A Public Service Announcement from DC...

[Fox-Chan]

Yep. I was watching a scene from Kabuto on YouTube this past Monday and someone asked me if I was watching Power Rangers. I said "No", and they said, "Yes you are. That's Japanese Power Rangers."

I didn't have enough nerd rage in me to tell him he didn't know what the **** he was talking about--so I moved on. I don't bother getting people to watch Toku with me that aren't already Toku fans.

To be fair, there are always those kind of repercussions when watching stuff on the computer in a public area. The guy didn't need to be such a jerkface about it though.

 

[Forever Knight]

Are people still shocked that NON fans would call it "Japanses Power Rangers"?.

 

[KouAidou]

Are people still shocked that NON fans would call it "Japanses Power Rangers"?.

I think it's more that the dude persisted even after Shinigami corrected him. That's asshole behavior regardless of the subject.

 

[Forever Knight]

Happens to me all the time. I'm at the point of introducting it as "Japanese Power Rangers" from now on. :laugh:

 

[KouAidou]

I do find it useful to use Power Rangers as a reference point on the occasion that the subject comes up. I mean, otherwise they have no reference point at all, and that just makes it even harder to get the idea across.

I suppose you could also say "Japanese superheroes," but I'm not sure that's the right image, either...

Generally speaking though, I think the most important thing about explaining tokusatsu to people is that you don't try to do it in the hearing vicinity of complete assholes. (Really, this is a good rule of thumb for most things in life)

 

[Black Fang]

I suppose you could also say "Japanese superheroes," but I'm not sure that's the right image, either...

Why not? Technically tokusatsu means "special effects" but a good lot of the genre consists of superheroes.

 

[olataro]

Very funny, yea yea, you are right, they are kid's shows. I can never say no to that. But the fact is, if you like a series since childhood. and you like it when you are an adult, it shows only one thing. Though its a kid show it managed to appeal to an older audience.

That is why those riders/ultraman/japanese power ranger, still remain popular till this day.

Though i like to think Kamen riders are actually for kids and teenagers as
1) the girls are usually models (very nice ones)
2) The plot is thick
3) The story is never the same

Compared to ultraman and rangers, i think rider series are more appealing since their story always has a great plot.

Oh and for the power rangers, yea......they really are made for kids....

 

[olataro]

Why not? Technically tokusatsu means "special effects" but a good lot of the genre consists of superheroes.

a VERY INTERESTING VIEW! And i agreed completely. If they can make a hollywood movie about a man wearing his underwear inside out with a cloak, and could shoot laser beams from his eyes, why couldnt you view toku as the american version of superheroes.

Answer is this : Western Bias and also thnx to Saban and power rangers for making toku look suoer childish.

 

[KouAidou]

Why not? Technically tokusatsu means "special effects" but a good lot of the genre consists of superheroes.

Oh, I totally agree that it is. But just in terms of connotation, in terms of what synapses fire in response to certain words, I wonder if describing it to a westerner coming to it with no knowledge of the genre would give them a wrong idea of what it's like.

Anyway, I'm not stating definitively that it will, I'm just musing on the question and wondering what people think.

 

[Black Fang]

I don't see why it would, unless they're assuming a superhero must as a rule fight mostly ordinary criminals, independent masterminds and only occasionally a large enemy organization. All of this toku has done, even though most of the time it's the third category.