EPISODE 3
This isn't really a bad episode, per se, but quite a drop from the first two episodes. The first two episodes made the world of the show seem big -- from the Shidon planet to the packed school, to that island they filmed at in Episode 2. And this episode is a really reduced, isolated, small-scale thing focusing on Gaku and just ONE former student, and they're always just outside.
You still have to wonder why they even bothered making the Fiveman teachers only to immediately do away with that. The Japanese Wikipedia claims they moved away from it because they thought the younger members of the audience wouldn't care about teacher-student relationships. And if that's the case, I once again ask...why bother doing it in the first place? But I won't harp on that...too much.
It's always been clear that Fiveman was intended to be more lighthearted and kid-friendly after the late '80s Sentai shows focused on being "seishun dramas." I think that's a bit of a step backwards, that the shows had been aiming higher and evolving and the writers and staff were getting more comfortable with that style and now they're yanked back and tied down to wearing an outfit the franchise outgrew. Soda was obviously burning out, but I don't think he had his heart in doing a show like this at that point. And slap on top of that the way the show looks like it has zero budget and you end up with this half-cooked show that pleases nobody and nearly ended the franchise.
This episode is meant to show the parallels between Gaku and his student -- the lengths a teacher would go to in order to save his student -- and Billion and his cohort and the lengths a bad guy will go to in order to win, even at the cost of his good cohort. It's not entirely successful to me because Gaku's student is mischievous and not as amusing as the show thinks, so a bit bratty and unlikable, and the show is sugarcoated when it comes to the bad guys, so they don't go far showing Billion's cruelty. One of Soda's better shows would have established how close the two were with flashbacks at least. Billion doesn't act like Torarugin is anything but an ordinary monster of the week and not a former partner-in-crime. For me, it would have helped if Torarugin had been a face actor -- I really don't like his design.
Bottom line -- make Takeshi less of a shit, beef up the Billion/Torarugin side and maybe the episode would have worked more.
I like this one -- I've always liked Remi and Keiko Hayase, and when I first saw this episode, I had a strange fascination with drunken fist. Win-win!
The problem is that it's a little too early to have such a funky episode, and Fiveman doesn't want to commit to the comedic heights of the concept. I'm not saying the Fiveman should be running around going "EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!?!?!?" and screaming and mugging at the cameras like recent idiots Zenkaiger. (Pointing out how funny the situation is supposed to be doesn't make it funny, new shows.) But there's a happy medium, and Fiveman kind of holds back and doesn't take full advantage of the scenario -- and a modern viewer is probably under the impression it's a case where an old show is presenting a situation that hasn't aged well, so it comes across as unintentionally funny, when...no, it's supposed to be absurd and amusing. Take the scene with the cars being drunk by alcohol-poisoned gasoline and they fight each other -- Carranger would have gotten way more mileage (awful pun not intended) out of that situation, but here it's a tiny blip, played almost as a news clip. And you're just like, "Huh. That was amusing." Fiveman has such Flashman Envy -- it needed to jump into the bonkersness the way Flashman would with something like that pumpkinhead episode, for example.
I don't like Akihiko Yoshida's "zany" music for this show; the way it's used here is as bad as the new idiots who mug and yell at the camera.
Drunk Five Yellow piloting Five Robo to do drunken fist. C'mon. You don't see that everyday.
EPISODE 5
The first sucky thing to note about this episode is that Dongoros is now voiced by Osamu Katou instead of Takuzou Kamiyama -- and Kamiyama is SO MUCH BETTER. Katou just sounds like an old man thug; Kamiyama has a weird snobbish yet smart-ass sound to him -- it just went so much better for the character Dongoros is supposed to be. (The greedy guy worried about spending too much on their war, keeping track of every Dolyen spent? A pretty funny character...now ruined with irritating and mismatched voice-acting.)
This episode's a weird one to me. You have Dongoros leading a plan (?) to kidnap babies, put them into eggs and hatch them as birdpeople. Fiveman has Flashman Envy, but when Flashman depicted Mess messing with babies, it would always be in dark, disturbing ways. Here it's shocking that babies are targeted, but it's not treated as the screwed-up plan it is. Fumiya and Remi jump into the spotlight to save the babies to avenge losing their parents as babies. OK, that could work as good motivation, but it's undermined by the two hatching a freaking Kakuranger scheme with Fumiya pretending to be a baby to lure the monster out. Tonal inconsistency.
And if all that's not enough, we have an alien egg that finds its way to Earth, looking for its parents, mistaking everyone it encounters as its parent and hilarity...ensues? They discover the thing probably lost its parents in a Zone attack, and it cheerfully leaves Earth after the day is saved. Yay? Where exactly is it going?! The thing's design is also pretty shoddy, and it's one of voice-actress Akiko Muta's less sympathetic roles.
None of this comes together to work as any kind of unifying dramatic theme. Thumbs down!
EPISODE 6
The first episode of the show to be written by Mami Watanabe. She wrote some Turborangers I liked, but...whoo-whee, although it's a Remi episode, is this one a stinker. It's like one of those tween Zyuranger episodes, that lull after the introduction, where they dump some stinky episodes all while you know Burai's around the corner and you're waiting for the show to get to THAT...
Doldora hatches a cockamamie plan to make people lazy and is VERY smug in her success. They would have gotten away with it, too, if not for Remi tricking them into thinking she's a hard worker, so they walk into her ambush. This is just only one episode after the Zone falls for Fumiya being a baby and walking into THAT trap. So, while a big head rules Zone, they don't have much in the brains department.
An all-too-brief kung-fu fight courtesy of Remi is this episode's sole highlight.
And it all ties up with a nice message of working hard to please your family, mankind, and your corporate overlords, kids. TSUZUKU!
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