A Feminist Manifesto By Secret Press Agent Hiroko
As you probably already know, Goranger was the first Sentai show in my country, Japan. Goranger was so cool, so breathtaking, that it immediately became popular among Japanese kids. I was only five years old when Goranger first aired on T.V. My memories of that time are kind of blurred because I was so young, but I vividly remember being amazed by the coolness of these handsome adults fighting in the name of ‘justice and peace.’
The really popular thing at my kindergarten during that time was to take wooden crates (which seemed huge to us then, but I bet would look really small now) and recreate the five motorcycles of the Gorangers. Five kids sat on those wooden-crate motorcycles, chanting “the power of five becomes one: GORANGER!” just as our heroes did in the show. (Needless to say, we also had to do the accompanying Sentai hand-motion disco thing as well. The adults must have thought we were totally insane.)
The only problem with this is that there was only one spot for a girl — Momo-Ranger, whereas there were four for boys. Because of this, there were always fights among the girls as to who would get to take Momo-Ranger’s precious seat. Unfairly enough, I remember that the boys were the ones who always made the final call as to which girl would get the privilege of becoming their Momo-ranger. Of course, the girl who got this coveted crown was always the cutest in the class — their kindergarten sweetheart — and sure enough, it was NEVER me!
The more I engaged in fighting with the other girls, the more I began to question, “why is there only one spot for a girl and four spots for boys?’ and ‘why do BOYS always made the final decision over the GIRL’s part?” Sounds like the questions asked about the role of women in society today…I guess one can conclude that these questions regarding my heroine, Momo-Ranger, were in fact my first experiences about feminism!
