Hasbro's Power Rangers era and General Tokusatsu discussion

[Samurai8472]

New rumors coming out of the Bandai meeting that was recently held for Zenkaiger the 2021 super sentai

--The lead ranger is called “ZenKaiser.” He’s described as a mix of Dragon Ranger’s shield, Akaranger’s appearance and Big One’s coloration. His color would be white

-The other four ranger's are actually robots. This would give us a "Kamen Rider Den-O" cast set up for an example. One human actor and four suited characters. This would also be like "Zyouhger" if the other four didn't have human forms.

The consensus is that this is for Covid-19 reasons and a smaller human cast

-The colors for the others/motifs are as follows:

Red- DaiZyuJin
Yellow- GaoKing
Pink- MagiKing
Blue- DaiBouken

The rangers have faces that look like these robots; they can also grow into giant robot forms.


The possible reasoning for choosing these mecha for the anniversary are

Daizyujin is really influental and not just because of the Power Rangers. The design is much more dynamic from the usual blocky Sentai mechs.

Gaoking and Daibouken comes from an anniversary season

MagiKing was apparently a really popular figure.





Supposed toy listing

Red and Yellow Robo Set:
Price- 7000 yen
Releases in March

Each mecha has 2 modes. Red transforms from a Tyrannosaurus into a DaiZyuJin-like robot. Yellow transforms from a Lion into a GaoKing-like robot. The two then combine to form ZenkaiOh ZyuraGaorn

Can play sounds.


Pink and Blue Robo Set:
Price- 7000 yen
R


Each mecha has 2 modes. Pink transforms from a Dragon into a MagiKing-like robot. Blue transforms from a Dump Truck into a DaiBouken-like robot. The two then combine to form ZenkaiOh BuruMajeen.

Can play sounds.


Henshin Gun (GearTlinger):
Price- 4,500 yen

Insert a Sentai Gear and pull the lever, the front of the gun and gear will turn. The Sentai Gears have the Sentai team and number on the front, and robot on the back.

12 cm tall action figures:
Price- 1500 yen
All 5 rangers

SH ZenKaiser:
Price- 900 yen

 

[Christopher]

Sounds like it's similar to Gokaiger's gimmick -- maybe that's why the name is similar -- but with "gears" linked to whole Sentai teams rather than keys for individual Rangers.

A white lead Ranger is rare, but not unprecedented. Big One became the leader of the JAKQ team when he was added, and Tsuruhime/NinjaWhite was nominally the leader of the Kakurangers, though not the lead character. And White Ranger Tommy was the leader of the Mighty Morphin Rangers in seasons 2-3, though his Sentai counterpart was a Sixth Ranger. Oh, yes, and Kyuranger's ShishiRed had a white powerup form.

Still, it almost seems that ZenKaiser's role could've been filled by AkaRed, the "Spirit of all Red Rangers" who shows up in the anniversary seasons. He's also got a high-collared costume similar to Akaranger's, and the apparent "antennae" on ZenKaiser's helmet remind me of the Super Sentai "V" insignia that AkaRed has on his visor.

 

[Samurai8472]

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Saw this video earlier. It's from the Tokyo International Film Festival It features Shirakura, Arakawa, Sakamoto, and director Watanabe.

For those that are unfamiliar with these people

Shinichiro Shirakura has been a producer of Kamen Rider since 2002

Kamen Rider series

Kamen Rider Agito, Kamen Rider Ryuki, Kamen Rider 555, Kamen Rider Blade,

Kamen Rider Hibiki: after episode 30.

Kamen Rider Kabuto Kamen Rider Den-O Kamen Rider Decade Kamen Rider Zi-O


Naruhisa Arakawa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naruhisa_Arakawa#Tokusatsu

Writer on many super sentai series

Koichi Sakamoto- Power Ranger fans and Sentai know him well. He's the fight coordinator for both franchises and Kamen Rider

Katsuya Watanabe

https://powerrangers.fandom.com/wiki/Katsuya_Watanabe

Veteran Sentai director


Toward the end, Shirakura mentions that their sponsors (presumably referring to Bandai) frequently lobby for a greater focus on the mecha in the show, as those are the central pillar of the toyline, and they're constantly struggling to strike a balance between the hero drama and the giant robo fights. It seems that the sponsors feel that giant robo fights are most often afterthoughts that are unceremoniously tacked on at the end of every episode.

Shirakura is also rumored to be a producer on the next super sentai series "Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger" Perhaps making four the rangers robots who can become giant mecha seems like a major step toward addressing Bandai's concerns,

 

[Christopher]

It seems that the sponsors feel that giant robo fights are most often afterthoughts that are unceremoniously tacked on at the end of every episode.

All too often, they are.


Saber 13: Well, they faked us out twice -- or maybe three times. Last week it looked like Kento had been killed. This week he turns out just to have been injured -- but wait, he's tainted by the dark saber and the darkness consumes him! So he essentially got two "death" scenes in consecutive weeks. But wait -- he's not dead after all! It looks like he'll be the next Calibur.

I like Saber Dragonic Knight, though the name is silly. The mostly silver armor with red highlights is rather elegant as Kamen Rider costumes go.

 

[Samurai8472]

Kiramager episode 34

A good showcase for Tametomo and Shiguru.

Pretty devious plot by Yodonna and Garza got payback at all the times Smog Jouki was hijacked for Mashin Express

It's funny, the contrast between Juuru and the others. They're skilled professionals at something, while Juuru was just Juuru.


I liked how this episode referenced a few past episodes too

We're about to get the Yodon Emperor revived and Yodonna getting really pissed off, so the plot's moving along towards the endgame.



Tonight/Next episode. The popsicle seller is none other than

Ozu Tsubasa/ Masato Jin / Minato Hoshi / Super Sentai Goodwill Ambassador Hiroya Matsumoto

Hiroya Matsumoto was named the Super Sentai Goodwill Ambassador in 2017

 

[Christopher]

Kiramager episode 34

Not bad. One of those fun ones where the team is faced with a challenging problem and has to logic out a clever solution. Though of course it was easy to guess that it would involve an analogy with the pool ricochet shot from the opening scene.

Nice idea with Yodonna and Garuza both learning from experience and using it to gain an edge. Yodonna thinking of a way to turn friendship from a strength into a weakness was clever, and I suppose what Garuza did was a similar kind of reversal.

We're about to get the Yodon Emperor revived and Yodonna getting really pissed off, so the plot's moving along towards the endgame.

It's a little early for the endgame, isn't it? This season premiered last March, so I assume we have about 3 months to go.

I wonder what Yodonna was starting to turn into. I thought it looked like a darker version of a Kiramei Stone with glowy evil eyes, but it also looked a lot like the vision Jyuuru drew.

Tonight/Next episode. The popsicle seller is none other than

Ozu Tsubasa/ Masato Jin / Minato Hoshi / Super Sentai Goodwill Ambassador Hiroya Matsumoto

Why is he so ubiquitous? I don't even like him that much.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Hiroya Matsumoto was named the Super Sentai Goodwill Ambassador in 2017

At this point, I'm waiting for him to become a Space Sheriff and then he can match Kenji Ohba in Tokusatsu legacy.

Why is he so ubiquitous? I don't even like him that much.

Probably because he likes Super Sentai / Tokusatsu and is willing to come back repeatedly as different characters.

Kind of like Kenji Ohba did back in the day.

 

[Christopher]

Probably because he likes Super Sentai / Tokusatsu and is willing to come back repeatedly as different characters.

Kind of like Kenji Ohba did back in the day.

I liked Ohba. Not so much in Battle Fever J (I was put off by the vague racism of his "Battle Kenya" character), but in his later return appearances in the Space Sheriff revival movies and Gokaiger, I thought he had enormous charm.

 

[JD]

Hasbro has revealed a new series of 1:6 scale Mighty Morphin' figures that are prat of their ThreeZero line. They look pretty nice.

 

[Samurai8472]

Could it be? Could this possibly be Zenkaiser?

Hobby magazine front page where it was discovered

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Could it be? Could this possibly be Zenkaiser?

Hobby magazine front page where it was discovered

It looks like the Zenkaiser Shadowy Outline, but my issue with it is the over use of Red in the design.

Seriously, if you're going to be a modernized "Big One" from JAKQ, when you're supposed to represent Super Sentai, you should balance out the rainbow motif and not be so "Red Heavy". And with modern Super Sentai having a larger potential Rainbow pallete to work with, they should've included those colors into the rainbow patterning.

Super Sentai in the past 3 decades has expanded to use more colors.

Red
Blue
Black
White
Yellow
Pink
Green
Gray
Violet
Silver
Gold
Orange
Cyan

The colors they haven't really used are Brown, Magenta, or Purple

 

[Christopher]

The belt buckle has the Super Sentai "V" insignia, so it must be Zenkaiser. (Can anyone read the kanji?)

And with modern Super Sentai having a larger potential Rainbow pallete to work with, they should've included those colors into the rainbow patterning.

They're using the same palette as Gorenger, which makes sense for an anniversary show (though that would make it the second season in a row to use Red-Blue-Yellow-Pink-Green).

The colors they haven't really used are Brown, Magenta, or Purple

Purple is just another word for violet, isn't it? Kyoryu Violet's American counterpart was Dino Charge Purple. And Set briefly became Ryusoul Brown in Ryusoulger episode 46 (plus there was the mock "Shinken Brown" in one Shinkenger episode).

They've used magenta on a few Kamen Riders, starting with Decade.

 

[Stephen!]

It looks like the Zenkaiser Shadowy Outline, but my issue with it is the over use of Red in the design.

Perhaps its still regarded as a red ranger for marketing purposes, even if the suit has a lot of white.

 

[Samurai8472]

The belt buckle has the Super Sentai "V" insignia, so it must be Zenkaiser. (Can anyone read the kanji?)
.

It just says 新登場, meaning new addition (to a line of products) for the vending machine

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

They're using the same palette as Gorenger, which makes sense for an anniversary show (though that would make it the second season in a row to use Red-Blue-Yellow-Pink-Green).

So that would make Zenkaiger the 45th Super Sentai Team and 45 years of "Sentai/Super Sentai"

Purple is just another word for violet, isn't it? Kyoryu Violet's American counterpart was Dino Charge Purple. And Set briefly became Ryusoul Brown in Ryusoulger episode 46 (plus there was the mock "Shinken Brown" in one Shinkenger episode).

No, Purple is associated with Violet, but it's still quite distinct in it's own right.

And Pink & Magenta are distinct from each other

And we still haven't had a "Official" Brown Ranger yet, they've only been One-Off gag characters.

They've used magenta on a few Kamen Riders, starting with Decade.

But that's on the Kamen Rider side which is known for using more colors.
There's been a Brown Kamen Rider, 'KR Gridon' from "KR Gaim", before there's a official Brown Super Sentai Senshi.

And Magenta hasn't been really used yet on the Super Sentai side.

Perhaps its still regarded as a red ranger for marketing purposes, even if the suit has a lot of white.

I think it'll be the "Leader" of the team while Red can be the "Ace" of the team.

 

[Christopher]

No, Purple is associated with Violet, but it's still quite distinct in it's own right.

There have been many different shades of Blue Ranger, from cyan to navy, but they're all classed in the same Ranger category. And Green Rangers have gone from lime to turquoise, or thereabouts. So I think you're splitting that particular hair narrower than Toei probably would.

And we still haven't had a "Official" Brown Ranger yet, they've only been One-Off gag characters.

I know that Ryusoul Brown was played for comedy, but he was a legitimate transformation, and the wiki says he is indeed "the first official Brown Ranger in Super Sentai history."

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

There have been many different shades of Blue Ranger, from cyan to navy, but they're all classed in the same Ranger category. And Green Rangers have gone from lime to turquoise, or thereabouts. So I think you're splitting that particular hair narrower than Toei probably would.

Maybe, but what level of color detail would you consider distinct starting from the base Primary Colors and moving on down to Secondary Colors, and so forth?

Should Gray & Silver be part of the same family?

What about Yellow and Gold?

I know that Ryusoul Brown was played for comedy, but he was a legitimate transformation, and the wiki says he is indeed "the first official Brown Ranger in Super Sentai history."

I'll wait until one gets regular screen time and is part of the main team.

 

[Christopher]

Maybe, but what level of color detail would you consider distinct starting from the base Primary Colors and moving on down to Secondary Colors, and so forth?

It's not about what I'd consider, since I don't make Super Sentai. The question is how Toei would classify it. If they consider everything from cyan to navy to qualify as Blue, it follows that they'd probably lump violet and purple together as well -- as, indeed, the producers of Power Rangers already have done by renaming Kyoryu Violet as the Purple Ranger.

Should Gray & Silver be part of the same family?

"Should" is a strange word to use here. There's no basis here for a moral judgment; it's simply an observation of what Toei does. Assuming the wiki is following their lead, then they do classify Kyoryu Gray (the only Gray Ranger to date) as a new category rather than a Silver Ranger. But that's because we as a culture overall perceive a distinction between gray and silver that we don't perceive between, say, matte red and glossy red (as evidenced by the fact that we have different words for them). I think it's because neither gray nor silver has an actual color, and in the absence of color, brightness and reflectivity stand out as the more central distinctions for basing the definitions on. But perception and convention are what matter to how a culture classifies and labels colors. It makes sense that Toei classifies color categories the same way the overall culture classifies them, since it would confuse people if they did it differently.

What about Yellow and Gold?

Now, there is a real, meaningful difference there. Gold is more of a yellow-brown than pure yellow.

I'll wait until one gets regular screen time and is part of the main team.

You were the one who used the word "official." If you were talking about your personal preferences, then that was the wrong word to use.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

It's not about what I'd consider, since I don't make Super Sentai. The question is how Toei would classify it. If they consider everything from cyan to navy to qualify as Blue, it follows that they'd probably lump violet and purple together as well -- as, indeed, the producers of Power Rangers already have done by renaming Kyoryu Violet as the Purple Ranger.

Generally, what happens on the Power Rangers side is only canon for Power Rangers lore, it usually has no real bearing on the Super Sentai side with a few exceptions.

You were the one who used the word "official." If you were talking about your personal preferences, then that was the wrong word to use.

When was a Fandom.com wiki about PowerRangers deemed a official source for info on Super Sentai / Toei subject matter?

"Should" is a strange word to use here. There's no basis here for a moral judgment; it's simply an observation of what Toei does. Assuming the wiki is following their lead, then they do classify Kyoryu Gray (the only Gray Ranger to date) as a new category rather than a Silver Ranger. But that's because we as a culture overall perceive a distinction between gray and silver that we don't perceive between, say, matte red and glossy red (as evidenced by the fact that we have different words for them). I think it's because neither gray nor silver has an actual color, and in the absence of color, brightness and reflectivity stand out as the more central distinctions for basing the definitions on. But perception and convention are what matter to how a culture classifies and labels colors. It makes sense that Toei classifies color categories the same way the overall culture classifies them, since it would confuse people if they did it differently.

I'm still incredibly suspicious about the legitimacy about the wiki's info and how it pertains to what Toei deems as "Official" material.

Fandom.com Wiki's are just that, a place for fan material and fans to write stuff.

As for the legitimacy and oversight from Toei, I haven't seen anything from Toei authorizing any English Source as a "Official" repository of Super Sentai or Kamen Rider info.

As far as Gray or Silver, I'd argue that they're just different colors on the color spectrum and are associated colors to each other, but distinct in their own right. But 'Matte Red' & 'Glossy Red' are both of the Red Color family with different reflectivity values, ergo the sharing of "Red" in it's name.

So we'll have to see if Toei will use Purple in their Ranger naming scheme moving forward.

 

[Christopher]

Saber 14: Did I misremember? I thought I saw Kento reappearing and taking Calibur's sword at the end of last week's episode. Now it seems Kento is really dead and Calibur/Kamijou is still alive.

We didn't get a lot of plot or character advancement in this one -- mostly just lots of action, characters reacting to Kento's death and seeking revenge for it. The plot moved forward a beat or two, but it seemed that the place where it ended up was the same place it could've ended up last week if not for that artificial delay on access to the book/portal thingy. So it felt like the story was treading water to check off a few boxes (and mix a few metaphors) before moving on with what it set in motion before.

Looks like Mei is joining Fourze's Yuki in being a Rider cheerleader, doing goofy poses during a Rider's henshin.

I've noticed the past couple of weeks that the villain actors aren't actually in that room where they meet -- I can see matte lines around them. I think it might be a virtual set, or maybe they're filmed separately and composited together for quarantine reasons. But there was one bit here where one of the bad guys got up close in the other's face and I could see some interactive lighting/reflections between them, so either they were together on the greenscreen stage for the virtual set, or the FX team did a good job faking it.

When was a Fandom.com wiki about PowerRangers deemed a official source for info on Super Sentai / Toei subject matter?

I never said they were official. I said they referred to Ryusoul Brown as "the first official Brown Ranger," and I presume that they're basing that assertion on something outside themselves, some Toei announcement or master index or something that does count as official. Why else would they say that if it weren't based on something? I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that they're using the word "official" in a literal sense.

I mean, it's not like this is remotely important or worth getting upset about or arguing over. It's an incredibly trivial technicality about something that's just recreational.

As far as Gray or Silver, I'd argue that they're just different colors on the color spectrum and are associated colors to each other, but distinct in their own right. But Matte Red & Glossy Red are both of the Red Color family with different reflectivity values, ergo the sharing of "Red" in it's name.

As I said, gray and silver are technically colorless -- essentially different levels of white light, with silver being more reflective. We perceive these things based on hue, brightness, and reflectivity, and we give priority to hue; so if there is a specific hue, we define the color based on that, with brightness or reflectivity being treated merely as modifiers (though there are exceptions, such as defining light red as a separate color, "pink"). But when there is no color, just shades of gray, then reflectivity becomes a more important distinction, and we use it to delineate gray from silver. At least, that's how it seems to me.

Again, though, what you or I think as individuals has exactly no bearing on how a studio in Japan decides to define character categories. That is something for us to observe, not to determine.