Amid End of Series Reports, Super Sentai Faces a Harsh New Reality

Numbers reveal a harsh reality

On October 30, Kyodo News reported that the Super Sentai Series, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, will come to an end with the currently airing “Number One Sentai Gojuger.”

As of November 10, TV Asahi has not yet made an official announcement, but the article stated that the reason for ending the series was that: “The revenue from events, related merchandise, and films does not justify the cost of producing the program.”

A broadcast reporter explains:

“Sports newspapers and general papers that are part of the broadcast reporters’ club routinely publish articles about TV programs and sometimes break scoops. But this time, the scoop comes from a major news agency—Kyodo News. That means the information likely came from highly reliable sources within TV Asahi or Toei, which produces Super Sentai. If the report were inaccurate, TV Asahi would have immediately denied it.”

It appears that Super Sentai has long struggled financially.
Currently, TV Asahi’s Sunday morning lineup consists of: 8:30 AM — “Kimi to Idol Precure”, 9:00 AM — “Kamen Rider Zettz”, 9:30 AM — “Gojuger”

Precure, Kamen Rider, and Super Sentai are the three major franchises of the network.
However, when it comes to merchandise sales and movie box-office performance, Super Sentai has been significantly outpaced by the other two.

Merchandising for all three franchises is handled by Bandai Namco Holdings. The company publicly releases performance summaries. According to the full-year results up to March 2024: Kamen Rider: 30.7 billion yen, Precure: 7.9 billion yen, Super Sentai: 6.4 billion yen

Super Sentai earns only about one-fifth of Kamen Rider’s merchandise revenue.

Furthermore, box-office performance for Super Sentai films has also been poor.

There’s no longer any room for growth

“A movie released in September, ‘Kimi to Idol Precure♪ Omatase! Kimi ni Todokeru Kirakkira Live!’, became a hit, reaching nearly 1.2 billion yen in box-office revenue.

Meanwhile, the two films released together in late July—‘Kamen Rider Gav: The Invader of the Candy House’ and ‘Number One Sentai Gojuger: Revival of the Tega Sword’—earned a combined total of only about 650 million yen. That’s far below the 1 billion yen considered the benchmark for a hit.” (Toei representative)

While Precure merchandise does not significantly outpace Super Sentai merchandise, Precure clearly dominates at the box office.
And because Super Sentai is a live-action series, its production costs are higher. Given this, the reported reason for cancellation— “The revenue from events, merchandise, and films no longer covers production costs” seems convincing.

Entertainment journalist Shōji Hirata analyzes the decline of Super Sentai:

“While there were three-member teams like Sun Vulcan (1981), Super Sentai generally has five members, meaning more cast salaries. Additionally, the inclusion of giant robots increases production costs far more than other tokusatsu (special effects) series.

Super Sentai’s target age range is narrow—from toddlers to lower-elementary kids.
In contrast, Kamen Rider has fans from toddlers to adults, supported by an established collector market. Compared to Kamen Rider, Super Sentai has always been a weaker IP.

And although the American adaptation Power Rangers, based on Super Sentai, is still popular in the U.S., when compared to global franchises like Ultraman and Kamen Rider, the demand for merchandise from overseas fans is undeniably lower. In terms of revenue potential, there is simply no more room for growth.”

Behind declining profits lie modern issues like the falling birthrate and children turning away from TV. Ending a 50-year-old franchise may simply reflect the times.

All eyes are now on when TV Asahi will officially announce the end of Super Sentai.