What I Think Of Zyuohger Getting The Worst Ratings As Of Late

It's really upsetting whenever I find out that I'm a fan of a less popular Super Sentai season. I'm a fan of Turboranger, Fiveman, Ohranger, Carranger and Go-Busters which all had lower than 5% ratings. I'm a fan of Kamen Rider Black RX which wasn't as popular as Kamen Rider Black. I'm also a fan of Kamen Rider Kiva which may be considered as Toshiki Inoue's era of burning out to the maximum. It's time to talk about how Zyuohger is now getting the worst ratings as of late. I don't even know what to think about this one but I hope it can recover.

From Digital Ranger's blog, here's some interesting information that I got on Zyuohger's ratings:

Above is a picture of Zyuohger's episode ratings. Here's what Digital Ranger said about it:

I mean just WOW that's bad like REALLY BAD! And for extra salt in the wounds the toy Sales for Ninninger were garbage as well (we don't know anything about the Zyuohger toy sales yet but just word of mouth it's doing OK). I don't get it honestly like this show is fantastic since like this show has fantastic writing in it (and also a red who I love and don't think is dumb and hogs the center of attention from the other rangers). BUT for SOME REASON we this show is like now the worst then Go-Busters? I don't know what's going on people I really don't that's all I can say. and If Kyuuranger does not pull in the ratings or even toy sales I don't know is the thing I just do not know.

Franchise fatigue

Super Sentai may have hit franchise fatigue big time. While there was a rest period in between JAKQ and Battle Fever J, there wasn't a year long rest period for the rest of the series. Super Sentai became a yearly phenomenon due to fan demand even before Toei and Saban both started the Power Rangers phenomenon last 1993. Modern methods of production may mass produce quality products but there's always a limit to how many can be produced at one time to avoid compromising with quality. It seems Super Sentai may have already hit franchise fatigue as of late. After all, isn't Super Sentai Toei's longest running franchise? Kamen Rider may be chronologically older but Super Sentai has had more releases than any other of Toei's properties.

Like every franchise, Super Sentai is never exempt from the product life cycle of introduction, growth, maturity and decline. I even feel certain Super Sentai series were meant to end one era and another introduced another era. Like Fiveman ended the Hirohisa Soda era. Some can view Jetman as the finale of the pre-Power Rangers era. Zyuranger started a new era. Timeranger ended the 20th century era and Gaoranger started the 21st century Super Sentai. Then we're currently in the post-Gokaiger era where we're seeing ratings drop down since Go-Busters. I guess Gokaiger was that good that every Super Sentai series after it may just be under its shadow.

Here's an important excerpt about franchise fatigue from Game Rant:

More importantly, though, an annualized release schedule reduces development time from a marathon to a sprint. Instead of taking the time to ensure every facet of a game is right and then releasing it, developers for annualized series are typically bound by immovable release dates. Some publishers try to give devs extra time by bringing on more teams or alternating teams for releases, but the perception is still that these games are rushed.

The demand for a yearly release of a Super Sentai season may also apply to why it's hit franchise fatigue. Next year's Super Sentai series may get better or get worse depending on who's in charge as well as internal and external circumstances. There may not be enough time to decide on the best producer and writer tandem or to polish new innovative ideas to get the franchise afloat. Good ideas may go down the drain with poor implementation. It's like how Super Sentai to get better almost every eyar started to get better with Soda's innovative writing or the influence of producer Takeyuki Suzuki but it also met decline during that time. We also had other producers like Shigenori Takatera, Jun Hikasa and Takaaki Utsunomiya who were responsible for huge hits but also became responsible for some weaker seasons of Kamen Rider and Super Sentai. Toei's other writers like Yasuko Kobayashi, Toshiki Inoue and Junki Takegami also hit  really bad. As said, nobody's ever exempt from heading towards burnout zone.

Not to mention, Toei's contractual agreement with Saban may have further contributed to Super Sentai's franchise fatigue. Power Rangers is also suffering from franchise fatigue right now. From the Disney era to the Neo-Saban era a lot of the entries just got worse for most of the run. Super short seasons (Disney era), splitting one show into two (Neo-Saban era), a lot of bad acting, a lot of bad writing and lately Nickelodeon isn't the best place for Power Rangers. Toei and Saban still think about letting Power Rangers continue so they can both sell more Bandai merchandise. I guess Power Rangers also contributes to the franchise fatigue because a yearly demand of Power Rangers means Super Sentai must also comply with its yearly demand.

Post-Gokaiger decline

After Gokaiger ended, things started to fall apart with Super Sentai's ratings from Go-Busters up to Zyuohger. Kyoryuger did manage to sell a lot of toys but it doesn't change the fact that ratings were dropping. ToQGer had its award of recognition but it wasn't enough to boost overall ratings as it only had 3.8% in average ratings for Super Sentai. Then Ninninger just really came and started hitting. I thought that Zyuohger would be the recovery point but I could be very dead wrong. Kyoryuger and Ninninger may fall under theme repetition: we've already had two dinosaur Super Sentai seasons (Zyuranger and Abaranger) and two ninja seasons (Kakuranger and Hurricanger) before they appeared. I even feel dinosaurs and ninjas should have been used in the Heisei era of Kamen Rider instead of repeating them a third time in Super Sentai.

There's also the possibility of other competitors within Japanese pop culture as of late. I don't really know much of Japanese pop culture but it's possible that newer video games, Anime series, or just anything in the huge spectrum of pop culture is competing with the top spot for Super Sentai. People can get bored sooner or later and maybe seeking something else aside from Super Sentai. Right now, there's no telling what Toei can do to let Super Sentai survive in the face of intense competition within the huge spectrum of Japanese pop culture. I guess no amount of gimmicks would do anything as of right now but the right gimmick would still get Super Sentai back on its feet. Hopefully, Toei will figure out what to do in the midst of this decline.

So what are your thoughts on Zyuohger's low ratings?