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One of the most repetitive criticisms of Kyoryuger, Fourze, Wizard and Gaim are the increased use of cartoony visuals. These include all sorts of physical comedy, cartoon effects on people's faces and on the screen in general, odd gestures, sound effects, and other things which are supposedly "bad on live-action". I have never been turned off by those so I'm honestly surprised that there are those who are.
Now, over the last couple or so weeks, I've been watching J-dramas from the past three years. At least five of them and counting. And among them, only one did not have those cartoony effects. Even a drama that was meant for older aged women ("Last Cinderella") included such cartoony effects, albeit in limited doses. Particularly notorious are shows that are based off of shoujo manga ("Yamada and the Seven Witches", "Itazura na Kiss: Love in TOKYO" and "Switch Girl!"). Way worse than Kyoryuger or Gaim could produce. Three shows which I particularly liked, by the way.
That got me into thinking, if shows that are made for much older and mature people and include ideas about sex and sexuality have those kind of visuals, why couldn't shows that are aimed for kids? Aren't we being elitist if we dismiss a show because of "cartoony effects", especially shows that are especially written as comedies?
After all, I believe that tokusatsu is somewhat also an attempt to recreate drawn media in live-action form. There's nothing wrong with doing so.
Now, over the last couple or so weeks, I've been watching J-dramas from the past three years. At least five of them and counting. And among them, only one did not have those cartoony effects. Even a drama that was meant for older aged women ("Last Cinderella") included such cartoony effects, albeit in limited doses. Particularly notorious are shows that are based off of shoujo manga ("Yamada and the Seven Witches", "Itazura na Kiss: Love in TOKYO" and "Switch Girl!"). Way worse than Kyoryuger or Gaim could produce. Three shows which I particularly liked, by the way.
That got me into thinking, if shows that are made for much older and mature people and include ideas about sex and sexuality have those kind of visuals, why couldn't shows that are aimed for kids? Aren't we being elitist if we dismiss a show because of "cartoony effects", especially shows that are especially written as comedies?
After all, I believe that tokusatsu is somewhat also an attempt to recreate drawn media in live-action form. There's nothing wrong with doing so.