live jetabare
Member
Looking back at the sentai franchise, and notably when you look at how the female characters are written, I feel that the two writers who had the most fun writing female characters in sentai and who arguably have created some of the most memorable female characters in the franchise are Hirohisa Soda and Naruhisa Arakawa.
During his nine year stint as main writer in the sentai franchise, Soda always tried to create very memorable female characters, and it's obvious that he had even more fun when, starting with Bioman, shows could have two heroines. Characters like Jun (second Yellow four), Sayaka (Change mermaid), Mai (Changephoenix), Sara (Yellow Flash), Haruka (Yellow Mask) are some of the most memorable heroines of the sentai franchise, and it's obvious Soda also loved having episodes focused on the two girls of his team. Even in his early shows, the lone female ranger was great, Miki/ GogglePink and Rei/ Dynapink were among the most popular characters of their respective series, and the same can be said of Megumi in Liveman and Haruna in Turboranger. While it's obvious that in Fiveman, Soda's pretty burnt out, he still managed to create a great female heroine, Remi/ Fiveyellow.
Soda was also very good at creating great villainesses: Changeman's Ahames is one of the best villainesses ever in sentai, and Soda's other villainesses like Mazurka, Princess Chimera, Ley Nefel, Mazenda, Jarmin are at least as badass as their male counterparts; in Maskman, Igam is likely with Takeru the most important character of Maskman; and in Turboranger, Kirika is arguably the bes character of the whole series and a very complex and interesting villainess.
Arakawa also did write memorable female characters in his series: all his sentai series (save Abaranger) had at least two female rangers, and they were well fleshed characters, and they did have fun interactions with each other. While Abaranger had only one heroine, Abareyellow, she was a very well done character, and the female characters in Aba were more often than not central in the plot, notably Jeanne/ Mahoro and Lije/ Mysterious girl. Dekaranger had three main female characters, Jasmine, Umeko and Swan and all were memorable, and Gokaiger's Luka and Ahim are some of the best female rangers of the few last years in sentai.
It's not surprising that when he had the opportunity to do so, Arakawa wrote a sentai series where almost every character was female, including two rangers (Akibaranger, because of its "adult demography target", could include more female character than a sentai written for kids)
While other writers, like Yasuko Kobayashi or Junki Takegami also were able to create some well done female characters, they were not as consistent in writing fun female characters as were Soda and Arakawa.
Your thoughts?
During his nine year stint as main writer in the sentai franchise, Soda always tried to create very memorable female characters, and it's obvious that he had even more fun when, starting with Bioman, shows could have two heroines. Characters like Jun (second Yellow four), Sayaka (Change mermaid), Mai (Changephoenix), Sara (Yellow Flash), Haruka (Yellow Mask) are some of the most memorable heroines of the sentai franchise, and it's obvious Soda also loved having episodes focused on the two girls of his team. Even in his early shows, the lone female ranger was great, Miki/ GogglePink and Rei/ Dynapink were among the most popular characters of their respective series, and the same can be said of Megumi in Liveman and Haruna in Turboranger. While it's obvious that in Fiveman, Soda's pretty burnt out, he still managed to create a great female heroine, Remi/ Fiveyellow.
Soda was also very good at creating great villainesses: Changeman's Ahames is one of the best villainesses ever in sentai, and Soda's other villainesses like Mazurka, Princess Chimera, Ley Nefel, Mazenda, Jarmin are at least as badass as their male counterparts; in Maskman, Igam is likely with Takeru the most important character of Maskman; and in Turboranger, Kirika is arguably the bes character of the whole series and a very complex and interesting villainess.
Arakawa also did write memorable female characters in his series: all his sentai series (save Abaranger) had at least two female rangers, and they were well fleshed characters, and they did have fun interactions with each other. While Abaranger had only one heroine, Abareyellow, she was a very well done character, and the female characters in Aba were more often than not central in the plot, notably Jeanne/ Mahoro and Lije/ Mysterious girl. Dekaranger had three main female characters, Jasmine, Umeko and Swan and all were memorable, and Gokaiger's Luka and Ahim are some of the best female rangers of the few last years in sentai.
It's not surprising that when he had the opportunity to do so, Arakawa wrote a sentai series where almost every character was female, including two rangers (Akibaranger, because of its "adult demography target", could include more female character than a sentai written for kids)
While other writers, like Yasuko Kobayashi or Junki Takegami also were able to create some well done female characters, they were not as consistent in writing fun female characters as were Soda and Arakawa.
Your thoughts?
Last edited:
