Maskman's Prince Igam

I've talked about this before in past threads, but having just finished rewatching Maskman (with better subs this time) this point about Igam being a woman in disguise comes back to bother me.

1) My main gripe is that it's just so obvious she's a woman, from her face, her voice, even her footwear (though granted some men did wear heels centuries back), that the idea that everyone, even her own sister, could have been duped is ridiculous to me. There's even a flashback in one of the earlier episodes where Igam and Ial are together as children, and it's clear for all to see that Igam is a girl, yet Ial remains ignorant until the end. And then after the reveal, Takeru no longer desires to fight her because she's a woman. Why doesn't that apply to Fumin? She's female.

I'm not against the idea of Igam playing a male for whatever reason (in this case her family needing a male heir), but could some effort at least be put by the writers/producers into making the farce not so conspicuous? I believer Shougo once suggested a more "androgynous" actress like Motoko Watanabe (Fiveman's Zaza); that might have worked better, but this goes to my second point.

2) I don't see how Igam disguising herself really added anything to the story. If she had been Princess Igam the whole time, nothing would have changed. You could still have the "raised male" backstory without actually claiming to be a man. Plus you can have the good twin-bad twin thing with Takeru seeing Mio/Ial in Igam and taking pity on her for Mio's sake. (Which granted the show sort of did but only after the revelation.)

I have other minor issues with Maskman besides this (largely the use of its martial arts theme and rather minimal characterizations), but it's still a good show. It just happens to be sandwiched between two greater shows that to me outshine it.
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