Toku Legend Masako Morishita

It's time for a #ThursdayThrowback. I was reading through a couple of posts by Shougo B'Stard and this year is Dairanger's 25th anniversary -- I thought this would be a good way to honor this badass actress in Masako Morishita. I thought about her two roles that really showed how badass and compent she is as an actress -- though she kinda reminds me of Yumi Sugimoto in some way. Just wondering -- who is she married to right now?

Her two roles are Kirika (Kosoku Sentai Turboranger) and Kujaku (Gosei Sentai Dairanger). What do they have in common? Aside from her playing the same role as two different characters -- they are both vengeance-crazed characters who eventually meet redemption. Kirika is an anti-villain in Turboranger while Kujaku is an anti-heroine in Dairanger. Both of them are also thousands of years old in terms of chronological years (though Kirika didn't age until she was released some time in the modern day allowing her to grow up into an 18 year old girl) but have a very youthful appearance.

The role of Kirika is a complicated one. She's an outcast girl, a nerdy type girl who just wants to fit in like every other teenager. She has had no idea of her unusual heritage where she is both Bouma and human -- a misfit to both groups. She meets with Yamimaru and she gains newfound power and uses it to strike revenge first on the girls who made fun of her -- then she focuses her teenage frustrations on humanity itself. It's only when she meets her father Kashiam or rather Devil Mask Bouma that things start to change. She plays a role in Yamimaru's redemption towards the finale -- convincing him to abandon all hatred and live a peaceful life.

Years later, she would be an anti-heroine in Dairanger. She was once a peaceful follower of  Mahamayuri Vidyaraja the Peacock Buddha. She lived a life of peace until the day she was trapped inside Mirror Magician. She broke out one day and she became a bitter, hateful person and only Daigo could serve as that balance. I thought about the "Ah! My Goddess!" love story in Dairanger and I wonder why in the world didn't Toei give Kunio Fuji the chance to be a headwriter? It was pretty enjoyable to see her rivalry with her former friend Gara -- which has a bit of open interpretation about why she showed up with the real Gara to destroy a clay Gara. IMHO, it seems to be that Gara's spirit escaped the clay body yet the grudge lived on as Gara of the Gorma. It seems that the late Noboru Sugimura wanted to leave that scene for open interpretation.

Overall, I just couldn't get enough of both her performances in Super Sentai from the late 80s to early 90s.