Thinking too hard about “Tentai Senshi Sunred”

So Tentai Senshi Sunred is a pretty funny show. Yes, I’m late to the party on this one, I swear I’ve been watching it since the start of the year though. Anyway, like I said it’s pretty funny even I don’t find it to be the biggest pillar of hilarity like some people I know do. It also doesn’t really deserve the kind of analysis I’m about to give it as it’s a big, dumb comedy show that you should be enjoying instead sitting around analysing. Nonetheless!

Sunred is based on one of the great staple’s of Children’s TV in Japan (and to a certain extent in the West as well) Tokusatsu shows. For those not in the know, I’m talking about things like Kamen Rider and Super Sentai shows which get re-packaged for Western Audiences as stuff like Masked Rider (see what they did there?) and Power Rangers. It’s a great example of something which encompasses so many things which are cool to kids, functioning as a basic hero-driven, good-triumphs-over-evil stories with special effects, action and Gattai. It’s also highly marketable, but that’s neither here nor there. Your normal tokusatsu series will embody a youthful energy, a sense of wonder at the world as the protagonist(s) typically undertake the Hero’s Journey, fights with a different monster every week and generally lives a wonderfully exciting life. Compare this to your average happy childhood: Waking up every day and going to school can be a fresh and exciting experience every single time it happens. You can run around your yard a hundred thousand times and it’s still fun. The energy of adventure in Tokusatsu series mimics the energy of wonderment in childhood.

One of the hilarious things about Sunred is how mundane it is. The bad guys do laundry, make dinner, have dinner, work their schedule out so they can have a battle every now and then, the protagonist Red himself even has a long-term relationship with a woman (the wonderfully put-upon Kayoko). A lot of the villains of Florsheim treat their job gunning for Sekai Seifuku as, well, an actual Job. Clock in, Fight Red, clock out. Red treats most of the battles in much the same way, and is royally pissed when they don’t make it on time. Red smokes, Red stays out playing Pachinko, Red worries about Kayoko bringing up the subject of marriage, Red is, in effect, a grown man living the life of a Tokusatsu hero. The humour comes from these fantastic characters living their mundane lives, but it’s more than the fact that they have lives. The energy of adventure and battle is replaced by the working ethic of a 9-5 job in this series. It’s not just the characters that are changed, it’s the entire ethic of a tokusatsu series being removed and replaced with what those kids who were running around Rider Kicking each other twenty years ago experience today.

Maybe that was really obvious, but that’s what I laugh at most in this series. It’s completely awesome when brings down a monster, but it’s hilarious when Florsheim and Red meet up and go through the motions.