Hasbro's Power Rangers era and General Tokusatsu discussion

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Samurai8472, Jan 11, 2019.

  1. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Ugh, they're still doing the thing where the current Rider uses past Riders' powers/weapons? Every toku franchise seems to be doing that these days, at least the three I follow (KR, Sentai, Ultraman). It's gotten very tiresome. Especially since it often doesn't make any sense in the context of the storylines. Revice was claimed to be in a universe where all the previous Kamen Riders existed, with George Karizaki being a fan who incorporated their motifs into the power stamps he created, but the backstory of the Revice world, with the demons and Giff and everything, is incompatible with previous Kamen Riders existing, other than those introduced in the show like Vail. And Donbrothers hasn't given any hint of an explanation for why the monsters-of-the-week have attributes based on past Sentai teams; it's totally gratuitous.

    As for recent Ultraman series, they sometimes have handwaves for why the New Generation Ultras base their powers on past Ultras (e.g. Orb lost his original powers and had to borrow others' powers), but usually it's just gratuitous (e.g. Rosso & Blu had elemental powers that were awkwardly linked to previous Ultras, e.g. Ginga being water for no good reason even though Agul, an actual ocean spirit, would've made far more sense).
     
  2. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Is there another anniversary that they're celebrating to justify the re-use of old powers?
     
  3. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    It just seems to be the norm these days, anniversary or no. Ultraman's been doing it in almost every season since 2016 (which was an anniversary year, so maybe it started out that way), and KR and SS seem to have adopted doing it annually now too. I don't think it's about anniversaries anymore, just about selling collectibles.
     
  4. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    I think it's just being frugal. Budget is tight even though Kamen Rider makes more than Sentai. So it's the old hat trick of just repainting a prop and reusing it. I think that's all it is.

    Even the weapons attachment looks are SOOO minimalist worn on a black under suit
     
  5. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Yeah... It's occurred to me that's probably why Ultraman reuses so many old kaiju these days instead of creating new ones.

    Still, the marketing is a lot of it. With the Ultras who derive their powers from combinations of previous Ultras' powers, there's a complete new set of collectible items every year, and new costume designs that incorporate design elements of past Ultras. So that's not about economizing. Same with Revi and Vice's Genome forms that mimic design elements of past Riders while still being new suits/CGI.
     
  6. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    If it's about cost, I'm surprised that they don't trade & swap Kaiju suits and do a slight repaint and call it a day.

    Ultraman could get Sentai / KR Kaiju's and use some way to justify the design.
     
  7. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Different studios. I doubt Toei would let them, and I doubt Tsuburaya's pride would let them borrow from a studio that got into tokusatsu later than they did. And the design sensibilities are somewhat different overall, with Ultraman kaiju generally being more like organic creatures rather than the weirdly stylized/themed monsters common in SS/KR.

    Besides, the Toei shows have their own budget-saving approaches to monsters, like Kiramager and Zenkaiger having them basically just be the grunts wearing weird masks/headpieces, or the latter half of Revice phasing out the individual devil designs in favor of hordes of identical demons.

    Anyway, I think Tsuburaya likes reusing the classic monsters because they're popular with the fans and are heavily featured in the toys and games.
     
  8. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    Ultraman is run by Tsuburaya and sentai and Kamen Rider are Toei properties. Even though they sometimes actors and action directors go do Ultraman they're still separate properties


    Still. Long story short. You have to give Japan live action properties some credit for churning out series on a shoe string budget(even if the shoe string has to be a vital series plot device!"
     
  9. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I'm often surprised by how little actor crossover there is between studios. There are some who work for both -- for instance, Yukari Taki was a regular in both Ultraman Ginga S and Kamen Rider Build, and Return of Ultraman star Jiro Dan had recurring mentor roles in both Hurricaneger and Ryusoulger. (And Kane Kosugi was in the American-made Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero the year before he did Kakuranger, making him the only actor to play both an Ultraman host and a Ranger.) But often when I look up Ultraman cast members' filmographies, I'm surprised to see they have very few credits in any TV outside of the Ultra franchise. It's odd, because I find a number of them to be pretty good actors and I would've expected them to have more extensive careers.
     
  10. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    Desire Driver showcase



    The middle piece inserted which is the ID Core(which rider the driver identifies stays in the belt

    So just with Boost, Magnum and Hammer Geats has 10 low level form changes)

    What I mean is low level kind and not significant ones like the mid level and final forms the ones that dramatically change the Riders look.
     
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2022
  11. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Not a bad design as henshin drivers go. It is clever how it gets so many variations out of just a few pieces. I'd imagine that the dynamic of the show will be about obtaining new pieces through victories in the game, so Geats and the other Riders will probably collect the items one by one. And there will probably be further ones introduced later on for the power-up forms.

    The design approach suggests that different Riders will be able to mix and match components, to use each other's gear to make hybrid forms.
     
  12. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    It's not my favorite design in terms of belts, but it works for it's intended gimmick.
     
  13. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    The asymmetry is a bit weird, but it's not as bulky or garishly colored as a lot of the recent drivers, so it's not bad.
     
  14. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    Updated poster released showcasing the other riders but silhouetted right now, They're also pretty bare looking with just the helmet/ their ID core in their belt signifying what rider they are and the black undersuit.

    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]



    No doubt Panda Rider's probably the most sadistic one out of the group
     
  15. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    So it's animal-themed Riders. The bull, panda, and cat seem clear enough, but the others are harder to judge. The one on the far left might be a warthog, since I think I see a tusk. The one sitting in the upper right might be a ram or something, though the horns seem very slender. The one standing behind them might be an insect of some kind, or maybe a rabbit, since the others are all mammals.

    The panda's build looks female to me, and the catlike one on the lower right seems to be in kind of a "feminine" pose.
     
  16. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    More Geats Riders revealed:

    https://news.tokunation.com/2022/08/05/even-more-kamen-rider-geats-riders-revealed-73592

    Spellings are unconfirmed, but there's Buffa, the bull; Taicoon, the tanuki; Naago, the cat; and Dapen, the panda. The panda has one circular eye and one star-shaped eye, and it's really creepy.

    The tanuki seems to be the one on the far left of the poster, the one I thought was a warthog. I guess the "tusks" are more like whiskers. So the two on the upper right are still unidentified.
     
  17. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    Press Conference Tomorrow. Here's the link to watch it live





    That Dapan design looks familiar. I don't know where I've seen that similar design of a sniper with a star design over one eye. Digimon maybe?

    I just realized that star patch is like an eye patch over one eye to focus on the target.
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2022
  18. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    Just reminding people that the Kamen Rider Geats press conference happens in two hours.
     
  19. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    Subbed version of the Kamen Rider Geats series trailer that premiered yesterday during the conference

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1556264010403549186

    This is probably the most sentai Kamen Rider season yet and we thought Kamen Rider Saber was like a sentai! We have a group shot of all the players ready to run and also the primary cast being instructed by their mentor like figure

    Two female riders at the start. That's a revolutionary step for a Kamen Rider series.

    Also, one of the actors in the trailer is Nene Shida, the sister of Kohaku Shida (OniSister) Current rumor is that she becomes Dapan (one of them at least)

    My guess is we start with a large group of players and then they're picked off one by one till/maybe some even die so we have one last player left.

    I think they're going to have Geats VS new players while the others cheer him on in the background.
     
  20. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    So it's not like Ryuki where they're fighting each other Highlander-style. Rather, the "Desire Grand Prix" is a contest to save people from monsters. How does that work? Are they competing to defeat the monster first? That competition could easily get in the way of saving lives. Or maybe it's the opposite of Death Race, where they score points for each person they save. Hard to calculate that if the monster attacks a crowd, though.


    Except Sentai members work together, usually (though DonBrothers was initially a bit of an exception). Here it seems they're working to outdo each other.


    Yes, that's good to see. I was hoping that Reiwa-Era KR would differentiate itself from Heisei by making female Riders a regular thing, and they've pretty much done so, though so far only Valkyrie has been a Rider from the start of the series. Saber missed an opportunity by having its Sentai-like core five be all-male, and Sabella was added relatively late in the game. Revice has done better with Jeanne, but her debut as a Rider was somewhat delayed. So having two female Riders from the beginning is a good step forward.