I view Sentai and PR as two separate entities. Although if a season of PR is a blatant word-for-word adaptation of a Sentai season, that's different.
Toei and Sentai creators, as well as actors are aware that they have fans overseas, not just in America, but in Brazil, Indonesia, France, Thailand, Singapore, The Philippines, other parts of Europe, South Korea, and tons of more places. However, their target audience is the people of Japan. Series may be dubbed in certain countries (like in Brazil and in The Philippines or South Korea) but it's not like while writing the original series the writers
They don't write stuff for foreign fans, and they don't write stuff for PR fans. Although specials on Sentai have discussed PR, and they have dubbed a few of the series in Japanese, the main audience is Japanese children (and Japanese Sentai fans).
And Sentai series are written in advance before collaborating with Saban or Disney.
Don't act like a show owes you a shout-out. Because that's selfish.
And don't desperately scrounge each episode for something that might be a reference. Everyone's been trying to do that for Gokaiger.
If you see a Yellow Ranger in a skirt, especially if in PR they didn't have a skirt, they're not giving a shout out and saying "oh, in PR GoYellow and GaoYellow were girls, so we're having Gokaiyellow wear a skirt as GoYellow and GaoYellow because of that!" They are wearing skirts to make it more uniform-ic with what GokaiPink is wearing because essentially they are female versions of said warrior.
And wait until the subs come out before you jump to conclusions. I'll have to repeat myself again: Marvelous didn't know which key was ShinkenGold, and Gai told him it's the one with Kanji on it. KingRanger has Kanji on it for King. Then Gai said that it was the other one with Kanji on it, the shiny, sparkling one. It was a hilarious moment, but it was in no way a reference to the fact that in PR KingRanger was called Gold Ranger, and is no way referring to the fact that Saban has adapted Shinkenger into a PR series, and it is airing currently. In Japan, they are only vaguely publicizing it. They probably turned into Shinkenger because Shinkenger is a recent series, and they finally have ShinkenGold's Ranger Key and it is nice to see a whole team represented.
These moments are just coincidences. Not planned coincidences, but coincidences. And they can be what's called "hilarious in hindsight" but using this phrase (trope) to describe these certain nostalgic moments applies mainly to PR fans, unless it's referring to something else.
Using another TV Trope word, "Word of God" refers to something a creator, writer, director, producer, or actor on the show said, that is canon, or what will probably come up in the near future. If you are looking for PR references, then Koichi Sakamoto is God in this situation.
This is by far the only PR reference when Sakamoto (who was stunt coordinator and director on a lot of PR series, and is now directing some episodes of Gokaiger) said this on his blog.
And don't assume that Saban is going to adapt Gokaiger. A lot of the other bloggers have instead been saying "if Saban adapts it." which I like. But other people say that Saban will adapt it. Which, by the way PR Samurai is going, I hope they don't.
So, in conclusion, you can feel nostalgic about Gokaiger, with regards to either Sentai or PR, but don't try to scrounge for stuff you view as references and assume that Luka's purposely wearing a skirt as GingaYellow because Hikaru's counterpart was a female. Or if they turn into Zyuuranger it's not blatantly because Zyuuranger was the first series to be truly adapted in the US. The writers don't purposely do this as fan service. Don't think they owe you something, or be selfish.
And sorry if this offended some of you
YES! I agree with every bit of this! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteHonestly, no one has the right to feel offended by this post. Nor should this piss anyone off. ThatChick, you made a very good post and voiced out something that really needed to be said.
Wow, you're a brave girl. Take That!-ing the whole WMG section in TV Tropes... It's a good read and I do agree with you with trying to compare with Power Rangers. Power Rangers may be based on Sentai, but they're NOT the same or something.
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU! Seriously, I'm just so sick of so many fans acting like its at all reasonable that the Sentai crew is going to go out of its way to make nods and appeal to a periphery demographic that's at least two or three steps removed from its target audience, so I appreciate hearing someone talk sense for a change.
ReplyDeleteAgree with everything you said.
ReplyDeleteEverything you have said is true, and I wholeheartedly agree. Don't take it too personally, but Toei/Namco Bandai does not want anything to do with overseas audiences and fans (even though they are aware they have overseas fans), they care about the Japanese audience and ONLY the Japanese audience. Just because they have Tigerranger in a skirt does not mean it's a shoutout to MMPR Yellow Ranger. So don't see stuff in Gokai as tributes to Power Rangers or whatever.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100% with this post. There are many things that happen for coincidence in gokaiger. Like Gokaigers turning in turboranger for the carranger tribute as a reference that both carranger and turboranger used the same motif. Not to refernce that Carranger's adaptation is called turbo or that fans confuse turboranger for PRT. I knew all these things by watching old sentai and knowing the back history of it. It's called research and if every PR fan like me dose this they won't blatantly mistake anything in Gokaiger as a pr reference.
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