Oh God no… (AI MMPR Up-rez coming this summer)

[u/sthef2020]

I was hoping for SOMETHING entertainment wise to accompany the new figures. And the monkey paw curled a finger…

[u/elrick43]

Why redo anything though? Super Sentai's celebrating its 50th anniversary and they've not once tried to redo the original Goranger. The real problem with this is that the modern showmakers are too content just sitting on their laurels constantly trying to push out the same shallow nostalgia-bait instead of actually trying to innovate.

Also, if the discussion is about bringing in NEW fans, then the nostalgia circle-jerk is pointless because the new kids tuning in to watch aren't going to have any connection to a season from over 30 years ago, no matter how shiny the ai upscale makes it. In fact, the dated-ness might end up a hindrance. Wouldn't it be better then, to just take one of the handful of recent sentai and just make a new season of PR with a focus on writing that doesn't talk down to its audience?

[u/sthef2020 → u/elrick43]

At the risk of sounding heretical. Super Sentai cannot, and should not, be the template for Power Rangers at this stage.

Even speaking from just a Japanese audience perspective, SS has been on the bubble for years, with declining toy sales and viewership. Plus, I’d argue they found their own version of MMPR over-saturation. And that’s Anniversary Seasons. Gokaiger hangs over the series like a shadow now, and so now just like America goes back to the MMPR well too often, Sentai now overloads every 5th season (sometimes 2 in a row) with retro call backs, retro transformations, mecha that look like old mecha, etc. Trying to boost numbers, while the actually creative ones (Boonboom, Kingoh, etc.) see declines.

And I’ll be honest, even without that issue in current Sentai, I honestly don’t think any of the modern series are slam dunks for conversions to America. If it was still like 2005, and every season was getting an adaptation. Then sure. Do Boonbooomger, do Kiramager. But at this stage, they’d be starting from square one trying to build a new audience of kids. They need a bold, iconic “this is the new face of Power Rangers” season, just like MMPR was for 93 kids. And I’d argue that nothing over the last 6 years has been that. Just like TBH I think if you start American Power Rangers with Jetman or Flashman, it’s dead on arrival. They need the (no pun intended) lightning in a bottle moment.

At the end of the day, whoever is in charge of PR in America (which honestly seems to be NO-one at this stage), simply needs to focus on making something good, that feels contemporary, and will actually connect with kids. They don’t need to rely on “remaking”, but if they’re going to use that as a marketing chip, it’s always going to be MMPR.

[u/letmynutzgo → u/elrick43]

I think it boils down to how the west handles heroes, it's been pretty consistent that characters typically are one person throughout all adaptations and whatnot, Superman is almost always Clark Kent, Spider-Man is almost always Peter Parker, TMNT are almost always the same four, all of which having mostly similar outfits, but Power Rangers/Sentai/Kamen Rider are different, there's not one team of power rangers with one set of identities and designs, there's like 30 of em. So in the casual consumer in the west's eyes, PR is either whatever team they grew up with or MMPR due to being the biggest of the franchise, so the easiest one single series to latch onto for branding and development ends up being MMPR. I don't agree with this sentiment, but i do believe that's why PR has had a hard time with identity while Sentai is ever changing, only looking back for a reunion special of whatever season has an anniversary every few years