question: super sentai and demography audience

[KingRanger]

Obviously you have different ideas on the merits of Sentai, do you really need to repeat yourself? Why not actually go into detail on what you disagree with him?

Rescue Fire I felt was a little kiddy in its earliest episodes, but it found its voice by I wanna say episode 14. It was one of those shows that dealt with showing the real world motivations behind wanting to be a hero. There's also that ending that has the villain saying he won't come back to attack earth for so long as the hero can prove that humans are worth protecting and the moment that he sees earth is in bad hands, he'll return. Then you have Jokaen, about as tragic a villain as you can get. The show really amped up the dramatics its second half and became a pretty incredible watch.

It's more than obvious who sentai is targeted at. I shouldn't have to explain it.

 

[Bigdog]

Your question goes to a single factor: nostalgia and rose-tinted classes. In many series not eclusing Japan's , there are generation gaps whom say THEIR version is THE version and anything else is heresy and should be burned. Showa fans of most fandoms (aka first gen) tend to hate on the second gen for X reason no matter how ridiculous it would be or legit, just because it is newer and therefore seen as "inferior". Heisei fans (aka the second gen) deplore much of Showa perhaps due to its age or the costumes, effects or style, but nonetheless they accept it begrudgingly if a part of the canon if they don't dislike it. Overall, the Showa fanbase is by far generally snobbish in their views, but only generally, liek the other two.

For Sentai, it has evolved due to its times. In the 80's there was Star Wars, Marvel had some influence over the series , and the tone became to be dystopian. The Sci-finess of the franchise reflected this and its why Bioman , Shaider , Black and many of the series at the time were fairly dark. The economy began to improve and the media reflected the unsureness in oneself as a Japanese citizen. You know, the Japanese film industry and by extnesiion their economy suffered huge blows like most areas in the world and the move to television serials reflected that. Films like Godzilla came back after a decade and we see this resurgence. Anone remember Black and the Little Mermaid?

People had the nostalgia for older products and a revival of the Kamen Rider series and by extension a renewal of Sentai invigorated both series. But by Fiveman, it went stale. So with a better economy, you get more optimistic stories aka light hearted scifi or fantasy as you will, and series which rode on the unsureness of the people like Rider and the Metal Hero faded gradually as they struggled and failed to reinvent themselves for a new generation.

As seen in the 90's, the tone of the Sentai were serious to comic, depending on the franchise's and country's state. Ohranger was dark at the wrong time ( the explosion) and didn't stay with its tone and Carranger came to its rescue. People like consistency , and in bad times, well they love things to bring hope. Look at Gobusters for example.
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Power Rangers was the opposite because the series became more and more serious and didn't have a breather , plus change is a ***** to many. Once Turbo embraced the comic, it got far better reception but it took In Space to secure the franchise for posterity due to ratings.
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I'm not sure of the specifics of the 2000's , but I believe the shift was from the fall of the economy in the late 90's , which like the previous saw a return to much darker stories and themes. GARO anyone?

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In short, Sentai evolves like anything else and for the times it was made, people loved it. Seeing as we don't have much of a generation gap any longer mostly anywhere, people can have the open mind to enjoy older series and media. Japan was never like America in this aspect with gen gaps , but you understand. It largely depends on the viewer and their tastes.

Sure its kidy right now in places, but hell, its not the end of the world. Anyone can enjoy any story so long as it is decently written ,executed and acted. And as long as a story accomplishes those three things, I mind not light hearted or dark as long as there's a balance. Too much dark is depressing and almost corny while camp can be played to its advantage. ITs how you handle a material rather than how its tone sucks or otherwise.

Stop drinking the kool aid,nostalgic men and women. Sentai has been generally the same: five multi-colored heroes with robots that give children lessons and hope and happiness.

 

[RaiDK]

It's more than obvious who sentai is targeted at. I shouldn't have to explain it.

Watching Sentai I feel like it does have a wider appeal. The early episodes of Rescue Fire I didn't feel had that,they were much more targetted.

 

[Lynxara]

Then it took a step in a more "lighthearted" direction for Zyuranger (they were going to go back to being more serious with Ohranger, but real world circumstances meant that the show was more successful when it was kept lightweight and happy).

That's... not quite true with Ohranger. That show is a very exceptional and somewhat complicated case.

Generally, the first cours (or 13 episodes) of Ohranger are thought to be the show's "serious" part, while the remainder is thought to be where Ohranger was retooled to be sillier. Ohranger's ratings average through its first 13 episodes is 4.8%. The average rating of its remaining episodes is 4.2%.
So, audiences found the sillier version a bit less appealing than the serious version.

This is a case where Toei retooled not to boost ratings, but merely to avoid controversy. Ohranger as originally conceived featured elements that were startlingly reminiscent of major tragedies that happened to occur that year. The story goes that Toei and especially the network were afraid of backlash and moved to tone the show down.*

Despite the ratings being mediocre, Ohranger sold tons and tons of toys. The ratings numbers I have don't break the show's ratings down by demographic. So, it's possible that the "silly" version of Ohranger was very appealing to children, without appealing much to other groups.

* I've also read that certain parties at Toei were never too keen on the idea of revisiting Sentai's grim past, believing that the lighter and more kid-oriented approach that settled in with Zyuranger sold toys better. This theory argues that there wasn't major pressure from the network for changes, just Toei execs taking advantage of the situation to try and force Ohranger to be more "modern" (and therefore marketable). I can't trace this theory back to a credible source, so take this with a grain of salt.