Change in the Sentai/Rider format - how much and why?

Scissors said:

Gekiranger and Go-Busters are very character-driven, which is very boring in the eyes of a 3-year old who wants to see shiny suits, explosions and goofy characters.

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Gokaiger also just fell in ratings compared to Goseiger though. So, "keepings things flashy" didn't really help there... Go-Busters numbers have hit a new low, but they're just the natural conclusion of a show that has been losing ratings for years every year, since Boukenger aired. Since then, the only exception has been Shinkenger and even there it couldn't raise the ratings by much. With that kind of trend, they'd inevitably hit record lows at some point.

Black Fang said:

Hopefully Wizard doesn't do this as well. I don't want another Shroud, Accel, "Rider must become more powerful around the 40s or we're all doomed!", and so on for a while.

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Fourze is clearly recycling the W formula because its staff are almost 100% W alumni. Tsukada producing is the most obvious culprit for the concept recycling, but all of Fourze's three writers also contributed to W. I've been disappointed by the extent to which Fourze is W in a funny hat, to the point where I'm kind of glad we're getting a new head producer next year.

Takahashi might push some superficially W-like concepts on Utsunomiya (the way he clearly did on Takebe in OOO), but a different creator would ultimately end up interpret them differently. That said, the last Rider show Utsunomiya worked on was Kiva, so if Wizard ends up being a rehash of anything, I expect it to be that series.

Scissors said:

I can understand Go-Busters getting bad ratings. They are trying to use elements from Kamen Rider, completely forgetting that the target audience is 3-5 year olds.

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Funny, I think that shows like OOO and Fourze target "3-5 year olds".
Just look at Dekaranger, Gaoranger or Timeranger.
Go-Busters are awesome. It's best Sentai since Gekiranger and If Japanese kids can't understand that simple thing I feel pity for them:sayin:

I can't understand only one thing - ratings go down from year to year. Why Toei doesn't change auditory for their shows? If Go-Busters sells are good, that means that shows suffers only from his childish auditory. They just should refocus their shows for more adult people(That's doesn't mean 18+ or something like that though).

Kamen Rider IXA said:

Funny, I think that shows like OOO and Fourze target "3-5 year olds".
Just look at Dekaranger, Gaoranger or Timeranger.
Go-Busters are awesome. It's best Sentai since Gekiranger and If Japanese kids can't understand that simple thing I feel pity for them:sayin:

I can't understand only one thing - ratings go down from year to year. Why the hell Toei doesn't change auditory for their shows? If Go-Busters sells are good, that means that shows suffers only from his childish auditory. They just should refocus their shows for more adult people(That's doesn't mean 18+ or something like that though).

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Other posters have mentioned on here that older viewers in Japan, or at least those that post about it on the internet, don't seem fond of Gekiranger or Go-Busters either. So it's not just children who didn't like those shows ...

3-5 years old? In other words, SS is aimed at an audience younger than PR, which is 6-11?

lazycoconut said:

Other posters have mentioned on here that older viewers in Japan, or at least those that post about it on the internet, don't seem fond of Gekiranger or Go-Busters either. So it's not just children who didn't like those shows ...

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Well then I can't understand older viewers either. Though not being Perfect Sentai Series, both Geki and Go-Busters brought lots of new things in Sentai.

Kamen Rider IXA said:

Well then I can't understand older viewers either. Though not being Perfect Sentai Series, both Geki and Go-Busters brought lots of new things in Sentai.

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That's why I'm wondering why Geki and Go-Busters have had low ratings, whereas the two most recent Kamen Rider series that were consciously trying to be different (Decade and W) did well ...

Honestly, I don't really feel like Go-Busters has brought much new to the franchise. A lot of the elements that seem "new" just seem like old elements that you'd see in the late 90s. And personally, I don't think it's working out very well in this current era. If there's anything that Go-Busters did that was new, it would be these brief elements that were shown in a lot of the first quarter of the show. Elements that haven't been touched much upon. Honestly, I'd say shows like Gekiranger and Goseiger have done better with the whole "bring in new ideas" thing.

Kamen Rider IXA said:

Well then I can't understand older viewers either. Though not being Perfect Sentai Series, both Geki and Go-Busters brought lots of new things in Sentai.

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Maybe older audiences have just given up on Sentai? I'd say that in order to make something that attracted older audiences, Sentai would need a reformulation on the level of the one Kuuga brought to Rider, where the entire series seems like something very different from before, rather than just a new entry with some gimmicks.

You can't really pull a Kuuga on a franchise like Sentai. Mainly because Kuuga came after years of barely any Rider action. I mean other than the three movies Rider didn't have any ongoing series at the time.