The Rising Sun Discussion Thread, I can't believe I forgot this

This is where all discussion goes. I guess that's kind of obvious since there's nowhere else to do it really.

Oh well, now there's a place to discuss the story.

Thoughts on ep 1;

Well so far so good. You've done the important thing that any premiere ep should do, and that is of course intro the characters. Conceptually speaking what you've got so far is great. Unlike some other fanfic adaptations of Shinken that I've seen, it looks like you're being faithful to the spirit of the source material (unlike another series I can think of), but at the same time you're not doing what's little more than a Sentai clone. I'll get to ep 2 sometime in the next couple of days. So keep up the good work, and don't sweat it out too much with trying to release your episodes in a "timely" manner. Just take your time, and release them (and whatever else you need to do with them) as you finish them.

I like to compare the various fan-made Sentai adaptations I've seen to the different eras of Power Rangers itself. Some seem content to go the Wild Force route, perhaps out of some unhealthy love for the source material or lack of original ideas. Others would prefer to do it a la Bruce Kalish, taking the Sentai characters and making them as unlikeable as possible, throw them into circumstances that could make for a good show, but wont last past the premiere, and spend the rest of the time copying and pasting Sentai plots where they don't belong. Some other ones are more like MMPR, taking the footage and leaving the rest alone, coming up with an entirely different storyline and cast of characters for better or worse.

I decided that if I were to make my own Sentai adaptation I would use a structure more like my favorite seasons of PR. To really do justice to the source footage, one has to think of PR as more than Super Sentai for a different audience. Respect is more than copy-and-pasting, it means saying "I enjoy this series so much I want to improve on it" (whether or not you agree with it, but its just that mindset that's really important)... But I'll leave it in the hands of the reader to decide if I succeeded.

I hope you enjoy Episode 2 as well.

Since I had a small case of writer's block tonight, I ended up reading ep 2. Anyhoo, great continuation of what you established in ep 1. I'll admit that when I first saw this series, my train of thought was that you were going to intro the Zords on their own in ep 1, with the Megazord in ep 2, but the way you ended ep 1 proved me wrong. Well at least I was right about the Megazord showing up in ep 2. Either way that was a great edit to the mecha footage from Shinken ep 1, and truth be told I actually didn't really miss the other Zords in there. Then again Maxi-Mug's defeat did seem a little rushed, but I'll let it slide because you had a lot you needed to do with this ep, and even I've done something like that in my own fics.

Beyond that the personalities of the other Rangers seem to be shaping up quite nicely. Felix does seem a bit like Ryunosuke, but unlike Ryu, Felix doesn't appear to be just blindly following Koji. And I don't what it is, but Roger kinda seemed like Chiaki only maybe a little more dickish. Of course maybe I read his dialog wrong or something. I don't really have much to say about the girls other than not only is it nice to see a geek girl in the mix, and wearing pink no doubt. Either way great work on this ep, and I look forward to the next.

I actually surprised myself with some of the edits I attempted that came out far better than I ever could have imagined. I figured the Lion Guardian vs. Maxi-Mug fight would seem kind of oddly paced after cutting out most of the Origami fight scene, but I was surprised. It felt much more exciting without all that characterization slowing down the action.

Maxi-Mug was never meant to be a serious enemy. If you go back to his introduction even the villains have very little faith in his abilities, he's just there as a distraction while the true enemy lurks in the shadows and gauges Koji's power. He's also there to show the other characters and the audience just what a Shining Samurai can do at full power.

Yes, some of the characters do seem kind of similar to their Japanese counterparts at this point in time and there's several reasons for that. In the beginning I had grander schemes in mind, but I thought that adding a visual medium to the story would make it stand out among the many many other Shinkenger adaptations (which I never could have guessed just how many now that it's clear it will not be adapted next year as a real season of PR). I couldn't very well just make my own footage so I was left with what Shinkenger gave me so I had to mold my ideas around what footage I had so the reader could watch something exciting to break up all the reading.

My idea for the Red Ranger had to change because of Shinken Red's stoic attitude. The way the other Ranger's body language changed around him meant he had to have authority and his skills couldn't be written off by magic, he had to be trained for years to match the footage. In the end Koji ended up somewhat of a Takeru clone, but I feel the way the story progresses will prevent that from being too much of an issue.

Felix was much the same, there wasn't much footage of him I could use if he wasn't something of a brown-nose, but I didn't want that to be his entire identity. Rangers are supposed to be someone for children to look up to so I didn't want my Blue Ranger to be glorifying the life of a sycophant.

Oddly enough I think Roger is my favorite character at this point even though I feel that Chiaki is a bit of a brat. They are similar, but Roger's more the type who always has a snide (or even childish) remark up his sleeve to make others feel worse about themselves to hide his own insecurities while Chiaki just likes to complain and whine. I feel that Chiaki is the only-child version of Roger, since having siblings affects his personality and will also affect how he grows as a character. He's also the personification of "teenager with attitude" so he can be a Ranger and still be immune to the "role-model for children" rule.

Sara was easier because Shinken Pink doesn't really show a lot of emotion on the battlefield so I went a bit nuts with her. Blair was originally going to be very preppy, but it didn't mesh with Kotoha's delicate shyness and what she ended up being is exactly how I think someone would turn out with Roger as an older brother.

I think I'll post Episode 3 after I finish the fourth so I can have a nice buffer between releases. It might be a while, but I've already written up some commentary for the first episode to bridge the gap if anyone's interested.

Also, that "Call to Arms" is still on the table for anyone who wants to be involved.

I know what you mean. When I first started doing this back in '05 with Magi there was only one series that I was aware of, but this year there's maybe around ten adaptations that I can think of. Unfortunately some of the titles for those adaptations are a little bland. The worst was one I saw at RangerBoard over the weekend called "Samurai Force", which has got to be THE most uninspired title for a Shinken adaptation ever. Anyway I would take you up on your call to arms, but as far as fanfics are concerned I've got a lot on my plate at the moment to do anything major.

I'm well aware of Samurai Force (and I really doubt that one will ever go anywhere), but its Nightranger's that are really the bane of my existence. He's pretty much rewarded for dumbing down the Sentai every year, but I digress he deserves some mention for just how little shame he actually has.

I started having ideas for adaptations around Boukenger, but by the time I had a workable concept Operation Overdrive had already started so I gave up on it. Under a pseudonym I made Gekiranger and Go-Onger adaptations (two for the latter just because I couldn't decide if it should be silly or serious and it was almost three, but I ran out of time since RPM rolled around). RPM inspired me and I decided that my Shinkenger adaptation would be my magnum opus, well... As close as you can get to a magnum opus for PR.

Still I wish I could put more time into it. I wish I could tell people that they could join the team without much commitment, but it would be a lie because just getting someone up to speed could take days. I just wish I could get the series off the ground since I know its going to go places those other fan-series won't, but no one will recognize that unless I can get it off the ground. It's a vicious cycle...

I've got my doubts about Samurai Force too, and if you've read Elemental Blade ep 1 you'll more or less know what my thoughts on that title are. I've actually checked out some of NightRanger's stuff in the past, but I just can't really get over the fact that he more or less takes what I'll refer to as the "Kalish approach" to adapting Sentai. And like you there are actually a couple of people who you could consider the banes of my existence. They've both "borrowed" pics from my site, one guy keeps using titles that sound too familiar to my own, while the other not only took my exact titles, but some conceptual ideas as well.

Anyway as far as your reference videos go, how do you usually make them? I ask because if you only do a basic edit with Windows Movie Maker, I could probably help you out with them, since I have raws of almost every ep of Shinken on an external hard drive. And I always have WMM up at least once a week to get screen caps for my site, so doing a little video editing on top of that probably wouldn't be too much extra work for me.

Well pretty much, minus all the format-changing, its all WMM. Still anything is a big help...

Do you have a AIM or Skype account to discuss the details (these kind of back-and-forths just take too long) and any particular time that's good for you to talk?

Just downloaded and installed Skype, and added you. As far as the best times to talk go, that'd be between 10:30 PM - 4:00 AM EST. Though you might find on earlier than that.

Wasn't exactly sure where I should mention this, and I thought starting a new thread might be a little pointless. Anyway I just read an email from a friend of mine, from another board, who said that there's this guy he talks to every now and again on Facebook, who apparently thinks that the next season of PR is going to be called "Power Rangers Rising Sun". Obviously the dumbassery of some people can be staggering. Or maybe your videos were fairly convincing P13volution. Either way I've actually told this friend of mine to direct this guy here next time he mentions Rising Sun.