Some thoughts about Super Sentai

While reading online resources about the peace deal between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (the blog entries of Manolo Quezon and peace advocate Fr. Jun Mercado are particularly engaging), I am viewing some Youtube clips of old Bioman episodes.

I just realized that after more than 15 years, I still can't get over with the death of Kc, the original Yellow 4.

From Youtube user bampam69:





It's a good thing that Jun, who became the new Yellow 4, was as skilled as Kc.





Some Youtube commenters say that the new Yellow 4 is even better than the old one, especially when matched against Jun's old rival, Farrahcat. Speaking of Farrahcat, do you know that the actress who played Farrahcat, Yukari Oshima, is Cynthia Luster?

Taken from Youtube user cscentrITV:



The episodes also remind me of the group project we did for visual literacy class under Prof. Isabel Kenny, about the gendered realities of news--how stereotypes of women are portrayed in the news. I still adore Bioman that's for sure. But come to think of it, how come many--if not all--Super Sentai shows have male characters as lead? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall any Super Sentai show with female character as a lead. Is it because men are seen as better leaders than women? And that women are still seen as mere secondary leads, sidekicks, or love interests?

And what about the colors? How come female characters in Super Sentai shows typically have
yellow and pink as uniforms while the male ones usually have red, green, blue, or black uniforms?

(Bioman photo from http://www.supersentai.com)