Mako Shiraishi: Lovely As The Rose, Deadly As Its Thorns

Well I guess I'll do another character spotlight and it would be on one of my favorite pink rangers Mako Shiraishi, whom some consider to be the hottest Sentai heroine as of this decade. In a sense, she does remind me of Kimberly Hart in some ways of being ditzy at first but starts to reveal a different personality as the series progresses. Hee hee hee. So anyway where do I begin? If there was anybody quite interesting among the ladies, it was actually Mako Shiraishi is- pretty as a rose, deadly as its thorns especially in combat.

So I thought that she would always make a good match with Takeru Shiba since the beginning of the series- they always look so good together. So she starts of as a sweet girl who loves children and at the same time, destined to be a pink ranger. But strangely, she was brought up as a samurai but she manages to keep her sweet and simple self when need be, even if she has some painful thorns to deal with. She had a potential relationship with Ryunosuke Ikenami at first but she turned him down due to his being annoying to her. It was also that episode when the Shinkengers learn of her dreadful cooking, which Takeru Shiba can get pretty cruel to her in some ways. For some reason, she gets along with Takeru Shiba the most.

Instead, it seemed she would be with Takeru Shiba who by the way, is allergic to her extremely bad cooking (and so are the rest except Kotoha). She of course is never willing to give up and even if Takeru Shiba at times looked down at her, however she got encouragement from him most of the time. It was also with her that managed to repair the relationship of Genta Umemori and Takeru Shiba, trying to reveal the more noble side of Takeru Shiba. Think about the beauty taming the beast in the scenario. Well, it was amusing to see her and Takeru Shiba get into a series of training sessions together too. Another interesting factor was her rivalry with Dayu which was fun to watch.

I kind of liked about her parents' story too. Why? Well family members in Super Sentai do make characters interesting if written right. She had a tough decision to make- go back to Hawaii to live with her parents (her mother was the 17th Shinken Pink who got paralyzed in the lower body while in battle) or stay until the battle is over. She of course showed she had her own deadly thorns as a rose when she became the first ranger in the group to actually beat Akumaro in a sword fight while dressed up as Super Shinken Pink. But aside from that, she was also the one that managed to repair the relationship of Genta Umemori and Daigoyou showing her sweet scent as well. But again, her thorns are bound to show up anytime.

If there was anything admirable, it was also her true friendship with Takeru Shiba- liking him for who he was and not his status. She accepted Takeru Shiba as a kagemusha. She in fact, in the last part, happened to be the only one to get a vocal response from Takeru Shiba, a possible hint of a relationship could blossom. Sadly not even the V-Cinema ever had them hooking up.