the real reason there is no yellow ranger in Kyoryuger.

[lazycoconut]

Mostly the constant fanservice shots (she's had far more of these than Daigo's ONE episode of going shirtless.) I don't care how good a director Sakamoto is, I'm not comfortable seeing him do these shots with 15 and 16-year-old actors. She's also the one who, after Daigo, gets the most episodes that involve her being compassionate/understanding towards others and she gets placed in a completely bullshit love triangle situation for no other reason than "girls like to fight over guys!" She even has an attack based on making the enemy fall in love with her. They make her cutesy in an effort to appeal and it stands out more than on a team where there are two heroines to balance each other. Even with Yoko, I felt more like the show was trying to tell her story and less like she was one more thing to be marketed to the viewer.

I like Amy. If I didn't, I wouldn't care what the show did with her. I appreciate her as a character, but I don't think it unreasonable to be disappointed about some things the writer/director have done with her. I think that's relevant to the lack of Yellow issue: if there had been one, they might have eased up on Amy. I don't see why Souji or Ian couldn't have been a Yellow had Toei wanted one (compare GaoWhite in the first instance, MagiPink in the second)

Grey and Cyan are auxilliary rangers which aren't part of the main toy marketing and only appear occasionally in the show; so the fact that they're similar to Blue and Silver in color isn't a big issue; the main rangers are Red, Black, Blue, Green, Pink and Gold.
Besides, unless I'm wrong, Gokaiger aired two years ago with male yellow rangers appearing like Yellow Lion and Hurricaneyellow, the latter also coming back as Yellow in a direct to video movie airing the same year as Kyoryuger: it's not like kids weren't reminded that Yellow could be a color for male rangers.

Most kids watch Sentai for 1-2 years max. Kyoryu's target audience probably doesn't remember Gokaiger. And despite promos for the Hurricaneger movie running during SHT, it was marketed at older fans who remember the original.

Grey, Silver and Cyan are still included in the full team line-up and marketed alongside the others. The production team openly spoke in interviews about how they added yellow accents to the suits to compensate for the lack of a Yellow, and saying that it was Bandai's decision to have Grey and Silver despite it looking odd to have both on the same team. It wouldn't have been a big deal to just say "We/Bandai thought Yellow is too close to Gold, so we didn't want one."

 

[kuroihikari]

Mostly the constant fanservice shots (she's had far more of these than Daigo's ONE episode of going shirtless.) I don't care how good a director Sakamoto is, I'm not comfortable seeing him do these shots with 15 and 16-year-old actors. She's also the one who, after Daigo, gets the most episodes that involve her being compassionate/understanding towards others and she gets placed in a completely bullshit love triangle situation for no other reason than "girls like to fight over guys!" She even has an attack based on making the enemy fall in love with her. They make her cutesy in an effort to appeal and it stands out more than on a team where there are two heroines to balance each other. Even with Yoko, I felt more like the show was trying to tell her story and less like she was one more thing to be marketed to the viewer.

1. The Stymero attack isn't hers.
2. Girls tend to get matched up with boys and vice versa. There's no going around that. If she's the only girl in a team, there's bound to be one or more ships in there involving her, whether they hold water or not. Speaking of ships:
3. Her relationship with Daigo is non-canon anyway. You probably missed the parts where she's entirely oblivious to what competition Yayoi is getting into with her. The only real romantic feelings in the series (so far) are the one that Yayoi has for Daigo and Rin has for Souji, and those don't involve Amy at all.
4. She's cutesy and understanding, but she's also unrefined, tomboyish, bad at studying and lazy. Traits which are the opposite of "token girl".
5. In fact, you can say the same thing about Daigo as you can about her: male fanservice, understanding, brash, not good at intellectual things, gets shipped with everyone. It doesn't make Daigo the "token man".

It's easy to assign stereotypes, but it won't make sense if you're gonna cherry-pick the traits and ignore everything else.

 

[Shougo B'Stard]

Most kids watch Sentai for 1-2 years max.

People around here say this a lot, but has this ever been proven by a Japanese book or source?

 

[lazycoconut]

1. The Stymero attack isn't hers.

There's a reason she's the only one that has ever used it. Same as why Candelira is the one that gets "love" as her assigned emotion

2. Girls tend to get matched up with boys and vice versa. There's no going around that. If she's the only girl in a team, there's bound to be one or more ships in there involving her, whether they hold water or not. Speaking of ships:

Why is that? Because so many people, writers and fans alike, assume female character = love interest by default. You can write a leading lady who is both feminine and likable and isn't romantically involved with anyone. I promise!

3. Her relationship with Daigo is non-canon anyway. You probably missed the parts where she's entirely oblivious to what competition Yayoi is getting into with her. The only real romantic feelings in the series (so far) are the one that Yayoi has for Daigo and Rin has for Souji, and those don't involve Amy at all.

The description of the next episode on Toei's site would beg to differ, but no point going into that until it's aired.

4. She's cutesy and understanding, but she's also unrefined, tomboyish, bad at studying and lazy. Traits which are the opposite of "token girl".

These things never put her at any real disadvantage or make her look unappealing. She still stays cute and marketable.

5. In fact, you can say the same thing about Daigo as you can about her: male fanservice, understanding, brash, not good at intellectual things, gets shipped with everyone. It doesn't make Daigo the "token man".

In Daigo's case, these things are framed in a way to draw attention to him as the main hero/most important character. With Amy, it comes across as: "well, Amy's a girl! And girls are cute and romantic and like X girly things!" (Similarly, compare a "dumb" male character like Sousuke to a "dumb" female character like Houka. There is an obvious difference)

It might be better to continue this via PM or in another thread to avoid going too far off-topic, so I'll repeat my most relevant points: 1) Like Clocktower, I worry about Toei wanting to continue with lone female Rangers and 2) I don't think the producer would have mentioned gender if it weren't honestly a factor they take into account when producing and marketing the shows. Especially when they're under pressure for sales and when they outright said "we had to have Grey and Silver on the same team because Bandai wanted it." If they honestly thought Yellow and Gold were too alike ... why not just say so?

 

[kuroihikari]

If you want to create a thread for it, then do so. I appreciate your not wanting to derail this thread, but I say you're creating an entirely new definition of "token girl" (I basically agree with what Dessa's definition). I don't like situations of IMHO misplaced feminism like these because it weakens the principles of the movement. Take that for what it's worth coming from a conservative man.

 

[lazycoconut]

You're entitled to your opinion, of course. (I mean this nicely, not passive-aggressively)

I don't have a source for how long kids watch Sentai, although we've had a few anecdotes on here. I would appreciate it if anyone remembers the interviews where the Kyoryu staff mentioned the reason for the yellow accents and/or that they had a Grey and Silver on the same team because Bandai wanted it? I ran a quick search but couldn't find them ...