News out of the Power Rangers franchise is that Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger (also known as “the awesomest thing in the history of ever”) will be adapted for American audiences as part of the second “season” of Power Rangers Megaforce in 2014 or so. On the one hand, I’m super-psyched that this show IS coming to America, as many fan reports were blowing smoke that it would never be adapted blah blah blah we-don’t-really-know-anything-cakes. On the other, I’m worried that the adapted pirate/superhero epic will lose all its charm in translation, and that any adaptation is just a recipe for disappointment and sadness. I recall having the same misapprehensions about the remake/re-imagining of ‘The Prisoner’ in ’09, fears which were fully realized by what I found to be a very disappointing who which utterly missed a couple of key points about the original.
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) never forgave the new Battlestar Galactica for jettisoning everything that made it BSG, no matter how good the show itself became, asking: Would you prefer to see a favorite story adapted into something you don’t enjoy as much as the original, or no adaptation at all, leaving it to languish in obscurity?
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oh god, your information is woefully out of date! there scrapping gokaiger for 2 sessions of goseiger! there taking the galleon and the gokai change gimmick and turning it in for the show and card game.
My information is up-to-date as of December 2012. Reportedly, SCG Power Rangers Productions is not allowed to skip seasons due to their contracts with Toei. At this point, it’s pretty much all hearsay anyway… We shall see what happens.
I’m going to wait and see, but in the end I’ve got Gokaiger on dvd and that’s all that matters to me
As a fan of a Japanese hit series called Precure, I’d rather see an adaptation. This is a series that is approaching its tenth anniversary but only the very first season was ever dubbed (Canada only) & is the only one streaming online legally. I’d rather see an English version starring “Posey & Erika” in place of Tsubomi & Erika because at least it would be available without navigating a wall of malware. Availability holds more importance to me than absolute accuracy; at least then people could find the series in the first place.
I’m a little torn on the way they are adapting Gokaiger as a hybrid season (similar to MMPR seasons 2 and 3) for the second season of Megaforce. On one hand, it will be less of an adaptation and more of “using stock footage” with a new story (before anyone says that is all they do, they’ve done a few PR seasons where it was fairly close to the Super Sentai material). On the other hand, maybe we’ll actually get something good out of it (for instance, the PR created concept of a Battalizer was actually adapted into Super Sentai in one of the Dekaranger movies). I’m mostly wondering how or if they’ll handle the whole “Legends” bit and how they’ll make use of the reshot Legend War footage (without pre-Zyuranger teams and without the core Dairangers).
I think some changed adaptations are okay. For instance, I’m actually almost as much a fan of Power Rangers SPD as I am of my favorite Super Sentai series Dekaranger. On the other hand, some things seem to get changed for no reason at all and become something far too different from what the source was (Like how Saban handled the Metal Heroes and Kamen Rider translations). But ultimately, I would love to see some closer adaptations for these series rather than some of the altered beyond recognition adaptations we’ve seen.
If I had to chose I would go for obscurity every single time, I don’t care how provocatively my childhood dresses but please leave it alone…
They are making a Robotech movie, which seems stuck in production Hell, it was the 1st anime series I remember watching as a kid and have many fond memories and if they screw it up I feel it will diminish those memories somehow.
If it was something I wouldn’t enjoy as much then I would also pick obscurity. That being said, I am always open to a new take on something old as long as it is done well (like the JJ Star Trek). On the other hand, knowing obscure pop culture ephemera is like cat nip for nerds.
Well id give it a chance to be re-made, like id like to see where someone could take Swamp Thing, but generally id prefer for it to “languish in obscurity”, or keep to its original form.
We’ll have to agree to disagree regarding BSG – in my opinion they jettisoned everything than made the original BSG painful to watch. Of course, some of the stuff they changed just to change – like making Starbuck a woman – but on the whole, the new series is lots better than the old. The old series had some wonderful episodes – the one with Lloyd Bridges and the Pegasus was my favorite. “Ha ha ha! Burn Galactica! Burn! Today the universe has seen the destruction of the last battlestar! Ha ha ha!” “Sir. I really think you should look… at the OTHER battlestar…” Classic! Pure Classic. However the majority of the episodes were pure dreck. When the new series started I swore a vow I would never watch it if a cute kid and robot dog showed up.
To address the other part of your question/statement: On the whole, I prefer the original property be allowed to languish in obscurity rather than see an inferior “updated” version be released. Wild Wild West. Need I say more? The 80’s Lone Ranger movie? The Green Hornet movie? Do I really need to go on? Every now and then they produce something that is nearly as good as the original (The Addams Family movies, for example) and rarely something as good as or better than the original (J.J. Abrams Star Trek or Cohen Bros. True Grit or BBCs newest Sherlock series). In most cases such updates leave me wondering if the director or producers even saw the original work.
Experience seems to indicate that, nine times out of ten, when somebody dusts off an old show or movie and tries to update it, it seems like its because they don’t have an original idea of their own.