Are American TV Standards Making It Too Hard For Japanese Shows To Be Aired There Without Localizing Them?!

As a kid, I remembered how I started out as a fantard towards American culture (while hypocritically watching Tagalog-dubbed or English-dubbed Japanese shows) then it happened. I watched more Japanese shows and I remembered reading a very old edition of Questor Magazine with an article called "Sentai: It's Not What You Think". I wondered what in the world was Sentai then I found it it's the very TV show that Power Rangers was based from. While I acknowledge that Toei and Saban worked together and made big tons of money from it but I still feel that deep inside, they're probably still grumbling while saying, "Are Americans really that chicken?!" I can't say they are and I won't say they are but I'd dare say that they're probably grumbling like that. Sometimes, making money means making a lot of difficult decisions that makes you feel stupid but you need to do it anyway.

After writing Part 1 on JEFusion, I felt like Part 2 should be written in this blog. So be ready to get your breathing apparatus because this article's so gonna choke your breath!

Personally, I feel like calling most Japanese shows localized for American audiences to be "bastardized shows" or "legalized bastardization". I don't call it bootleg (due to the term being associated with unlicensed productions) but I can't still help but call it bastardized because it's so toned down to the levels of stupid for a market where they're a bunch of sissified people. I also call it not only bastardized but also converting solid food into baby food for a population of sissified American children with parents who are like Mom and Dad from Fairly Oddparents. I wonder how many can remember watching Lion Voltron and Vehicle Voltron? I watched both Lion Voltron and Vehicle Voltron then the originals Golion and Dairugger XV (via fansubs). When I saw Golion and Dairugger XV, I said WTF is going on? A lot of stuff were pretty much dumbed down. How many dead people were simply written off as "injured" when they were FREAKINGLY OBVIOUSLY DEAD?! They could have just edited out the blood and still establish the person as dead. No but the person had to be written as "unconscious" to avoid "traumatizing" American children.

Traumatize the child? I don't know if I should ever brag about this one because I'm not an isolated case. I was only nine years old when I first saw Mika Koizumi's death in Bioman. Did I get traumatized? NO! My parents always told me that superheroes weren't invincible. I remembered how my parents also held my hands when Great Five sunk in Maskman. They told me for the nth time superheroes aren't invincible. I remembered how they always banned me from watching Tom And Jerry while they were okay with me watching Tokusatsu. It's funny how my parents who never allowed me to watch horror movies wasn't a bit bothered when she saw all the horror scenes in Kamen Rider Black when I was eight. I admit, I always had issues even before watching those shows. Then it happened: I started watching Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers a show that I won't bother to rewatch for preferential reasons. I remembered how many of my peers saw Mika die and never got traumatized. If they saw extreme violence in person that would be a different story.

I remembered this statement when I first heard of Zyuranger from Jillun's website concerning Burai:

You see, the Japanese are not afraid to say, "Sometimes it can be too late." I admire that in a story. Hard though it was, they chose to keep it that Brai died. They even had a postcard writing campaign, where you could write to Clotho to beg her for Brai's life. They got a LOT of postcards, but they remained faithful to their storyline and he died. I'm glad of that. He never came back, which he would have if this was Power Rangers. Heroes don't die. Particularly not heroes who have given up everything to save the world. If they come close, like Karone, hey they get healed and become the Pink Ranger (who also did not die, she reappeared alive, with Maya's people). That takes all the seriousness out of it. And you have to remember, the Sentai target audience is actually YOUNGER than the Power Rangers target audience!

As much as it hurt but I ended up saying that Burai's lived a legacy better than Tommy's. Tommy was just a self-glorified idiot and Jason David Frank will never match up to Hiroshi Miyauchi's legendary status. Please, don't even think of appointing Tommy as a team captain of a rescue team or military force! I just thought about Burai's death and why it was such a meaningful death for Tokusatsu viewers. I felt like Burai's death was probably meant to show that you should try to live your life doing what's right to the fullest. Burai gave his life to save a dying child. Burai left for the afterlife in total peace with a smile on his face. I can't forget how I really felt I would have the same thing if I were him. He was a real hero. Tommy was just an overrated hero who gets overused. If Zyuranger were shown on local TV, I guess my parents would have told me to follow Burai's example if ever it happens I'll be dying one day. Hmmm... I wonder how true is it that most Sentai viewers are supposedly younger than the Power Rangers audience back in the 90s? Can somebody please verify that?

It also carried out how many Power Rangers villains that could have been great end up toned down for a reason for this reason: AMERICAN SOCCER MOMS COMPLAIN TOO MUCH! I was reminded of that episode where Timmy couldn't watch the sewer gator footage (which all his classmates watched) all because of his stupid parents or the time Channel Chasers was shown and the TV gets all the blame never mind they're ultimately responsible for their son's stupidity. Plus, they're too stupid not to know Vicky is evil even if it's becoming more and more common knowledge. I feel like some great Power Rangers villains like Astronema from PR in Space, Trakeena in Lost Galaxy and Ransik in Time Force all got subjected to executive meddling and had to include some funny scenes which derailed their character. Meanwhile, their closest Japanese counterparts like Shiima from Changeman and Dr. Giba from Jiban were pretty consistent to the purpose they served. Ransik was shown first to be scary and intimidating but a couple of episodes later... he just suffered more or less the same way Garoa did in Fiveman or worse. I felt like Ransik should've died in a plane crash at the end of Time Force.

Moving beyond my childhood, I couldn't forget about some rather questionable scenes in Timeranger. One good example is how Naoto Takizawa was shot far too many times. Eric Myers in Time Force was shot with a life threatening shot which was far less bloody but could kill him through internal bleeding. A good question to think about is that, "You can't have that in Power Rangers." Somebody may ask, "Why's that?" My answer could end up as, "Because American parents are too much like Timmy Turner's parents." I'm aware at how post-Timeranger Super Sentai has become much less violent (but most of them still give a good story 90% of the time) but still you know American parents right? They just want to keep feeding their children baby food even when they're already seven years old. No wonder many Americans are very immature no thanks to the fact that they're frequently fed with baby food for their brains. Worse, to do business in America, Japanese entertainment companies must convert all their food to baby food to make money.

In the end, it's very safe to assume that American TV standards is a real obstacle to overcome. You want to air your shows the way they are with all the good content but American TV standards tend to sissify the mind. Like how can their kind of children's programming avoid teaching that it can be too late or the heroes don't always get a happy ending? Do they have to reach their later years to learn that? I guess there's too much the "Disney Kingdom" or "Happily Ever After" mentality. I'm afraid that when these children grow up they're just going to become a group of overly pampered brats who know nothing about life. I guess Saban and Toei might as well sell baby products to the American audience rather than forcibly bastardize everything and make money at the cost of the people's intelligence. I guess right now parents would even want to get rid of of SHOUT! Factory for releasing the super violent Super Sentai DVDs never mind it's sold for older fans. Again, get rid of all that babying of America because many Americans aren't maturing as a result.