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Great God Dragon ([info]daijinryuu) wrote in [info]fandom_wank,
@ 2004-05-28 23:41:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Current mood:annoyed

Tokusatsu fandom will be the death of itself.
So, the people at Japan Hero, upon discovery that the staff at Media Blasters have expressed some interest in shows in the tokusatsu genre (for those not In The Know, it's the genre of live-action masked superhero shows; Power Rangers was raped adapted from one franchise in this genre), have set up a sort of petition campaign to let the company know that there are a lot of people out there who are also interested. Really, it's one of the better efforts I've seen, with an attempt to make sure everything is standardized and somesuch so that it's not like one of those free-for-all psychotic Petition-Online deals.

All seemed to be going well until, in the forums, a dissenter known as ZoneFighter broke out the Fogey-o-matic decided to let people know what he thought of it all:

They should start with the golden age of tokusatsu not this plastic age we're currently in. Starting with the worst of tokusatsu would give a poor impression of it to those new to it.

This inflammatory statement, naturally, begins a downward spiral which the thread has only just begun to recover from. Some highlights:

Releasing the new series won't get them any orders from me. I can get lousy science fiction for free every Saturday afternoon (Andromeda).

The new stuff is not bringing in any new fans. This years stuff will be forgotten when next years stuff comes out. I watched the same peope who raved about Kuuga being the best suddenly decide that Agito was the best. Then Ryukki then Blade. These so called new fans are fickle.

(Yeah, because it's not conceivable that the shows just keep getting better or anything.)

And the real kicker of them all:

Young people always think they know better than their elders, and are always wrong.

Because it's just that important that people can't like something he doesn't. I'd just like to note that I think he's crazy, since the new stuff, particularly story-wise, is a thousand times more mature and intricate than it ever was. But then, that would be a little like throwing cotton balls to take down a brick wall.


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[info]gaisce
2004-05-29 09:56 am UTC (link)
Muggles just don't get Tokusatsu enough to realise that the classic stuff is awesome. While I cheer for Kikaider and Kamen Rider V3, it makes my Muggle friends wretch and laugh in derision.

Man, Harry Potter gets its hands into everything...

(Reply to this)


[info]khym_chanur
2004-05-29 10:19 am UTC (link)
I'm probably prejudiced by Power Rangers, but I find it difficult to imagine that any live-action sentai type series could possibly be any good, except in the so-bad-it's-good MST3K sense. And although it wasn't sentai, I'm also prejudiced by a Japanese live-action Spider Man clip I saw, where Spider Man fights a Power-Rangers style monster in a giant mecha (yes, he signaled for his Spider Car in a similar manner to Bat Man, and the car then flew him to the robot, and then he kicked much monster ass).

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[info]ymfaery
2004-05-29 12:48 pm UTC (link)
I'm probably prejudiced by the fact that I grew up with this stuff, but you can't really judge the genre by Saban's adoption of the Power Rangers. I thought some of the shows were cool, but keep in mind I was maybe 12 at the time. ^_-

I tried to watch the Saban Power Rangers when it first began airing and the contrast between the original footage and the added American stuff was brighter than a neon lightening storm. I only managed to force myself to watch the first episode, so I have no idea what happened in that show, but in the one I remember watching subtitled (Battle Fever J), two of the members had to get replaced, and the show ended after one year as those type of shows normally do.

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[info]jaseroque
2004-05-29 07:39 pm UTC (link)
What's the story with the Power Rangers thing? I saw... maybe half an episode at age 12 or so, and was traumatized, so I never really dared go beyond that...

(Oh, and the only other live action thing I've really watched was 'Reiko, pro golfer!' which was in Japanese, but made me laugh so hard I thought I was going to die during the opening credits, so I changed the channel to prevent asphyxiation and the terrifying of my host family's cats...)

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[info]ymfaery
2004-05-29 11:17 pm UTC (link)
Er, what story are you asking about, the story in Power Rangers? I can't help you with that since I didn't see more than that one episode of the dub or any of the original. Or did you mean something else?

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[info]palabradot
2004-05-29 02:21 pm UTC (link)
I was wondering that myself a year ago when I met a friend of mine who's a serious Toku fan.

Then I saw Kamen Rider Ryuuki, and afterwards AbaRanger and was immediately converted. The stuff's great watching. The plots are great. What they edit to make Power Rangers here...gah. Now that I've seen the original shows uncut...

I watch DinoThunder because it's interesting to see how they're folding/spindling/mutilating the original plot and premise, and dumbing down the violent aspect.
Alas that we will probably never see the monster made out of a flower and sniper rifle killing folks on the street before the Abarangers got there to stop it, for example...
or AbaBlue, who was a back-alley chiropractor making oodles of money before being chosen to be the Blue ranger, only to say "Sorry, no, you don't pay me enough for such a dangerous job. I made more cracking people's backs, thus I want $3 million yen to make up for my time away from my job" - and the team starts trying to raise it.

And of course, the silly stuff like an black American baseball player coming to Japan...and they named him "Bucky" (which led all the black folks in the room to look at each other and say 'did we just hear that?') and the 'Aliens learn there is no being on earth as dangerous as a Japanese schoolgirl' story.

And, as my friend said, "There's a calvacade of live pretty boys. What more can we both want?"

However, this guy is sounding like a lot of anime freaks I know that think of anime as the highest form of art.

No. Dude, it's *just a show*, just like anime is. Admit it. Sometimes the plots can be cheezy/improbable/TELL TRUCK TO DRIVE THROUGH PLOT HERE in both types. Hell, there's plenty of anime I'm not fond of, and I'm a fan. And there will be plenty of folks that don't like Toku.

I don't care. That means more for me!

Now where's that latest CD of Granseizar - it just came in the mail yesterday...

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[info]daijinryuu
2004-05-29 08:12 pm UTC (link)
Have you gotten a chance to see KR Agito or Faiz? If not, I highly suggest digging them up; their plotlines are seriously some of the most well thought-out and amazing plotlines I've ever seen on a show, and the fighting is great, too.

Timeranger is awesome too, though the cheese is strong in that one.

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[info]schuldig
2004-05-29 09:26 pm UTC (link)
Abaranger! I caught that show three times on (Sunday?) morning tv and I'd love to see more of it. The ending theme is so addictive!

...I had no idea it had an internet following!

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[info]nekoneko
2004-05-30 04:18 am UTC (link)
Abaranger! I adore Abaranger, even though I'm starting to love Dekaranger, just from the craziness that is Doggie Kreuger. Even though, I must say I haven't seen a ranger yet that is as cool as Shurikenger. Random Engrish!

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[info]liarliar
2004-05-30 10:10 am UTC (link)
the 'Aliens learn there is no being on earth as dangerous as a Japanese schoolgirl' story.

And now I'm thinking of that annoying girl from Get Backers who made Ban and Ginji buy things for her and turned the rest of the cast into her performing monkeys and never got shot in the end by the MIB like I wanted.

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[info]puipui
2004-06-01 12:53 am UTC (link)
Although she did fangirl on Akabane, and I'm hoping thinking that probably didn't bode too well for her.

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Re:
[info]liarliar
2004-06-01 01:00 am UTC (link)
True, although I wanted some on-screen resolution. Namely, her gruesome death.

It is pretty amusing how pathetic Ban and Ginji manage to be, even with superpowers.

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[info]puipui
2004-06-01 08:48 am UTC (link)
It is pretty amusing how pathetic Ban and Ginji manage to be, even with superpowers.

Ah, but therein lies their charm!

That, of course, and the implied offscreen buttsex. Lots and lots of implied offscreen buttsex. Mmm, mmm, good!

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re:
[info]liarliar
2004-06-01 08:55 am UTC (link)
*pretending not to have Ban/Ginji bondishy Best Partner pic as her desktop*

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[info]ymfaery
2004-05-29 12:56 pm UTC (link)
Because I'm a lazy bugger who doesn't want to click on links right now:

Were any specific tokusatsu series mentioned? I'm wondering about series that's already been licensed (albeit in a small area only), and if a company like Media Blasters would work with said license holders on distribution.

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[info]daijinryuu
2004-05-30 01:21 am UTC (link)
If you're thinking of Kikaida (or Kamen Rider V3 now, I think), then they'd really have no reason to, since it's already out on region 1 DVDs, and you can easily get those off Amazon anyway, despite the Hawaii release. Other than that, nope, nothing specific decided yet; it's just an attempt to get awareness up right now.

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[info]ymfaery
2004-05-30 04:15 pm UTC (link)
Well that's the thing--the Kikaida dvds have that "for sale in Hawaii only" bit on the cover in small print, so I wasn't sure if that meant whoever wanted to do nationwide distribution of the title would have to talk to the folks with the license in Hawaii, or if the license holders could just take that phrase off the dvd covers and start distributing it themselves. Although if Amazon has them... >.>;;

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(Anonymous)
2004-05-29 07:36 pm UTC (link)
I've been watching this stuff for over thirty years - Saban was not the first to bring tokusatsu to American TV. I grew up with the original classic Ultraman. I admit, I'd be absolutely delighted if it were released to DVD over here, and I suspect a lot of other people my age would be, too.

The 'Power Rangers' genre shows are 'sentai' - shows featuring costumed teams with special weapons and often robots. The term 'sentai' doesn't necessarily mean a show is live-action - what many consider to be the very first sentai show was an anime, Gatchaman ('Battle of the Planets' in the English dub. Sentai is a sub-category of Tokusatsu in general, which can and does include a lot of other types of shows.

These aren't usually serious dramatic shows. The older ones, while often well written and nicely directed, are also often also delightfully cheesy. That's part of the fun of watching them! (See the giant monsters with zippers! See the foam rubber! Marvel at the jet planes on wires! Notice that whoever's in the silver suit playing the giant hero isn't wearing a jockstrap! Wowza!)

Mrs. Terrific

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[info]ymfaery
2004-05-29 11:14 pm UTC (link)
Classic Ultraman? With the guys in the orange-clad "Space Patrol"? And whatshisname holding up that thing that looked like a penlight to bring out Ultraman? And the mismatched mouth movements? :D :D :D

...oh lord, I can still remember the theme song!?! O_o;;

And are you interested in a code, Mrs. Terrific?

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Code
(Anonymous)
2004-05-30 06:50 am UTC (link)
Yes, I would like a code - many thanks. Do you need my email? Failing that, you can send it to Mister Terrific (who hangs around here and has an account) and he'll walk into the next room and give it to me. Heh.

Mrs. Terrific

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Re: Code
[info]ymfaery
2004-05-30 04:04 pm UTC (link)
Someone's email would be nice, yours or his, since I don't recall off-hand how his user-name looks like.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: Code
(Anonymous)
2004-05-30 09:15 pm UTC (link)
Email on its way...

Mrs Terrific

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Re: Code
(Anonymous)
2004-05-31 05:25 am UTC (link)
Email bounced. :-( Please email me at kamiki_seto@livejournal.com. Hopefully, that'll work...

Mrs. Terrific

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[info]iczer6
2004-05-30 06:35 am UTC (link)
(See the giant monsters with zippers! See the foam rubber! Marvel at the jet planes on wires! Notice that whoever's in the silver suit playing the giant hero isn't wearing a jockstrap! Wowza!)

Lack of jockstraps is a good enough reason in my book.

Heck I hope they go through with it, some of those shows are supposed to be pretty cool, and I'd love to see a version of Kamen Rider that wasn't the total trainwreck the American verison was.


Icz

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[info]liarliar
2004-05-30 10:16 am UTC (link)
The only original (non-dubbed) sentai show I think I've seen was shown to us as an example of early special effects. These guys bent down, jumped up--cut to somewhere else with them landing. So obvious they just jumped up in place and cut it to look like they jumped from the street level onto the top of a building. So great.

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[info]ymfaery
2004-05-30 04:10 pm UTC (link)
It's fairly obvious in the older shows that some of the scenes where the heroes/villains are shown jumping up to a roof are actually reverse footage of them jumping down from said roof. ^_-

And I have to wonder about the injury rates on those shows also, since the actors did all the stunts. Especially when they're jumping down from the tops of buses and things like that. O_O;;;

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[info]palabradot
2004-06-01 01:46 pm UTC (link)
*twitches at the memory of what they wanted to do to Ryuuki when they brought it over*

They wanted to edit into a high school Power-Rangers-like show. Where they fought monsters and stuff.

And GOT ALONG.

Hold me.

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celamowari
2004-05-30 02:49 am UTC (link)
Man, I was *JUST* thinking the other day, "What would it take for me to actually post on F_W?" and the answer was "Zone Fighter getting wanked". Lo and behold, that wank has arrived!

I love the live action Japanese sci-fi, old and new, for a lot of reasons. It can be acquired taste, so I won't try to convert any of you. But Zone Fighter, man, this guy...

He has several different handles, but this is the one he seems to prefer. And he needs more than one, because ZF is a veritable wanking MACHINE. He was one of the first people I ever encountered when I stumbled onto the internet 3 years ago and I have yet to recover.

From what I see here, he's only expressing his fierce and all-encompassing hatred for any tokusatsu program produced in the last 10 years. He's also noted for a long, LONG feud with a Toku BNF (who is actually a pretty cool guy) and his conversative, bordering on reactionary, political views. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. He manages to wear out his welcome on nearly every forum he joins. It's really too bad, because he could have a lot to offer to the fandom if he wouldn't get bogged down in his heavy-handed rhetoric.

I've posted at Japan Hero in the past, but I really don't go there too often. It explodes in wank frequently, so it might be in the interest of you guys to keep an eye on it.

And I didn't even tell the story of how Zone Fighter once ruined a Douglas Adams memorial thread by saying Adams "would burn in Hell". Oh wait, I just did.

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[info]sarajayechan
2004-05-30 04:13 am UTC (link)
Aah, an old school elitist.

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