About campiness and sentai

Who's Natsuki?

Anyway, people will either like her, not care for her, or hate her no matter what. It just happens.
Which is the point. Because of her comedic aspect they'll either like her or hate her. If she was more normal she'd either be liked or ignored.
Also I meant Natsumi. I'm really off today sorry.:sweat:
 
Here I'll give a perfect example even though it's not Sentai. Akiko. Same idea applies. If she weren't over the top and more "normal" like say...Natsuki people would either like her or not care for her.

Yeah, and I mean, how many people will rant angrily about how they HATED HATED HATED AKIKO vs. the number of people who will rant about... I dunno, any other given flaw the show had? It's the comedic elements that are polarizing. People who didn't like the show for other reasons generally just don't talk about it, or talk about their issues with it in a more subdued way.

See also: Den-O.
 
When adding Anime slapstick comedy to a live-action series, you are bound to end up with a bad product. Go-Onger falls into this category. There are just some things that can't be transferred from Anime to live-action.

You've hit the nail on the head.

Another good example would be Ryukendo. I have never seen a toku show that made me laugh as much as Ryukendo did. Again, it didn't take itself too seriously and seemed more like an overall toku-parody. It had a wonderful mix of clever one-liners, word play and slapstick that was not over the top.

I don't know if I'd call Ryukendo a parody, but it was certainly a comedy. Other than Ritsuko and Ichiko (?) and that dumb game show episode, it never went too far in its sillyness.
 
Campy is needed in ALL Toku. It's what makes it unique.

It is puzzling when people refer to Dairanger -- the series with the bondage leather generals, the skateboarding sixth ranger, and the recurring trio of villains who challenges the heroes to sporting events -- as "a serious show."

Certainly it has serious moments in it, even a serious overarching plotline. But that series is wacky as hell.
 
The series can be as whacky was a ****, it's the approach and music tone that makes it work. For example... Dairanger... done right.

You can have whacky **** all around... just dont sell whacky...but now Toei is all about that.
 
The super sentai concept itself (like a lot of toku) is wacky: people in colored suits fighting monsters,which become big, and the heroes then fight them with giant robots.
With that concept, even the most serious sentai (like Timeranger, GogoV, Changeman, Jetman) keep a wacky side . Besides, in every sentai, there are completely silly episodes. Moreover, usually, the villains are completely over the top.
Seriousness in a sentai series is a relative concept. Dairanger has a silly side, but is nonetheless more serious than Zyuranger, Carranger, or even Boukenger.
 
I felt that Go-Ongers was rather excessive in the slapstick which was a turn-off for me, I mean even when they were trying to do serious episodes (e.g. when Sousouke was turned to stone) they were piling on the slapstick. That's one thing I thought Goseigers did right was that they played the campiness subtly and didn't force it down our throats (there were a few exceptions but that's neither here nor there).
 
We keep throwing around the world "campy". Can anyone precisely define what it means? What things in toku are we calling campy?
 

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