I've been living in Japan since 2007 and I've found that the general rule of thumb is that Japan is roughly 30 years behind the US in terms of gender equality.
For example, I remember a few years ago when the government passed a law allowing women to keep their maiden names after marriage if they chose (I found the reaction of "This will DESTROY the institution of marriage!" laughable).
By that metric, how many children's shows from 1983 had what we would consider non-stereotypical female characters? Back then, the very idea of an "Action Girl" like Teela or Cheetara was still a new concept. Girls were dragon-bait and little else.
Personally, I think Sentai has made some good strides in recent years with characters like Luka and Mako from Gokaiger and Shinkenger respectfully.
As for Kyouryuger, this strikes me as a very defensive sentai series. They did a lot of experimenting with the formula last year and it didn't pay off in toy sales OR ratings so this year the theme of the series seems to be, "Do what we know works." Dinosaurs, small collectibles, magic/magi-tek, and apparently taking as few risks as possible. That includes making Pink the only girl.
As difficult as it may be for Americans to wrap their heads around, Japan simply has a different view of women and femininity than we do. It is changing (slowly but surely) in normal society, but such changes are not going to hit TV shows aimed so young any time soon.
For example, I remember a few years ago when the government passed a law allowing women to keep their maiden names after marriage if they chose (I found the reaction of "This will DESTROY the institution of marriage!" laughable).
By that metric, how many children's shows from 1983 had what we would consider non-stereotypical female characters? Back then, the very idea of an "Action Girl" like Teela or Cheetara was still a new concept. Girls were dragon-bait and little else.
Personally, I think Sentai has made some good strides in recent years with characters like Luka and Mako from Gokaiger and Shinkenger respectfully.
As for Kyouryuger, this strikes me as a very defensive sentai series. They did a lot of experimenting with the formula last year and it didn't pay off in toy sales OR ratings so this year the theme of the series seems to be, "Do what we know works." Dinosaurs, small collectibles, magic/magi-tek, and apparently taking as few risks as possible. That includes making Pink the only girl.
As difficult as it may be for Americans to wrap their heads around, Japan simply has a different view of women and femininity than we do. It is changing (slowly but surely) in normal society, but such changes are not going to hit TV shows aimed so young any time soon.