Thinking about age in relation to entertainment

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Thinking about age in relation to entertainment

Post by takenoko »

So I guess it'd be safe to say that in general, Toei movies are a little disappointing for adults to watch. Maybe that's because they're obviously aimed toward kids. The kids are the main audience (I assume) who go to these things, so it's got to be tuned to their level.

Why's this different for the TV shows? I'm guessing it's because there's a lower barrier to entry. If you want to watch children's shows from the privacy of your home, that's pretty easy. If you want to see the toku movies, you've got to go out there and sit in a sea of kids. Surely such awkwardness would drive away some potential fans.

So let's discuss why aiming a movie at a children's level might make for a less satisfying story for adults. First, they're probably overly simplistic. The good guys are good, bad guys are bad, there's not going to be a lot of levels of stuff going on. It's going to be pretty predictable. Second, resolving conflict for kids doesn't have to go beyond shaking something shiny and diverting their attention. Basically this leads to stories that don't make sense or just get wrapped up with a happy ending for the sake of having one. These are problems in kid's movies like Toei movies or the Star Wars prequels.

Media for teens isn't that much better. Think about how kids react to things. Everything is over the top. They're the center of the world. They're the only ones who are going through this sort of thing. Etc. Basically you get people whose main conflict is that they can't communicate basic things and their reaction to everything is ultra bombastic and extreme. Sort of like the Kiva of media.

So how would I define media for adults? Well, adults know that there are some conflicts that they can't resolve. So sometimes the ending isn't going to be a happy one. Or maybe the good guys win, but they have to sacrifice something in order to achieve it. Garo is a great example of this. Garo may win his battles against the Horrors, but people still die and evil will always continue to exist. It's an ultimately futile battle, but he continues to fight because it's the right thing to do. That makes the victories that he has more satisfying, because there's actual consequence to the things that he does.

But can't shows have universal appeal? Sure! Not all kids movies have to be the same regurgitated fluff. How about the Lion King? It's aimed at kids, but stuff actually happens in the movie. Simba doesn't deal with his father's death by being whisked away on a magical journey. There's an actual villain who does villainous things (besides trying to take over the world). Maybe there's even some scary stuff or sad stuff in there. I think kids can handle that kind of stuff if done tactfully.

So what can Toei do to make a good movie? That's the golden question. I honestly don't know. Sentai movies tend to be 20 minute action flicks. Rider movies flip to the opposite side of the spectrum and become overly ambitious, but at the same time not accomplishing all that much? Like think about the Blade movie. All those elements are thrown together, but none of it really gelled together in a satisfying way. Episode Final? The OOO movie with the shogun? Decade's movies? Super Hero Taisen?

Maybe what Toei needs is an editor who can pare down the extra ideas to the core bits that work. Someone who can say "Nope, this idea is clearly stupid" or "Wait a minute, this doesn't actually resolve the conflict."

I dunno. What do you guys think?
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Re: Thinking about age in relation to entertainment

Post by Phoenix512 »

Right now, most of the movies have some toy gimmick involved in it or have some unique crossover with another franchise. Maybe remove the marketing aspect of it and focus on being just a movie might make better. The movies don't even directly state that it's canon with the TV series but should be reasonable that it could be canon within the show itself. Toei could probably not be so grand with some of the things they want to do and smaller scale stuff isn't necessary a bad thing. Another idea is to reconsider the current setup of their movie setup. Maybe break apart the Sentai/Kamen Rider double feature and move the Kamen Rider feature to April so it would be back to the original place in the TV show which would be between episodes 25-30 before the current shift.
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Re: Thinking about age in relation to entertainment

Post by jonty »

Well, I kind of think we're talking about two different things here.

The first is why are the toku movies (generally) less good than the series. This doesn't stand up in all cases, of course, but I would agree that it holds well enough to start a conversation. It sounds like, take, you're thinking that reason for the generally lesser quality movies (in relation to the TV episodes) is because the movies are targeted more at children. It's an interesting thought that honestly hasn't occurred to me, but it makes some sense. The barrier to entry argument is interesting, but I wonder if that kind of thing really enters the minds of your average TOEI exec.

As Phoenix touched on, you could argue that the movies are heavily focused on merchandising. Are they more so than the TV shows, though? Maybe, but I'll come back to that point

I would tend to think that the movies, by the very nature of being a more standalone product, try to be more of a "spectacle." The movies generally are standalone (meaning they don't really affect the plot of the series that much) presumably because they don't want to leave out the viewers who can't or won't for whatever reason see the movie (or have to wait until it comes out on home media many months later). Okay, so if the movie has a standalone plot, what's the point of making the effort to go out and see it? Isn't it just a (sometimes) longer episode? I can see many a parent making this argument to a child. How do we add value to the movie, then? By making it more of a spectacle: add bigger stakes (the whole planet is at risk, even more so than usual!), put in cameos or teamups you otherwise wouldn't get (Marvelous and Tsukasa on the same screen!), have special guest stars (GAAAAACKKCKCKKCKKTTT!) or introduce new mechanics/gimmicks (movie-only mecha!).

So what does this mean about the actual quality of the movie, though? I think a strong argument can be made for the idea that making the movie version of a series more of a "spectacle" can cause it to get away from what makes the series good or even great. I haven't watched Super Hero Taisen yet, but from what I've gathered a criticism is that there's just too much crammed in there, and certain characters do things that don't really make sense for what we know about those characters. Well, if the story outline of the movie requires that, for example, this character has to fight this character just because it's never happened before and it would be super cool, that's going to happen even if it doesn't really make sense.

We're getting into subjective territory here, but I really liked Gokaiger as a series. The reason I bring this up is that the whole season was very spectacle heavy in how loaded it was with cameos and nostalgia and so forth. But I think the series worked well because they still had (relatively) fleshed out characters, with real, amusing, interesting interactions between them. And, generally speaking, the cameos were woven in relatively well to mesh with the existing Gokaiger characters. The series could have easily devolved into six blank slate characters that are there just to link together a string of cameos. You could argue that the overall story arc of the series was kind of weak, but I guess I've always been more of a character person rather than a story person. So I guess my point is that Gokaiger worked in spite of the danger of being spectacle-laden because they still bothered to go through the trouble of creating actual characters and story, with plots independent of the cameo aspect. Imagine if Gokaiger was a one-off movie instead of 50(?)-episode series. There's just no way we would get the same satisfaction of having these interesting 5 (or 6) characters.

So my point here is that if what you're concerned about is hitting a bunch of bullet points on a list of "wouldn't this be super cool" stuff (which is arguably what the toku movies usually are), you might lose sight of why people actually like the series. And here's the thing: even if people don't like it, what's the big deal? If they care enough about the original series to have a strong opinion about the movie, they'll still probably go back to watching the series anyway. The movie was barely canon anyway! So the "punishment" of making a bad movie isn't really that much of a punishment. Plus, movies are different from TV shows in that all you're really looking for is that initial ticket purchase from a particular customer. You don't really need them to come back and tune in again like you do with a TV show.

Getting back to Phoenix's point, it's an accepted fact that the movie has to introduce new marketing elements, right? But the TV series does that too, right? But the TV series has the luxury of spreading it out over 50ish episodes. In a way, the story writers have to fill the series time with actual story/character interaction because they can't be introducing a new mecha/weapon/familiar/form every episode (though they seriously tried with OOO, amirite?). For the movies, you really only have 30-90 minutes to hit all your merchandising points (not to mention the "wouldn't this be awesome" points and obligatory quasi-celeb cameos). Once you've got all that in, all that's really left is some (half-assed) plot points to string everything together.


Now let me get to my second overall point. And this is about toku media in general, really. Shouldn't we address the elephant in the room? Let's face it, guys, toku media is simply not on the same level as a litany of other media (from Japan or otherwise). I mean, really, if you're expecting a toku movie (or series) to be as well written and conceived as a Pixar or Ghibli film, you're just bound for disappointment. There's nothing wrong with that, of course. Man (and woman) cannot live on ultra-high quality media alone. It's just that I think it's kind of silly to compare Movie War Mega Max to Wall-E. It's not just the caliber of the production teams involved, but also the target audience and aim of the film. Not to get too cynical and artsy-fartsy, but I kind of think Pixar tries to make films (that are still entertaining) whereas TOEI makes flicks (which are really only concerned with immediate gratification). Again, nothing wrong with that, but you just have to accept that fact going in.

Getting back to Take's original point, I suppose you could argue that the issue is that TOEI films (and series?) are children's entertainment at their core, as opposed to family entertainment. A subtle distinction, but a distinction nonetheless. The classic example of the difference I always think of is that Sesame Street is children's entertainment, and the Muppets are family entertainment. The Muppets aren't going to be offending sensibilities or exposing children to inappropriate material, but hell if they don't make me still laugh quite heartily (note: I'm an adult, technically speaking). Sesame Street, while I can appreciate, I'm not really going out of my way to catch. This is an extreme example, of course, but it just goes to show that target audiences make a difference.

Toku is ultimately trying to capture the attention of (mostly male) children, so they don't really need much more than good action sequences and nifty tech. The plot's pretty much gravy, isn't it? All the more reason why the movies can be less satisfying (to adults). Shorter time frame = cram in the stuff that makes our target audience happy, worry less about the other stuff. PLUS, aren't most parents going to take their kids to see a movie the kids really want to see even if the parent has concerns about faithful characterizations?


This actually brings up a whole other topic I've been thinking about for a while about the difference between KR and Sentai. I think it's relatively safe to say that KR attempts to be more "sophisticated" than Sentai in terms of plot and everything (two-episode plot arcs ALL THE TIME)*. This is an aside, but I personally think that tends to fail quite often, but I've always been more of a Sentai fan myself. Anyway, here's my question: is TOEI actually trying to reach a different target audience with KR than it is with Sentai? Is KR more popular amongst older kids than Sentai? I honestly don't know the answer to that question.

*Is it fair to say that KR tries to be closer to a "traditional" J-Drama than Sentai? More lovey-dovey elements, more angst, less uniforms (and thus more opportunity for trendy clothing). I'm kind of just thinking off the top of my head here, but KR also seems to have more of an obsession with physical beauty than Sentai.
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Re: Thinking about age in relation to entertainment

Post by takenoko »

>Well, I kind of think we're talking about two different things here.

Yeah, I'll admit that I originally was going to write this for the front page. Then I realized my thesis was sort of changing halfway through, plus it was more ramblings than a cohesive idea. So I just dumped it on the forums.

>I would tend to think that the movies, by the very nature of being a more standalone product, try to be more of a "spectacle."

Well yeah, I do agree that as I've grown older, I've become less satisfied with movie stories in general. There's only so much plot that you can throw into two hours, so some hand waving to get from plot point to plot point is going to happen. I do like the point that you bring up of making it a self-contained spectacle, since a movie needs broad appeal. A 90 minute feature of just in-jokes isn't going to do well, after all.

>I haven't watched Super Hero Taisen yet, but from what I've gathered a criticism is that there's just too much crammed in there

There's sort of that, but there's also a lack of strong character moments. I mean, I enjoyed the core group of characters in Super Hero Taisen, but you also get the sense that they don't have a good reason for hanging out together. Let's look at the Avengers movie, they were also sort of thrown together, but they also had a lot of great moments that played off who they were as characters.

I'm glad you brought up Super Hero Taisen since that was what I had in mind when I wrote that. Without going into spoilers, I think that the biggest let down in the movie is that they bungle the most important aspect of the movie. If the main plot is "Riders versus Sentai" then the big question is "Why are they fighting?" and suffice to say, they don't answer that question in a satisfying way. That's sort of why I brought up the age thing in my original post. Instead of coming up with something that would make sense in the real world, they just do a "Shrug, it's for kids" thing and blow it off.

>Let's face it, guys, toku media is simply not on the same level as a litany of other media (from Japan or otherwise).

That's a fair point, but... why can't it be toku and still be good? XD I don't think Toei should get a free pass just because they're usual water mark is low. I mean, even compared to their own stuff, most of their movies range from passable to garbage with maybe a handful of gems. For every God Speed Love, you get a dozen nonsensical alternate universe stories.


Anyway got to run to work, I'll try to read the rest of your post later!
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Re: Thinking about age in relation to entertainment

Post by takenoko »

I'm just going to double post to address Jonty's second point

By the way, this video does a pretty good job explaining why earned pay off is better than consequence free pay off:
http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videol ... awn-review

>Toku is ultimately trying to capture the attention of (mostly male) children, so they don't really need much more than good action sequences and nifty tech.

I guess my counter to that is, you can focus on your core audience, but also do something that everyone can enjoy too? Like My Little Pony is aimed at little girls, but all sorts of people can enjoy it. One of the reasons that I reach out to Japanese media is that I sort of feel like they do less pandering. One of the things that drew me into Ryuki was the fact that it was a kid's show, but monsters were coming out of the mirror and eating people. That's some scary shit! This is a nice seg into your next point:

>I think it's relatively safe to say that KR attempts to be more "sophisticated" than Sentai in terms of plot and everything...I personally think that tends to fail quite often

As someone who's more a Kamen Rider fan, I totally agree. You can see the Rider writers trying to be shocking or edgy, but at the end of the day, they beat everything back into place in the most clumsy way possible (time travel, deus ex machina, etc). We can talk about Ryuki's ending, or Kiva's plot, or Decade's plot in this sense. Decade especially had the potential to be this great meta story, but ultimately the fan is let down because they aren't given any answers.

As an addendum, I'd like to say that I tend to enjoy Sentai movies a lot more than Kamen Rider movies? I think it's fair to say that Sentai movies tend to be more simple. They aim low and tend to achieve them each time. Plus we get to see some cool action scenes in the process. Good deal.

>is TOEI actually trying to reach a different target audience with KR than it is with Sentai? Is KR more popular amongst older kids than Sentai? I honestly don't know the answer to that question.

I think they try to aim at relatively the same age group with their Super Hero Time hour block thing. Kamen Rider must be more popular among some demographic though, since they pretty consistently get better ratings than their Sentai counter parts. At least when looking at the last few years worth of ratings (see the Chronology section of our wiki for those numbers)

>Is it fair to say that KR tries to be closer to a "traditional" J-Drama than Sentai?

Yeah, I thought it was. At least, you can see them aping on some of the same elements.

>but KR also seems to have more of an obsession with physical beauty than Sentai.

And yet the love is almost always platonic. Actually, that's an unusual statement to make. Do you mean the actors are more attractive than Sentai actors in general?
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Re: Thinking about age in relation to entertainment

Post by Yoshimoon »

I lived in Japan for a few years as a member of the JET program. During my time there, I worked with some teachers who were closeted Toku fans. It would only surface after a few drinks and some karaoke at an Enkai. I made it known that I am a Sailor Moon fan, but it was just chalked up to me being a gaijin and nothing more. I had some conversations about Super Sentai and PGSM with some teachers, but they would never dare set foot in a theatre to view a toku movie. Toei movies in general, even the anime films, tend to be more for children in addition to often being off canon.

I made the mistake of jumping into Super Hero Taisen with somewhat high expectations and also expecting some answers for Decade. But I should have known better. It was lacking in characterization, especially since so few Riders and Sentai heroes were presented in their civilian forms. I was especially disappointed to not see Shoutarou nor Phillip present. Similarly, I recall loving PGSM, but feeling a bit let down by special act, especially the Sailor Senshi did not get much screen time nor was Sailor Mars present. At least the Shitennou had a chance to shine. Act Zero rectified things a little by including a little bit of self parody as well as the shorts that were included with the DVD.

Individual Kamen Rider movies on the other hand have pretty enjoyable for the most part. W had some fun films, OOO was enjoyable, and Kiva did a interesting presenting an alternate storyline. I think I will lower my expectations when it comes to future crossovers.
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Re: Thinking about age in relation to entertainment

Post by takenoko »

That's some really first-hand perspective. I guess I can't say I'm surprised.

So what are you doing now that you're back in the states?
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Re: Thinking about age in relation to entertainment

Post by jonty »

takenoko wrote:That's a fair point, but... why can't it be toku and still be good? XD I don't think Toei should get a free pass just because they're usual water mark is low. I mean, even compared to their own stuff, most of their movies range from passable to garbage with maybe a handful of gems. For every God Speed Love, you get a dozen nonsensical alternate universe stories.
Yeah, I didn't really mean to imply that toku shouldn't try to be truly "good" entertainment, just that it doesn't really aim to (or when it does, it doesn't really succeed). I honestly think it's a combination of really only going for a specific target audience and the writers/producers legitimately not having the same talent as your Miyazakis and Lasseters (but who does?)
takenoko wrote:I guess my counter to that is, you can focus on your core audience, but also do something that everyone can enjoy too? Like My Little Pony is aimed at little girls, but all sorts of people can enjoy it. One of the reasons that I reach out to Japanese media is that I sort of feel like they do less pandering.
Oh, I agree completely. My whole point about targeting the adolescent boy audience wasn't an excuse for how TOEI does stuff, just an explanation. Maybe I'm too jaded, but I've simply come to expect relatively shallow plots stringing together (hopefully) well-staged action. And how much good/bad storyline complexity can an average kid even comprehend and/or tolerate? I can go off on a whole tangent about the boring archetypes that villains have fallen into lately, which I think is tied to both low expectations and sub-par acting, but I digress.
takenoko wrote:At yet the love is almost always platonic. Actually, that's an unusual statement to make. Do you mean the actors are more attractive than Sentai actors in general?
No, I just kind of think that beauty and (faux) love tends to be more of a plot element in KR. Maybe this is because I just saw the episode of Wizard with the beautiful con artist (can only remember the actor's character name from Den-O). I just can't really remember there being many Sentai episodes with fawning over a beautiful woman being a central plot point. I mean you have Jasmine from DekaRanger and Houka from MagiRanger that played around with that sort of thing, but not really to the extent of KR, I feel.

And going back to my other other point, preening in general just seems to be bigger in KR. Honestly, that's probably an unfair statement based solely on the fact that Sentai tends to have the main cast in some sort of uniform most of the time.
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Re: Thinking about age in relation to entertainment

Post by Yoshimoon »

takenoko wrote:So what are you doing now that you're back in the states?
I'm a librarian at a small collection affiliated with a college. I thought I would be a teacher after JET, but ended up going for a Masters in Library Science. I'm also trying to master Japanese by taking the JLPT. Going for the N2 on Sunday.
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Re: Thinking about age in relation to entertainment

Post by takenoko »

Fawning over beautiful women? Hmmm, wasn't there the Go-Onger episode with Saki's older sister that was an episode like that. I mean, there's the joke that KR just has beautiful guys to bring in the young moms. I'm sure it wouldn't be totally off to say that maybe KR also has beautiful women to appeal to the adolescent boys.

I guess part of Toei's problem might be that they're trying to find the golden formula instead of trying to create something new. I mean, look at their experiment with Go-Busters. It has some of the best mecha fights and interesting character dynamics in years, but it's also not really appealing to the kids since the ratings aren't great. So I guess there is a thing to be said for catering to your audience.

I mean, Wizard is a pretty fun show, but it's pretty light-hearted compared to early Heisei. I might be blanking on the details, but I don't think anyone has died in the present day. Compare this to Kuuga, Agito, and Ryuki where monster of the weeks would devour a person before the Rider shows up. It's just easier to play it safe, I guess?

>I'm a librarian at a small collection affiliated with a college. I thought I would be a teacher after JET, but ended up going for a Masters in Library Science. I'm also trying to master Japanese by taking the JLPT. Going for the N2 on Sunday.

Wow. We should totally be buddies XD. Good luck with the test. Level 2 is pretty crazy, but it has been a few years since I took it.
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Re: Thinking about age in relation to entertainment

Post by Revorse »

I'm not too big on reviewing things like this is such depth, for the most part they're just fun to watch.

But as for why the movies are pretty bad, it's like what's been said in this thread. With the children being the main demographic, they sorta cater to them. Children aren't going to look at thing as thoroughly as us older people. 18+
But maybe it's because I don't wanna admit I'm a big ass kid, or the way you guys translates, but Kamen Rider, especially, doesn't exactly "seem" like a kids shows. I know it is, but it seems like it could be a pre-teen or even a teens show. Also maybe because I don't speak Japanese I can't tell if the acting is bad so you know it's a kid show.
Like with Super Samurai, they talk so much at the audience it makes it more childish than Power Rangers has ever been. But me not understanding Japanese I can't tell if that's the case with Kamen Rider or Super Sentai.
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Re: Thinking about age in relation to entertainment

Post by takenoko »

That's funny, because that's sort of the reasoning that's used for why some attacks get left in Japanese. Hadouken is a lot cooler than "fist energy wave". XD
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Re: Thinking about age in relation to entertainment

Post by DokiDoki Yukai »

Just throwing my two cents in:

Pretty much everyone else who has posted in this thread so far has hit on what I wanted to cover when I first thought about clicking on the link, so basically I'll just make a long story short with my response as to not waste time/space? I kinda feel like it is mixed bag at times when it comes to Toei; however in the end, I feel that a bunch of those elements to come together every once in a while to make a pretty decent cohesive whole. While there are adult and childish elements to be had in both series, I kinda feel like...not like it should be really this way or that, but overall the end of the journey compared to their respective 'start lines'? (I hope that makes sense)

I guess what I want to say is that pretty much, when I watch Toku, I know what I'm getting into and what I'm going to get. Sure it's marketed mainly to male adolescents and sometimes feels like a 24 minute weekly CM, but..er..how to put it? I watch it--knowing what I'll probably get--for those moments when it really does exceed my expectations. For each side of SHT, every year, it manages to do it for me several times. At the end of the day Toei has us adults sitting around thinking about these people, these worlds, and wondering 'what if?' 'what could have been..?' and sure, there have been some misfires here and there (DECADE and last quarter of Kiva) but don't you think that by making us sit here and think on these things, that they're at least doing SOMETHING right?
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Re: Thinking about age in relation to entertainment

Post by methos »

Light-hearted vs dark or for kids vs for adults in regards to Toku series is something I haven't really understood lately. Agito has people being stuffed into trees, but honestly, I find that show boring. Every character is so flat. And there's Kabuto, where people are killed and replaced by Alien slug things. But that show's plot unravels into a freakish mess by the end. And it's got the two Iron Chef episodes... I mean seriously, what the heck with those?

Then you've got Wizard, which on the face is brighter and light-hearted. But on one hand with that show you've got people being killed at the edge of despair because their purpose or happiest memory in life is being destroyed. On the other, you've got that really freaking annoying kid, Shunpei, who seems like a failed attempt to re-create Gai.

So really, how do you describe the tone of these shows?

As far as the movies... eh. For the most part, I don't mind them. But overall, I think Toku shows and movies just don't have very good writers. The plots just kinda unravel over 40+ episodes or 60 minutes. Sentai movies seem to do a little better because they are pretty formulaic, while Kamen Rider movies are all over the place. I think Decade's were bad mostly because Decade the series was a mess. Kabuto's was a bad plot with awful acting and the dumb idea that "God Bless America" was an appropriate theme song for it (I actually consider this the worst toku movie I've ever seen). The recent Core movies and Superhero Taisen are too much packed together, and frequently, no clear antagonist either.

(Oh, and Toei needs to get over their obsession with Edo-era Tokyo. Yes, it's a nice set. Please use it somewhere else now.)

I wish Superhero Taisen had been just Gokaiger and Decade. I think that would have made a better and tighter movie, similar to Gokaiger vs Gavan. As it is, SHT's plot isn't exactly bad, but it has too many forced cameos, which to me forces too many scene changes to introduce them and sweep them along into the plot. Go-Busters and Fourze serve no purpose at all, neither do OOO or Hina, and while I love Den-O, we didn't really need that bit all that much. Additionally, since it has no real villain, it stuffs a frozen one in a microwave and re-heats him till he pops and just makes a stupid mess.
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jonty
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Re: Thinking about age in relation to entertainment

Post by jonty »

takenoko wrote:Fawning over beautiful women? Hmmm, wasn't there the Go-Onger episode with Saki's older sister that was an episode like that. I mean, there's the joke that KR just has beautiful guys to bring in the young moms. I'm sure it wouldn't be totally off to say that maybe KR also has beautiful women to appeal to the adolescent boys.
Yeah, that's true, but it still feels more, I dunno, innocent in Sentai when they do that kind of stuff. In KR it seems like they're really trying to come off as a show for pubescent boys or something.

Oh, and the thing about KR having pretty guys to appeal to young moms. It's not that I completely dismiss the idea that this is a consideration, but I feel that that's one of those things that fans hear and go off on like it's fact because it's plausible and funny (and kind of cynical, really). I tend to think that any young actor that's going to be hired on any show is going to be good looking according to the convention of the time/place, hence the pretty Japanese boys. I mean, just because we're talking about young adolescent boys doesn't mean they want to watch a show with a bunch of ugly fat dudes. Maybe they're indifferent at best, but regardless of your age or sexual orientation/interest, don't you instinctively prefer to watch good looking people do stuff? And I'm going to leave that there before I paint myself into a weird, disgusting corner.
takenoko wrote:I mean, look at their experiment with Go-Busters. It has some of the best mecha fights and interesting character dynamics in years, but it's also not really appealing to the kids since the ratings aren't great. So I guess there is a thing to be said for catering to your audience.
It's interesting that you say that, because Go-Busters hasn't really connected with me because of the characters. I think J is pretty funny, but I pretty much dislike all of the other buddyroids (though that could be bias because I have to time all those REALLY annoying voices. If I have to hear Usada yell, "Yooouuuko~~~~" or Gorisaki "TAIHEN DAAAAAA" again, I'll scream). I've made no secret that I dislike Hiromu (long story short: he's not nearly cool enough to pull off being a jerk, his reason for being a jerk wasn't all that great, and I feel that his turn away from being a jerk wasn't really well justified). Ryuuji is kind of just there, and the whole "Youko is such a child" thing kind of bores me. If anything, I cognitively tell myself I should like Go-Busters more because the overall plot arc is kind of fun. I dunno, maybe my tastes align with little kids on this kind of thing.

Also, wouldn't the best mecha fights in years actually appeal more to the target audience?
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