Character Gimmicks in Super Sentai

I did write a post on the gimmicks to sell toys, here's what could be writing on storyline gimmicks which I'll first focus on writing gimmicks.  So I was thinking of Hirohisa Soda, Toshiki Inoue, Yasuko Kobayashi, Naruhisa Arakawa and the late Noboru Sugimara or sub-writers like Kunio Fuji, here's some of those gimmicks I thought were gimmicks in story writing.  I could learn a thing or two from them:

Heroes:


Diverse cast of characters and adding new types.  You might want conflict among the characters as much as possible like Ryu vs. Gai Yuki (though the love triangle wasn't all that interesting compared to their clash of values).  Gai Yuki was pretty much a rebel.  Which of course comes in character development like how characters like Gai Yuki and Inou Masumi changed for the better as the series went by.


Interesting background stories building up mysteries around the heroes which also pulls them with the villains.  So yeah I'm putting Kou because for me, he's not just a child but he was involved in the whole story of Dairanger because of his background story.  There were also other interesting plots like Takeru's love story with Ial, Takeru Shiba being a shadow warrior to protect the true head of the Shiba clan, Masumi's background story with Yaiba, Tatsuya's family story as an Asami, Burai's backstory in Zyuranger with Geki and so on.  All these for me really make a lot of character gimmick to keep a viewer going.


Adding more than one girl most of the time in team.  Well I could care less though if a team had only one female or one than one, but I would admit that having three boys and two girls in one team for me may be the better lineup.  Bioman was the first Sentai to feature two females and as of late, most Super Sentai series have two females too.  So whoever said all girls are weak is awfully stupid because there are also weaker boys too.


Trying the female mentor for the team.  Most mentors are male but who says females can't be mentors?  It's not gender based and sometimes, I think Aya is the best mentor during the 90s though Miki Masaki in Gekiranger does also stand out.  In Aya's case, she was most likely forced by circumstances to take over her unnamed superior and does a good job at it.  Which of course, she beats that chauvinistic Ichijou off the chart.  Though in Swan's case in Dekaranger, she's more of a secondary mentor than a primary one.  But either way I could care less about the gender


Extra rangers.  The concept was experimented on in Bioman (episode 36) with Shota Yamamori becoming Gear's experimental Magne Warrior and in Maskman, with Ryo Asuka/X-1 Mask who was also an experiment for Gai Yuki.  Zyuranger fully introduced Burai and it seems to be that most Super Sentai seasons keep expecting a sixth ranger, something I think might bore me easily.  Different types of sixth rangers were made and there are other extra rangers too.  I guess sixth rangers have become a new thing for Super Sentai so they can be brought to America when it gets adapted and localized as Power Rangers.

Villains and their diversity:


Building up mysteries around the villains.  Super Sentai tends to hide some villain identities of who they are until the finale arc.  Hirohisa Soda's best stories like Changeman, Flashman, Maskman, Liveman and Fiveman did it.  Noboru Sugimura wrote a lot of mysteries in Dairanger around the Gorma.  These manage to keep things in suspense.  While Zeba not being human may be predictable but you never expect him to be a ground beast.  Stuff like these are very cool for me.


Villains that side with neither which adds to the conflict of the story.  Soda introduced these into writing like Silver from Bioman, Kiros from Maskman and Yamimaru from Turboranger (though he temporarily sided with Ragorn).  You might as well count Juzo from Shinkenger and Basco from Gokaiger into that list.  In the case of Kiros he for me is the best of the list thinking he trolls both Tube and the Maskmen for his own convenience with his brilliant schemes, plus his hatred for Takeru makes him oh so entertaining.


Villains that are oh so you want them dead.  As said, Radiguet might be officially the most S.O.B. villain like Long and Basco.  I mean Radiguet is so darn cruel, I mean come on who wants to be near him anyway especially he is pretty crazy as well?  You'd want him dead if he were real.  That's why he's my top favorite Super Sentai villain.  Some of them are not the big bad all the time but are manipulative bastards.  Radiguet overthrew Tranza in cold blood, Shadam betrayed Gorma XV to become emperor and Dr. Hinelar betrayed Javious I.  Radiguet and Shadam are both really irredeemable bastards and as I've said, I really thought Daisuke Tachi as Shadam would have worked better!


Villains that later arrive to intensify the conflict by joining the villain team.  Ahames for one is really one bitch I'd hate to be near especially she really knows how to make the Changemen suffer with really painful tactics.  Others I thought did so were Long in Gekiranger with his manipulations, Giluke in Megaranger and Dr. Ashura in Liveman to name a few.  Sometimes certain villains are written off to be replaced by a different set for that reason like in Turboranger when Zimba, Jarmin and Rehda were killed off so Yamimaru and Kirika can be focused, which then in episode 39, Ragorn was temporarily written off until he returned in episode 44 or was it all because of budget too?


Rivalries between villains.  That of course makes it interesting that there are power struggles after all.  In Fiveman we had Garoa vs. Chevalier, in Jetman we had Tranza vs. Radiguet,

Both sides with common:


Heroes and villains with their dates and you know I'm a sucker for attractions, lust, like and love plots.  One may consider Sentai rangers who have girlfriends either within the team or not.  In Jetman, Gai Yuki and Kaori also dated for some time and imo, they had a real good chemistry as Kaori changed Gai Yuki for the better but they never ended together.  In Zyuranger, Griforther was married to Lami.  In Timeranger, we had Tatsuya and Yuuri who were separated by time.  Timeranger had a bizarre love polygon of where Honami is attracted to Ayase thinking he is Time Yellow and Domon has a crush on her.


When romances are caught in conflict in messy love polygons which also involves the villains.  In Maskman we have the focus of the Takeru/Kiros/Ial standard hero vs. villain for the leading lady triangle.  In Jetman it was one love polygon considering that not only is Gai Yuki likes Kaori likes Ryu likes Rie accompanied by the fact when Rie became Maria, Gure truly cared for Maria while Radiguet lusted after her for some stupid reason unexplained.