Bikini Sentai
G-RANGER
Created by Ben Dunn
with Steven Ross
CHARACTERS
HEROES
SONYA (17) – G-BLUE – Jamaican/Mexican: The heart of the group; optimistic, she tries to see the best in people and situations. (Believes in exotic Latin American/Caribbean Saints and Curandera practices.)
Positive Trait: Socially Conscious – Sonya is the moral compass of the group, always concerned about the environmental impact of their business and advocating for social causes. She organizes beach cleanups and promotes recycling.
Negative Trait: Overzealous Activism – Sonya’s passion for change could sometimes lead to her coming off as preachy or judgmental. By the end of the story, she learns to channel her passion into more effective and empathetic advocacy.
Comedic Element: Sonya is always trying out new eco-friendly practices that she learns about on the internet, some of which are more practical than others. Her friends make fun of her overzealous attempts at sustainable living.
KIYANDEI (17) – G-RED – Japanese/Canadian: Serious and disciplined; very dry sense of humor. (Has faith in technology.)
Positive Trait: Tech-Savvy – Kiyandei is the tech whiz of the group, always with the latest gadgets. She uses her tech skills to help run the business, such as creating an app for The Clamourous Life/Clamourama, and maintain their gear as G-Rangers.
Negative Trait: Over-Reliance on Tech – Sometimes, Kiyandei prefers the digital world to the real one, causing her to miss out on important moments with her friends. By the end of the story, she learns the value of unplugging and being present.
Comedic Element: Kiyandei’s love for tech manifests in her obsession with a VIRTUAL PET or a DRONE THAT SHE TREATS LIKE A PET, leading to comedic situations.
CINDY (16) – G-YELLOW – Irish/Italian: Pragmatic and business-minded. (Probably Catholic). If the team has a leader, it would probably default to Cindy.
Positive Trait: Entrepreneurial Spirit – Cindy is constantly coming up with new ideas to improve their beach shack business. She has a knack for viral marketing and uses social media in innovative ways to promote Clamourama.
Negative Trait: Perfectionism – A trait among Zoomers, Cindy’s desire for everything to be perfect may lead to burnout and conflicts with her friends. By the end of the story, she learns that it’s okay if things don’t always go as planned.
Comedic Element: Cindy could be overly reliant on trendy business jargon that she picks up from business influencers online. Her friends could playfully tease her for her constant use of buzzwords.
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DR. MOHAN KHAN (38) Scientist/Commander – Indian: Stiff-backed and formal, always impeccably-dressed (although he’s usually barefoot), with stylish eyeglasses and amazingly thick, short-ish hair. He charmingly tilts his head smiles a crooked smile with half of his mouth, which makes his dimples show.
(Dr. Mohan is loosely based on Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.)
Dr. Mohan is usually all-business, but he occasionally lets his roguish side slip through. The G-Rangers crush on him as if he was a handsome high school teacher; Dr. Mohan is usually flattered, but then he quickly throws up a wall of decorum.
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G-ROBO: Although technically not a human character, the G-Rangers do have a Giant Robot. G-Robo is in the tradition of Aphrodite A from Mazinger Z (although the actual design would probably be closer to Arcee from the Transformers). “She” also wields an oversized sword that apparently appears out of nowhere.
Perhaps the paint/design could make it look like G-Robo is wearing a Yellow Polka Dot Bikini?
VILLAINS
DR. BOOMER (looks like he’s in his mid-40s): Dr. Boomer is essentially John Waters playing Vincent Price in the DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE BIKINI MACHINE movies (only campier and snarkier), with additional inspiration from Hugh Hefner. He usually wears simple, black pants and loafers, with shiny smoking jackets, bowling shirts, and/or Hawaiian shirts. Dr. Boomer usually sports a long cigarette holder, and/or he carries a drink in half of a coconut or a pineapple, decorated with fancy mini-umbrellas.
Dr. Owen Karl Bumhair (a.k.a. “Dr. Boomer”) was the son of a couple of scientists who lived and worked on the Bikini Atoll during the early 1950s. When one of the atomic bombs detonated more explosively than planned, young Owen tried to protect himself by hiding in a refrigerator, but the combination of nuclear energy and the Freon gas put him in a state of suspended animation for decades. He was released and revived in the ’90s, but was horrified by the the complicatied, “dystopian” world in which he was now trapped. After researching the years he had missed, Dr. Boomer zeroed in on the late ’50s/early ’60s as the Golden Age of the American Dream.
He opened the Boomerland Amusement park on an unspecified pier (probably the Santa Monica Pier) to celebrate, archive, and preserve the youth that he never had. All of the proceeds from the park go to his pet project: to turn back time to the early ’60s, with complete disregard for the positive changes and progress that has been made since then, or the devastation that such a disruption would cause!
Dr. Boomer may have a ROBOTIC PINK FLAMINGO as a pet/companion. He calls it “Glenn” (Divine’s “real” name).
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SUPER BOOMERS/THE DISPOSABLES (late ’60s/early ’70s+): A dream team of elderly action movie stars, who peaked in the ’80s and ’90s. Years of Botox and steroid abuse have made them look lumpy, off-putting, and weird.
They include:
STALLIONE – Since Arnie is already a NHS character, he can just be based on Stallone-the-actor…
SHORTZNICKER – Since NHS already has a Kenterminator, he can just be a short version of Schwarzenegger (some people have said that he’s not very tall in person), maybe wearing lederhosen (Google actually has such an image)…
BRUTE WILLY – Bruce Willis as John McLane…
HAIRYEARS FJORD – Harrison Ford as a truly ancient — and decrepit — Indiana Jones (with “old man” hairs growing out of his ears)…
Dr. Boomer hires them to work at his amusement park to show the “superiority” of their generation, but the guests are not buying the senior citizens still trying to act half their ages, and they end up embarrassing themselves. To keep them useful until their contracts expire, Dr. Boomer sends them to harass the people at The Clamourous Life clam shack: he wants the land so he can expand his park.
After the G-Rangers hand their asses back to them, Dr. Boomer gives Stallione and company a Zetranite-infused steroid treatment that turns them into…
THE DISPOSABLES: an obvious parody of The Expendables (maybe Stallione could wear Stallone’s Expendables beret), only they are monstrously over-muscled, and in a constant state of over-the-top ‘roid rage (like in a Fist of the North Star/Berzerk manga).
** Except for Stallione, you can swap any of the other Super Boomers for parodies of Steven Seagal or Jean Claude Van Damme (Stallione is necessary for The Expendables gag to work).
SUPPORTING CAST
CHRIS and ALAN (mid-50s/Gen-Xers) – Comic Relief – Caucasian and Asian:
CHRIS is a short, middle-aged punk rocker with white, spiky, Billy Idol-like hair.
ALAN is a tall, middle-aged metal head with long, black hair and a receding hairline.
(They’re loosely based on Chris Gore and Alan Ng from the Film Threat YouTube channel.)
Chris and Alan run The Clamorous Life (or Clamourama: a hut that serves steamed clams on the beach); they’re Sonya, Kiyandei, and Cindy’s day job bosses, but they ALL answer to a mysterious benefactor…
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1950s – 1960s GIANT MONSTERS: Parodies of KONGA, REPTILICUS, TARANTULA, MANTIS, THE GIANT CLAW, and IT CONQUERED THE WORLD.
(Try to keep it American, possibly public domain, and avoid anything that will bring down the wrath of Toho’s lawyers; they’re super-protective since their MonsterVerse took off.)
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ZOMBIE HIPPIEZ (late ’60s): At the far end of the Boomerland pier is a secret, smoke-filled tent. Lava light-style lighting and psychedelic music hypnotize a hoard of old hippies that fried their brains on drugs in the ’60s. Still wearing their “mod” hippie clothing, they wave their arms and stagger aimlessly about like zombies… Until one night, when the G-Rangers are sneaking through the park, and accidentally stumble into the Zombie Hippiez’ tent…
LOCATIONS
THE CLAMOUROUS LIFE (or CLAMOURAMA) –
The Clamourous Life is a small shack/hut that’s right on the beach, facing the ocean. It’s not much bigger than a firework stand, with two windows: one for ordering, one for pickup. Comedic relief Gen-Xers Chris and Alan serve up steamed clams.
It’s a trendy place for young people to hang out, although none of the teens at the nearby picnic tables ever look up from their phones.
Kiyandei, Cindy, and Sonya work as waitresses.
INSIDE: Like Doctor Who’s TARDIS, the clam shack looks slightly “larger on the inside.” The walls are plastered with posters and photos of ’80s punk, new wave, and heavy metal bands. There’s also a small stove (for cooking the clams); buckets of clams and clam shells are all over the place.
A fireman’s pole is in the center of the shack, surrounded by a large hole in the floor.
(When Kiyandei, Cindy, and Sonya slide down the pole, an explosion of steam from the hole blasts through the shack, expelling out of the windows and an exhaust vent in the ceiling; Chris and Alan are left looking soggy and droopy: “WAH-wa-wa-WAAAAA…”)
G-COMM –
Like Adam West’s Batman, the G-Rangers transform as they slide down the firepole.
They fall through the ceiling in a puff of steam, and plop onto a low trampoline, where they flip, and land in their team pose.
Their landing is critiqued by Dr. Mohan (who seems to live there).
G-COMM is a small room that resembles the Command Center sets of the original Japanese Super Sentai shows.
It also doubles as Dr. Mohan’s lab, so his half-built inventions are everywhere. Some of his inventions could be Easter eggs that parallel props and weapons from NHS.
(ADDITIONAL IDEA: Perhaps the walls could be filled with screens that monitor “other” Zetra teams — of diverse races and species — doing “Zetra stuff” across a multiverse of planets and dimensions. The “mysterious benefactor” could be none other than The Peeper, who has secretly taken it upon himself to create a Green Lantern-like “Zetra Corps” — although all of that backstory can be saved for another time…)
G-ROBO COMMAND –
It’s like most of the Command Centers — where the Super Sentai teams do their hand gestures, and pilot their giant robots — that we’ve seen on most of the pre-Power Rangers Sentai shows. It’s only seen a couple of times, so I wouldn’t reinvent the wheel…
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BOOMERLAND AMUSEMENT PARK –
Dr. Boomer’s base-of-operations is on a pier directly overlooking The Clamorous Life clam shack.
It’s a carnival-like amusement park that’s filled with parodies of iconic Baby Boomer pop cultural stuff from the late ’50 through the early ’70s. It can seem a little “off,” because everything is based on Dr. Boomer’s research; he didn’t really experience that era first hand. (“He doesn’t know because he wasn’t there, maaaan!”)
Some of the attractions include LIFE-SIZED REPLICAS OF GIANT MONSTERS from American B-movies that were made in the ’50s.
At the far end of the pier is a PAISLEY PATTERN-COVERED TENT that’s surrounded with a lot of “Warning!” and “KEEP OUT” signs.
Boomerland is basically Arcade’s hideout (from the X-Men comics), as reimagined by Tim Burton.
DR. BOOMER’S HANGOUT –
Dr. Boomer’s Hangout is an amalgam of nightclub sets from the Beach Party movies, Batman (1966), and The Nutty Professor (1963). It’s a Museum of Boomer Kitsch, with most of the space jammed with goofy props and collectibles, and the walls plastered with (parodies of) iconic photos and posters.
DEN OF ZOMBIE HIPPIEZ –
This is the tent with the psychedelic lighting, where the old hippies are packed together and meander aimlessly. It might be cool to have a stage where a fake band plays (the band could ACTUALLY BE Zombie Hippiez).
