Somehow I can't help but write more about Kimberly Hart from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Now I was thinking about her possible impact towards popular culture.
Somehow Kimberly Hart was sort of the team heart. She had best friends with two non-whites. She as best friends Trini and later, Aisha comes (remember Thuy Trang had pay disputes with Saban so she was written off). In her case, she was a white girl whose best friend was an Asian, later her on-screen best friend is an African (Aisha). With Power Rangers, it was basically a way to introduce America to some of Japan's cultural icons, Super Sentai, which is too culturally different for the American audience.
For some boys, it may be one scene that would make them want to come out of their closet. It gets annoying whenever there's a fear of the opposite gender but differences between men and women make us unique. As I said it, she was my ultimate guilt trip in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
Perhaps Kimberly was an experimental character and was only meant for one season. Super Sentai may have fallen in love with the concept and decided to make her... just for one season. Now how would that work? Take Kimberly and modify her for character into these characters both Super Sentai and Power Rangers:
Megaranger brought back the concept of "teenagers with attitude" and Megaranger still had high schoolers (except for Andros). Chisato for Megaranger had these points in common with Kimberly except she is yellow. Both are pretty, sexy, feminine and have a nice voice. Chisato sang in episode 37 and she has a really nice voice.
Ashley was supposedly pink but became yellow?! So anyway, Ashley IS your second cheerleader after Kimberly. But she's boring for me. After this one, the concept seemed shelved. I was thinking Nanami, Ranru and Kira aren't exactly all that.
Either Mako was already just in time or not for the closest possibly Kimberly inspired character for Super Sentai. Like Kimberly she's pretty, sexy, overly blunt, team mom, feminine while she mixes other traits like Yuri's bad cooking (Yuri is MUCH tougher than Mako though). Both of them are most likely to fire off with a comment like, "You're annoying." as they are both easily annoyed. And she's probably Kimberly done right. And I really wished Mako used a bow
Note: Shinkenger was also airing alongside Decade. Decade was the perfect season for a Super Sentai/Kamen Rider crossover. Saban's idea to bring it on-screen didn't help and was probably shelved by both Toei and Saban as failed ideas. Decade was travelling across worlds and... Shinkenger was airing side by it which makes Sentai a possible world to visit. And Mako was probably just in time for it... as how Kimberly should have been used for "Friend in Need" arc of MMPR.
Power Rangers Samurai had some MMPR nostalgia here and there while making only a few differences with Shinkenger. Megaforce as an anniversary season ended up with more MMPR nostalgia. Noah is a fusion of Zack and Billy. Emma and Gia are a split on Kimberly... Emma more so. Which I thought even Emma's teaser line was doing a Kimberly act... but I felt she was a poor imitation though.
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