Do you find the low number of female rangers compared to male rangers sexist?
 

Ok, I heard a rumor that not only would the Kyuranger be getting a 13th ranger, that ranger would be Eris, a side character who debuted in a recent episode. While this rumor was supposedly backup by a picture, the picture has been deleted from the internet. While the place I heard this rumor from is greatly skeptical of this rumor for obvious reasons, this does bring to mind a criticism that is often aimed at Sentai, and Kamen Rider, that they don't have enough female warriors. While I don't mind that male rangers out number female rangers to such a large extent, I can definitely understand the desire to have more female rangers. What I don't understand is why people often assume that the reason there are so few is because Toei is sexist. The most annoying this about this is that it feels like people tend to focus more on the number of girls in a team then the personalities of those girls. While I could just be taking something I heard in one forum and unfairly applying it to the fandom as a whole, and I apologize if that's the case, the question still stands.

On a side note, how do fandoms such as the Sailor Moon fandom or the Pretty Cure Fandom feel about the lack of male warriors? While shows aimed at a male audience almost always have at least a token female character, shows aimed at a female audience don't seem to be under the same pressure as shows aimed at a male audience in that regard. Do people just not care when it comes shows aimed at girls?

The only Ranger sound not in the show yet that in the Seiza Blaster toy is 'Orion' - and seeing as that's also the name of Lucky's upgrade (a la Zyuoh Whale) and the ship, I wouldn't bank on that rumour being true at all.

As for why Bandai/Toei do it, it's because Sentai is a show aimed at little boys, and so they feel that toys of the girls won't sell as well.

Not a lot of girls are in to rider & sentai or its toys. We got animes like precure that targets young female audiences demographic. I think they were close to ditching 2 female per a core team during Go-Busters and Kyoryugers. At least girls in sentai actually get some episode tailor to them. Girls in rider shows are often the damsel in distress waiting to be save by the male riders.

Speaking about Kyuranger specifically, I would rather they give more screen time to the female characters they already have. Hammy and Raptor are already outnumbered by their male counterparts, but it doesn't help that after Naga they have the least amount of episodes about them.

I don't think it's an issue of sexism personally (at least not in this case anyway), but an issue of having WAY too many characters and also doing arcs in such a way that only one or two characters truly develops.

Actually, they're both tied with Garu.

How could Toei be sexist against girls because of Sentai when they also own both the Sailor Moon and Pretty Cure franchises?

No. It's a franchise targeted at boys; of course most of the characters will be male. You want to give the boys watching at home characters they can relate to and pretend to be on the playground. Now if you want something that's probably sexist, look at Kamen Rider and what happens to almost every female Rider...

No, because if I did, then Sailor Moon is also sexist or only have 1 male hero.

Ya, I'm usually one who gives the benefit of the doubt when it comes to such things but even I can agree that the constant death sentence female riders get is... unsettling.

No and personally I never cared.

As far as I am aware, Japanese social culture is not like the American social culture - there is not a large push to change "boys" and "girls" properties in to "kids" properties like there is here. There doesn't seem to be as much of a push for "removal of gender identities" like you see here.

That being said, Japan still has "boys" shows and "girls" shows, and Super Sentai is a "boys" show, so it will always cater to what you envision boys to like - male heroes, lots of explosions, big robots, etc.

Oh boy here we go. Let me go get my Bizzare Angel Thesis:

There is nothing inherently sexist about girls not watching Toku with spandex and giant robots. Girls just aren't in to that.

I'm pretty sure the only genders in Kyuranger are Lucky and unlucky.

But seriously, I don't think the number of female rangers makes any Sentai sexist, it just doesn't help. This is more of a case by case type of thing that depends more on the writing and directing than a quantity.

Super sentai is a male show but I think that if they gave the females in super sentai more screen time or better character development then maybe girls can get into super sentai. I feel like expanding the show to females too would be great but they can still make the males the leaders. More girls can look up to these females in super sentai.

That does raise the question though. How often do Tokusatsu's few female fans buy toys? Ratings are nice and all but its the toy sales that actually matter.

Can't see why Sentai shouldn't pander to the female audience as well, especially since writers are indeed capable of writing some powerful female characters that aren't just the pretty princess of the team (e.g.: Tsuruhime from Kakuranger or Jun from Bioman).

I don't think I've ever seen anything that states the percentage of sales towards Japanese women and girls specifically.

Personally though, the addition of plush dolls for Zyuohger and Kyuranger raises an eyebrow. Those are the type of thing you see for girl's shows or shows that appeal to both.

I also found that very odd. Especially since they have them for the human actors as well. Maybe its just one of those random things they're doing to see if people are interested in them? Then again, if the Kyoryuger dance videos are any indication, Sentai's demographic might be at just the right age were enough boys would still care about stuffed plushies to make it worth willed for them to make them.

nah.
its as sexist as Precure not having any male cures~

It's not sexist. It is a boy targeted show. Also women on average are not interested in combat roles so naturally there will be more men than women in combat. If women en large are involved in a show with combat it would be in a fantasy based show like Sailor Moon. And thank god for these as it lets children of either gender with similar interest play together with toku toys.

Allegedly that's why the male Rangers look like supermodels to give the moms stuck watching the show with their kids some eyecandy.

I've also heard the same for female Rangers in regards to dads.

I'd imagine guys like that are cheap to hire too. They're young, good looking, and searching for their big break in the acting world.