[KaiserBlue]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Lucha

I've never understood this line of argument. Patren #1 was absolutely as likeable and well-developed as Lupin Red -- he had almost as many focus-episodes -- and the two were ideal foils for each other. Patren #3 was infinitely more well-realized than Lupin Yellow, who was basically just the "cute young girl" archetype (I understand a lot of dude fans have a boner for Lupin Yellow's actress, but being attractive does not make her an interesting character). I'll grant you that Patren #2 was far less compelling than Lupin Blue, but having a weak comic-relief green ranger is almost expected for any Sentai team.

The reason Lupato's toy sales were low is because those toys were really fucking boring and had no relationship to the teams' overarching motifs. (I don't care how many padlock dials you stick on them as an afterthought, jets make NO SENSE for a team of Phantom Thieves.) The reason the plot petered out is because the villains had no concrete agenda or interesting motivation to drive the story forward. All of Lupato's problems can be traced back to those two elements far better than they can this supposed problem of character imbalance.

Somehow this notion got stuck in the ear of fandom, and no matter how much distance we get from the original broadcast, people can't seem to disabuse themselves of this unfounded critique. There are plenty of things to criticize Lupato for, but character development was arguably the show's greatest strength.



Those suits were pretty modular, so it couldn't have been that hard to create a PatKaizer Splash variant. It's not like they had to build any new pieces -- all they had to do was swap in the arm module that they used for LupinKaizer Splash Magic.

Bringing the conversation back to Zenkaiger -- because this is a Zenkaiger thread, afterall -- I think the modular nature of mecha suits is extremely conducive to the half & half swap-out gimmick that's been rumored. Also, they're going to have to build a bunch of mechs anyway -- why would it be any more of a challenge to base them on past mechs as opposed to, like, beetles or whatever?

Ok let me rephrase, i hated pato red, not the team just red. Patorangers motif wasn't that likeable, and the suits weren't as stylish as the lupin team. The sales , as meager as they were, were always in lupins favor bc of the motif being more appealing than patos. And planes are pretty sound vehicles for these phantom thieves. They could steal something, shoot out a plane and off they go, no traffic.

The sales have a lot to do with the show, thats why the show was made, to sell toys. If kids hated the show, the toys wouldn't sell. The plot went nowhere and the villains did next to nothing because the writing went nowhere, its was all about style over substance. The toys were also a radical departure, mixing a gun with trigger and dial based vehicles. I thought it was ingenious, but to each his own.

I think its odd you talk about making sense in relation to the changer. Kyoryuger used a gun and batteries to change, does that make sense? Sentai is whimsical, they get things to work that normally wouldn't, and have. To say that lupats morphers makes no sense is to ignore their intent. Lupinrangers unlocking their powers, the parangers firing their powers, since cops use guns. Kyoryuger did something similar, mixing guns and batteries, even if everything is covered in dinosaurs, its still guns and batteries, those dont normally go together either.

Also, kids don't care what makes sense, they care about how cool something is, that the show its from is cool, and that the toy is fun. The toys were fun in my opinion, but the shows plot was garbage and handled poorly, regardless of its high points and character development. if the storyline isn't head somewhere, everything in it is null. Kids didnt like it and the ones that did favored lupin for the cool factor and motif.

I get that many people like pato, i hated red, green and pink were alright. As you said Lupin yellow was generic, i didnt care for her, and lupin blue was cool as was red. The real star for me was x. As mishandled as the plot was, i loved the character and his mecha, his gun was trash but still cool with the allegiance switching gimmick.

And the upgrades were also more in number for lupin. Lupin got more spotlight.

As for zenkaiger, i orrated my thoughts on the last page. A splitting gimmick would be costly what with all the other joints and the gattai connections.