Why I Can't Say I've Abandoned Tokusatsu as a Whole

Well I remembered the time I watched Tokusatsu as a child and well, bad dubs (UGH, I now pretend I never saw them to avoid my head from splitting) of Bioman, Maskman, Turboranger, Fiveman, Jetman, Shaider, Gavan, Jiban and Janperson. Years later, I never dreamed of watching fan subs. As I would say I can be pretty unfriendly to change. Having watched Bioman first, I didn't immediately embrace Maskman having a secondary robo (and years later, I would know of Flashman's existence). Later on, I started to think that Super Sentai was having too much mecha, it should have ended in Timeranger but later, I started to rewatch them all over after reading a few episode synopsis' from Jillun's Sentai Hub.

Then I started having issues with Tokusatsu. I started reading of how Kamen Rider was "dead" starting with Kuuga (but I'm glad I decided to rewatch Kamen Rider after some time), I started to find some of the clips unimpressive, read how Super Sentai's tones have mellowed down... and I was pretty much the action enthusiast. I mean, even when I started watching Dairanger raw on Youtube before, I would admit that after watching most Sentai, I felt the action was lacking. I even started to complain about multi-gattai and everything. So I thought I need a break but ended up watching any PR season aired after a short while.


One of the reasons why I started to "abandon" Tokusatsu was not only because of age but because of the entrance of F4. Meteor Garden started airing (but badly dubbed) and at first, I thought F4 was Japanese until I saw their music video of "Can't Lose You". I just wanted to reconnect with my Chinese roots. So I wondered why they even copied the Anime hairstyle to start with?! I learned Meteor Garden was a localization of Hana Yori Dango.


Well 5566 also came and my favorite series of theirs was Westside Story. I would admit I watched Twin Sisters, Dolphin Bay, Lavender, Orange Country,and Chinese Ghost Story (my first Wuxia series). Westside Story for me was an Anime-like Chinese drama and I soon developed more interest in live adaptations and localization of Anime than Anime itself. Like, I developed the habit of not watching Anime unless it was adapted first. Sounds like a Super Sentai/Power Rangers fan who may choose not to watch Sentai without a PR version. During this time, I remembered having that crush on Tammy Chen, Penny Lin and Barbie Xu. So I decided to go neutral on Tokusatsu during that moment because... I really thought Tokusatsu was past its prime.


Although I'll admit I'm again caught red-handed. For a time, when I heard of people talking about Power Rangers, I referred them to sites that talked about Super Sentai telling them of how the two came to be. I began to surf again and started to discover some newer hot girls. Okay I did still have my hots on Kimberly the most but... Nanami, Ranru and Jasmine sort of gave me a stupid reason to come back to watching Super Sentai... which took me some time before I eventually watched Heisei era Kamen Rider.

Beyond the pretty girls, I thought some Super Sentai seasons were still fun to watch. For example, I started to watch Dekaranger online but raw. Maybe it was only because I wanted to "educate" Power Rangers fans on Super Sentai. Even if I was already liking Chinese entertainment more, I just couldn't get rid of Japanese entertainment off my head. After all, Super Sentai, Power Rangers and Kamen Rider (though I only saw Black and Black RX) couldn't become old shames for me. Deep within, I figured out I still had a soft spot for Tokusatsu in spite of all the things I initially disliked. Even if I may have gone neutral with Ultraman or the Choshinsei series from Toho... but I cannot deny that I still had still have a soft spot for some Tokusatsu genres or series after all.