2019 Super Sentai Season - Ryusouger

[Toku Prime]

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The trademark bot strikes again! It's just posted a newly registered trademark that supposedly translates as 'Kishiryū Sentai Ryūsouger'!

'Kishiryū' seems to be a combination of the words for "knight" and "dragon", so it looks like Sentai will be headed in a more medieval direction this coming February!

Obvious reference joke is obvious.​

 

[Dr Kain]

All I can seem to pronounce in my head right now is Ryu Soldier rather than Soujer.

 

[Shogun_Master]

Well, people on rangerboard have been trying to translate Ryuusou & ended up with "Rice Dumplings" & "Dragon Transport." The only thing that would jump out at me with my limited Japanese is "Dragon, huh?" from the "A, sou" saying. So, I guess it must be about Knight-themed sentai who work out of a restaurant & have vaguely dragon-ish delivery vehicle mecha. lol

 

[Dr Kain]

So an entire team of Ryuuranger from Dairanger? lol

 

[Toku Prime]

Well, people on rangerboard have been trying to translate Ryuusou & ended up with "Rice Dumplings" & "Dragon Transport." The only thing that would jump out at me with my limited Japanese is "Dragon, huh?" from the "A, sou" saying. So, I guess it must be about Knight-themed sentai who work out of a restaurant & have vaguely dragon-ish delivery vehicle mecha. lol

I saw suggestions on twiter that the "sou" part could be the character for a monk/priest or perhaps "armament". The last one makes the most sense to me, particularly if they get armour upgrades.

 

[Dr Kain]

Either way, the title is quite redundant.

 

[Shogun_Master]

Well, I actually just read through the last 20 pages of this conversation on Rangerboard & it's kind of all over the place. Right now, they're saying dinosaur battleships with musical instruments somehow involved and an attempt to rip off Kyoryuuger as much as humanly possible. I will say though, that the Dinosaur rumor came in from someone claiming that there will be a Pink Ranger with some sort of Ketsaru Mecha and jumped straight to the Pterosaur species Quetzalcoatlus, yet no one seems to have remembered that it's namesake is the Aztec Dragon god Quetzalcoatl. I have no clue where Battleships came in, unless people are just assuming there will be rampant easter egg links to the Yamato Imperial Family, given that this year is an Emperor changeover.

I really do hope they've gotten a good amount of research done with the dragons, assuming they do go that route. There's a lot more to choose from than people would think:
Classic European Dragon, Classic Asian Dragon, Wyvern (two legged with wings, no forearms), Salamander (no wings, lives underground), Cockatrice, Sirrush (dinosaur-like thing that guards over Babylon gates), Roman Dragon (snake-like with forearms only & wings), Ice Dragon, Quetzalcoatl (feather necked serpent), Unkcegila (snake-like, lives underground, red jewel in forehead), River Wolf (pretty much the Lake Champlain Monster), Sea Serpent-- these all just being from the cultures that I'm aware of. I don't know much about African, South Asian/ Pacific Islander or South American mythology.

 

[Dr Kain]

I think you are forgetting how little effort Toei even bothers with these days with Sentai. They've now had two perfectly great concepts in a row that had massive potential, only to squander it by staying in a safe zone.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

And that safe zone hasn't been paying off at all. LuPato will undoubtedly be the lowest earning Sentai line to date, making four years in a row of underperforming shows. They really need to go all out and do something different beyond cast size.

 

[Dr Kain]

It didn't work out for them in the 80s either, hence why I have repeatedly said Toei needs a modern day Noboru Sugimura to helm the franchise into uncharted territory and experimentation. Get someone like Keita Amemiya, Shusuke Kaneko, Gen Urobutchi, or even Hiroyuki Imaishi to do a series or two.

BTW, rumors are circling that the show is going to be dinosaur themed rather than dragon themed. If true, that's pretty lame, especially when they had already pulled that **** with its name and Abaranger was dinosaur based.

 

[raden238]

Dinosaur themed again? It's only been about 6 years since Kyoryuger. Which wasn't that long ago 2013. Toei needs some fresh ideas or keep it simple again like GoGo-V, Timeranger, Go-Busters. The gimmick items aren't working for Sentai either, toy sales are plummeting.

 

[Toku Prime]

Eh, there's been a lot of this stuff recently. Every year there's a gap between the initial announcement and the release of any actual information where 2chan gets bored and starts speculating, and so begins a game of 'telephone' across the web until it starts being repeated as fact.

 

[Shogun_Master]

*shrugs* Well, the show's been mainly episodic slapstick with minimal plot more than anything for several years. That's great, but people do get tired of shows with little substance. It can't just keep going on like that indefinitely without something fresh being injected. Unless you're really in love with what's already there, like a lot of the foreign fans are, it is eventually going to start exhausting people.

BTW, I want to direct people to this, real quick:

I'm starting to think that Toei might be making these shows for foreigners moreso than their own people. I've been on here long enough to know a lot of the classic arguments, but does anyone else think that Toei watches some of the things we say and takes them the wrong way, or a little too seriously? Like when people kept saying that Bandai clearly wanted to make cheaper or simpler toys for children to understand, or when everyone was making fun of them for having female actresses that were weirdly young, or when everyone wanted them to be more original with the henshin device designs (& we suddenly got a burgerphone morpher & a flashlight), etc, etc?

 

[SamuraiEchidna]

I'm starting to think that Toei might be making these shows for foreigners moreso than their own people. I've been on here long enough to know a lot of the classic arguments, but does anyone else think that Toei watches some of the things we say and takes them the wrong way, or a little too seriously? Like when people kept saying that Bandai clearly wanted to make cheaper or simpler toys for children to understand, or when everyone was making fun of them for having female actresses that were weirdly young, or when everyone wanted them to be more original with the henshin device designs (& we suddenly got a burgerphone morpher & a flashlight), etc, etc?

Nice video, but it was addressing how ANIME is made, not Tokusatsu.

Regardless, the fact is that Japanese entertainment studios are definitely targeting Japanese audiences first. Think of it this way: Anime might try to give its characters various hair colors, different skin colors, and international heritages. However, most of the jokes, puns, and many other story materials were made in a way that Japanese audiences would understand it better/faster than Western audiences (even today, there are times when American companies have trouble translating the show, and either make an awkward translation choice or work around it). To put it in perspective, think about most American movies. We don't mind sharing those movies with the world, but the puns and jokes are made in a way that most English-speakers would understand, the stories are usually set in America or some place similar, the stories are written with American sensibilities for what qualifies as a good story, etc. America really is the primary audience that gets targeted first for American movies. America and Japan often bank of secondary audiences, as in the world wide/international audiences, but the companies at large usually know what's going to bring in the most profit and what's not.

Even if Toei/Bandai was thinking about it's second-hand audience when it comes to Tokusatsu, I'm not sure what the point would be. We're easily the smallest market for that specific thing. Anime is way more successful and has a wider audience range by comparison (Wouldn't be surprised if there are still some people who think Anime and cartoons are all the same thing). The most we tend to get is Power Rangers and the occasional Godzilla movie; and Power Rangers hardly counts since new toy molds are made for the Power Rangers toy line anyways. I seriously doubt there are too many adults showing Super Sentai to their kids and/or buying Figuarts for them. Keep in mind, Shout Factory releasing Super Sentai DVD boxsets is still a fairly recent thing; a few years ago it was a pipe dream that no one could have ever predicted. So there is still a HUGE number of Americans and westerners that are blissfully unaware of Super Sentai's existence.

And if I may add, I might be imagining things, but it often seems like the Japanese themselves are more critical of their fictional media than we westerners are. They are able to pick it apart more heavily and spot the plot holes pretty fast. There's still a lot of western casuals and elitists who are afraid to criticize anything Japanese because it comes from a different country, which (to them) means that we as foreigners are too dumb to fully understand it. I honestly don't believe any of that. Anime and Tokusatsu are all made by humans, and no matter what country or culture you come from, anyone can make a bad story or something that just doesn't connect with audiences like they hoped. If I had to guess, the people making Tokusatsu probably just got in a creative rut or got tired of the complaints of their domestic audience, and decided it was easier to make something fun rather than try to make a masterpiece of fiction every time. But that's just my speculation.

 

[Black Fang]

And if I may add, I might be imagining things, but it often seems like the Japanese themselves are more critical of their fictional media than we westerners are. They are able to pick it apart more heavily and spot the plot holes pretty fast. There's still a lot of western casuals and elitists who are afraid to criticize anything Japanese because it comes from a different country, which (to them) means that we as foreigners are too dumb to fully understand it. I honestly don't believe any of that. Anime and Tokusatsu are all made by humans, and no matter what country or culture you come from, anyone can make a bad story or something that just doesn't connect with audiences like they hoped. If I had to guess, the people making Tokusatsu probably just got in a creative rut or got tired of the complaints of their domestic audience, and decided it was easier to make something fun rather than try to make a masterpiece of fiction every time. But that's just my speculation.

I'm glad you included the bolded part. That describes far too many in the Western toku fandom who make the fanboards very tiresome and irritating with their dismissals of any criticisms as "Not for you!" and "Kids' show meant to sell toys!" and "Spandex-wearing guys fighting rubber monsters, it's all nonsense, don't take it seriously nerd!" As though they never got over being teased in school and are trying to come off as "I'm self aware, see I don't take this seriously, I'm normal!"

Regarding the creative rut, I wonder how much of it is due to Bandai's "merchandise quota". Perhaps some writers are good at weaving them into the stories they want to tell, and others are not. While others still just go "screw it" and don't even try adding rhyme or reason to anything. If they are trying to "make something fun" as you say, I don't think they've been succeeding even at that. For some of us, a so-called "masterpiece of fiction" IS fun.

 

[Dr Kain]

The way I look at things is that if I'm bored, the show sucks, end of story. Something can be bad and still be entertaining. On the other hand, if something is boring, there's nothing to have fun with. Sentai has been just that for me these last several years, boring. It doesn't matter what culture it is made for, what language it is in, if it is boring, it's boring.

Like someone tried to make up an excuse that I didn't understand Godzilla Planet of the Monsters because the characters were meant to be manly. I had no idea manly was a synonym for boring and then he told me I was looking at it through the eyes of an American and not a Japanese person. I don't give a damn, if I'm bored, guess what? You failed as a story teller.

 

[SamuraiEchidna]

Regarding the creative rut, I wonder how much of it is due to Bandai's "merchandise quota". Perhaps some writers are good at weaving them into the stories they want to tell, and others are not. While others still just go "screw it" and don't even try adding rhyme or reason to anything. If they are trying to "make something fun" as you say, I don't think they've been succeeding even at that. For some of us, a so-called "masterpiece of fiction" IS fun.

Good points all around. To clarify, when I said "make something fun", I didn't completely mean something fun for the audience. It's great if they achieve that, but there are times when people in studio just want to have fun doing their jobs. Does the fun they have in production transfer over to the audience's fun/engagement? Sometimes, sometimes not. It's like working an inside-joke into a comedy. People around the studio might get the joke and laugh every time, but if you can't make that joke relatable to general audiences, then it's just a punchline without proper setup.

 

[Shogun_Master]

Yeah, I suppose that makes sense.

So, I guess we're still waiting for these pictures to show up... Wake me when they get here, I suppose. lol

 

[Toku Prime]

An interesting rumour (and I stress it is an unconfirmed rumour at the moment) is going around which I thought was worth mentioning.

It suggests that following the end of LuPat there will be a five episode "Sentai history" show featuring a number of "Legend Sentai" i.e. characters from previous seasons. The only character specifically mentioned was Captain Marvelous from Gokaiger. If true, Ryusouger itself will not begin until mid March.

Another rumour (which I don't want to put too much stock in because it could just be the usual doomsayer BS) is that the bigwigs acknowledge that the last four seasons (Ninnin, ZuOh, Kyu, LuPat) have seriously under-performed, but there's currently so much in-fighting going on within Toei's toku production division that nobody has been able to drive through any serious changes. Supposedly, the bigwigs have told the production team that if Ryusouger doesn't claw it's way back to at least ToQger levels then they may not green-light another season afterwards.

 

[Dr Kain]

Why would you put dragon in your title twice if it was going to be a dinosaur themed show AGAIN?

Toei better have their top writers on this season if this show needs to be the new Jetman.