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yeonchi · 6 months

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Kisekae Insights #36: Adapting the Rangers and Riders

This is Part 2 of the introduction to Gokaiger and Decade covering what Super Sentai teams and Kamen Riders have been adapted for both series. Keep in mind that this doesn't cover every new Kamen Rider or Rider forms that made their debut in Japan post-2015 – these will come in later instalments covering later series.

As a short rule of thumb, I only adapted all Sentai teams between Dekaranger and Zyuohger along with some teams post-Zyuranger, while all Heisei Kamen Riders up to Drive were adapted before expanding to Ghost and later Ex-Aid, Build and Zi-O. Showa elements making a reappearance in the Heisei era have been cut.

Anyway, we'll get right into it after the break.

The Superhero Project

My version of Gokaiger is probably the closest you will get to an adaptation of ToQger and Zyuohger for various reasons, such as trains not being as profound in the West or dinosaurs and ninjas being more marketable as gimmicks. Go-Busters was almost in that category until Power Rangers Beast Morphers was announced to be adapting that series. I am aware that ToQger and Zyuohger generals have appeared in Power Rangers series, but it’s not exactly a full adaptation per se.

The Power Rangers of this series are all grouped under UNIT’s Superhero Project. The scope of Super Sentai teams adapted range from the Dekarangers to Zyuohgers, along with the Zyurangers, Kakurangers, Ohrangers and Hurricanegers. The TV movie special also introduces three Ancient Ranger teams, namely the Gorengers, JAKQ and Dairangers (because the Showa era is practically ancient history for me lmao).

The only teams who have Megazords are the Gokaigers and teams whose Zord summoning/combining commands are explicitly integrated into their equipment, that is, their morphers have buttons to summon/combine their Zords. Those teams are the Boukengers, ToQgers, Ninningers and Zyuohgers.

The names, morphing calls and equipment voices follow those of the Super Sentai, with the addition of the “It’s morphin time!” pre-call. There is an exception here for the ToQgers’ equipment voices due to their nature and the Megazords for the Gokaigers, ToQgers and Ninningers. In the case of the ToQgers, I made (and remade) a post speculating what a ToQger adaptation would be like with names and all; their equipment would be voiced by Cheri Chan Yu-yan (陳如茵), the voice of Hong Kong’s MTR. As for the Ninningers’ Megazord names, they are named in the vein of “Shuriken Megazord” to differentiate them from the names in Power Rangers Ninja Steel, which was airing at the time.

The first wave of the Superhero Project, namely the Gekirangers, Go-Ongers, Shinkengers, Goseigers and Zyuohgers, are made up of members from Girl Power, who were antagonists prior to Series 10. The Go-Ongers don’t have Engine Souls, but they have generic Cell Chips to morph and power up their weapons.

The Magirangers are Takumi Kamijō’s team at Torchwood Pleiades, also known as the magical girls of Mitakihara. The Boukengers are the girls of the Light Music Club and the Kyoryugers are the Lucky Stars of Saitama. The Go-Busters are a separate team based at UNIT NZ in Auckland as an allusion to Power Rangers being produced in New Zealand, at least until this year. That team is listed in the Lucky Star instalment where I also covered the Kyoryugers, while two of the Rangers (and their commander) are detailed in #25.

The Zyurangers (with Kibaranger), Kakurangers, Gouraigers and Ninningers are made up of characters from Arthur as follows:

Arthur Read (AkaNinger)

Brain (AoNinger)

Buster Baxter (KiNinger)

D.W. Read (ShiroNinger)

Muffy Crosswire (MomoNinger)

Kinji Takigawa (StarNinger)

Binky Barnes (TyrannoRanger)

Rattles (MammothRanger)

Slink (TriceraRanger)

Molly MacDonald (TigerRanger)

Prunella Deegan (PteraRanger)

Nigel Ratburn (DragonRanger)

Bud Compson (KibaRanger)

George Lundgren (NinjaRed)

Francine Frensky (NinjaWhite)

Ladonna Compson (NinjaBlue)

Sue Ellen Armstrong (NinjaYellow)

Fern Walters (NinjaBlack)

Timmy Tibble (KuwagaRaiger)

Tommy Tibble (KabutoRaiger)

Cameron Watanabe (Shurikenger)

The Hurricanegers are a bit of a special case here as they appeared on Decade as Kamen Riders, but they are considered a Ranger team as well, particularly post-series, and their Gokai Changes are also used. It’s just that they never appear alongside the Gouraigers.

The Ohrangers, Dekarangers and ToQgers are teams made up of original characters, though they barely serve any purpose or have any development. Like Kinji Takigawa was with the Ninningers in this series, Sir Topham Hatt is KingRanger while Akira Nijino is ToQ 6gou. This was done as part of a special guest feature for the series, with Kinji and Akira’s actors reprising their roles in this adaptation. The Ohrangers and ToQgers are based on the Island of Sodor as a tribute to Thomas the Tank Engine.

The Gorengers, JAKQ and Dairangers were a spur-of-the-moment addition made for the TV movie. Aside from Sammy J and Randy Feltface for RyuuRanger and ShishiRanger, the rest of those teams were played by the casts of Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell and The Checkout, both being satirical comedy programmes broadcast on the ABC.

Kamen Rider Project

Originally known as Project Decade, the Kamen Rider Project is something I put a lot of heart into as it became something I preferred over Super Sentai or Power Rangers. Unlike the Superhero Project Power Rangers which were entirely developed by UNIT, various Kamen Riders were made by different organisations including UNIT, with Decade as their unifying mascot Rider.

The scope of my Kamen Rider adaptation covers the entire Heisei Kamen Rider era with some changes. For fear of scope creep I had no intention to include Showa elements, with the exception of Dai-Shocker and the Shocker Combatmen for the series only.

The Nine Riders of my Decade adaptation are different to the Nine Riders of the original series:

Original: Kuuga, Agito, Ryuki, Faiz, Blade, Hibiki, Kabuto, Den-O, Kiva

Adaptation: Kuuga, Agito, Ryuki, W, Blade, Ninja, Magica, Shugo, Drive

Originally, the plan was to create original Riders or adapt the Riders and give them new names for the adaptation. In the end, I decided to adapt the Riders with their original names because of footage reasons, plus I didn’t think it was respectful to the original Riders to just change their names like that. A number of original Riders did make it through to the series for reasons that I'll explain now.

At first I didn’t want to adapt Hibiki, then I changed my mind after seeing how interesting it was and how I could stuff a lot of Riders into the series thanks to the many Oni featured. My first impression of Faiz and Kabuto was that they were villainous Riders, probably because of their nature (Faiz being an Orphnoch or Smart Brain/ZECT being villainous organisations), so I classed them and Hibiki as Narutaki’s minions in the series. The idea of Hibiki being a Rider but not exactly a Rider in the way they transform and fight was used to create Kamen Rider Magica, a Rider influenced by Madoka Magica and GARO.

My decision not to adapt Den-O was basically “Why do we need the Den-Liner when we already have the TARDIS”, plus the Taros are pretty overrated characters, especially Momotaros, who has reappeared practically every year in the 14 years since the series ended (plus it’d cost us money to hire voice actors lol). As for Kiva, I wasn’t entirely with the idea of a vampire Kamen Rider, so elements from it and Den-O were mixed to create Kamen Rider Shugo - a Rider resembling Den-O but using unique weapons in each form like Kiva instead of a weapon in different modes (DenGasher).

Kamen Rider Ninja, another original Rider, is HurricaneRed, Hikaru Azuma, an autistic boy from the manga With the Light. His sister, Kanon, and their friend, Moe Nakajima, are HurricaneBlue and Yellow respectively; while they are summonable by Diend, they were not considered Riders or given Rider names until their reappearance in Kamen Rider Zi-O, at which point they were called Kamen Rider Mizuna (ミズナ/水波) and Kamen Rider Okachi (オカチ/陸地). Kamen Rider Shinobi ain’t got nothing on Ninja lmao.

In summary, Faiz, Hibiki and Kabuto's places as part of the Nine Riders were replaced by Ninja, W and Drive, while Den-O and Kiva were replaced by Magica and Shugo for the entire adaptation. To put my original Riders in context with the rest of the lineup, here is a sneak peek of Decade’s original Extra Final Form, Ultimate Complete Form, with its activation sequence:

Ultimate: Kuuga, Agito, Ryuki, Faiz, Blade, Ninja, Hibiki, Magica, Kabuto, Shugo, W, OOO, Fourze, Wizard, Gaim, Drive

OOO, Fourze and Wizard made cameo appearances in the TV movie special before appearing in the New Worlds Arc. Ghost wouldn’t appear until the Age of Riders movie trilogy, but he made cameo appearances in the TV movie special and the final episode.

I've covered a number of Rider groups in previous instalments of this series, so I won't go into full details about them. Here’s a quick list of them:

Kuuga: #7

Salacian Riders (Agito/Ryuki/Hibiki/Amazons et al.): #11

Blade: #17

Magica: #19

Shugo: #25

Fourze/Wizard: #32

Instead, I'll just cover the Rider groups we haven't covered before now.

Faiz: Kamen Rider Faiz is a pig named Old Major (named after the character in Animal Farm) who became a bipedal humanoid thanks to the power of the Faiz Gear granted to him from an animal activist group called Food Chain Breakers (FCB) when they saved him from the slaughter. Kaixa and Delta’s users are from a mercenary group who is an enemy to the FCB.

The Orphnochs in this series are actually evolved Sandmen from those seen in the Doctor Who episode Sleep No More, being able to take on monster forms and disguise themselves as humans.

Kabuto: The users of the Kabuto and Gatack Zecters, Tommy Cooper and Kyle Bonlin, are members of the New Tongmenghui, a successor to the original group that fought for children’s rights and the overthrowing of oppressive parents. The Hopper Riders, aka the Hells Brothers, Daniel and Nathan Trindall, are of unknown affiliation. As for TheBee, Drake and Sasword, they were given to Salacians Lorah, Hugo and Tata when they joined Narutaki.

The Worms are a splinter species of the Zygons; when their home world was destroyed in the Time War, half of the Zygons managed to escape while the other half were mutated into Worms. They retained their ability to mimic humans while also gaining the ability to moult into monstrous forms and Clock Up into super speeds.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking, B1?” “I think I am, B2…” “It’s morphin’ time!”

For the series, I had planned to make some Rider showcase posters (from existing art), however I only ended up making two. W is one of them and the other one is for Gaim.

Double’s users are B1 and B2, respectively comprising the mind and body portions of the two-in-one Kamen Rider. Double (along with Skull) was the only Rider from W to be adapted into Decade, with said Rider replacing Faiz as part of the Nine Riders. Accel was not adapted because I didn't like the idea of him turning into a bike; due to footage reasons in Zi-O, Accel was introduced in Soulbound Series 4, with its user being a member of the former Girl Power who is also in a relationship with Narutaki.

OOO: The user of the OOO Driver is another member of the former Girl Power, whose counterpart in the TV Movie Special was Gaim, reflecting previous plans for said movie. Additionally, he has a dream world counterpart dark Rider whose form uses Putotyra Combo. Soulbound Series 4 would feature the debut of the new Combos of the CSM OOO Driver, along with Super Tatoba Combo and the original Yadopangaru Combo (Yadokari/Hermit Crab, Panda, Kangaroo).

Birth's user is another member of the former Girl Power whose dream world counterpart dark Rider transformed into Kamen Rider Skull. His upgrade form, Birth X, would make its debut in the post-Zi-O specials.

Aqua and Poseidon were also introduced due to footage reasons for Zi-O, but Aqua was replaced with another Rider in the end. See #20 for more details.

Gaim: The main Riders of Gaim are Morgan, Amy, Lulu and Rat in a Hat, taking on the armours for Gaim, Baron, Ryugen and Zangetsu respectively. The Genesis Driver users, Duke, Sigurd, Marika and Zangetsu Shin, are Narutaki, Topsy the Kangaroo, Melanie Yang and Rat in a Hat.

Duke's armour was originally used by Tsukasa Amakawa of Torchwood North before it was stolen by Narutaki for her own use. The armour would then be passed onto Akari Ichigo after she decided to become Gold Drive following a period of interchanged use.

All the equipment for the Gaim Riders came from another universe where more Lockseeds were in use. But how did they get to our universe in the first place? The question will be answered eventually…

Drive: Drive's user is Shinnosuke Tomari thanks to a guest appearance from Ryōma Takeuchi. However, due to Takeuchi's popularity in Japan, Shinnosuke was replaced by Akari's cousin and former Girl Power/Kurayami Alliance leader Daniel from Soulbound Series 4.

Mach's user is Akari's little brother Michael. He is the only Drive Rider who isn't replaced following his debut.

Mr Carburettor was Mashin Chaser before Flash would later take on his mantle as Kamen Rider Chaser. You will find out how it happened when I get to it.

This has been the introduction to my version of Gokaiger and Decade. From the next instalment, we’ll begin diving into Gokaiger and seeing how I would do it better than Super Megaforce.

#kisekae insights #super sentai #kamen rider #kaizoku sentai gokaiger #kamen rider decade

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