and their backstory explained. That was deep. Same went for Jetman. There are more recent seasons that still give us stories like these, but to a slightly lesser extent.

I still enjoy newer sentai, but in a different way from older sentai. One is not better than the other, they are just different. With the time slot change, the show's approach changed. When families watched together, we got Liveman, Jetman, and stuff like that. With the Sunday morning time slot, we have the brighter shows with more toys.

Not bad, just different. And at this time slot, this is the way the show will continue to be, I believe.

Well, how deep Sentai can go always also has to do with how much you want to sink into it. Recent shows had some pretty deep messages too, not as philosphical as Liveman, maybe, but deep in other fields, such as human emotion, family etc.

I take recent sentai as teaching life lessons about friends, family, strength, overcoming internal strife, etc. whereas older sentai was almost like a soap opera. Deep in different ways.

I do agree that you can take a lot from sentai. Like watching the ToQGers come to terms with the fact that they might not have a family to go home to (especially as 9- or 10-year-olds) was tough, them watching Right sacrifice himself to save them was tough, and the ending gave me feels. Also, look at Gekiranger; the arc with Jan finding out about his family made me cry; forget feels, I completely cried and hugged my daughter as we watched, lol. Sentai will always have that next level that we don't get with PR, but I think it is more geared towards teaching kids a lesson with a few instances to catch the attention of the adults thrown in.

The older shows talk about the same thing my fellow friend.

I've been binge watching a lot of older sentai these days (Kakuranger, Maskman, Jetman, and soon Liveman), and I'm more surprised by these shows' similarities to modern sentai than I am by their differences.

Like, the story structures are almost identical-- a random character story begins, is soon interrupted by a monster attack, the heroes transform and fight, the monster retreats, the character story resumes and becomes tied to the monster story, the monster attacks again, the team defeats it at human size, it reincarnates as a giant, the team calls their mechs, the mechs combine and use their finisher to defeat the giant monster for good, then the heroes return to the character story for a denouement and thematic wrap-up. The structure of an episode of sentai has not changed in at least 30 years, even as the show's commercial demands and technological abilities dramatically shifted. I think that's pretty damn impressive.

As I see it, the major differences between old and new sentai are the increased number of collectibles, an increased reliance on CGI, an increase in episode runtime, and a decrease in stock footage. But I think these differences improve upon the format. I'll go through point-by-point.

COLLECTIBLES: The increased collectibles solve a major problem I have with older sentai-- that is, how repetitive it gets. The introduction of new mechs, power ups, and weapons allows the newer shows to avoid the stagnation so common in the older series.

CGI: If you look closely at the pre-CGI shows, there are still a lot of stylistic special effects that greatly resemble modern CGI-sequences, so even this is not that major a departure. At worst, the CGI helps to make more dynamic the repetitive stock footage used in each episode.

RUNTIME: This should be obvious, but an increased runtime gives us more room to explore character and theme. Now, this isn't always the case because some sentai writers are simply better storytellers than other, but in theory the increased runtime is a good thing as it allows for more nuance and detail.

STOCK FOOTAGE: While the runtimes have increased, somehow the reliance on stock footage has decreased. Where as in older sentai about 25% of an average episode is reused footage, in modern sentai its use is much more sparse (and when it is used, it's much more visually compelling). Instead of a series using the same mech kick/punch/sword-slice footage over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, we have dynamic mech battles where at least one unique thing happens every battle. Sure, there are still reused transformation, attack, and gattai sequences, but in modern shows, because there are so many more mech configurations, attack possibilities, and power ups, there are more stock footage options available, so the repetition is less noticeable.

It could be argued that there's been a shift in tone from the earlier series, but I find that every modern series has a somewhat different tone, so I'm not fully comfortable identifying that as a consistent divergence. Like, even in the most kid-oriented shows (ToQger, for example), we have drama and philosophy that's AT LEAST as intense and sophisticated as what is found in something like Maskman. Zed and his crew are way more compelling villains than Zeba and his crew because I understand The Shadow Line's motivations and relationships way more clearly than I do the Underground Empire Tube's. There may be less (brightly colored, obviously fake) blood and out-of-henshin violence in older shows, but the emotional intensity is still just as extreme and complex-- if not more so.

Now, don't mistake this epic-length post as some "newer series are better than older series" argument. I don't believe that at all. I think Maskman, Kakuranger, and Jetman are FANTASTIC series. I'm just trying to point out that the differences between old and new are largely superficial, and the core of Super Sentai remains the same today as it was when Hiroshisa Soda ran the show in the 80s.

Well said, Kamen Rider Lucha.

Which sentai would you like to see do a 10 years after movie?

Magiranger! I mean, there's many that would be cool, but Magi could happen and would be the most nostalgic for me!

Gekiranger. Just for the fact that I was a very big fan of Jan also it was my first sentai series.

I would love for a return to Gekiranger~

I agree with everything you and 7L said; the stories and lessons are the same, but the way they are told are pretty different. One trope that is still around is the redeemed MotW episode. I always enjoy those because it is about giving second chances and there being more beneath the surface (don't judge a book by its cover). Just about every season has episodes like that and it is always going to be a lesson worth teaching.

Sentai will always keep their main essence; it is what attracts new fans and has held fans for as long as it has. I really think we are all arguing the same point, just from different angles and that is pretty neat, lol.
Shinkenger because it would be awesome and Magiranger because it just makes sense. Who wouldn't want to catch up with the Ozu family?

I just watched Nininjer episode 1. Interesting. I think Akajer might be the first red sentai in a while that I might like.

So, what would everybody think are the top 3 most commonly used themes in Sentai? I know Dinosaurs and Ninja are up there. So what would the third one be? Or what do YOU think the top 3 are?

Dinos, ninjas, and cars. If they use another chinese fighting theme, that would be the fourth motif used three times.

Don't we already have 3 with a fighting theme?
Maskman, Dairanger, Gekiranger?

I want Megaranger 20 Years After.

My obsession with Miku might get out of hand if we had a Megaranger reunion lol
Yeah that's why I said Chinese. Maskman covered so many fighting styles Dairanger and Gekiranger are more focused to styles find mainly in China.

In Ohranger and Fiveman they martial arts too.

There is martial arts in every season, but only three seasons had the main motif as martial arts and only two of those three were focused on a Chinese martial art.

And I forgot about animals as a motif; there has been quite a few of those as well.

Does anyone think there should be a female red ranger for the main five?

I personally say no because seeing how kaero was as red and by going off a statistic that says women are more emotional than men, I think a female red would bring too much drama to a sentai series. Not being sexist it's just my opinion.

Women can be more emotional than men, that doesn't mean though that they'll constantly start drama or will be more emotional. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't. Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't. Besides, Sentai has always had drama in it, and it can get out of hand at times. Look at Jetman, it borders on being a soap opera half the time.

I'd like to see a main female red at least once simply because it would be kinda cool to see.

I think a female red would be awesome. I also think a female black/green would be awesome too.

Like I said just opinion and I am not saying I wouldn't think a female red wouldn't be awesome I just think that when the going gets tough she may breakdown a lot.

NōkaGreen is a girl.
http://www.tokunation.com/showthread.php?p=173763

I need to get back to that at some point.

Farming motif? Never in all my years would I have imagined that.

the main question you gotta ask for when you come up with a Sentai motiff nowadays:

can you make a toy out of it?

Truth.

Of course there can be a female red - and there should be. Currently Super Sentai seems to run on the same tropes series after series - over-enthusiastic male Red character that ends up being the strongest and most powerful of the entire team with a story line that somehow ends up revolving around him.

Even if they kept the same trope but had a female Red instead it would be a breath of fresh air.

Just for once I wish they would have other characters that become stronger. Maybe blue or black/green. Or even one of the females. And no I'm not forgetting at MegaRanger let the others use the "Battlizer" bracelet.

^All of this, pretty much.

We don't have to put her in a Gaim setting, you know? And females aren't that unstable anyway. Actually, in very tough situations, women usually tend to be more calm and efficient. It's a typical motherly quality most women posess. They are also good leaders because they tend to be more emotionally sensitive and notice what people around them feel- so actually, they might even prevent drama.

Well, red usually is the main character, after all. As much as Sentai relies on teamwork, it's usually red's story that is told. And it has been like that for far longer than the last 3 enthusiastic reds. Even Shinkenger, Gokaiger and Goseiger, for example, had a strong focus on red's story. Gekiranger too. Megaranger as well. Or Jetman...

I think this is also why the red rangers represent their show, even if they're not the leader (in Gekiranger, Ran was the leader and in Kakuranger Tsuruhime, but Jan and Sasuke represent the team)- they're the main characters.

I'm not sure why, he's just a continuation of the same traits we've had the past few seasons.

1. Incredibly strong. He puts everyone else on the team to shame, even the ones who've had more training and experience.
2. Really brave, he'll keep fighting no matter what!
3. Energetic. He just can't stop getting fired up about things.
3. Stupid. More so than even Right. His main characteristic is literally that he possesses zero common sense or intelligence.

Bonus: Terrible acting. This one's actually unique to him and not so much a character trait, but his actor is distractingly bad in almost every scene he appears (which of course is most of them). The Fourze style "I'm getting fiiiired up!" thing is especially cringe inducing.

This is why there will never be a female red. Red rangers sell the most toys and the boys that the toys are marketed towards want to emulate what they see on tv. I wish the super hero genre would better embrace their female fans.

And thinking a woman would break down when things got tough is extremely sexist; its your opinion, but it is a sexist opinion. My wife is a soldier and has been in a ton of really tough and stressful situations and she hasn't broken down once and I know a ton of other women that are exactly the same way (even Japanese women), so that idea is sexist and stupid.

yeah, but these are the reasons kids can relate to characters like this.

1. kids want to believe they actually are strong, so they like to put themselves in the shoes of strong heroes.
2. kids want to be brave. so, a brave hero for them too look up to can allow them to gain that same courage.
3. kids are full of energy, so having an energetic character is a major factor for them to relate to the hero.
4. kids aren't the brightest, and they're bound to make some mistakes in life, so again, makes them more relatable.

even if Red isn't essentially the leader, more often than not, they're the one who wants to keep the team together. they're also the title character. I mean, red is the center of their flag.

A female red would be cool. It would just be nice to shake things up a bit, especially when the leader personalities are getting so formulaic recently. Maybe have her be a more serious type with an arc based on lightening up or a "team mum" type with heavy emphasis on the "holds the team together" thing. It would also probably be a cool move for the girls who watch the show.

If we have another ninja sentai the enemies will be youkais again ?