Shout Factory is insane, apparently

[Edmond Dantes]

Shout Factory, a company that releases a lot of old TV shows and cartoons on DVD, has now announced A Power Rangers super-mega-gigantic box set containing EVERY episode ever made, up to 2013, in a big case shaped like the Red Ranger's helmet.

... I'm like, "Seriously? is POWER RANGERS really such a big deal that releasing the entire franchise in one go is worth it?"

... I'd be all over this if it were Super Sentai though...

[drauch]

Yeah, they mainly only release Americanized versions of a lot of their Japanese shows. Other than that, probably the best R1 DVD/BD company on the market. Such a wealth of fine titles: animation, television, horror, cult, martial arts, etc. Blurays look nice and a lot of pre-ordered Scream Factory stuff comes with awesome posters. First people in the states to release stuff like The Boogens, Damnation Alley, Shout at the Devil, Ultra Q, Deadly Blessing, and a ton of other titles that were impossible to get before then.

[Daigohji]

I wonder what kind of price they'll attach to a 98 disc set in a big red helmet

Personally, I'm more interested in the Ultra Q set they're releasing next month. I was convinced I'd never have a chance to watch that show.

[Edmond Dantes]

When it comes to shout factory, the box set I mean to pick up is Ultraseven.

I hope their Power Rangers, VR Troopers and Beetleborgs sets are successful enough to inspire them to license and release Super Sentai and Metal Heroes officially... I'd kill for those. Especially Metal Heroes. But it doesn't seem likely since most American fans pull the same card Linkara did and say "I didn't grow up with Sentai so its not interesting to me."

Sigh.... why wasn't I born in Japan...

[BPzeBanshee]

Funnily enough I was having a discussion with Kaiser the other day about Power Rangers. I grew up watching the very original, and he with Time Force. I'm younger, so you'd think I would've seen Time Force too, but Australia AFAIK missed a lot of the ones that came afterwards.

We concluded that those variants are about the only decent ones (at least out of the Americanised versions, I've not seen anything of Super Sentai itself), with a distant 2nd place to the recent ones (I genuinely thought it was a New Zealand production like The Tribes, it looked that bad at times).

For something like this I'd expect a large price tag, I think all the James Bond films in one package went for at least $300 if I recall correctly over here, and that had less DVDs - but then again Power Rangers is not exactly that kind of popular anymore.

[Edmond Dantes]

We concluded that those variants are about the only decent ones (at least out of the Americanised versions, I've not seen anything of Super Sentai itself),

You should. Super Sentai is better than Power Rangers in just about every way. Not the least of which is the music. Americans, in general, have poor taste in music and this especially reflects when you compare Americanizations to their Japanese originals.

Zyuranger was the first Sentai I watched all the way through and while it had its dull parts, I found it thoroughly fascinating (oddly enough, its apparently considered one of the weaker series, while its immediate predecessor, "Choujin Sentai Jetman" is considered among the strongest). The story in the original was about four princes (and a princess) who were placed in suspended animation against the return of Witch Bandora (who is far more menacing than her American counterpart, Rita Repulsa), who apparently was responsible for the Dinosaurs going extinct. Oh, and the Zords? They were GODS. Literally.

Another strength of Super Sentai is that, with the exception of the recent Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, the various series tend to exist in independent continuities, so each one stands on its own (whereas all the Power Rangers are purportedly in the same continuity--another peculiar habit of American productions, and one which seems self-destructive to me, since you'd think that after awhile it would basically lock-out anyone who isn't a long-time fan).

If I had to criticize anything, its that the more recent Sentai (from around Magiranger on up) really look fake and corny. They really feel like they'd fit in right next to Power Rangers for some reason, whereas the older ones felt stronger and more substantial. I think that's largely because the newer ones use CGI more (in place of the man-in-suit effects) and there's a noticable bent towards marketing (most of the devices they use these days really do look like toys--the Pirate Sentai Gokaiger even transform using miniature figurines!) To a degree you could say that about the older ones, but I can believe Goushi's axe/rifle thing more than I can buy Captain Marvelous' plastic cellphone.

Anyway, most of the Sentai shows have been fansubbed and can be downloaded at krdl.info, if you wanna try them out.

[BPzeBanshee]

I actually disagree on the music part, at least with the example you provided and the pre-90s videos I looked at. The ones that came after the first American one however? Fuck them.

I will agree with you on the cornyness of the recent ones though. Feels like they're trying to fit in with modern kids, but I think I was a minority with a plastic flip phone when I was a kid (they're more durable than you think though, particularly if its a Nokia).

Of course if we're going to get into the argument of which is best, obviously it's the Downfall Parody version.

[BrianC]

I haven't seen much in Japanese Sentai in its original form, though I did like the unedited Gojira and Gatchaman quite a bit. I also noticed that the complete original Ultraman is on DVD with the Japanese version and subtitles and is dirt cheap. Worth checking out?

[Edmond Dantes]

I haven't seen much in Japanese Sentai in its original form, though I did like the unedited Gojira and Gatchaman quite a bit. I also noticed that the complete original Ultraman is on DVD with the Japanese version and subtitles and is dirt cheap. Worth checking out?

Yes, but one thing to know about Ultraman.

That show was released twice. The first time was by BCI Eclipse (the same studio that had put out those awesome, special-feature-laden box sets of He-Man and She-Ra), and this set came in two volumes, with a total of something like five or six discs (they later released a "complete series" which was both volumes in one box).

The Shout Factory edition is four DVDs, with ten episodes per disc. It's mostly identical to the BCI release, but... there are subtitle timing errors on some episodes (the second episode on Disc 3 is where I first spotted any). This apparently is a common problem whenever Shout Factory re-releases a tokusatsu that BCI did first--their box sets of Red Baron and Iron King also apparently have issues (which, BTW, are not present on the original BCI release).

That said though, I didn't find the mis-timed subtitles to be that big an issue, and outside of that there's no reason to prefer the BCI set over Shout Factory's. It's really up to the individual buyer--most were just fine with Shout's set.

... Also, Ultraman just came out on Blu-Ray in Japan. I'd almost like to buy them then rip the subs from the Shout Factory set...

[drauch]

Mill Creek re-released Ultraman, not Shout. Shout released Ultra Seven and Ultra Q.

[Edmond Dantes]

*Hits self* Oh, that's right. For some reason I got Mill Creek and Shout mixed up.