[EpsilonX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

No, it doesn't. Plenty of franchises survive without having such a niche to fill. Mazinger Z, for example, is still very much around despite super robot shows now being nothing new.

Franchises live or die based on how much money they make as well as anyone in a company who's willing to keep them going.

Gonna have to disagree here, but I really think it comes down to semantics and how you interpret the word "niche."

For me, from a marketing perspective, a niche can be thought of as something's place in the market, which is related to its target demographic. Some are bigger, some are smaller. But if something has no, no niche, no place carved out into the market, no target audience...then how can we expect there to be any demand for it? By saying they don't understand what niche Power Rangers is filling, it's asking "what type of audience is this being made for?" And that's a very very important question to be able to answer.

To define Mazinger Z's niche, you just have to ask who it would appeal to. I would say: people who enjoy classic super robot anime, can appreciate classic super robot anime tropes, people who are interested in anime history, people who like Devilman and want to see other Go Nagai works, etc. Very different niche from something like Jujutsu Kaisen.

edit: Anyways, my unpopular tokusatsu opinion is that Shin Ultraman and Shin Kamen Rider were both pretty bad. The pacing was poor and the use of CGI in the fights made them feel gimmicky. I would have much rather seen more traditional tokusatsu action, not the weird flurry of CGI fists that we got.