2018 Super Sentai Series

There was a Kikaider reboot?

Dr Kain said:

There was a Kikaider reboot?

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Yup. It did not exactly set the world alight, but it did have an official US release (with English subs) from Generation Kikaida.

He also made an appearance as Jiro in an episode of Kamen Rider Gaim to promote the film.

Toku Prime said:

Yup. It did not exactly set the world alight, but it did have an official US release (with English subs) from Generation Kikaida.

He also made an appearance as Jiro in an episode of Kamen Rider Gaim to promote the film.

Click to expand...

Oh that's right. I remember that now. That was a terrible episode of Gaim. lol

The show's official twitter account has announced that LvP will be getting a 'Super Battle DVD' (as opposed to Kamen Rider's 'Hyper Battle DVDs') in the June 30th issue. It will be called 'Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger vs. Keisatsu Sentai Patranger: GIRLFRIENDS ARMY' and will feature Lupin Yellow and Patren #3 teaming up.

Japanese comedian Naoki Tanaka has been cast in Lupinranger VS Patranger's summer movie as a detective called 'Herlock Sholmes'.

In the original Arsene Lupin novels, the gentleman thief encountered a master detective by this name, who was clearly intended to be Sherlock Holmes except at the time that character was still under copyright and the family of Arthur Conan Doyle refused to allow writer Maurice Leblanc to include him.

Tanaka has commented to say he enjoyed watching Goranger and JAKQ as a child and later watched Go-Onger and Shinkenger with his own children.

The movie will be written by the series' head writer, Junko Komura, and directed by Teruaki Sugihara, who helmed the first two episodes of the series.

OMG

Our new seventh ranger, Noel Takao, played by Seiya Motoki. Noel is from the global Police's French HQ.

Annoyingly, it seems I can't link pictures from twitter in here anymore, otherwise I'd add a photo taken of the back of his police uniform jacket that states "undercover officer". As you'd therefore expect, he's going to be playing a double agent working with both sides.

And as the Televi-kun DVD special comes out at the end of the month, the trailer for it is now out too.

Yet more news concerning new LuPat specials! This time both are coming to streaming services.

'The Ultimate Weird Combination' is coming to Japanese streaming service Videopass on August 4th. It is a comedy special in which a bank-robbing Gangler hits Lupin Red and Patren #1 with special magnetic rays that stick them together.

'The Other Patren #2' is a more serious offering coming to Toei's Tokusatsu Fan Club's streaming service. A Gangler appears that Keiichiro (Patren #1) and Tsukasa (Patren #3) have encountered before but Sakuya (Patren #2) has not. Keiichiro completely loses control and attempts to kill the Gangler by himself, forcing Tsukasa to explain the situation to Sakuya: He is not the first Patren #2. This Gangler previously appeared not long after the Patrangers were originally formed and Sakuya's predecessor attempted to take him down (and I'm presuming was killed?).

Today saw the release of 'Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger vs. Keisatsu Sentai Patranger en film'. The movie features the 'Jackpot Striker' which has the ability to merge the Lupinrangers (in the same way that the normal Good Striker has the ability to merge the Patrangers) to form Lupin Tricolor. Behold!
Jackpot Striker will also be used to form the movie-exclusive mecha, Lupin Rex, which can be seen in the bottom right of the movie's poster.

I don't think it was mentioned on here but a while back it seemed like there was good news for LuPat, as it was suggested that it had increased viewing figures compared to Kyuranger. However, the good news has not continued.

A few days ago Bandai published a document called "Financial Highlights for the First Quarter of the Fiscal Year". A link to the document can be found here.

A reminder here that fiscal years begin in April, so this document is Bandai reporting on how it did in April, May and June. The bad news is that toy sales for Super Sentai totalled 1.4 billion yen. That may seem like an awful lot, but for comparison the same time period last year (while Kyuranger was airing) saw sales of Sentai toys totally 2.9 billion yen. So toy sales have roughly halved since the same time last year.

Also of note is that Ultraman R/B has just started and Bandai predict toy sales of 1.8 billion yen in the second quarter (before the end of September). If that proves to be accurate then Ultraman will surpass Sentai in initial toy sales for the first time ever (though of course Sentai may overtake it in the end just by virtue of the show being on for a full year rather than six months).

Obviously toy sales are not directly connected to how much people may enjoy the show. But it could mean things are shaken up for LuPat in it's second half as they attempt to boost sales. Or it could have budget implications for the next series.