Fiveman Episode 15

 

EPISODE 15

The first good episode since Episode 2, dealing with Garoa's hatred for Gaku. And it's not some meaningless, pointless, empty thing like Fire Candle's "beef" (more like "cruelty-free beef substitute") with Gozyu Wolf -- it stems from the encounter all those years ago, the wound Gaku gave Garoa -- the scar that remains on his face, the scar that remains on his pride.

Garoa lures Gaku to a location for a showdown with the growing of a Shidon flower -- the flowers the Hoshikawas were growing in the first episode, the flower Gaku was growing with his students, which were both destroyed by Zone attacks. This creates a bit of a plothole for a later episode, but for now it just remains nice symbolism. Gaku and Garoa both take quite a beating and each retreat; Garoa sulks and bleeds in a cave, angrily shouting away the other Zone members who come to check on him. (It's a cool scene, with fellow warrior Billion being the only one to respect his privacy.) Gaku spends day and night trying to strengthen his sword-fighting, worrying his siblings...

Garoa challenges Gaku to a final showdown; a cage match that only the survivor can exit. Ken decides to disguise himself as Five Red and fight in his brother's place, but Gaku soon learns of the truth and makes his way to duel Garoa, where he ultimately ends up re-opening the wound he gave him as a child.

It's a strong episode with cool, nonstop action, believable motivations, tension and emotional ties to the characters' pasts. And I think they should have killed Garoa off in this episode because it's all downhill from here for him.

Garoa never quite worked as the intimidating presence he was meant to be. I blame actor Takeshi Ishikawa. He has moments where he's really good at selling Garoa's rage, but there's something awkward about him. It really seems to me like he has a problem with the suit, he's uncomfortable, can barely move. So he can move kind of clumsily; he often makes weird faces. (Out of discomfort? Feeling like he's practically masked, so he's overexaggerating?) 

Garoa's supposed to be a tough-as-nails, hardened warrior. Garoa had a nice moment a couple of episodes back in which he asked Meadow to punish him, rather than every Zone officer, for their failures. Tough, competent. But the way Ishikawa can awkwardly come across, I feel, leads the show to making Garoa comedic and putting him into embarrassing situations. It's really out of place and really ruins the character and ends up making him seem like one of the worst, weakest villains in the franchise. And they completely drop the rivalry with Red! I feel like Garoa would have been the perfect Sentai role for Shinzo Hotta -- he would have been a little older; which I think would help the character, and he he nails that growling, stern, pissed-off boss guy.

The plothole, BTW, is that Garoa has a Shidon flower to grow and that Meadow turns it into a monster. In the final stretch of episodes, it's revealed that the weakness of "Meadow" is the Shidon flower. The show obviously wasn't so planned out.