[TheRaizin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdo7

it's no excuse for tokusatsu fans to debate about how to make tokusatsu more mainstream given the evidence that more American and native English-speaking audiences are watching more foreign-language TV dramas on streaming sites.


It still doesn't excuse the lack of debate in toku fans about how to make toku genre more mainstream or popular in the US.

It is, actually. You have to understand and navigate through the culture here. I'm fairly sure there are a good number of people working in these kinds of industries who will look into stuff like Rider, Garo and Sentai and immediately look the other way. It really doesn't matter what the content is if the surface-level presentation looks the way it is. Especially when its competitors are much larger empires like Marvel, DC, and Star Wars.

"It's just Power Rangers, we have that already."

"Oh, we already have Marvel. That one's more 'mature' " or whatever.

And to steer discussion to the title of this thread, I only display two positions on this. On one hand, yes, it's always nice to see a franchise become successful and get a larger following. On the other hand, the larger following is also the problem for me. What are the chances of x franchise growing bigger and as a result lose its original vision in favor of appealing to a wider audience? (tho, I trust Great Leader Shirakura in this lmao)

Edit: I'd like to share a personal experience too that may also show why putting stuff like Rider in mainstream is a tad difficult. Does anyone remember when GMA, one of the bigger Filipino TV Channels, aired Kamen Rider OOO? SEA is probably Kamen Rider's 2nd largest market, what with us getting official distribution here and all.

Anyway, OOO aired on GMA roughly 3-4 years after OOO originally aired in Japan. We got a big push for OOO, DX toys and vinyl figure showed up in markets, "Meet Kamen Rider Tatoba at this location!" (which is where you can see the stage show suit actually show up). It was nice seeing Kamen Rider go back to the main market around here.

But here's what happened after a month. I walk into malls, I overhear people looking at OOO silly. "He's not Black! Why is he colorful?", "This is what happened to Kamen Rider? Where's the bug motif?", "He's ugly. Why do I need coins to transform? Octopus? When was Kamen Rider about seafood haha!" The toys went into deep discounts, clearance, what not. Reception with OOO was probably unfavorable which is why we never got anything else after.

There's also that bit of where Syuichiro Naito getting stirred over his early behavior. Some people advocating for his removal in the show entirely. It's the result of a growing fanbase with no knowledge on what line they're supposed to not cross. It's disappointing.