My Concerns Over Shinichiro Shirakura As A Producer Due To The Upcoming Zenkaiger
Just hearing about Shinichiro Shirakura as a lead producer for Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger can be very concerning. The track record of Shirakura as a producer (or assistant producer) for Super Sentai and Kamen Rider are as follows - Chojin Sentai Jetman (from episode 30 as an assistant producer), Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger, Gosei Sentai Dairanger, Kamen Rider Agito, Kamen Rider Ryuki, Kamen Rider Faiz, Kamen Rider Hibiki (after episode 30), Kamen Rider Den-O, Kamen Rider Decade, Ucchu Sentai Kyuranger, and Kamen Rider Zi-O. He was also notable for his involvement in the Super Hero Taisen franchise (which he unplugged), the rather underappreciated Kamen Rider Shin movie, and the brutal Kamen Rider Amazons mini-series. Granted, I've watched most of them, I feel like I might need to take a break from Super Sentai - it's getting evident by how dispassionate I became with the franchise from 2013-2016 and then back again in 2019. He later made an appearance in The Toys That Made Us episode about Power Rangers with Takeyuku Suzuki. He and Suzuki also appeared in the premiere of the FAILED Power Rangers (2017) movie.
The fact that Shirakura appeared with Suzuki in the Power Rangers episode of The Toys That Made Us makes me wonder how long was he was as an assistant producer? Granted, Suzuki is credited for Jetman so did Shirakura do any more assisting jobs? Suzuki may have had a heavy collaboration with Shirakura for some time. It can be seen that Shirakura's involvement in 90s Super Sentai as a co-producer were heavily ambitious shows yet they also raised parental complaints. The three shows where he worked with Suzuki tend to be that violent.
The 2000s era would be described or seems to summarize Shirakura's love for conflict. Agito was a show full of conflict as the Lords (the supposed villains) were only trying to maintain humanity's balance and weren't truly malicious. However, that just didn't excuse the Lords from killing innocent people with the Agito power either. Ryuki was a show that got so brutal that complaints led to the obviously-forced reset button ending - something that may have caused Yasuko Kobayashi and Toshiki Inoue to spin their heads off. Inoue was later tasked with writing Ryuki's alternate ending which was also left hanging. Faiz was ambitioned to be the darkest Kamen Rider era ever with Inoue writing all its episodes. Den-O was really a trip away from the serious - I felt the show wasn't met with much enthusiasm. Later, the big disaster known as Decade would show up and Zi-O would come as the former's 10th anniversary. So, Shirakura had handled anniversaries for the Kamen Rider franchise. Fortunately, Zi-O did pay some proper tribute though I felt the ending was somewhat bonkers. At least, Zi-O had a proper conclusion in contrast to Decade.
This has me concerned that while Shirakura did produce some good shows - he's also produced some bad ones. I felt that his job with Kyuranger was somewhat held back or that he probably wished to dare to do more. Kyuranger did have some serious episodes but most of it was more like a mixture of Spaceballs with the Super Sentai franchise. After that, I just felt that Zi-O wasn't so good either. Almost any work that Shirakura did after Blade felt like he wasn't passionate about it. Den-O had ambition but it just felt like it was a convoluted mess. Sure, Den-O succeeded where Choku Senshi Changerion failed but I felt that it wasn't all that good. Decade was simply a disaster that required the Heisei era to get a bit of a remodeling starting with Kamen Rider W. These shows had ambition but it felt like Shirakura wasn't so passionate about those shows. I felt Kyuranger was entertaining but it could've been better if it tried to be a bit more serious. Granted, Kyuranger had the villains succeed before the show started and the heroes must take back the Universe from Jark Matter. However, it felt like Shirakura seems to be no longer passionate like he was in the past.
This concerns me of how Shirakura, as one of the producers of Zenkaiger, will do. Zenkaiger looks very ambitious as to how it seeks to break the mold of Super Sentai with its rather unorthodox team. It's also the 45th anniversary - something that I never expected Super Sentai to reach. Back then, I even felt that Doubotsu Sentai Zyuohger was going to be "worst for last" but I was wrong. I even felt Super Sentai would last only until 40 back when Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger was still airing in Japan. This really raises concerns about what Zenkaiger may become. My best hope is that Zenkaiger might birth either a new franchise or reboot Super Sentai altogether for the nth time. The future may is kind of uncertain that it can get scary. Meanwhile, my Super Sentai spirits have significantly lowered yet again rather unpredictably due to other stuff I want to check out on Netflix as well as other digital platforms. I even have my doubts about how Zenkaiger will be.
I'm not trying to be a jerk here, but there's a lot of things that need cleared up to not confuse people.
ReplyDeleteShirakura didn't start working with Toei until the '90s, so he had nothing to do with any show prior to that, certainly not any of the Sentai of the '80s. It was pretty much all Takeyuki Suzuki from Changeman through Fiveman, he didn't even have any sub-producers.
Takeyuki Suzuki was chief producer of Jetman, Zyuranger and Dairanger. They were still very much his shows. Shirakura didn't start working on Jetman until it was halfway over, and even then it was just as assistant producer. He was subproducer under Suzuki for Zyu and Dai and that was it for his involvement in any Sentai show until Zenkaiger. Since he's now a high-ranking producer for Toei, he'll work on and be credited for some of the movies, but isn't involved in the series in any major capacity. It's clear that Sentai wasn't where his interest was, so he didn't hang around long.
Shirakura had nothing to do with Blade. He was only an advisor for Kyuranger until episode 3, very limited involvement. He wasn't the head of Shin Kamen Rider, either -- the producer of Metal Heroes at the time, Nagafumi Hori, was the head producer, and Susumu Yoshikawa called most of the shots as the guy who came up with the entire idea for the project.
I also have to say that I disagree with "Agito was a show full of conflict as the Lords (the supposed villains) were only trying to maintain humanity's balance and weren't truly malicious." They were sent to brutally kill people who could potentially gain god-like powers that threatened their own god, who represented the Power of Darkness. It's not like the people with the potential to become Agito were getting powers and causing destruction, so the Lords put a stop to them -- it was all because their boss felt threatened and wanted to keep humans in their place, beneath him.
@Shogo B'Stard
DeleteHi and thanks for dropping by and telling me information that I needed to hear. I'm just a casual fan of Toku so I don't really get to know much of the details.
As for your Agito information - I might consider reanalyzing the mythos of Agito of the Lords. For one, I could still remember the statement "Humans should remain as they are." in that dreaded KR Decade. So, I would still say that the Lords were jerks for killing off people who had Agito potential all for the sake of it.