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Reported Problem for Super Sentai

posted by superboy97
STAFFMOD
on November 3, 2020 at 6:18 AM

Item: Super Sentai

Language: en-US

Type of Problem: Duplicate

Extra Details: Should this be considered as a meta-series (here : https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/45253?language=en-US) ?

Or should this be considered as separated series :

?

In my personal opinion, it is best to use separate series, for at least 2 reasons:

  • They are not sequels. Each series is an independant story. Only the style of them is similar.

  • Other similar series are managed as individual series. For example, the Metal Heroes series which are listed separately and just group using a keyword.

By the way, in the meta-series listing :

8 replies (on page 1 of 1)

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Reply by  snarfel

STAFFMOD

on December 3, 2020 at 6:15 PM

"Other similar series are managed as individual series. For example, the Metal Heroes series which are listed separately and just group using a keyword."

The reverse could be said, both Super Sentai and Kamen Rider are metaseries that follow a series w/ multiple seasons format and are better maintained metadata-wise as this than single series (at least for the recent seasons given the lack of Kiramager, Saber) so therefore Metal Heroes (and Ultraman main series) should be the one realigned as a metaseries since it no longer airs.

"They are not sequels. Each series is an independant story. Only the style of them is similar."

I can't speak to Metal Heroes, but Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and Ultraman all have anniversary seasons wherein the season has a focus on crossovers with characters from other seasons so they aren't completely in their own bubbles. For example, one of the most popular seasons of Super Sentai, Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, has at least one actor/actress from each of the previous 34 seasons reprising a role. Kamen Rider recently had Zi-o, the currently airing Ultraman Z has regular cameos from Geed (and Z's power is based on fusing medals of previous Ultras)

Furthermore, collection Bible only supports movies, not TV shows: "Collections should only be used for true movie sequels." so there is no good way presently to 'link' the TV series together were they to be split

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Reply by  NotSafeforFun

STAFFMOD

on December 29, 2020 at 1:12 PM

Also consider US series like American Horror Story, in which each season is completely unrelated story-wise; they don't even share a multiverse like Ultraman does. Or anthology series like The Twilight Zone in which each episode is an unrelated story.

Compared to those, each of the toku franchises, with their crossovers and shared elements, are very closely related narratively.

Banana

Reply by  Banana

STAFFMOD

on March 3, 2021 at 2:43 AM

In my not-very-informed opinion, individual TV entries are better fit. I've always found this entry very confusing as data editor. I understand that API users might prefer to have all the individual series under one folder, but this it looks like a perfect case for the future Universe feature. man_shrugging

Jenn

Reply by  Jenn

STAFFMOD

on March 4, 2021 at 9:25 PM

Separating Super Sentai into individual seasons causes more confusion than not, IMHO. In addition to the previously mentioned role reprisals (there has been only 1 season in the last 6 years to not do this) there are also the actual unconnected seasons like Akibaranger, Dino Force Brave, or the Strongest Battle mini-series that are officially part of the overall franchise, but Toei purposefully excludes them from being a numbered season.

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Reply by  NotSafeforFun

STAFFMOD

on March 9, 2021 at 11:26 PM

Spin-off movies that were originally released theatrically should definitely not be entered as specials within a metaseries, however. I think we can all agree that those are wrong?

Other than that, these franchises are an elephant sitting on the fence between being single or multiple series that I'd happily follow the bible's ruling on either way when there is one.

The problem is essentially that there’s a disparity between how they’re produced and how they’re marketed:

In terms of how they’re produced, they’re single series. They’re produced continuously every year, by the same production company, for the same channel, and usually the same time slot, until they’re cancelled. In that respect they’re more like American Horror Story and less akin to most adult-aimed East Asian dramas, which are generally produced as what Netflix would call a “limited series” but sometimes get sequels due to popularity.

But they appear on VOD services like Crunchyroll, Shout! Factory TV and Popcornflix as separate shows, with the exception of the few entries like Ultraman Ginga that were split into two parts with different titles (though spin-offs, like those of Ultraman Orb, that aren’t mainline entries still appear as separate shows).

I thought they had to be single TV series because that was the only way of linking entries in them together (whereas on IMDb series can be linked as following each other and characters can have pages that link their appearances across titles). But if they could be collected as a "universe" that would make the seasons-of-one-series structure less necessary (but still a reasonable option, for all the reasons mentioned). It might have be called a "metaverse", though – seasons of Ultraman (maybe others; that's the one I've seen the most of) are set in alternate universes with alternate Earths, but have characters that can move between universes.

Then you still have the issues of whether Ultra Q and Ultraman are one Ultra series or separate ones, and whether Ultraman before and after its 1980s hiatus is one series or two (the revived Doctor Who is required to be a different series because it began its season numbering with 1, but Ultraman avoids that clear distinction because seasons have names rather than numbers). There are a few anime series also produced continuously but with different characters, stories and titles each season (e.g. World Masterpiece Theater, Pretty Cure) that I imagine the same rule should be applied to consistently. But the big question needs to have an answer decided on first.

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Reply by  superboy97

STAFFMOD

on March 22, 2021 at 9:57 AM

After 3 weeks of work, the merge and deduplicate of the "Super Sentai" universe is finally done (There were more duplicates that the ones indicated in the first message).

This universe is now listed as separate series, taking in account that it wasn't initially a big series. One proof, for example, is that the 10th anniversary of this universe has been celebrated in 1999 without considering "Himitsu Sentai Gorenger" and "J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai" being part of it. They have only been included later in it.

The main series are now found here:

These ex special episodes are already in the movies part of the database:

The following specials have been tranferred to their respective series:

  • S00E23 : "Chouriki Sentai Ohranger: The Group Members' Handbook"

  • S00E25 : "Gekisou Sentai Carranger Super Video"

  • S00E27 : "Denji Sentai Megaranger Super Video: It Could Be You!"

  • S00E31 : "Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGoFive Super Video: The Rescue Spirit Five Doctrines"

  • S00E33 : "Mirai Sentai Timeranger Super Video: All the Strongest Hero Secrets"

  • S00E37 : "Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger Super Video: Showdown! Gaoranger VS GaoSilver"

  • S00E39 : "Ninpuu Sentai Hurricanger Super Video: Super Ninja and Super Kuroko"

  • S00E41 : "Special Premiere Talk: Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger is here!"

  • S00E43 : "Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger Super Video: The All-Bakuryuu Roaring Laughter Battle"

  • S00E49 : "Mahou Sentai Magiranger: Revealed! The Gold Grip Phone's Super Magic ~Golu Goolu Goo Goo~"

  • S00E52 : "GoGo Sentai Boukenger: Super Sentai History"

  • S00E55 : "Juken Sentai Gekiranger: Gyun-Gyun! Kensei Great Athletic Meet"

  • S00E59 : "Engine Sentai Go-onger: It's a Seminar! Everyone GO-ON!!"

If they are duplicates of other movies, feel free to remove the specials and add an alternate title to the movies.

These episodes listed in the "Super Sentai Specials" pseudo-series were already in the movies part of the database:

These episodes listed in the "Super Sentai Specials" pseudo-series have their own series already in the the database:

The following episodes listed in the "Super Sentai Specials" pseudo-series have been tranferred to the special season of their respective series:

  • S02E01 : "Victora Series Toy Commercial"

  • S39E02 : Final Live Tour 2016

  • S39E03 to S39E18 : Extras of "Shuriken Sentai Ninninger"

  • S40E05 : Final Live Tour 2017

  • S40E06 to S40E12 : Extras of "Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger"

  • S41E12 to S41E19 : Extras of "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger"

  • S42E08 to S42E12 : Extras of "Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patoranger"

  • S43E01 to S43E03 : Extras of "Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger"

  • S44E01 to S44E08 : Extras of "Mashin Sentai Kiramager"

Note : If all these "Extras" have been currently transferred to their respective series, that doesn't mean that they will remain in the future. There are internal discussions in progress about some types of special epîsodes.

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Reply by  snarfel

STAFFMOD

on July 18, 2022 at 6:02 AM

It's been been a year since and almost 4 months since Super Sentai was split up. However, the Universe feature alluded to fix linkage/relational issues that were broken as a result is not yet in place: "it looks like a perfect case for the future Universe feature"

Is there any timeline for this feature given other DB's support relations like TV Maze?

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Reply by  superboy97

STAFFMOD

on July 18, 2022 at 10:24 AM

@snarfel said:

Is there any timeline for this feature given other DB's support relations like TV Maze?

The Trello ticket for the universe feature is here. You can vote for it.

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