Fiveman Episodes 11-14

 

 

EPISODE 11

Ho-hum. It's nice that they thought to include a student character, but this episode is just half-baked -- although it's a premise you can easily imagine working in a better made show that had care put into it and whimsy.

It begins with Ken saying he plays the lottery in hopes of winning and rebuilding their school; at the same time, an old student goes on a treasure hunt because he wants the riches to rebuild the school. Meanwhile, Dongoros wants to go on the same treasure hunt because he's a greedy bastard. You can picture an earlier show making the emotional connection between Ken and the student and the kind of crazy, dangerous, race-against-the-clock scenario of them getting to the treasure before Dongoros. This should be whimsical and adventurous! It should be The Goonies!

But it's cheap. It's all set at the rocky location. And, in the middle of the episode, we learn that it's not a treasure the map leads to, but...a stone which can make whoever holds it fly. And the Zone decide they should keep this out of Fiveman's hands because they'll somehow be REALLY fucked if Fiveman can fly, but not when they keep coming up with plans so bad they'd embarrass Rito Revolto. (I think Dongoros should have been like "Fuck that" once he heard the treasure wasn't gold or silver he'd been hoping for, but a rock.)

It's not like the kid guest star is bad or anything, but there's no real bond with Ken. (This show lacks heart! No money + no heart + no whimsy = Fiveman.) Think of Ultraman 80, the way Yamato taught a full class, but he had those five that were focused on and regulars. You could get a little more emotionally invested there. If Super wanted to go treasure hunting with Yamato, you'd care a little more. Not with this rando who seems more like a regular kid guest star than a supposed pupil the Hoshikawas had off-screen.

And the kicker is...Dongoros gets the treasure and it just rolls out from its location to the battlefield, blinds the villains with a light and...disappears into the sky. And nothing is said about it! It's all forgotten about! The Fiveman never even knew what this thing was. What the hell's the point of it? Where's the flying Fiveman I was promised?!? 

 

 

EPISODE 12

An episode that almost works but not quite. Again, Fiveman leaves out some of the building blocks of emotion and heart that previous shows had.

Arthur G6 takes a hit shielding the team and winds up an amnesiac, in pieces in a junkyard where a nerdy outcast hangs out to tinker with electronics. The kid apparently puts Arthur back together yet is shocked with Arthur's up and about and helping him deal with bullies? Was a page missing from the script or something? Once Arthur regains his memory, he enlists the kid to help him access the programming which will allow him to become the Earth Cannon.

Once again Fiveman brings an episode that's reminiscent of a previous show's more successful attempts. Here, you're reminded of the Bioman where Peebo loses his memory and befriends a nerd. I also feel like a better show would have given Arthur more of a reason to put himself in danger and take the hit for the team or have gotten drama out of it by having one of the team have just gotten into an argument with Arthur or something. But, no. Between their lack of chemistry and lazy scripts like this, the Fiveman at times barely feel like the stars of their own show.

 

 

EPISODE 13

Hey, Fiveman invented STOMP!

This episode may be called "Do Re Mi Fight," but the action I'm appreciative for here is the teachin' action, because it's nice of the show to remember they're teachers! Remi's subbing for a music teacher friend and, wouldn't you know it, the music they're rehearsing interferes with the latest monster's attack. We've seen this plot before, it's getting redundant to point out. (It's a Maskman and Liveman episode squeezed together.)

There's two things that bug me about this episode...

1) The bad guys think the problem is eliminated once they trash Remi's classroom. Like, they thought there was ZERO chance of ANY other type of music interfering with their easily distracted monster.

2) I hate that Gaku's the one who's looking around the classroom and realizes that they can turn any object into an instrument. That obviously should have been an observation of the team's MUSIC TEACHER.

 

 

EPISODE 14

This episode almost gets a right amount of heart and whimsy. Almost...

Another familiar scenario, in which a kid is bullied for telling tall tales, like she's friends with Fiveman. She learns her lesson after nearly leading the villains to their base and is rewarded with the Fiveman showing up and acting like they're her friend and she isn't a liar, so...she gets rewarded for her lying? (Yeah, yeah, I know it's that she learned better and vowed not to lie anymore and that's why they're helping her save face, but it still plays funny.)

The guest star is likable enough, but in an episode called "Cute Liar," you expect a really ornery and rambunctious character -- and that's where you get a lot of fun and comedy, but she's just pretty normal. She creates a rift between Ken and Fumiya, the former not wanting to trust her, and they unbelievably nearly come to blows about it. 

When I covered each Sentai member, I talked about how Ken and Fumiya seem interchangeable -- they'll both be depicted as goofballs but then hardheaded. To me, the elementary school Phys Ed teacher should be the fun-loving goofball who wants to play around, so I feel like Ken should have been on the kid's side here. (It's middle and high school gym teachers that are psychotic assholes.) They often put Fumiya in light, comedic situations and point out that he's the youngest, but Kobayashi always seems like a grump who thinks he's too good for the show (or is still bitter about losing Kamen Rider) and "fun" moments with his character don't work -- so just have Fumiya be the argumentative pissant all the time.