Would You Take The Super Sentai Completionist Challenge?

I remembered a couple of rants ago when I started raising some questions like "How many old school Super Sentai have you watched?" and when I made a list of Super Sentai series I've watched from start to end. I admit, there are many reasons why there are times I can't accept change and why I can accept them. For instance, I wasn't too happy with some seasons past Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters then I find myself really enjoying Ucchu Sentai Kyuranger and this year's Kaito Sentai Lupinranger vs. Keisatsu Sentai Patranger -- though I still have my concern on this year's tendency where the personalities of Kairi and Keiichiro sort of start to exchange! Anyway, I'd like to write about the Super Sentai completionist challenge after I wrote the Kamen Rider completionist challenge post as a "response" to Sentai Bandicoot's related blog entry which this post is the "second response". But remember that I'm enjoying new school Kamen Rider better than new school Super Sentai for rather personal reasons.

Doing a bit of the history of Super Sentai isn't an easy task. Consider the fact that Super Sentai is Toei's longest running franchise. Kamen Rider (which is chronologically older than Super Sentai) during the Showa era had breaks such as the hiatus between Kamen Rider Stronger and Skyrider then the six year hiatus between Kamen Rider Super-1 and Kamen Rider Black was pretty long. There were no breaks except after 1977 when Dengekitai JAKQ ended due to a lack of popularity. It wasn't only until 1979 up to present when Super Sentai had a long streak of series. Himitsu Sentai Goranger and JAKQ were added and we get a total of 42 seasons now. Not even the lower ratings from the 90s to 2010s could get the franchise cancelled or temporarily suspended for a reason unlike what happened with JAKQ's lower ratings. Eight more seasons and Super Sentai will reach its golden anniversary season! Time does fly fast, doesn't it? Even I feel it that I just want to fight the flow of time itself even when I know I can't do it!

Others though would think that reading episode summaries and Wiki is enough to know more about previous Super Sentai series. That was a very serious mistake I made when I wrote that rather damn-awful fic that deserves all its beating! I even got asked to how many I saw and when I said, "I read summaries!" then I deserve to be slammed for it. Since when did reading summaries or even watching Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger suffice over watching the show from start to end? I had to watch a lot of them and realized I made so many wrong entries here and there that were soon erased due to how erroneous they were! If you're going to think of catching with old school Super Sentai then maybe you need to momentarily take a break from new school Super Sentai and catch up on it later. It was just like the time when I actually decided to watch Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger in the 2010s then catch up later on Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger. Then I started gaining the appetite for new school Super Sentai series starting with Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger (which I just watched for shallow reasons like I did with Shuriken Sentai Ninninger).

There's always the generation gap in the whole Super Sentai fandom. You've had the 80s, 90s, 2000s and now the 2010s is nearly coming to an end. We're about to enter the 2020s sooner than you think since it's already 2018! I was even thinking that I do understand why not all youngsters today can truly enjoy the Super Sentai series that I enjoyed. It's like someone is willing to sit through Kyuranger but not through every space-based Tokusatsu by Toei. There can also be the problem of the generation that grew up with CGI. I could adjust to CGI and love how it's used in new school Super Sentai as an improvement yet I grew up enjoying stop motion. A good example is Dekaranger's Dekawing Robo cannon scene (or lately, Lupin Magnum's cannon scene) is more appealing to look at than Ucchu Keiji Shaider's Vavilos using stop-motion. Old school masterpieces such as Dengeki Sentai Changeman and Choshinsei Flashman don't have the advanced CGI that Dekaranger and Kyuranger have today. Who can remember the use of paintings to represent people in the galaxy rather than actual fight scenes? I can't blame newer fans for not even choosing to finish the old school series they started to watch because of the generation gap. So take the challenge if you want to but don't be ashamed about having generation gap problems with regards to the franchise.

Lastly, one must understand that taste fatigue is something you can't prevent now, can you? What I thought about me thinking that I was no longer being able to adjust to newer shows after Go-Busters and Gokaiger may have been attributed to one issue namely taste fatigue. Innovation helps in expanding your target market with new customers coming in but it wouldn't necessarily prevent old customers from developing taste fatigue at the same time. I remembered the time I actually chose to focus more on Kamen Rider than Super Sentai, focusing more on Korean drama than Super Sentai then I ended up re-igniting my casual fandom for Super Sentai last year with Kyuranger and I started catching up with shows I missed at my own pace while enjoying the weekly updates. It's all about taking your time and taking breaks in order to recharge one's Super Sentai spirit.

Once again, Go Go Super Sentai!