Choujin Sentai Jetman

Chōjin Sentai Jetman (鳥人戦隊ジェットマン), is the 15th entry of Super Sentai series. It was produced by Toei and Bandai. It aired on TV Asahi at 5:00 PM every Friday from February 15, 1991 to February 14, 1992, with a total of 51 episodes.

The show was inspired by Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman, and was the last Super Sentai series not to be adapted as a series of Power Rangers until Go-Busters.

It later spawned a non-canon manga seqeul, Choujin Sentai Jetman: Toki wo Kakete, set five years after the series.

Plot
This series takes place in 1991 on the Earth Ship, the command center of an international defence agency called Sky Force, the guardian of peace on Earth. In the ship, scientists have developed "Birdonic Waves", a newly developed technology which gives the subject superhuman abilities. The experiments called "J-Project" were successful. Aya Odagiri, the director of the project, chose five elite Sky Force officials from Earth to use this technology. Ryu Tendo, one of the Sky Force officers, was successfully exposed to the Birdonic waves, making him the first Jetman, the Red Hawk.

However, the Earth Ship is suddenly attacked by Vyram, an evil outer-dimensional organization bent on inter-dimensional domination. They successfully destroy the ship and seemingly killing Ryu's lover and fellow candidate member Rie, in the chaos. The remaining Birdonic waves that were meant for the other four officials become scattered on Earth, hitting four civilians instead. Odagiri and Tendo successfully escape and begin searching on Earth for the four remaining Jetman, training them to aid them in stopping Vyram's plans of conquering our dimension.

Allies

 * Commander Aya Odagiri
 * Back Dimension Dimensian Soldiers
 * Ray
 * Kanna
 * Back Dimension Berserker Soldiers
 * Lou
 * Duran
 * Supreme Commander Akira Ichijou
 * Neo Jetman
 * J1
 * J2
 * J3
 * J4
 * J5
 * Gomi Jigen (21)
 * Dryer Jigen (28)

Dimensional War Party Vyram

 * Back Dimensional Count Radiguet/Radigan/Raguem
 * Tran/Emperor Tranza
 * Rie Aoi/Maria
 * Grey
 * Empress Juuza
 * Grinam Soldiers
 * (Bio) Dimensional Beasts

Songs

 * Opening: Choujin Sentai Jetman
 * Ending: Kokoro wa Tamago
 * Mecha Theme (Jet Icarus): Jet Icarus, Muteki Robo!
 * Mecha Theme (Jet Garuda): Jet Garuda, Tori no Robo
 * Toki wo Kakete
 * Honoo no Condor
 * Game ja Nai n da ze
 * Oozora no Chikai
 * Tori ni Narou yo
 * Kanashiki Grinam-hei
 * Aozora de Aimashou
 * Youki na Ako-chan

Cast

 * Ryu Tendo - Kotaro Tanaka (田中 弘太郎)
 * Gai Yuki - Toshihide Wakamatsu (若松 俊秀)
 * Raita Ooishi - Tomihisa Naruse (成瀬 富久)
 * Kaori Rokumeikan - Rika Kishida (岸田 里佳)
 * Ako Hayasaka - Sayuri Uchida (内田 さゆり)
 * Commander Aya Odagiri - Mikiko Miki (三輝 みきこ)
 * Jiiya - Yuzo Hayakawa (早川 雄三)
 * Rie Aoi/Maria - Maho Maruyama (丸山 真穂)
 * Count Radiguet - Daisuke Tachi (舘 大介)
 * Tran - Miku Kuga (久我 未来)
 * Emperor Tranza - Yutaka Hirose (広瀬 裕)
 * Gray - Hideaki Kusaka (日下 秀昭)
 * Narrator - Tsutomu Tareki (垂木 勉)

Guest Stars

 * Emiko - Yoshiko Noda (野田よしこ)
 * Kyotaro Tatsumi - Masaki Terasoma (てらそま まさき)
 * Bus Passenger - Mayumi Yoshida (吉田 真弓)
 * Juuza - Sachiko Yuto (高都 幸子)
 * Kaori Rokumeikan (child) - Yuka Koide (小出由華)
 * Michiru - Nagiko Tono (遠野なぎこ)
 * Ray - Jouji Ishiwata (石渡 譲二)
 * Kanna - Kanako Maeda (前田 賀奈子)
 * Dan - Hideki Fujiwara (藤原 秀樹)
 * Scientist - Daisuke Ban (伴 大介)
 * Akira - Haruki Hamada (浜田 治貴)
 * Supreme Commander Akira Ichijo - Hideaki Tezuka (手塚秀彰)
 * J1/Neo Jetman 1 - Yuta Mochizuki (望月 祐多)
 * J2/Neo Jetman 2 - Ryuji Kasahara (笠原竜司)
 * J3/Neo Jetman 3 - Minoru Watanabe (渡辺実)
 * J4/Neo Jetman 4 - Takeshi Miyazaki 40-41
 * J5/Neo Jetman 5 - Miyuki Nagato (長門美由樹)

Suit actors

 * Red Hawk - Kazuo Niibori and Hiroshi Maeda
 * Black Condor - Naoki Ōfuji
 * Yellow Owl, Jet Garuda - Hirofumi Ishigaki and Tomihisa Naruse
 * White Swan - Yūichi Hachisuka and Masato Akada
 * Blue Swallow - Shōji Hachisuka
 * Tetra Boy - Yasuhiro Takeuchi
 * Jet Icarus, Jet Garuda, Great Icarus - Hideaki Kusaka
 * Dimensional Beasts - Takeshi Miyazaki

Stage Shows

 * Jetman Stage Show at Red Heroes Korakuen Yuenchi
 * Jetman Stage Show at Super Hero Korakuen Yuenchi
 * Jetman Stage Show at 3 Heroes Korakuen Yuenchi

Development
Predicting that the Super Sentai series might fade into "a long-term rut" after the poor performance of 1990's Fiveman, Keita Amemiya was chosen to be the producer of the 1991 Sentai series, with Takeyuki Suzuki as director.

For the motif, they chose to base the series on Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman, which was a bird-themed five member team that had rivalries between it's members. During auditions the show went by the name of "Supermen Sentai Birdman" (超人戦隊バードマン Chōjin Sentai Bādoman; note the different kanji on "Chōjin"), and shopped around to actors as a "live-action version of Gatchaman", among them Toshihide Wakamatsu, who would go on to play Gai Yuki/Black Condor.

Conversely, a live-action film of Gatchaman has recently been announced, with its release slated for the Summer of 2013, and the role of Ken the Eagle (the team's leader, upon which Ryu Tendou's character was inspired) to be played by Tori Matsuzaka, who played Takeru Shiba in Samurai Sentai Shinkenger.

Features
Backstory - The Ranger's powers come from "Birdonic Waves" created by "Sky Force", the members of the team were given the powers accidentally, two of which do not appear in the first episode. Having the team be incomplete in the first episode was a first for the Sentai series.

Writing - Before Jetman, members were for the most part referred to by their color. Kotaro Tanaka and Toshihide Wakamatsu said to the cast that "this [was] unnatural", and paved the way for Jetman and shows afterwards to have characters refer to each other by their names instead of their colors. The writer also proposed to have episodes without the characters transforming and fighting, but it was met by opposition from Bandai until the later in the show.

"Trendy drama conflicts" - Takeyuki Suzuki came up with the idea for having a love triangle for Jetman when watching Tosho Daimos, and wanted to capture it's "high romance". The tension and comedy of the love triangles of the show was influential in it's popularity, and became a defining part of the show. Gokaiger playfully mocked this in their ending theme by describing the series as "trendy".

Internal strife inside the enemy faction - Not only were the Vyram fighting against the Jetman, they were also fighting each other. Storylines involving conflicts between the villains became fixtures in Jetman and future seasons.

Reception
Due to the changes to the show as mentioned above, the result was in a wider age group than ever before. The show's ratings increased over the previous year, with Jetman getting an average of 7.1% compared to Fiveman's paltry 6.5%.

Although the show received some criticism for adding "romance drama to a children's show", characters like Yuki Gai became a big hit with mothers; who sent clemency pleas to TV Asahi so that they did not kill him off.

Even today, many fans cite it as a masterpiece among the Super Sentai series, with it topping the #1 popular vote for Bandai's B-ClUB magazine and Toei's "Super Sentai Request Tournament"

In the end, total revenue from the series greatly exceeded over 15 billion yen.