[MarsHottentot]

Since coming on this board, my opinion on Super Sentai has changed. I'm still not a fan, like I am for the Kamen Rider franchise (I just like Kamen Rider, even the bad ones), but I'm understanding the charm people see in them. As such, I've dug up some old Oriental Cinema issues and picked up it's sister rag, Heroes on Film which, in the pre-internet days, were just about the only way to learn about this stuff outside of Metropolitan cities with a strong Japanese cultural influence.

Reading through these again (some date back to '94), it appears that what we generally acknowledge as Super Sentai tropes - the kiddie, silly, episodic stuff - was likely a reverse influence straight from Saban's ultra successful, lucrative Mighty Morphin Power Rangers!

Though it's just speculation on writer Damon Foster*'s part, it does sound likely - he posits that, starting with (the then current) Choriki Sentai Ohranger, the villains ceased to be portrayed by Japanese actors, replaced by full suits - better to lipsynch English to a static monster face than to a person speaking Japanese. The fighting got a lot better than 80's Sentai due to Power Rangers' American shot fights being better than the Japanese standard at the time. Also, things just got simpler - episodic over serialized as to avoid the headache of cultural dissonance in the adaptation.

Seems pretty spot on - you watch Jetman or Liveman compared to post-MMPR shows like Ohranger (or ToQger or Ninninger) - the former were on an equal footing with Kamen Rider Black in terms of melodrama. The latter seem very much the prodigy of Saban's merch minded kiddie bilking (nuthin' wrong with that!). Indeed, it seems like many American Sentai fans prefer a mirror to their nostalgic feelings for Power Rangers, not something wholly independent from it, so if it's pleasing children and adults - why mess with it? Of course, there's exceptions (the aforementioned Gobusters, the current Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger and others, I'm sure), but this sounds about right.

*Okay, if you're thinking "I wanna read those mags" - caveat emptor! - It's an independent publisher who basically wrote whatever the hell he wanted to and that sometimes included casually sexist, racist, homophobic "humor" and other non-PC stuff that just won't fly anywhere these days other than Youtube comments and 4-chan. While I don't want to excuse his backward-ass speech, I can say that the ol' "It was a different time" was in effect, though - even then - people were calling him on his bullshit in the letter coll.

If you can look past that, I have to say, these are pretty well researched for a bunch of karate guys in 90's California - including a few things that I haven't even seen on the web.