If you thought the relationship between the Japanese Super Sentai franchise and its “spinoff” American show Power Rangers was weird enough, South Korea just added a totally weird wrinkle to the formula.
The symbiotic relationship between Power Rangers and Super Sentai is well known at this point: Every year, Toei makes a brand new superhero show, and by the time it has moved on to the next one on the series, Saban has adapted it with newly-shot English-language footage into a season of Power Rangers, giving it a new story, new characters and a new name.
Meanwhile for the last decade or so, South Korean company Daewon Animation has brought Super Sentai shows to the country by simply dubbing the original Japanese series in Korean, and then slapping a new Power Rangers name on it — weirdly enough, usually different from the names used in the Western Power Rangers adaptation. Except this year they have announced they’re basically doing it Western style, creating the first Korean adaptation of Super Sentai ever — and it’s actually a sequel to a previous series.
Over the weekend, Daewon confirmed that its next Power Rangers project would be Power Rangers Dino Force Brave — a 12-part sequel series to Power Rangers Dino Force, a dub of the 2013 Super Sentai show Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger, which itself came over to the West back in 2015 as Power Rangers: Dino Charge and Power Rangers: Dino Super Charge. Dino Force Brave was immensely popular in South Korea, so instead of simply adapting another Sentai show, Daewon decided to make an all-new continuation of the show, featuring new suits for the Rangers, new megazords and pretty much all-new footage using Korean actors in and out of the suits, since they already “used” all of the original footage by dubbing Kyoryuger as is. So basically exactly how we do Power Rangers in the West, but in Korean, and as a continuation of a previous show.
It’s really weird, and interesting — and honestly, it’s kind of surprising the Western Power Rangers hasn’t decided to radically expand the lifespan of a popular adaptation by just shooting an entirely new show (the closest they came was actually the originally Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, which used new footage shot by Toei specifically for Power Rangers in its second season). It’s fan fiction in a way, but officially licensed fan fiction!
[Tokusatsu Network via Tokunation]