Hikaru Katsuragi... PINK FIVE!

While I can't find a cool tag, however today is Michiko Makino's 50th birthday and I'd like to pay tribute to her and her family.  Yup, Bioman was my very first Sentai and as a kid, I thought it was the first Super Sentai series ever made until I discovered Goranger when I was 16.  Moving on, I would like to do this character spotlight on Hikaru (my first Toku crush) who I first knew dubbed as Kimberly, the name Amy Jo Johnson would take in MMPR.  So she starts off as a talented musician in Bioman who was one day picked by the Bio Robo because she was a descendant of the original five, her ancestor was a noblewoman.  At first, she was pretty weak in combat and was pretty much in Mika's shadow in episode 8 when she started to develop in that area.  But what I like about her as a character was not her fighting but her wits which she and and her later partner Jun (after Mika died) had done what the boys normally aren't able to do.

Despite her being a warrior, she had those tears like when Mika died in episode 10, when she befriended Brain in episode 14.  Both were close friends of her.  For the time she had with Mika, they became close friends even if Mika was more of a free-spirited young girl who preferred to work alone.  In fact, Mika had saved her a couple of times when she wasn't that good with combat yet.  Later after Mika died, she lost another friend this was the Brain.  Doctor Man created an intelligent computer whom she befriended.  As a result, Brain sacrificed himself so the Biomen can defeat the Anchor Kans.  That episode had her getting better yet maintained her gentle side when she cried after Brain died.

During the tenure with Jun, she even got better where the both actually proved to be a better team that it was with Hikaru and Mika (since Mika died) thus making the late Mika proud.  My favorite instances of team-ups between girls was during the Devil Fungus crisis when she placed herself at risk to find a similar plant to cure the disease, which we see both her toughness and gentleness in one episode.  Another daring moment she had in Bioman was when she allowed herself to be caught by the artificial spider web to which she and Jun had a plan.  Quite surprisingly, it worked.  Other favorite moments of mine were also when she allowed herself to be exposed to the evil mind control camera of Gear and how she and Jun outsmarted Monster and Aquagaiger in that episode.  With her disguises, she makes Miki/Goggle Pink and Rei/Dyna Pink proud though it wasn't so often used but still, we got to give it credit.

During the finale, I thought she had done some more credit like when despite her getting better, she never forgets her soft side that I like about her.  That is, she cried when Shiro Go's father in the second the last episode sacrificed himself so the Biomen can escape.  In a short act, she and Jun both destroyed Farrah Cat so they can finally confront a dying Doctor Man so they can stop the Anti-Bio Bomb from erupting.