2020 Super Task Force Series Confirmed - Majin Sentai Kirameiger

[Black Fang]

I like the vehicles. We don't see them very often, and yes I know Lupin v Pato just did it 2 years ago but before that it took a long break.

ToQger was only four years before LuPat. But I suppose that is a long break compared to prior decades where they might have been one or two years between shows with all vehicle mechas.

 

[Toku Prime]

Is this the first time Toei had marketing this tight before? Normally by this date/year we would have the the full Q1 catalog to enjoy. Now its like they slowly trickle out little by little. Not to mention the troll article with Red's car actually belonging to Green.

Yup, they've had a big clamp-down. The toy catalog has already been out, but Bandai didn't put any product pictures in either the Sentai or Rider sections. All the images above are from the latest issue of Telebi-kun magazine, except for the most recent one I posted (with all five mechs) which was from the official series announcement.

The toy catalogs have never been intended for public consumption. We're not supposed to know about the products within them until they get officially announced later. But in the last year or so there's been a couple of incidents where staff working on toku shows have been interacting on twitter, only to get loads of tweets asking them about things that the public shouldn't yet have known existed...and those tweets were almost entirely in English. So it looks like the foreign fandom has forced their hand.

Are you sure red doesn't also have a car that looks like green's?

Always possible, but apparently the text in the magazine next to the image of the red car said something like "could this be the new Red's mecha?" So it seems like a "we never said that it was his" situation.

 

[Kainsword17]

Hello again.

What are the monsters of the week, we know about the bad guys but what are the kaijin?

 

[Red Samurai Ninja]

Those costumes are mixed with Turboranger and Carranger.

 

[Dr Kain]

According to Toei the reason Kirameiger combines jewels and vehicles is because boys like vehicles, girls like jewels, so they are combining the two in order to sell Kirameiger towards both camps as it will give the Sentai franchise "a fresh outlook."

And this is why Sentai has been in a slump for the last decade.

 

[Kainsword17]

Ok, I have a question. What on earth is this thing?

 

[Black Fang]

An Octopus giganteus.

 

[Toku Prime]

Toei have confirmed that filming on Kiramager has come to a halt after actor Rio Komiya, who plays the red ranger, Juuru Atsuta, has tested positive for COVID-19.

Toei has stated that they have already completed filming on enough episodes to keep the show airing up until mid-May and hope to be able to resume filming before there is any gap in broadcast. But it should be noted that case numbers seem to be rising in Japan at the moment, with speculation that the Prime Minister is preparing to declare a state of emergency in the next few days.

I'm sure we all wish Rio a swift recovery, and for everyone else working on the show to stay safe.

 

[Dr Kain]

I'm surprised it's taken this long for them to halt production. They should also halt Zero-One.

 

[Toku Prime]

I haven't really been keeping tabs of the specific situation in Japan, but it sounds like they're one of the countries that's a little behind in terms of getting locked down etc. It feels like it's only a matter of time though.

Toei say that none of the other cast or crew members are reporting symptoms at this time, although they also said that Rio was still filming on-set as recently as Friday. They don't mention whether the rest of the cast and crew are now isolating, but hopefully they are

Toei have, however, confirmed that as of yesterday their studio facilities have been closed and will undergo a complete disinfecting. This means that it's now the decision of health officials as to when it can re-open.

Apparently the studio space was being used by four productions at the time, but only three of them have been named: Kiramager, along with 'Tokuso9' and 'Keishicho Sosaikkacho 2020' (both seem to be police procedurals). It would seem like an obvious guess that Zero-One would be the fourth, which I guess means at the very least they can't use their standing sets (Aruto's office, that room with the fancy 3D printer that makes Progrise keys, etc).