Jetman 51

EPISODE 51

The entire A-Part is a mecha battle! Nooooooooooooooooo! I really don't like the finales that devote so much time to mecha battles. And with a show like Jetman, the final fight needed to be smaller and personal. Mecha battles are always just so easy to tune out, so impersonal. And I hate when head villains are basically reduced to monsters of the week, which is basically what happens here.

The funny thing is just how fast the Jetman burn through their mecha. Jet Icarus is losing arms, Jet Garuda's getting a hole punched into it. When things look desperate, Odagiri -- in the cockpit of Great Icarus with the team -- calls out Tetra Boy. Shuh! Like that's going to do anything. Why's this show so gung-ho for Tetra Boy?!?! Only...Tetra Boy manages to land a blow on Ragem's back, which has been the only thing in battle to hurt it. So...Bandai gets its way. They've finally made Tetra Boy do something as important as they seem to think he is. That's messed up. Tetra Boy! C'mon! The "Boy" mechas are a joke! Oh, well, at least Tetra Boy gets his arms pulled off. Inoue and his thing against arms...

Ragem's back wound is the one nice, personal detail of this battle. It's the wound Rie gave Radeige. Rie didn't die for nothing. Ryu sees this as an opportunity to kill Radeige, he takes Jet Garuda on his own to restrain him, ordering the others in Jet Icarus to stab through Radeige/Ragem, which will also put him at risk. I always wondered if Ryu was just ready to heroically sacrifice himself here or if there was a part of him motivated by the idea of taking this as a way to rejoin Rie. Radeige/Ragem is a weasel to the end, latching on to the Jet Garuda as he collapses and explodes in death. Ryu transforms at the last minute. Victory is won. Or is it? Radeige's last words are that his soul will forever haunt the Jetman. And that's kind of made me take a different view of what happens...

In the B-Part. Jetman wanted to be a different show, and it was certainly different to dedicate the entire second half to non-action -- all character stuff, all denouement, the glimpse of their lives after the battle. This just wasn't the way things were done at the time, but again is something that's been made more common thanks to Jetman doing it first. (I'm not going to credit Jetman with everything; I don't think Jetman would exist or would have been allowed the freedom to do things like this if it wasn't for what Hirohisa Soda accomplished with the franchise in the '80s, pushing Sentai further and further, appealing to viewers of all ages.)

Kaori's getting married. It's saved as a big reveal who Kaori is marrying, I guess it's meant as a shock that it's Ryu. (It wasn't a given that the shed scene in the previous episode was the first step in making them a couple.) It might feel fast, but there IS supposed to be a three-year time jump. That's easy to forget in these 20 minute episodes, especially these last couple that are trying to cover so much ground.

And I'd like to use this time to point out that KOTARO TANAKA AND RIKA KISHIDA DID NOT GET MARRIED IN REAL LIFE. It's a rumor that only exists in the English-speaking fandom. Go Google it in Google Japan. I'll wait. Zero results, right? That's because the Japanese version of this rumor is that he married Sayuri Uchida, which is also false.

Anyway, Raita's been reunited with Satsuki, and they're a couple, in a nice callback to episode 9; he's still hard at work in his fields. Ako's become an idol. Seriously?! C'mon! I don't see Ako being an idol at all. I think they should have brought back her chorus pal Kyoko (from episode 15) and made HER an idol, with Ako as her manager. I could easily imagine Ako being a big-mouthed manager who knew how to navigate the murky world of showbiz and would put people in their place with her attitude. They're all at the wedding, even Odagiri. Everyone notices Gai's absence. (You know who else is absent? Kaori's butler! Where'd the hell he disappear to in this series? It's really weird he wouldn't be at her wedding, considering how close he was to her.)

Anyway, we all know what happens with Gai here. It's pretty much the number one thing associated with Jetman. Gai's running late to the wedding, stopping off to buy flowers. He makes the mistake of stopping a purse snatcher and is fatally stabbed. I've covered this turn of events many, many times. You know I'm not a fan of it, for many reasons. First -- REMEMBER WHEN THE JETMAN HAD BIRDONIC POWERS OUT OF SUIT?!?! Yeah, why should you when the writers don't. Gai once punched a goon down an alleyway. He crushed his sax while playing it. Ako used the abilities to make money at gym class, jumping heights that would make a kaizo ningen worry. But a little switchblade is going to fatally wound Gai? HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. That blade should have curled up, like when Moe tries to stab Curly in the noggin in an old Three Stooges short.

I've long tried to rationalize why Inoue felt like he had to kill Gai. To match the way his counterpart ends up in Gatchaman? To contrast the way a reformed thug like Gai gets killed by the type of person he could have ended up being, if not for Jetman and the friends he made? To show that the world still has plenty of earthly threats for our heroes, even after they've devoted time and blood fighting supervillains?

In all of the times I've watched this show, I never paid attention to Radeige's final words. Is it because they just seem like generic villain taunts? Is it because it comes at the end of a mecha-fest that makes me sleepy? "My soul will forever haunt you." And then it hit me: maybe Gai's senseless death is part of a curse placed on the team by Radeige. There's the irony in the type of person who kills Gai. The fact that it will ruin what should be the happiest day of Ryu and Kaori's lives. (And Gai was enjoying himself, too.) That Gai made so much progress, benefited so much from the Jetman, truly making friends -- and he's taken from them in such a fast, cruel way, on such a day, a day that seems to be reuniting them for the first time since their victory against Vyram. (And, hey, Radeige is meant to be a vampire, and we saw him in episode 28 practicing occult rituals. I've also always wondered if the white mask covering his left eye is meant to evoke the Phantom of the Opera. All meaning: Radeige's meant to be supernatural character out of gothic horror.)

That, to me, would make sense in terms of what a despicable, soulless, cruel, conniving monster Radeige was supposed to be, and it would also take away some of the sting of what I've always seen as characters behaving stupidly. Like...I've always thought "Geez, why doesn't Gai just get his dumb ass to a hospital? I'm sure his friends would rather he survive than die at their reception." But if this was part of Radeige's curse, then his making it to the wedding is kind of a victory over Radeige's final revenge. He gets to see his friends one last time, let them know what they mean to him and that he loves them, thanks them, and is genuinely happy for them and at peace with himself for maybe the first time in his life. Maybe Radeige's Curse intended he die on the street, looking like he avoided the wedding out of spite or residual jealousy, driving a wedge into the team once more. But Gai beat it.

It's still a downer, and a tryhard way to end your show for the sake of a shock, but I thought the idea of Radeige haunting them was interesting to think about. (In all of my years in the fandom talking about Jetman, I don't think I've seen anyone bring this theory up. So it's mine! And in the event I'm forgetting something, I'll require time-stamped, photographic evidence to prove otherwise! It's mine, I tell ya!)

The wedding is packed with JAC people; I typically spot Shoji Hachisuka (Blue Swallow), Hirofumi Ishigaki (Yellow Owl), Hiroshi Maeda (Red Hawk sub) and Chie Tanabe (Kaori and Ako stunt-double). (And this is after Gai is murdered by Naoki "Black Condor" Oofuji.) The biggest part is given to Kazuo Niibori as the priest marrying Ryu and Kaori. Jetman is Niibori's swan song (sorry) as Red, so it's nice he's given a role that gets him some notice. The show is again breaking ground by having an actual wedding between heroes. I always saw Niibori's retirement as a performer as the same kind of End of Era feel that Jetman has as a whole. (I often joke that he got out when the going was good, since some crazy Reds are around the corner. While I know Niibori likes playing comedic roles, I still can't picture him as, say, Red Racer.)

One really nice touch that I've always liked is Rie's role in this episode. It's been the only time I've liked Kokoro wa Tamago -- that intro is good, anyway. Ryu just glances into the distance and Rie appears. She smiles, nodding in approval as the intro to Kokoro wa Tamago begins and she fades. It kicks off the nostalgic clipdown ED credits, which end with a newly recreated version of the eyecatch, which is pretty cool. (And leaves you on a happier note since Gai's there.)

But that's not all of Jetman! My next post covers their further adventures and a wrap-up.