8/7/18

Hello, tokusatsu fans. Welcome to what I'm calling the Adaptation Station. This is something I will do (hopefully once a week), to share my ideas on how we could adapt particular seasons of Super Sentai into Power Rangers seasons.

Before we begin, I'd just like to state that these are my own, original ideas. If you like them, cool, if you don't, tell me what I can do to improve them. Constructive criticism is needed for improvement, so if I have a really shitty idea or concept, let me know. Also, I'd like to possibly do something with these concepts in the future. If you'd like to borrow some elements from this, let me know beforehand, but otherwise, don't go blatantly copying my ideas.

With that, let us begin. Today, we will be looking at the 2017-18 series of Super Sentai, Uchu Sentai Kyuranger. It is the 41st season of Super Sentai, and a twelve-man team of Rangers at that. Our largest team yet. As per to be expected of Sentai, only two of those are girls, though. More on that later.

This is a space-themed Sentai, which was refreshing, because the shows that came before it, Zyuohger, based on animals, Ninninger, based on ninjas, ToQger, based on imagination, and Kyoryuger, based on dinosaurs... And samba dancing, were all very high fantasy, so seeing something with more of a sci-fi twist was the breath of fresh air Sentai really needed.

One of Kyuranger's main themes are constellations. As displayed by the Rangers suits here:

As you can see, the suits are beautiful, and quite frankly, the sweetest of eye candy to see in motion. But before I can gush over the beauty of these costumes any more, let's get on with the official synopsis of the series from Toei, excerpted from the RangerWiki.

Earth has been taken over by invaders. With the universe under their thrall, the tears of the people awaken the nine ultimate saviors, chosen by the Kyutama, and they are here for the galaxy's salvation. Nine different people with strong personas. The most powerful warriors arrive here and now.

To simplify, there are these miniature globe-like devices known as Kyutama. These globes have chosen nine people, each hailing from different planets, to become legendary heroes known as the Kyurangers (Lit. Nine Rangers), to defeat the evil government known as Jark Matter and their various generals, shoguns, lackeys, etc.

The plot is quite simple, but where Kyuranger excels is in character interaction and development. The cast is the very definition of an ensemble, and everyone feels like they want to be there. The character's personalities may be different, and sometimes even contradict each other, but everything just flows damn near flawlessly.

Now how do we transfer these exceptional qualities into a Power Rangers series?

As you all know, Hasbro has acquired the Power Rangers franchise from Saban. I don't know if Hasbro will continue the Super season trend of breaking one show into two seasons, 20 or so episodes each, but for consistency sake, I will be outlaying this series as a 32-episode series, similar to Disney's production during their tenor with the series, as sort of a nice mix of the two styles.

For an adaptation of Kyuranger, I believe the best approach would be a more comedic one, akin to the more humorous, borderline fourth wall breaking comedy that Power Rangers RPM had occasionally, but just more frequent. Animated series such as Teen Titans Go  are very popular with kids today. The Action/Comedy genre is growing on children's television as a whole, and I believe this adaptation of Kyuranger would be the perfect way to adapt to that sort of standard in live action. That would be one of the biggest selling points. An action show with depth, that can also get a good laugh out of you.

I would revert back to Power Rangers target demographic from before Saban reacquired the franchise. That perfect 9-14 years of age demographic. We could have darker plotlines, while still keeping the execs over at Nickelodeon happy, which is a plus. 

Now, in the next chapter of this book, I will share my actual ideas for this adaptation. Plot, character arcs, etc. I hope you've all enjoyed this.

~ DawnOfTyme