Watching Battle Fever J: What's with Miss America?

[Black Fang]

I'm a quarter way through Battle Fever J. It feels very subdued so far as far as action scenes go (though I think this is the first show where I've seen the heroes actually mow down grunts with machine guns.) The characters' only real distinctions are when they interact with each other and show off their small quirks. In a way, actually, they remind me a bit of the Carranger cast, just not done as parody. However, there are three things about Diane/Miss America that I don't get.

1) If FBI agent Foster from the first episode was supposed to be her father, why is her last name Martin? Also, what was the point of including that? It's a moment of hasty drama in the first episode and then forgotten about the rest of the show, at least so far.

2) Is Diane supposed to be half-Japanese or full Caucasian? I know the actress is Japanese but something about the makeup and hair makes it seem like the character is of full Euro descent. Moreover, in the first episode she merely says that FBI agents are taught to speak foreign languages and says nothing about any Japanese ancestry. The second Miss America actually has a Japanese name.

3) There are some episodes where Diane doesn't go out with the rest of the team on missions. She just stays in the base until the fight begins and brings along the mechas. What's going on there?

 

[Fox-Chan]

From what I have heard, her actress (also called Diane Martin) actually was American and spoke very little Japanese, thus necessitating that her lines be dubbed over. That might have something to do with how few scenes she has outside of the base.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

The actress was also a popular model at the time, so it seems that kept her from being on the show as often as the others. (this sort of happened with Miyauchi in Goranger, though Miyauchi wasn't a model, just busy on another show) This in conjunction with her needing to be dubbed over (by Goranger's Momoranger no less) is probably was resulted in her leaving the show. I always thought it was a missed opportunity not to have Lisa Komaki just take over the role given you already had another Goranger in the main cast.

It's a moment of hasty drama in the first episode and then forgotten about the rest of the show, at least so far.

There you go. It's impact only really goes as far as that episode because older shows rarely had serialized stories.

 

[Black Fang]

Episode 20 with the girls' college would have been a natural opportunity for Diane to do some stuff, but instead they opt for some cross-dressing hijinks with Shiro and Shiraishi. I think she could've at least been in scenes with the others and just not have her talk much. It just looks really strange to have only four of the cast members being together out of costume most of the time.

EDIT: I like the reasoning they give for Diane's departure in episode 24. It's more than I can say for other shows, like B-Fighter. But in the next episode Kyosuke and Maria reveal themselves as Battle Fever members for Salome to see, yet their positions aren't compromised? And why refer to Kyosuke as France to some actress who (as far as they know) doesn't know their secret identities.

 

[Black Fang]

- What happened to Tetsuzan? He practically disappears in the 20s and 30s. Is that mynah the de facto boss now?

- I've noticed that both Diane and Maria are referred to by their real names and almost never their code names like the others are. Why is that?

- What was the reason Yukio Ito (Kensaku/Cossack I) left the show? Regarding that, it was another good departure episode. It's too bad though there couldn't be a bit more development of his character and a build up to it.

 

[Aikijou]

At least for the last one, Ito wanted to start a family with his wife. So they wrote him out.

 

[Edmond Dantes]

From what I understand, live-action drama in Japan (and possibly everywhere) has to be written hastily and sometimes life just throws curveballs, so its no surprise when a writer thinks of something and throws it out there but then just forgets about it. Chances are 90% of the fanbase won't remember it either.

Its only too bad Egos-Empire didn't continue their excellent sub of this show, which I greatly prefer over the JN Productions subs which often drop lines and stuff--at least the episodes I watched did. In episode one I had no idea what was going on in the JNP subs, but then it made perfect sense in the EE subs.