Long overdue ban imo. That person got on my nerves and never contributed anything of value. Only to complain or add a 1-2 word response barely related to a thread or a response.

The end of Super Sentai is incredibly sad. But nothing lasts forever and 50 years of consistent programing is a hell of an achievement. It's crazy to think that the series that eventually gave us Power Rangers is far older than The Simpsons and many other long running American TV shows. Thanks to the show's longevity and popularity in of itself and through it's American adaptation it got a major Hollywood motion picture released before the likes of any Marvel superhero pre or post MCU. Sentai certainly peaked around Gokaiger with a massive celebration of 35 years on television. But there is only so many theme ideas and stories before you start to retread on themes and ideas. Hell even before Gokaiger Sentai was retreading on themes such as animals, dinosaurs (and other prehistoric creatures), ninjas, and cars. Popularity wanes and its time in the sun has now passed.

Hasbro certainly has not helped things. They continuously pivot to MMPR even though Power Rangers has had many popular post-MMPR seasons. The problem with Hasbro is they make crappy toys then consider the brand a failure for not selling. Though they produced well enough lines of various seasons to suggest that some figures were selling well enough to continue the line for several years. So I don't really buy the whole "poor sales" argument at face value. Most likely Hasbro is acting like a petty teenager. The previous leadership enthusiastically acquired Power Rangers with the desire to exploit the brand to its full potential. But the current leadership obviously hates the acquisition and has nerfed the line and licensed it out to Playmates because they rather focus on their Transformers line. Which is the problem whenever you have a major competitor buy out its competition. The buy out was a massive mistake on the behalf of Saban, who has arguably treated his brand worse than Disney ever had. Neglecting a capable adult is far better than handing it over to an abuser. Though Disney also pivoted to MMPR in the end of their first run with the franchise so it's not much better.

I wasn't the biggest fan of Bandai America during the 2010s, especially with the zordbuilder line and how worse the quality got towards the end. But I'd rather have Bandai back if Bandai Japan could ban Bandai America from using zordbuilder for DX intended lines. Which would be difficult to do since they're technically two different companies, but perhaps B-Japan could refuse to license the DX toys in any way if B-A made any changes outside of American toy manufacturing laws. Plus aside from some gaudy zordbuilder ports the Legacy line megazords were sold well and were largely well received. I'm still hoping for a release of the Legacy Shogun Megazord even if I have to wait until I'm 50 for that to happen.

The Toei-Hasbro divorce seems to have negatively affected both Sentai and Power Rangers. If the rumors are true that Toei intends to do a re-brand and market it as a Power Rangers competitor in North America well then good luck to them. Not sure how they will go about addressing past PR adapted Sentai and unadapted Sentai in the continuity going forward. I could see them pushing Jetman aesthetics and other older teams (and newer unadapted teams). But it becomes a problem with shows like Fiveman and Dairanger that have a complicated relationship with Power Rangers.

Aside from General Hospital (which, according to what I googled, has been airing in America since the 1960s non-stop :lolol), for sure.
Not a lot of consecutively long-running sci-fi series come to mind like Super Sentai, and I was hoping to see Super Sentai No. 100 by the time I become super old, but yeah, retreading concepts and motifs can only be done so many times, and I think it's time to let it catch a breather and maybe come back strong in the future.
Heck, Metal Heroes had its hiatus (except for the guest appearances and movies) since Kuuga aired if I recall, and fast-forward to now, we have confirmation of Gavan returning in some form again since the Type G era, for lack of better words. Sad to see it go, but inevitable given its circumstances. And even if Toei won't be making them at the moment, there will be tons of parodies and fanfics of all sorts to keep us inspired and entertained in the meantime.

Sometimes a hiatus is good for a property. One property that comes to mind American wise is Scooby-Doo. There has been some Scooby-Doo related project in production since 1969, even older than both Super Sentai and Kamen Rider. However, it has never been directly linked from one production to another. Instead there is usually a period of 2-6 years between production releases. Sometimes giving a franchise a bit of a break helps creatives return with more fresh ideas in the future. I honestly think that Super Sentai would benefit from revisiting previous seasons since Super Sentai is so old and massive there are plenty of seasons that have more to offer but weren't fully explored due to the nature of a soft reboot every year.

I'm sure that in 2075th, Toei (or any other rights holder) will somehow celebrate Super Sentai's centennial. Perhaps even with a simple name reversion and turning all "Universe Heroes" (or whatever name the upcoming franchise might have) into part of Super Sentai. And Infinity Gavan will be remembered as a year-long crossover.

It's the year 2075, Japan has recovered from a near population collapse after a hard pivot to nationalism and pro-natalism. All YouTube tourism has been banned. Japan was able to expand their empire to Korea after their population collapse and captured North Korean nukes. Which left them to form a reluctant ally-ship with China to counter the growing Saudi Arabian superpower after their acquisition of Warner Bros in 2026, and all of Hollywood by 2028 and later the annexation of the former American states, once the former USA collapsed after the Snoop Dogg-Martha Stewart Administration collapsed in 2032.

Daizyujin, a once beloved megazord of Sentai and Power Rangers as become the new global symbol of oppression and tyranny akin to X-Men sentinels. Many large Daizyujins patrol the new Japanese domain and sit at the border between the new Imperial Japan and the new Saudi Islamic Caliphate that splits what was once Hawaii.

Before the start of World War IV, Sony-Toei announces their centennial celebration of Super Sentai with a new series titled Super Century Sentai Gorenger, used in wartime propaganda to justify world domination via megazord and henshin technology. Post-war plans include a centennial adaptation of Sun Vulcan celebrate a Japanese victory in 2081.

I don't believe Super Sentai itself is going to end, but it won't be a yearly produced thing anymore. One example is a Super Sentai series ending and then directly turning into a Metal Heroes saga and then another Super Sentai team appears in the same world of the Metal Heroes to transition back into Super Sentai.

Yep. Same goes for TMNT as well, I suppose?

I would personally love to see an approach like what Precure has done in recent years, with a late night 12-episode follow-up series to one of their more popular seasons. Or perhaps another big crossover miniseries like Super Sentai Strongest Battle that exists just for fanservice.

You mean like a 10 Years After special? I'm down. Popular TV dramas have spin-offs or epilogue special episodes in Japan all the time, so it's doable. For example, the first season of Gokusen had their epilogue special where it dealt with the divide between the class that Yankumi (the protagonist) teaches, specifically the ones who are going on to college and those who didn't get accepted.

I'm sure we will still get TTFC specials and similar stuff for Sentai even after it is gone from TV Asahi. They aren't going to pass up on a relatively low-budget project like that, one that fans will surely be clamoring for.

Don't you! Tokusatsu, sentai is ending!!!!! Toei holocaust, PAY FOR MY ANGER!

My impression already failed when i used the quote function and wrote more than one sentence, and it will continue to fail when i don't follow this up with another single sentence post.

Sorry, everybody!

TBH I'm glad it takes a lot to get banned here, the opposite is much worse, but that was much needed. I was legitimately worried, I can't tell if thats an 8 year old or someone actually really hurting, and either way, i get the feeling noone could change the pain in that broken little heart. I hope that troll or not they get well.

I knew you had a backup account

It's all apparently official: TV-Asahi will end Super Sentai as we know it in favor of Project R.E.D., but a future revival is still on the table.

https://ukiyaseed.weebly.com/ukiyase...still-possible

Since TV-Asahi is the network that airs the shows, there is the argument that Toei could do online specials of older Sentai. There's also the argument that R.E.D. will have a Sentai component to its structure, possibly in the form of crossovers and team-ups. Is this a sad albeit predictable outcome? Yes. Does hope remain? Also Yes.

yes sentai suits are going to be used in this series, it's just the main suit of the series will be mental hero, that's what the rebrand is, pretty much metal hero with sentai heroes fighting with him. it's like masked rider fighting with power rangers s2.

Haven?t been in this thread as a while because, I?ll be honest, I don?t really care much about Super Sentai as much as I did in the past and this guy got on my nerves, but hot dang.

Uh, L + cope + seethe, I guess.

I'm heartbroken that Sentai is ending on my least favorite series ever. Couldn't it have gone out on King-Ohger? I would've even been okay with Boonboomger.

The news makes the recent Figuarts reveals even weirder.

Why? Bandai literally makes toys for mecha shows that don't air anymore. It's clear that the unveiling and release of toys isn't dependent on whether they're still airing on TV.

Right, this is basically what I had in mind for a "rebrand" anyway. I was never under any illusion that Toei were just going to put Metal Heroes in Sentai, change the name and call it a day. RED is a new franchise, this is clear enough, but with its debut hero having a name like Gavan Infinity and with a focus on Red Heroes, it's impossible not to make the connection to its older brothers. RED wasn't conjured from nothing.

Why is Gozyuger your least favorite?

From the way it seems, especially considering we had set leaks of VS Boonboomger being posted before uh, everything involving Gozyuger's recent events. Alongside the fact that we're getting a Genba Planet Bureki Manga from TTFC I think the future of Sentai is simple.

In that, we'll likely be seeing them utilize the Sentai brand to promote products, do small projects, etc. The broadcast of the series and any new Sentai Seasons as a result is done. But Sentai as a brand isn't.

At least that's how I'm looking at it.

i accept project r.e.d.

So, since a new iteration of Gavan is set for 2026...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSFd5q31SpM

I want this for 2027. LFG :rock:

I'd be so down for Super Kaiketsu Zubat Whatever. Forget being #1 in Japan, he'd be #1 in the world in this global era!

https://i.imgur.com/ywgKQCL.jpg

Considering the current news regarding Super Sentai's future is starting to become more concrete, I think it's worth explaining the subtext of the immediate response I chose, for people who maybe don't think about LuPat as obsessively as I do. The words themselves are important, but I was also specifically evoking the narrative that comes with that title -- an episode about the Lupinrangers mistakenly believing something is definitively finished, only to realize they simply hadn't figured out the whole story yet.

Obviously, I'm in pretty much the same boat as everyone else right now in not being able to see the future. What I'm about to get into next is also likewise going to be colored by my own opinions the same way as the people who are apparently convinced Sentai was cancelled entirely for not doing the things they personally wanted to see. But still, if we're trying to guess what the future holds, I think there's value in looking at the foreshadowing hidden within Super Sentai's past, which might point towards a plot twist I've only seen a few other people come close to guessing. These might seem like unprecedented times, but really stop and consider how difficult it is to do something with Super Sentai that truly has no precedent within those 50 years.

We've got a show like Gozyuger airing, where the team is technically not a team and in over 30 episodes have only begrudgingly done a roll call exactly once. Gozyuger even shares a distinction with Ohranger in that its premiere only features a Red hero, calling into question the idea a Sentai needs to have a team right away at all, something Zenkaiger did in its own way by introducing the protagonists an episode at a time. Shows like Zenkaiger and Go-Busters have gotten away from the notion the costumes have to be the usual spandex and black visors. Each show has to stand apart as its own thing, except for when Zenkaiger and Donbrothers tried out the idea of a transition that's more of a gradual fade from the current show to the next, actively tying their identities together. You might think it's not Super Sentai without a giant robot, but the very first two Sentai demonstrate that's not the case, just as Goranger and JAKQ also prove that shows can be categorized as Super Sentai or not retroactively, at the whims of the times. Meanwhile, the other "first" Super Sentai show, Battle Fever J, makes it apparent that even having "Sentai" as part of the name isn't a prerequisite for joining the club, just as you're also apparently allowed to have your lineage trace back to a different Toei tokusatsu hero entirely.

There are a lot of things in Sentai that people generally consider required parts of the formula, but the reality is that, on an individual basis, most of those tropes have already been proven to be optional. It's a much more flexible franchise than people seem to give it credit for, drastically reinventing itself more frequently than goes noticed. I'm not sure what absolutes are really left besides "colorful hero" at this point?

What Toei currently intends with Project R.E.D and what they end up doing with it may turn out to be two separate things, and what I suspect their goal is might not line up with either of them. However, especially given the title they went with, and the difference between the vague wording they've used to describe the change, compared to the firm language TV Asahi is using, I think it's a fairly rational guess to say this is all an extension of what's already been going on for many years at this point, rather than the perceived sudden seismic shift that -- perhaps also by design -- makes it more buzzworthy than usual.

I'd feel even more certain if I knew for sure how involved he is, but I especially sense Shirakura's hand in all this. It's exactly the kind of galaxy-brain scheme I'd expect him to cook up, at any rate. A Sentai show that doesn't even need to actively identify as a Sentai show would in many ways be the ultimate culmination of the experimentation that kicked into overdrive when he was chief producer on Zenkaiger.

It may be just as wrong as anyone else's reading of the situation, but that's my theory at the moment -- Sentai is over, but only because that's necessary to set up the reveal that Sentai was never over at all.

I'm pretty sure that tracks logically with the series of events that led us to the point we're at right now, without necessarily contradicting most of the other theories of How We Got Here, but who knows? Maybe it turns out that in times of crisis, I just like to fool myself into imagining our chaotic reality will somehow come together as cleanly as a Junko Koumura script. :p

https://i.imgur.com/hnigcZ4.jpg

Finding out about this news a month late... sad, but not very surprising in hindsight. IIRC even Kamen Rider (the much more popular half of Super Hero Time) has been selling less toys than they'd like, given the declining birth rate and how even a lot of the kids they have are leaning more towards technology than traditional toys. I know at least that they were purposely trying to make a Kamen Rider with international appeal when developing Zeztz; Hideaki Yanaka said as much in the LA Comic Con panel.

And going international to make up for low profits domestically isn't really an option for Sentai. Not when they would have to go through Hasbro, or whoever is the current owner of the Power Rangers IP, in several of the biggest territories they could want to sell Sentai in. So with that in mind... it makes sense that Sentai would be going away, at least for now.

Not that that makes it suck any less, losing the series that got me into Japanese tokusatsu with Gokaiger, after I grew up on Power Rangers. And losing the Super Hero Time duo I've always known since Gokaiger.

This seems to be a recurring thing with Hasbro's current leadership. It's a similar story with MLP; the previous CEO had big plans for an interconnected universe linking the original G1 series, the hugely popular G4, and the brand new G5. Then he passed away and all we ended up getting after the movie were mediocre series on Netflix and YouTube, and really crappy toys. Ultimately G5 ended prematurely, and they've gone back to occasional projects with the more popular G4 series.

Essentially the same thing they've done Power Rangers since Brian Goldner's unfortunate passing; ignoring the larger franchise (including the most recent iterations) and just occasionally doing merch or media for the most "iconic" installment.

Seems entirely plausible. All those observations make sense.

I don't think there's ever in history been so many things tugging at kids' attention, and Sentai is no longer exportable as Power Rangers. How's merch supposed to find an audience beyond Japan's borders?

What little merch for Sentai has actually sold well has almost exclusively been for that year's red hero. Presumably, somebody finally asked the question of why they're doing a multi-hued team if only red consistently sells. The name Project Red strikes me as sort of a giveaway.

Also - hot-take, I know - Sentai's giant-mecha battles have gotten (with a few exceptions) progressively stupider over time. A brand change removes the expectation that we're going back to that well.

https://x.com/thelegacyofnerd/status...315619612?s=20

Called it

While that does get into how Hasbro buyout of Power Rangers affected the commercial aspect of Sentai, I think this interview with Shirakura shines light on the creative issues that Sentai has been having.
https://archive.ph/N1ZcY

Basically, Sentai sheer longevity has caused issues in the creative process and on its popularity. The advent of streaming meant new Sentai shows were competing with older shows for attention. It's long presence on air and the somewhat unchanging nature of Sentai meant older viewers felt little reason to watch newer shows, as to them it was just the same. Sentai also became stuck in following its own formula rather than thinking what would be best for the show, recalling that even as early as Zyuranger, the first conversion of production was "how do we do the giant fights" rather than "what is this show about". With all this, I get the desire to put Sentai on pause for now, to give it a creative reset and figure out how it should be handled in the future

It's all of these different factors brought together why Super Sentai finally going on hiatus truly is for the best. Toei has, after all, put their franchises on ice for worse reasons before (looking at you, Black RX's cancellation).

Kamen Rider, Godzilla, and Ultraman have all come back from lengthy breaks before and have all reachieved popularity they hadn't seen in decades. I have every reason to believe the same can happen for this franchise. It just needs time off.

Another article which gives a similar accounting of Shirakura's thought process, including a belief that a 10 year hiatus might not be a bad thing. Might be more-or-less the same as your link.

https://tokusatsunetwork.com/2025/12...tai-is-ending/

It's kind of a shame an interview like this is doomed to get boiled down to a few particular factoids that'll be spread around, because that whole conversation is full of some pretty deep insights that are interesting way beyond just what they tell us about the decision to give the Super Sentai brand a rest.

That anecdote about Zyuranger is especially fascinating to me. Shirakura explicitly mentions how the chief producer Takeyuki Suzuki, after about a decade straight of fulfilling that role on Sentai, had ended up at a point where he saw the overall format as immutable enough to leap right over the question of what kind of show they wanted to make that year, but he also specifically mentions "the writer" being the one to speak up about how messed up that is. He doesn't mention him by name, but if first-time Sentai writer Noboru Sugimura was the guy in the room willing to be vocally upset about that, it really does perfectly encapsulate the broader points Shirakura is making elsewhere in the interview about stuff like how he thinks 10 years would be a good amount of time to wait to bring Sentai back, and how important it is to get new blood in there to create properly new shows.

Yeah, I thought that was fascinating too. Sugimura had already come off co-writing a Kamen Rider series and would have been working on his fifth straight Metal Hero series (with only Winspector and Solbrain feeling like two peas in a pod among that group), so to be thrown into a meeting with someone more concerned with a formula must have thrown him for a loop.

However, I do think Toei will hire a veteran to write this new series. Someone who knows what they're doing; like when Uehara helmed Gavan based purely on his lengthy experience.

While experience is useful, if Shirakura wants fresh minds to envision the future of Tokusatsu for the new generation, then maybe a more recent writer would be appropriate. Based on King-Ohger, I think Takano Minato seems like a good fit for this genre. I want to see what he can do without the limitations imposed by Ohmori.

Of course, I wouldn't complain about the return of the man behind amazing shows like Jiban and Kakuranger. The interview with Shirakura gives the impression that Sugimura cares strongly about the show's identity. If his ambition lives now, then I'd put my faith in him to deliver the update to Metal Heroes.

Unfortunately, Noboru Sugimura passed away in 2005.

I think it's more likely they'll go with someone like Naruhisa Arakawa (revived Kamen Rider in 2000, has Metal Hero experience as well) or even Yasuko Kobayashi (if she's interested in coming out of retirement from tokusatsu). Junko Komura is also a possibility, but her three Sentai are some of the worst performing seasons and Gavv saw a dip in toy sales too.

There's also always the wild card of Toshiki Inoue if they really want to go all in with making this a departure from what they're producing right now.

Oh, my bad.

There's also Mouri Nobuhiro, who is reliable at writing pretty much anything and the writer of Kyuranger VS Space Squad, in addition to the Uchuu Sentai itself. Or Aikawa Shou, who wrote the first half of the dimension-passing-through Decade, if Toei are willing to bring him back after their Heisei VS Showa disagreement.

I'm willing to bet that Toei is waiting for Hasbro's rights to PR to expire, so the rights can go back to them. Allowing them to have more freedom with the rights nationwide.

The problem with that is that Hasbro owns the rights to PR.

Looking through the interviews and thinking about the production history of Sentai and Power Rangers, I don't think its as simple as just letting Hasbro sit on the license until it expires and boom, we'll have new tokusatsu. Between Shirakura noting that Zyuranger was going to be the first "last Sentai ever" and the continuous hot potato of the rights to its western counterpart apparently keeping Sentai afloat financially every time someone bought them, I think all companies involved whether its Toei, Bandai, Saban, Disney, or Hasbro have seen the limit of what Sentai can do at this present moment fiscally and creatively. Hasbro was the one to drop the ball last, but it sounded like the signs were always there, just delayed by a regular infusion of western cash and the occasional good year of profits.


If we're going to see Sentai (and perhaps even Power Rangers) make a return, it's going to be after a very long period of soul searching for Bandai/Toei and probably with a lot of new blood that won't feel pidgeonholed by the format. How they're going do that, whether its through production budget management, writing, advertising, toy quality, etc., I could not tell you, but it'll probably be similar but different like Kamen Rider going from Showa to Heisei. The first step is figuring out the new soul of Sentai, the rest should follow not too long thereafter, but that first step is going to take a long while.

They are not doing anything with the IP. I doubt they will be like how HG is with Macross.

so that's the problem?

Hasbro isn't doing anything with the IP at the moment because they somehow knew this was coming years in advance. It would've made no sense to continue adapting PR with this looming in the horizon for your source material; hence why the talk about the full reboot appeared. And also: Hasbro doesn't have exclusive rights to Power Rangers. They have rights to distribute in places like North America and Daewon Media has the rights in South Korea iirc.