I will freely admit that I'm not the most familiar with Super Sentai as I am with Kamen Rider, though I have enjoyed the handful of series that I have watched and still acknowledged the importance of the franchise to Tokusatsu. Granted, the extend I had watched is more in lines with Gokaiger onwards as well as the first 5 or so episodes of Shinkenger and Goseiger, but I hope that is enough for me to be qualified to talk about today's subject; modern Sentai.
Since the end of Zyuden Sentai (Vamola!) Kyoryuger, I have noticed a drop in quality with the storytelling and characterisation not seeming anywhere near as refined as what was seen in previous years. Much of what was appealing with the likes of Gokaiger or Kyoryuger was either missing or outright dismissed in the narrative for the sake of promoting more and more toys and ridiculous gimmicks, which would then strangle the appreciation a viewer may have for a series. I am fully aware that Toei measures the success of a show based on toy sales nowadays as opposed to the actual ratings and viewership, but that is no excuse for how they keep on repeating the same bad elements from failed series instead of learning from their mistakes and trying to make good shows again.
Sadly, however, much of my problems with modern Sentai can be boiled down to what I consider the last legitimately good Sentai; Kyoryuger.
While not a perfect series, Kyoryuger was still nonetheless an enjoyable one, with entertaining characters and villains, as well as a nicely fleshed out storyline that allowed everyone a chance in the spotlight, no matter how brief. Despite the executive meddling and Riku Sanjo's difficulty in managing his cast the larger they get, the series still did well enough financially for Toei to overlook the decline in ratings and viewership statistics to call it a legitimate success story. Unfortunately, due to the series more comedic nature in contrast to Go-Busters' "serious" nature, this left Toei with the mistaken idea that making a show as silly as possible is what makes your show successful. And it all starts with... the train dorks:
Ressha Sentai ToQGer is, simply put, an awful series. The main 5 characters were insufferable brats with little in terms of growth, the soundtrack was either grating on my ears or lifelessly bland, the costumes were ugly to look at, the Megazords (calling them that for simplicity) were equally ugly, and it's Red Ranger, Right Suzuki, is one of the worst Sentai Reds ever in the franchise; a conceited, selfish moron who has no right (pun not intended) to even be considered a Sentai member let alone the leader. While the villain's main motivations were interesting and the ToQGer's 6th member, Akira, had some cool ideas behind him, it wasn't enough to save this series from being a financial and critical flop. This series was bad. And Yasuko Kobayashi should feel bad.
And yet, Kento Shimoyama would go on to do worse:
Somehow, through black magic or something, Shuriken Sentai Ninninger was not only bad, but it was actually worse than ToQGer. All of the issues I had with ToQGer were present in Ninninger, with even more problems on top of that. Takaharu Igasaki, the idiot Red for this series, is pretty much the same character as Right, only with a passion for combat instead of eating and the actor was absolutely atrocious, which thus results in none of the characters getting development that didn't in some way insult them or make them worthless. The villains for the series were blatant imbeciles who's own intentions completely sabotaged their plans for world domination, which ruined their overall status as a threat. The Megazords (bar Bison King) were awfully designed, especially that stupid visual of a robot sitting inside of another robot. Normally, that would be cool, but this series somehow made it suck, which resulted in Ninninger not only having worse ratings than ToQGer, but some of the worst toy sales in the history of the franchise. Ninja Steel may have sucked, but it still did more than it's source material with it's characters and storytelling.
These problems would negatively impact the next series, despite the obvious improvements showing from the first episode:
Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger (or Jyuohger, I forget which) was a MASSIVE improvement from ToQGer and Ninninger. The characters were not overshadowed by the Red and actually shown some growth from their early stages. The Megazords had some decent designs and I actually enjoyed the cube theme for the Zords. The villains felt like a legitimate threat, with each one having their own style of attack and having deeper connections than just "the bad guy". Yamato Kazakiri made for a breath of fresh air, with how he was actually a compassionate person who legitimately tries to help his teammates with their issues, showing no complaint or hesitation to do the right thing for his friends. But even with these improvements, the series was still underwhelming and lacked a sense of urgency due to the lack of complex villains or any real expansion on Zyuland. I still like the show, but it does take a while to show it's strengths with it's storytelling and characterisation.
But it is still a masterpiece when compared to when Kento Shimoyama took the writer's chair again:
Ninninger was ruined after the first episode. This series fell apart in it's first scene.
If there is a word to describe Uchu Sentai Kyuranger, it's this; LAZY! The characters are completely superfluous as none of them have a character arc. The villains are completely pathetic unlike any other in the franchise, with how they somehow take over the galaxy and yet have several squadrons destroyed by a stupid looking space-bike. This show does NOTHING with the outer space setting and makes it another "save the Earth" story despite the fact that they could've gone ANYWHERE ELSE and had a much more interesting story. And Lucky is the worst Sentai Red ever. He's a compulsive, reckless, selfish, egocentric, narcissistic, moral aggrandising dipshit, but the entire cosmos pretty much bends over backwards to make him right when everything presented says he should be wrong; instead, they reward him with power-up after power-up that he has not in any way earned, and only gets them because of his nonsensical Deus Ex Machina powers.
And need I even mention his catchphrase?
Yes. There is 7 and a half minutes of him shouting his stupid catchphrase. It is about as annoying as it gets.
And I'm not gonna bother talking much about the next series, Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger vs Keisatsu Sentai Patranger, as I pretty much dropped it after Lupin Blue gets into a cooking contest with a monster. While still an improvement on Kyuranger, LuPat was still doing nothing for me due to the storytelling issues and the characterisation getting frustrating at points; namely Keiichiro, Patren#1, being a complete smeghead with no clue about what the fuck he's even doing, not to mention sucking at his job as a police officer. From what I've read, the show has done little to mediate the issue, despite doing better than Kyuranger has been.
When looking over all of these series, I think I've decided what the main problem is with most of them (not counting Zyuohger as it avoided this troupe); the idiot Reds. At the end of the day, the protagonists for ToQGer, Ninninger and Kyuranger were insufferable assholes, braindead idiots, or both rolled into one. Their actions prove caustic to everything and everyone else because of how often they are made the main focus of a series where one of the core themes is the importance of a team. They are made right despite all evidence saying they should be wrong, yet are never called out for their damaging actions and the way they mistreat those around them for the sake of their petty egos. Whereas good Sentai Reds like Captain Marvellous or Yamato act as a prism for the others to shine through, Right, Takaharu and Lucky are planks of wood that stop the lights of the others from ever coming together as one. Thus, it is all the more irritating when these conceited jackasses get more spotlight than any other potentially interesting characters.
Which is were the newest series to arrive at the time of writing this, Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger, comes into play. Thankfully, neither Kento Shimoyama or Shinichiro Shurakura seem to be nowhere near this series, thus there is hope that it will at least be adequate. But with how most modern Sentai just regurgitates the previous elements of successful series and do them worse, and how Ryusoulger's set-up directly contradicts any sense of canonical relevance with Kyoryuger, it's still likely that we'll get a dud of a series, not helped with the preview images of the suits and mecha looking really underwhelming. Here's hoping Sentai can pick itself out of it's creative slump and get back into creating good content again.
So until next time; this is Callum Lewis, the Media Hood, signing off.
