I didn't see a thread for one, so I made this. If one already exists, feel free to merge this into that, mods.

 

I believe I created one years ago, but whatever. What are your favorite toku shows?

 

Heres my list of favs in release order.

Sentai = Gokaiger, Kyoryuger, and Zyuohger
Rider = Drive, Ex-Aid, and 01
Ranger = MMPR1, Turbo, and Dino Charge

 

Super Sentai = Gokaiger, Shinkenger, and Dairanger.
Ultraman = Nexus, OG Ultraman, and Tiga.
Power Rangers = MMPR1, Lost Galaxy, and Dino Thunder.
I'm also a big fan of the OG Gridman and the new SSSS series, hyped for Gridman x Dynazenon. The concept of an anime based on a tokustatsu series that takes beats from the original and uses them to craft a different story with compelling themes has inspired me to start writing a similar MMPR anime series, taking place decades after the events of In Space, though it is based on MMPR.

 

Sentai: Shinkenger, Gokaiger, Go-Busters, kyoryuger,Toqger
Rider: W and OOO's

 

My favorites are:

Sentai - Dairanger, Kakuranger, Zyuranger, GoGoFive, and Timeranger
Kamen Rider - Blade, Black, W, Agito, and Gaim
Metal Heroes - Juspion, B-Fighter Kabuto, Gavan
Ultraman - Ultra Seven, Tiga, Ultraman X, Original, and Orb
Power Rangers - SPD, LSR, RPM, Time, In Space

 

I haven't seen enough from the big 3 to call most favorite since I got into the Toku game a bit of late.

My first Super Sentai was Kyoryuger, first Kamen Rider was Ghost, and first Ultraman was Z. I didn't grow up with Power Rangers but my first episode ever was the sword episode from SPD that I caught on TV one time and most of my knowledge comes from History of Power Rangers until I started watching it as it was airing with Dino Charge.

Of the shows that I watched and completed outside the big ones are:

• Izenborg (My very Toku show ever)
• Daimajin Kanon
• Zone Fighter
• Tokusatsu GaGaga (if we're counting that)

I've been also watching Gridman weekly on Tsuburaya's channel and once it finishes I'll move to Superhuman Samurai Cyber Squad. Other shows I caught on TV back in the day are Captain Power and Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills.

 

You ever get a chance to see SSSS.Gridman?

 

Yes and I plan to rewatch it again to catch all the Gridman references I missed the first time since I was more focused on catching the Transformers references.

 

And Dynazenon?
Still impressed at how they made an entire season out of a single episode of Gridman.

 

Saw it as it was airing.

 

Building on this, the main themes of my idea are nihilism vs positivity, redemption, and relying on others. Tons of Zyuranger/Sentai references, the red ranger is also the mentor character, and is Shurikenger-esque in that he cannot unmorph. When the main villain(Named Pandora after Bandora), a witch who wants to destroy everything(revealed later on that it is because she's lost faith in the world due to losses and trauma she'd experienced her whole life), attacks Earth for the first time, our morphed red ranger teleports around the world literally grabbing people he sees opportunity in to become rangers. Each of them are either severely flawed people or social outcasts, who, over time, become a true team, becoming better people through each other. The red ranger has trouble remembering who he is because he'd stayed morphed for so long. He later remembers who he is, revealing that he is Lord Zedd after the events of In Space. I decided to make blue and black female, while making pink a male, though a femboy, while also making yellow male. I've named blue after Dan from Zyuranger, her name being Danielle Etoffe. Pink and blue are the social outcasts, while yellow and black are the severely flawed delinquents. I've decided to make black and pink a couple, because the idea of a tomboy-femboy couple in an anime is an idea that's been swirling in my head for a long, long time. Black's arc is learning the importance of human connection, and pink's is accepting his true self. Still sorting out what the arcs of the rest of the team will be, and also what to do with the green ranger.
As for design, imagine something like this, but for the whole team.

I've also decided to make the zords living beings in their own right, Megazord included. Imagine them, but with a much more modern anime aesthetic.
This may sound cringe, but I would like honest opinions/feedback on this idea.

 

I watched the 2 available episodes of Kyusei Sentai Wakusaver. This was hyped as the "adult" Super Sentai but from what I saw it was nothing impressive. Felt more like fanmade Sentai shorts than anything.

Meanwhile, High Speed Parahero Gandine was worth the hype. Only one episode released subbed but I loved everything about it.

 

I tried googling info on that wakusaver show yesterday as i saw it pop up on the site i use to watch toku and had no idea what the crap it was. What had come up was that the show wont be adult, the movie finale will be. The 6(?) episodes are meant to be tv friendly.

 

The reason it was hyped up as an adult Sentai is because the studio responsible for it, Giga, makes Toku-like pornos. As such, the expectation is that Wakusaver was going to be the same.

 

Ultraman Leo thoughts:
https://twitter.com/mohammadkadhim1/status/1416830920020008960

There's no way around it. Leo was a big unfocused mess. It couldn't decide what it wanted to be so it felt like watching several shows in one, that this could be worse than Ace and I never thought it'd be possible. I have major gripes with Ace, but at least it knew what it was doing and had a focused narrative. Leo went without a clear direction and had constant changes in plot, characters and tone that you can't follow in a straight path. The earlier parts were insufferable to sit through. Gen was the most unlikable Ultra and way too hot-headed for his own good and never learned his lessons. And the constant training scenes and Dan's frustration with him didn't make it easier.

I didn't mind the martial arts though. It was like Go with boxing, but it was not well executed. This addition might be Tsuburaya wanting to catch on to anime and shonen sport shows that were the rage at the time, but I don't know how well received it was.

And then... I honestly don't know what happened. The writers gave up on the original ideas and switched to the same camp mode they used with Taro. Which what it felt like to me; For the rest of the series it felt like Taro leftovers with the same zany story lines. But since this wasn't Taro and wasn't based on fairy tales, the tone change was very jarring and most notable with the Japanese folklore episodes which should've been adapted there, not here. At least the horror episodes were more fitting here.

And in another thing Ace did better was sticking to a main antagonist and run with it. Alien Magma failed hard with that premise when it should've played a bigger role and more personal with Leo and Seven and may even use Astra with that. And that's the other big problem here: Other than Gen and Dan and maybe Toru, the rest of the characters were unremarkable. TAC still acted like characters, but MAC were majorly background characters and the civilians (children) were some of the worst written characters ever. Astra was also one of most wasted characters here. We didn't get to know him enough, comes and goes at random, so when the Ultra Key stuff happened you can barely feel anything towards him because there was not much with him and didn't even come back to support Leo later.

That until the Saucer Creatures story line came to be and this is where the series really picked itself up again. We got rid of the unnecessary stuff, Leo is no longer a student, the tone got more serious, monsters got more creative and we got a big villain leading the charge. It wasn't perfect either, but it was a huge step up from the camp crap we've been dealing with, but since it came in too late you still need to deal with what came before it unless you want to skip all that, which wouldn't really make much difference due to its episodic nature.

My best episode is the Nova episode "The Red Assassin that Brings Death". Not only Nova got to be my favorite alien in the series, but I loved the all-red fight sequence and brought us the conclusion of Toru's character arc. Runner up best episodes are "The Rhinoceros Beetle is an Alien Invader" for its cinematography, and "Monster's Return of Favor" for its story line of Rolan and her relationship with Leo.

There were plenty to choose as the worst episode, but the absolute worst IMO was "I'm the Monster Boss". The crowning achievement of "Dumb".

Favorite monsters and aliens are tied up with the best and worst episodes. So you have Nova and Rolan as top favorites, but I also liked Alien Bunyu minus his horrible looking monster form. The saucer beasts were also among the best for their alien designs that felt reminiscent of Ultraseven like Avsorva and Demos.

And then you have stuff like Guiro, Coro, Onion, Vibe's monster form, and... no. Terrible characters and terrible costumes.

The music was okay. I thought it was done by Shunsuke Kikuchi since it was very close to his DBZ soundtrack but no, it was by Fuyuki Toru.

And that's all for Leo. My plan was to watch The☆Ultraman next but Mill Creeks recent announcements put a hold on this and thought I'd wait for the official releases

So, no Ultraman for a while.

 

High Speed Parahero GanDine is a Kamen Rider series Toei will never make. The protagonist is disabled and doesn't gain the ability to use his legs when transformed so he's on his wheelchair all the time, no toy gimmicks to exploit, and it doesn't drag its story just to fill a yearly quota.

It's 3 episodes but at the length of 6 episodes if that sounds better, or a 2-hour film if that works for you. And it does feel like a film sliced to 3 parts and even follows an origin film format. It's not 3 episodes of Daishi being a superhero defeating monsters in each one. It's a slow build culminating to the expected final fight at full power. Other than 3, maybe 4, the characters didn't get much development so that's one of its weaknesses. Still, I did enjoy the concept even if felt a little underutilized.

 

The original three Kamen Riders celebrating the 50th anniversary of the franchise the only way they can.

 

We all know there's been a little controversy surrounding Kamen Rider Vice's voice actor, Subaru Kimura, and while I do condemn his actions, I will still be watching Kamen Rider Revice. Speaking of, his forms, aside from Rex, are going to be Decade Megalodon, Kuuga Lion, Faiz Pterosaur, Den-O Mammoth, Gaim Mantis, Fourze Gorilla, Kabuto Bear, Ex-Aid Jackal, Zi-O Brontosaurus, Wizard Owl(Third Rider), and Zero One Giraffe. The reason for the Zero One giraffe, I'd assume would be because we're getting an Ichigo Grasshopper form, too.

I also find it really cool how Toei teamed up with XTURISMO to make a real hoverbike. It looks awesome, too.
https://twitter.com/sw4ggsyrup/status/1419997416728662023?s=21

 

This is Namco Bandai's fiscal year report on the big 3 Toku shows for the last 5 years. It's insane how much happened in this short amount of time. Kamen Rider and Super Sentai were in equal terms, and but not only Super Sentai's revenue kept declining, but it got lower than the Ultra Series! Meanwhile the Ultra Series's revenue doubled since 2017 and I think part of it is for it going global. All the while Kamen Rider is just in a whole different level from the 2.

EDIT: Someone mentioned the decline of Super Sentai sales could be due to the separation from Power Rangers and Saban so it is just Super Sentai without combining it with power Rangers sale


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