Welcome to the second week of Sentai Month and for this day I will do my first rant. I have reviewed some of the Sentai movies before. Mostly with Gokaiger recently, but this still lives on. I mean the Sentai movies that shouldn't even count as movies. This is a big personal thing I got with the franchise and I am surprised they are still doing this. Now to be exact I am talking about the movie that usually comes out in the Spring now these days. Now what I like are the Versus movies since most of them are an actual film. So let's begin with my first rant.
As I said before the Sentai movies shouldn't even count as films. I mean they are only like half an hour! I know they play this along with the Kamen Rider movie in a double feature, but I would at least think both films would be an hour at best. I remember seeing the Shinkenger movie as it has a run time of twenty minutes, that's shorter than an actual episode! Even if there is a rider movie coming up next that is unacceptable and is a slap to the face for the fans. If the Versus movies can be around an hour why can't these films? Is it really that hard to add an extra half an hour or to be exact forty more minutes! This is another flaw with the franchise because if the rider movie is longer, which film will people remember more? Probably the film that actually has the longer run time since the rider movies usually have a plot and do some exploration with the elements. With these short Sentai movies it just feels like a rejected episode with no character focus what so ever.
Go-busters the Movie had a run time of thirty minutes so this trend is still recent.
Now unlike the Buster's movie the other movies don't really have a difference in the quality. Going back to the Shinkenger movie nothing looks that different. Whenever a series gets a movie there is usually a big change in how things look. Remember in PR Samurai they used both of the movies for the Clash of the Red Ranger special and the Go-onger vs Shinkenger footage looked different, but the Shinkenger movie footage looks just like the series. The older movies have done this as well as it just kills the feeling of a movie as it still feels like a rejected episode for the series.
One thing that the rider and Sentai movies have in common is that they show new things in the movies. Again this is for the toy sales, but the Sentai movies do it so wrong. I mean really in the Buster movie the Frog mech was only used once and it came back for a short moment in the series. The same for Shinkenger and Goseiger. So many other movies do this as well as it just seems forced. At least rider movies use these movie forms a little more in the series or in the other movies. Look at Fourze's Rocket States it was used for three episodes in the series when it was near the end. Heck it was used in the final battle. Double Golden Extreme was used in the movies and even OOO's Burakawani form is used in the Wizard and Fourze movie. Now not everything in the rider movies is used twice, but at least most of them are used again. This will then lead to my next point about the movies, how important they are to the series.
Boukenger used this mech for the movie and two episodes.
The biggest gripe I have with the Sentai movies is then how unimportant they are to the overall canon of the series. As I said the movies feel like rejected episodes and don't add any character development at all. I mean the characters do learn something, but do we see this in the series, not really. Heck even the main villains aren't even involved in the movies. The overall movie just feels ignored then and just bringing it back up in one episode doesn't count. Kamen Rider Double movies had some big connections to the series and other movies. The NEVER group and how they are zombies actually come up in the series and then the group as a prologue movie. Kamen Rider Skull is a really big character in the overall plot when you learn about him, he was even connected to Shroud. Heck most of the time when the movie mech or weapon comes into the series they just use it in a Sentai movie at times.
So that is my view on the rejected episodes of Sentai that somehow count as movies. They are so short and have nothing important in them. I usually tend to ignore these since they just feel like a waste of time so I am saying I haven't seen them all. They just make me mad since the Versus movies are ten times better! This is why I love Gokaiger, they did have the short useless movie, but they had the awesome 199 movie, the team up with Gavan, and the recent Go-buster versus movie. Gokaiger actually has 3 movies that I can call movies as they bring something new and feel like something. I really hope this trend will die and the franchise starts to make actual movies for the so called double feature as this could help with the popularity issues the franchise is having right now. So that's done and I need to go to something positive so next time it will be about the robots that fight the giant monsters! One more thing please be say your thoughts, but don't come swearing at me just saying you love them. Please tell me why.
I have frankly not seen a single KR OR Sentai film thus far (The JAKQ crossover and a piece of the Gokaiger movie on Youtube being it for Sentai) that has made me feel like it's anything more than a throwaway plot pieced together by people that neither watched nor understood the themes of the series that they link to.
ReplyDeleteThe Agito movie came closest, but its canonicity is called into question due to Hojo figuring out Agito's identity earlier than he does in the series.
Den-Os movie just feels like a longer, disconnected standard episode whose major changes could have just as easily been incorporated into the series proper rather than in the framework of fighting a villain that is neither memorable nor threatening enough to warrant his supposed importance.
Kabuto's movie was a pseudo-prequel that didn't make any sense even as that.
Blade's movie was obviously written before the major character development from the final 20 episodes that redeemed the show in my mind. So it was instead full of the same inanity and irrational decision-making that plagued the first half of the series. (And I'm not alone in that opinion)
Paradise Lost was actually not half bad as an alternate ending, and gave a bit more closure than the series itself ended up providing. But it was also extremely simple and once again ignored many of the thematic principles of its parent series.
There's really no reason to keep going on, but it's obvious that the films are not designed to be viewed by people that know much about the series. Major anime films at least manage to shove some character development into them. The earlier Pokemon movies are good examples, especially Pokemon 2K and its Misty/Ash love story.
In my mind the relative lengths of the KR and Sentai films are of no consequence. They're both the same KIND of thing. And that thing is "mostly forgettable".
Well for me I see that Rider movies show some more work. With some of the movies they have the what if plot and that's mostly the Blade and Faiz movie. With Hibiki it actually doesn't ruin anything, it gives the viewers a look of when the Oni's were not fully organized. I mean it was really in the past. Then with most of the recent rider films show some more connections as the Double movies show that well. I am just saying is that when I see a rider movie it feels like a movie, but with Sentai not really except for the Versus movies those can be great.
ReplyDeleteI do you see where you’re coming from and I respect that.
ReplyDeleteI just want to say few things (I’m not going rant…… I will try)
Keep in mind, making a 60-minutes feature length film for any tokusatsu franchise, are incredibly time consuming and expensive. Especially for the series like Super Sentai which has more characters, props, arsenal (vehicles, robots, etc.), costumes, etc., than Kamen Rider.
VS Movies especially are more expensive and time consuming, because of how much casts and props from previous franchise needs to come back just for SAKE of that specific movie.
Shows like Kamen Rider (and Metal Hero since they are similar) are lot more easier to make into longer film because they don’t have so many props and money to use compare to sentai.
For Toei, it seems to be easier (and feasible) to make longer Kamen Rider movie than Sentai; especially since Kamen Rider is more popular than Sentai.
Gokaiger was exception because it was part of the anniversary; it was also anomaly that they made a lot of VS movies. I doubt we’re going to see that amount of VS movies, unless Toei is going to milk up with more Super Hero Taisen movie series.
Unfortunately, this kind of “trend” won’t die, because that how the Japanese movie industry work.
Japanese “spring” movie from kid franchise (toksatsu, anime, etc.) like this tends to count as “film” despite being 30-minutes, because that how Japanese movie industry goes. It’s different from the one in US.
Anyway, that’s my thought.
Feel free to agree or disagree.
Take care.
It does make sense, I never thought about how the Japanese movie industry works. I guess I'm too used to how America does it. I just hope that the cost of those 30 minute films are less than a full motion picture. Either way that Shinkenger movie being 20 minutes is still inexcusable I see. Thank you for being really kind about your views. It's great for people to post their opinions and be nice about it. I have been getting some crap from other people lately so thank you. Also I guess the trend won't die since Superhero Taisen could be a yearly thing if the sequel works well.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Shinkenger movie, there's a reason for that.
DeleteThe movie was shot by Full 3D Digital Cinema (3D camera) for first time in Tokusatsu franchise.
For Toei, this was a first time in 14 years (Super Sentai World premiered in 1994 during Kakuranger; check wiki) that Toei made a 3D movie THEATRICALLY (movie never came out in 3D Blu-Ray unfortunately).
The movie itself was an "experiment" whether or not the 3D movie is going to be a hit for Tokusatsu franchise (and in Japan film industry). Also making 3D THEATRICAL movie takes a lot more time and money than regular movie (shooting movies in 3D is expensive), so it kind of make sense why the movie was short.
As it turned out, the movie was hit and 3D has become common ever since (...even though I don't care so much about 3D, but you get the point).
Hopefully, that clears your concern.
Again thanks for the great info. Even though I remember hearing that people weren't happy with the run time for that movie. By looking at the film it does do the obvious 3d shots so again that makes sense. Still being shorter than an actual episode still rubs me in the wrong way.
ReplyDelete