about sentai villainesses

[kuroihikari]

Wait, isn't females not being portrayed as ultimately evil in a kids' show a good thing?

 

[lazycoconut]

I don't think anyone's saying it's good or bad, just asking why it doesn't happen, especially when (as live jetabare pointed out) there are many more evil female characters in anime aimed at kids.

Something I think is relevant: Are male villains better written if they are ultimately redeemable? My answer would have to be no, at least for Sentai, but then take into account the popularity of characters like Rio or AbareKiller ...

 

[Sentaifan'07 Xman]

Short answer - it's not considered attractive/sexy for a female character to behave in the same way as a male villain. Even if the character isn't human-looking they seem to think it's just a step too far and makes her too loathsome if she enjoys evil for evil's sake. So the villainess either has to be redeemable or have the fanservice angle played up. And a lot of writers seem to think that all female characters (whether good or evil) must have the stereotypical motivations of family, romance, or some past trauma

EDIT: I think you have to remember as well that the target audience for modern Sentai is kids aged from about three to five. It's very common for children to be taught that "bad people" are men; and at that age kids are still very much dependent on their mothers. So there are reasons why writers might be wary of making a female character too villainous. When Tsukada was producer of Gekiranger he said in an interview that Toei wanted Sentai to present the audience with a nicer world than they see in real life, so they do sanitize the show to some extent.

I would kill for a female equivalent of Long, Basco or Enter that was genuinely menacing and evil, not just there for fanservice. But it's not going to happen.

The fact of the matter is that Sentai is targeted toward elementary-age boys, so a lot of female characters (good or evil) are given shallower characterization than the men. Even at a young age, boys relate more to and sympathize with male characters. It's part of the reason why screaming reds are so popular. Which is why female heroes come in roughly 4 personality types, and female villains get the same kind of backstories and personalities over and over.

lazycoconut has a really good point as well; children at that age are more inclined to like their mothers, and often see their fathers are bossy and mean. So they're probably used to men being like that, and can relate it to Sentai villains. Women, not so much.

Yeah, there's no argument with that. Although in some cases it's considered the opposite here in the U.S., but hey it only related to how the characters are being described as to the behaviors of the parents.
:sayin:

 

[lazycoconut]

Well, look at the general stereotype of Japan as somewhere where women are encouraged to be devoted wives/mothers and men are encouraged to be salarymen slaves who devote their entire lives to a company. I'm not saying that all of Japan is like this in real life or that there aren't other images in Japanese media. But there is an element of truth to the stereotype (even though it's changing) and I think that at some level that bleeds across into toku. Female characters are generally kind and nurturing - even a villainess is likely to have some kind of romance angle or motherly desire, or at least to be a little bit more sympathetic. Villainous empires are largely made up of all-male commanders and mooks with maybe one or two token females, as if they were a big corporation.

And however you look at it, the Sacrificial Corporate Drones in Akibaranger are still funny

 

[icecreamhendrix]

Well, those stereotype are not exclusive to Japan. They exist in America, just not as strongly. I think it's less that 'Japan is sexist' and more 'Children are sexist'.

 

[lazycoconut]

Well, those stereotype are not exclusive to Japan. They exist in America, just not as strongly. I think it's less that 'Japan is sexist' and more 'Children are sexist'.

Maybe, but for some reason villain empires in tokusatsu really do remind me of your stereotypical Japanese corporation :sweat:

I think the whole thing is self-perpetuating really. Why do these stereotypes appeal to kids? Because that's what they are used to seeing on TV. Why is it what they are used to seeing on TV? Because it appeals to kids ...

 

[Black Fang]

So are you saying that when toku was more of a 'family show' the kids in the audience would have been "weened off" their mothers enough to accept irredeemable villainesses like Amazon Killer and Ahames?

 

[lazycoconut]

So are you saying that when toku was more of a 'family show' the kids in the audience would have been "weened off" their mothers enough to accept irredeemable villainesses like Amazon Killer and Ahames?

I'm saying things were done differently in the past, as we are all aware. Who's the person who keeps complaining that the tough yet feminine heroines of pre-2000 Sentai have been phased out in favour of idiotic Houkas and Natsukis? You.

I'm saying it's a POSSIBLE reason why truly villainous female characters are rare these days, but either way it's a pretty poor one. Evil witch and stepmother figures are as old as time

 

[ParmesanBasil]

Saeko - Lost a lot of her "bite" in the second arc when suddenly she was the giggling schoolgirl who just wanted Isaka-sensei to notice her.

Wow, you really whiffed on the point of Saeko's character, especially. Like super hard. She gets into that relationship with Isaka because she finally found someone who is her equal, in terms of Gaia Memory strength and force of personality. They were both intoxicated by the power the other offered and their relationship was more about that than anything. Which is why that last moment they have together is so important to both their characters. "I want to show you the real me." They're trying to show each other the other side of themselves. They're finally opening up, instead of engaging in manipulations and trickery and all that.

Mele isn't too far off. She dedicated her life to Rio, which we all see when she kills Braco with no hesitation. There's the implication that she's in it for her own personal goals (especially in the first episode when she attacks him for whatever reason), but then we just throw that out the window. Sure, she squeals a lot but, spoiler alert, everyone in that series is a little silly. She made the conscious decision to dedicate her life to Rio. She even decides to trust Long, even though it goes against her instincts. Gekiranger is a lot more subtle with it's characters that most people give it credit for. Things are put down in subtext, and not really spoken aloud. There's a level of superficiality to the series too, which is probably why you hate it so much, but there's also plenty of subtext as to why things are the way they are.

 

[lazycoconut]

I don't hate Gekiranger, just Rio and Mele. And I wouldn't call Isaka "intoxicated by the power Saeko offered." For most of the arc she was running around trying to get him to notice her while he had zero interest in anything but the Memories/trying to power up Wakana.

Saeko and Mele both count in the OP's category because they were redeemed at the end. It doesn't make them bad characters at all, and in both cases there were good reasons for the story to go as it did, but for the purposes of this thread theey count.