[Fish Sandwich]

Jetman 6-7:

6 carries forward that momentum from the last episode by opening up with Gai being extra non-cooperative because he's still super jealous of Ryuu. I joke about all the *drama* in this show being a bit much, but this is probably the first episode I think totally came together for me. It's a super solid debut for the big robot, having a suitably tense premise where Ryuu has to fend off main bad guy Radiguet while stuck inside a giant monster, cut off from the rest of the team. It's hard to go wrong with that sort of superhero drama, and being Jetman, the script finds a nicely character-first angle for it, with the other four miserably failing at using Jet Icarus without Red Hawk there, which eventually leads to Gai being all like "ugh fiiiiine" and begrudgingly making a daring rescue so they can actually put up a fight. But you know, it's really Gai who saved the day, so everybody should love him for how awesome he is, especially Kaori! It's a cute way to further build a very Inoue kind of trust between Ryuu and Gai, where they're taking turns saving each other's bacon, but Gai still feels the need to make it all about himself. (House Dimension is also just a cool monster by the way. It's hard to beat the jet plane with arms, but having an evil building grow limbs to become the first opponent for the robot is equally inspired.)

7 also leveraged that romantic arc in a very successful way, but with a much more comical focus. Ryuu's grandmother showing up to try and force him to get married worked for a lot of reasons. One, I'm way into the idea of the show establishing this backstory for Ryuu. Him straight up being a good ol' boy from the country totally leans into how endearingly generic a hero he is, and it's fun watching him get pushed around by the whims of an overbearing grandparent. It's also fun that Gai is rooting for Ryuu so that he can push his rival out of the picture, even if that's no surprise from him. On top of being amusing though, there was also one particular dramatic beat I genuinely loved, when Kaori and Raita are helping with the plan to deliberately sabotage Ryuu's arranged date. It's this whole goofy skit where Raita is pretending Ryuu owes him cash (the good for nothing!), and Kaori is, of course, pretending to be his jealous lover (the two-timer!), but Kaori looks Ryuu's date in the eye, and she can immediately tell Kaori means everything she's saying, even though Kaori probably still thinks she's acting. The episode doesn't spell it out until the very end, when a typically oblivious Ryuu still doesn't take the hint, and I really respect the episode for being just subtle enough that the kids watching might be in the same boat as him.