[Fish Sandwich]

Jetman 40-41:

Kenichi Araki comes up with just about the simplest possible concept for a monster so cool, it can drive an entire two-parter. How can you can go wrong with a space monster that directly neutralizes the Birdonic Waves which power the team? That's what Radiguet is thinking as 40 starts, and right away, this plot is my jam because of that. This is a fantastic episode for the guy, because it so thoroughly demonstrates how much you can't ever count him out. He goes to launch this big plan to show Tranza how it's done, and it's shocking how well it goes over out of the gate. He easily convinces Grey and Maria to follow his leadership, and help drag a fancy rock down from space, and just like the that, the heroes would be toast, several times over even, if not for but a few unforeseen complications. And be fair to Radiguet; why would he ever suspect a team of Neo Jetmen to pop up with the inconvenient possible timing for his plan? Their immunity to the monster's powers throws a huge wrench in Radiguet's scheme... and everything else about them throws off the actual title characters of the show. By design, it's extremely hard to root for these random nobodies in their B movie sci-fi outfits, and even harder to see the side of their stern commander, who not only hates our heroes for being mere civilians, but cares about his own people so little that he'll remind them over the radio how expendable they are as a motivational tactic when they're about to get torn apart along with Jet Icarus. Gai naturally seems ready to give this guy a piece of his mind, but it's actually Ryuu who ends up punching the dude in the face by the end. The team defies orders to head out and rescue the newbies, but the monster's powers result in them losing their ability to transform entirely, ending things in a rather dramatic spot.

Radiguet probably would've won once and for all right then and there, but at the start of 41, Tranza steals the monster's core, leaving its body to be destroyed, all as part of his plan, which is to have the monster sneak aboard Jet Icarus and reconstitute itself inside the team's base and... just generally smash the place up, I guess? Really, it's less about the practicality and 100% about ego. Radiguet was about to prove how cool he is by defeating their greatest foes, so Tranza has to hijack that plan to do a different plan so he can both take credit for the victory while also mocking Radiguet for the failure that Tranza caused. And yeah, for all his confidence, just like Radiguet's frustrated observation at the end of the episode, it really is entirely down to that decision from Tranza that this scheme ends up having the time to fail. It seems promising at first, especially with new commander guy kicking out the powerless old team and clearly cracking under the pressure of the sudden home invasion, but when you make the mistake of giving the protagonists the chance to make a comeback, they're going to use it, you know? So naturally, the new Jetmen come to respect the heroism of the true Jetmen, giving up their own powers to put them back in the fight, resulting in them doing what they do best. The day ends up being saved, and the status quo is restored, with their arrogant new leader being removed from his position because of, you know, his everything. Unfortunately for Radiguet though, the status quo right now means the arrogant new leader of the Vyram is still right where he was at the start. I think I like Radiguet enough to call this a bittersweet ending?

Obviously it's at least a happy ending for the heroes, though. This two-parter was a great time. It's not telling a story with a ton of depth to it, of course. The Neo Jetmen are blank slates not even afforded the luxury of names, for example, but on the other hand, jerky commander guy is at least fleshed out enough to have it explicitly established that his primary motivation is petty jealousy. It's not a plot that desperately needs that sort of substance, though. Like most of Araki's work on this show, these episodes thrive on the sense of tension and excitement created by the villains, and it's easy to want to see the team pull through to beat this seemingly unbeatable monster and prove their worth to stubborn higher-ups and cocky replacements. (It's also easy to root for Radiguet, but again, he's not as lucky by the end.)