Why Power Rangers is Not a Super Sentai Rip-Off

For weeks now, I can't help but notice the number of fans who are complaining about their "precious" Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger becoming a Power Rangers show. They think that it ruined the spirit of Gokaiger and such. Oh come on, I don't hear people complain when when it was first announced that Shinkenger will become Power Rangers Samurai! In short, the aim of this post is to educate those fans that Power Rangers is not a Super Sentai rip-off, but a licensed adaptation.

For starters, here's a bit of common sense. If Power Rangers is ripping of Super Sentai for 20 years now, why Toei is not suing Saban or Disney? I mean, if they are ripping off their property, it's obvious that Toei is not earning anything but it's quite the opposite actually, both Toei and Bandai are earning money thanks to Power Rangers! If you check Bandai's year end toy reports (page 22 in the 2012 report) Super Sentai and Power Rangers are lumped in a single category. That alone is a clear indication that Bandai recognizes the two brands and not that one brand is ripping off the other brand.

Next is about the issue of adaptation, Saban and Toei had an agreement back in the 90's about using the Zyuranger footage. You can read the full details about it in this post coming from RangerCrew. What's interesting about it aside from the order on how the episodes were sent to Saban is the follow up letter requesting the use of Toei's other properties. I quote:

Saban has granted Toei the right to exploit, in Toei's reserved territories, the new episodes Saban creates using Toei's material. Saban's term of rights in Toei's material is ten years with an option to renew for an additional fifteen years;

In simple terms, Toei and Saban had an agreement that Saban can create new shows based on Toei's property and they can renew the license for them to do so once the contract is expired 10 years after. The letter was made in 1994 and it is likely that Disney, the ones who owned the Power Rangers license back in 2004 decided to renew the contract. In short, in strict and in legal sense, Power Rangers is not a rip-off of Super Sentai. 

But some of you might ask, if Saban has the license with Toei's property, why can't they just dub the original Super Sentai footage and air it in America dubbed in English? Here's the thing, they tried pitching it, only to fail at the end. Prior to Zyuranger, Marvel tried to pitch in a Super Sentai show that caught Stan Lee's eye years ago. TV networks hated it and only see it as a piece of garbage. Same with Saban, he also tried adapting a Super Sentai show, to be more specific, Choudenshi Bioman for American audiences only for it to be rejected by the TV networks. To put it simply, dubbing a cheesy looking Japanese superhero TV shows will not work for American audiences.

Let's face it, American culture is vastly different from Japanese culture and if you want your Japanese TV show to be accepted by a foreign audience, it's either you make it tailor fit to their culture (like what some anime titles did) or localize it and make it work for that country. At the end of the day, making TV shows is all about business and business means money. Super Sentai is not much of a cultural icon back then like what it is right to now most people. Heck, the franchise faced attempts of cancellation numerous times! But thanks to the effort of its producers, writers and fans, the franchise managed to survive. Same goes with Power Rangers, as long as there are fans to support it, it will stay. If you don't like it, don't watch it.

P.S. Saban is contractually obliged by Toei to not skip a Super Sentai series as part of their contract. In short, expect a Go-Busters adaptation once Super Megaforce is over.

EDIT (8/2/13): Fixed the wording of the Power Rangers Samurai part. People started complaining about the show after it aired. A lot of fans where excited about Samurai prior to its airing.