I'm More Into New School Chinese, Japanese And Korean TV Drama Series Over New School Super Sentai Series

I admit that while I do have my bad habit of watching shows for attractive females but I always had it in mind, "A bad show can't be saved by good eye candy while a good show gets overappreciated due to eye candy." I'd like to talk about Chinese drama (whether it's Taiwanese, Hong Kong or from China itself), Japanese drama and Korean drama to why I'm not having much trouble adjusting to the newer series and why I want to stay updated with it. You may see me writing about Heisei era Kamen Rider here (because it feels more like a J-Drama with Tokusatsu elements than the formula Showa era Kamen Riders had) but I'd like to focus more outside the Henshin phase for Chinese, Japanese and Korean Drama.

Why do I have more problems adjusting to newer Super Sentai and maybe to an extension, Kamen Rider? Even if the members of F4 and the cast of Meteor Garden aren't getting any younger, newer faces are already coming out but why is it that I can still enjoy the newer entries? I could talk about factors that may have contributed to me not having much a problem watching newer TV drama compared to Tokusatsu. Even I find myself confused so I decided to look at some subjective vs. objective way to look at it. I'll be mixing both subjective and objective to discuss this post. Before you comment, please read the post.

Do you ever realize that Super Sentai is primarily meant for children?

The target market of Super Sentai focuses on the children's market. It's all about Toei Ltd. gathering together and the producers are called to make a children's show, come up with gimmicks, work with Bandai and see what innovations work best for the children's market. That means if you're catering to children, do expect changes to happen. I've always felt like Super Sentai can be summarized as, "Heroes wearing spandex that use plastic weapons to save the world from rubber monsters." Though the script has spandex written as some kind of special metal and the plastic weapons are written as metal but the realistic look isn't really needed.

Nothing reminds me of my hiatus from watching any newer Tokusatsu in general ever since I got into Meteor Garden. I didn't really want to watch too many new-school Tokusatsu not because I'm stone aged but because there's better stuff than new school Tokusatsu from new school stuff. I felt like that while I can still enjoy Tokusatsu from my childhood or what I didn't see but not those that was catered to a new generation of children. While it's okay for an adult to enjoy the newer Super Sentai series like a person who's watching new school Super Sentai with one's child or in some cases one's grandchild. But I felt like should I really be that updated? I felt like I can if I wanted to. Sometimes, some newer Super Sentai improve on what old school started. One can consider how Abaranger managed to improve the dinosaur theme from Zyuranger. For some, it would be Kyoryuger.

I'm not getting any younger and I'm feeling awkward in some way when I'm watching anything past Shinkenger. Shinkenger's cast had a closer age gap with me but after that, the age gap just got bigger. But again, why don't I have a problem watching Chinese, Japanese and Korean TV drama with much younger cast members? I guess it's because one show is catered to children and the other is meant for older audiences. Gaoranger to Shinkenger felt like "We 90s kids got our dreams to come true by appearing in Super Sentai, our favorite genre as children." After that, the cast are getting younger and younger because fans of the previous decade have grown up. Like I said, there's nothing really wrong with not liking Super Sentai that much anymore when you're older.


New school Chinese, Japanese and Korean drama are usually aimed for older audiences, get it?

Unlike Super Sentai, one must note that Chinese, Japanese and Korean TV drama series aren't focused on children. The heart of their innovation is entertaining the older audience. Chinese, Japanese and Korean TV drama is more like younger people entertaining mainly older people. It's like how your aunt, mother or grandmother could enjoy watching TV series with a cast much younger than they are because it was catered to them. I don't think grandma would enjoy Zyuohger as much as her grandchild would in this era! On the other hand, I don't think children would enjoy watching the newer Chinese, Japanese and Korean TV dramas that grandmother or mother is watching even if the show is a contemporary production.


I could also talk about how action oriented TV drama (which some of its entries like the Wuxia and fantasy-related series may also be considered as Tokusatsu due to a heavy use of special effects and martial arts) entertains me more. For Super Sentai, a lot of stuff got regulated like the violence. From Goranger up to Ohranger the shows really just had a lot of badass action. I guess a huge combination of parental complaints, the priority to sell collectibles, budgeting plans, focus on writing a good story and time constraints caused a lot of changes. TV action drama isn't focused on selling toys to children. Wuxia series' primary focus is on an older audience and giving the best kung fu they could. Police drama is more concerned about arresting criminals and doing rescue missions than assembling a giant robot to defeat a giant monster. It hasn't been about selling toys that's why the weapons here usually look more realistic than those used in Super Sentai.

I don't feel awkward watching new school Chinese, Japanese and Korean drama is because of their target market. TV romances, action TV and the like aren't aimed for children. The action-oriented drama will have higher levels of violence fit for older audiences. The villains in these shows are meaner and scarier because you may be able to relate to them in real life. The impact of sad scenes can be that hard like seeing an important character die or a tragic ending can be expected for the main character. Even if the cast is really that new but it doesn't change the fact that it can turn out as younger celebrities called to entertain older people.

Final words

One needs to remember these words "TARGET MARKET". Super Sentai as said is aimed for children. Most Chinese, Japanese and Korean TV drama are aimed for older audiences. The innovative school of thought requires one to critically analyze why the innovation must even happen in the first place. It's not just let's innovate but it's also how should we innovate? The marketing mix for each one may vary. Promotions will vary because of the people who watch the shows. The place also varies because each country has a different culture. The price or costing also varies because one spends on innovating for collectibles while the other spends on innovating for more realistic special effects and better fight scenes.

After reaching beyond Nobuo Akagi's age, I thought that newer Super Sentai may have appealed to me now if I was a child and not new school Chinese, Japanese or Korean TV drama. Instead, I'm appealed over new school Chinese, Japanese and Korean TV drama because they're aimed for older audiences. Super Sentai has and will always be aimed for younger audiences and that's where it succeeded and the innovations should stay in making newer ways to entertain children. It's all about my change of preferences as the years go by.