Chojin Sentai Jetman! - Discussion Thread.

[ridercutting]

I wrote this on Google+, and would like to share it with you.

I just want to confirm one thing, if it's possible. Did Gai Yuki [HIDE]die on a bench at the end of Jetman or on the steps of the church where the other two got married?[/HIDE]

NOTE: MASSIVE POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOLLOW.

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Just so you know why Japan's Super Sentai is tons better than Power Rangers, I will spoil the 28th episode of the latest Super Sentai series with the backstory of the 15th Super Sentai Series.

The black ranger (known as Black Condor) of Chojin Sentai Jetman, a ranger team existing one year prior to the Sentai series Saban used to make the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, helped defeat the alien race known Vyram.

Instead of the normal happy ending, said black ranger dies in the final episode of Jetman because he tried to stop a mugging on his way to the wedding of two of the other rangers and was stabbed in the gut. He then sits on a bench and looks at the sky, and expires...

... but that doesn't end the story.

20 years later, the 35th Super Sentai series, Pirate Sentai Gokaiger, makes him officially the baddest mofo this side of humanity. This now-dead human being gets to play cards with a goddess in heaven, and beats her in a game of poker, earning him any one wish which would be granted without exception.

He chooses to go back to Earth for a short while. His reason? The liquor in heaven is terrible.

He then meets up with the Gokaiger team, steals their transformation devices, and makes the Red ranger of the Gokaigers learn to accept his weakness by transforming into Black Condor and single-handedly fighting their enemy of the week as the Gokaigers look on and realize that HE'S ALREADY DEAD but is fighting because BLACK CONDOR'S WILLPOWER (AND GAMBLING ABILITY) IS STRONGER THAN THE WILL OF DEATH AND HEAVEN.

At the end of the episode, he sits back on a bench like the one he died on, and disappears from Earth... ending back in the bar with the goddess, beating her in yet another game of cards with a Spade-based Royal Straight Flush.

OH... and the goddess asks him to play his saxophone because he's that awesome.

HELLS YEAH.

Gai Yuki, Black Condor of the Jetman, I salute you!

 

[FieryRed]

Well, I started rewatching Jetman myself, am up to episode 2, and I have no idea how I'd overlooked just how ridiculously badass Ryu is; saving the rest of the team multiple times, and singlehandidly taking out a giant monster while on foot. True, he did wound it earlier in his Jet, but its still a damn impressive accomplishment.

I like Ryu alot as well, and he's definitely one of the best red senshi in the sentai series ever. Since Jetman was inspired by Gatchaman, Ryu is obviously Ken from Gatchman, and Gai is Jo/Joe from that classic animated show. Not every sentai team has more than one badass fighters, and Jetman has two of them.

 

[cypsiman2]

I like Ryu alot as well, and he's definitely one of the best red senshi in the sentai series ever. Since Jetman was inspired by Gatchaman, Ryu is obviously Ken from Gatchman, and Gai is Jo/Joe from that classic animated show. Not every sentai team has more than one badass fighters, and Jetman has two of them.

Well, that's the funny thing; I've watched Gatchaman and Gai is nothing like Joe. Joe is focused, driven, and intense, eager to take down as many Galactor agents as possible with the itchy trigger finger to prove it, and while he may think that Ken is a bit too soft at times, it just amounts to a bit of snark. Oh, and Joe respects the relationship between Ken and Jun and there is no triangle. Gai is none of these things. It's so weird too, given that Ryu is Ken, Kaori is Jun, Ako is Jinpei, and Raita is Ryu, so I don't see how they messed up on Gai.

In any event, I'm up to episode 6 now and I'm trying to see Gai in a better light, but he's being difficult about that. Though I did find it amusing how he started the episode all "bah, I don't need to slow down for you losers, you need to speed up for me!" and then five minutes later he's being eaten by the House Jigen and he's all "Help me, help me!"

 

[mr.smith10]

About Gai's character. I myself usually don't like jerkass characters, and Gai can be a real dick. However, don't necessarily see him as a jerkass. I see him as a bad boy rebel, and being a jerkass is just a character trait of that personality. Plus, considering that the way the Jetmen except for Ryu got their powers, it was basically lightning striking four random people. I think they're being realistic by having the four characters coming from different walks of life, and particular think they're being realistic with Gai's character. I think it's realistic that with the four random people being struck by lightning, one of them happens to have an attitude. I do like his strong character development throughout, and he's quite the badass. So overall, I do think he's a cool character and I take him over other jerk-like characters like Naoto and Hoji. However, I like Ryu better.

As for the love triangle, I don't think love triangles are necessarily bad. Sometimes there is a character that gets the short end of the love triangle, but if executed properly I do think love triangles can be interesting. I also think love triangles are realistic. However, with this one I do agree there is some execution problems. I do like the early hints of Kaori and Ryu, and the Kaori-Gai relationship. What I don't care for much was the transition from the Gai/Kaori relationship to the sudden Ryu/Kaori relationship. It was rushed and I was even confused if Gai and Kaori even broke up. Yes there was that meeting with Gai and Kaori's parents, but afterwards I must have missed the "official break-up." Furthermore I'm not entirely convinced that Gai not getting along with Kaori's parents was even a good reason to break them up. However, I do think it does show how far Gai had come as a person when he's able to accept a Ryu/Kaori relationship and marraige.

The ending in Jetman, I do have to agree Gai's death is just so random. It would have been much better and more dramatic if Gai had died during the final battle or in the lead-up, like Shurikenger or Naoto's death for example. However, other than Jetman's finale and the questionable result of the love triangle, I do think overall Jetman is a very good series.

 

[cypsiman2]

About Gai's character. I myself usually don't like jerkass characters, and Gai can be a real dick. However, don't necessarily see him as a jerkass. I see him as a bad boy rebel, and being a jerkass is just a character trait of that personality. Plus, considering that the way the Jetmen except for Ryu got their powers, it was basically lightning striking four random people. I think they're being realistic by having the four characters coming from different walks of life, and particular think they're being realistic with Gai's character. I think it's realistic that with the four random people being struck by lightning, one of them happens to have an attitude. I do like his strong character development throughout, and he's quite the badass. So overall, I do think he's a cool character and I take him over other jerk-like characters like Naoto and Hoji. However, I like Ryu better.

My thoughts and feelings about Gai have been undergoing a change; it's not that I'm liking him more, he's still going to be my least favorite character on the show at best, but I feel I have a better understanding of who he is and why he acts out the way he does. In short, it's all an act; the smoking, the drinking, the motorcycle riding, the womanizing, and the counter-productive asshattery, none of it is the real Gai Yuki. When he flirts with women, I never buy that he has even a passing interest in them, and when he proclaims himself a lone-wolf, he comes off like he's trying too hard. I'm not saying that his actor does a bad job of portraying him, I'm saying the character does a bad job of playing out the role of "the bad boy". For whatever reason, Gai Yuki at some point in his past became convinced that being "a man" meant smoking and drinking and floozing and refusing to listen to other people even when it would be a good idea to do so, and so he acts out that narrative despite it not fitting him at all.

And it's bizarre that you mention Naoto, considering he's one of my favorite instances of being an asshole anti-hero.

As for the love triangle, I don't think love triangles are necessarily bad. Sometimes there is a character that gets the short end of the love triangle, but if executed properly I do think love triangles can be interesting. I also think love triangles are realistic. However, with this one I do agree there is some execution problems. I do like the early hints of Kaori and Ryu, and the Kaori-Gai relationship. What I don't care for much was the transition from the Gai/Kaori relationship to the sudden Ryu/Kaori relationship. It was rushed and I was even confused if Gai and Kaori even broke up. Yes there was that meeting with Gai and Kaori's parents, but afterwards I must have missed the "official break-up." Furthermore I'm not entirely convinced that Gai not getting along with Kaori's parents was even a good reason to break them up. However, I do think it does show how far Gai had come as a person when he's able to accept a Ryu/Kaori relationship and marraige.

Out of all the love triangles I've seen, there's been one, maybe two that weren't an extremely painful and annoying contrivence, and while they may be "realistic", they drag the story to a crawl which far outweighs that gain. In regards to this love triangle in particular, the only aspect of it I do buy is Kaori's attraction to Ryu; as I said above Gai's attraction to Kaori is phony and Ryu spends the whole series grieving one way or another over Rie, only just starting to get over it five minutes before the final battle. The only thing that I liked about Gai and Kaori being together was that it meant it was going to take up less screentime, and in addition to Gai refusing to talk to Kaori's parents, there was also an earlier scene where he got indignant when she asked him to use proper table manners, which made me wonder what he expected their relationship to be like, which ultimately lead to my above thoughts on Gai's character. And while I could in theory appreciate Gai accepting Ryu and Kaori's marriage, the fact is that there was no build-up to it and thus I don't buy the marriage. Add onto that Ako's WTF career of being an idol despite having been established as both a sucky singer and friends with a girl who was a good singer, and the whole epilogue is just 90% fail.

The ending in Jetman, I do have to agree Gai's death is just so random. It would have been much better and more dramatic if Gai had died during the final battle or in the lead-up, like Shurikenger or Naoto's death for example. However, other than Jetman's finale and the questionable result of the love triangle, I do think overall Jetman is a very good series.

The trouble with Gai dramatically dying in the final battle or the lead-up to it, is that Rie beats him to the punch, awesomely so I might add, so him dying at that time as well would have been repetitive. In the end, there just wasn't a good reason for the epilogue, nor for the love triangle. If it weren't for those two things, I would say that Jetman would have been amazing and Gai merely over-hyped. As is though, it's good.