Jetman 12-16

EPISODE 12

Inoue's back and he brought a weird episode with him! It certainly is a weird one, but I like it. It's an Agatha Christie type of strange mystery ON A BUS. Of the heroes, the episode focuses mainly on Kaori and Raita, returning from Japan's favorite past-time of dressing like Pinocchio and strolling through the mountains. And this time, they chose the wrong bus to ride...

The bus has a Dimension Bug placed on it, and it's a cool concept, like Odagiri's jet or the apartment building come to life. The whole bus being the monster, it begins picking off passengers one by one, each time the bus rides through a tunnel. We have the familiar types of paranoid people these kinds of stories require, from a cop who's seen too much (and one day from retirement!) to a jittery criminal to a paranoid business man to a suicidal woman played by Pink Flash.

Kaori really steps up and kicks ass in this episode, taking charge and not backing down from the threat, while Raita acknowledges his fear of the situation. The only thing I don't like is...it's obvious it's nobody on the bus killing the people, and when Raita wants to call in the other Jetman members, Kaori wants to hold off on bothering them. And it's like...what? If they had called the others, chances are the Dimension Beast would have shown itself sooner, and maybe a couple of the passengers could have been saved. It's insane that anybody on the bus thought it was another passenger killing people off, when the victims die by being turned into bubbly foam, which brings to mind the original Kamen Rider series, which is kind of neat. Obviously, it's a Vyram plot.

But I like how the episode focuses on just two members of the team, and the spectacle the show attempts in its depiction of the monstrous bus, tossing people around with tentacles and proving to be a pain even when Kaori and Raita get around to transforming. A strange, entertaining episode.

EPISODES 13 & 14

These episodes are brought to you in part by Aaron Spelling. This two-parter is good, but not as strong as the later episodes that deal with the Ryu-Kaori-Gai love triangle. These episodes are unfortunately a little too cliched. It's a lot of Gai being bullheaded about Kaori, upset that she works hard on birthday presents for Ryu, upset that she doesn't see that Ryu doesn't like her like that, upset that Ryu doesn't take Kaori's feelings into consideration. (I used to wonder why Gai gets mad when Ryu's insensitive towards Kaori, since it should work in his favor! But his getting so hurt on her behalf does show that his feelings for Kaori are genuine, even if it's detrimental to his wants.) It's a lot of Kaori running away in tears. Add on top of this that Grey starts taking a liking to Maria and her piano playin', with Radeige shooting the occasional dirty look, and you've got one soapy episode. (Two soapy episodes.)

This episode also, unfortunately, introduces the idea that Raita's into Kaori, too. Now, the terrible episode 26 goes hog-wild with this in a ridiculous way, but here it goes kind of unanswered -- Raita just makes a cryptic statement that Ako believes means he likes Kaori. With Ryu and Gai fighting about Kaori all of the time, Raita's just one too many, so I've always hated that they try to throw him into the mix, while it also robs his relationship with Satsuki of sweetness. And it's just, like...cripes, why not have Ako love her, too? Why stop there? Have Odagiri love her. Have Radeige love her. Grey. Maria. Not Toran, though, because he'd totally think she had, like, cooties, dude.

Random note: This two-parter is the debut of Fire Bazooka. I love the bit where Red Hawk -- the only surviving member of Jetman, since the four others are captured by the camera monster -- has to fire the bazooka on his own, the kickback of which flings him WAAAAY back. These are good episodes for Ryu; I really like when Gai's going off on him, and asks if he's ever even loved anyone before, and Ryu just kind of stops dead, stunned, thinking of Rie. That was a massive barrel of salt Gai throws into a gigantic wound there. Ryu's reaction here, a sadness that stills him, makes clear and sets up his shocking breakdown in the middle of the series.

And I like that the episode really highlights Ryu's professionalism, and how he dives into his work to bury his pain; the others are captured, Gai's of no help to him building Fire Bazooka. It's all up to Ryu, and he comes through.

EPISODE 15

The episode that answers the question everyone's had for 14 episodes now: "Hey, isn't Ako supposed to be in school?" I guess you're just supposed to assume that she's a delinquent always playing hooky, but it's a good question. It's a question that must have pestered this episode's writer, Mami Watanabe. Watanabe had written standalone episodes of Turboranger and Fiveman, and only contributes two episodes to Jetman, for some reason.

Megaranger's 37th episode owes a little to this episode, IMO. The monster goes around absorbing female voices, which threatens to totally ruin the recital Ako and her best friend are meant to sing at. People are quick to dismiss this episode as "filler," but I like how it shows more to Ako than just the wise-crackin' punk we usually see. Sayuri Uchida's just such a likable performer, she really sells it, and Ako's friendship with Kyoko is so genuine and believable. The episode does a good job of conveying how difficult it is for Ako to sneak off to Jetman duties, while juggling school life and hanging with her friends; how conflicted she is about lying to her friend, who she's promised to always be honest with. It's a shame we didn't see more of Kyoko.

Random note: I'm not surprised, not surprised at all, that Raita's irritating, high-pitched voice is what ends up destroying Voice Jigen, causing his voice-collecting meter to explode.

Random note #2: In this episode, Blue Swallow stands in the middle of the team, announcing the "Chojin Sentai" portion of their introduction. Now, I'm not 100% sure on this, but I *think* it's the first time in a Sentai a non-Red has done this. And Jetman only does this once more, in episode 19, with White Swan. It's interesting that Jetman breaks the rule with its two heroines.

EPISODE 16

This episode should have been a Liveman. It would have fit better there. While it's written by Kenichi Araki, I can easily imagine it being the sort of episode Kunio Fujii would have wrote for Maskman or Liveman. I like this episode, but it just doesn't work for me as a Jetman episode.

This is the one where Toran's plan involves a monster who can bring to life anything depicted in an image. Eventually, the painting of a girl is brought to life, and she ends up being one of the monster's weaknesses. The majority of the episode is focused on Ryu trying to reunite this Girl From the Painting with her painter -- a man in critical condition. The painting is of the man's deceased daughter, and Ryu thinks if he can get her to visit and play a tune on her ocarina, it will help the man pull through. But them crafty Vyram bastards just keep gettin' in the way!

Here's why I think this would have been a good Liveman episode: the characters believe that the painter poured his life into painting his daughter, giving the painting a sort of life, and that's why it's so effective as an art-piece AND why the girl appears to be more than any of the other images conjured up by Toran's monster. The belief that one can pour their own life and love into a creation, which gives that creation life, is an idea right up Liveman's alley. (The Liveman episode with the girl's living doll is close to this idea, though.) If this episode had been a Liveman, and had been a Jou/Yellow Lion focus, it would have worked damn well. Kazuhiko Nishimura would have sold it and conveyed all of the emotions required...

Because Jetman is stuck with Kotaro Tanaka. And, to try to be fair, it's not entirely his fault why this episode doesn't work. I mean, he's just kind of on auto-pilot and you don't even really know why Ryu cares so much about this basically ghost of a girl trying to save her dying dad. I don't think this episode would work with ANY of the Jetman heroes, except for maybe Kaori. With Kaori, we've already been told that her parents are kind of distant and always traveling for business reasons. So you could make the connection that she's helping a daughter reunite with her father, in a way making up for a connection she wants but is missing. So, it doesn't work with Ryu and it doesn't work with Tanaka's by-the-numbers performance.

And I think a lot of blame can be placed on the direction, with director Kiyoshi Arai focusing more on a dreamy, hazy visual look and the style rather than focusing on the emotions of the piece.

Which is a shame, because the girl is played by Hiromi Yuhara. I've written about her in my Kamen Rider Black write-ups, I think she's one of the more memorable guest-stars in toku. She guest-starred in a lot of late '80s and early '90s toku, often as the target of the villains, and I think she's just so likable and is easily sympathetic. (It makes her villainous turns in Turboranger and Ohranger that more shocking and unsettling.)