u/PowerPhantom245

In the west (particularly USA), Mary Sue/Gary Stu type of character has gotten divisive reception, whether movies, TV shows, video games, comics, etc.

Is Mary Sue/Gary Stu type character works better with Japanese audience?

The popular tokusatsu series (Kamen Rider Kabuto, Kamen Rider Decade, Kyoryuger, DonBrothers, etc.) tends to have those character traits. I hardly hear anyone from Japan complained about Mary Sue/Gary Stu.

Any thoughts?

The first 3 Gavan are main characters of the series, but do you consider Raiya a 4th or 5th?
Let's not forget, Ameise (episode 4), the ant, is Gavan; whether he appears later or just 1-shot guess is unknown.
I count Destiny/Death Gavan as Gavan 0, since he's technically very first Gavan.

Here is the list of known Gavan so far.

0. Destiny/Death Gavan (villain)

1. Infinity

2. Bushido

3. Luminou.

4. Ameise

5. Raiya

I guess Raiya can technically be 6th also.
Personally, I count him as 5th, since Ameisa is legit Gavan.

Any thoughts?

Despite my complaint to the series, I'm GLAD Kyoryuger (2013) and Ryusoulger (2019) exist for what they are.
NOT because they are good; far, FAR, from it.
It's because we got good adaptation (Dino Charge and Dino Fury) and spin-off (Dino Force Brave).

When Dino Charge came out in 2015, Power Rangers was at bottom of the barrel, where fan had to endure 4 years of mediocrity of Samurai~Super Megaforce (5 if you include infamous 2010 revision of MMPR). Dino Charge blew my expectation, where it fixed 90~95% of the issues I had with Kyoryuger; it has better writing, story, action, characters, character development, humor, villains, etc. Many Power Rangers fan consider to be the best season of this era.

A year after Dino Super Charge in 2017, Korea released their spin-off/sequel of Kyoryuger called Power Rangers Dino Force Brave. While the series was short (12 episodes) with short run time, it was an interesting and entertaining spin-off. Korea really like Kyoryuger.

In 2021, Dino Fury came out, and once again, just like Dino Charge, it was huge improvement from original (Ryusoulger), with better writing, story, characters, humor, etc. It also continued to Cosmic Fury (partial Kyuranger adaptation), that was solid anniversary and ended franchise on high note.

So overall, despite not liking Kyoryuger and Ryusoulger, in a weird sense, they are important (?) part of history of Super Sentai and tokusatsu in general. A show that is so bad, but successful in adaptation and spin-off.

It's almost as if Toei BLATANTLY and INTENTIONALLY made show bad, so that it would be successful in foreign market later.

CONSPIRACY THEORY IN NUTSHELL

In the end, thank you Kyoryuger and Ryusoulger!
lol XD

My head canon is that Toei blatantly (and intentionally) made Kyoryuger and Ryusoulger so that foreign market would do better job with adaptation (Power Rangers Dino Charge and Dino Fury) and spin-off (Power Rangers Dino Force Brave).

For Power Rangers fan, Dino Charge and Dino Fury consider to be best seasons in past decade, and they are HUGE improvement from Sentai that was based on; same as spin-off where Korea produced Dino Force Brave, despite short series and run time, was also better.

...coincidence?

How ironic that two of the worst Sentai/tokusatsu ever made, turned into a good adaptation and spin-off. It's almost as if Toei WANTED to make dino series terrible, so that they can sell it to foreign market to do better job.

Well Toei, you did a good job with that. Bravo. How clever.

Talk about conspiracy theory indeed.

Any thoughts?

Disclaimer: I'm NOT a Mary Sue/Gary Stu hater nor I think it's bad.

I'm just listing who I think Mary Sue/Gary Stu of tokusatsu.

Super Sentai

• Sokichi Banba/Big One (JAKQ)
• AkaRed (Boukenger vs. Super Sentai, Gokaiger)
• Daigo "King" Kiryu/KyoryuRed (Kyoryuger)
• Taro Momoi/Don Momotaro (DonBrothers)
• Mashiro Kumade/GozyuPolar (Gozyuger)

Kamen Rider

• Souji Tendo/Kamen Rider Kabuto
• Tsukasa Kadoya/Kamen Rider Decade
• Sougo Tokiwa/Kamen Rider Zi-O
• Ho-Oh Kaguya Quartz/Kamen Rider Legend (Kamen Rider Gotchard)

Power Rangers

• Tommy Oliver/MMPR Green+White, Zeo Red, Turbo Red I, Dino Thunder Black, etc. (Power Rangers)

One of the biggest mystery regards to GT is why Gohan was not able to become Ultimate/Mystic.
Many theorized that Gohan lost the ability, due to not fighting for decade, which seems to be logical sense.
Some speculate that production team just forget, which is also possible.
I'm not going to include Super and movies (Battle of Gods~Super Hero) for this topic, since it's not canon in GT universe.

My head canon is that Gohan did NOT lose the ability to become Ultimate, but "sealed/locked" away.
When Goten (controlled by Baby) try to possess Gohan, he was in Super Saiyan 1 (NOT 2) form.
Gohan knew that Baby is capable of taking over someone else body, which is why he didn't become Ultimate.
Just imagine if Baby took over Ultimate Gohan.
Even Super Saiyan 4 Goku BARELY defeated Baby Vegeta (who was Super Saiyan 1); if Baby took over Gohan as Ultimate form, Goku would be screwed (don't get me started with Ape form...).

The reason why I think Gohan sealed Ultimate form is that it is too powerful that is taking his life away.
To put in perspective, Goku barely kept up with Super Saiyan 3 form in battle against Kid Buu, since that form takes away stamina.
Even Kid Goku's Super Saiyan 3 lasted for few minutes compared to when he was adult.
Gohan didn't have fatigue in Super Buu and Gotenks Buu fight, it's possible that some kind of side affect have shown off-screen later.
I know it sounds farfetched and ridiculous, but I think it might make sense.
Gohan become family man where he needs to be healthy and doesn't want to take risk, to the point, he has to seal the Ultimate form.

Despite that, it doesn't technically excuse why he didn't become Ultimate for Super Android 17 and Omega Shenron fight, when it needed the most.
It's possible that because Gohan locked Ultimate form so long, that he couldn't fully grasp the sense to unlock it; after all, Gohan hasn't been training or fighting for decade.

Any thoughts?

https://i.redd.it/wkib440uocyg1.gif

...seriously?

Among the team, Souji might be the blandest, boring, and lethargic Green Rangers ever in Super Sentai.

Don't get me started with "romance" episode with his classmate (one of the WORST romance plot in Super Sentai/tokusatsu history).

I guess he's supposed to be "cool, calm, and hip" type of high school character, but he's terrible. Even in the opening credit, the actor looks like he doesn't want to be in this show.

I feel bad for Akihisa Shiono for portraying one of the forgettable and lifeless character in Super Sentai franchise. It's not his fault his character is terrible.

Souji sucks... not that other members aren't that better. lol

Any thought

As of this writing, almost EVERY major anime of 80s and 90s, whether it's SD-on-BD or HD remasters from film negatives (16mm or 35mm).
The movies has been available on Blu-ray, albeit there are few noticeable and jarring edits were made (score to Funimation for UNCUT!).

I'm curious why classic TV series (original, Z, and GT) hasn't gotten a Blu-ray in Japan.

The closest HD remaster TV series so far has been Kai (or Z Kai), where Z was remastered from film, despite filler episodes were removed.

Is it due to import from foreign countries (Funimation/Crunchyoll in USA (Z only), Selecta Vision in Spain), where they are cheaper than it would have been release in Japan (which tends to have higher price for home video)?
Some of the quality for those releases are varied, but fans has been importing those release, especially since region free Blu-ray/DVD players are much affordable these days.

I understand remastering 500+ episodes from films are time consuming and very costly, but if Toei did proper HD remastering frame-by-frame, the result would look much better than ANY foreign release (...especially Funimation), and fans would go insane for this type of release.

I also understand that demands for physical media across the world (not just USA and Japan), has been decreasing over the years, where newer generations don't care about ownership of physical media and prefer convenience of streaming; but people who would buy these sets are on late 30s~mid 40s, who grew up with the show and has enough disposable income.

I can guarantee that pre-order would be insane, where it would probably sold out within minutes. Even if they charge something like $400, $500, or $600 a set (especially for original and Z; GT can be lower due to fewer episodes), people would still buy it, since there are demands.

Even if it's not HD remastering, SD-BD would be an alternative update, even if doesn't have much to video quality. I can see something like Dragon Ball SDBD Vol. 1 Pilaf Saga (1~13), Vol. 2 Tournament Saga (14~28), etc.

This year (2026) is the 40th anniversary of the anime, so it should be perfect opportunity to do it. Why not use the momentum of anniversary hype to give fans and audience what they want? I would really want to see classic series on HD remaster, with stunning and beautiful details. Given how important the franchise is to the pop culture WORLDWIDE, it really deserve a boutique and proper higher quality release.

Any thoughts?