Fiveman Episodes 16-20

 

EPISODE 16

Lackluster episode in which the Fiveman rely on a (supposed) student of Remi's to take a picture of the Clock Up'd monster of the week, who speedily devours any item of food in the vicinity. It's a proto Pudgy Pig episode. How do they stop this dastardly fiend of a glutton? We see Gaku, the scientist, at one point in his lab coat, injecting a pumpkin with something. "Oh, they're putting sleeping medicine in there or poison or something to stop the monster, right?" WRONG! He's making the vegetables giant for the Fiveman to hide in so they can attack the unsuspecting monster as he digs in! So this episode's kind of a proto Zyu2, too, in its dumb solution to the fight.

The show finally woke me up with episode 15, only to turn around and serve a steaming heap of nothing within a giant vegetable like this?

 

 

EPISODE 17

The first episode since the first two that actually remembers that these guys are siblings. It's something that's supposed to make this show unique amongst all of the others -- these heroes know each other better than any other teams, they're meant to have that unbreakable bond, and that's what this episode's all about.

And so the Zone wonders how best to crack the Fiveman's unity. Doldora's plan is to pose as a caring woman to catch Fumiya's eye, and it's a plot that I think has a lot of potential for a more serialized show -- a villain getting a hero to fall in love with them to divide the team? Somewhere Inoue's kicking himself for not having the idea. But they do the best they can to cram this into 17 minutes and still be satisfying.

It sucks that it's a Fumiya episode, but I guess that Doldora is taking advantage of his youthful naivete. A lot of credit goes to Nishi for getting this episode to work, because she's really good as the too-good-to-be-true woman that you understand why Fumiya easily falls for her, and she's good at slipping back into her natural personality when she thinks she's achieved her goal and can drop her charade. And it's a nice, nasty trick that she gives her alias the name of Mama Hoshikawa (Midori), to further sink her fangs into Fumiya's heart!

 

EPISODE 18

It always surprises me when Inoue writes an episode focused on a kid. It just doesn't seem like him; he obviously doesn't care about the target demographic and writes what he wants, ignoring kids as audience members AND characters. The thing that the kid in this episode shares with an Inoue character, though, is being one of his Jerk Guest characters.

The kid is one of those Schoolyard Entrepreneurs, ready to do your homework or sell you something you don't need as long as you pay on time. He mirrors this episode's Zone monster, a greedy pig who fuels itself on money. Watching his old teacher Kazumi take a beating for him makes the kid realize the error of his ways and he gives up all of his money in an effort to save her. An episode with a kid AND a Lesson-Learnin'™ episode?! This is really, really unlike Inoue. Not a great episode, but the greedy kid is amusing.

I find it funny the way Fumiya pops up in this episode a couple of times dressed like an ass. It's like Inoue, after writing episode 10, realized he didn't like Kobayashi and is trying to embarrass him.

 

EPISODES 19-20

Flashman Envy returns! But Soda tweaks the script just enough so as not to be a total rip-off. Although? It would have helped to be a total rip-off, because at least Flashman found themselves in a desperate situation requiring a new mecha.

Oh, it begins well enough. We're introduced to galactic wanderer Gunther, who's traveling the cosmos looking for a good fight in his Five Robo-looking mecha. He soon makes his way to Earth to challenge the Five Robo; the Fiveman instantly recognize his mecha as being a work of their father's, which means Gunther stole it and that their parents may have actually survived the attack from the first episode.

In Flashman, you had Baraki wake up from a deep slumber, not trusting the Flashman, and you weren't certain if he was friend or foe. Here, Gunther's a definite foe, and I think he should have stayed that way -- for some reason, after learning that his robot DOES belong to their father, he switches sides. He tries to give Gaku some crucial info but is cut off by being turned to stone. Definitely not the impact of Baraki dying before delivering his message regarding the danger the Flashman are in.

Something about these episodes just don't work for me, and it's not just that I'm not a mecha fan. The Fiveman aren't in a situation requiring a new mecha, but here it is -- and it makes Super Five Robo while they're at it. Flashman and Maskman needed new mechas because theirs was trashed; Liveman and Turboranger needed new mechas for escalating threats. Fiveman? NO REASON. It was marked on Bandai's calendar, that's it.

It doesn't help that Part One is filled with some snoozy mecha battles, but Part Two fumbles the emotions for me. The Hoshikawas get a recording of their dad's voice through the mecha sound systems and it should be really emotional, but only Kazumi's actress is conveying anything. Everybody else sounds like they're listening to the P.A. reading the lines off-camera, as was probably the case. Remi goes "It's the first time I heard dad's voice," but...that ain't how she's acting.

And the last thing is the Gunther has the worst, stupidest, most embarrassing design in the history of toku. From the speedskater spandex suit to the fuzzy yellow hair to the tan-in-a-can make-up to the weird little visor tiara he wears (that looks like it's from Ginga Pink's mask)... You'd rack your brain trying to find a worse design. Try it. It's hideous. Hideaki Kusaka deserved better.

I'll give the episode this -- when Gunther's spent most of his screentime beating up the Fiveman, and then Zone attacks him along with the Fiveman, Gaku shields him from the blast. When Gunther asks why, Gaku says it's because he has answers to questions he has about his father. Whew! I thought for a second he was going to be a super nerd and be like "Duh! Because I'm a hero and seigi and stuff!" and it would have been so damn corny.

They miss another opportunity for whimsy by not playing up the idea that Star Five is the "sibling" robot of Five Robo. Everyone's asleep at the wheel here.

I just realized I have 28 more of these.