※ Clicking on the underlined text will display the relevant table.
【Character Trend】TV Asahi’s regular president’s press conference was held on November 25 last year at its own headquarters in Tokyo, where it officially acknowledged the suspension of broadcasting the Super Sentai series, which had continued for 50 years. In contrast, Kamen Rider Zets, which began airing on September 7, 2025, is being simultaneously streamed worldwide through platforms such as YouTube for the first time in the 55 years since the start of the TV series broadcast (target countries include North America, Northern Europe, Central and South America, Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and others). In these countries and regions, this program can be watched almost simultaneously with its release in Japan. Why did such a difference arise in programs produced by the same Toei and TV Asahi? I investigated the reason.
The reason the Super Sentai series went on hiatus was that the sales of merchandise and other products were not enough to cover the production costs. When we extracted the data from Bandai Namco Holdings’ financial report by character sales from fiscal 2017, before the COVID-19 pandemic, and examined the situation, the difference between the two became clear in the trend of the amount excluding domestic toy and hobby sales from the entire group（the relevant table）.Initially, the sales of Kamen Rider were around 2 billion yen. It entered an upward trend starting in fiscal 2020 and has stabilized at just over 8 billion yen since fiscal 2023. Domestic toy hobby sales remain around 30 billion yen and are stable, so any increase falls under other categories. On the other hand, the Super Sentai series has been declining since the beginning and has hovered around 1 billion yen in recent years. The group’s overall activities are diverse, including merchandise sales overseas, but there are many similarities in the trends of Ultraman, Mobile Suit Gundam, Dragon Ball, and One Piece, which are known for their high popularity abroad, as well as Kamen Rider. Sales of Kamen Rider merchandise are growing overseas, and this difference is seen as one of the reasons for the hiatus in the Super Sentai series broadcast.
However, not just limited to Kamen Rider, tokusatsu hero series in general have a dark history of repeatedly attempting to expand globally, only for the battle scenes placed in the latter half of the episodes to be perceived as violent and thus not broadcast on television. The reason why there is little resistance to battle scenes in tokusatsu hero shows in Japan is due to the historical development of entertainment culture through period dramas, where characters would defeat their parents’ enemies or unjust adversaries in sword-fighting scenes in the latter half of the story. In previous international releases, this cultural difference could not be bridged.In previous international releases, this cultural difference could not be bridged. At this year’s TAMASHII NATION, officials from BANDAI SPIRITS said that the factor that drove this change was online program distribution. If it’s a On-demand streaming, it can be uploaded according to domestic streaming standards. Even if it is not distributed on video sites in other countries, it can still be viewed from abroad as long as you can access a Japanese streaming service. The issue of low recognition due to not being broadcast on television overseas was resolved through On-demand streaming.
There are also significant differences in the portrayal of heroes between the Kamen Rider and Super Sentai series. The Super Sentai series is geared towards children, focusing on characters and incorporating elements like dinosaurs and ninjas, whereas Kamen Rider emphasizes a cool hero image. The Super Sentai series has survived for 50 years with this strategy, but overseas, a cool hero image tends to be more popular. Following the increase in Kamen Rider’s popularity overseas, particularly in Asia, due to program distribution, BANDAI SPIRITS plans to release numerous new products and reissued figures from the Kamen Rider series between 2025 and 2026. The program distribution plays a role not only in anime but also in elevating the status of tokusatsu heroes.
