I just finished Ohranger. While I thought the season was, at best, just OK, there were some things that I really liked about it. Specifically Hysteria, the machine queen.

While Riki was my favorite character in the show, he was one of the few characters I actually gave a damn about, I think she's by far the best character. Her arc, while quite subtle given that no episode specifically focuses on it, was one of the most interesting things in the entire show. To see such a cold heart woman transform so drastically by the end was actually quite amazing.

Could the hour time affect the audience somehow ?

Depends. How many Japanese adults are interested in getting up at 6:00 in the morning to watch a children's TV show? If I recall correctly, sundays are also one of the few days off they have.

While it's impossible to disagree with you on this, I honestly wonder how long Toei can afford to ignore older audiences. It's not hard to make an argument based on recent series' ratings and toy sales data that these extremely child-centric series perform increasingly poorly every year.

The only show that I think has been a ratings success over the last 6 years is Gokaiger, a show largely geared toward the nostalgia of older fans.

Between the low sales of ToQ/Ninnin/Zyuoh, the plunging ratings of every series since Go-Busters, and the declining birthrate in Japan, Toei will probably be forced to at least try a series aimed at an all-ages demographic, closer in spirit to the Sentai of yore (or Kamen Rider of present), within the next few years.

It's either that or allow the series to become gradually less profitable until they're forced to cancel...

I agree! Hysteria does become a surprisingly well-rounded character toward the end of the series, and she's certainly the only member of the Baranoia Empire that demonstrates any real depth.

Was it? I thought Gokaiger fell victim to the same ratings decline as every other recent Sentai series.

We had the Sunday morning time slot for years. Kids are off from school on Sundays. We did had the shows air on Fridays in the 90's before Megaranger from what I can remember.

The target demographic becoming so small that they're forced to make something aimed at all ages? It's terrifying to think that might not be an over exaggeration. I heard that there are more pets in Japan then children.

Side note: If I recall correctly, Gokaiger's toy sales were really good.

Mmm... possibly. I've attached to this post a chart of the ratings for the 10 most recent series.

Gokaiger's average rating was 5.0%, which was slightly lower than the four previous series, but still fell within reasonable boundaries for Sentai at the time. Gokai's ratings were about the same as Go-Onger's. Geki-through-Gokai's ratings vacillated, but all had averages within 5-6%.

With Go-Busters, we saw almost a full percentage point dip in the average rating share, to 4.1%. That was by far the most drastic change in 6 years. The ratings have declined every year since, and they've never rebounded.

Zyuohger currently has an average of 3.6%, which is the lowest rating in Sentai history.

Regardless of the (many) causes of the ratings decline, Toei needs to do something drastic if they hope to stanch the bleeding of viewers. One way to do that (though admittedly not the only way) would be to experiment with inviting older audiences back to the table... because alienating them with increasingly childish series clearly hasn't helped.

Which super sentai series was just straight garbage like no plot at all/a plot that didn't even make sense and too much comedy in it.

Oh, this should be good.

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