[Matrixbeast]

Finally got things to calm down for a moment to watch Jetman.

As a start, it was a fairly decent episode. It felt very much like Kakuranger, having to find the warriors who will become our rangers, only only giving us 3 at the start. I like that, since it gives us a little more time to get to know our rangers.

For the characters themselves, they're nice. Like always, we spend more time on red over all others, but I like Ryu. He's not the fireball Red or the god among us Red that most recent Red rangers have been. He's brash, but for a good reason, his stake in this battle is personal, and although he has battle skills due to his prior training and job as a (Something), he's not a one man army. He seems initially nihilistic, but it's very believable because of the (Very) recent tragedy that occurred.

Raita was also pretty neat. I liked that he refused to become a Jetman (Rather, acknowledge that he already was one) because he hates violence and just wants to tend his farm, only transforming solely because of the circumstances that befell him. His statement of "I hate violence" seems to ring true, fighting the foot soldiers by swinging a hoe around wildly, and, while in suit, to just flail about. Next was Kaori, who didn't do much. However, her bonding slightly with Raita was endearing and her willingness to enter the battle solely for the excitement, while rather shallow (And somewhat cliche for her character type), was fine. Much like Raita, her fighting ability is pitiful, too, which worked. She clearly lived a very sheltered lifestyle, so she wouldn't be able to do much, either.

This leads to who I assume is the mentor character, whose name I didn't catch. She's fine, but she didn't get much opportunity to do much. However, what she did get to do was rather great, knocking out Ryu to get him off the Earthbase and then telling him to cry over his loss. It's rather touching, and it says how much action series like Sentai have changed, as I was expecting her to go "Toughen up! We need to protect the earth! Stop bitching like a baby and deal with it!" when he started grieving.

Next are the Vyram. There isn't much to say based on their first appearance. They just started wrecking the place, and, at the very end, all came on screen at once to stare at the camera until the credits started rolling.

The only real negative that actually brought things down a bit were Raita and Kaori's fighting ability.
"But you just said--"
I know, but I think they overplayed their lack of ability. I liked that they didn't know how to fight, but even after transforming, they just ran around flailing. They wanted to sell to the audience "These are normal people who only became rangers through random circumstance, not cosmic decision," but I think they took it a bit too far in trying to sell it.

Anyway, Jetman's start was solid. I was thinking it'd have a Megaranger vibe, with a fully stocked spaceship to help the rangers, but that thought went flying out the window after 10 minutes