Yep, I remember this well. It was a huge deal and it made me very scared at the time, that live action Power Rangers (in America only, obviously) was going to die and go away.
Fortunately Toei stopped it completely.
Because Toei has been making consistently great series that can translate well and not look stupid unless Disney or Saban has to go out of their way to do so?
The live action show to be deadly honest went to crap after MF and only got better in RPM. It still hasn't recovered and frankly, the show needs new blood and a shot in the leg to make it better.
Pray tell why an animated series would be worse than what we are getting right now? I've seen the anime Ultramen and they were top notch, and the same could have been for these. Also, why would Toei even care when they make a quick buck from the shows anyways?
For all we know, the animated version could just use the same suit designs but different robot designs, and by this time, America had their own molds to begin with as far as BoA is concerned. If there was any sense, they could've likely had used the sentai designs , but more flexible. [HIDE]Sometimes, Japanese companies make as much sense as those who get pleasure from profit loss and failure. I recall Tsuburaya being pricks over the Ultraman franchise and look at it now, almost irrelevant in the US alongside Kamen Rider. Almost the same scenario. And lets not forget Nintendo, which has revived region locks.
The Japanese suits have this ego that their products are worth so much when in reality without the West, many of these franchises would have been a local phenomena that would have fizzled 30 years ago or been nothing. A very huge reason why Sentai failed here and was very patchwork over the globe and Power Rangers went global was because PR had consistent branding, a bit of luck and actual marketing. Look at Dragonball and how its been highly influenced by the global market: it even uses the Sabanized logo.Without America and the global market, the last DB game would've been that PSX GT.
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I'd love to get into more details, but to keep it shorter, Toei missed a huger opportunity by not making it animated. Live action can only go so far and animation, if it were given a decent direction ,would be more compelling than the current Saban seasons many bicker about. Though I don't mind them, I'd take an animated franchise with semi decent writers and production values than a live action version that doesn't have the effort put into it.
It's not like there is any other tokusatsu in the States anyways.
If it wasn't Toei, then it amounts to production issues ,typical in the industry. Most things do not see the time of day.