I'm working on a 15 page diseration on Bandai of Japan and Bandai of America with a focus on the changes from the sentai like to the Pr line 1-3 years later. I've just finished with my Intro to Power Rangers as a whole and was wondering if I could get some feed back on my unfinished little project here. Is the background set up good, could it use more detail, should I be weaving in Bandai info here or leave Bandai in it's own section after covering the TV show?
Give me your thoughts on this first third of the paper
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Bandai of Japerica: The super story behind Super Sentai (and Power Rangers)
1975, 1978, 1982, 1993.
In 1975 Shotaro Ishinomori created a new intellectual property in the nascent genre of Tokusatsu, roughly translated as 'special filming,' (FACKLER) Himitsu Sentai Gorenger, the first in what is now a 38 year long series known as Super Sentai, or internationally as Power Rangers, for Toei Company (“Database”). Toei Company also counts Kamen Rider, now in it's 24th series and has seen 2 of those series adapted to America as Masked Rider and Kamen Rider Dragon Knight (Kamen Rider Legacy), Ultraman, which has no American counterpart, and Metal Heroes, since canceled but not before having it's several properties mixed together into Big Bad Bettleborgs and VR Troopers. All of these adaptions, with the exception of Dragon Knight, were adapted by Saban Company, later Disney but now once again in the hands of Saban, while Bandai, now Nameco Bandai, handled all toy aspects.
It really started in 1978 the when the Sentai franchise went super with a collaboration between Toei and Marvel teamed up to bring Spider-Man to Japan:
While Toei's version of the character wore the same costume as his Marvel counterpart, the show's storyline and the origin of the character's powers deviated completely from the source material. In addition to fighting by himself, this incarnation of Spider-Man also piloted a giant robot known as Leopardon, which he would summon to thwart off enlarged versions of the show's monsters. (“Spider-Man”).
Leopardon in turn would inspire Toei to expand it's then named Sentai, or 'Task Force,' series into it's very first Super Sentai with Battle Fever J, which started as another co-project with Marvel, a live action precursor to what would become the Marvel cinematic universe and the Avengers but evolved into an original property. In the Sentai a team of internationally themed heroes (Battle Japan, Battle Cossack, Battle France, Battle Kenya, and Miss America) piloted a giant robot to fight super sized monsters, paving the way for what is now the standard in Super Sentai. Originally Marvel wanted to have Miss America lead the team but the liaison at the time Gene Pelc could not do that for a Japanese audience so Captain Japan took the reigns (Rangerboard).
Battle Fever J was such a success that in 1982 Stan Lee wanted to port the newest Sentai Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan to American, cutting out the footage with the American actors and some of the effects for a unique property, however despite going to several networks, including HBO no one with pick up this wholly unique concept and it seemed like American would never see the light of a Sentai in the states...at least not for another 9 years (Rangerboard).
Then we come to 1993 where Haim Saban of Saban Company acquired the rights to Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, the 16th Super Sentai to debuted in japan in 1992, (“Super Sentai”) as the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (“Power Rangers”). And the two franchises have been joined at the hip since then. Power Rangers was an instant hit becoming a cultural phenom that has produced new material for the next 21 years, 2 theatrical movies and over 700 episodes to date. In 2001 News Corp./Fox who co produced Power Rangers with Saban sold the franchise to Disney as sales and ratings were flailing. Disney in turn only took Power Rangers as it came bundled with a number of Saban's other properties including which Disney has the real interest in Notably Digimon and Spider-man. At the time Saban was producing it's 10th anniversary Power Rangers series Power Rangers Wild Force and Disney was forced to finish out the season however their intention was to then cancel all new production and simple play the previous 10 season in syndication, a dream that would not come to fruition for another 9 years as Executive Producer at the time Judd Lynn was able to convince Disney that moving production to New Zealand would reduce cost and allow the production of another season.
This would be the start of the Disney Era of power Rangers which went on to produce Power Rangers Ninja Storm, Dino Thunder, SPD, Mystic Force, Operation Overdrive, And Jungle Fury. Jungle Fury was intended to be the last season however broadcasters had already started to talk and promote the next season and so Power Ranger was spared cancellation for one more year and thus the true final season RPM was produced. But Disney had already made up it's mind and RPM was plagued with issues ranging from a shake up in the Executive Producer midway through the season to simply having the show preempted for ANYTHING else, leading to it's exposure in the US market to be very spotty. For example at the time of the 32 episodes that made up RPM about 3 actually aired on my TV at the time and not in any particular order. Then in 2010 Disney got it's wish as no new season was produced instead Disney took the original season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, took the masters and cleaned them up into a faux HD and added some comic booky special effects and released it as the “Remasted” season. But they never even finished producing the first season, as intended 32 episodes of the original seasons 40, before Saban bought back the franchise along with Digimon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and partnered with Nickelodeon as they rushed into production to make a brand new entry in the Power Ranger Franchise for the new year coming in only a handful of months, the start of the Neo-Saban era, Power Rangers Samurai, translated from the 2009 series Samurai Sentai Shinkenger.
Power Rangers is now celebrating it's 20th anniversary (and 21st season) while Super Sentai is celebrating it's 38 Sentai and the 40th anniversary of the Toei Company. Power Rangers has survived cancellation, twice, and been bought out by Disney, and reacquired in 2010, and is still going strong. And here in 2014 Power Rangers celebrates it's 20th anniversary with the footage of the 2011 35th Anniversary sentai Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger.
With a 1-3 year lead between one adaption to another you would think that the toy lines would be near identical with the cost going down as technology marches on making a 3 year old toy line now much easier to produce then in it's inception and yet Bandai of America often chooses not to follow in the shadow of Bandai of Japan but to invest the time and money into taking the older designs and shrinking them and often altering the very gimmick of the toy for the US market. However back during Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger's day they would use the same exact toy changing, at most, paint applications or stickers. Is this a change for the better or worse. Or is it just a change for the different, neither better nor worse. It's not often a company gets to look back on old decisions and then choose to revise it.
Works Cited
“Disney buys Fox Family.” CNN Money. CNN, July 23, 2001: 11:59 a.m. ET, Web. 4 May 2014. <http://ift.tt/1umLvWc;
“Database – Super Sentai Time Capsule.” Super Sentai Time Capsule. N.P., N.P. Web. 26 April 2014. <http://ift.tt/1s7dzL5;
FACKLER, MARTIN Hisako Ueno. "Rubber-Suit Monsters Fade. Tiny Tokyos Relax. (cover story)." New York Times 02 Sept. 2013: A1. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Kamen Rider Legacy. N.P., N.P. Web. 26 April 2014. <http://ift.tt/1umLtO6;
“Power Rangers.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 17 April 2014 at 18:20. Web. 22 April 2014. <http://ift.tt/1s7dC9Q;
“Spider-Man (Toei TV series).” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 2 April 2014 at 11:12. Web. 22 April 2014. <http://ift.tt/1umLvWe;
“Super Sentai.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 14 April 2014 at 09:51. Web. 22 April 2014. <http://ift.tt/1s7dC9S;
Place Holder - http://ift.tt/1umLvWg
Place Holder - http://ift.tt/1umLvWh
Give me your thoughts on this first third of the paper
-----------------------------------------------------
Bandai of Japerica: The super story behind Super Sentai (and Power Rangers)
1975, 1978, 1982, 1993.
In 1975 Shotaro Ishinomori created a new intellectual property in the nascent genre of Tokusatsu, roughly translated as 'special filming,' (FACKLER) Himitsu Sentai Gorenger, the first in what is now a 38 year long series known as Super Sentai, or internationally as Power Rangers, for Toei Company (“Database”). Toei Company also counts Kamen Rider, now in it's 24th series and has seen 2 of those series adapted to America as Masked Rider and Kamen Rider Dragon Knight (Kamen Rider Legacy), Ultraman, which has no American counterpart, and Metal Heroes, since canceled but not before having it's several properties mixed together into Big Bad Bettleborgs and VR Troopers. All of these adaptions, with the exception of Dragon Knight, were adapted by Saban Company, later Disney but now once again in the hands of Saban, while Bandai, now Nameco Bandai, handled all toy aspects.
It really started in 1978 the when the Sentai franchise went super with a collaboration between Toei and Marvel teamed up to bring Spider-Man to Japan:
While Toei's version of the character wore the same costume as his Marvel counterpart, the show's storyline and the origin of the character's powers deviated completely from the source material. In addition to fighting by himself, this incarnation of Spider-Man also piloted a giant robot known as Leopardon, which he would summon to thwart off enlarged versions of the show's monsters. (“Spider-Man”).
Leopardon in turn would inspire Toei to expand it's then named Sentai, or 'Task Force,' series into it's very first Super Sentai with Battle Fever J, which started as another co-project with Marvel, a live action precursor to what would become the Marvel cinematic universe and the Avengers but evolved into an original property. In the Sentai a team of internationally themed heroes (Battle Japan, Battle Cossack, Battle France, Battle Kenya, and Miss America) piloted a giant robot to fight super sized monsters, paving the way for what is now the standard in Super Sentai. Originally Marvel wanted to have Miss America lead the team but the liaison at the time Gene Pelc could not do that for a Japanese audience so Captain Japan took the reigns (Rangerboard).
Battle Fever J was such a success that in 1982 Stan Lee wanted to port the newest Sentai Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan to American, cutting out the footage with the American actors and some of the effects for a unique property, however despite going to several networks, including HBO no one with pick up this wholly unique concept and it seemed like American would never see the light of a Sentai in the states...at least not for another 9 years (Rangerboard).
Then we come to 1993 where Haim Saban of Saban Company acquired the rights to Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, the 16th Super Sentai to debuted in japan in 1992, (“Super Sentai”) as the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (“Power Rangers”). And the two franchises have been joined at the hip since then. Power Rangers was an instant hit becoming a cultural phenom that has produced new material for the next 21 years, 2 theatrical movies and over 700 episodes to date. In 2001 News Corp./Fox who co produced Power Rangers with Saban sold the franchise to Disney as sales and ratings were flailing. Disney in turn only took Power Rangers as it came bundled with a number of Saban's other properties including which Disney has the real interest in Notably Digimon and Spider-man. At the time Saban was producing it's 10th anniversary Power Rangers series Power Rangers Wild Force and Disney was forced to finish out the season however their intention was to then cancel all new production and simple play the previous 10 season in syndication, a dream that would not come to fruition for another 9 years as Executive Producer at the time Judd Lynn was able to convince Disney that moving production to New Zealand would reduce cost and allow the production of another season.
This would be the start of the Disney Era of power Rangers which went on to produce Power Rangers Ninja Storm, Dino Thunder, SPD, Mystic Force, Operation Overdrive, And Jungle Fury. Jungle Fury was intended to be the last season however broadcasters had already started to talk and promote the next season and so Power Ranger was spared cancellation for one more year and thus the true final season RPM was produced. But Disney had already made up it's mind and RPM was plagued with issues ranging from a shake up in the Executive Producer midway through the season to simply having the show preempted for ANYTHING else, leading to it's exposure in the US market to be very spotty. For example at the time of the 32 episodes that made up RPM about 3 actually aired on my TV at the time and not in any particular order. Then in 2010 Disney got it's wish as no new season was produced instead Disney took the original season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, took the masters and cleaned them up into a faux HD and added some comic booky special effects and released it as the “Remasted” season. But they never even finished producing the first season, as intended 32 episodes of the original seasons 40, before Saban bought back the franchise along with Digimon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and partnered with Nickelodeon as they rushed into production to make a brand new entry in the Power Ranger Franchise for the new year coming in only a handful of months, the start of the Neo-Saban era, Power Rangers Samurai, translated from the 2009 series Samurai Sentai Shinkenger.
Power Rangers is now celebrating it's 20th anniversary (and 21st season) while Super Sentai is celebrating it's 38 Sentai and the 40th anniversary of the Toei Company. Power Rangers has survived cancellation, twice, and been bought out by Disney, and reacquired in 2010, and is still going strong. And here in 2014 Power Rangers celebrates it's 20th anniversary with the footage of the 2011 35th Anniversary sentai Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger.
With a 1-3 year lead between one adaption to another you would think that the toy lines would be near identical with the cost going down as technology marches on making a 3 year old toy line now much easier to produce then in it's inception and yet Bandai of America often chooses not to follow in the shadow of Bandai of Japan but to invest the time and money into taking the older designs and shrinking them and often altering the very gimmick of the toy for the US market. However back during Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger's day they would use the same exact toy changing, at most, paint applications or stickers. Is this a change for the better or worse. Or is it just a change for the different, neither better nor worse. It's not often a company gets to look back on old decisions and then choose to revise it.
Works Cited
“Disney buys Fox Family.” CNN Money. CNN, July 23, 2001: 11:59 a.m. ET, Web. 4 May 2014. <http://ift.tt/1umLvWc;
“Database – Super Sentai Time Capsule.” Super Sentai Time Capsule. N.P., N.P. Web. 26 April 2014. <http://ift.tt/1s7dzL5;
FACKLER, MARTIN Hisako Ueno. "Rubber-Suit Monsters Fade. Tiny Tokyos Relax. (cover story)." New York Times 02 Sept. 2013: A1. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Kamen Rider Legacy. N.P., N.P. Web. 26 April 2014. <http://ift.tt/1umLtO6;
“Power Rangers.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 17 April 2014 at 18:20. Web. 22 April 2014. <http://ift.tt/1s7dC9Q;
“Spider-Man (Toei TV series).” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 2 April 2014 at 11:12. Web. 22 April 2014. <http://ift.tt/1umLvWe;
“Super Sentai.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 14 April 2014 at 09:51. Web. 22 April 2014. <http://ift.tt/1s7dC9S;
Place Holder - http://ift.tt/1umLvWg
Place Holder - http://ift.tt/1umLvWh
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