Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Toei's 'Super' Cutting Budget

THIS IS JUST AN OBSERVATION, MY OWN OPINIONS
There has been some rumblings over the last few years that Toei had to use a smaller budget in some seasons in order to accommodate or save up for other seasons, mainly the 35th anniversary. Toei rarely reuses props, like Power Rangers does, I covered some that they did. Toei does have enough money for their series, hell, each series is 49 to 51 episodes.

The first time they reused monsters ever was in the Boukenger movie. But here are some other suspicions they are trying to save money:


For one, every season tends to have one human actress for the villains, there used to be 2 men and 2 women back when (Before Jetman) but now mostly all the villains are costumed. But in this past decade, there was 1 human villainess (Gekiranger is the only to have one human male). But in Shinkenger, the villainess was costumed.


The voice actress for Dayu did guest star in a couple episodes as Dayu's human self in flashbacks. I suppose it would be too much money to hire a full time actress.

Goseiger didn't have a main villainess, there was only Metal Alice, who lasted a handful of episodes, granted more episodes than Succubus of Dekaranger. They probably paid the voice actress less than the one for Dayu.

Also Goseiger only has 5 main actors playing Rangers. Gosei Knight has no human actor, just a voice actor, so probably saving money there too. It looks like Bandai might have meant him to be human, what with the Leon Cellular, it could have been used for a morpher. Other instances of saving mone but having no live actor would be Shurikenger of Hurricanger, AbareMax/Triassic Ranger being a power-up and Sam in SPD.

Also, I noticed that the headquarters of the teams since Gekiranger have been pretty plain. Gekiranger had an elaborate set, Go-onger just had a bus, Shinkenger had an old Japanese residence, and Goseiger also looks to be in a house.

So what I am bascially saying is that they are not cutting the budget because they don't have the money, but because they are saving up. Goukaiger sounds like it is going to suck their resources dry, as they are bringing a ton of former castmembers. Granted, these guest stars won't be paid the same they did on their regular show, and probably paid as much as a regular guest star (I don't know how the Japanese acting/television pay discussions work) but there goes more into budget such as bringing back old suits. I am sure Decade cost a lot more than past seasons, even though it lasted 30 episodes, but probably it only lasted 30 episodes in order not to go over-budget.

9 comments:

Thai Sentai Fan said...

The first time I see reusing monster costume in Super Sentai is Ep3 of Kakuranger. Some monsters in the bar is from Dairanger, the previous series.

Anonymous said...

were did you get that pick with akared

Thai Sentai Fan said...

Oh, not only Dairanger, I recall. In that episode there's a monster costume from Zyuranger, the wolf-genie one.

Thai Sentai Fan said...

Sorry for posting again.

Here is the episode I have mentioned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvZQMWK4Sh0

Of course, it's Thai dubbed one. But you can see 7.30 - 8.11 of this clip. Enjoy :)

Firestarter1331 said...

is it just a coincidence or a observation? where there news that toei is really cutting corners?

Lavender Ranger said...

Firestarter, yes it is just an observation, this is not news at all. And Anonymous, Akared picture comes from the versus show.

Jon B said...

Like I said in Lavender Ranger's previous post about reuse, Toei deserves to reuse once in a while. What few times they reused monsters, those reused ones never fought the new Warriors or were a part of a big mob fighting them (Boukenger movie). Even without considering that Gokaiger is coming soon, Toei deserves to cut back once in a while. They make, on average, 50 new monsters, 50 new stories, 50 new fights with Warriors, and 50 mostly new fights with mecha. That can't be easy or cheap, and the way Toei cuts costs is not a big deal. Who watches the shows to take in the architecture :P (no offense meant and the villains still have cool liars)?
Gokaiger just give them more of an excuse, since any returning or recast Warriors won't come free (like us :D) and the suits may need to be redone. They only had Reds return for Gao, so there's the other members for each team. And that's considering those Red suits are still useable. All that, plus the regular casts of a new team, new villians, new mecha, and 50 new monsters. In summary, Toei always has the right to cut back a little and if that now translates to a more awesome Gokaiger, more power to them.

James Spiring said...

GoseiKnight has no unmorphed form... I wonder if he'll have a human alter-ego when Goseiger is adapted as a Power Rangers series?

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Burajira human form will be reveal, which is own by him after all right? GoseiKnight is just a headders by the way...so we can't actually said that Goseiknight is a hero because the headders was given life in the series ;D , the wasn't cutting the budget for my view plus adding excitment for this series...plus Goseiknight and Burajira is a good final twist after all...