Super sentai : colored heroes protectiong the Earth from evil? who cares?

[live jetabare]

It's especially true in sentai series penned by Naruhisa Arakawa.
In Abaranger, the Evolian invasion pretty much takes the backseat, since the main conflicts in the show are the Asuka/Jeanne and the Ryouga/ Mikoto ones, and in both cases, the true evil comes from within the characters more than a true evil force (Asuka being lured by the power of the evil armor, and letting himself be possessed by it; Mahoro becoming evil, after having been raped, and as a result, wanting revenge against the one who should have protected against that but didn't; more than Dezumozorya, both characters have first to get over their own mistakes and their dreadful consequences to survive; they had to win first against themselves before winning against the enemy ; Mikoto was a man who felt he didn't have any real purpose in his life, so he became obsessed with having excitement, even if it means dying in the process ; and how can you care about the lives of others, if you don't even care for your own life? That's why Ryoga, who believes in others, wanted so much to save Mikoto: because he wanted him to care about his own life, because it was the only way for him to be able to care about others and stop playing sick games. It's interesting to notice that Mikoto "turned good" once he's found a purpose, and a reason to live). The other Evolian were pretty much in the background, and Lije began to get development once she's been involved with Abarekiller ; and in her case, it's arguable if she is even responsible for her actions, especially since a part of her (the mysterious girl) was helping the heroes.

Dekaranger: Deka is a show which had only one main villain, the Agent Abrella; and unlike most regular villains, he wasn't the leader of the Alienizers, but rather their dealer. As such, Dekaranger was dealing with the daily life of a special police group, rather than a plot about saving Earth from evil, since they fought against evil as an everyday job. The show was mostly parodying police stock plots, with the Alienizers being colorful criminals.

Gokaiger was the tribute series, who was more caring about being an homage of the sentai franchise than anything else; despite having a traditional enemy group (the Zangyack invaders) they were pretty much underused, and kept in the background.

It can be noticed that Arakawa isn't the only main writer who want sentai series to go well beyond the "colored heroes vs evil" plot ; in her most personal series, Kobayashi tried it as well; it's especially obvious in Timeranger, as explained in that post http://forums.henshinjustice.net/showthread.php?t=84122 ; besides, let's look at the heroes
-Tatsuya/ TimeRed: he feels like he can't escape his fate of being his father's successor in the Asami group; despite that, he tries to find a different way to live, a way that's his own way (the Tomorrow Research) and not what his family decides for him; a lot of episodes deal with that theme, and how it influences his relationship with his dad. Timeranger is a lot about how Tatsuya is gonna find his way, and choose his fate.
- Ayase/Timeblue: he's got a disease, which forced him to give up his racing career and he's only got one or two years to live: despite that, he decides to choose to live the way he wants; even if his life isn't gonna be very long, he's gonna choose the way to live the time he's got.
Naoto/ Timefire: it's interesting to see how he wants to climb the social ladder, despite his poor upbringing, that made him suffer; by becoming Timefire and the City Guardians leader, he wants to change his social fate, by being close to powerful people and get power that way
Shion and Yuuri have both had an event early in their lives that had an huge impact on their destiny (Shion losing his planet, and being raised in a lab on Earth; Yuuri losing her family to Dolnero, and, as a result, becoming a cop to follow her father's footsteps and bring her family's murderers to justice), and have to live with it and find their way
- and then we have Domon, who falls in love with Honomi-san and has to make choices about how to deal with that, despite being from a different era from them.

Moreover, I think that the reason Shinkenger suffered from "plot stalling" is because Kobayashi cared more about describing the relationship between a lord and his servants, and what it means to have people putting their lives at risk for you (and the Kagemusha plot made that theme even more powerful, since Takeru knew he wasn't the one he pretended to be, even if he had to do that deception for the greater good) than the actual conflict itself.

Your thoughts?

 

[Glamador]

Well...there's a difference between giving a lot of focus to secondary plotlines and nobody giving a crap about the invading force. Coming into this thread I thought it was going to a discussion about how in some series the enemy is *supposedly* attacking but never does much real harm or else nobody cares that they're there.

 

[Fantasy Leader]

I think you're being a little harsh towards Arakawa by saying he "doesn't care." I don't think his villain executions are done the way they are simply because he doesn't care. I'm sure he cares about the villains, but just has different priorities with his stories. Arakawa always gives all of his characters something to do in the show, whether it's minimal or major. Sure, direct villain execution like how Hirohisa Soda did it is not something that Arakawa cares much for. But I disagree that a lot of the villains are just tacked on to the shows. I feel like a lot of the Monsters of the Weeks in these shows are used as a voice to criticize particular social failings, which are stories that are often quite prominent in Arakawa's works. Arakawa's works are often in a style that's like a social commentary. And that's something where Arakawa has chosen to use the villains only when he believes when they are needed at most.

 

[live jetabare]

Sure, direct villain execution like how Hirohisa Soda did it is not something that Arakawa cares much for.

That was my point

But I disagree that a lot of the villains are just tacked on to the shows. I feel like a lot of the Monsters of the Weeks in these shows are used as a voice to criticize particular social failings, which are stories that are often quite prominent in Arakawa's works. Arakawa's works are often in a style that's like a social commentary. And that's something where Arakawa has chosen to use the villains only when he believes when they are needed at most.

Dekaranger puts a lot of focus on his monsters of the week, making them true characters more than most sentai series, so I don't feel they're tacked. And I've detailed in Aba how Arakawa used its antagonists.

 

[live jetabare]

Well...there's a difference between giving a lot of focus to secondary plotlines and nobody giving a crap about the invading force. Coming into this thread I thought it was going to a discussion about how in some series the enemy is *supposedly* attacking but never does much real harm or else nobody cares that they're there.

It can be if you choose to discuss about that; do you have some ideas about that?

 

[Fantasy Leader]

That was my point


Dekaranger puts a lot of focus on his monsters of the week, making them true characters more than most sentai series, so I don't feel they're tacked. And I've detailed in Aba how Arakawa used its antagonists.

What I mean by "doesn't care much for," is that direct heroes vs villains conflicts are not the top priorities of Arakawa's stories. But I know Arakawa never forgets to give each of the villains some kind of role in his shows, even if some of them aren't as prominent as certain other characters.

 

[Glamador]

It can be if you choose to discuss about that; do you have some ideas about that?

Well I don't much care for Sentai. So...can't really contribute much on that front.