Thursday, October 7, 2010

Feminine and Masculine, two sides to the Females: Super Sentai

I read somewhere that people thought that when there is two female warriors in Super Sentai, that one is more feminine and one is a bit masculine. I want to look at each pairing to see if that is true. In most cases, it was not true, both were as equally feminine. Only in some rare cases, it was one feminine, one tomboy. Now when I say Masculine, I don't mean like the stereotype for lesbians, just tomboy, I never liked the name tomboy because it meant the girl was pretending to be a boy. Unlike what I did with Power Rangers, I am only covering the duos since there are so many.
BIOMAN
Mika - More hard-driven
Hikaru - feminine
Jun - tougher

CHANGEMAN
Tsubasa - tomboy
Nagisa - Feminine

FLASHMAN
Lou - has physical strength
Sara - Smart, seen as cold
MASKMANHaurka - forced to abandon girly, smart and tough
Momoko - strong, pure of heart


FIVEMAN
Kazumi - Brain
Remi - gymnast and dancer and Kung-fu, bad at housework

JETMAN
Ako - tomboy, bubbly, naive
Kaori - feminine, rich

OHRANGER
Juri - tougher
Momo - Feminine

CARRANGER
Yuoko - feminine
Natsumi - mechanic

MEGARANGER
Chisato - kind-hearted
Miku - cheery, sweet, hates school work

DEKARANGER
There was not a team with 2 females until 2004 (1997-2004).
Umeko - feminine, bubbly
Jasmine - tough, psychic
Swan - brains
Lisa - cold

MAGIRANGER
Haruka - Girly, flaky
Urara - Shy, sweet
Miyuki - motherly, strong

BOUKENGER
Sakura - tough, cold, no smiling
Natsuki - sweet, cheerful

GO-ONGER
Saki - sweet, wanting to smile
Miu - tough, cold

SHINKENGER
Mako - strong, wanted to be a bride, bad cute
Kothoa - sweet, clumsy

GOSEIGER
Moune - sweet
Eri - sweet
Both as feminine.

UPDATED 6/18/12
GOKAIGER
Luka - masculine, tomboyish, rough but does like diamonds and jewelry and money like the social construct of femininity.
Ahim - Super feminine, the social convention was that women are demure and lady-like which Ahim is. But she did overcome it and became strong.

GO-BUSTERS
Yellow is the only girl and she is a tomboy.

AKIBARANGER
Even though they are unofficial, Yellow is much more feminine than blue. Blue acts like a tomboy but does have a secret love for the feminine anime of Aoi.

Feminine and Masculine, two sides to the Females: Power Rangers

I read somewhere that people thought that when there is two female Power Rangers, that one is more feminine and one is a bit masculine. I want to look at each pairing (even non pairing) to see if that is true. In most cases, it was not true, both were as equally feminine. Only in some rare cases, it was one feminine, one tomboy. Now when I say Masculine, I don't mean like the stereotype for lesbians, just tomboy, I never liked the name tomboy because it meant the girl was pretending to be a boy.
MMPR S1
Kimberly - Feminine
Trini - Feminine too, she wasn't necessarily a tomboy.

MMPR S2
Kimberly - Feminine
Aisha - A bit more of a tomboy than Trini and Kim.

MMPR S3
Aisha - Feminine
Katherine - Feminine, evil once

ZEO Katherine - Feminine
Tanya - Feminine, not much a difference from Kat, only she was more naive and fish out of water.

TURBO/SPACE
Ashley - Feminine, actually a cheerleader--Kim was never one.
Cassie - A little Tomboy-ish, more punkish

LOST GALAXY
Kendrix - Brains, science
Maya - Nature, feelings
Karone - Former evil, Feminine

LIGHTSPEED RESCUE
Kelsey - Masculine, way more tomboy than any female Ranger
Dana - Feminine, nurse

TIME FORCEJen - tough as nails--both were not super feminine, but not overly tomboy.
Katie - strong, loves to hug

WILD FORCETaylor - tough, strong-willed
Alyssa - feminine, nurturing, optimistic
NINJA STORM
Tori - had to be the only girl, not overly feminine.
DINO THUNDER
Kira - only girl, more rocker; Cassidy was more feminine. She once became like her in one episode.
SPDZ - not a tomboy, but as super feminine as Syd, she had more of a Laina attitude.
Syd - super feminine, very into pink, stuff animals, etc.

MYSTIC FORCE
V - Rocker, DJ, tough
Madison - Sweeter, shyer

OPERATION OVERDRIVE
Rose - Brains, scientific
Ronny - Tomboy, racer

JUNGLE FURY
Lily - Was only female, she was in the middle of feminine and masculine
Fran - shy, book reader
Camille - tough, evil

RPM
Summer - used to be shallow and feminine, now a bit tomboyish
Gema - Likes the 'boom', does like drawing rainbows and butterflies


UPDATED 6/18/12
 SAMURAI
Mia - Feminine, 'big sister', Can't cook-supposedly un-feminine but that is just a social convention. Lack of cooking skill doesn't make you less a woman.
Emily - Feminine, 'little sister,' when she gains confidence and 'trains' Bulk and Spike, she gains a 'masculine' authoritative persona. I say 'masculine' in quotes to say the traditionally socially-acceptable role.

Girl Power Week

Well, not starting on a Sunday like the other two weeks I did (Non-Super Sentai Week and Kamen Rider Week), now dealing with all Tokusatsu heroines. If l I could, I would have added more females in the banner. It is funny how I didn't mean this but in the banner, there is a girl (Sh15uya) under girl and Pink Ranger under the word Power. Well, Kamen Rider Femme has nothing to do with 'Week.'

Ron Wasserman's Connections with Power Rangers Music

Ron Wasserman is an American music artist, also known as Aaron Waters and The Mighty RAW, best known for the theme song for MMPR, and for the large volume of original songs recorded for the first few seasons. He has been with the labels Rawfish and Saban Music Group. He started a rock band in the mid 1980s with present day voice actress E.G. Daily. Shortly after the band disbanded, he started working for Saban Entertainment in 1989, filling-in for one afternoon and eventually staying there for six and a half years. While there, he developed scores and co-wrote themes for several series such as the animated X-Men series, Sweet Valley High and VR Troopers. He was presented with the first footage of the show, was told to use the word "Go", and to have it finished by the next day. After two and a half hours, the song that resulted was the show's iconic theme song.

Several of his most popular songs and scores were eventually released on a successful concept album entitled Power Rangers: A Rock Adventure, which linked his music around a variation on the opening episodes of season two of the television series. While working on the show, Saban asked Wasserman to come up with an artist name, as they did not want it to appear as though one person was doing all of the music. He came up with the name "Aaron Waters" because his middle name was Aaron and the name Wasserman means "water carrier" in German. "Go Go Power Rangers" was released by Saban Records on CD and cassette in the US on December 2, 1994. Simon Cowell played a part on it getting radio play. For the MMPR Movie, a new arrangement of "Go Go Power Rangers" was recorded and performed by "The Power Rangers Orchestra": which featured former Mr. Big front man Eric Martin, guitarist Tim Pierce, former Pablo Cruise bass player John Pierce, singer-pianist Kim Bullard, and then Guns N' Roses drummer Matt Sorum.

When Saban was preparing a second Tokusatsu series, which eventually became VR Troopers, the pilot was called Cybertron and Wasserman composed the theme song. When it was decided Jason David Frank would continue as the Green Ranger on MMPR, the Cybertron theme song was re-worded to be the infamous "Go Green Ranger" song. Wasserman left Saban in 1995, citing exhaustion. He returned to Power Rangers franchise in 2005, composing the theme song for Power Rangers: S.P.D.. News of his involvement reached the fanbase and demo versions of the theme were leaked, upsetting Disney executives. He did pitched two different theme songs for Mystic Force that followed their "rap/hip hop" recommendations for the theme, but it did not get used. He later contributed an instrumental version of his rock theme, as well as scoring work (for free) for Celestial Fury, a fanfilm.