Monday, July 4, 2011

My favorite American Toku Series

Now I'm not a big fan of the localized toku shows, but there are some good ones out there. So I will start with my favoirte Power Rangers series which is Lost in Space. I barely remember it as a kid all I remember was that it was in Space. Beofre looking back into it I saw about 20 episodes of Megaranger and so far its a good sentai series. So I finally got back into Space and I was surprised that even though Megaranger has a video game motif Saban still went with the Space theme. Which it did work this series was the most original so far having many new ideas. The series was also pretty dark for a power ranger series mostly the ending which all fans will remember. I will do a full review on it sometime, but not now, but I do know this PR series did a lot right, but it still had it's flaws like the TMNT crossover episode.
Why?!!!!!!

Now sadly Kamen Rider was only adpated twice for America and we all know how much the first attempt sucked, but the second one was good. Dragon Knight came around 2008 and adapted the 2002-2003 rider series Ryuki. It sure is a big time gap and the series was cancelled, but it was still good. Again there was original ideas used and there are big differences between it and Ryuki. Another thing is that it kept Kamen Rider. I guess they were trying to keep people away from the thought of Masked Rider even though Kamen means Masked. Well the series did keep some darkness with losing riders going into eternal slumber in a different world, it sort had a death feeling. The villian was even impressive sort of similar to Shiro giving the powers to certain people. Xaviax wanted to rule both worlds (OF COURSE!) and he was limited on who becomes a rider because of the mirror world. He was a smart villian and gave off the impression Lord Zedd had before he got goofy. They both had the look of having power and seem like the emperor, this was shown at times with Xaviax threatning riders. The series also used some of their own footage, but they had some bad editing with that at times when they had to use the original footage because of the time gap. This was a good attempt and there should be more in the future just not with Decade start with Double.


There were then Metal Hero series that were adapted and I barely remember some of those and one of those was Big Bad Beetleborgs! I loved this as a kid and there are still some moments I remember a lot like that one episode where they actually had Janperson in an episode or the Shadowborg arc. I do remeber the blue Jay Leno though and now he just creeps me out at times. For the other monsters they're okay, but pointless. The heroes maybe kids, but it was used better than Turbo with Justin. I dont like the fact they just get powers just because of a wish and now they have to fight evil because Jay Leno released the villians. This was adapted from one of the most popular metal hero series Juukou B Fighter. I only saw the first episode, but I have seen clips and MV's and I can tell I will love this series. I remember Shadowborg as my favoirte badass back then and now that I know more about Black Beet he is more awsome since there is more character behind him and he has one of my favoirte songs from toku. The villians were good there are the three goofballs and I bet they're not all goofs in B Fighter, but the leader uses a similar method in American Toku or Toku in general which is the emperor feel and in the final episode of the Shadowborg arc we see the heroes couldnt finish him off even after three deadly attacks. I didnt like how he was then tossed aside for the new villians because I would love to see those two groups work together.

"Its offical, you suck."

So those are some of American Toku series that I remember or love the most, I will easily try to find more again like Beetleborgs and thanks to Netflix that is pretty easy. Even with some good ones from America there are a lot more original toku series I love.

4 comments:

  1. I loved In Space. For me it's still the best PR season ever. The ending was really sad. However, unlike most people, I actually enjoyed the TMNT team-up. It could have been a little better executed but for me as a kid it was like a dream crossover.

    The only other American Toku shows I've watched besides Power Rangers were VR Troopers and Masked Rider. I really didn't care much for Masked Rider, but I thought VR Troopers was ok.

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  2. Man, I barely have a memory on the other saban adaptations: I have almost no memory of VR troopers, in Masked Rider, the only character I know of is Ferbus, and in Beetleborgs, I only remember the bullies and the monsters living with the mix of Joker, Elvis, and Jay Leno.; alone with like one or two episodes.

    @Mr. Smith
    Have you had a chance to check out the sentai used for In Space: Denji Sentai Megaranger?

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  3. Not yet. I was waiting for TV-Nihon to sub it entirely, but it seems like they dropped Megaranger. I'd love to watch it though.

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  4. For me, RPM is the only American tokusatsu series to date that I actually truly love.

    Time Force, SPD, and Dragon Knight are decent. But not quite up there with RPM.

    I don't really care much for the others. Including Space, sorry. xD

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