Strangest reason for not watching Toku?
 

Sorry for the long title. First thread on this site.

To be honest, I don't expect this thread to last long. XD

But yeah. We've all tried to show Tokusatsu to a friend or three. And it usually takes a bit of convincing, especially if they're not keen on Power Rangers or Japanese anime.
So.
What's the strangest excuse you've gotten?

For me, one of my friends refuses to watch Ultraman because of the "superman flying" the Ultras do. Said it "ruined the franchise for him", oddly enough.

Luckily, he's willing to give Geed a chance.

I never like the "Bad special effects" reason for things. Yeah they use rubber suits, but so do mainstream Hollywood movies and TV shows. I think most Americans can't watch anything without stuff that does not have millions of dollars for a budget.

This is the reason one of my other, more stubborn, friends gives.

He's always saying things like "Marvel is better", "I don't like them having to swap toys", or "Look at this anime! It's like Toku, but better!"

Excluding power rangers, the reason I’ve gotten was they don’t wanna watch anything that isn’t in English as they don’t wanna read subtitles.

Japanese actors can't act.

I remember that I have seen people that won't watch a live action movie or TV show if there is no American actors in it. Some people just don't want to step out of their comfort zone.

Are these the same people that watched Korean TV dramas? Because maybe they won't watch a Japanese special effect show. But when it's a Korean TV drama, they somehow enjoy it.

This reminds me of K-pop fans that won't branch out to J-pop music. Just a little irony: a lot of K-pop fans were formerly J-pop fans themselves. When they became K-pop fans, they never went back to J-pop. I'm not making this up, I've seen these K-pop fans that were formerly J-pop fans during my time as a K-pop fans.

Those last few reasons just sound plain Xenophobic to me.

I'm not sure if xenophobia has anything to do with it. I've seen anime fans (a lot of them) don't bother to give tokusatsu a try. Also despite K-pop being popular in the US, it's pretty surprising the same K-pop fandom won't branch out to J-pop.

So it's not xenophobia, I think there's double standard on how people view K-pop and J-pop. I bet the same goes for toku shows, and people that watch K-drama won't branch out to toku.

For me it usually varies and depends on what I try to get them to watch.

Gotta fit the show to the person. Like pushing Kabuto on someone that likes to cook and may be a little arrogant themselves. Pushing Garo to someone that wants more fantasy elements and scarier designs cause they hate the obvious rubber suits of classic Kaiju.

Showing Faiz to someone that wants to see a more real world kind of take on the concept. Cutie Honey the Live on someone that prefers female relationships protagonists and needs the happy pick me up of Honey's optimism, but also Sister Miki's badassery. Someone into hand to hand combat, show them Gekiranger, especially Super GekiRed's use of the gekichopper(god that scene is orgasmically fluid... Er poor choice in words).

Or for those that like slasher flicks, pushing them towards Amazons. Someone visually artsy and into usages of film techniques, show them Casshern's live action movie(especially the "you don't know what it's like" scene when Tetsuya and his G/F first end up in the toxic cloud area). Ultraman Nexus for those that like more psychological thriller aspects.

You can't randomly drop a bomb like Zyuohger on anybody. But if you work the angles of finding the material that would appeal to their sensibilities, you can make a fan that'll then grow into wanting more and get acclimated to it to the point they'll even enjoy Doggu-Chan(okay, maybe that's pushing it).

If you start with the most outlandish that's contrary to their sensibilities, you'll get a lot of colorful rhetoric back about how "stupid" it is. Or how it's "Ridiculous power rangers stuff" or whatever else. But if you find the right series to hook them, then they end up hooked and wanting more.

So if you're trying to make new fans, always try to cater to what would get their attention. There's enough toku out there that there's something for everyone. Sometimes even something as off the wall as Mikazuki can be a good hook if you need something with just the right amount of absurd but classic and modernized.

As fans, that's what we often forget. We want to show off the coolest newest moment, but forget other's aren't as immersed as us in the material. Gotta get their feet wet before making them do a cannonball, unless they're the cannonball first type.

But with how many are open to things like Star Trek or Doctor Who, or even Buffy or various CW shows and other fantasy shows. It's not the budget that's the issue, it's the usage of the budget in how it's applied. Once you narrow down their tastes, you can usually find a series that can match to get them to try it and like it and expand their horizons.

But do gotta admit sometimes it's fun to take the most off the wall series and see that look of "WTF are you making me watch." every now and then. xD

For that, I usually use Doggu-chan or the sentais with large amounts of furry suits.

Well, when you've got stuff like "Japanese people can't act"... you gotta wonder where that view comes from

You'll be surprised how many fans of K-pop/Hallyu do sometime discriminate against Japanese pop culture like J-pop:

https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qim...0487f66187b38a

Source: Netizenbuzz article-'Produce 101' reps deny similarities to AKB48

So how are you so sure that people that don't bash or hate Toku aren't secretly fans of Korean TV drama/pop culture. Yes, there are cases of K-pop getting too much praise and J-pop getting shamed. So it's possible the people that said Japanese can't act could also praise Korean actors.

That doesn't surprise me at all, honestly.
I don't think our statements contradict each other -- and in fact what you posted I already knew about and had disdain for. It simply shows that discrimination can come about in multiple ways.

Could be, toku is not that big like before ?

Strangest response I've got.... was from a guy I tried showing Ex-Aid and Gaim to. He gave up 3 episodes into Gaim and 6 episodes into Ex-Aid.

"It's not anime."

And he then proceeded to show me Kamen Teacher and one of those really dumb magic school war shows, along with the 4kids dub of YuGiOh, citing that they (particularly the dumb magic school war one and Kamen Teacher) were better than Toku because they didn't have gimmicks or suits.
Just because they were animated, had a higher budget, could show fantastic worlds better than a low-budget live-action weekly show, and had powers they didn't augment from plastic, they were "better".

And also that they got into the plot faster than 12 episodes (even though two episodes of Kamen Teacher is two episodes of KR, and KT is based on a comic), because he's an impatient person- he said so himself.

He also said that, from the plot synopsis, Build sounded better compared to what he saw. Little did he know, it started out similarly (and I still don't think he'd like it, especially with the bland villain and forced comedy it's pushing).

He and I aren't exactly close friends anymore, due to a lack of common interests. As well as his bullheadedness for not being willing to withstand about 6 hours of viewing to get into a good and riveting plot.
To him, animation and Kamen Teacher are better because they, quote, "don't waste time", unquote.

Kurona, try showing them Legend Hero and see if they show any bias. If they show any bias for Legend Hero but hated toku from Japan, then there's your problem. As I said, when a former J-pop fans become K-pop fans they don't go back to J-pop and sometime show too much bias to anything Korean. That's the case as I mentioned on my previous posts.

Unless South Korea can make toku great again.

:confused: Wow that is just well one of the strangest reason to not watch toku shows. Did you try showing anime that was based on Toku like Garo?

I have seen Anime & Manga fans that don't want to watch toku shows and movies because of cheep special effects or they look too childish. While they like Shonen anime & manga when Kamen Rider, Ultraman and Super Sentai are pretty much live action Shonen anime & manga (aim to young boys).

Toku first ?

Well after seeing Legend Hero, and several K-dramas with special effect that some would considered as Toku. Also add the breakout Chinese fantasy drama, Ice Fantasy.

I wouldn't say Toku first, but I want South Korea to make a K-drama/K-toku fusion show which emphasize on more drama and less campiness.

why would you want less campiness

Gaim was hard for me to watch until they stopped the dance battles. I'm 15 episodes into Ex-Aid and I'm not into it yet. Build was great for the first 39 or so episodes, but has fallen a bit recently.

I grew up watching toku in Hawaii and only recently got back into it as there's not too much else to watch on tv and I found sites with subs. The last full series I watched was ryuki without subs years ago and found that I had forgotten most of my Japanese so I didn't think I'd ever watch toku again. It was Amazons on Amazon that I saw browsing Amazon videos that made me watch season 1 and then made me look for season 2 with subs which got me back on watching other seasons that I missed out on.

If you want toku shows to reach to a more broader audiences, and to the same audiences that watch Korean TV dramas. You have to reduce the campiness.

Something less childish ?

Yes, and make try to make toku that can appeal to K-drama audiences.

i don't like k-dramas tho, i like tokusatsu

But Tokusatsu is a branch of J-Drama. Lol. Theres a Korean Tokusatsu, a K-Drama, called Legend Hero. Go look it up.

Like GreenPsychoRanger said, if you want a Asian TV drama that feels like Toku, go watch Ice Fantasy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdRcmVXqg8M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OUaLxZC5Z8

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

This I would considered as Toku.

Oranges and lemons are both citrus fruits. Doesn't mean anyone who loves oranges likes to eat lemons too.

True. But I was just pointing that Tokusatsu is actually part of something else. Lol.

Although this is true. Here's the problem: a lot of fans of K-drama do branch out to other Asian TV dramas like Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese dramas, but when it comes to toku shows, they won't branch out.

I learned this when I saw Legend Hero got little to no English comments when the Korean production uploaded all 50 episodes on their official Youtube channel.

Now I'm a K-drama and toku fans. And it really baffle me that K-drama fans can branch out to Chinese and Taiwanese dramas, but not K-toku like in the case of Legend Hero.

I mean I agree that I want toku to be more mainstream, I want toku shows including K-toku to be put on the same recognition and on the same level as Korean dramas. Meaning I want Legend Hero and Super Sentai to be given the same type of treatment and review on the same level as Descendants of the Sun, Ice Fantasy, and My love from the star.

The production values between tokusatsu and most K-dramas (from what I've seen anyway, I don't claim to be any way an expert on K-drama) seem monumentally different though, not to mention the fact things like Super Sentai are ultimately colourful kids shows. No matter how serious and heartfelt they get, the big franchises will always have that attached to them.

They aren't really on the same playing field to begin with.