[Kamen Rider Lucha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matrixbeast

What? Beat for beat, it's Jetman's character structure. The only difference is that Luka is a hell of a lot more relevant than Ako, and Gai is in Marvelous's place, while Ryu is in Joe's.
I'm not saying it's bad, since it works. I'm just saying that the Gokaigers don't really work as well.

I hadn't thought about it that way (probably because I watched Gokaiger years before I watched Jetman and never made the connection), but you're right. Considering Jetman is my hands-down favorite Sentai, I can't help but see the similarities as a positive thing. That group structure works very well for me.

Even though Jetman is my favorite series in the franchise by a country mile, I can't say that the Jetman hero cast is better than the Gokaiger cast across the board. Gai from Jetman is awesome, but so is Marvelous from Gokaiger. Ryu is admittedly way better than Joe, but Jetman's Kaori, Ako, and Raita aren't even half as as compelling as Gokaiger's Ahim, Luka, and Doc.

And while the teams are similar, putting the Gai-like Marvelous in the role of leader changes the dynamic of the team and shifts the tone of the series as a whole, so aside from group structure, the shows are very different. Marvelous's roguishness defines the Gokai team, who come across as more rag-tag and anti-authority than the Jetman team, who in turn are a respected part of their world's military industrial complex. Marvelous & the Gokaigers have a certain degree of contempt for the status quo, while Ryu & his Jetman team fight to uphold it. After all, criminal pirates and state-sponsored soldiers are very different beasts.

Ultimately, what makes the Gokaiger hero cast interesting is the same as what makes the Jetman cast interesting: they're all designed as super flawed characters who do a lot of growing over the course of their shows. Sentai teams aren't really known for character growth. Its typical heroes (especially in the more modern series) are presented as mostly-flawless paragons of justice from the get-go, and their shortcomings (when they exist) are almost always benign. Meanwhile, characters like Marvelous, Joe, and Luka (like Ryu, Gai, Kaori, and Ako) can be straight-up jerk wads. Their redemption arcs are fodder for effective drama, and their major flaws make them more relatable than your usual sentai heroes.

When it comes to hero casts, these are two of the most interesting in the franchise because they're more human and imperfect than most. (When it comes to villain casts, Jetman blows Gokaiger out of the water -- but that's an argument for a different day.) That's why I think Gokaiger is worth watching (even though something like Jetman is ultimately better).

Obviously, YMMV.