It's weird most of my friends that are into the anime fandom that know of Tokusatsu. They see Kamen Rider and Ultraman as "live action anime". But Sentai is seen as just "Japanese Power Rangers".
@@veejaycarlos5067 To me Heisei Phase 1 felt more like a J-Drama though than an anime, its not untill Kabuto onward, that Toei decide to made Kamen Rider felt more like a live action anime
James Gunn actually said he's a Kamen Rider fan and says he believes that there's an audience for the franchise here in America maybe he could help bring it over in some way
Easy, Kamen Rider is just another breed of super hero, and very inspired by western comics especially when it first came out, with Marvel fatigue it's actually a good time to try and get people's eyes on something else.
With Godzilla, I went to see the theatrical rerelease of Against Mechagodzilla and the theater was PACKED with an audience young and old. And by the end the audience was applauding. It’s safe to say the King of the Monsters has stating power even while still using traditional Toku techniques. And if he can make it, I believe Ultraman and Kamen Rider can too.
I really wish I could have seen that, will see if i can catch the SOS viewing this month. Superb couple of films and it's actually a smart move to show these two, they're a good introduction to other Godzilla movies and what to expect, its just the two films with the original movie as the starting point which a lot of people have seen.
I learnt this more recently, but Tsuburaya has ambitions to rival disney some time in the future. Not sure how they will achieve such a feat, but im sure every toku fan is eager to see that ambition realised.
I love tokusatsu so much that for my college speech class, I did my informative speech on toku. Going from Godzilla to Kamen Rider. And I was genuinely surprised to see how many people like Power Rangers, even now
Most countries/markets/cultures are so unique that they should be observed individually. I sometimes see fans making generalized statements about large territories like the entirety of Europe but they rarely take into account the massive cultural differences. Speaking from Hungary, toku never had a chance to become popular because we're such a small, sheltered and stuck-in-the-past country where access to American and Asian media was limited for most of the past century. Official releases of Asian shows or movies are still rare. I think we got two or three Japanese special effect movies in the 80s and about four Power Rangers series between 1995 and 2012. And that's about it, barely anyone remembers them and there is zero mainstream interest for more. Even anime has always struggled to stay afloat here, despite anime having huge fan communities, unlike toku. I know there are few toku fans here, but overall I've seen far more rejection and bitter hate against tokusatsu and toku-inspired media than love. That probably won't change because the more recent media aren't being distributed here either.
It's a similar case in Latvia as well(go figure, we're even tinier country). Closest thing we had to tokusatsu were mighty morphing and turbo ranger movies and couple power ranger tv series. Now, I'm not really a fan of toku, but it's hard not to notice that currently when more and more busineses had started to realize that anime fans are good target demographic - anime films in cinemas, manga in bookstores, big local cons - you toku fans seem to be completely ignored
@@aleksisgabliks3881Well there's a reason for that. Japan's anime has had a much more complex and prolific history of exportation to the West. In contrast, most Westerners only know Tokusatsu from Power Rangers or Godzilla. And even then, PR's popularity peaked in the 90's.
Growing up watching Power Rangers as a kid and finding out what anime was I started to get into more Japanese based shows, when I found out that Power Rangers had a counterpart and that it originated in Japan I just knew I should check it out. The rest is history now lol. I have been a Rider/Sentai fan for a lot of years now and haven't looked back. It may be super niche but I am still gonna nerd out about it to my friends who have no clue what I am talking about sometimes xD
It's extremely niche from my perspective but growing, for a lot of people it's difficult to get into it because of the effects "are just men in tights". I had a friend in highschool who knew about Kamen Rider, because of Dragon Knight and my teacher for Precalculus knew about (because he grew up with it) Ultraman, but mostly it's just "yo is that Power Rangers?" but even then it's not always in a negative context
Western superhero franchises like Marvel and DC are also "men in tights". Difference is that superheroes have now been rebranded in the modern day as something that all ages can enjoy, so they're seen as "socially acceptable" to like now. Transforming hero shows like Kamen Rider and Super Sentai, on the other hand, are by and large primarily aimed at children (with the exception of some spinoff shows or movies). I think that's one of the main reasons it can be so off-putting to people, just the general "kid's show" stigma attached to them.
Three actual videos in two weeks?? Yes! Having a team of writers and editors has helped so much with ideas I've had for a long long time. I appreciate them so much ❤️
It's odd you didn't talk about Korea in this video considering the fact that basically every child watches "Power Rangers"/Kamen Riders to the point they've made their own seasons
I'm a recent Ultraman fan, and i absolutely wouldn't have gotten into it without Tsuburayas's youtube channel. It helps that Ultraman Z is a great entry point too.
To give a perspective from India. India has dubbed every Power Rangers shows from MMPR to Cosmic Fury however the most popular show having the most nostalgia for people is SPD. We never imported Kamen Rider here. We had dubs of two other tokushows with them being popular as close to Power Rangers them being Tomica Hero Rescue Force and Madan Senki Ryukendo, both however are hard to find in Hindi dubbing due to it not archived properly. We also dubbed Big Bad Beetle borgs hers so yeah. And i believe a show called Justriser was dubbed although i dont remember it. We are getting dubs of Ultra Man on TH-cam officially so thats cool.
(Long rambling) 10:47 Fun fact about these three shows, they were also aired over here in Australia! My dad recalls my favourite Spectreman airing on ABC in the early 80s and Giant Robo (known as Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot here) aired on Channel 0 (now Channel 10) from the early-mid 70s possibly all the way up until the 90s. Ambassador Magma (called Space Avenger here which was actually the working name for the US airings) possibly aired from the mid-late 70s, I haven't found out what station yet as my dad doesn't remember it and nor can I find it online, so I plan on contacting some of the stations (ABC, 10, 9) for any information, mainly when it aired and if they have any tapes since the english dub is partially lost. Spectreman was also incredibly popular in both France and Brazil, so popular there was a parody called Léguman, a segment on the French-Belgian puppet show Téléchat in the 80s.
Somewhere between 2006-2008 Madan Senki Ryukendo aired in Puerto Rico in Spanish, on the weekends I think it was. Probably Saturdays. From what mom says Ultraman also aired in Puerto Rico when she was young. And I can swear I think they even aired some of Supaidaman at one point during the early 2000's too.
It's kind of sad given that we have Fuuto PI now, but the way that was marketed, people can't really get into it without confusion despite it being a good show. Tokusatsu was once competitors to anime before it hit internationally, and anime outshined it as animation quality started going up after the 70's into the 80's and 90's. And modern anime fans taste in anime is very similar to tokusatsu shows premises. It's essentially live action anime before Hollywood tarnished it, and done right. I like to think people can't get pass the goofiness, costumes and cgi. From my experience, the only show people were actually interested in watching was Amazons or Black Sun. Tokusatsu also suffers from "it's just for kids syndrome", the same reason people don't watch or read Beyblade, Yugioh etc, even though they have great stories to tell.
The "it's for kids" stigma you mentioned I find to be a bit of a double standard considering stuff like Disney Channel cartoons and children's animated movies are also mainstream and respected well enough within the American pop culture sphere.
Not sure if you heard, but Discotek announced that they'll be releasing Kamen Rider Black sometime next year. Not sure if that means anything, but it's cool that other companies are interested in Kamen Rider. Just thought I pass that info along.
"I don't think Tokusatsu will ever get as big as the likes of Marvel..." OK, so I'm going to explain, hopefully in detail, what exactly is WRONG with that statement. First off, comparing Tokusatsu to Marvel is on the same level as comparing a tool to a factory. You just can't compare them as Tokusatsu isn't exactly a cultural icon, that's like saying "Manga will never be as big as Universal Studios". One is the process of making a movie, and the other an entertainment company. I know we often associate Power Rangers/Super Sentai, Godzilla, Metal Heroes, and Ultraman WITH Tokusatsu, but it's incorrect as the correct genres they fall under would be fantasy and science fiction. While I agree that here in the States Toku isn't as big a cultural force as, say, Marvel, but I SERIOUSLY think you're underplaying its impact in other countries outside of the US. MOST of Latin/South America grew up on Toei's productions of Metal Hero and Masked Rider; Europe had Super Sentai and Ultraman; The Middle East Gobbled up Toho and Toei like sweetbreads! The products of Tokusatsu may not be as big in the US of A, but they are GIANTS in practically every other continent. You even pointed out said countries IN THIS VIDEO, yet you never made the connection! That's amazing! Everything else, though, I agree with, ESPECIALLY the "Isn't this Japanese Power Rangers?" I FREAKING HATE that, I feel like I get Vietnam flashbacks whenever someone mentions that, especially since my favorite super hero franchise is Ultraman! Some of my friends from my childhood took one look at the Ultraman figures I got from Japan and they're like "Hey, which Power Ranger is that?" Just...ignorance I can't deal with XD
It may not be the case in the U.S., but Tokusatsu is a literal pop culture icon in Japan. So much of their media is directly inspired by Tokusatsu in some way. Even the new Dadadan anime has several blatant Ultraman homages. The world doesn't revolve around how America sees something.
Tokusatsu movies that are not superhero or kaiju related are underrated. The Last War is one of the most grim movies from the Golden Age of Showa Tokusatsu on par with the first 1954 Godzilla movie and has awesome special effects directed by Eiji Tsuburaya.
Whenever I hear the question about it being Power Rangers I always respond with the answer "Yes, but no. Would you like to know more?" And see if they take the bait. I have gotten 10 people to watch Kuuga because of this.
@@suiken3149 it could help, but part of the appeal of Tokusatsu is that it's live-action. Though there's been some anime adaptations of toku series in the past, Red Baron (which was essentially a Super Robot toku series due to the success of Mazinger Z, and in Spain it was actually marketed as a live-action Mazinger Z movie) received an anime adaptation in the early 90s, and it became a cult hit in Latin America (some episodes are available on TMS Latin America TH-cam channel)
Tokusatsu is definitely niche but it really depends on the individual series. I'd say a vast majority of people couldn't identify any specific Super Sentai show beyond guessing "Is this related to Power Rangers?" By contrast I don't think anyone would have trouble identifying Godzilla. Taking it a step further, I predict that while the Marvel Cinematic Universe has taken the world by storm a majority of people still couldn't identify most Marvel characters beyond those showcased in the movies.
The passing of time is so weird. Like just today at work I was talking to one of the younger people. Apparently anime is a huge thing right now and even regular people just know of the modern big anime like My Hero and Demon Slayer. Back in my day you couldn't casually talk about FMA, Evangelion or Inuyasha with random people. Maybe on 20 years Toku will be the same way.
Fun fact, Spain aired France's Bioman 3 (Liveman), but since Bioman and Bioman 2 never aired here they just called it Bioman. (As an extra tidbit the Spanish intro was sung by some French dude singing in Spanish and it has the funniest accent, I just wish I knew why they did that.)
Funny, cause in Latam, Liveman and Bioman, where translated in Brazil and exported in Spanish. Those series, specially Liveman, is like culture in Peru.
Kikaida, Kamen rider v3 and inazuman were very big in Hawaii,Brazil and Hawaii have big Japanese populations so there's cultural exchange as well as Brazil not being able to produce as much back then.
Yeah I'm from Malaysia and Ultraman was a huge huge hit over here and i have to say Ultraman was a first experience with Toku content but i never gone into it till i first show Kamen Rider OOO (i didn't really finished the series because i bought the CD version from Speedy) the same goes for Fourze to but then i stop for a few long years i think I've started rewatching Kamen Rider again is where Zero One was airing and which one i pick Zi-O (yeah that was a bad idea because i only watch TWO uncompleted series) on a TH-cam Channel that I'm not gonna say not sure if it's own by Toku themselves or not but the new was build and then Zero One (i did try out a couple of series like Gaim,Ex-aid and Drive but it didn't really appeal to me as much as Build,Zi-O and Zero One did) and then Revice and now i haven't watch another Kamen Rider for quite a while even when i think Geats first episode was good i haven't capt up with it
New Kamen Rider Fan here! I don't think I would know how or where to even watch Kamen Rider with out the fanbase for it being so informative. It took me some research and time to find it, but I have to thank the community for helping me get into Tokusatsu in the first place.
It is starting to become a larger niche, as studios make greater efforts to market their Japanese Toku shows in the western hemisphere. The west has a greater craving for eastern media more than ever, and so the Japanese are taking advantage of this to market not just anime, but also Tokusatsu. Proof of this can be found with Kamen Rider: Black Sun, an adult-oriented entry in the franchise that was recently released on Amazon Prime worldwide, complete with full subtitles. If Black Sun does well, who knows what could happen next?
The thing is that Kamen Rider Black Sun is much gloomier (and unfortunately more out of whack with some fans, especially in terms of virtue signalling) than the two lighter and softer shows (and various mangas) which preceded it.
Kamen Rider Dragon Knight is what got me into KR. The major issue with Dragon Knight, though, was that it was hardly advertised. Like, I remember enjoying it more than whatever Power Rangers was airing at the time, but seeing maybe 1 Dragon Knight commercial for like....every 50 Power Rangers commercials. But hey, it lead to my discovery of Kabuto and watching the rest of the franchise as a whole. Even lead to me watching Garo. Before Dragon Knight, my tokusatsu watching habits were basically Godzilla (Introduced to me by my 4th grade teacher who played a Godzilla movie for the class every Friday), Power Rangers, Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad, Ultraman Tiga, VR Troopers, Big Bad Beetleborgs, and the tokusatsu inspired Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog. Of all of those shows, I only owned toys for Godzilla, Beetleborgs, and Mystic Knights. Now I keep wanting to get my hands on a Kamen Rider belt, been considering Woz cause I love the standby sound. But yeah, I'm a total Tokusatsu nerd these days.
A not so Fun fact, Despite having a big push before, Our country or The Philippines have been seeing less and less push of tokusatsu media now, the new generation are more into anime now, that's just really the answer Hell watching Ultraman or Power Rangers is a cardinal sin since it's a KIDS SHOW
Can we talk about how ridiculous it is that ultraman's getting a american comic crossover with the avengers instead of superman? I mean, one's "truth, justice and beauty" and the others "truth, justice and the american way"
There's bad blood between Marvel and DC after the publication of the 2003 JLA/AVENGERS intercompany crossover by Kurt Busiek and George Perez that put the kibosh on cooperation between the two companies for two decades. Relations seem to be beginning to thaw recently allowing omnibus format reprinting of the Marvel/DC crossovers from the misuse entire through the nineties.
The thing with toku, especially the modern ones is they always cheap out on effects. Even if the story is good, only few people can take them seriously because the cheap production takes away the immersion from said shows. SSSS Gridman and Fuuto Pi gained much more attention when they made the shows into animation instead of the usual live action because you can hide low budget productions much better in this type of format.
@@716_ハディくん When you are a kid, you will prefer flashy actions that doesnt look fake. Thats how I got hooked up with Super Sentais and KR when I was a kid because of their spectacular special effects.
No one knows about Kamen Riders in my country. And the ones who do, see them as rare hardcore versions of Power Ranger, and both are usually discarded after graduating from childhood. It's hard to rope anyone into Kamen Rider without them just running into a series trailer and just walking in themselves I've tried pushing/persuading, doesn't work
western world never tried properly adapt it with an original costume but licensed. yeah saban did tried warriors of tyr na nog in the veins of power rangers, but not kamen rider. Super Force and captain power were good examples of how western world realized their own metal heroes/metal tokusatsu heroes. But for kamen rider. they need to make their own costume, it won't work if they always translate it like power rangers translated super sentai
@@haydenreviewscustomcombos gojira and godzilla are the same character, there's no difference between how America does godzilla vs how Japan does godzilla. Japan has done the heroic and villainous godzilla before, America only has done the heroic godzilla.
Always been a Godzilla fan since I was a kid, and will die one! Recently I got into Kamen Rider and absolutely loving it. I think KR can easily make a stake in the states, its formula is familiar to anime fans and its action and plots would be well known to comic book fans and easy to digest with how popular super heroes have been lately, and KR adapts itself well to the darker tones western audiences are used to. If Legendary were to make their own Kamen Rider, or some other company, they could adapt something like Kuuga.
Zero-One, Build, or Drive are some seasons I could especially see resonating well with Western audiences. Their general themes are already stuff that Westerners are familiar with.
the main reason I got into Super Sentai was that one episode in DIno Thunder where they watched Abaranger. oh, and the Dekaranger movie cd that my mom bought (without subs). The local kids tv channel aired select Heisei rider series dubbed in english for a long time
Bioman's success in France is mostly due to a kids show called "Club Dorothée" which presented and broadcasted various Japanese shows and anime The eponymous Dorothée was so influential that she even starred in several Toku shows including Kamen Rider Black !
Ryukendo wasn't super popular in India, but it was well loved by everyone who watched it. It became this underrated masterpiece that only a few people who watvhed it loved.
i've known tokusatsu ever since i was a kid (mainly Ultraman and Kamen Rider) and also watches a lot of shfiguarts unboxings and reviews. i binged a lot kamen rider shows during my teenage years (except a few showa shows and ex-aid) and ultraman shows too.
Now this is a very professional video. I like it. I do like how you pointed out some points on how things like Godzilla have acclaimed things but most ppl have yet to be interested in it yet. If only Marvel and DC movies weren't seen as the ONLY thing casuals can just check out. There's lots of media, man. :/
I really want to wait until Toho actually releases their new Godzilla movies as semi-hard as their cgi movies someday. Because for now I see Ultraman and Godzilla reaching into the mainstream more easily with their more coherent kaiju genre appeal. Toei could do much more better in actually having Kamen Rider at least be successful with its fanbase at the very least like having a simple promotion page. But at the very least Kamen Rider is known in the internet as that sometimes cool power rangers esque show.
It's funny how I came to engage in Toku: by all means I shouldn't be here at all, but it just sorta happened? I know Power Rangers aired in Spain and toku is pretty popular in Latin America but I actually watched Kamen Rider because of some tweets about OOO. I don't think I ever saw Power Rangers and I've certainly never cared for TV shows' toys. What I'm trying to get at is, if you want people to know about what you enjoy, talk about it! You never know who will actually jump into it.
I feel thats it weirdly ironic that this video is the first time I heard about Kuuga being on Blu-ray. Despite me wishing for months that Shout Factory would do so after releasing the Zero-One Blu-ray.
I think if it wasn’t for Kamen rider dragon knight back in the day I wouldn’t start watching Kamen rider again back in September. Like I love how a lot of this is so niche, but known.
If we count Power Rangers I'd say Toku is at least well known, as a concept Perhaps toku would've been more popular in the U.S if more shows were dubbed in the past, but I know dubbed live-action shows aren't very popular there
Something to mention is that Tsuburaya's copyright enforcement is lenient af. It's almost as if Toei is trying to stop second hand free marketing from clips and other people making videos about rider and sentai, while Tsuburaya lets entire TH-cam playlists of English subtitles series go free for decades
Tsuburaya generally doesn't care because it is free exposure. The only time where they would interfere is with the ULTRAMAN anime series but that is likely so they wouldn't get in trouble with Netflix
@@miragebangbravern I think Tsuburaya probably respects more international laws and doctrines (especially America’s own fair use doctrine) than Toei does. It’s like the Sega USA equivalent to Toei’s Nintendo.
You know what's funny? I only found out a few weeks ago you can stream SHOUT Factory's stuff for free and shockingly no ads because I wanted to check again. I guess the boxset money makes that possible🤣 Tunnel vision is a funny thing. I don't think of Godzilla when thinking of Toku, despite being ground zero Another thing we can agree on is that gatekeeping is stupid, pointless and a waste of time. It would just be nice to have easy access to it all like we do Hollywood blockbusters, and honestly I'd extend that sentiment to things outside Tokusatsu, because "I just think they're neat" and that's the best
I live in a big-ish city in the Deep South and I was astonished to see the theatre PACKED when Shin Kamen Rider came out, I had no idea there were this many Rider fans here
Brazil loves Jaspion we even released a manga inspired that tells what happened after the series and there's an urbam legend about a "Jaspion movie" that they are producing but no one knows nothing about it
I was a Tokusatsu fan in my childhood but in the early 10s I moved out to jpop fandom. I still have great memories as a Tokusatsu fan but I feel happier nowadays being a jpop fan. I'm happy at least avex artists that I like still be making songs for the franchise.
Ah yes as a non tokusatsu fan the first thing I thought about was the "power ranger" genre.. but I do have some familiarity of tokusatsu through some manga I read though its not that much. Would love a video thats like a "beginner guide to tokusatsu" though. Think it would be fun and interesting to watch.
I don't mean to offend anyone, but it will always stay niche. As a kid in the late 80s and early 90s, I enjoyed Kamen Rider Black, Space Sheriff Shaider and Ultraman. I particularly loved Kamen Raider Black. I moved to the west, grew up and always had fond memories of these tokusatsu shows but I NEVER - not even once - had the urge to watch them again, because whenever I looked them up, it honestly just looked like silly kid stuff. I won't even voice my opinion on the new Kamen Rider costume designs so as to not offend anyone lmao. I legit have not watched a single episode of a tokusatsu show since I lived in asia, well over 20 years ago. If tokusatsu ever wants to hit mainstream they gotta do what Chris Nolan did to Batman; a darker, more mature and grounded reimagining. Granted, Batman was a household name well before Nolan did what he did, but Batman, along with most Marvel and DC heroes, are mostly known for their appearances in comics and cartoons. Few in the fanbase are there for their live action appearances, because, like tokusatsu, these characters simply look silly in live action. At least that is until the MCU came along, but they have the advantage of having billions of fucking dollars so even something as silly looking as a live action Captain America can look cool as hell when you got the money to spend on incredible set pieces, talented actors and stuntman, amazing cgi and what have you. In short, they gotta change up the tone or match that hollywood $$$. And again, I don't mean to offend anyone, I said it LOOKS like kid stuff. I'm only referring to appearance. Who knows, maybe there is a lot of depth in these tokusatsu shows, but as a grown ass man I don't have the time and will to investigate. But I sure as hell remember Kamen Rider Black as having a lot of depth, but as an outsider who hasn't cared for these shows since childhood, toku in general does LOOK like kid stuff to me and it just isn't interesting. In fact, the only reason I watched this vid is because I was on my amazon prime video account and saw a new Kamen FUCKING Rider Black show in there and started looking for reviews here on youtube, lol.
I always laugh when the italian posters for godzilla comes up. italy had imported anime, toku shows and miscellania far, far before america realized japan had television. it is unfortunate how the commerical evolution of the '90s made it fizzle out. megaloman is only the top of the iceberg, including crudilly dubbed-over illegal import copies of Kamen rider and sentai series
"A certain Thai-based production company." Awesome that you slyly mentioned Sompote Sands and Chayo Productions. Even though he have us the abominable Space Warriors 2000, I'll admit the guy had balls to think that he could get away with saying that Chayo owned the rights to all Ultraman content outside of Japan.
This sort of franchise is mostly targeted for kids below 12, like Ultraman in my country Malaysia, they are mostly for kids below 9 and after that kids just move on.
Not all tokusatsu is targeted towards kids, the problem is people lump purposely kid friendly tokusatsu with tokusatsu that is made for adults. But then again people love to generalize things without differentiating 1 thing from another
Honestly, as long as the shows are subbed and released on Blu-ray/dvd or on streaming, I have no issue with how small the fandom is. The less people enjoying it the less likely we'll get assholes. Though, it genuinely does upset me how power rangers poisoned the well so thoroughly that any chance of tokusatsu being respected and defined on its own merit was killed by a cynical show that was made with almost as much contempt for its material as a Gen X teenager in 1992 would have on the property. Fail or not, I'd rather have had Zyuranger stand on its own merit than its frankenstein monster cousin by con-artists with the budget that made save by the bell look like a marvel movie and scripts that made the facts of life sound like it was the wire. Its not so much the stigma that its for children that holds back tokusatsu, but moreso that its the lowest quality that holds it back.
Even without power rangers, people who aren't fans would still believe in the misconceptions of tokusatsu for the dumbest reasons. Yet when you grab cgi, a Hollywood budget and give everyone a Hollywood tokusatsu movie those same people will say it looks cool. So it's not just people believing tokusatsu is power rangers or for kids, you got people who really think Practical effects = for kids/is cheap Cgi= more serious/realistic The method behind bringing a story to life DOESN'T determine if it will be serious or campy, it's like people forgot we have goofy cgi films or TV shows...
@@Kaiju-bm4ts I agree with you about the practical vs CGI argument but I think this still wraps back to power rangers. Jurassic Park, the first movie to really utilize CGI to any significance, released in 1993 in June whereas MMPR came out in August of 1993. It was like the question of 'are practical effects obsolete?' was answered with a resounding 'yes' when Pudgy pig marched on the small screen. How many times have you heard someone reference a bad effect or design and hear them call it 'power rangers'? I don't want to come off as a rebid PR hater. I don't much care for the show but I generally respect the fan base and their passion but I cannot ignore the damage it's done, not only to the perception of Henshin heroes but tokusatsu and later on practical effects. I just wished that the subject was handled by people who genuinely enjoyed the subject matter instead of people who openly hated it. P.S. I do know that later seasons supposedly took a lot more respect for both the source material and it's own show itself (light speed rescue, time force) and if one of those were the first PR shows things could have been much different but it was too little too late.
@@dugonman8360 ironic you bring up jurassic Park cause that film is mostly practical effects and barely any cgi but people nowadays will sit down and enjoy that film. Same goes to the predator (1987) a complete man in a suit but people will call that movie good cause they think it's cgi even though it's not. It goes to show the people who hate practical effects are the same people who are just making that statement with spoiled minsets caused by cgi. I'm not a PR fan and I do respect PR but it has damaged the reputation of tokusatsu in the west but even before PR, the idea of tokusatsu being for kids (which is true to an extent since some tokusatsu properties were aimed at kids prior to the 90s) already did damage to the genre but PR just made things worse. So far the only tokusatsu characters that are being taken seriously in America atm are godzilla and kong through legendary picture's monsterverse but that's mostly because again.....cgi...despite those movies are a modernized version of the showa era of godzilla and are still campy in their own right. But yet again...audiences will ignore how both situations are campy and still deem cgi to make everything more serious.
I'm still stuck on that one scene from gold member. RUN, ITS GODZILLA It lokks like Godzilla, but due to international copyright law, it's not STILL WE SHOULD RUN LIKE IT IS GODZILLA Though it isn't
what makes it niche is the cgi man, it's so hard recomending kamen rider when early on they are fighting another cgi monstrosity like the anomalocaris dopant or are fighting as/alongside one like the body horror trex in revice or the amorphous blob that is the power dizer
How main stream tokusatsu is in Brazil today? I can't really say but when it came out, Kamen Rider Black Sun was the number 6 most watched amazon prime show in Brazil, i think that means at least something...
I got introduced to toku by ultraman mebius in india by sonic Nickelodeon also many movies were also dubbed into regional languages this video got randomly recommend to me.
It's weird most of my friends that are into the anime fandom that know of Tokusatsu. They see Kamen Rider and Ultraman as "live action anime". But Sentai is seen as just "Japanese Power Rangers".
Even though super Sentai is more anime than any tokusatsu,
Part of anime community btw
Tbf kamen rider do be quiet influenced by anime because their target audience are mostly teens. Look at fucking Heisei phase 1
@@veejaycarlos5067 To me Heisei Phase 1 felt more like a J-Drama though than an anime, its not untill Kabuto onward, that Toei decide to made Kamen Rider felt more like a live action anime
@@Flamne kamen rider and Ultraman have anime level power level
Your friend must be shocker agent
Tokusatsu is one of the rare genres that gatekeeps itself
James Gunn actually said he's a Kamen Rider fan and says he believes that there's an audience for the franchise here in America maybe he could help bring it over in some way
Totally! I’d like to see more fairly obscure works like Toei’s infamous Kenya Boy film and tv series, at least in Australia.
Easy, Kamen Rider is just another breed of super hero, and very inspired by western comics especially when it first came out, with Marvel fatigue it's actually a good time to try and get people's eyes on something else.
Just needs to distribute the series to more people
hey that's jimmy urine's friend
Yeah but I hear some Bandai shmuck is not letting it happen.
With Godzilla, I went to see the theatrical rerelease of Against Mechagodzilla and the theater was PACKED with an audience young and old. And by the end the audience was applauding. It’s safe to say the King of the Monsters has stating power even while still using traditional Toku techniques. And if he can make it, I believe Ultraman and Kamen Rider can too.
I really wish I could have seen that, will see if i can catch the SOS viewing this month. Superb couple of films and it's actually a smart move to show these two, they're a good introduction to other Godzilla movies and what to expect, its just the two films with the original movie as the starting point which a lot of people have seen.
@@ORLY911 I can say from my experience the theater was packed for both entries of the kiryu saga when both were in theaters
I learnt this more recently, but Tsuburaya has ambitions to rival disney some time in the future. Not sure how they will achieve such a feat, but im sure every toku fan is eager to see that ambition realised.
That, I love to see too.
Time to put them in their place.
Just hope that they don't BECOME disney
@@AcidiFy574 but that's curse of being big they'll all become greedy
@@AcidiFy574
That’s sounds like epic battle between Tsuburaya, Toho, Toei, Bandai Namco, Nintendo, and Kadokawa.
I love tokusatsu so much that for my college speech class, I did my informative speech on toku. Going from Godzilla to Kamen Rider. And I was genuinely surprised to see how many people like Power Rangers, even now
Most countries/markets/cultures are so unique that they should be observed individually. I sometimes see fans making generalized statements about large territories like the entirety of Europe but they rarely take into account the massive cultural differences.
Speaking from Hungary, toku never had a chance to become popular because we're such a small, sheltered and stuck-in-the-past country where access to American and Asian media was limited for most of the past century. Official releases of Asian shows or movies are still rare. I think we got two or three Japanese special effect movies in the 80s and about four Power Rangers series between 1995 and 2012. And that's about it, barely anyone remembers them and there is zero mainstream interest for more. Even anime has always struggled to stay afloat here, despite anime having huge fan communities, unlike toku. I know there are few toku fans here, but overall I've seen far more rejection and bitter hate against tokusatsu and toku-inspired media than love. That probably won't change because the more recent media aren't being distributed here either.
It's a similar case in Latvia as well(go figure, we're even tinier country). Closest thing we had to tokusatsu were mighty morphing and turbo ranger movies and couple power ranger tv series. Now, I'm not really a fan of toku, but it's hard not to notice that currently when more and more busineses had started to realize that anime fans are good target demographic - anime films in cinemas, manga in bookstores, big local cons - you toku fans seem to be completely ignored
@@aleksisgabliks3881 Russia unfortunately doesn’t like Tokusatsu, more so than it already dislikes anime shows.
@@aleksisgabliks3881Well there's a reason for that.
Japan's anime has had a much more complex and prolific history of exportation to the West. In contrast, most Westerners only know Tokusatsu from Power Rangers or Godzilla.
And even then, PR's popularity peaked in the 90's.
Growing up watching Power Rangers as a kid and finding out what anime was I started to get into more Japanese based shows, when I found out that Power Rangers had a counterpart and that it originated in Japan I just knew I should check it out. The rest is history now lol. I have been a Rider/Sentai fan for a lot of years now and haven't looked back. It may be super niche but I am still gonna nerd out about it to my friends who have no clue what I am talking about sometimes xD
It's extremely niche from my perspective but growing, for a lot of people it's difficult to get into it because of the effects "are just men in tights". I had a friend in highschool who knew about Kamen Rider, because of Dragon Knight and my teacher for Precalculus knew about (because he grew up with it) Ultraman, but mostly it's just "yo is that Power Rangers?" but even then it's not always in a negative context
Western superhero franchises like Marvel and DC are also "men in tights".
Difference is that superheroes have now been rebranded in the modern day as something that all ages can enjoy, so they're seen as "socially acceptable" to like now.
Transforming hero shows like Kamen Rider and Super Sentai, on the other hand, are by and large primarily aimed at children (with the exception of some spinoff shows or movies). I think that's one of the main reasons it can be so off-putting to people, just the general "kid's show" stigma attached to them.
Three actual videos in two weeks?? Yes! Having a team of writers and editors has helped so much with ideas I've had for a long long time. I appreciate them so much ❤️
Where do you watch kamen rider
It's odd you didn't talk about Korea in this video considering the fact that basically every child watches "Power Rangers"/Kamen Riders to the point they've made their own seasons
@@dankerbooper Korean Super Sentai? Yeah, they’re kind of canon to the Super Sentai franchise, aren’t they?
I'm a recent Ultraman fan, and i absolutely wouldn't have gotten into it without Tsuburayas's youtube channel. It helps that Ultraman Z is a great entry point too.
Oh! Nice to have you, then! I'd agree that Z is a great place to start! I hope you continue to have fun watching Ultraman!
To give a perspective from India.
India has dubbed every Power Rangers shows from MMPR to Cosmic Fury however the most popular show having the most nostalgia for people is SPD.
We never imported Kamen Rider here.
We had dubs of two other tokushows with them being popular as close to Power Rangers them being Tomica Hero Rescue Force and Madan Senki Ryukendo, both however are hard to find in Hindi dubbing due to it not archived properly.
We also dubbed Big Bad Beetle borgs hers so yeah.
And i believe a show called Justriser was dubbed although i dont remember it.
We are getting dubs of Ultra Man on TH-cam officially so thats cool.
(Long rambling) 10:47 Fun fact about these three shows, they were also aired over here in Australia! My dad recalls my favourite Spectreman airing on ABC in the early 80s and Giant Robo (known as Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot here) aired on Channel 0 (now Channel 10) from the early-mid 70s possibly all the way up until the 90s. Ambassador Magma (called Space Avenger here which was actually the working name for the US airings) possibly aired from the mid-late 70s, I haven't found out what station yet as my dad doesn't remember it and nor can I find it online, so I plan on contacting some of the stations (ABC, 10, 9) for any information, mainly when it aired and if they have any tapes since the english dub is partially lost. Spectreman was also incredibly popular in both France and Brazil, so popular there was a parody called Léguman, a segment on the French-Belgian puppet show Téléchat in the 80s.
Somewhere between 2006-2008 Madan Senki Ryukendo aired in Puerto Rico in Spanish, on the weekends I think it was. Probably Saturdays.
From what mom says Ultraman also aired in Puerto Rico when she was young.
And I can swear I think they even aired some of Supaidaman at one point during the early 2000's too.
Toei’s Spidey is surely appearing soon in Spider-Man into the spider verse!
the kamen rider kabuto dub has lived rent free in my head since childhood
"My friend, Kagami!"
It's kind of sad given that we have Fuuto PI now, but the way that was marketed, people can't really get into it without confusion despite it being a good show. Tokusatsu was once competitors to anime before it hit internationally, and anime outshined it as animation quality started going up after the 70's into the 80's and 90's. And modern anime fans taste in anime is very similar to tokusatsu shows premises. It's essentially live action anime before Hollywood tarnished it, and done right. I like to think people can't get pass the goofiness, costumes and cgi. From my experience, the only show people were actually interested in watching was Amazons or Black Sun. Tokusatsu also suffers from "it's just for kids syndrome", the same reason people don't watch or read Beyblade, Yugioh etc, even though they have great stories to tell.
The "it's for kids" stigma you mentioned I find to be a bit of a double standard considering stuff like Disney Channel cartoons and children's animated movies are also mainstream and respected well enough within the American pop culture sphere.
One tokusatsu anime I'm surprised you didn't mention was SSSS Gridman, especially when you were talking about the Ultraman franchise.
Not sure if you heard, but Discotek announced that they'll be releasing Kamen Rider Black sometime next year. Not sure if that means anything, but it's cool that other companies are interested in Kamen Rider. Just thought I pass that info along.
12:31 not even Japanese, they tell me it's CHINESE💀
Don't forget the Ultraman Tiga dub 4Kids did.
12:30 For my case in my country Vietnam "Is this Gaoranger?".
It is niche, but niche that I like. I prefer it to be niche and good, rather then mainstream and boring like MCU
"I don't think Tokusatsu will ever get as big as the likes of Marvel..."
OK, so I'm going to explain, hopefully in detail, what exactly is WRONG with that statement.
First off, comparing Tokusatsu to Marvel is on the same level as comparing a tool to a factory. You just can't compare them as Tokusatsu isn't exactly a cultural icon, that's like saying "Manga will never be as big as Universal Studios". One is the process of making a movie, and the other an entertainment company. I know we often associate Power Rangers/Super Sentai, Godzilla, Metal Heroes, and Ultraman WITH Tokusatsu, but it's incorrect as the correct genres they fall under would be fantasy and science fiction.
While I agree that here in the States Toku isn't as big a cultural force as, say, Marvel, but I SERIOUSLY think you're underplaying its impact in other countries outside of the US. MOST of Latin/South America grew up on Toei's productions of Metal Hero and Masked Rider; Europe had Super Sentai and Ultraman; The Middle East Gobbled up Toho and Toei like sweetbreads! The products of Tokusatsu may not be as big in the US of A, but they are GIANTS in practically every other continent. You even pointed out said countries IN THIS VIDEO, yet you never made the connection! That's amazing!
Everything else, though, I agree with, ESPECIALLY the "Isn't this Japanese Power Rangers?" I FREAKING HATE that, I feel like I get Vietnam flashbacks whenever someone mentions that, especially since my favorite super hero franchise is Ultraman! Some of my friends from my childhood took one look at the Ultraman figures I got from Japan and they're like "Hey, which Power Ranger is that?" Just...ignorance I can't deal with XD
It may not be the case in the U.S., but Tokusatsu is a literal pop culture icon in Japan.
So much of their media is directly inspired by Tokusatsu in some way. Even the new Dadadan anime has several blatant Ultraman homages. The world doesn't revolve around how America sees something.
Tokusatsu movies that are not superhero or kaiju related are underrated. The Last War is one of the most grim movies from the Golden Age of Showa Tokusatsu on par with the first 1954 Godzilla movie and has awesome special effects directed by Eiji Tsuburaya.
Whenever I hear the question about it being Power Rangers I always respond with the answer "Yes, but no. Would you like to know more?" And see if they take the bait. I have gotten 10 people to watch Kuuga because of this.
I wonder if fuuto pi will get an English dub if it becomes popular enough in the anime community? 🤔
The Fuuto P.I anime wasn't dubbed into English? Crunchyroll already dubbed it into Neutral Spanish and Portuguese
To be frank, toku shows would benefit more for going more anime. Look at SSSS Gridman.
@@suiken3149 it could help, but part of the appeal of Tokusatsu is that it's live-action. Though there's been some anime adaptations of toku series in the past, Red Baron (which was essentially a Super Robot toku series due to the success of Mazinger Z, and in Spain it was actually marketed as a live-action Mazinger Z movie) received an anime adaptation in the early 90s, and it became a cult hit in Latin America (some episodes are available on TMS Latin America TH-cam channel)
Tokusatsu is definitely niche but it really depends on the individual series. I'd say a vast majority of people couldn't identify any specific Super Sentai show beyond guessing "Is this related to Power Rangers?" By contrast I don't think anyone would have trouble identifying Godzilla. Taking it a step further, I predict that while the Marvel Cinematic Universe has taken the world by storm a majority of people still couldn't identify most Marvel characters beyond those showcased in the movies.
The passing of time is so weird. Like just today at work I was talking to one of the younger people. Apparently anime is a huge thing right now and even regular people just know of the modern big anime like My Hero and Demon Slayer. Back in my day you couldn't casually talk about FMA, Evangelion or Inuyasha with random people. Maybe on 20 years Toku will be the same way.
Fun fact, Spain aired France's Bioman 3 (Liveman), but since Bioman and Bioman 2 never aired here they just called it Bioman. (As an extra tidbit the Spanish intro was sung by some French dude singing in Spanish and it has the funniest accent, I just wish I knew why they did that.)
Funny, cause in Latam, Liveman and Bioman, where translated in Brazil and exported in Spanish. Those series, specially Liveman, is like culture in Peru.
I think it depends on country. Here in Brazil every 80's kid was raised watching tokusatsu
Kikaida, Kamen rider v3 and inazuman were very big in Hawaii,Brazil and Hawaii have big Japanese populations so there's cultural exchange as well as Brazil not being able to produce as much back then.
Yeah I'm from Malaysia and Ultraman was a huge huge hit over here and i have to say Ultraman was a first experience with Toku content but i never gone into it till i first show Kamen Rider OOO (i didn't really finished the series because i bought the CD version from Speedy) the same goes for Fourze to but then i stop for a few long years i think I've started rewatching Kamen Rider again is where Zero One was airing and which one i pick Zi-O (yeah that was a bad idea because i only watch TWO uncompleted series) on a TH-cam Channel that I'm not gonna say not sure if it's own by Toku themselves or not but the new was build and then Zero One (i did try out a couple of series like Gaim,Ex-aid and Drive but it didn't really appeal to me as much as Build,Zi-O and Zero One did) and then Revice and now i haven't watch another Kamen Rider for quite a while even when i think Geats first episode was good i haven't capt up with it
gaim,ex aid and drive literally among best one in 2nd heisei
Have you heard about the american kamen rider Zero-One comic by Titancomics
New Kamen Rider Fan here! I don't think I would know how or where to even watch Kamen Rider with out the fanbase for it being so informative. It took me some research and time to find it, but I have to thank the community for helping me get into Tokusatsu in the first place.
in terms of individual hero, ultraman surprisingly did great in the western world, like ultraman great and ultraman jack.
Because Tsupro actually cares about international marketing of their Tokusatsu properties unlike Toei.
It has gotten to the point that I rather watch Japanese shows than English shows.
It is starting to become a larger niche, as studios make greater efforts to market their Japanese Toku shows in the western hemisphere. The west has a greater craving for eastern media more than ever, and so the Japanese are taking advantage of this to market not just anime, but also Tokusatsu. Proof of this can be found with Kamen Rider: Black Sun, an adult-oriented entry in the franchise that was recently released on Amazon Prime worldwide, complete with full subtitles. If Black Sun does well, who knows what could happen next?
Black sun is woke shit!
@@23Lgirl SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!
SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU OBSESSIVE ANTI-SJW!!!!
*SHUT IT!*
American here, new to Toku shows and Kamen Raider. After catching up to Kamen Raider Geats I’ll check out Black Sun.
@@japroject1 Black sun is woke as fuck.
The thing is that Kamen Rider Black Sun is much gloomier (and unfortunately more out of whack with some fans, especially in terms of virtue signalling) than the two lighter and softer shows (and various mangas) which preceded it.
I like how you also added gransazors in the video :)
Here in Brazil, Jaspion and Kamen Rider Black and RX are really famous, but I really wish more Portuguese dubs for modern series.
I'd love to see a video like this on the topic of how popular a couple different toku in japan!
Ryukendo and ultra man mabius are very popular in India among 2000s children.
The fact that you have to ask Where, When, and What already means that the subject matter is pretty niche
Kamen Rider Dragon Knight is what got me into KR. The major issue with Dragon Knight, though, was that it was hardly advertised. Like, I remember enjoying it more than whatever Power Rangers was airing at the time, but seeing maybe 1 Dragon Knight commercial for like....every 50 Power Rangers commercials.
But hey, it lead to my discovery of Kabuto and watching the rest of the franchise as a whole. Even lead to me watching Garo.
Before Dragon Knight, my tokusatsu watching habits were basically Godzilla (Introduced to me by my 4th grade teacher who played a Godzilla movie for the class every Friday), Power Rangers, Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad, Ultraman Tiga, VR Troopers, Big Bad Beetleborgs, and the tokusatsu inspired Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog. Of all of those shows, I only owned toys for Godzilla, Beetleborgs, and Mystic Knights.
Now I keep wanting to get my hands on a Kamen Rider belt, been considering Woz cause I love the standby sound. But yeah, I'm a total Tokusatsu nerd these days.
While niche I've noticed it seems very popular with the reaction community as of late, which might give it a boost in awareness. Or maybe not.
A not so Fun fact, Despite having a big push before, Our country or The Philippines have been seeing less and less push of tokusatsu media now,
the new generation are more into anime now, that's just really the answer
Hell watching Ultraman or Power Rangers is a cardinal sin since it's a KIDS SHOW
That's kinda sad
I remember there was a Kamen rider ooo, hibiki, and blade Filipino dub
@@jo-gl8hf
Yeah, that's why I said before,
My first ever rider is Ryuki or DK (It's hazy)
Watching toku, in my homeland, A CARDINAL SIN?! Someone who spreads these lies ougtha get Rider Kicked and explode!
GMA did dub some recent seasons like R/B, Taiga and Z, but I don't know if they still do it up to Decker.
Can we talk about how ridiculous it is that ultraman's getting a american comic crossover with the avengers instead of superman?
I mean, one's "truth, justice and beauty" and the others "truth, justice and the american way"
There's bad blood between Marvel and DC after the publication of the 2003 JLA/AVENGERS intercompany crossover by Kurt Busiek and George Perez that put the kibosh on cooperation between the two companies for two decades.
Relations seem to be beginning to thaw recently allowing omnibus format reprinting of the Marvel/DC crossovers from the misuse entire through the nineties.
The thing with toku, especially the modern ones is they always cheap out on effects. Even if the story is good, only few people can take them seriously because the cheap production takes away the immersion from said shows. SSSS Gridman and Fuuto Pi gained much more attention when they made the shows into animation instead of the usual live action because you can hide low budget productions much better in this type of format.
you're not supposed to take toku seriously tho
@@716_ハディくん When you are a kid, you will prefer flashy actions that doesnt look fake. Thats how I got hooked up with Super Sentais and KR when I was a kid because of their spectacular special effects.
No one knows about Kamen Riders in my country.
And the ones who do, see them as rare hardcore versions of Power Ranger, and both are usually discarded after graduating from childhood.
It's hard to rope anyone into Kamen Rider without them just running into a series trailer and just walking in themselves
I've tried pushing/persuading, doesn't work
western world never tried properly adapt it with an original costume but licensed. yeah saban did tried warriors of tyr na nog in the veins of power rangers, but not kamen rider. Super Force and captain power were good examples of how western world realized their own metal heroes/metal tokusatsu heroes. But for kamen rider. they need to make their own costume, it won't work if they always translate it like power rangers translated super sentai
The only reason I know about Godzilla is because of Ultraman, and Godzilla’s Japanese counterpart Gojira.
Godzilla and gojira are the same thing....
@@Kaiju-bm4ts Or, his Ultraman counterpart Gojira.
@@haydenreviewscustomcombos gojira and godzilla are the same character, there's no difference between how America does godzilla vs how Japan does godzilla. Japan has done the heroic and villainous godzilla before, America only has done the heroic godzilla.
Always been a Godzilla fan since I was a kid, and will die one! Recently I got into Kamen Rider and absolutely loving it. I think KR can easily make a stake in the states, its formula is familiar to anime fans and its action and plots would be well known to comic book fans and easy to digest with how popular super heroes have been lately, and KR adapts itself well to the darker tones western audiences are used to. If Legendary were to make their own Kamen Rider, or some other company, they could adapt something like Kuuga.
Zero-One, Build, or Drive are some seasons I could especially see resonating well with Western audiences. Their general themes are already stuff that Westerners are familiar with.
What’s the monkey Majik TV show inspiration for the band of the same name? Even though that one was spelled with a K and not a C.
the main reason I got into Super Sentai was that one episode in DIno Thunder where they watched Abaranger. oh, and the Dekaranger movie cd that my mom bought (without subs). The local kids tv channel aired select Heisei rider series dubbed in english for a long time
Yeah! But is that a Singaporean thing?
@@SlapstickGenius23 yup!
Really enjoyed this video. Man it really was informative and an eye opener for sure.
I did not know ILM was doing an Ultraman project, that's awesome
Bioman's success in France is mostly due to a kids show called "Club Dorothée" which presented and broadcasted various Japanese shows and anime
The eponymous Dorothée was so influential that she even starred in several Toku shows including Kamen Rider Black !
Cool! Dorothee must’ve been a Kamen Rider Black guest.
Ryukendo wasn't super popular in India, but it was well loved by everyone who watched it. It became this underrated masterpiece that only a few people who watvhed it loved.
i've known tokusatsu ever since i was a kid (mainly Ultraman and Kamen Rider) and also watches a lot of shfiguarts unboxings and reviews. i binged a lot kamen rider shows during my teenage years (except a few showa shows and ex-aid) and ultraman shows too.
I wish Gamera will return one day and be better than ever.
Gamera’s gonna have an anime film next!
@@SlapstickGenius23 Wait. Really?!
numa numa bioman is my jam
Now this is a very professional video. I like it. I do like how you pointed out some points on how things like Godzilla have acclaimed things but most ppl have yet to be interested in it yet.
If only Marvel and DC movies weren't seen as the ONLY thing casuals can just check out. There's lots of media, man. :/
9:25 Where was this dub scene from? This might just be one of the greatest among Kamen Rider meme material.
it’s the kabuto dub!
I really want to wait until Toho actually releases their new Godzilla movies as semi-hard as their cgi movies someday. Because for now I see Ultraman and Godzilla reaching into the mainstream more easily with their more coherent kaiju genre appeal. Toei could do much more better in actually having Kamen Rider at least be successful with its fanbase at the very least like having a simple promotion page. But at the very least Kamen Rider is known in the internet as that sometimes cool power rangers esque show.
I always preferred Tokusatsu over Anime. I grew up with MMPR and my dad used and I watched 1966 Ultraman, Godzilla, Kamen Rider, and Toei Spider-Man.
As someone whos been listening to it nonstop, i raise my glass to you using the fuuto pi ost
It's funny how I came to engage in Toku: by all means I shouldn't be here at all, but it just sorta happened? I know Power Rangers aired in Spain and toku is pretty popular in Latin America but I actually watched Kamen Rider because of some tweets about OOO. I don't think I ever saw Power Rangers and I've certainly never cared for TV shows' toys.
What I'm trying to get at is, if you want people to know about what you enjoy, talk about it! You never know who will actually jump into it.
it is a niche as it gets. I challenge you: name even one video media theme that has an active world wide following that is less niche.
I feel thats it weirdly ironic that this video is the first time I heard about Kuuga being on Blu-ray. Despite me wishing for months that Shout Factory would do so after releasing the Zero-One Blu-ray.
I think if it wasn’t for Kamen rider dragon knight back in the day I wouldn’t start watching Kamen rider again back in September. Like I love how a lot of this is so niche, but known.
If we count Power Rangers I'd say Toku is at least well known, as a concept
Perhaps toku would've been more popular in the U.S if more shows were dubbed in the past, but I know dubbed live-action shows aren't very popular there
Say, would RoboCop be consider a tokusatsu?
That's a fair question, actually! As an 80s Baby, lifelong Robocop obsessive & toku Stan? I'd say yes.
@@TheHumanPurpleTape i would lean Yes as well. I recall reading somewhere that during production they used Japanese magazines for the costume desing
Interesting question.
I say yes
#TokusatsuGate
gatekeep it before it gets invaded by more fandom colonizers!
From what I saw, some Ultra shows are also on Crunchyroll, no?
Ginga, X, Geed & Orb if I'm not mistaken
Max was there but it got deleted
Was, now they moved either as Mill Creek DVD/Bluray release or Tokushoutsu streaming.
Something to mention is that Tsuburaya's copyright enforcement is lenient af. It's almost as if Toei is trying to stop second hand free marketing from clips and other people making videos about rider and sentai, while Tsuburaya lets entire TH-cam playlists of English subtitles series go free for decades
Tsuburaya generally doesn't care because it is free exposure.
The only time where they would interfere is with the ULTRAMAN anime series but that is likely so they wouldn't get in trouble with Netflix
Very true,especially with rider videos they take down the best henshin videos.
@@miragebangbravern I think Tsuburaya probably respects more international laws and doctrines (especially America’s own fair use doctrine) than Toei does. It’s like the Sega USA equivalent to Toei’s Nintendo.
You know what's funny? I only found out a few weeks ago you can stream SHOUT Factory's stuff for free
and shockingly no ads because I wanted to check again. I guess the boxset money makes that possible🤣
Tunnel vision is a funny thing. I don't think of Godzilla when thinking of Toku, despite being ground zero
Another thing we can agree on is that gatekeeping is stupid, pointless and a waste of time.
It would just be nice to have easy access to it all like we do Hollywood blockbusters, and honestly
I'd extend that sentiment to things outside Tokusatsu, because "I just think they're neat" and that's the best
Juspion, Changeman and Jiraya are the big 3 toku here in Brazil. We even had original comics made here of them.
RIP Jason David Frank the Green Ranger:((
I live in a big-ish city in the Deep South and I was astonished to see the theatre PACKED when Shin Kamen Rider came out, I had no idea there were this many Rider fans here
Brazil loves Jaspion we even released a manga inspired that tells what happened after the series and there's an urbam legend about a "Jaspion movie" that they are producing but no one knows nothing about it
I was a Tokusatsu fan in my childhood but in the early 10s I moved out to jpop fandom. I still have great memories as a Tokusatsu fan but I feel happier nowadays being a jpop fan. I'm happy at least avex artists that I like still be making songs for the franchise.
I'm more into jdrama than toku since 2017
Ah yes as a non tokusatsu fan the first thing I thought about was the "power ranger" genre.. but I do have some familiarity of tokusatsu through some manga I read though its not that much. Would love a video thats like a "beginner guide to tokusatsu" though. Think it would be fun and interesting to watch.
I only ever watched Dragon Knight and i still remember being devastated and confused when the main character died and the bat guy lived.
I don't mean to offend anyone, but it will always stay niche. As a kid in the late 80s and early 90s, I enjoyed Kamen Rider Black, Space Sheriff Shaider and Ultraman. I particularly loved Kamen Raider Black. I moved to the west, grew up and always had fond memories of these tokusatsu shows but I NEVER - not even once - had the urge to watch them again, because whenever I looked them up, it honestly just looked like silly kid stuff. I won't even voice my opinion on the new Kamen Rider costume designs so as to not offend anyone lmao. I legit have not watched a single episode of a tokusatsu show since I lived in asia, well over 20 years ago.
If tokusatsu ever wants to hit mainstream they gotta do what Chris Nolan did to Batman; a darker, more mature and grounded reimagining. Granted, Batman was a household name well before Nolan did what he did, but Batman, along with most Marvel and DC heroes, are mostly known for their appearances in comics and cartoons. Few in the fanbase are there for their live action appearances, because, like tokusatsu, these characters simply look silly in live action. At least that is until the MCU came along, but they have the advantage of having billions of fucking dollars so even something as silly looking as a live action Captain America can look cool as hell when you got the money to spend on incredible set pieces, talented actors and stuntman, amazing cgi and what have you. In short, they gotta change up the tone or match that hollywood $$$.
And again, I don't mean to offend anyone, I said it LOOKS like kid stuff. I'm only referring to appearance. Who knows, maybe there is a lot of depth in these tokusatsu shows, but as a grown ass man I don't have the time and will to investigate. But I sure as hell remember Kamen Rider Black as having a lot of depth, but as an outsider who hasn't cared for these shows since childhood, toku in general does LOOK like kid stuff to me and it just isn't interesting. In fact, the only reason I watched this vid is because I was on my amazon prime video account and saw a new Kamen FUCKING Rider Black show in there and started looking for reviews here on youtube, lol.
normie opinion
@@716_ハディくん Damn right
The first time I heard that word niche😂nice analysis of the dilemma of tokusatsu
I always laugh when the italian posters for godzilla comes up.
italy had imported anime, toku shows and miscellania far, far before america realized japan had television. it is unfortunate how the commerical evolution of the '90s made it fizzle out. megaloman is only the top of the iceberg, including crudilly dubbed-over illegal import copies of Kamen rider and sentai series
"A certain Thai-based production company." Awesome that you slyly mentioned Sompote Sands and Chayo Productions. Even though he have us the abominable Space Warriors 2000, I'll admit the guy had balls to think that he could get away with saying that Chayo owned the rights to all Ultraman content outside of Japan.
This sort of franchise is mostly targeted for kids below 12, like Ultraman in my country Malaysia, they are mostly for kids below 9 and after that kids just move on.
It is a kids show.
Not all tokusatsu is targeted towards kids, the problem is people lump purposely kid friendly tokusatsu with tokusatsu that is made for adults. But then again people love to generalize things without differentiating 1 thing from another
Geats has full episodes uploaded on TH-cam now but has no subtitles
Honestly, as long as the shows are subbed and released on Blu-ray/dvd or on streaming, I have no issue with how small the fandom is. The less people enjoying it the less likely we'll get assholes.
Though, it genuinely does upset me how power rangers poisoned the well so thoroughly that any chance of tokusatsu being respected and defined on its own merit was killed by a cynical show that was made with almost as much contempt for its material as a Gen X teenager in 1992 would have on the property. Fail or not, I'd rather have had Zyuranger stand on its own merit than its frankenstein monster cousin by con-artists with the budget that made save by the bell look like a marvel movie and scripts that made the facts of life sound like it was the wire.
Its not so much the stigma that its for children that holds back tokusatsu, but moreso that its the lowest quality that holds it back.
Even without power rangers, people who aren't fans would still believe in the misconceptions of tokusatsu for the dumbest reasons. Yet when you grab cgi, a Hollywood budget and give everyone a Hollywood tokusatsu movie those same people will say it looks cool. So it's not just people believing tokusatsu is power rangers or for kids, you got people who really think
Practical effects = for kids/is cheap
Cgi= more serious/realistic
The method behind bringing a story to life DOESN'T determine if it will be serious or campy, it's like people forgot we have goofy cgi films or TV shows...
@@Kaiju-bm4ts I agree with you about the practical vs CGI argument but I think this still wraps back to power rangers. Jurassic Park, the first movie to really utilize CGI to any significance, released in 1993 in June whereas MMPR came out in August of 1993. It was like the question of 'are practical effects obsolete?' was answered with a resounding 'yes' when Pudgy pig marched on the small screen. How many times have you heard someone reference a bad effect or design and hear them call it 'power rangers'?
I don't want to come off as a rebid PR hater. I don't much care for the show but I generally respect the fan base and their passion but I cannot ignore the damage it's done, not only to the perception of Henshin heroes but tokusatsu and later on practical effects. I just wished that the subject was handled by people who genuinely enjoyed the subject matter instead of people who openly hated it.
P.S. I do know that later seasons supposedly took a lot more respect for both the source material and it's own show itself (light speed rescue, time force) and if one of those were the first PR shows things could have been much different but it was too little too late.
@@dugonman8360 ironic you bring up jurassic Park cause that film is mostly practical effects and barely any cgi but people nowadays will sit down and enjoy that film. Same goes to the predator (1987) a complete man in a suit but people will call that movie good cause they think it's cgi even though it's not. It goes to show the people who hate practical effects are the same people who are just making that statement with spoiled minsets caused by cgi.
I'm not a PR fan and I do respect PR but it has damaged the reputation of tokusatsu in the west but even before PR, the idea of tokusatsu being for kids (which is true to an extent since some tokusatsu properties were aimed at kids prior to the 90s) already did damage to the genre but PR just made things worse. So far the only tokusatsu characters that are being taken seriously in America atm are godzilla and kong through legendary picture's monsterverse but that's mostly because again.....cgi...despite those movies are a modernized version of the showa era of godzilla and are still campy in their own right.
But yet again...audiences will ignore how both situations are campy and still deem cgi to make everything more serious.
I'm still stuck on that one scene from gold member.
RUN, ITS GODZILLA
It lokks like Godzilla, but due to international copyright law, it's not
STILL WE SHOULD RUN LIKE IT IS GODZILLA
Though it isn't
what makes it niche is the cgi man, it's so hard recomending kamen rider when early on they are fighting another cgi monstrosity like the anomalocaris dopant or are fighting as/alongside one like the body horror trex in revice or the amorphous blob that is the power dizer
How main stream tokusatsu is in Brazil today?
I can't really say but when it came out, Kamen Rider Black Sun was the number 6 most watched amazon prime show in Brazil, i think that means at least something...
I would think Marvel and DC stuff is basically American "Toku" in all honesty.
I think expanding the west is a horrible idea right now.
I‘m currently collecting Tokusatsu series and started with Kamen Rider, since they are my fav shows. I quickly ran out of storage and need a NAS. 😅
Ryukendo was very popular in India and Bangladesh
It was even shown in Puerto Rico with a Spanish dub via their Telemundo affiliate.
Black sun remake is good I enjoy it very mich
Rest in Peace Jason David Frank ....
Probably very niche.
A western version of kamen rider by Edgar Wright would be the best thing in existence
I got introduced to toku by ultraman mebius in india by sonic Nickelodeon also many movies were also dubbed into regional languages this video got randomly recommend to me.
But only the opening song is available and rest of the dub might be lost media at this point. Also ryukendo also got a dub but it is still persevered.