Tuesday, July 24

Interview with Super Sentai Producer

As you may or mat not know, I am the webmaster of a Super Sentai fan site (supersentai.com) and also contribute to a Power Ranger fan site (rangercentral.com). Which was down for July 24 because of maintenance.

Here is an interview by Christian Lonsing with Super Sentai producer Hideaki Tsukada. It is an PDF file, Click here to download or view it.

Tsukada reveals in this rare interview that they are keeping hero deaths to a minimum, which is common in Super Sentai. The 'Green Ranger' we know from the original MMPR series--his Japanese counterpart Zyuranger/Burai died. Also he admits there is no communication between the Power Ranger and Super Sentai crews, but surprisingly Bandai America does have some input. Fans have wanted a red female leader and a pink male which has yet to happen, Tsukada doesn't rule it out but being it a show mainly for boys, he doubts stores would want to sell a series with a female lead. Kamen Rider, a series Toei (production company of Sentai) also produces--they only have communication at the beginning to make sure they don't have the same theme. Sequels are rare in Super Sentai, they have never happened. Each story and cast last a year long for the past 32 years. Tsukada says if the companies involved Toei and Bandai are convinced it is worth doing, they may do a sequel. He personally would love to do one on Dekaranger (Power Rangers S.P.D.)