Joe Gibken

"Gokai Blue!"

Joe Gibken (ジョー・ギブケン) is Gokai Blue (ゴーカイブルー) of the Gokaigers. He is Captain Marvelous' first officer.

Personality
A calm man, whose words are few. A compliment from this man is rare, a man with a serious personality who is hard on himself. Always training up his abilities with weapons, and never misses. Has known Marvelous the longest, and as such, he understands Marvelous the best out of the entire crew.

Zangyack
Joe was once a member of the Zangyack's Imperial Special Forces. While training under the Zangyack, Joe was often forced to endure rigorous and abusive training. It was during this time that he also trained under Sid Bamick, his sempai, or mentor. Sid taught Joe many of the sword-fighting skills he used to great effect as Gokai Blue.

When ordered to execute a group of captive children, he blatantly refused and attacked his superior officers, letting the children run away. Because of his insurrection, Joe was taken prisoner and outfitted with an electric collar that could keep track of his every move and would emit an electric shock that could kill him, should he try to remove it. He managed to escape though, with the help of Sid. Unfortunately, his sempai was left behind.

Once on the outside, he continued to fight through hordes of Gormin and Sugormin that came after him with a 1,000,000 bounty on his head, unable to settle anywhere in one place due to the tracking collar on him. It was then that Captain Marvelous first noticed Joe. Slowly becoming overwhelmed by his attackers, Joe wasn’t about to give up, though his end was just about imminent. Then Marvelous appeared, offering to help him fight the Gormin and Sugormin off. Realizing that Marvelous was a space pirate, Joe warned him that he would get no money for saving him… and that was when Marvelous told him that it wasn’t money he wanted. He wanted Joe.

They fought off the Zangyack forces together, proving to be quite the combination. Afterwards, Joe told Marvelous about the collar around his neck, and how removing it could kill both of them. Still, Marvelous took it upon himself to pry it off of Joe with his bare hands. As they fell to the ground, Marvelous mades his intentions known to Joe (that he was searching for the Greatest Treasure in the Universe), and he accepts, thankful for what Marvelous had done for him, and vowing to stay with him until he achieved his dream. Marvelous passed him a Mobilate and the Gokai Blue Ranger Key.

Gokaiger
To Be Added

Super Hero Taisen
When Marvelous takes control of Dai-Zangyack and leads them in battle against Kamen Riders, Joe wonders why they have to fight the Riders and, with Don, joins with Daiki Kaito (Kamen Rider Diend), who is looking for Marvelous' treasure, and, a friend of (Kamen Rider OOO), in finding out. They eventually meet the crew of the time-travelling DenLiner.

Go-Busters vs. Gokaiger
To Be Added

Super Hero Taisen Z
Gokai Blue appeared in Kamen Rider × Super Sentai × Space Sheriff: Super Hero Taisen Z with teammates, Kamen Riders and, the Go-Busters and Kyoryugers.

Video Game appearances
Gokaiger had two video games released during its run, Super Sentai Battle: Ranger Cross and Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: Gathered Transformation! 35 Sentai!. Gokai Blue appeared with his team in both of them.

Super Sentai Battle: Ranger Cross
to be added

Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: Gathered Transformation! 35 Sentai!
to be added

Summons
For attacks, Gokai Blue has been seen able to somehow summon manifestations of past rangers. He is the first ever seen doing so.


 * Five-sword One-man Final Wave (Episode 4)
 * GingaBlue
 * HurricaneBlue
 * MagiBlue
 * Shinken Blue
 * Gosei Blue

Ranger Key
The Gokai Blue Ranger Key (ゴーカイブルーレンジャーキー) is Joe's personal Ranger Key which allows him to transform into Gokai Blue. Whereas the keys of the 34 Sentai were created out of the sacrifice of their powers in the Great Legend War, the origin of the Gokaiger Ranger Keys is unknown, though it can be assumed AkaRed had a role in their creation.

As with the other Gokaiger Ranger Keys, this key is commonly used in the Gokaigers' Ranger Key-compatible arsenal and mecha for different functions and attacks.

This Ranger Key was turned into a Ranger puppet once, by Basco. Along with the other Gokaigers bar an incapacitated Marvelous, Joe confronted and defeated the puppet Gokai Blue.

Bounty
After escaping from Zangyack, his bounty was at 500,000 when they recruited Hakase, which was then raised to 1,000,000 before they reached Earth. It then doubled after the Gokaigers hinder Zangyack's efforts on Earth. This is then raised even further to 4,000,000 and yet further to 8,000,000.

Portrayal
Joe Gibken is portrayed by Yuki Yamada (山田 裕貴). Prior to the series, he stated the series he wanted to become the most were the Kakuranger.

As Gokai Blue, his suit actor is Yoshifumi Oshikawa (押川 善文), whose previous role was Gosei Black in Tensou Sentai Goseiger and later served as suit actor for Red Buster in Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters.

Dub names
In the Korean dub of Gokaiger entitled Power Rangers Captain Force, which aired in South Korea, Joe as with the rest of the first five Gokaigers keeps his name (likely because they are not from Earth and thus don't have normal Japanese names), while his Ranger designation is Captain Blue.

Counterpart notes

 * Joe shares a few things in common with 5 of the other Gokaigers in terms of counterparts:
 * He is one of three Gokaigers to have a counterpart from all 34 past Super Sentai teams, the other two being Marvelous and Luka.
 * He is one of two Gokaigers to have all of their counterparts share the same color as them and be a part of their respective teams' primary groups, the other being Marvelous.
 * He is one of two Gokaigers with no counterpart that was either an official or technical leader of their team, the other being Gai.
 * He and Luka each have a counterpart played by Hiroshi Miyauchi. In Joe's case, his is Aorenger from Himitsu Sentai Gorenger.
 * He and Don each have a counterpart played by Kenji Ohba. In Joe's case, his is DenziBlue from Denshi Sentai Denziman.
 * He and Ahim share the same amount of opposite gender counterparts (4).
 * He and Gai each have a counterpart played by Shiro Izumi. In Joe's case, his is ChangePegasus from Dengeki Sentai Changeman.
 * Ironically, even though Joe is calm and serious, most of his counterparts (DenziBlue, GoggleBlue, DynaBlue, Blue3, ChangePegasus, Blue Flash, Blue Mask, Blue Turbo, Blue Swallow, TriceraRanger, TenmaRanger, NinjaBlue, OhBlue, Blue Racer, GingaBlue, GaoBlue, HurricaneBlue, Bouken Blue, and Go-On Blue) were much more lighthearted and/or childish.
 * His serious counterparts include Aorenger, Dia Jack, Battle France, VulShark, Blue Dolphin, FiveBlue, MegaBlue, GoBlue, TimeBlue, AbareBlue, DekaBlue, MagiBlue, GekiBlue, Shinken Blue, and Gosei Blue.
 * 4 of Joe's counterparts (Blue Dolphin, Blue Swallow, HurricaneBlue, and MagiBlue) were originally female.
 * 2 Blue Rangers (Signalman and KuwagaRaiger) are not Joe's counterparts, as neither of these Blues are part of their respective teams' primary groups.
 * He is the only male Gokaiger who does not have a Red Ranger counterpart.
 * Even though Joe is the second-in-command of the Gokaigers, only 9 of his counterparts (Aorenger, Battle France, FiveBlue, Blue Racer, GoBlue, TimeBlue, DekaBlue, GekiBlue, and Shinken Blue) were the second-in-command of their teams.

Gokai Change notes

 * Joe is the only male Gokaiger who has transformed into more than one female Ranger.
 * Joe's most transformed form was Go-On Blue with six transformations; by comparison Blue Racer, from another vehicle series, was his least transformed with only one transformation. Of his Blue Ranger counterparts, aside from the aformentioned Blue Racer; Blue Flash is also one of his lesser transformations, also with only one Gokai Change to this form.