Dai Sentai Goggle Five
Dai Sentai Goggle V (Great Squadron Goggle Five) is the sixth Super Sentai series, which aired from 1982 to 1983.
It all happened one day when Professor Hideki Hongō went to investigate Wolfborg castle in Germany...only to find the previous resident reduced to bones, and the Dark Science Empire Deathdark ready to execute their plan to, you guessed it, Take Over the World. The defenseless Hongō is attacked, but thankfully, a world class-explorer named Ken'ichi Akama comes to his rescue, thus learning the story of Hongō and his squadron, the only group capable of stopping Deathdark... the Goggle V!
Akama is then promoted into the leader of the Goggles, Goggle Red, while Hongō's Computer Boys and Girls bring out those chosen to become the members of the Goggle V including Kanpei Kuroda, Saburo Aoyama, Futoshi Kijima and Miki Momozono. While they're completely unrelated, they share a strong sense of justice, so after hearing Hongou's explanation, they immediately agree to become members of the Goggle Five. Together, they fight the Deathdark Empire to protect peace!
This season would be the last season of Sentai to use the usual Scarf of Asskicking. And after the previous season which featured an all-men team, this team brought back a girl to the team and as of the time, was the youngest character to be a Sentai warrior, being a 16 years old (until Dairanger). Aside of starting the trend of Title Scream, this also marks the first Sentai work of Hirohisa Soda, who'd later work on Sentai until Fiveman. However, if there's one thing that is quite known about this team is that the constant mistaking that the team is a group of gymnasts, since the weapons are made of gymnastic apparatus, never mind that the theme was more like creating a better future with good science, as well as utilizing some ancient civilization gems.
Their goggles actually do something (though not unusual), and they're not used for shipping, by the way.
Starring the Goggle V:
- Ken'ichi Akama / Goggle Red: The Hero. A world-class explorer who saved Dr. Hongou in the nick of time from Deathdark's assault. Draws his powers from the ruby of Atlantis.
- Kanpei Kuroda / Goggle Black: Smart Lancer and president of the chess club in his university. Draws his powers from the emerald of ancient Asia.
- Saburo Aoyama / Goggle Blue: Kid Appeal Smart Guy. A hockey player with dreams of being an inventor and he has a tendency to go solo/sneak around and is popular with the children. Draws his powers from the sapphire of ancient Egypt.
- Futoshi Kijima / Goggle Yellow: The Big Guy. A boisterous zoo worker who tends to get into humorous situations. Draws his powers from the opal of the lost continent of Mu.
- Miki Momozono / Goggle Pink: The Chick and a Master of Disguise. Star gymnast. Apparently an Expy of Cutey Honey. Draws her powers from the diamond of the Mayas and Incas.
Also Starring the Deathdark Organization:
- Fuhrer Taboo: The Big Bad, originator of Deathdark who mostly spends time on his throne. His major feature is his one glowing orange eye.
- General Deathgiller: The Dragon. He's still a lower rank than Deathmark, though. A master swordsman who wears a skull helmet and considers Akama his Worthy Opponent, thus they often butt heads with each other.
- Mazurka: The Dark Chick, a stealth agent of Deathdark who wears a motorcyclist helmet. Also a Master of Disguise, making her Miki's direct Evil Counterpart.
- Dr. Zazoriya and Dr. Iguana: The two evil geniuses of Deathdark, with a scorpion helmet and iguana helmet respectively. They tend to bicker with each other and act rather silly most of the time, thus when Deathmark arrives, they're put to death
- Grand Marshall Deathmark: One of Deathdark's greatest generals who is revived from his frozen prison in Antartica and who eventually takes the spot of Evil Genius after executing Zazoriya and Iguana, and replaces Deathgiller as second-in-command. Wears a Pharaoh helmet.
Recurring Super Sentai tropes:
- All Your Powers Combined: Both Goggle Victory Flash and Golden Spear requires combining the power of the Goggle Sabers.
- By the Power of Greyskull: "Goggle Five," or their individual name.
- Calling Your Attacks
- Combination Attack: A lot of them, which happens when each Goggle V starts sharing the same weapon.
- Cool Airship: The Goggle Caesar, which Goggle Black and Pink were required to control in order to release the components of the Goggle Robo.
- Cool Bike: Goggle Red's Goggle Machine.
- Cool Car: Goggle Cougar, a jeep for the rest of the team.
- Color Coded for Your Convenience: Notable for having the first unambiguously black ranger in the Sentai franchise.[2] Since then, the Sentai franchise has alternated between having a black ranger or going back to green depending on the year (with only a few shows such as Choujuu Sentai Liveman having both colors at the same time).
- Finishing Move: Goggle Victory Flash! Later on, there's Goggle Golden Spear.
- Five-Man Band: There are two Smart Guys on the team. [3]
- The Hero: Akama
- The Lancer: Kuroda
- Kid Appeal Character: Aoyama
- The Big Guy: Kijima
- The Chick: Miki
- Home Base: The Future Science Lab.
- Humongous Mecha: The individual mecha were composed of three vehicles this time, each piloted by a single member. But since the team was composed of five members, Black and Pink were left out from having their individual mecha and instead remained on the mecha carrier.
- Combining Mecha: Goggle Jet (Red) + Goggle Tank (Blue) + Goggle Dump (Yellow) = Goggle Robo
- In the Name of the Moon
- Law of Chromatic Superiority: Goggle Red is the only one who uses the bike (although Black also used a bike for ONE episode). He's also the one who'll wield and throw the Golden Spear.
- Mecha-Mooks: Spotmen
- Monsters of the Week: The Mozu Monsters.
- Make My Monster Grow: Averted; whenever a monster dies, he is immediately revived and given a giant "Kong" robot to pilot. From the fifth episode and onward, the Kong robots become giant duplicates of their Mozu counterparts.
- The Movie: The Goggle Five learns from a defecting Prof. Zazoriya about Deathdark's latest plan to destroy Tokyo, and tried to quell it. Turns out the defection was staged and then they couldn't summon the Goggle Caesar until later. Takes place between episodes 5 (Deathdark were already using giant mecha replicas of their monsters) and 14 (before Deathdark goes to Antartica to revive Desmark).
- "On the Next Episode of..." Catchphrase
- Regular Caller
- Psycho Rangers: The Deathdark Five. Taken out in one episode.
- The Smurfette Principle: Goggle Pink, who is once again a real heroine and part of the core team (unlike the girl in the previous series). Curiously, in the fourth episode, her teammates was even doubting if she should be in the team due to being fatally wounded, but she'll have none of that.
- Supervillain Lair: Deathtopia Castle.
- Theme Music Power-Up
- Transformation Name Announcement: "Gattai Kanryou!"[4]
- Transformation Trinket: Goggle Brace
- Weapon of Choice
- Cool Sword: The Goggle Sabres.
- Akama: Red Ruby Whip and Red Rope.
- Kuroda: Black Clubs, Black Emerald Nunchaku and Iron Arm.
- Aoyama: Blue (Sapphire Jet) Ring
- Kijima: Yellow (Opal Megaton) Ball and Yellow Hammer.
- Miki: Pink Ribbon, Pink Dia Baton and Pink Mirror.
Tropes specific to Dai Sentai Goggle Five:
- Back from the Dead: In episode 28, ALL the monsters of the week that came before came back to assist that week's monster.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Aoyama & Kijima in episode 38. Even when Kijima is being the Butt Monkey like usual, that doesn't eclipse their badassery.
- Badass in Distress: Miki/Pink in Episode 39.
- Big Brother Mentor / Cool Big Sis: The Goggle Five are basically this for the Computer Boys & Girls.
- Big Damn Heroes: Akama/Red sure loves doing this. Not only this is his debut action, if an ally is in need of rescues, he's the first to execute the trope by throwing his Goggle Saber. It always works.
- Boisterous Bruiser: KIJIMA/YELLOW.
- Bruce Lee Clone: Kuroda/Black in Episode 9, when the team is forced into a Calvin Ball situation. He uses the nunchaku, and the Bruce Lee yell, and eventually goes into shirtless with black long pants like one of Lee's trademark outfits.
- Butt Monkey: In between getting himself in humorous situations OR getting suckered by the Mooks for laughs in the middle of battle... The universe seems to love picking on Kijima.
- Dawson Casting: According to the information, Miki is supposedly 16 years old, but she's played by the 20 years old (more or less) Megumi Ookawa.
- Deathdark Did It: Any major civilization collapse? Deathdark did it. Any weapons created and used for killings? Deathdark inspired it.
- Everything's Worse with Bears: The final Mozoo is a bear, while the Bear Kong is the only robot piloted not by the Mozoo, but by Deathgiller.
- Evil Counterpart: Mazurka started the trend of Super Sentai's 'Dark Chick being the direct counterpart of The Chick'. Although since this is the an early era, she never came to direct Cat Fight with Miki (merely possessing similar skills, just used for evil).
- Eye Scream: Fuhrer Taboo is dealt an eye-piercing fatal blow by the Goggle Robo.
- Go for the Eye: Indeed.
- Fastball Special: Episode 6 had Black do this helped with a one-shot supporting character.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: Granted, it's just a statue, but before the term Duck Tits was coined, episode 45 of Goggle Five gave us... Racoon Tits!
- Sure it's actually Racoon Tits and not a Tanuki statue's giant testicles?
- ... Make it both.
- Hachimaki: Kijima is rarely seen without one
- I Have the High Ground: Every In the Name of the Moon sequence always had the Goggles jumping on a higher ground (building or cliff)... and after that, leap to battle. Explosions are optional.
- Instant Expert: We don't know how each of the Goggles are suddenly adept in fighting and their special techniques. Well, this is an early Sentai series after all...
- Jumped At the Call: Kuroda, Aoyama, Kijima and Miki were practically thrown into the base against their will, but once Hongo gives a rundown of the things, they immediately agree to abandon their former lives and become allies of justice. We assume that the same happened to Akama off-screen.
- Kid Sidekick: A whole team of them, the Computer Boys and Girls.
- Last-Name Basis: Partial. The boys are referred by their last names, so you're more likely hear "Akama, Kuroda, Aoyama and Kijima". When it comes to the sole girl, she's called "Miki" rather than "Momozono".
- Master of Disguise: Aside of Pink... Mazurka just loves putting on disguises.
- Monster Misogyny: A Lighter and Softer version, obviously. Any time a Monster of the Week (or Mooks) decided to get frisky against one Goggle in a mass battle (all Goggles participating), they will always target Pink.
- Motif: The series primarily has a science motif, including fighting a Dark Science Empire, while the team's weapons feature a rhythmic gymnastics motif. Anniversary shows and specials ignore the former in favor of the latter - the ending songs of both Gaoranger vs Super Sentai and Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger emphasize the gymnastics, despite it not being the main theme of the show. Gokaiger even has all of them using gymnastics ribbons to tie up the Monster of the Week in episode 8. The team does have an actual gymnast though (Miki).
- Mythology Gag: Done by Goggle Pink after hypnotizing a bunch of Mooks into dancing around to their fall. "Do you want another?"
- Name's the Same: No, no. Professor Hongou has no relationship whatsoever with Takeshi Hongou
- Also in one episode, there's one kid of the week who's named 'Saburou'. Probably that's one of the reasons Last-Name Basis is in effect to differentiate between that kid and Aoyama.
- Nice Hat: All Deathdark generals comes with unique helmets. Deathgiller has a skull helmet, Mazurka has a motorcyclist helmet, Professors Zazoriya and Iguana have scorpion & lizard helmets respectively; while Deathmark has a snazzy Egyptian helmet.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the movie, Miki decided to save a defecting Prof. Zazoriya and insisted the team to go along with her information, thinking that she might have a genuine Heel Face Turn. It ends badly... a bit.
- Obviously Evil: You take a look at how the Deathdark Empire is NAMED or how they dress up. Now go back and tell me if they're one bit good.
- One, Two, Three, Four, Go: This exact phrase is part of the ending song's lyrics.
- Orcus on His Throne: Fuhrer Taboo spends 49 episodes and a half staying inside his chamber in his base.
- Deathmark also never leaves Taboo's side until the final episode.
- Parental Abandonment: We don't know anything about the Goggles' parents other than Kijima's father.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: How the Goggles (starting with Red) finish their roll call. As seen on the page quote.
- Put on a Bus: Out of 50 episodes, Professor Hongō only appears in the first and last two. One of his two assistants, Midori, also leaves the series in Ep. 22, leaving only Sayuri.
- Rocket Punch: Hand Missile.
- Say My Name: Miki and her Computer Girl participate in this in early episode.
- Sexy Backless Outfit: A blink-or-miss one: In episode 20, when Miki puts on the Flamenco Dancer outfit, she occasionally turns behind and you could see that it was a backless variant.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Every one of the Goggles. The last time we ever saw them on a Super Sentai.
- Sixth Ranger: Well, for the villains: Deathmark, who makes his debut at the 15th episode, around the same time a good-aligned Sixth Ranger would usually appear in the later Sentai formula.
- Goggle Five themselves are assisted by two temporary sixth members though: heel wrestler Hellmask in Ep. 6 and Henshin Papa (actually a security officer who steals a prototype "Strong Suit" made by Deathdark) in Ep. 41.
- Spell My Name with an "S": Deathmark's casket in ep. 15 has his name engraved as "Desmark".
- Spot the Imposter: A Mozoo impersonated Black and the Goggles found out by telling both of them to bungee-jump. Then he impersonated Pink. The Goggles exposed him using the Super Sentai Stance.
- Stout Strength: Kijima is fatter than the other Goggles (if not the fattest Sentai), but has incredible strength and toughness (He pushed off a huge rock alone, while it takes lots of Mooks and the Monster of the Week to barely push it)
- Suck Out the Poison: Kuroda does this in Episode 42 when he is infected by Sasori Mozu's venom.
- Super Drowning Skills: Water may as well be Miki's worst enemy. She's vulnerable on water (something the Spotmen once took advantage of), and she even passed on swimming in a normal swimming pool (despite wearing a swimsuit).
- Super Senses: Every Goggles have the Goggle Eye which gives them extra sight. Yellow also have super hearing. But mostly on sensing ground disturbance.
- Taking the Bullet: Happens to one doll brought to life by a Monster of the Week, who takes the bullet meant for her "handsome prince" (actually a crossdressing Miki). Cue both Tender Tears and This Is Unforgivable!.
- Taking You with Me: How Mazurka dies, trying to take Deathgiller and the Goggles. At least she destroyed the first Goggles base... until Professor Hongou comes back from his bus and introduces a NEW base.
- Theme Naming: As with Denjiman, the five have their colors in their surnames.
- Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: Played straight for most the series, but there's one episode where Deathdark attacked a foreign country. The ending credits also shows all the members of Goggle Five protecting children in other countries besides Japan.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: "GOGGLE SABER!". Always handy to make a Big Damn Heroes moment.
- Also Goggle Golden Spear is usually used this way, until Deathmark counters it. So they instead rams it to him.
- Electron Galactic Missile, which is basically throwing the Electron Galactic-powered Earth Sword to Fuhrer Taboo's weak point, killing him in one throw.
- What Could Have Been: According to some sources, Miki was to be played by a different actress, who's actually older. That idea quickly got shot down since she's supposed to be the youngest of the team, the role went to her current actress, and the rest is history. Never mind the Dawson Casting.
- Worf Had the Flu: Goggle Blue gets horribly owned by Moth Mozoo in episode 8 since his leg got wounded. Skip around 25 episodes, and then when the rest of the Goggles arrive, he was single-handedly owning the Rattlesnake Mozoo. Wow.
- Working Title: This series was originally considered to be called Mirai Sentai Miraiman, and later GoGoV, but eventually became Goggle Five. The second name was reused 17 years later, while part of the first name was reused in the series after that.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Uh, okay. Kijima might use grapple moves a lot, but he's a zoo worker, not a wrestler... Yet he still pulls off an Atomic Drop on a Mook...