With Shuriken Sentai Ninninger almost hitting the mid-series point, it is without a doubt that a handful of fans in the fandom are beginning to wonder what’s next after the ninja motif, which is used for the third time in the franchise as it is inevitable for Toei to reuse popular motifs when Super Sentai has been riding the airwaves for a whooping 40 years. Listed below are five motifs that tokuAsians wish to see in future incarnations.
With the announcement that Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger will receive the 10 Years After treatment, many fans are speculating that the police motif could possibly happen again in the next few years to come. I for one would love to see it happen for real. Unlike Dekaranger, this team could be based on the real police force in Japan and have each member originate from a different department: patrol, vice, crime investigation etc. I’m not actually sure if the police force in Japan are separated into those kind of divisions, but it would be pretty cool to have each member be different types of police besides the typical investigator.
The rescue motif is arguably one of the motifs that fans have been dying to see once again in the Super Sentai franchise, as it was solely used in Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGoV 16 years ago. Although the rescue motif has been used in another Tokusatsu series, Tomica Heroes Rescue Force and Rescue Fire, which were more faithful to the motif as they didn’t actually fight monsters but were in charge of disasters, it would be nice to see Super Sentai following in their footsteps. It would be quite a pleasant change of pace to have a Sentai team that doesn’t fight monsters for once.
Ah yes, birds… this is yet another *rare* motif that I would love to see explored again. Choujin Sentai Jetman mixed both air force and bird motifs in its series, but perhaps the next team could stick solely to it being powers made from nature. I don’t know what sort of differences would it be able to make to tell it apart from Jetman, but it’s better than having yet another animal (sigh) motif.
Okay, so we already have three car teams in the franchise and you’d think that it is more than enough. However, all three teams got their powers from a mystical being which makes little to no sense because aren’t cars supposed to be completely man made? Teams receiving mystical powers are too overused these days, so let’s have a car team that actually got their powers, arsenal and mecha made by scientists for once!
I’m quite surprised that of all Japanese motifs, Super Sentai has yet to actually use Japanese mythology. We might have seen them in monster designs, but how about a team of heroes where their suits are based on famous Japanese mythological creatures? I know most of them aren’t very… heroic in a sense, but it would be interesting to see how the heroes actually utilize these creatures’ abilities to fight evil. Of course, it doesn’t have to strictly be Japanese mythology. Ancient Greek mythology would also be interesting to see in the near future.
What motif would you love to see in a future Super Sentai series? Let us know in the comment box!
