Choujin Sentai Jetman

Chōjin Sentai Jetman (Aviator Squadron Jetman) is the fifteenth Super Sentai series, running from 1991 to 1992. Notable for being a tribute of Gatchaman.

An international army, Skyforce, is working on a project to create superhumans by infusing them with "Birdonic Waves". Five of the best Skyforce officers are chosen to receive the treatment. Unfortunately, right after the first officer, Ryū Tendō, receives the treatment, extradimensional invaders known as the Vyram attack Skyforce's orbital base. The remaining four Birdonic Waves are scattered around the globe Japan, where they strike four random civilians. Even worse, one of the candidates, Ryū's lover Rie Aoi, is sucked out into space. Ryū and the project's leader, Chief Aya Odagiri, must now find the four civilians struck by the Birdonic Waves and recruit them to fight the Vyram.

(A fan adaptation was completed in 2009, see Power Rangers Take Flight here)

The Jetmen

The Shadow Dimension War Party Vyram

Tropes used in Choujin Sentai Jetman include:

Recurring Super Sentai tropes

Tropes significant to Choujin Sentai Jetman

  • The Ace: Ryu and Gai, for different reasons. Ryu was already a trained soldier before the series started and thus didn't need to undergo the Training from Hell that the others (minus Gai) did. Gai was just naturally talented (and had a history of getting into fistfights).
  • Actor Allusion: The final episode features cameos by Kazuo Niibori and Naoki Ofuji, the suit actors for Red Hawk and Black Condor, as the priest who conducts Ryu's wedding with Kaori and the mugger who stabs Gai respectively.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Subverted. While Kaori does end up dating Gai for a while, it is boy scout Ryu whom she is more attracted to and ends up marrying.
  • Anti-Hero Substitute: The Neo Jetman team from Episode 40 and 41, who are assembled by Chief Ichijō (Odagiri's rival) to replace the original team. They end up being less effective than the original team.
  • Big Bad: Subverted, after having no leader for almost 20 episodes, Empress Juza, the leader of Vyram comes back to life. She lasts two episodes before being killed.
  • Bird Motif: Does it need to be said?
  • Bittersweet Ending: Gai is stabbed to death by a random mugger in the Where Are They Now? Epilogue (even more bittersweet is that he was saving a woman who got mugged). None of the other Jetmen notice, despite him collapsing right next to them.
    • Not to mention Rie/Maria, who sacrifices herself after finally remembering who she was.
  • Bizarrchitecture: The inside of Vyram's base.
  • Non Sequitur Episode: The Dryer Jigen episode.
  • Blood From the Mouth: How Radiguet dies.
  • But Not Too Foreign: Jeff, in the manga epilogue.
  • Catch Phrase: Gai is very fond of the word "Ii ka..." ("Listen up..." or "Now, look here...")
  • Casanova: Gai.
  • Crossdresser: Only one occasion. Raita is not the Master of Disguise, but he manages to pull it off with kimono, wig and make-ups.
  • Crucified Hero Shot: The crucifixion of the Jetmen in #43.
  • Darker and Edgier: Acknowledged by most fans as one of the darker installments of the Sentai franchise.
  • The Danza: Kaori's prehistoric counterpart in episode 26 is called Rika, just like the actress playing her.
  • Desperately Looking for a Purpose In Life: Kaori's reason to join the Jetman, to break out of the Rich Idiot With No Day Job shell she lived in.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: A blood-red diamond is turned by Vyram into a Hate Plague-mongering Monster of the Week. As if people didn't fight over "blood diamonds" in real life...
  • Drink Order: Ryu and his hot, sugar-free milk. On the contrary, Gai orders whiskies all the time.
  • Enemy Civil War: Radiguet and Tranza seize power from each other back and forth.
  • Enemy Mine: Radiguet and Ryū team up to defeat Tranza once and for all. Considering what kind of person Radiguet is, no surprise that he'd turn against Ryū once he served his purposes.
    • Radiguet did it before too, when he gave the Jetman the hint on how to beat Juza.
  • Expy: The whole series is an intentional expy of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman.
  • Four Is Death: The Vyram Elite.
  • A God Am I: Radiguet says that the Vyram are humanity's gods when he first reveals himself.
  • Groin Attack: Stay away from Kaori and Ako if you value your nads. Poor Raita.
    • Also, if you're a Mook, careful around Gai. He's not above SQUEEZING your groin.
  • Hate Plague: Used by a diamond-themed Monster of the Week.
  • Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?: Darn it, Dryer Jigen tries to be a terrifying menace, but can't resist helping people in need. By the end of the episode he gives up evil and becomes a hairdresser. Really.
    • Gomi Jigen was pretty much the same. He never wanted to do no harm to anyone in the first place, pretty much because the main part of his mind comes from a teddy bear which Ako used to care a lot for when she was a child. To see what else happened, refer to Nightmare Fuel ahead. Anyway, he came back to his senses thanks to Ako, only to have a disgusted Maria kill him, inadvertently hitting a Berserk Button in Blue Swallow in the process.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!!:
  • Hidden Depths: Played around in the 11th episode. A drink from the Vending Machine Jigen makes a hidden aspect of the the Jetmen's personalities become their dominant one: Ryū becomes a Lazy Bum, Gai becomes The Messiah (counts as a hidden depth for his Heroic Sociopath tendencies, he's actually a Jerk with a Heart of Gold), Raita becomes a jerk, Kaori turns into a rich snob worse than her pre-development phase, Ako turns into Girly Girl. They get better in the end...
  • Hope Spot: Brutally in Episode 24 - After getting curbstomped by Queen Juuza's fully-grown monster child, the team is rescued by Jet Garuda, piloted by three warriors from another dimension. After a whole episode of making it compatible, the warriors set off with Jet Garuda to save the day and combine into Great Icarus! Then Radiguet murders them and Gundamjacks it.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Noodle Jigen. Inspired by instant ramen and created by Tran, anyone affected by eating his noodles get extremely aggressive and try to get everything done as quickly as possible until they die of overworking themselves. He didn't count on Yellow Owl eating his noodles, which caused him to kill the monster as fast as possible.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters: The Vyram's motivation for attacking Earth. As if they were any different...
    • Though with some, as Aya coined, 'pathetic excuse of human being' like Commander Ichijou, Radiguet might be partially right (though he's still no better).
  • Hypocrite: Especially Radiguet in terms of the trope above:

Ryū: Why do you attack humans!?
Radiguet: Because they're ugly and foolish like bugs. And bugs deserve to be squished!
Ryū: No! Humans are not like that! They are able to love and develop...
Radiguet: *goes One-Winged Angel*
Ryū: Well, humans are not ugly. You ARE!

  • Image Song: Honoo no Condor, for Black Condor. Listen, while he kicks some Vyram butt
  • Instant Expert: Averted hard with everybody (except Ryū, for whom the trope doesn't even apply). Cue Training from Hell to the other four (or three, since Gai's not the training kind).
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As the series progresses, Gai shows himself to be one.
  • Kids Are Cruel: Tran, before his growth.
  • Last Of Their Kind: The Dimensian Soldiers Ray, Kanna, and Dan; each of whom possess powers similar to the Jetman. All three are introduced and killed off within two episodes.
  • Love Triangle: Ryū is still hung up over losing Rie. Kaori likes Ryū. Gai likes Kaori. Kaori doesn't like Gai. Gai hates Ryū's guts. Then we find out that Rie is still alive as Maria, and Grey likes Maria... Also, Kaori starts liking Gai, but Gai broke up with her and lets her to be together with Ryū
  • Morality Pet: In one episode, Radiguet loses his memories and is turned into a human by Empress Juza. During this period, Radiguet falls in love with a human girl and learns to appreciate the beauty of mankind. This doesn't last long after Radiguet regains his memories and returns to his old ways. Just to be sure, he kills the girl.
  • My Name Is Not Gentleman: It's Jetman!
  • Non-Indicative Name: The name of the jet mode of their giant combining mecha is the Icarus Haken, not the Jet Icarus. Same thing applies to the Jet Garuda, which is the robot form of the Bird Garuda jet.
  • Not So Invincible After All: Gai. A year of surviving against the Vyram does him no good to a stab by a mere mugger.
  • Novelization: The only Sentai series to receive such treatment. Show's writer Toshiki Inoue wrote a trilogy of novels a couple of years after the series ended that is much closer to his original plans, managing to be Darker and Edgier and aimed exclusively at adult fans. The biggest differences are the omission of the giant robots and the Dimensional Beasts and the fact that Empress Juza has a bigger role than she did in the series.
  • Official Couple: Ryū and Kaori get married in the Where Are They Now? Epilogue.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Played around. Gai stated that he's the only one allowed to complain about Ryū.
  • Opposites Attract: Subverted with Gai and Kaori, they were way too opposite for their relationship to last any longer.
  • Orcus on His Throne: Averted. Even though Radiguet is the Big Bad, he is more prone to jump into the battlefield. His 'superior' Empress Juza also doesn't like sitting on the throne way too often.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: In #48, Maria transforms into a vampire, slowly transforming into a more monstrous form. The victims do not die of blood loss, but evaporate.
  • Poor Man's Substitute: The Neo-Jetman team.
  • Punny Name: Ōishi (Raita's surname) means "big rock," like the ones he throws or drops from his ship. It also a play on oishii, meaning delicious, a reference to his weight.
  • Right Hand Versus Left Hand: The Vyram Elite often fail their battles, not because the Jetmen are superior to them, but because one of them is always trying to sabotage the success of the other.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Except for Ryū, everyone's a Jetman by accident.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Gai and Ryū.
  • Refusal of the Call: Gai, in the first three episodes (though he is only introduced in the second).
  • Rescue Romance: Gai and Kaori, which eventually broke due to their conflicting personalities.
  • The Reveal: Maria is really Rie Aoi, alive and brainwashed by Radiguet. Not terribly surprising, given that they're both played by the same actress.
  • Rule of Cool: Jet Swallow's Wing Cutter attack, which would be very dangerous in real life.
  • Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Raita and Gai.
  • Shout-Out: The entire series is a Shout-Out to Science Ninja Team Gatchaman.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: Ryū and Rie aka Maria.
  • The Starscream: While technically the Big Bad, Radiguet pulls this twice. When Empress Juza comes back to claim her place as ruler of the Vyram, Radiguet kills her. Later, Tranza seizes control and has the rest of the Vyram leaders pilot his robot. Radiguet teams up with Ryū and beats Tranza within an inch of his life, but spares Tranza, who winds up in a mental hospital.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Jetman had an official tie-in epilogue in manga form, in which the now-deceased Gai was replaced by new team member, Jeff Kenzaki/Green Eagle.
  • Time Travel: In episode 26, the team is thrown thousands of years back in time. However, since Raita tackled the monster while it was doing this, he ended up thrown somewhere else and stuck for most of the episode with a primitive tribe which worships him like a god due to him introducing them to fire and agriculture... Plus, among these tribesmen, there happens to be a Vision Of Another Self of Kaori who falls in love with Raita. And, considering Raita's own feelings for Kaori...
  • To Hell and Back: Ako, Gai and Raita in episode 27. The "back" part is thanks to Ryu.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Ako and Kaori. Though, by the end of the series, it became a subversion. Kaori becomes less shallow and materialistic over the course of the series, while initially tomboyish Ako becomes more looks-conscious, grows out her hair and eventually becomes a heavily made up idol singer after the events of the show.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Tran, after forcing himself into adulthood and transforming Tranza, becomes way more assertive with the other Vyram members and more aggressive against the Jetmen.
    • Arguably, most of the team qualifies, as they started out as civilians with no combat experience whatsoever - by the finale, they're pretty much taking names.
  • Transformation Name Announcement
  • Villain Song: The Grinam get one, "Sad Soldiers Grinam" sung and composed by series composer Kazuhiko Toyama.
  • What Could Have Been: Jetman was very close to being the first series adapted for Power Rangers.
  • Where Are They Now? Epilogue: Three years after the final battle, Ryū and Kaori get married, Gai became a businessman and gets stabbed to death in a random act of heroism, Ako becomes an idol singer, and Raita runs a farm.
    • The Toei TV Hero Encyclopedia compilation goes further by showing Ryū and Kaori and their son, Gai six years later.
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