EPISODE 33
Garoa goofs when he tries to create his own spliced monster, with the monster being mostly useless as it bickers with itself until it accidentally discovers it can perform an attack which causes harsh winds, overturning anything in its path. Thanks to Arthur cleaning out some old junk, Gaku rediscovers his old menko cards and decides the best way to fight this monster is...to get it hooked on menko. (You see, the monster boasts that it can overturn anything, but Gaku challenges that it can't easily overturn the cards in a serious, high-stakes game of menko!)
Yeah...
It sounds bad, and it is -- but I CAN picture the scenario working...in a show with more heart and whimsy. Like, I can easily see this working in a Showa Ultraman show. Just a fun, little, lighthearted summer adventure where the broken monster gets caught up playing menko with a bunch of kids at a festival or something. It would tie into nostalgic feelings of childhood fun and games; it would be a little party. It would have the right vibe and music to pluck the heartstrings. (Ultraman Taro did an episode about a monster ruining a mochi-making celebration that was heartfelt and whimsical, for crying out loud!) So you could have had Gaku taking part in some festival with kids, and he decides to distract the monster with their game of menko that the monster gets obsessed with until he cheats. And you can have a nice message for the kids about cheating, but...no, Fiveman's lazy. If not for Arthur's random spring cleaning, Gaku would still be blowing around Japan from the monster's attack TO THIS DAY. I thought these guys were supposed to be smart.
Anyway, I know this episode is Garoa's final failure before Shubarie takes back over, but what's with how weird he looks here? The make-up's different, and his costume looks like the low quality one they use for the live shows at Korakuen. And it's extra pathetic the way the episode ends on a freeze frame of him being hauled off by Shubarie's Black Gorurin shrieking for help. Somebody on the staff really hated this character, methinks.
EPISODE 34
Shubarie takes over as the new-old captain and his first order of business is to send a monster to can humans so he can have a celebratory feast with the rest of Zone, calling humans the best delicacy. It's...pretty gross and twisted, and the cartoonish depiction of all of this doesn't detract from that. (I can see modern Twitter whining about all of the euphemisms you can make out of Dongoros' eagerness to be the one to eat Kazumi. I can also see modern Twitter whining about the way the shark monster targets women, with Remi luring him out by wearing a skirt she keeps lifting up. Ew, so inappropriate for a kids show!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
The demoted Garoa is reduced to cleaning the toilets of the ship. I know we've all thought about our Super Sentai villains using the bathroom, and here's Fiveman giving you a peek into that side of their lives. I guess that's one contribution it makes to the franchise.
EPISODE 35
You've gotta give Kunio Fujii credit for trying to turn in an emotional episode focused on what the loss of parents means in terms of responsibilities for the oldest child. It's dealing with the core theme of the series; it has a nice guest star in Yoko Nakamura. It has a pretty filming location in the field it's mostly set...it's almost there, but it just doesn't completely soar for me.
Logically, this episode needed to come earlier in the series as an emotional stumbling block the Hoshikawas needed to overcome -- Gaku's guilt that he's spent more time with their parents than his siblings have, and how he's reluctant to talk about them, secluding himself in an area that makes him think of them. But I wouldn't be surprised if Fujii held on to the idea, saving it for when the cast has more of a bond and...they don't. They don't feel any closer than they did at the start of the series. The five continuing to have no connection is what sinks this episode. Fucking Zone feel closer than they do. Guest star Yoko Nakamura feels closer to Gaku than any of his siblings do, and she's a new character we've never seen before and will never see again. The kid Hoshikawas tug at the heartstrings more, and they ain't the greatest kid actors...
I'm not saying this is a bad episode; I have a couple of nitpicks*, but overall, it's a great idea for an episode. And Fiveman's been lacking in episodes of substance and quality, so this is still a reprieve. But it could have been a truly great, stand-out episode -- one of the franchise's best -- if it made the right emotional connections. The best part of the episode is when the siblings are thinking back to all that Gaku's done for them, my favorite being when he's the one at parents' day at school for Fumiya and Remi to draw -- it's pretty sad. (Although there's a part of me that would have liked the wacky image of it being Arthur in the classroom that day! That would have been cheesy, though, and lacked the punch of seeing kid Gaku there.)
*My main nitpick is the way the siblings just sit at the base, watching Five Red being beaten, after he failed to show up and help the four of them in the earlier fight. He tried to be there! He arrived too late! But to just be petty and watch him being beat up, that doesn't feel like sibling behavior to me. You expect something like that from Bouken Black or an asshole Inoue character. Remember when Ken pretended to be Five Red to spare his brother from a deadly battle? Letting Five Red get beat up just because he was late to the scene doesn't seem like that Ken.
EPISODE 36
Freaky Fiveday!
A body swap episode between Fumiya and Remi that's meant to highlight the singular intuition of twins but doesn't have any of the fun that body swap stories usually entails. We get a couple of comments that Remi finds Fumiya's body too heavy to move easily in and Fumiya finding Remi's body to not have the strength he's used to and a couple of moments where Ken freaks out how close and touchy-feely and effeminate Fumiya acts since it's Remi because, LOL, Ken ain't one of those homersexuals. (So he's OK if Remi gets close and touchy-feely? Is he House Hoshikawa or House Lannister? Sometimes I think the writers and actors forget these characters are siblings and are just treating them like any other Sentai team.)
One of the fun things about a body swap episode is seeing how well the performers act like one another. Ryouhei Kobayashi acts nothing like Keiko Hayase; he instead just holds his hands in a way that seems like an old lady. Hayase doesn't quite imitate Kobayashi, which would have been easy to do with his one-note delivery of everything, but she DOES try to act cool and masculine and gives the better performance.
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