Super sentai and executive meddling

[live jetabare]

Whenever Super sentai seems to underperform, it seems that the producers, writers, directors bring big changes in the story, the tone, the characters (Akibaranger has brilliantly parodied that concept).
We're seeing this with Go-Busters, which started by being a "spy themed show" with a serious tone and focus about the energy of the future, the Enetron and a big plot about the heroes's parents stuck in hyperspace; and then, became more light hearted with more humor, started to forget about Enetron, and threw a "finale-like arc" at the middle to conclude the "hyperspace" plot, and introduced a "Messiah-cards plot"
If I'm not wrong there were other similar cases of brutal changes in the middle of a sentai series:
-JAKQ (low ratings): begins as a very serious show with heroes having to become cyborgs because of tragic events, criminal terrorists with a pretty brutal leader, and lots of angst; and then, the serious boss is replaced by the funny and over-the -top Big One, who overshadows the team, introduction of plenty of comic relief characters and slapstick humor (with bullfighting, and rat bombs)
- Battle Fever J: very mild case, because of a casting mistake: Maria Nagisa replacing Diane Martin as Miss America
- perhaps Liveman, with the intro of Black Bison and Green Sai, who didn't really managed to be intregrated into the storyline.
-Turboranger (low ratings; dunno about the toys): replacement midway of the villains: the focus switched from the demonic Boma who were the central villains with Yamimaru as the lone wolf, to Yamimaru himself, by offing most of the main Boma and bringing up a female partner (Kirika) to Yamimaru.
- Fiveman: the Fiveman puppets: no need to add more
- Kakuranger (low ratings) : the series begins as a completely comedic and parodic series, with idiotic heroes and over the top villains and a hammy narrator, and then, starting with episode 15, starts having more serious stories, more dangerous villains, and the narrator leaves at episode 24. Then Kakuranger has both serious stories and comedic episodes.
-Ohranger : very serious and dramatic tone at the beginning: apparently, because of the Sarin attack and the Kobe earthquake, Ohranger began to get a more light hearted tone; but eventually, Ohranger managed to have a good balance between humor and seriousness (besides, because of the big success of Ohranger toys, the show was less victim of executive meddling later)
- a very mild case in Timeranger: I guess that the reason Timefire had a dino mecha was a way to try to increase the dysmal toys sales of Timeranger)
- I've heard that Goseiger also had executive meddling with a change of producers, but I don't really know exactly how the show has been changed because of that.
Have I forgotten something? Did I say stuff that was wrong?
Your thoughts?

 

[Lynxara]

- Kakuranger (low ratings) : the series begins as a completely comedic and parodic series, with idiotic heroes and over the top villains and a hammy narrator, and then, starting with episode 15, starts having more serious stories, more dangerous villains, and the narrator leaves at episode 24. Then Kakuranger has both serious stories and comedic episodes.

I believe Kakuranger's creators have stated that the show's shift between comedy and serious arcs was planned all along. Likewise, it was also planned to only use the rakugo storyteller for the show's early portions, basically to help people get comfortable with the idea of intentionally comedic Sentai. I find this believable, since this is mostly the same production team that had the gumption to actually kill Burai in Zyuranger. The other cases you bring up are pretty classic examples of executive meddling, as far as I know.

I should point out that Carranger also has a couple arcs that parody executive meddling, though they're a bit more subtle than Akibaranger's. The mid-season addition villain, Professor Richiker, gets infused with mysterious evil energy from space and then goes through a dead-on parody of a "the villains are getting serious now, guys!!" arc. This leads directly to the Carrangers getting the VRV Machines and beating Richiker fairly easily.

After Richiker's attempt at getting serious leads to his prompt demise, Gynamo returns to lead Bowzock and claims that he will make the gang serious again by... changing their name. After going through two different episodes with modified "upgrade" names, Gynamo admits in the third episode of the arc that ... he couldn't think of any more cool names. Not coincidentally, this is the first episode where we see Carranger's parody of old school Sentai endgame bosses make an on-screen appearance.

- I've heard that Goseiger also had executive meddling with a change of producers, but I don't really know exactly how the show has been changed because of that

Wakamatsu's episodes of Goseiger feature better, more dramatic plotting, and tighten up the characters such that it's more obvious who they are and how they're supposed to be developing. It's not a huge change, but if you sat through all of the first two arcs the upswing in quality is really noticeable. You also see the Goseiger toy line get an overhaul at this point, and some of the show's earlier, poorly-received toys stop putting in regular appearances. This changes the way the fights feel, with less CG and more traditional model and suitwork.

 

[Keith Justice]

You know... for all the "re-jiggering" Go-Busters was suppose to have done......... it doesn't really seem any different to me than what we got from the beginning.

 

[live jetabare]

Wakamatsu's episodes of Goseiger feature better, more dramatic plotting, and tighten up the characters such that it's more obvious who they are and how they're supposed to be developing. It's not a huge change, but if you sat through all of the first two arcs the upswing in quality is really noticeable. You also see the Goseiger toy line get an overhaul at this point, and some of the show's earlier, poorly-received toys stop putting in regular appearances. This changes the way the fights feel, with less CG and more traditional model and suitwork.

Wakamatsu started producing Goseiger when the Matrintis arc started, right?

 

[lazycoconut]

Would we count stuff that Toei shoehorns in just because they think it's marketable, such as the increasing amount of Rider influence over Sentai, or the way that for several years after Dekaranger Toei tried to make its successors imitate it in some way?

 

[Survivor_BUFF]

Go-Busters, which started by being a "spy themed show" with a serious tone and focus about the energy of the future, the Enetron and a big plot about the heroes's parents stuck in hyperspace; and then, became more light hearted with more humor, started to forget about Enetron, and threw a "finale-like arc" at the middle to conclude the "hyperspace" plot, and introduced a "Messiah-cards plot"

You know... for all the "re-jiggering" Go-Busters was suppose to have done......... it doesn't really seem any different to me than what we got from the beginning.

A bit off-topic, but... This isn't the first time I've seen Go-Busters labeled as spy-themed, and I don't get where that's coming from. Their identities have never seemed to be particularly secretive.

Anyway, I'm with Keith. It feels pretty much the same to me. If anything, I think it's more serious now. We have more Jin's-gonna-die and less chicken interference. The enetron was pretty front and center, but the way it really factored in was the Vaglass stealing it--and their stealing it was to get power for taking over.

 

[Auvers]

You know... for all the "re-jiggering" Go-Busters was suppose to have done......... it doesn't really seem any different to me than what we got from the beginning.

The theme is nearly gone completely, that's kind of half the show.

 

[Toku Prime]

I suppose Gokaiger could maybe count? It didn't end up anything like what had originally been intended, but it was more of a case of executive-going-with-the-flow when they suddenly had former sentai actors declaring themselves available in mass quantities.

Wakamatsu's episodes of Goseiger feature better, more dramatic plotting, and tighten up the characters such that it's more obvious who they are and how they're supposed to be developing. It's not a huge change, but if you sat through all of the first two arcs the upswing in quality is really noticeable. You also see the Goseiger toy line get an overhaul at this point, and some of the show's earlier, poorly-received toys stop putting in regular appearances. This changes the way the fights feel, with less CG and more traditional model and suitwork.

I don't know if it was due to executive meddling or not, but Goseiger certainly features one of the most out of place direction changes for a character of recent years. Alata spends most of the series as a pretty quiet, very easy going sort of a guy. He's not at all serious and has a "do what you feel like, and it will all work somehow" attitude...until the final arc where he suddenly starts making these "rousing the troops" speeches about the team's mission in the middle of combat. It feels really out of character for him and I can't see why they would have done it unless they were told to make him more of a "typical" red. Goseiger is the only series I've seen so far (out of ten, so there may be more) that specifically devoted an episode to confirming that there isn't a group leader, and it seems like a complete 180 degree turn to start trying to build Alata into one at the end.

You know... for all the "re-jiggering" Go-Busters was suppose to have done......... it doesn't really seem any different to me than what we got from the beginning.

Go-Busters has gone through a lot of plot changes; almost to the point where it feels like we are in the second season of a shorter show. But I agree that it doesn't seem like the retool touched the core trio's personalities, and as they are the bedrock of the show it doesn't bug me anywhere near as badly as the Goseiger example above. As a part of the minority of people who don't mind Go-Busters (I totally agree with all the criticism people point out about it - it just doesn't bug me somehow) my only real complaint is that Jin and J have almost entirely been written out (I normally don't care for sixth rangers, but Jin and J were headed straight to the top of my favourites list). I also can't really call it a complaint as such, but the retool hasn't made the show any better at promoting it's toy mecha either. Great Go-Buster was seemingly ditched in the retool, and I think we saw more of the pre-retool Ace Stag Custom than we've seen of Li-Oh combining with the others so far (and I'm still waiting to see BC-04 and SJ-05 in their beetle modes again *stomps feet*)

 

[bleachjoj]

Honestly there may have been some but I never believed this GoBusters massive retool thing. It just seems to me that the show just isn't that good. I think the production team just didn't know what they wanted the show to be.

 

[Ryuutaros]

^

IMO the early episodes made it very clear on how the staff wanted Go-Busters to be: A tragic family story, a larger focus on realistic miniature/mecha fights with dynamic camera shots and natural lighting, spy/military theme etc.

But everyone is saying how this just doesn't appeal to the target audience and therefore low ratings and executive meddling etc.

IMO after episode 30 I have no idea where this series is going so far.