[Kamen Rider Lucha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matrixbeast

A cowboy theme would be silly because I don't think Japan really ever cared about cowboys. The wild west thing was always, well, a western fad. I don't think it'd interest Japanese kids.

Not true at all. Westerns were very popular globally, and were especially popular in Japan. In fact, the symbiotic relationship between samurai cinema and cowboy cinema is one of the most well-documented (and interesting) phenomena in all of international film studies.

A lot of Japan's stereotypes of Americans (i.e., that we're loud, brash, gun toting, ill-tempered, grizzled, Levi-clad individualists) are rooted in the cowboy archetype, as popularized by early John Ford westerns in particular. Do you think it's coincidence that the only American Sentai heroes have had overt cowboy mannerisms/affectations?

Westerns were distinctly not an American fad (look at Spaghetti Westerns, which were written, directed, and produced by Itallians, filmed mostly in Spain, and tuned to European tastes). Even today you see plenty of Japanese takes on the western. Sukiyaki Western Django springs immediately to mind, and I'm certain there are others.

Whether modern Japanese children would be interested in Cowboys is another question. But I suspect there is a market, as proven by this year's 6th ranger-- which is traditionally one of the most important and highest selling Sentai product lines of any given year. Bandai wouldn't have allowed a Cowboy 6th if westerns, or at least the idea of them, weren't still somewhat alluring in Japan.