Flashman Episode 11

I don't think this is a bad episode or a pointless one, but as one of only two episodes Ruu gets all to herself, it's a LITTLE bit disappointing. (The second one she gets is a really bonkers comedic episode; any other episode she'll get is shared with Sara.) Mayumi Yoshida's a JAC actress, and it's a little unusual she was never given an episode focused solely on her that highlighted her fighting abilities; Ruu is instead put into strange or comedic situations.

I feel like Ruu and Dai were both originally envisioned being one way, but circumstances changed those original plans. Dai, in Yutaka Izubuchi's sketch for his alien wardrobe, is drawn with a scowl, and in that traditional "brooding guy" anime style. In episode two, Dai mentions that he trained on Green Star thinking mainly of revenge. Ruu, I feel, is kind of sarcastic and comes across like a tough gal in the first few episodes. (Think of when a frightened Bun jumps into her arms when he sees the dying Alien Hunter. The way she says "You've gotta be kiddin' me," and just drops Bun is pretty wise-ass and cool.) Look at Yoshida's expression in the earlier credit sequences -- she looks like she wants to kill someone! But then they change that, refilm that shot in the opening.

So, I think they were both meant to be badder, cooler characters than they ended up being. I attribute part of their softening to casting; Kihachiro Uemura IS a cool guy, and as a kung-fu fighter, he's obviously a tough guy, but he comes across as just a really easygoing nice guy. (I've wondered if some of the pleasantness Uemura gives Dai is a way to compensate for the difference in age that he was at the time in comparison to how young Dai is meant to be. That he plays up a kind of wholesomeness to come across as being younger.) Mayumi Yoshida is likewise cool and, as a JAC member, knows how to kick ass. But I think she might have a natural sense of humor that's more on the silly side than the sarcastic, so THAT is the humor that comes through more and what the show begins to shape scenarios around.

The other reason I think these two characters are softened from how they were probably originally intended was just so the team meshed better. While I think it would have been interesting and closer to reality to have a couple of the Flashman members be more negative in their reaction to their situation, being scarred or angry about it -- and I think that would have made for interesting conflicts in terms of dramatic storytelling -- the show chose to instead present us with positive, optimistic heroes. I see the Flashman team as surrogate siblings, and they're all so believably close seeming, they all have a good rapport, they were all meant to be raised to be decent people. At this point of the show, it's tragic that they were kidnapped as babies and raised on another planet, but it's supposed to also be pretty cool and fun that they have these abilities nobody else does, and that they manage to be so upbeat despite their circumstances.

Anyway, every Sentai show has a team member it sadly neglects, and for Flashman, that would be Ruu. In this episode, the latest Beast Soldier hatches and imprints on Ruu, mistakenly thinking she's its mother. We've seen many-a Sentai episodes like this, folks, and we know how they always turn out, but keep in mind that Flashman was only the tenth Sentai (or eighth Super Sentai if you're old school), so it was still a pretty new scenario at the time! What gives this episode an advantage over other similarly styled episodes is that it's a variation on the Flashman-finds-a-surrogate-family-member. In this case, Ruu gets a son, but it's more kind of like a baby brother she never had.

But see how better this episode would have played if Ruu HAD been a sarcastic bad girl? And then here's this cutesy monster that thinks she's its mom, and it puts her in an awkward spot, but she comes around to actually liking it? I think that would have made it stronger. That and a better monster design. This is the one design of Izubuchi's for this show that I don't like, but it might be more in the way the suit is crafted than the design itself.

And while the show unfortunately doesn't use either Yoshida or Ruu to their full potential, I still think she's a good performer, a Pink Senshi who stands out, and still kick-ass. On that note, time for something random. In the OP credits, the song gets to the "Whoo! Whoo! Whoo!" right on Ruu's shot, and so I used to think that they were saying "Ruu! Ruu! Ruu!" As in, Ruu's going to be so much of a bad-ass, she's gonna get referenced in the song!