Saturday, June 25, 2011

Pros and Cons to adapting Gokaiger #2 - Financially

MY CRAZY RANTS:
In March I wrote the pros and the cons to Saban adapting Gokaiger. Now there are speculations by fans that there will be a season 2 of Samurai and either they will use Goseiger footage or create their own. Also executive producer Jonathan Tzachor has stated how he didn't consider the Disney seasons as 'canon', meaning in continuation with the new series. Jason David Frank (Tommy) had recently commented in a convention about this, judging by the comments posted by you guys, the fans, you're not so glad about his comments. But of course like others said, JDF is no longer affiliated (as of now) with Saban and is just one man. But if all of this canon business is true, it would put a damper to adapting Gokaiger. From what my sources (who have since have stopped contacting me all together in the past year) told me in the past, whoever is adapting Power Rangers (Saban or Disney) are told in advance or are aware of the newest Sentai. But maybe Tzachor doesn't know about Gokaiger.

Here again are the....
PROS
Last time I did Cons first so I decided to do the reverse.
1. PRO NUMBER ONE
Advantages to adapting the series would be that since Bandai America likes repackaging toys and re-painting toys to save money, they can release a lot of old toys (more than before) for the Gokaiger-adapted season. And if they do use 'Rangers' of past Power Rangers, they can release more toys. Linkara (History of Power Rangers) says Disney didn't understand why they were doing Forever Red because they were advertising old toys and not new ones, this series would allow Bandai to sell new toys of old, sort of like MMPR Reverison of 2010 (the toyline).

2. PRO NUMBER TWO
Selling old toys and having exposure of old seasons might boost sales of DVD and rental of streaming on Netflix.

3. PRO NUMBER THREE
If they do follow Gokaiger that has so-far brought back many Red Heroes from Sentai, a Power Ranger adaption can bring old actors, maybe not just red. Since in Gokaiger, the past teams have lost their power sand no longer can transform, Saban crew can pick any actor of past team, doesn't have to be red.

4. PRO NUMBER FOUR
In Power Rangers, we can finally see females in colors we haven't seen before like Navy, Black and more Reds and Silver and White. They are different twists to the suits of past Rangers and they some how make them more interesting.

5. PRO NUMBER FIVE
It seems that Toei has been sort of adjusting things for Power Rangers, now this is just a speculation, but not true. For example, the other auxiliary zords so far (Mystic Force, SPD, Wild Force, Samurai, MMPR, Time Force and Dino Thunder) and in future (Ninja Storm and RPM) were all Power Rangers-related, not one is of Sentai before 1992. Another is that with 18 episodes and photos and info out of up to episode 20, there has been no tribute to a non-PR Sentai. So it would be very easy to re-shoot scenes featuring the past costumes. Scenes of the Gokaiger transformed as past teams is brief. Could it be that Bandai had agreed to do more focus on Power Ranger-turned Sentai? Or maybe just a coincidence because since those Sentai are the latest and get (Japanese) kids more pumped since it is the ones they grew up with. Also the recent Sentai has had the most auxiliary mech.

CONS
1. CONS NUMBER ONE
The Gokaiger transform into past teams, but not only one that were adapted into Power Rangers but all 34 past teams, many (15) that were not adapted. And many of the costume designs are sort of ugly or not appealing to modern audiences. But look at Gingaman, those suits were adapted for Lost Galaxy and many fans complained those suits were ugly and looked like Charlie Brown T-shirts, also that the Lightspeed costumes looked like pinwheels/peppermints. If Saban Brands chose to skip over footage of past Sentai, it would be a bit difficult, as the Gokaiger sometimes become past warriors, mixed with those that were adapted into Power Rangers. For example in Episode 3, Yellow becomes Gao White, who PR fans know as White Wild Force Ranger (2002). But the other two--Big One and White Swan, were not ever Power Rangers.

2. CONS NUMBER TWO
Another factor is that Saban is planning to use the Samurai theme in 2012 and Goseiger will most likely be adapted in 2013 and Saban Brands have confirmed that 2013 will be the anniversary year for Power Rangers. Since Gokaiger celebrates 35 anniversary and there will be a lot of nostalgia for a season if Gokaiger is indeed adapted into Power Rangers, it would be strange if it was airing in 2014 after the 20th anniversary and with so much nostalgia. One can think Saban is having Samurai for 2 seasons and Goseiger adaption for 2013 a.k.a. the 20th anniversary in order to skip Gokaiger for 2014 and adapt the 2012 Sentai for 2014. But Disney and Saban, both who have run Power Rangers, have never skipped a season. But now rumors are that Samurai will use Goseiger footage, so it might be a little strange when they do tributes. But funny enough, the Gokaiger get the Goseiger powers in the 199 Heroes movie, and the Headers appear in Episode 16, so maybe they can make it work.

3. CONS NUMBER THREE
Another factor is the 'Legend War,' I have commented before on how it would be hard to explain how it is possible for one team to be present if many of the Rangers shared powers. Now, if the Saban producers choose to not use the 15 teams that were not PR, then they would have to re-shoot the 'war' with only 18 teams and I mentioned this before in this post: http://henshingrid.blogspot.com/2011/03/saban-brands-when-adapting-gokaiger-how.html

4. CON NUMBER FOUR
Ugh, I hate this word (Canon) now. There is a lot of contest between fans if RPM is canon because it takes place in a post-apocalyptic world and the only connection to past seasons it had was the presence of "Jungle Karma Pizza," the work place of Jungle Fury. As for the show itself in having past rangers come in, that is up to the writers. But since Tzachor doesn't consider any Disney seasons as canon, it would be VERY HARD to adapt Gokaiger. They could get another producer other than Tzachor to produce it or force him to do it. Or they can cheat and not bring any Disney Era actors, but how could they not if they all live near where they film (international wise I mean)? With Saban including all seasons in Netflix streaming, fans think this mean they are all canon but not so sure, because it's just video, not included in the new episodes. But what does canon matter? Sentai has played with it a lot and so far have skipped through or not mentioned certain things in Gokaiger.

5. CON NUMBER FIVE
It would take a lot of money to get past actors back and to ship them from the USA, yes they might not get a lot and they might be just in for one episode but there could be disputes, I mean PR actors during Saban era are notorious for money disputes. And it would take a lot of money to shoot the Legacy War again and add new scenes with Titanium Ranger and Spirit Rangers, if they choose to shoot them. And also, will past actors would want to come back? Also, scheduling, maybe they won't be able to get even one member on one team, I'm sure lots of veterans would be glad to come back but you never know, with such a global mixing pot of actors. It's not like Japan where they are all in the same country, lots of these actors are in United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and other countries.

NOTE: Don't get me wrong, I have no problem them using the suits from Goranger to Jetman, I would welcome it.

10 comments:

Drunken Lemur said...

Okay, here's what I think could work: Do it like Kamen Rider Decade. Worlds would be similar, but with brand new actors when it would be beneficial and old Actors when they can get a hold of them. If they don't do this, they could still call the fifteen pre-Zyuranger teams and Dairanger alien teams like the Aquitians did with Kakuranger. Or they can always go crazy and provide a lesson on the sentai teams and any power ranger adaptation it got.

Douglas said...

RPM doesn't have to be a problem if it's included. they could just have it be in an alternate universe or even on another earth-like planet like how Space and Lost Galazy were mainly in outer space and how the Alien Rangers were from another planet altogether.
as for the unused Sentai they can use them if they say that they're just rangers who were lost to history and just forgotten and unknown to all the current teams and Zordon. the only problem is Dairanger because of the mecha.

as for the Legend War the only problems are the obvious like Tommy and which powers do T. J. and friends get.

the only thing that will be funny is when fans who've only seen PR and wonder why the female yellows now have skirts.
and i do wonder if Saban will make keys for Titanium and the Spirit Rangers or not.

lio_convoy said...

Could they not just say its a dimensional thing and grab rangers throughout the various dimensions like they did Overdrive? All they have to say is this ranger is from one of the other Power Rangers dimensions.

Anonymous said...

still think rpm is canon. maybe between jungle fury and spd (2025) at the time of airing. so now should be placed between samurai and spd, and goseiger adaptation and spd etc...

Fantasy Leader said...

They could always try and go for that Ranger Academy motif. And that all the non-PR sentai suits could be used for other students that play as guest characters. If these old suits are used at all, they'll be considered new school suits for PR since they're new to it. lol xD

I don't think certain suits being "ugly" should matter at all. People in Japan are watching Gokaiger and aren't being bothered by older suits at all. So I don't see why Americans should care. Besides, plenty of fans still complain about recent suits. In all honesty, I think the only suits that one can truly call "ugly" are the first three seasons. But like I said, it shouldn't matter at all.

I'm glad I didn't grow up with stuff like Charlie Brown, and instead grew up on Gingaman and GoGoFive. That made the suits really awesome for me. =)

Overall, it really depends on how Saban executes the adaptation. Cause they've been known to really drop the ball quite often. Notably, this year's Samurai. But maybe they'll succeed on the rare occasion, like they did with Time Force.

Lavender Ranger said...

Is the Decade route (hiring new actors) a route fans would like? I don't think so. But anything in a pinch.

Anonymous said...

Two things Saban could do with Gokaiger.

1) The Masked Rider approach. Introduce the Sentai-only teams as Power Rangers teams we never heard of before like they did with the Showa-era Riders in Masked Rider.

2) The MMPR Season 2 approach. Only use what is usable, ditch what isn't (this includes the Legend Taisen scene), and make new footage to make up for what can't be used (including making footage for Titanium Ranger).

Anonymous said...

RPM, I would consider canon. First, I consider RPM takes place 90-100 years in the future, so it should be 2099 or 2109. Since Time Force is the year 3000, there's a LOT of time to completely rebuild the world.

OR

Decade. Using every Ranger series as alternate dimensions.

Luca said...

I think Power Rangers Pirate Adventures would be a hit. The pirates would travel through time and space to visit previous rangers and some we've never seen before.

Anonymous said...

Any idea what Saban are doing with adapting Goseiger.