Now we come to Jetman. This probably one of the more known/watched pre-Zyu Sentai shows as far as the western fandom goes. I'd hazard a guess that even newcomers have heard of it after a good amount of time in the fandom. This was one of the shows I had started back in college but had never gotten around to finishing (I think it was like the 3rd or 4th Sentai I had started at the time) due to stuff getting in the way. I will definitely have to spoil chunks of the show to talk about Black Condor and some other stuff so, SPOILERS AHEAD! Without further adieu...Jetto! Jetto! Jettoman!
Premise: Ryu Tendo and his girlfriend Rie are two of five people chosen by Commander Aya of Sky Force to become superhumans in order to better protect the planet. Just after Ryu undergoes the experiment, interdimensional invaders known as Vyram launch their attack destroying the base, killing Rie in the process, and causing the machine's birdonic waves to hit 4 civilians. Now Ryu and Commander Aya must bring them all together in order to combat this new threat as the planet's last line of defense: Jetman.
Characters: They're all pretty well acted and the cast plays off of each other pretty well.
- Ryu Tendo/Red Hawk: Ryu is a member of Sky Force and the only survivor of the official candidates. He is totally dedicated to beating the Vyram and I kind of think its due to both his sense of duty and not wanting Rie's death to have been in vain. He struggles when it comes to getting over her death and its because of that that he is initially unable to acknowledge Kaori's feelings. It leads a pretty surprising blow up between him and Gai in episode 22 after he tries to set Kaori up with Gai instead. When he finds out that Rie is not only alive but is a member of Vyram, it gets rough. The dude has a breakdown and shuts down to avoid processing the idea that Rie was one of the people he was fighting the whole time. That scene with him swinging in the park and introducing Rie (who isn't actually there) to Gai and Kaori will be forever burned into my memory. It does result in a pretty sweet scene where he and Gai finally come to an understanding.
- Kaori Rokumeikan/White Swan: Kaori is an heir to a rich family who longed to leave behind her boring life. She may be a refined lady but she definitely isn't afraid to slap someone around when she needs to. A great example of that is the episode "Laughing Diamond" because she gets kinda rough with Ako in order to break the spell on her after trying to overload her greed. She falls in love with Ryu and her eventual vow to outdo Rie seemed a bit selfish to me at first (and admittedly it was selfish of her after Ryu just explained everything) but then I realized that it was likely just as much about helping Ryu move on from her death as it was Kaori trying to get with him. Sadly it leads to one of the things that causes Ryu and Gai to come to blows in ep 22 and it feels like the team is close to breaking apart. The episode "I Can See!" is a fantastic episode for her that has nothing to do with the love subplot. Its pretty much an episode about her fighting against her supposed fate and coming out stronger through sheer force of will.
- Raita Ooshi/Yellow Owl: Raita is a kind-hearted farmer. Its pretty cool seeing someone of his build be a Sentai hero and the show really emphasizes his strength when he fights. I feel bad for the guy, he loves Kaori too but he doesn't feel like he has a shot with her. Due to this he just wants to protect her happiness. The cavemen episode even twists that knife deeper because he finds a prehistoric cavewoman who looks just like her and is actually into him but he has to leave her behind to fight Vyram. With that being said, he really doesn't get many episodes to work with.
- Ako Hayasaka/Blue Swallow: Ako is a high school student and is initially obsessed with money. In order to get her to join, Kaori immediately cut a check for her, tho Ako did return it once she saw how dangerous the Vyram are. She also has this snappy and snarky tone to her that I just love. Out of the entire team, her life was impacted the most by becoming a Jetman. Whenever the Vyram attack, she has to immediately drop what she is doing and run off to fight them. The episode "High School Student Warrior" makes it pretty clear how much this has affected her and actually leads to some friction between her and a friend from school. The episode "Walking Garbage" showed a surprisingly sentimental side to her.
- Gai Yuuki/Black Conder: If you've spent a good amount of time in the fandom, you've probably already heard of him. Gai doesn't start out like your typical Sentai hero. He smokes, gambles, drinks, and is pretty abrasive with a soft side that tends to show itself when something happens to Kaori. The dude is a pretty fantastic character and I'll be going more into him later in the review because I'm going to be talking about his entire arc.
I had originally picked the title of this review mainly because of the Ryu, Gai, and Kaori thing but it surprisingly applied to the people from the Reverse Dimension rather well. Slight spoilers incoming! They're from a dimension invaded by Vyram and it did not go well for them to put it mildly. The 3 survivors (Ray, Kanna, and Dan) made a robot called Jet Garuda and chased the Vyram to Earth in order to put a stop to them. You can probably guess how that goes for them given how this section started. Its a great what-if scenario of a team failing to protect their world and how handle it. The image of their home world being nothing but a deserted wreck filled me with dread and it showed just what the Vyram are capable of if Jetman wasn't there to stop them. Thats pretty much all I'm gonna say because I'd rather you watch the episodes yourself. The 3 give some nice performances and their death scenes were pretty tragic. On top of that they are played by Blue Flash (Ray), Pink Mask (Kanna), and Dan's actor ended up playing Triceraranger in Zyuranger. There are two other survivors (Duran and Ru) revealed later from the Berserk region and thankfully their ending isn't as much of a gut punch. I think its partially because well, Ryu's entire thing in the episode is about making sure he saves them is due to him still missing Rie and wants to spare them that pain. He straight up makes them promise to never let go of each other when the team sees them off.
Villains: Vyram are a pretty cool group and they have a lot of presence to them. I particularly like how the commanders have a habit of showing in these half-corporeal ghost-like forms (usually Tran tho) when its time to do their thing. It really helps give them this other-worldly feel. I quite like how their main goal besides conquering this dimension is trying to figure out who deserves the spot at the top of the food chain as their emperor. Their dimension beasts are probably my favorite MOTW designs so far. They're pretty striking and they hit that perfect mix between humanoid and monstrous so well that they kind of scare me. They even start mixing animal DNA with the dimension bugs to create even more powerful animal/object hybrids. Their plans are also pretty cool and I certainly wasn't expecting a lot of them.
Radiguet is pretty cool. The dude is not afraid to get his hands dirty when the time comes and he is definitely not someone you want to screw with. He can also be pretty brutal as shown in episodes 22-24. Him spitting a sword into Ray's chest was chilling. The Juuza episodes are a pretty good example of his ambitiousness. I felt bad for the man when he got his memories back during those episodes. His time as a human was brief but he looked so happy. His actor is pretty good and the dude legitimately looks like he should be playing a hero. I couldn't help but think he looked like Kamen Rider Black's actor. He takes a pretty hard fall in the second half of the show and its great seeing his pride finally fail him. He manages to lose a fight with a dove and then gets curb-stomped by Tranza a few episodes later. Somehow the curb-stomping from Tranza was more humiliating. The feud between him and Tranza is fantastic, especially when he manages to stop Tranza's ultimate robot out of sheer of will. Given his level of cruelty over the course of the show, its rather fitting that its Maria/Rie's final act that ends up ultimately bringing about his end.
Tran is probably my favorite of the Vyram. This kid is crazy and downright sadistic. He legitimately scares me. His plans are pretty unique and I wasn't expecting a lot of them. I love his aesthetic because he manages to look retro and high tech at the same time. He even has a modified power glove. The dude even fights like he has god mode on. They put this weird echo effect on his laughter and that just makes my skin crawl even more.
Tran gets an adult form in the episode "The Birth of Emperor Tranza" purely because the other members of Vryam made him angry enough. Tranza is played by Yutaka Hirose and the man's performance is fantastic as usual. Tranza's debut is fantastic as not only is he a massive threat, he is also exceptionally petty. He beats the snot out of Ryu while he is training, he out-golfs Gai to embarrass him in front of some ladies, and out eats Raita. He does all of this purely because he can. The man is also petty enough to actively save the team from one of Radiguet's plan when Radiguet was about to win. The way he goes out is amazing as Radiguet finally gets his vengence on him for all of the humiliation.
Grey is fun and there is just something cool to me about a robot with an interest in classical music and wine. The dude feels like a walking powerhouse and his suit actor does a great job in the role. He develops feelings for Maria after hearing her play the piano and I just find that really sweet. Grey even steps in between her and Radiguet at one point when Radiguet loses his temper and tries to strike her with his sword. The man has a pretty sweet scene in episode 42 where he saves Maria and all he wants is to hear her play music for him. Its also followed by a heart-breaking moment where he laments the fact that he is a robot purely because he can't keep her warm and has to rely on Red Hawk to keep her from freezing. That entire sequence and episode in general felt like one big long punch to the gut for me. He really loved her in the end to the point where begged the team for help when he found out what Radiguet's ultimate goal for her was. His final duel with Gai has this undertone of sadness to it because well, once Maria is gone, he devotes himself to a warrior's death. Gai actually really does not want to fight him at that point of Grey really gives him no choice. Even at the end, he tells Gai to go because he didn't want the man to see his finally moments. It was honestly a pretty bitter end to his character but it was pretty fitting at the same time as I couldn't see it playing out any other way.
Maria is cool and she delightfully takes none of Radiguet's bs and is more than happy to rub his nose in his failures. Its rather obvious to the audience but...she is Rie under Radiguet's control. Oh boy, I knew it was going to rough for Ryu when that shoe finally drops but it was even rougher on both of them than I thought. Seeing her beg Ryu to tell her whats happened because she can't remember hurt a lot. It hurt even more when Ryu couldn't bring himself to tell her that she hurt people under Vyram's control. This entire subplot builds to a heartbreaking conclusion because while Ryu manages to snap her out of Radiguet's control she ends up remembering the things she did as Maria and feels extremely guilty. This pretty much leads her to tricking them so she can get one last stab in at Radiguet.
Now I'm going to talk about Gai in detail because he is that well written. Odds are folks in the fandom already know how things play out with him but this is just in case someone stumbles on to this post: SPOILERS INCOMING! Even though I knew Gai's reputation going into the show, he still managed to surprise me. He acts like this suave lone wolf womanizing playboy at first but he really does love Kaori. Granted this comes in the form of only focusing on wanting to make Kaori his at first. His exact words at one point after she rejected him were "Hate I can handle. I'd rather you hate me than feel nothing.". He straight up hunted Maria down just to beg her to give Kaori back when she got captured by Photo Dimension. Maria even demands Ryu's head as the price for Kaori's return and for a second, Gai is desperate enough to consider it. Seeing him breakdown and crash his bike after Kaori confessed to Ryu after all that kind of hurt. I didn't even notice until the shadow doppelganger episode that Gai has the Jetman logo on his gloves. He totally loves being on the team more than he lets on. He utterly despised Ryu's whole act for half the show. He and Ryu managed to come to an understanding when Ryu has that breakdown. He basically tells Ryu to take all the time he needs and that the whole team will be waiting for him. All of that animosity disappearing and them intending to drink together afterwards were a nice touch as its made clear pretty early on that Ryu is not usually the drinking type. Now for the big thing, his arc ends with his death attending Ryu and Kaori's wedding. Gai being able to do that says a lot about just how much he changed in his relationship to both Kaori and Ryu even setting aside the 3 year timeskip after the final battle. I knew it was coming beforehand, I knew exactly what would happen...and it still hurt. Thats not even the only time he technically died in the show. He died briefly during the Juuza two-parter when he was turned to crystal and again when Radiguet stole his soul. Something I quite like about how Gai and Kaori's relationship is portrayed is that well, after they briefly get together, they don't seem too comfortable being around so often after a while (or at the very least, Gai isn't). Gai's little outburst at dinner in one episode pretty much gets across that he got more than he expected. Toshihide Wakamatsu is fantastic in the role and his performance was perfect.
Favorite Episodes: There are quite a few contenders for this section (as usual, endgame stuff is not up for this section). I'm torn between "The Hellbound Bus", "I Can See!", the demon 3-parter, "Ryu The Traitor", "Sneak Into The Commander's Body" and "Spin, Roulette of Life". Its a pretty tough call but I'm going to have go with "Spin, Roulette of Life" and "The Hellbound Bus" due to how unexpected they were.
In "Spin, Roulette of Life" everyone but Gai gets turned into statues and Gai has to save them in his own way while he effectively walks away from that fight with Grey's heart circuit. Its a pretty tense episode and the most tense points in the episode isn't actually the fight with the Bio-Dimension Beast: Its a game of roulette with the lives of the Jetmen at stake and the only thing Gai has to bet is Grey's heart. Its a fantastic episode because we see Gai getting incredibly frustrated and losing his cool because he can't figure out how Grey is winning so consistently with a 50-50 shot. Grey isn't even actually cheating either. Gai gets so desperate that he is willing to put his and Commander Aya's lives as the stake for the final bet. He ultimately resorts to cheating himself to win but in a nice bit of fair play and gambler's honor, he gives Grey back the last piece of his heart.
"The Hellbound Bus" is a fantastic mystery episode. The team has some time off so Kaori and Raita decide to take a bus to visit Raita's home town. As they go into a tunnel, one of the passengers goes missing and from there they have to figure out who the guilty party is as they start getting picked off one by one. Its fantastically tense and the mystery itself is pretty good. I was legitimately surprised at the outcome when I thought I had it figured out. Kaori is great in the episode as she manages to keep everyone calm despite their impending doom. Raita is so amazed that this is where he kind of falls in love with her himself. It also features a neat little cameo from Pink Flash as one of the passengers.
Mecha: Jet Icarus is a pretty sweet looking mecha and I love how the team has to train to get Jet Hawken and Icarus itself. It also has a surprising array of weapons. Jet Garuda is a nice mecha and I think its pretty cool that it doesn't have a humanoid head. Its introduction episode was pretty cool. I was honestly surprised at how much solo use Jet Icarus and Jet Garuda got after Great Icarus' debut. That pretty much shows that they're both still a key part of their arsenal. Tetraboy is pretty cool and it is also the most hyper robot I've ever seen. It was literally running circles around the monster in its debut and it has no chill whatsoever. I love that instead of combining with the other mecha, it just becomes a 4-barreled cannon finisher.
Music: The opening theme is pretty exciting and really gets me hyped. I couldn't help dancing to it or mimicking the poses in the opening sequence. Its also a nice ear worm of a song and I've caught myself humming it a lot. I wasn't expecting to like Kokoro Wa Tamago as much as I do. I've listened to it at least 20 times while I was writing this review. Listening to this song after seeing the final episode hurt a lot. I don't usually go into the visuals when talking about the music but I absolutely love the retro look of the ending sequence. It feels like a brief history of aviation and I love when Sentai does stuff like this for its ending sequences. The show's bgm is pretty good and Vyram's theme is nicely creepy and unsettling. Honoo No Condor (Black Condor's theme) is great and plays over a pretty awesome fight in the episode "Marriage Vacuum Cleaner".
Final Thoughts: This is the third time I have inadvertently covered a Sentai during its anniversary year, the other two being Dekaranger (during its 10th anniversary) and Timeranger (during its 20th anniversary). Its interesting how the show opens up with a 3-parter and immediately goes into a 2-parter. Given how the episode "Walking Garbage" ended, I was a bit surprised at how the Dryer Dimension episode ended because I was expecting another gut punch. I've had issues with Inoue's writing in the past cuz some of it irritated me a lot (namely Kamen Rider The First, The Next, and Kiva) but this show is him at some of his best imo. That slugfest in episode 22 between Gai and Ryu over Ryu trying to set him up with Kaori made it feel like the whole world was about to come crashing down, especially when Raita jumped into the fray. All of that was before Vyram even attacked in the episode. I'm amazed this show had me that interested in a love triangle. Overall its a good show and well worth your time so if you're curious about it, give it a watch.
