And, continuing my words about different approaches and dissonance in voice acting with a clear example. While waiting for the third Sonic, I decided to rewatch Sonic X and, just for fun, chose the US dub. There, even without checking with the original, it is clear that the drawn characters are screaming, but they are translated in a calm tone.

From what I've gathered, they seemed to have done gangbusters during 2023 mainly thanks to trading cards (not to be confused with the one that released globally not too long ago) released by a trading card company named Kayou. I assume it's still positive regardless of the IP dispute because the vibes that I'm getting are that these cards were real money makers last year, and I can't help but think it probably still has somewhat of a dedicated customer base buying them.

Fanservice is not a subsitute for plot.

I may not have explained it well, but I'm not saying that niche or target audience are the same thing. What makes this particular product appealing to its target audience vs a different product which appeals to the same target audience.

The point here is that, with the growing acceptance of intercultural content, the need to re-edit shows into a more Americanized version has diminished significantly. So what makes a re-edited show appealing over a straight-dubbed show? What sort of market niche/market segment does that fill? Sailor Moon is actually a great example. The show was censored and Americanized in a lot of ways that are seen as unnecessary and actually undesirable now. If the same thing was tried again, it would probably receive a lot of blowback. I also think of Voltron or Robotech, which are Americanized edits of anime similar to how Power Rangers is re-done, but there's just not a lot of demand for that type of re-edited, Americanized version of an anime when the original versions are almost preferred.

That said, you do bring up a point - PR is targeted at audiences who are likely too young to fully enjoy a subtitled show or know/care if anything was changed or censored. That said, they're maybe too young to also know/care whether it's Japanese actors dubbed or new content filmed with American actors. I guess the best argument in favor of continuing this method for Power Rangers is that suddenly switching it to be a very Japanese show with a dub would be weird, and repurposing the Japanese footage is the most budget-friendly way to go about things.

I think I've already inadvertently stepped on some toes here, but I did want to chime in again. I know I'm not always the most tactful, so sorry if I sounded tactless before. Or if I sound accidentally tactless now for that matter! But I really do want to have a good faith discussion! EpsilonX has said most of what I already would have, but I also wanted to comment that I that I think even if children don't realize they are watching a recut show, I do think they still pick up on "strangeness" that can come about from it being made in that way. Not to mention that nowadays there is just a lot more to pick from in terms of both action-oriented live action shows and Japanese shows that appeal to young boys, so PR just doesn't seem as likely to win the love of as many kids. Obviously this is just my own observations at this point, but the series doesn't seem very popular with the kiddos around here right now! It seems like a difficult situation for the series, and I don't really see an easy solution to give the series a boost without alienating a bunch of people (or becoming too expensive for the IP holder's tastes).

Or maybe I'm a big dummy and Power Rangers is still printing money, I dunno! :lol

It is. We've gotten statements from people who've worked with Hasbro over social media(such as the infamous Simon Bennett) that the show was infact profitable for Hasbro, it's just that the current president doesn't give a crap about the show and that's why it's in limbo.

I recently remembered: the Kamen Rider Club creation in Fourze as being very drawn out. Maybe it would be different now, but if you look at it in ongoing...I think it was still not worth showing all the future participants in the opening and creating at least a hint of intrigue.

Then why are they not reaching the same mainstream level of audience demographic in the US that watched K-dramas, or any foreign dramas that people are watching on Netflix, Prime Video, etc... I mean Korean pop culture like K-dramas, and K-pop has reached an all-time high popularity in the US, I can say the same for anime/manga and yet tokusatsu hasn't reach that level of popularity in the US despite there's clear evidence of more people watching foreign-language TV dramas which consist of Korean TV dramas, Chinese-language TV dramas, and non-English language European TV dramas. Here's the evidence:

More Than Half of English-Speakers [in the US] Now Watch Foreign-Language Content


Foreign-language shows on Netflix are getting a lot of attention in the U.S.


Hollywood Reporter: Americans Are Watching More International TV Than Ever Before


And if you want to see more evidence of people in the US watching foreign-language dramas:

https://i.imgur.com/L8ntEJq.png

More Americans are watching their foreign-language dramas subtitled then dub, so tokusatsu should be in the mainstream territory in the US just like K-dramas, and foreign-language TV dramas and films are getting already. So what's keeping Tokusatsu genre from reaching the same mainstream level in the US that K-dramas, anime, and non-English language foreign language TV series/miniseries already received?

I pretty much talked about this in 2021 in a closed thread.

Speaking of K-dramas, several K-dramas on Netflix have expanded to sci-fi and what looks like Tokusatsu territories, I've said this here on that same closed thread.

I will make this unpopular tokusatsu opinions regarding toku fandom, and I've said this before:

It seems like it's easy for a toku fan to be able to crossover to wuxia genre because wuxia and tokusatsu genre are very similar (wire fu, costumes, and sometime like in the case of Inframan, and Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain, suitmation aka man in the monster suit). Also, the opposite is true, you can get a person who watch wuxia to watch tokusatsu for that same reason.

I find it odd that despite many anime/manga fans crossing over to K-drama (that's because of K-drama along with Taiwanese drama adaptation of manga like Boys Over Flowers), what happened to the same anime/manga demographic not crossing over to tokusatsu? What happened to K-drama fans not crossing over to tokusatsu despite having K-dramas that borderline to toku territory when it comes to special effect? What is preventing K-drama fans from branching out to tokusatsu?

You know here's something odder: I've seen K-drama fans can crossover to Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese dramas, but not to tokusatsu. Has there been any K-drama fans that watched rom-com or serious romance K-drama crossover to Chinese-language drama of that same genre? Yes, it has happened. Have there been cases of fans of rom-com or serious romance K-drama that watched Chinese-language rom-com/serious romance drama genre ever crossed over to wuxia genre? Yes it does happened, if the fan liked a certain Chinese actors/actresses in that non-Wuxia drama he or she watched and looked up his or her acting record and found that Chinese actors/actresses acted in wuxia drama, that K-drama person that just crossed over to Chinese drama can crossover to wuxia, it's possible.

I like to note that I found this on Reddit on the kdramarecommends subreddit: K-dramas similar to the Xianxia/Wuxia genre in C-dramas

So this is clear evidence, and this indicate to me that K-drama fans have already started to branch out to not only Chinese-language dramas but also wuxia dramas too!!!

But what's bothers me is that if this is the case like I described above, then shouldn't the tokusatsu fandom have saw a massive growth given that wuxia and tokusatsu genre are very similar, including this forum thanks to K-drama fans crossing over to Chinese drama crossing over to wuxia drama then it should've led to crossing over to tokusatsu.

As I said, I've seen cases of wuxia drama fans are able to crossover to tokusatsu, so there should've been massive crossovers of K-drama fans--->Chinese-language dramas fans-->Wuxia dramas fans-->tokusatsu fans

I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion, and I've seen to be the only user on this forum that has been involved in tokusatsu fandom, K-drama/K-pop/Hallyu fandom, wuxia fandom all combined. Along with my experiences watching East Asian entertainment way before streaming and before it became cool today.

Disclaimer: Before I became a toku fan & K-drama fan, I was a wuxia fan ever since I first watched my first wuxia drama as a kid, and I grew up watching Hong Kong TV dramas (from TVB), and Taiwanese dramas from the 80's and early 90's. That's how I was able to get into Korean TV dramas, and tokusatsu easily. So I'm probably the only forumite on Tokunation that is able to watch tokusatsu, wuxia drama, Korean TV dramas, Taiwanese TV dramas, Mainland Chinese-language TV dramas. That's why I know of people that watched wuxia dramas can crossover to tokusatsu easily, and I've seen toku fans crossed over to wuxia dramas.

Oh gosh not this again.

Hopefully this doesn't make the mods lock this thread like last time.

Just because B is more popular than A does not mean that A isn't still popular.

Given the track record of this subject in the past, that's all I'm going to say.

By the way, this graph proves my statement that even high-quality English dubbing... is not very high quality, compared to dubbing in other countries.Or, to make my statement sound less offensive, I will still say that the art of dubbing in English-speaking countries is less developed for certain reasons.

Well, I watch everything too. But the difference is that I can find most other content in my native language, at least with subtitles, and sometimes with dubbing, both fan and professional. But I have to watch tokusatsu on English-language sites, due to the lack of translation and political bans on certain resources. But, recently, the situation is changing for the better due to the initiative of one fan-translator.
To answer your question: "Why is tokusatsu less popular?" I think the reason is in the country of origin, namely Japan. Most Japanese translators work on anime, which are produced in huge quantities. And, if you can still pay attention to films and regular dramas, then tokusatsu is work for the whole year. Well, demand creates supply and the like.
Also features of the genre. Tokusatsu has its own specifics and not everyone is ready to accept costume monsters in the 21st century. Now post-modernism reigns in pop culture, and even expensive superhero blockbusters engage in either deconstruction or parody. Also, anime also took quite a long time to catch on and it took time and several real masterpieces to become a real masterpiece.This is more difficult to achieve in tokusatsu due to the dominance of franchises in the genre. 50 seasons of 40+ episodes will scare off many. Doctor Who needed a new start to gain worldwide popularity. Also, tokusatsu is aimed at children, and, oddly enough, children's translated content is not very popular. That is, it is unlikely that many will include Doraemon in their list of the best anime.
Everything I write is true for my country, but taking into account what I wrote above about dubbing, it should be true for the USA to an even greater extent.

Returning to PR, my unpopular opinion for today: is PR fundamentally different from remakes in some way? I mean, I personally think that A Fistful of Dollars is vastly inferior to Yojimbo, but few would argue that the film shouldn't exist. Yes, PR is not wasted on filming the most expensive scenes, but at the same time making much more changes to the plot (especially in the Era of Zordon). Isn't this better than repeating a scene from the original with a larger budget?
And to catch up: if they had preferred dubbing Sentai to the creation of PR, nothing fundamentally would have changed. Don't forget that this would be a Japanese children's show on American television in the 90s. So in the end it turned out to be the same PR, but with the original actors. And instead of Era Zordon there would be an American version of Zyurangers, Dairangers, etc. The shortcomings of which would also be revealed in our time. And so at least a bunch of aspiring American and New Zealand actors were able to earn money.

Considering how this thread is 'unpopular tokusatsu opinions', I might as well throw in mine:

Kamen Rider Drive got boring after Drive's identity was publicly revealed.

Calm down, I'm not going to press on this topic. But it's a serious unpopular opinion and something that legitimately should've been talked about more and more when it comes to trying to get people that watch foreign-language dramas (including wuxia drama, and fantasy K-dramas) to crossover to tokusatsu.

But again, I find it disturbing on Tokunation forum that I seem to be the only one that watched tokusatsu, wuxia drama, K-dramas (including sci-fi and fantasy K-dramas), and somehow beside me, nobody on this forum was not be able to form a similar thought set and approach like me about why tokusatsu genre is less popular in the US other genre that have similar thing in tokusatsu have gained mainstream popularity with those audiences demographic.


There should've been a massive crossover of K-drama fans that watched wuxia/Xianxia genre crossing over to tokusatsu already. In other word, there should've been already a jump in toku fanbase from people that watched sci-fi and fantasy K-dramas and wuxia and xianxia drama genre.

I mean as I said, it's easy for toku fans to crossover to wuxia and xianxia and probably also fantasy K-drama, and yes the opposite is true, you can have wuxia/xianxia fans crossover to tokusatsu easily because of the similarities between tokusatsu and wuxia genre.

So something's wrong here, we have more tokusatsu catalog in the US recently in the last few years, but I have not seen evidence of fanbases of fantasy K-drama and wuxia/xianxia crossover to tokusatsu. There should've been a massive crossover of that already given that a lot of foreign-language dramas have gained popularity in the US for the last few years and that include K-dramas and I assume a large crossover of people that watch fantasy K-dramas watching wuxia and xianxia drama genre.

That's what I find very disturbing and I'll end this talk here. But please keep that in mind when all of you finished reading my post.

Honestly I find it more disturbing that you're still on this same kick after 3 years.

I feel as though the thread you linked to in your initial post was closed for a reason and while you did mention ending the talks here, I genuinely don't believe you. Purely because after 3 years of inactivity one of the first things you do is dredge up something no one was talking about alongside linking to a thread that if I've reread correctly, got on a lot of people's nerves.

Were the original PR actors actually paid well? I remember watching something that stated they got taken advanatge of because they weren't unionised or something.

No. Austin St John, Thuy Trang, and Walter Jones were fired from the show because they were trying to negotiate better pay for the cast.

Well, little money is better than zero.

Dang. That sucks.

I disagree. Acting is pretty much physical labor, and when they're paying you crumbs, that little money may as well be zero.

Also doesn't help that they were the faces of a smash hit, soon-to-be billion dollar phenomenon, and they were being paid pennies.

They disagreed on the salary offer for the 3rd season, as by this point the cast was well aware of the money the show was making, as well as having to film the movie that was soon entering production (Which they would've gotten paid for separately, yes, but still, it's a lot of fucking work)

They made the common play to threaten to walk if the pay wasn't raised, as the assumption was that production wasn't going to let half the cast disappear overnight.
Turns out, Saban was 100% willing to do just that and just fire them outright.

I was born in a country where actors earned less than skilled workers and still lived better. When Yevgeny Mironov?s mother fell ill, he simply announced on television that he needed help and money and medicine came in such quantities that in less than a week he announced that he no longer needed it. Plus tours, plus gifts, plus bonuses.The way PR actors were treated is unfair, but is it fair that Leonardo DiCaprio earns 30 million per film in a country where almost 40 million people live below the poverty line?
Also, the conversation is clearly moving away from my comment. If Haim Saban paid little to the show's actors, he would also paid little to the dubbing actors.

Comparing the living condiitons and situations between two different countries with two different economic statuses feels like one of those 'children are starving in Africa so you better finish your food' kind of arguments parents say to their kids. You acknowledged that the PR actors' situation is unfair, so we'll just leave it at that. The harsh reality is that one person's unfortunate situation does not cancel out another's.

It's nice that Mr Mironov got gifts though. I guess there's still hope for humanity after all.

I don`t think that this is such an unpopular opinion, it`s more likely that it was simply not voiced, but... Dark Arc only harms a secondary rider. Tycoon, having become a villain, lost his last and already few fans; Igarashi Daiji completely dropped his show from the position of average to a lower position. Even Blades and Vulcan, who were never technically villains but were in active opposition to the protagonist, received the most hate during this period. Also, I don't think there are any fans of sad Hiro in a business suit. Maybe I don't remember everything, but villainy only works for those secondary riders who were the original antagonists, like Baron and Kaixa.

It's been too long for me to remember Vulcan around the end of 01 and I haven't seen Revice or gotten to finishing Saber but I disagree on this not being an unpopular opinion, when Geats was airing, people really liked Tycoon's arc and the way he acted and fought being cool while under Kekera's manipulation. It's totally fine to not like these conflicts, but for Tycoon, I remember a lot of people finding him to have been rather underdeveloped until that point

And I don't remember anything positive about it, except for the remark that Keiwa's story is now becoming interesting, with the addition that it hasn't become. There were laudatory comments, but in them Bujin Sword was praised for its coolness, not the character. Because in the untransformed form, Keiwa only sobbed and carried out the orders of those who did not even hide their contempt for him.

My unpopular opinion in relation to the topic is simple.

The only reason it seems like a 'Dark Arc' harms Secondary Riders is because there's a loud vocal minority saying it does and people peddling that viewpoint. Furthermore, and my biggest sticking point in this opinion, the only reason people don't seem to jive with these is because they can't genuinely engage with Tokusatsu on a weekly basis because they're impatient and want everything given to them immediately.

But it seemed to me that just before I wrote this yesterday, this topic had not been raised. In general terms, not in specific situations. At least on this site. Maybe there was something similar on reddit or in other places, but I don't know about it.

But then shouldn't such viewers be against any long-running plots and campaign for MOTW-style shows? Which, on the contrary, are losing popularity with the ability to watch online, at any convenient time and how many episodes, us you want.
If suddenly my opinion is not entirely clear, I am not against Dark Arcs in general. For example, for Espada this plot works perfectly. But he is tertiary and can afford to limit himself to a wonder combo us the final form. But in my observations, it is for secondary riders that Dark Ark does more harm than good. I even understand why the authors resort to this: to avoid the effect when, after creating a strong team with the main character, the secondary rider essentially has nothing to do. But still, I think turning him into a temporary villain is not the best way out.

The impatience is something I notice a lot too, not just with dark arcs but with everything. Sometimes it seems like people want every payoff and reveal to happen right away, and don't appreciate that watching characters develop and mysteries be explored bit by bit over time is a vital part of what makes it so satisfying.

I feel this is moreso because of binge culture and how for a lot of toku fans, we're used to a lot of shows already being fully available for that, I don't doubt the possibility that it's affected me as I generally struggle to keep watch of things weekly

I repeat that then MOTW stories should be much more popular than they are now.

When I compare all the villains in Yuuya Takahashi's works, I think the villains in the Geats series are not as interesting as the villains in Ex-Aid and Zero-One because of lack of future world details in the Geats series and a boring DGP villain background. Suel is easily one of the worst Kamen Rider final bosses in my opinion.

Some series examples, like Ghost and Gavv, have more interesting world settings for villains than the Geats villains.

I agree.

One of the last straws for me with Geats was when we finally got through all that stuff with Ace?s mom and the dude in the tweed jacket and the show immediately brought in another evil DGP producer.

I really wanted Zitt to be Suel's true identity. If the writers take this route, I think Suel could become a more interesting villain.

Unpopular opinion for Valentine's Day: Toei's Spiderman's Hitomi is Spiderman's best girlfriend. At least in live action.
https://i.ibb.co/pvLGGPSJ/Spiderman-Hitomi.png