The first special is the Turboranger special episode which began even before Turboranger's first episode aired. It honors the Super Sentai team starting from Battle Fever J until Liveman (at that time, Goranger and JAKQ hasn't been considered) and mostly just does some clip shows of those past Super Sentai and it ends with those teams cheering for the Turborangers to fight the Bouma and carry on their legacy.
The second special is the Super Sentai World which heavily featured the 16th series Kakuranger. Rather than a clip show, it calls in the Sentai warriors from Fiveman, Jetman (Gai is probably not dead yet here), Zyuranger (back from the heavens) and Dairanger (not yet old folks) in order to fight an original enemy. While this probably used the crossover nature a lot, I think it was the beginning of it. Most the pre-Kakuranger warriors don't appear out of suit.
During the Ohranger's airing, probably due to downed ratings, they may be thinking 'Only an Anniversary show can save us now!' Thus they drafted Goranger and JAKQ into the roster and after Ohranger is done, they released Carranger, an Anniversary show which is... a parody of the Sentai genre. They don't do clip shows or crossovers, they just... run along with the show, poke fun of the genre. And it saved Sentai too to continue on.
Now the next anniversary is Gaoranger vs Super Sentai. In a way, this carries on similar elements with the Turboranger special, there were clip shows, but in it, also a new original story, and all warriors from Past Sentai also appear to give their approval for the Gaoranger to continue on their legacy (in this case the whole Red warriors). But what makes this unique is that this also gives us a crossover Sentai team, a Sentai team whose members are from different Sentai teams (in this case Big One, Red Falcon, Ginga Blue, Mega Pink and Go Yellow). I think this is where the awesome really go.
The next anniversary is Boukenger vs Super Sentai. This is really similar with the Gaoranger one, except they don't use whole clip shows and limits it to the previous shows that appears after the last anniversary (Hurricaneger to Magiranger), similar to Super Sentai World. It also introduces us... Aka Red, who'll later appear in Gokaiger. A good showing, but felt like it could be expanded further. I mean, the concept on Gaoranger vs Super Sentai is awesome, a practically crossovers that knows no era or decade, Boukenger vs Super Sentai, while good, felt like a dumbed down version. Although there are anniversary element in the Boukenger show itself, starting from fight coreography into how every single enemies are based on past Sentai robos.
Then there's Gokaiger, which also takes note from Carranger: it's a show that runs on its own and is filled with nostalgia factor and cameo from past rangers. No clip shows, no crossover teams, just an awesome story filled with shout outs to the past.
I hope you had a good read about this.
Also for bonus stuffs you can do, if you are aware of my fic, you realize I am making up my own crossover on Super Sentai which is heavily based on Gaoranger vs Super Sentai. So I'm wondering, if you guys who read here would like to make up crossover teams, which would be your team? Minimum 5 characters, maximum 7 characters! Include villains too if you can! You can put them in your comments! You can see mine in these posts of my blog:
http://supersentaivssupersentai.blogspot.com/2010/06/characters-team-1-heroes.html
http://supersentaivssupersentai.blogspot.com/2010/06/characters-team-2-heroes.html
I just want to point out that Carranger wasn't an anniversary series, Ohranger was though.
ReplyDeleteGai is definitely not dead by Super Sentai World, since that happens in 1994, and Ryu and Kaori's wedding is in 1995, three years after the final Jetman battle.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteActually, Carranger was an anniversary season. It's 5 years before Gaoranger (the 25th season), thus making Carranger the 20th.
Anyways, about the crossovers. I actually felt that the clip show elements of Gaoranger vs Super Sentai and the large use of stock footage dragged it down. It had some nice story elements to it though.
Actually, Liveman was the anniversary season that celebrated 10 years of Super Sentai (BFJ - Liveman). Toei celebrated by hiring the then popular singers, Daisuke Shima (Red Falcon) and Megumi Mori (Blue Dolphin), along with another good actor, Kazuhiko Nishimura (Yellow Lion). The celebration culminated when Liveman wrapped out, completing the 10 year run. And since Turboranger had just come onto the scene by then, they got to join the celebration! Plus, by Turboranger, it was 1989, which was 10 years after Battle Fever J. lol
ReplyDeleteWhile Carranger is indeed the 20th installment of the franchise, the actual season did not celebrate an anniversary. However, Ohranger did celebrate the 20th anniversary. Instead of referring to the number of seasons like Gao, Bouken, and Gokai did, Ohranger went by the number of years. Goranger airing in 1975, while Ohranger celebrates 20 years in 1995.
And actually, while Ohranger had low ratings, Ohranger had the highest toy sales out of all Sentai seasons to date. And toy sales keep the franchise alive far more than ratings do. And ratings really aren't important at all. And come on, Carranger was the sentai with the second lowest ratings in the franchise, that's not THAT much higher than Ohranger. lol.
Though what was killing the franchise in the early 90s was all sorts of things. It was just a bad time for sentai, behind the scenes. And Carranger really wasn't enough to save it at all. But it was indeed the start of a new revival. What helped Carranger was that shows like Mega, Ginga, GoGoFive, Time, and Gao came afterwards.
Gaoranger vs Super Sentai was excellent. Honestly, I think the clip shows are a lot more fun than people give credit for. Plus, there were really awesome moments like Red Falcon's return, and the movie even made Big One a badass! The film deserves lots of points for that.
Boukenger vs Super Sentai was just a big disappointment imo. It didn't really celebrate the entire franchise. The returning villains were wasted. And the returning veterans had all lost their character development and just acted like amateurs. A very terribly written film. I can't believe some people actually prefer this film over Gao vs SS. >__<
@Mr. Smith
ReplyDeleteNot really. At that time, Toei didn't count its anniversary shows by the season number, but by the years they aired. True, Carranger was the 20th season. However, Ohranger aired in 1995, exactly 20 years after the first sentai, Goranger, premiered. In fact, when the Ohranger movie went to theaters, it began with a 20th anniversary logo.
By the time Gaoranger rolled out, Toei for some reason decided to go by the show number. Had they gone by the years their shows aired, then Timeranger, Magiranger and Goseiger would have been the anniversary shows.