Fiveman Episodes 7-10

 

EPISODE 7

Anytime I try to rewatch Fiveman, this episode is a roadblock. I hit the preview and am like "Oh, no." I start the episode and am like "Oh, no." I finish the episode, and I'm like "Oh, no."

There's worse episodes out there. There's worse Fiveman out there. There's dumber episodes out there. There's dumber episodes of Fiveman out there. But there's just something about this episode that I can't stand. It's bad and dumb.

Dongoros pays a giant monster to terrorize Earth. Because he's cheap, he picks a kid, ha-ha. The whole episode is Kazumi and Fumiya trying to find out the kid's problem, and his problem is he's bad at math. So the whole episode is Kazumi teaching him math. (One of the methods is by getting him to subtract how many Zone enemies the Fiveman kill in their battle. Wholesome!) I have to say, though, that I like how the show always has Fumiya being able to figure out alien languages. It's been said that the show had originally planned for Ken to be an adoptive brother, but wouldn't it have been more interesting if Fumiya was maybe an alien child the Hoshikawas adopted, explaining his knowledge? 

The monster's design isn't cute enough for this scenario. And this episode is an early but good encapsulation for why Fiveman fails in most endeavors -- it's going for this cutesy, whimsical, offbeat vibe, but nobody's heart is really in it. Kazumi actress Kazuko Miyata tries her damnedest here, but a lot of the times, I don't feel like the Hoshikawa cast is caring and present enough to make these situations soar. Nobody is in sync, nobody clicks, nobody seems like they want to be here. Fumiya especially. The guy really seems like he hates everything and he'd rather be anywhere but filming this damn show. Don't give him anything sentimental or emotional to carry.

You want to be Flashman so bad, Fiveman? Well, you gotta listen to the complaints. Look at the Flashman cast. From Episode 1 they're just with it and on the same page and they really gel and you get the sense they all get along -- when I was a kid, I was under the impression the Flashman team were siblings. They ARE, in a sense, but not officially -- but they feel far more like a family than the Hoshikawas, Sentai's first family team. The Flashman cast are enjoying themselves, they elevate the work, they make the fantastic seem plausible. Now look at the Fiveman cast, who seem like they're being forced at gunpoint and don't really have chemistry -- and the only one with the presence to ever make things interesting is Keiko Hayase, and you know she's going to be shortchanged because Remi is Character Five of five.

 

EPISODE 8

This isn't a bad episode necessarily...it just has no oomph or emotional weight despite its tragic script. While it's a familiar scenario from writer Kunio Fujii, the fault is in the execution, and it's a shock that it's directed by such a great like Nagaishi when it falls so flat.

An alien prisoner of Zone's uses the last of her power to telepathically contact Gaku and arrange for an area where he can find and save her. The Zone use this opportunity to attack, and when things look bleak, the alien sacrifices herself to save Gaku. And...nobody cares.

The guest star IS sympathetic. You feel for the character, who is the last of her kind, as Zone uses her as basically a human battery to power Doldora's experiments, discarding her into a skeleton-filled pit when they have no more use for her. She's desperate to get out; the episode hammers home that she's the last survivor of her planet. You don't expect the show to kill her, but it does. Gaku failed in saving her, but she saves Gaku. And there's just no emotional impact to any of it. No tears for this young girl's sacrifice, no fiery rage for the perpetrator's of her demise, no swelling music... The episode ends with Gaku wishing for the girl's remaining crystal tear to return to her planet and be planted as a seed to restore it TSUZUKU.

This episode reminds me of that early Maskman episode Fujii wrote with the alien who contacts Takeru via his Aura Power for help. I never cared for that episode, because Maskman was meant to be grounded and here was a really out of place episode involving space and aliens for no reason. But that episode had an urgency, Ryousuke Kaizu gave a performance of intense determination, it was filmed well, it had tension and the alien was saved in the end...

This Fiveman has the gutsier ending of killing the guest off, but it's just such a flat episode with no emotion. All of the Fiveman just seem so...deflated. No connection to the material or each other, HOW THE HELL DO TWO OF THE CAST MEMBERS MARRY ONE ANOTHER WHEN THERE'S NO CONNECTION?!?!

"But Shougo, this wasn't an important episode, why get hung up on it?" Because that Maskman episode wasn't important, either, but Kaizu sure acted like it was! Effort is the key word here, and it's what Fiveman lacks. 

 

EPISODE 9

I know this episode's a kind of fan favorite -- more notorious for having the "evil" Sentai team, Gingaman, rather than anything truly noteworthy, and more notorious for them sharing a name with a later real Sentai -- but it's never worked for me. I *think* it wants to be a wild and crazy episode like Changeman 21, which straddles the line between serious and out there comedy, but...the "funny" portion of this Fiveman isn't funny, and its "serious" portion...isn't all that serious. (Ooh, the bad guys want to hijack the airwaves and hypnotize the world into worshipping Meadow.)

I know it's easy to play ghostwriter on an old episode or movie, but I would have preferred for this episode to be played a little straighter. Have the Zone send out a fake Sentai team -- it can be their ragtag group of aliens, but give them a Sentai-esque design to hide behind. By having them be Zone's rejects, our heroes immediately recognize them and know something's up. To me, it would have been a little more interesting if the Fiveman saw the public take to this new team and so they were able to think, "Hey, maybe we could leave the safety of the Earth to them and go find our parents* or resume teaching or..."

But, no. The Gingaman are those Zone extras (the BB Saloon crowd they ain't). Our heroes know they're bad, and it's the bad guys themselves who expose themselves and stop their own plan so...

I think this episode might have worked in a previous show, with a Soda who was more on the ball and a more game cast.

Oh, and that reporter woman is obnoxious.

*I know at this point in the show they believe their parents are dead, but still...you could have had one or two of them holding out hope and being like, "We could spend this time searching for mom and dad..."

 

EPISODE 10

I'm beginning to beat a dead horse, but here's a good episode that's marred by there being a lack of emotional connection. It's the first episode written by Inoue, and you're kind of thankful because it at least has a spark of life to it. The episode is also marred by the guest character, Zoba, having one of the dopiest outfits they spent all of four minutes designing and throwing together. (A shame, because the guest actor is pretty good.)

The big mistake of the episode is giving it to Fumiya. (Not the actor you want to give emotional stuff to, remember.) I wouldn't say he takes a liking to Zoba. He just for no known reason decides to put himself in danger and try to help him without much motivation. Zoba is a former royal, the last survivor of his planet, who has undergone cybernetic surgery in order to get revenge on Doldora, who led the attack, the first planet taken by Zone. Consumed with revenge, Zoba doesn't hesitate to attack anyone in order to replenish energy, which is by drinking human blood.

So he's kind of one of Inoue's tragic, gothic antiheroes. I know it's predictable, but give this episode to Kazumi. Hint at some romantic undercurrent, but you don't have to go there -- have it be that she responds to his sorrow over losing his younger sibling since she's the caretaker of her younger siblings.

Zoba has a speech where he tells the Hoshikawas about losing his family and they at least had each other. Fumiya begins this episode by playfully stealing food from his siblings at a cookout; you can look at this episode as Fumiya getting the focus because he feels bad for Zoba because he realizes how much he himself gets through because of his older siblings, that maybe helping him is a way of paying them back. (He steals his siblings' food but offers himself as food to this vampire he just met? Nandafuck?) I just don't feel that connection because Kobayashi just doesn't seem to work at that kind of emotional level.

At least it focuses on Doldora. Nishi is probably the best actress in the show, it's like an Atsuko Takahata situation in RX where a good actress and performance is being wasted in a show of lesser quality.