Super Sentai's Near Cancellations and Revivals

I was intrigued by Fantasy Leader's similar article, I'd be writing what I thought about Sentai's cancellations and revivals:

After Changeman, Flashman, Maskman and Liveman- there came the not so popular Turboranger. True it isn't as epic as Hirosa Soda's previous series but it was still an awesome series. Awesome to the point it was rumored Saban wanted to pay Toei to adapt Turboranger to be the first Power Rangers series.

Fiveman was unfortuantely Hirosa Soda's worst work. Why? The villains weren't very unique, well it was kind of watered down and the villains were merely recycled from previous works, in fact I felt like it was a Bioman rip-off and more. So watered down that some of my peers preferred Maskman and Bioman instead. I thought it was pretty interesting. However for some reason, the idea of a sibling team went to much better series like Gogo V and Magiranger (my personal favorite). I enjoyed this as a child though. :-P

After Hirosa Soda left, Toshiki Inoue became the writer for this series (he did Turboranger and Fiveman as a secondary writter) which they thought things would go worse. Sentai was supposed to stop until Fiveman, or maybe Jetman was the last season. However Jetman became a huge success with a newer, fresher story-telling which made fans go wild. Yup, it was the best. They wanted to stop with just Jetman BUT... it created a monster hit. Maybe that's why Saban wanted to use Jetman as Power Rangers as well.

Noboru Sugimura's Zyuranger was a lighter than Jetman especially with the villains. Children liked it but not older fans since Jetman was apparently more balanced for an intense series. Some felt that Burai's being written off was a jump the shark moment and so on. It seemed Sentai would be cancelled but it did survive though as it was popular to children. :-P By the way, it happened to be underrated by MMPR fans who enjoyed the first season more. Some however found the series more amusing than MMPR. I do.

Noburu Sugimura then wrote Dairanger which was also said to have saved Super Sentai from cancellation. Why? It had all the good storyline elements Zyuranger didn't have, even a kid ranger like Kou was written in such a good a way that didn't make fans say, "HUH!" for too long. It was this season where it came close to Jetman in plot quality, some fans think even better (by the way, Mikiko Miki and Tomite Naruse made a short return here, too bad that Tachi Masaki didn't act as Shaddam who I thought was kind of like Radiguet in some way). The storyline was pretty interesting, mecha and all... some fans nearly dropped Jetman.

Oh yeah, Noboru Sugimura wrote Kakuranger next. It was meant to be a lighter series but like MMPR season 3 in comparison, it was going down that time. Kakuranger for me is an okay series but I like Zyuranger and Dairanger better. It was rumored to nearly cancel Super Sentai. However a good performance still saved the show.

Ohranger had Hirosa Soda do some of the episodes as well. The thing is during this time in Japan, the Sarin gas attack and the Tokyo earthquake made it a dark show for dark times. As a result, Ohranger had constant flickering lights in terms of dark themes. It nearly caused the cancellation but toys were selling well. I even listed this as one of the series I've praised the most for its uniqueness of a family villain attacking the Earth.

Probably due to rough times, Yoshio Urasawa the new head writer (and still assisted by Hirosa Soda) created the much lighter, campier than MMPR (IMO) known as Carranger. It somewhat saved Super Sentai. I like Ohranger better but this series is still worth watching with its comedy and awesome moments. While it saved Super Sentai (somewhat especially due to high toy sales), its U.S. counterpart Power Rangers Turbo was underrated that time. Somehow I thought that this would be the last but... then...

Junki Takegami came up with Megaranger which somewhat began to change mecha and all. Okay I don't include it in the list of series I've praised the most. It was a solid series for many with all the new concepts rather than cliche weapons, or how the series itself blended teenagers with space travel, blah, blah... all that made the series good enough. The Power Rangers adaptation though a LOT deviant from this also saved Power Rangers. Coincidence? The succeeding series until the end of the 90s (that was with Gogo V in 1999, in America, Lightspeed Rescue began at the year 2000) somehow helped writers improve their writing.

Timeranger was the start of 2000s Sentai. Although some older fans berate Super Sentai in the 2000s to be "watered down" but I think not. It was also a Sentai series worth praising the most IMO for its rather complex plot. Not surprisingly, its American counterpart Power Rangers Time Force was considered by some to be the best Power Rangers series but I beg to differ, Lost Galaxy IMO is still better. The series that succeeded these until Gekiranger were pretty good with a few ups and downs.


See also:

Sentai Shows I've Praised the Most

Comments

  1. Yep Shinkenger should be cast in their as a revival series, V Cinimea got to number on in the charts and broke records since Utraman's vol 4 adn 5 dvd back in th 90's or something, and for Goseiger i'll only watch that when a story line in interest comes up, like this week agri finnally and i watched moune's but also go check out out dvd reviews of Goseiger and compare them to Shinkenger,

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  2. Neither Go-onger nor Goseiger is a failure in Japan. They're not as popular as Shinkenger, but in terms of ratings and toy sales, they haven't done too badly and certainly not enough that Toei would consider cancelling the show for it. The target audience for Sentai is young Japanese children - not overentitled English-speaking fanboys who think a series is only good if it's dark/serious in tone.

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  3. No, Go-onger did not almost cancel the series. Yes, fans are very divided amongst it. But hey, Go-onger sold a ton of toys. It got by perfectly fine. Shinkenger didn't save the franchise from anything.

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  4. @Fantasy Leader- Thanks for the information.

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  5. @ yamapirocks27 - I repeat, Sentai is aimed at young Japanese children. Not English-speaking fans who think Shinkenger is THE BEST THING EVER and refuse to support other series. It's not doing as well as Shinkenger or Go-onger but it isn't a failure, in terms of sales it's doing just fine. The more it makes the more Toei can pour into next year's anniversary special

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  6. If anything, I might be tempted to say that Gekiranger might nearly kill Sentai as well. At least in Japan, the ratings were pretty abysmal. I dunno why, though. Overseas fans like it, though, so I guess overseas fans kinda 'saved' Gekiranger. On the other hand, Go-Onger has some dislikes in overseas, but Japan loves it.

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  7. Isn't it kind of amazing on how a series can do good or bad in its home country and be considered the opposite outside of its country? I honestly think many Sentais would sell well overseas if they had groups like TV Nihon subbing their DVD's in English. Also, even with Ohranger's abysmal ratings I still find it kinda odd that TOEI would cancel the series, especially with Power Rangers in its prime in popularity at the time.

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  8. I think fans spend way too much time judging each show by it's ratings and receptions. The reason why any season would cancel the franchise isn't just all black and white like everyone thinks. It's much more complicated than that. ANY season could've accidentally brought the cancellation of Sentai.

    @ Chris X

    No, Gekiranger did NOT nearly cancel Sentai. Gekiranger was not liked by just overseas fans. And it's not true that only Japanese people liked Go-onger.

    Let's not make stuff up here. It would just start unnecessary rumors. It's annoying enough that Ohranger and Gingaman get attacked for stupid rumors already. We don't need anymore.

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  9. @susurro Yay Shinkenger is my favourite sentai but, i have seen every sentai since timeranger ,. so not think i just like Shinkenger, am telling what is on amazon and the reviews from people and i am a FanGirl so your wrong to think i am a boy.. my Favourite Series, Shinkenger,Gaoranger,Gekiranger, Hurricanger, Dekaranger and so on ,

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  10. @ CrystalProductions27 - If Goseiger does well, there'll also be more cash for the Vs Shinkenger team-up ;)

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  11. i was really saddened...
    I think fiveman was not a rip off... the story was good.. It's just there's no loves story... In the Philippines fiveman was one of the most-watched sentai.... I was just really wondering, most of the blogs are just mostly for jetman and maskman.. so unfair

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  12. Sorry, Zyurangers is a much better series alone with script, acting, action and originality then MMPR ever be.

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  13. One word, Sentai Forever!!! It never stops no matter what!!!

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