Jetman 50

This is actually Tomihisa Naruse, Sayuri Uchida, Kotaro Tanaka, Rika Kishida and Toshihide Wakamatsu in suit.

EPISODE 50

A standout episode, which when you see the Maria two-parter sandwiched between it and Toranza's final episode, makes you realize how lesser those episodes feel.

A heartbroken and lost Ryu decides to act alone and seek out Radeige, wanting to kill him even if it costs him his own life. Radeige, I suppose, is supposed to be mourning Maria, as well -- he sits on his throne, holding a flower which he turns into a never-ending rain of petals, before hearing and answering Red Hawk's challenge.

Grey, I take it to mean is also heartbroken over losing Maria, and decides to seek a duel to the death with rival Gai -- the human version of Grey, really, a man passionate about music, alcohol and women, who both end up finding their hearts over the course of the series. They share some of the same qualities, so it's great that the various writers picked up on Grey and Gai's rivalry and helped lead it to this conclusion.

Amemiya returns to direct the final two episodes, so we get some interesting shots (the already mentioned rain of petals; the aerial crane shot of when Grey dies) and contributions. When Amemiya's directed episodes of the series, you can spot his attention to detail. Mecha battles will have more elaborate models and shots; battles will have interesting and unique angles. Here, in Black Condor's final fight with Grey, we get the debut of the hero's broken helmet, which many shows go on to copy.

While Gai's off fighting Grey, the others seek out Ryu before he gets himself killed. Ryu abandoning his team, deciding to settle things on his own is so unlike their usually dependable leader, who's always been there for them, so it's nice to see the others come to rally around him and save HIM. Taking a page from the Gai Playbook, Kaori takes a dangerous hit for Ryu's sake. He manages to set aside his hunger for revenge long enough to get her to safety...LEAVING AKO AND RAITA TO FIGHT RADEIGE! That's crazy! Ako and Raita!

Ryu gets Kaori to an abandoned shed in a scene that's filmed really nicely, but...I've always had a problem with it. This is the scene where Kaori's meant to finally get Ryu over Rie and begin to see her. It should be such a stirring and powerful scene where so many threads of the show's storylines join and tie up, but...the writing lets me down. Rika Kishida does a great job here; Ryu's still kind of blinded by rage, so he's still and quiet, so Kotaro Tanaka's not doing anything to tank it, either. It's the writing...

Kaori's truly sad to see Ryu sink to such a low. And she tells him that Rie would be sad to see him like that, and that breaks through to him. She tells him that Ryu, fighting on his own for revenge, isn't the person and hero that Rie fell in love with, and that all five of them need to work together or they won't win. She then brings up Rie's final words to Ryu in the last episode, in which Rie begged Ryu to forget her and wipe away any trace of her from his heart.

This scene is filmed well, with Kaori beginning Rie's quote, while the camera pans across a sullen Ryu, looking downward, and it becomes Rie to finish her line. I think what bugs me so much about this scene is that it's Kaori speaking to Ryu just as much as Rie; what she describes as what Rie feels is how Kaori feels. Rie's last words to Ryu are very similar to Kaori's exact words from way back in episode 22 -- after being shown Rie's grave, she shows up the next day and thoughtlessly vowed she'd rid Ryu's heart of the memory of Rie. That was such a low, petty point for Kaori, just so very callous, and I don't like that Rie's actual final words are so similar, and that Kaori's using them here to make her point.

And I feel like the lines being so close is intentional. There's meant to be a lot of different layers to this scene. Kaori is in the position of the team that was meant for Rie; her words echo Rie's. He's beginning to let Rie go and see Kaori, the scene ending with him embracing the image of Rie before he snaps to and realizes it's Kaori. I love the filming of this scene, the idea behind it, the emotions behind it, the way the scene begins. But I think they just needed to change Rie's final words, I think it was a mistake. To me, it ends up playing like Kaori being a little manipulative, and that's not what it's supposed to be at all. She's laying it all out for Ryu and telling him that they need him in the here and now, SHE needs him in the here and now, as the hero and good guy he's always been. And that makes him snap out of it.

Ryu and Kaori return to Ako and Raita, who are still battling Radeige while those two have been off chatting. Having defeated Grey, Gai joins them, and we get one last epic transformation sequence. (When they pose in this scene, it's actually the actors in-suit. There's often such a big deal made about that scene in Dairanger, with the actors doing their roll call out of suit. It's awesome -- it was one of my Toku Moments of Awesometicity on YouTube -- and subsequent shows aped it to lesser effect. Dairanger is credited with doing the first out of suit roll call, but Jetman basically did it first, it's just that the actors are actually in suit here.) We get a brief little fight with Radeige, set to the opening theme, in which the Jetman join together as a fire bird in attack. Radeige reveals his super-duper monster form, Ragem, going giant and leaving us on a cliffhanger that's kind of a bummer, because all signs point to a mecha-heavy finale. Uh-oh.

Random note: When Grey dies, he just loses power and shuts off. No disintegrating, no explosion. I feel like Skynet might find him.