[Mesnick]

And, continuing my words about different approaches and dissonance in voice acting with a clear example. While waiting for the third Sonic, I decided to rewatch Sonic X and, just for fun, chose the US dub. There, even without checking with the original, it is clear that the drawn characters are screaming, but they are translated in a calm tone.

[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

I'm not sure what Tsubaraya's overall attitude is towards China these days, but I do know that they've been having a lot of trouble with Ultramega, the company that bought Chaiyo's infamous "rights" to Ultraman. They're still putting out media and merchandise in China and claim to be the real owners of the IP.

From what I've gathered, they seemed to have done gangbusters during 2023 mainly thanks to trading cards (not to be confused with the one that released globally not too long ago) released by a trading card company named Kayou. I assume it's still positive regardless of the IP dispute because the vibes that I'm getting are that these cards were real money makers last year, and I can't help but think it probably still has somewhat of a dedicated customer base buying them.

[Sheepweaver95]

Fanservice is not a subsitute for plot.

[EpsilonX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

Then the term that should be used here is "target audience." And the answer to that is: 5-10 year olds and their parents who enjoy superhero shows first and foremost, with the toku fans and people who grew up with the show being secondary, just as it's always been.

And guess what? The show has always been both appealing and profitable in that area. Even some of the seasons that fans who are terminally online like to complain about, such as Samurai, were successful in their endeavors. Both via ratings as well as merch sales.

To say that Power Rangers has no target audience or appeals solely because Toku has slowly been growing bigger over the last few years is no different than saying other long-runners like Mazinger Z or Sailor Moon have no place because anime of their kind have become alot more common place/popular over time.

I may not have explained it well, but I'm not saying that niche or target audience are the same thing. What makes this particular product appealing to its target audience vs a different product which appeals to the same target audience.

The point here is that, with the growing acceptance of intercultural content, the need to re-edit shows into a more Americanized version has diminished significantly. So what makes a re-edited show appealing over a straight-dubbed show? What sort of market niche/market segment does that fill? Sailor Moon is actually a great example. The show was censored and Americanized in a lot of ways that are seen as unnecessary and actually undesirable now. If the same thing was tried again, it would probably receive a lot of blowback. I also think of Voltron or Robotech, which are Americanized edits of anime similar to how Power Rangers is re-done, but there's just not a lot of demand for that type of re-edited, Americanized version of an anime when the original versions are almost preferred.

That said, you do bring up a point - PR is targeted at audiences who are likely too young to fully enjoy a subtitled show or know/care if anything was changed or censored. That said, they're maybe too young to also know/care whether it's Japanese actors dubbed or new content filmed with American actors. I guess the best argument in favor of continuing this method for Power Rangers is that suddenly switching it to be a very Japanese show with a dub would be weird, and repurposing the Japanese footage is the most budget-friendly way to go about things.

[GoldenXtreme]

I think I've already inadvertently stepped on some toes here, but I did want to chime in again. I know I'm not always the most tactful, so sorry if I sounded tactless before. Or if I sound accidentally tactless now for that matter! But I really do want to have a good faith discussion! EpsilonX has said most of what I already would have, but I also wanted to comment that I that I think even if children don't realize they are watching a recut show, I do think they still pick up on "strangeness" that can come about from it being made in that way. Not to mention that nowadays there is just a lot more to pick from in terms of both action-oriented live action shows and Japanese shows that appeal to young boys, so PR just doesn't seem as likely to win the love of as many kids. Obviously this is just my own observations at this point, but the series doesn't seem very popular with the kiddos around here right now! It seems like a difficult situation for the series, and I don't really see an easy solution to give the series a boost without alienating a bunch of people (or becoming too expensive for the IP holder's tastes).

Or maybe I'm a big dummy and Power Rangers is still printing money, I dunno!

[DreamSword]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenXtreme

Power Rangers is still printing money, I dunno!

It is. We've gotten statements from people who've worked with Hasbro over social media(such as the infamous Simon Bennett) that the show was infact profitable for Hasbro, it's just that the current president doesn't give a crap about the show and that's why it's in limbo.

[Mesnick]

I recently remembered: the Kamen Rider Club creation in Fourze as being very drawn out. Maybe it would be different now, but if you look at it in ongoing...I think it was still not worth showing all the future participants in the opening and creating at least a hint of intrigue.

[mdo7]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

To say that Power Rangers has no target audience or appeals solely because Toku has slowly been growing bigger over the last few years is no different than saying other long-runners like Mazinger Z or Sailor Moon have no place because anime of their kind have become alot more common place/popular over time.

Then why are they not reaching the same mainstream level of audience demographic in the US that watched K-dramas, or any foreign dramas that people are watching on Netflix, Prime Video, etc... I mean Korean pop culture like K-dramas, and K-pop has reached an all-time high popularity in the US, I can say the same for anime/manga and yet tokusatsu hasn't reach that level of popularity in the US despite there's clear evidence of more people watching foreign-language TV dramas which consist of Korean TV dramas, Chinese-language TV dramas, and non-English language European TV dramas. Here's the evidence:

More Than Half of English-Speakers [in the US] Now Watch Foreign-Language Content


Foreign-language shows on Netflix are getting a lot of attention in the U.S.


Hollywood Reporter: Americans Are Watching More International TV Than Ever Before


And if you want to see more evidence of people in the US watching foreign-language dramas:



More Americans are watching their foreign-language dramas subtitled then dub, so tokusatsu should be in the mainstream territory in the US just like K-dramas, and foreign-language TV dramas and films are getting already. So what's keeping Tokusatsu genre from reaching the same mainstream level in the US that K-dramas, anime, and non-English language foreign language TV series/miniseries already received?

I pretty much talked about this in 2021 in a closed thread.

Speaking of K-dramas, several K-dramas on Netflix have expanded to sci-fi and what looks like Tokusatsu territories, I've said this here on that same closed thread.

I will make this unpopular tokusatsu opinions regarding toku fandom, and I've said this before:

It seems like it's easy for a toku fan to be able to crossover to wuxia genre because wuxia and tokusatsu genre are very similar (wire fu, costumes, and sometime like in the case of Inframan, and Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain, suitmation aka man in the monster suit). Also, the opposite is true, you can get a person who watch wuxia to watch tokusatsu for that same reason.

I find it odd that despite many anime/manga fans crossing over to K-drama (that's because of K-drama along with Taiwanese drama adaptation of manga like Boys Over Flowers), what happened to the same anime/manga demographic not crossing over to tokusatsu? What happened to K-drama fans not crossing over to tokusatsu despite having K-dramas that borderline to toku territory when it comes to special effect? What is preventing K-drama fans from branching out to tokusatsu?

You know here's something odder: I've seen K-drama fans can crossover to Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese dramas, but not to tokusatsu. Has there been any K-drama fans that watched rom-com or serious romance K-drama crossover to Chinese-language drama of that same genre? Yes, it has happened. Have there been cases of fans of rom-com or serious romance K-drama that watched Chinese-language rom-com/serious romance drama genre ever crossed over to wuxia genre? Yes it does happened, if the fan liked a certain Chinese actors/actresses in that non-Wuxia drama he or she watched and looked up his or her acting record and found that Chinese actors/actresses acted in wuxia drama, that K-drama person that just crossed over to Chinese drama can crossover to wuxia, it's possible.

I like to note that I found this on Reddit on the kdramarecommends subreddit: K-dramas similar to the Xianxia/Wuxia genre in C-dramas

So this is clear evidence, and this indicate to me that K-drama fans have already started to branch out to not only Chinese-language dramas but also wuxia dramas too!!!

But what's bothers me is that if this is the case like I described above, then shouldn't the tokusatsu fandom have saw a massive growth given that wuxia and tokusatsu genre are very similar, including this forum thanks to K-drama fans crossing over to Chinese drama crossing over to wuxia drama then it should've led to crossing over to tokusatsu.

As I said, I've seen cases of wuxia drama fans are able to crossover to tokusatsu, so there should've been massive crossovers of K-drama fans--->Chinese-language dramas fans-->Wuxia dramas fans-->tokusatsu fans

I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion, and I've seen to be the only user on this forum that has been involved in tokusatsu fandom, K-drama/K-pop/Hallyu fandom, wuxia fandom all combined. Along with my experiences watching East Asian entertainment way before streaming and before it became cool today.

Disclaimer: Before I became a toku fan & K-drama fan, I was a wuxia fan ever since I first watched my first wuxia drama as a kid, and I grew up watching Hong Kong TV dramas (from TVB), and Taiwanese dramas from the 80's and early 90's. That's how I was able to get into Korean TV dramas, and tokusatsu easily. So I'm probably the only forumite on Tokunation that is able to watch tokusatsu, wuxia drama, Korean TV dramas, Taiwanese TV dramas, Mainland Chinese-language TV dramas. That's why I know of people that watched wuxia dramas can crossover to tokusatsu easily, and I've seen toku fans crossed over to wuxia dramas.

[gashatfreak]

Oh gosh not this again.

Hopefully this doesn't make the mods lock this thread like last time.

[DreamSword]

Just because B is more popular than A does not mean that A isn't still popular.

Given the track record of this subject in the past, that's all I'm going to say.