Just watched the end of the second season of Akibarangers. In a word: EPIC! I don't say that lightly either. I mean the ending really blew me away. Especially the jabs at Chaiyo. That was awesome! Arakawa must really want a job at Tsuburaya bad!
So am I reading too much into it, or was the whole plot of episode 12 a big jab at the fact there's going to be a new Ultraman series?
Seemed kind of petty to me, given how that franchise has been struggling so much as it is.
Yeah this isn't a jab at Ultraman at all. I mean when Prism Ace first showed up that's what I thought too; "Oh Ultraman jokes. Okay." But then when they revealed that Prism Ace was the creation of a foreign company whose name just happens to sound like Chaiyo Production I knew what was up. This is Arakawa attacking Chaiyo; the Thai company run by Sompote Sands that many say legally stole the rights to much of the Ultraman series and tried to get away with a lot more. Including blatant copywriter infringement.
As a few people have noted there is a series of pretty extensive articles on it at Sci-Fi Japan:
http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2007/07/01/legal-victories-for-tsuburaya-productions/
But yeah if anything this is Arakawa sticking up for Ultraman not poking fun at it! And possibly offering a cautionary tale for everyone else, including Toei who also had dealing with Chaiyo back in the day.
A major, major thing I want to point out: Tsuburaya didn't really win. As a result of the Japanese court rulings in the case, Tsuburaya no longer owns the international rights to all Ultraman series produced before Ultraman Taro. That is, Tsuburaya no longer owns international licensing rights to its most classic, easy-to-license shows. That's a huge, huge loss.
A lot of things in Akibaranger 12 are really specific references to the Chaiyo case. For instance, Hatte Saburo accidentally signing away the TV Asahi timeslot by stamping a document references how the Chaiyo case hinged on arguments about whether or not Eiji Tsuburaya really stamped a document as Chaiyo claimed.
This is all true. In fact it's the reason why some American fans have refused to purchase the Ultraman, Ultra Seven and forthcoming Ultra Q box sets released by BCI, Mill Creek and Shout! Factory because they are all technically licensed through Chaiyo and as far as they're concerned they might as well be bootlegs.
Final Thoughts
Something else about this final episode too. One thing I've noticed is that a consistent theme throughout this season of Akibaranger has been the idea of shows which are imitations of Super Sentai rather then the real deal. The most obvious example is of course The Powerful Rangers which was a direct jab at Power Rangers. But you also have Chinaman and the evil Gouraigers which were counterfeit versions of Dairanger and Hurricanger respectively. Then there was Malshina's plot to take over the entire franchise and make it about her. In each of these cases the lesson at the end of the episode was that there is no Super Sentai like the real authentic Japanese Super Sentai. Accept no imitations.
But with this final episode and introduction of Chaiyo as the big bad it seems the real "moral" that Arakawa is wanting to get across is that there are no superheroes like Japanese superheroes. You might have some convincing imitations - like Chaiyo's own Hanuman and Ultraman Millenium - but ultimately these guys are just cheap knock-offs who can't even get the tropes down - like Left vs. Right - and that's what really shows they aren't the real deal.
Again how American fans who are found of Power Rangers are suppose to feel about this is up for debate, but it's an interesting sentiment nonetheless. Rather patriot when you think about, from a Japanese perspective.
