As crazy as it sounds, I’m a girl power loving red blooded American man. I fully support a woman’s right to fight giant monsters and wear arc reactors. Women have had a tough time fighting evil historically. Very revealing armor is pretty ineffective fighting warlords and dragons. And yeah that whole boys club thing. That being said I’m pretty excited in the latest female addition to the superheroic cosmos, Kyoryu Violet!
Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger is the 37th entry in the epic Super Sentai series. It’s been a pretty fun and exciting run so far. The Kyoryuger have a relaxed attitude about things. Very refreshing after the seriousness juice that Gobusters was drenched in. Of course don’t get me wrong I REALLY liked a lot of the concepts in Gobusters. But thats a whole other subject.
At the moment there are no less than 11 Kyoryuger running around. Each one has 
a very distinctive personality but I’m gonna go and focus on Kyoryu Violet.
Japan’s history with female protagonists or just the creative market in general, has been pretty lackluster or should I say reluctant? Series like Wecker,Vanny Knights, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Cutey Honey are fine examples of Japanese women dealing out great justice against ruber suits and monsters, they are not however among the main franchises or big money makers. In fact while there have been strides to make female counterparts of male heroes more prevalent, the impact has been done with varying degrees of success.
Time Pink was a ground breaking leader, the 80s had some pretty strong ladies. Shinken Red’s sister Kaoru knew her way around a sword, Kaoru Shiba to me was weighed down by the fact that she was a very late bloomer. But lets look at the last few female entries into Sentai that were not trying to take up the leadership role, specifically the introductions of female support Rangers.
Ever since Dragon Ranger Burai the support Ranger, or Sixth Ranger, has been a staple every year. Fans look forward to the newest addition to the team. Since GoGoV the possib
ility of a woman showing up to help complete the team things have gotten very interesting. Go-On Silver, Deka Bright and Deka Swan are just a few examples. I love each one of these women for contributing to butt kicking evil. But for goodness sakes, as great as they were they didn’t have stories like TimeFire. The importance of them joining the team I don’t think had the same impact of Dekamaster or did they? Not really.
Kyoryuger dared to do something different. With the advent of Kyoryu Violet we’ve finally got the kind of story arc for a female hero deserves.
Yayoi Ulshade, played wonderfully by Marie Iitoyo, is perfectly imperfect. I think it’s pretty easy to relate to her. Before she ever puts on her helmet she has to learn to let go of her grandfather Doctor Ulshade’s big purple shadow. The doc was the previous Kyoryu Violet in his prime and wants her to take up the family business.
She is seriously crushing on Daigo the red ranger while trying to maintain she can be the practical component of a group who likes to enjoy and embrace life a little more than she’s willing to allow herself to.
During episodes 22 to 24 Yayoi is almost frozen to death. Ambushed, and after much struggle of being choked and nearly crushed to death she manages to unlock the Kyoryu powers for herself. The ensuing initial fight is hands down amazing. Deka Bright and Swan had their own chances in the sun, but neither one came with their own zord!
Kyoryuger is a high octane series. So much so that they have decided to break a few glass ceilings with all that power. Kyoryu Violet is
the first advent female hero ever I dare say. A story arc with the focus squarely on the woman’s and her own personal decisions. Go-On Silver came with her brother as a duel package.
Demon Hunter Kyoko was awesome, but a one shot. Never before have we ever seen a woman hero looked at as a true new full fledged new member of a team quite like this, Dekabright and Swan included.
Now excuse me, I got to go listen to Girls In Trouble. Listening to it while I wrote this was not nearly enough.
August 26, 2013 @ 10:09 pm
Well done I agree wholeheartedly
August 26, 2013 @ 11:08 pm
Wow I could not disagree more. Yayoi is a terrible character and nothing she’s done is original. She is a poster child of the Shrinking Violet trope to the point where I don’t believe her Brave for an instant. She stalks King, she doesn’t control her own mech, she doesn’t have an Armed, and she’s only going to show up when plot allows. I’m sorry but give me Swan, Kyoko, Miu, or Kaoru any day, those were some strong women. I mean Amy outclasses her in every way, and I blame Yayoi for now starting this dumb and pointless King/Amy pairing. Amy’s so independent, she doesn’t need a love interest. I honestly think people are just attaching so much to her, because subconsciously they want to spit in the face of that dumb producer that said he wanted more guys.
August 26, 2013 @ 11:32 pm
Unfortunately Yayoi may have her own Zord, but she has yet to actually use it outside of one time the entire team used it. Instead it’s always piloted by the Red Ranger. Also unlike the other members of the team, who all have their own unique weapons, Yayoi only has the ‘basic’ weapons the ‘Main Five’ also have, and the closest thing that she has to her own… Well, I won’t spoil it, but it ties into the ‘Special DVD’ and doesn’t feature her using it. And if that wasn’t enough, she isn’t really coming off like part of the main team. Instead it’s more like she’s always in the kitchen… Errr… Lab Outside of the episode where she became Kyoryu Violet, she has been treated more like ‘Oh yeah she’s around, but she’s elsewhere’ and the one time after her first transformed appearance where she did transform (and majorly kicked ass) she just stood around and watched.
In the end, the char while insanely cool with all the potential it has probably won’t be on par with DekMaster, or any of the other Extra Members that are male (save Go-On Silver who kicked ass), which is disappointing.
I just hope that I’m majorly wrong here and she actually does do a bit more, and maybe ends up ‘on par’ with the main six story wise, instead of being more ‘show up only when plot points are needed’ like the ‘Spirit Rangers’ are this season
August 28, 2013 @ 7:36 pm
I agree completely, except for one big mistake I see in the article. Kaoru Shiba was not shinken red’s sister. She was the previous shinken red, along with being adopted mother of Takeru/shinken red.