Maya Imamori, The First Half-Pinay Super Sentai Ranger Cast Member

As said, I'm NOT going to do episode reviews. I REACT to updates -- NOT give updates! Should I be surprised that Sumiko Ichikawa's actress Maya Imamori (currently 18 years old, born in 2006) is a half-Filipino? There are several actresses in Japan born from Filipino mothers. Sayaka Akimoto (who's just that OBVIOUS due to her Malay features). Yu Takahashi who was in Kamen Rider Kiva. I once thought Rin Takanashi was half-Pinay back in 2009 but never admitted that speculation. Apparently, Maya is the first half-Pinay to be cast as a ranger in Super Sentai. 

Exploring the racial diversity of both Japan and America

I wrote an article explaining Power Rangers' multiracial diversity. Power Rangers is an AMERICAN franchise. Being an American isn't dictated by one's ethnic group but by one's nationality. It's time to look at American as A RACE. In short, Power Rangers is still an all-American team as even the Asian members usually speak with an American accent. Some are naturalized American citizens. One advantage Power Rangers has over Super Sentai (for the American audience) is the usage of multiracial teams. However, there are some Power Rangers cast members who aren't American citizens but it doesn't matter really. 

Super Sentai takes place in Japan -- a country that's not so racially diverse! Battle Fever J used different countries but not different racial backgrounds. The actress Diane Martin left midseason (and had a graceful exit at that) presumably due to her lack of fluency in Japanese. Japanese is a hard language to learn. I wouldn't be surprised if there are Power Rangers fans who enjoy the source material and read subtitles. The same group may not be willing to learn the language! Japanese isn't easy to learn. Some Power Rangers fans may be more interested in Mandarin or Hangul -- assuming they have paid subscriptions and checked out Korean shows and Chinese shows (either China or Taiwan). Language barrier is a reality! I even felt that both Yuuta Mochizuki and Austin St. John shook hands with the thought, "How am I going to communicate with him? I don't speak his language!"

Power Rangers is no different than Super Sentai in copying certain superhero tropes. Heroes that group together to fight bad guys? Check! Villains who usually cook up convoluted schemes? Check! Devices that come from spy movies? Check! One may check how several American superhero teams are multiracial. Saban Entertainment handled X-Men: The Animated Series which had different types of ethnicities and nationalities mixed. Wolverine is a white Canadian. Storm is an African American. Jubilee is a Chinese American. Should anybody be surprised that Power Rangers is multiracial? The crew at Fox Kids probably wanted to display the idea that, "Regardless of ethnicity, we're all still Americans!" with their multiracial shows. That's something Super Sentai can respect but can't realy directly show it. 

There were some Power Rangers cast who have at least one Filipino parent. Was Tracy Lynn Cruz the first Filipino ranger or was it Rhodisa Montemayor? It's said Power Rangers Time Force had two actors who have at least one Filipino parent. Rhodisa is a Filipino of British citizenship -- not American. Christina Marie Masterson is half-Filipino from her mother's side. It's not surprising for Power Rangers to have someone with at least one Filipino parent. There's a Filipino community in countries like America, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand. 

What I couldn't get over was the awkwardness that hit Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger. Why are Japanese celebrities playing parts that should be played by white actors?! King-Ohger is a fun season but I can't help but nitpick on that! What I love to ignore would be language barriers. Jacqueline Scislowski would've theoretically felt more authentic in playing Himeno Ran than Erica Murakami. However, Jacqueline may not even understand Japanese and might end up in the awkward situation that Diane Martin had in Battle Fever J. Getting white actors to play the King-Ohger parts would be way too expensive to maintain. The only financially feasible option was to let Japanese people play white people. 

As for Dengekitai JAKQ -- the character Karen Mizuki was acted by an obvious halfie named Margaret Love. Before that, Lisa Komaki's character Peggy Matsumaya was introduced as a Eurasian beauty with a Swiss father. Nothing was done with it. Peggy was simply "another character" meant to help sell toys. The same went for Karen Mizuki. I wonder why Margaret's character wasn't written as a half-breed? Come on, Margaret's too obviously a halfie!

Possible exploration of the character

There are times I feel like Super Sentai (or Toei, in general) fail to give better stories for half-breed characters. I hope that Sumiko would be explicitly written to have a Filipino mother. Speaking of which, Toei also took part in the Transformers franchise with their Japanese-exclusive Takara Trilogy. Funny enough, the Beast Wars spin-off wasn't handled by Toei but by Ashi Productions. In short, the Takara Trilogy may have no canonicity to Beast Wars II. 

The second series in the Takara Trilogy gave us a half-breed character named Minerva. Transformers Masterforce introduced Minerva as a half-Japanese (father side) and half-French (mother side). However, the parents were somehow never mentioned or never seen again. Nothing was even explored beyond that, "Hey let's introduce a half-breed character!" Minerva was simply another character added and that was that. It might be time to revisit the concept and expand into Maya. Takara Trilogy was so 1980s. Gozyuger is in 2025 -- meaning that there's something to develop from the underdeveloped. Not much was done with those stuff in the earlier days.

Sure, it doesn't need that much development. But I want to see Sumiko written in as a half-Filipino character. They could write her in having been born of a Japanese father and a Filipino mother. The mother may not need to show up or should she? However, I want to see Toei try and work it out given Maya's status as a half-Pinay cast member in Super Sentai.