OOO and W Movie War Core

I have to preface this by saying that initially I hadn't watched Kamen Rider W (yes I say W rather than Double since the title is literally written with the letter W) when I watched the OOO and W Movie War Core.  Not to mention the only knowledge of Kamen Rider before this is watching Kamen Rider OOO.  So this is the first thing I watched that deviated a little bit from OOO.  That being said, since I didn't write this review directly after I saw the movie, I've watched all of W between then and now so I have a better understanding of the series.  Even so, there's enough issues with the story that even if I hadn't watched W, this review would make just as much sense.  The added knowledge of the series just adds to my ability to understand the series and characters better.

Getting right into the swing of things, this "movie" is spit into three segments: The W heavy segment that is set in the OOO universe but has very little to do with OOO (Skull: Message for W/Double), the OOO segment that completely forgets about the W part of this crossover (Nobunaga's Desire), and the actual crossover segment of the movie (Movie War Core).  Now with the title being advertised the way it is, I figured that it was going to be an actual crossover.  Considering I wasn't very familiar with how Kamen Rider crossovers are typically done (at this point I was only familiar with sentai crossovers), this wasn't what I was expecting.  But I have no qualms with this set up.  In fact if it's done well enough it can be decent.  A better example of a crossover is the W and Decade cross.  I'll get more into that in the future when I make a review for that, but I will say that crossover did a better job of intertwining the two separate stories so that when they met up in the third act, it didn't seem awkward or out of place.  Here, it does. 

Let's break down the three separate segments.  Starting with Skull: Message for W (or Double...just bare with me saying W instead.  I'm too used to it by now).  The premise for this section is that Akiko and Terui are to be wed, however a Pteradon Yummy is attacking the city.  Though for some reason, Akiko took Terui's Accel memory and driver so he can't transform.  He does however fight the Yummy alongside W as himself.  Of course Akiko shows up, distraught that they'd rather be fighting (AKA: protecting innocent people from a dangerous monster...that is their job after all) than show up on time for the wedding.  Though most of her anger stems from the fact that her father had made a promise to her that he would be there for her wedding.  While I understand that weddings are absolutely important events, there's a few things wrong with this premise already:

• Throughout the series, there's nothing hinting at the fact that Akiko dislikes Terui being a Kamen Rider.  There is nothing in previous movies that hint that she dislike the idea of Kamen Riders.  Where does her sudden discomfort with the idea of Kamen Riders come from?  She works with two of them and at no point does she have any disdain for them.  She's even marrying Terui knowing that he's a Kamen Rider and until he doesn't show up on time for her wedding (or rather until the beginning of this movie), there is nothing that shows us where her disdain for Kamen Riders is coming from.  This disdain that lead her to take Terui's Accel memory and driver.  What did she think that she would gain from doing this?  Knowing him the way that she does, wouldn't she realize that he would fight regardless?  And that if he fought these creatures without transforming he would be in even greater risk?  And she didn't hate that her father was a Kamen Rider either.  So where on earth is this hatred of her father being a Kamen Rider coming from?
• She knows her father is dead.  The previous crossover established this.  Her father died during the events of "Begins Night".  In fact, it's been implied...no proven in the series that he's dead.  We see him get shot in the back three times.  His death was the catalyst that lead Philip and Shoutarou to become W...Double...whatever you wanna call them.  "Daburu".  There.  Anyways, remember how she found out that he died because Philip couldn't keep his mouth shut about it?  Apparently we're supposed to forget that.  And had I written this post before I saw that movie (the Begins Night segment of the W and Decade Movie War), I wouldn't have picked up on this little plot hole.  She was rather accepting when she found out that he was no longer alive.  Sad of course, because she barely knew him and she wanted to.  But accepting.  She finally knew some bit of truth about her father and from my perspective she was okay with this.  But all of a sudden she's angry that her father can't attend her wedding but she desperately wants him too.  Well if he were alive, I could understand her feelings.  And to an extend I can understand them even if he is dead.  But I don't believe a dead person has a choice and Akiko is treating him like he had a choice in the matter.  Why are they treating the situation like he were still alive?  To my knowledge, there's no mention or recognition of his death from any of the characters in this movie and until I'd watched W, I assumed Sokichi was still alive.
• What is the purpose of this Yummy?  It's sole purpose is to 1) act as the catalyst in showing Akiko what kind of person her father was and 2) to bring in an element (the Memory memory) that is crucial to setting up the Movie War Core.  Had the Yummy been more useful in the movie itself, I wouldn't have a problem with it's presence.  But this "character" is treated more like a prop than anything.

 The segment ends off with Skull/Sokichi Narumi having to defeat his partner who had become a Spider Dopant and infected many people in the city with spider bombs (including Sokichi).  When they come in physical contact with the person they love the most, the spider bomb will transfer over to their loved one and explode.  All in all, is the back story for Skull necessary?  No.  It's essentially padding to make this movie over an hour long.  Well I suppose I can say that for most of this film.  But this is the most enjoyable segment.  While the story regarding Skull just barely connects to the overall plot, it is a wonderful story about this character.  For the most part, all we knew about him from the series is that he's dead, he's Akiko's father, and he was Shoutarou's mentor and boss.  We really get a look into how he thought and acted and why he fought.  Albeit his character could stand to be defined a bit more but for what it is, it's a good story.

Like a boss...

On to Nobunaga's Desire.  The one truly pointless part of this entire "movie" (I'm rather reluctant to call it that).  The whole premise of this part is that Kougami wants to revive Oda Nobunaga for some reason or another.  Because the script said so I guess.  So he creates a new body for Nobunaga using cell medals.  Meanwhile Eiji and Hina are off doing some part time work on a movie shoot, Eiji takes the money that he earns (and Hina's money as well) and gives it away to people he thinks are needs, and on his way back sees a samurai looking creature attacking a man, calling him a murderer.  Eiji of course transforms into OOO and fights the creature.  The samurai creature escapes and while chasing after it, Eiji comes across a young man who seems out of place and injured.  It turns out this man has amnesia but knows his name is Nobunaga.  

Obviously this is just my opinion but to put it bluntly, this section is worthless.  It's a story that has no connection or impact on the rest of the "film".  Not to mention that Nobunaga's character has no bearing in what happens in the last segment nor a connection to anything happening in the rest of the movie.  It's really nothing but a one shot story that's sole purpose is to set up the black cores for the third portion of the film.  But for this there's really two big complaints I have:

• The introduction of the black core medals.  We're all aware that each Greeed has a color and species/power or element type set of creatures attached to them.  And according to the series there are only 6 sets of medals, not counting the movie only medals/combos.  The difference though between the movie only medals and these black cores are that the other medals are explained or play some sort of actual importance in the movies.  While I haven't seen them yet, the descriptions of the films are enough to figure out that these other combos/medals are important to the plot and thus the logical conclusion is that there is going to be some form of explanation behind them.  Here Dr. Maki just has them, tosses them into Nobunaga, and that's it.  Where did Maki get those medals?  Where are they from?  At least when the Putotyra medals are introduced in the series, we're told that they were a set of medals that were created.  Why were they created?  Not completely sure.  But at least there was some way to explain their introduction.  I'll end up getting more into the issues I have with the black cores when going over the last section.
• Ankh's uselessness.  And I'm not just saying it because he's my favorite character and I wish he was in the movie more.  He was absolutely unnecessary in this movie and was treated more like a prop than an actual character.  He showed up sporadically only to provide nothing of substance to the actual story.  My question is why did he let Eiji keep all (except his obviously) the core medals?  There is a point where Ankh allows Eiji to use the TaToBa combo as he pleases but at no point does Ankh ever allow Eiji to keep all of the medals.  As well as playing the role of the wild card, antisocial antihero, he's the one who knows the most about the strengths and weaknesses of the other Greeeds (considering that he is one and he was around them the most) and often gives Eiji the proper medal combos to defeat their opponents.  Could they not write a better part for him?

Dear movie studio, I know I look like a prop, but don't treat me like one. 'Kay?  Thanks (just ignore that the picture above is actually a figure).

And on to the main portion of this movie...or rather what should be the main portion as the film is advertised as a crossover.  Unfortunately this has to be the shortest segment of the movie and a complete let down.  Nobunaga's Desire leaves off with Eiji defeating the Greeed Nobunaga, Nobunaga's body shattering into a pile of cell medals while the three cores that Maki tossed into him fly off somewhere.  Now if you remember from part one there's that Pterodon Yummy that has the Memory memory.  The black cores react to the Gaia Memory and combine with it, forming into a strange fiery creature that called itself a Kamen Rider.  Due to the memories retrieved by the Memory memory, this strange Greeed/Dopant hybrid ends up resembling (only loosely) a Kamen Rider.  Only it's body is completely engulfed in flames, it's giant, and some of it's limbs are missing and/or aren't connected to the rest of it's body.  So the Memory memory stored the memories and information of Kamen Rider Skull and the three medals were of the animals scorpion, crab, and shrimp.  This creature didn't resemble a cross between those things at all so that's failure number one.  But since I like the look of fire, the actual design of the creature doesn't bother me.  The missing and unconnected limbs are a bit awkward though.

Basically this entire section is just a battle.  W and OOO versus Core.  Birth and Accel versus the Pteradon Yummy.  And a little more of Akiko's whining about how it's all the fault of Kamen Riders existing that bad things happen in the world.  Until she realize that Terui's also fighting to protect her and she finds out the reason why her father "really can't be with her at her wedding" (other than the fact that he's you know...dead).  This is the section that I believe I have the most complaints about.  Crossovers can be amazing things.  And I love when studios create crossovers between their own products or with other studio's creations (granted they can get the okay to do so).  With good writing good crossovers aren't impossible.  The sentai crossovers, while imperfect, are a much better example of how crossovers should be done.  The characters meet and get to know one another.  Maybe they even have conflicts with the other heroes.  Here there's nothing.  Eiji saves Akiko and ends up encountering Philip and Shoutarou that way.  Then they just go fight.  You'd think there'd be some point where they all meet each other and get acquainted first but I guess not.  Apparently character interaction beyond fighting isn't very important.

There's one part of this segment that almost makes this entire movie worth it and it's the closest we ever come to "character interaction" (a character reacting to another character is a better way of putting it).  A really short scene when OOO and W have to go underground in order to destroy the source that Core draws his power from.  Ankh eventually shows up (seemingly out of nowhere).  Shoutarou ends up responding to what Ankh says without looking at him at first.  But mid-sentence he does end up turning around only to be greeted by a floating, moving, disembodied hand (who also turns to "look" at Shoutarou/Cyclone Joker Extreme).  And Shoutarou reacts like anyone would if they saw a floating, talking, moving, disembodied hand...freaking the heck out.  This crossover was missing more moments like this.  Not specifically silly moments like this one is.  But moments where the characters are reacting and playing off one another.  These two worlds haven't really collided before (unless we're counting the short appearance OOO had in the A to Z movie...which they technically do).  A crossover is a great opportunity to explore these characters and their relationships in a different way or to see how characters from one series would act around characters of another.  But I'm disappointed that opportunity wasn't taken.

As for the things that specifically annoyed me about this segment...:

• The destruction of the black cores.  Now my guess is that when they created this movie, they already had in mind the way the OOO story would go.  So along they way they knew that the only way the core medals could be destroyed was via the Putotyra combination.  Coming from a pre-production standpoint, your story is written out before you go into production.  Sure you might tweak minor details here and there but for the most part the major plot points of a series are carefully planned out beforehand.  So, most likely the concept of the destruction of the medals was a point that was previously planned out.  If that's the case, then how were the black cores able to be destroyed?  Had they just destroyed the Gaia Memory, they would've defeated Kamen Rider Core.  Its existence only comes about from the combination of the memory and the core medals.  Wouldn't it just be destroyed if the memory was destroyed?
• Again, Ankh's uselessness.  While the only amusing scene from this movie has him in it, the only thing he does is give Eiji his other two medals to create the TaJaDor combo and then he disappears.  Somehow.  Maybe they forgot him underground or something.
• The ending.  After the battle's over with and everyone's supposed to go back to their everyday lives.  How the deuce does Eiji end up in Brazil?  I know there's this whole suspension of disbelief thing and that works for the most part.  I'll suspend disbelief for the idea of Kamen Riders, evil creatures, an incomplete being possessing a human in order to survive, and a young girl with superhuman strength.  But I won't suspend it for Eiji ending up in Brazil because the trajectory of his attack wouldn't allow for him to end up there.  His Prominence Drop was angled upward.  Meaning if anything he would've just ended up above ground in he place that he already was.  I might believe is Shoutarou and Philip ended up elsewhere, but probably nowhere too far away.  It made no sense for him to end up randomly in Brazil.  Sure the scene is funny, but that doesn't mean it isn't incredibly stupid and unnecessary.
• The battle with Kamen Rider Core.  It was surprisingly disappointing and short.  I was expecting a bit more of a climax going into this and they defeated him rather easily.  Much easier than either of them have defeated other villains in their respective series.  And somehow much easier than the Pteradon Yummy was defeated.
• The reveal of why Sokichi couldn't see his daughter.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but usually the effects of a Dopant or any other sort of villainous creatures wears off when the creature is destroyed.  Unless the effect was death (highly doubt someone would be able to come back from that).  But for some reason when the Spider Dopant was defeated, the spider bombs it created remained.  Wouldn't this cause a lot of discord within the city for everyone affected by the bombs?  It seems like the only person who felt any effect from this was Sokichi because he could never come in contact with his family again.  The moment feels very warm and sweet.  You realize that the person that Sokichi loved more than anyone else was Akiko.  But once that moment sinks in and you look at the larger picture, this doesn't make any sense.  Not only because he's dead by this point, but because the death of the Dopant should've cured him of whatever effect the Dopant's spider bombs would've had on him or anyone else in the city.

Correct me if I'm wrong...but Brazil is nowhere near Japan right?

While each segment had its moments, those small moments don't fix the overall problems this "film" has.  It feels very disconnected.  I'll get into this later on, but the W and Decade cross uses this structure much better.  Here it's clearly three separate stories that tried to hard to create a connection and the connection felt very forced.  The characters are interesting enough on their own.  If they weren't I probably wouldn't have watched W and lucky for me I decided to.  It's a great series.  But it's not enough for me to claim that the "movie" is good or that I'd want to watch it again.  It's confusing, dull, and disjointed.  If I had to choose which part was the best of the three, I'd have to go with Skull: Message for W/Double.  That story was the best put together and the most interesting.  It has nothing to do with it's connection to the rest of the "movie".

All in all, I say ignore this movie.  Little is added to either series, nothing new is added to the characters, and it doesn't offer anything that's really worth seeing.  The only scene that's interesting enough is Shoutarou getting freaked out by a bad green screen effect (AKA: Ankh), but even that isn't really worth sitting through the rest of the movie for.

Choujin Sentai Jetman Review pt. 2: Story

(Originally written August 31, 2011)

Part one covered character relationships and the drama of the Jetman series.  To read that go here:

Choujin Sentai Jetman Review pt. 1

This part mostly focuses on the story, it’s issues, and questions that the series leaves unanswered.  I’ll get a bit into characters here however it’ll be about how the characters relate to the story and if they are necessary or not.

Ako, Ryu, Aya, Raita, Kaori, Gai

Firstly, the pacing of the story is a bit awkward.  The first episode was extremely quick paced.  There’s very little build up to the introduction of the Jetman.  One moment Ryu and Rie are saving someone.  The next they’re being recruited to become Jetman.  And the next they’re attacked by the Vyram and Rie “dies”.  The Vyram attack comes out of nowhere.  It takes a while to even understand why the Vyram are there and why they’re trying to destroy humanity.  Eventually you figure out that they view humans as an inferior and unintelligent species and they take it upon themselves to exact some form of “divine justice” on humanity.

Aside from that bit, there are many points where characters are introduced that have very little to do with the plot.  The ones that come to mind are the 3 different groups of alternate or replacement rangers that come:

• First the Back Dimension Warriors, Ray, Kanna, and Dan.  They’re rangers from an alternate dimension that the Vyram also attacked and destroyed.  They come to the Earth to battle the Vyram with the technology they created (their own special suits and their mech called Jet Garuda).  We only see one of them when they’re transformed and all of them die as quickly as they’re introduced.  The only reason they were necessary was to introduce the Jet Garuda to the team.  Unfortunately this could have been done without bringing in extra characters.  Many of the inventions the Jetman use were created and/or by their chief and/or the Sky Force (for example, the Tetra Boy).  Why couldn’t they work to create the Jet Garuda?
• Second are Lou and Duran.  As useless as the Back Dimension Warriors were, Lou and Duran served absolutely no purpose.  They were a couple from another alternate world conquered by the Vyram.  Lou sought revenge on the Vyram for destroying her home, despite being warned not to seek revenge.  Their relationship is supposed to mirror the one that Ryu and Rie had so their sole purpose was to ram into our heads yet again this relationship that Ryu had and was still seeking.  Their introduction added nothing new to the series.
• Third are the replacement rangers, the Neo Jetman.  Out of nowhere, we’re told that there was an alternate Jetman program going on using trained soldiers instead of civilians.  When the Jetman lose their powers, the Neo Jetman take their place for an episode.  Until it’s revealed to them that their chief’s sole goal was to take control of their base and keep it for revenge, the Neo Jetman keep fighting for him even though they know that he views them as dispensable objects.  While they served a purpose (they were introduced to give the regular Jetman back their powers), this is another situation that could’ve been solved by them creating new technology.  You’d think that there would’ve have been another birdonic wave machine would have been created in case of an emergency, but I guess not. 

On top of this, the series presents us with a lot of information (both important and trivial) that has no answer:

• What was the purpose of Radiguet brainwashing Rie?  We know that the Vyram hate humans.  And Rie is human.  While he finds out later on that Rie was Ryu/Red Hawk’s girlfriend, he did not have this information from the start.  It makes sense that he would want to keep her away from Ryu when he knows what Rie means to him.  That way Radiguet has some form of leverage over Ryu.  But in the beginning it would’ve made more sense for him to have killed her or just left her to die.
• Why did a robot like Grey have human emotions?  Out of all the Vyram, he had the most heart.  He knew what it felt like to love.  He was the most human of all of them, yet he was a robot.
• What happened to that girl Radiguet met when he became human?  This is another story point that was extremely confusing.  As punishment Radiguet was sent to live amongst humans.  But once regaining the memory of who he really was, he changed back into himself.  Was this plot point just more padding?  It honestly could’ve made for a very good twist.  Radiguet could’ve taken the memory of what it as like to be and feel human and this could’ve changed him for the better.  But all it did was show the blatant hypocrisy of the Vyram.  They call humans fools for not learning and advancing themselves, yet the Vyram do the exact same.  There was no need for this scene.  If Radiguet was going to remain a twisted individual until the end, this plot point added nothing to the story.  Furthermore, what did he actually do to the woman?  Did he kill her?  Injure her?  Use her as a tool for the Vyram?  Why end the episode with such uncertainty?  The sad thing is this episode had potential to be very interesting.  This Vyram elite has become human and doesn’t remember his previous life as a Vyram.  He’s behaving as a typical human would and he’s even having fun and getting along with other humans.  This concept should have been pushed a little further than it was.
• What happened to Gai in the epilogue?  Now the next episode of Gokaiger is the Jetman tribute episode and it features Gai/Black Condor.  So Gai clearly didn’t die.  But the finale of Jetman makes this very unclear.  His apparent death mirrors the way that Grey dies an episode or two before.  Hopefully this ending is cleared up in the Gokaiger’s tribute to Jetman.  Still, it leaves the series on a confusing downer and makes the audience feel like they don’t have full closure.

All in all, the series may not be perfect.  There are a few plot holes ant twists that can leave you confused or wanting more.  And there are many story points that should have been elaborated.  Many of the episodes are good stories on their own, but as a connected cohesive story, it can be disjointed at points.  What this series does well is mix together drama and humor.  The story is very dramatic and very focused on individual relationships, but when it calls for it, the story knows how to be silly and that quirky (if not a bit campy) humor shows through quite a bit.  For all the faults the story has, it is a well put together series and worth checking out.

(Follow-Up: Okay, I'd written this review before the Jetman tribute episode of Gokaiger and since I'm re-posting it and people might not see the date at the top this was originally written, I'll say I know that it's completely established that Gai is dead.  In fact, the tribute for Jetman is probably my favorite episode of Gokaiger to date purely because it wasn't what I was expecting at all.  It took me by surprise.  It was serious but still kept that light tone that Gokaiger has.  And the story for it is so beautifully written.  So to put it on the record, I know Gai is dead.  I wasn't going to rewrite the ending of this half of the review because at the time it was a valid question that I had.)

Choujin Sentai Jetman Review pt. 1: Characters and Relationships

(Originally written August 29, 2011)

Admittedly the first thing that got me interested in Jetman were their outfits.  As a visual person, I can be swayed to watch a series on the basis that I like the style or the costuming.  Plus the bird motif caught my attention and when I found subtitles for it, I couldn’t resist watching it.  The series revolves around 5 ordinary people who through an accident caused by the Vyram (the antagonists) invading the Earth are imbued with extra-ordinary strength and abilities and become the Choujin Sentai (Birdman Squadron) Jetman.  There’s Ryu, the sole member of Jetman who was actually a planned member due to his training.  Ako, a loud-mouthed, opinionated high school girl.  Gai, a womanizer who enjoys jazz, gambling, and drinking.  Raita, a country boy who enjoys cultivating vegetables and dislikes violence.  And Kaori, a woman raised with wealth but sought something more from life.  Despite their different personalities and despite the issues they had as a team, they’re able to overcome their personal issues and protect the world from evil.

White Swan (Kaori), Yellow Owl (Raita), Red Hawk (Ryu), Black Condor (Gai), Blue Swallow (Ako)

However the unfortunate thing about their personal issues is the show is completely filled with them.  All the relationship breakdowns and complications cause issues that affect that performance of the Jetman team.  And on top of relationship issues, the story leaves many questions unanswered, many holes open, and adds in many unnecessary details that could have been fixed without the introduction of extra (and unnecessary) characters.  So without further ado, let’s get into Choujin Sentai Jetman.  Starting with the relationship issues…

When I speak of “relationships”, I’m not just speaking of them in the romantic fashion though romance does play a key role in many of the problems the Jetman face.  The main conflicting relationships are as follows:

• Ryu and Kaori
• Ryu and Gai
• Gai and Kaori
• Ryu and Rie/Maria

A good chunk of Jetman reads like a drama series.  And if you went into the series expecting it to be a typical action show, you might be disappointed with the level of drama presented.  And sadly, most of the tension in the series is centered around the first relationship we’re introduced to.  Two of the first characters we meet are Ryu and Rie and you learn fairly quickly that they’re an inseparable item.  Until the Vyram attack the Earth Ship and Rie is tossed from it.  Though distraught from the loss of his girlfriend, Ryu attempts to put aside his personal feelings in order to protect the world from the Vyram.

Once the Jetman team is assembled, we’re shown that for the time being Ryu is the only person who can “put aside” his personal feelings for the sake of his work.  Human beings aren’t infallible thus emotions like love, lust, and rage interfere with our work.  Heroes aren’t exempt from this either.  Each of the relational issues presented stem from the initial relationship between Ryu and Rie.  To plainly break it down:

• Kaori fell in love with Ryu.  To the point of obsession.  She would do everything in her power to make Ryu love her but to no avail.  Ryu’s desire to concentrate on his work as well as his undying devotion and love for Rie didn’t allow him to reciprocate her feelings.
• Gai was in love with Kaori.  However Kaori didn’t reciprocate his feelings because she viewed him as abrasive and uncaring.  From the audience’s point of view, Gai’s sole interest in Kaori is because of her looks and because she wasn’t in love with him.  He wanted her because she didn’t want him and no woman has turned him down before.
• Gai becomes jealous of Ryu because he can get Kaori’s attention without trying.  No matter what Gai does, Kaori doesn’t recognize him as a suitable boyfriend.
• Gai’s jealousy becomes a point of contingency for the team.  Particularly towards the beginning, it greatly affected their performance in battle as Gai wasn’t going to take orders from a “goody-two shoes” like Ryu.  Not to mention whenever Ryu upsets Kaori, Gai is quick to attack Ryu both physically and verbally.
• Knowing that Rie is “dead”, Kaori vows to erase Rie from Ryu’s heart (a rather cold hearted statement if you ask me).
• Once Ryu learns that Rie is still alive but being used and brainwashed by the Vyram, he vows to do everything in his power to save her.  Learning that Rie is still alive completely screws with Ryu’s emotions.  At times, he’s no longer the composed person that he is in the beginning of the series.

The drama can be a bit much at times and goes to very petty levels.  Most of the drama could easily be avoided if it weren’t for Kaori’s unwillingness to let go and Gai’s reckless personality.  The only character who had decent reason to feel the way that he did was Ryu.  He lost the love of his life so his heart isn’t open to another relationship.  He never expressed interest in Kaori.  All the interest was on her part.  Thus the brunt of the drama comes from her and Gai.  It’s sad really.  Gai and Kaori’s relationship was doomed from the start anyways.

For the most part, the drama was baseless.  However there was one relationship where the drama added a necessary element to the series.  And that was the relationship between Ryu and Rie once Rie became Maria.  As I said earlier, Ryu always put aside his personal feelings for the good of his work and he advised that the other Jetman do the same.  Once he learned that Rie was still alive, this changes.  His personal feelings start to affect the way that he fights until a single point when all the emotion that he’s been burying deep inside himself wells up and causes him to fall into a deep depression and slight insanity.  The backbone of the Jetman becomes a broken shell who only remains happy in his memories because there he could live forever with Rie.  The Rie that he loved and not the brainwashed Maria.  Drastic character changes in a short amount of time rarely work, especially when it’s trying to show character development.  While it seems like his mental breakdown is sudden, there’s episodes of build up to it.  Early on, the hint is dropped that Rie is still alive as Maria.  We’re shown snippets of Ryu’s mindset when he recalls Rie’s “death” and also when he recalls all the good times they had together.  We’re conditioned to understand that Rie is Ryu’s main weakness so seeing him fall into madness and depression can just be seen as the culmination of months and months of emotions that can no longer be repressed.

Character relationships outside of the romantic realm are wonderful however.  Such as…

• Tran’s relationship with the other Vyram elite.  As the youngest of the bunch, the rest don’t take him seriously and often openly mock and laugh at him much to his dismay.  However he tries his best to prove his worth to the group until he changes to Tranza and forces the rest of them to acknowledge his power.
• Gai’s relationship with Ryu.  Although his initial resentment towards Ryu was due to jealousy and dislike of working with a group (especially under someone he considered to be a goody-two shoes), by working together the two of them became best friends and are probably the closest of any of the Jetman.  The development of their friendship was extremely slow which is a good thing.  Many series (particularly short ones) rush important relationships.  And especially in series where it’s important that the group works together.  But despite the series being only 51 episodes long, they took a nice amount of time to develop the friendship.
• Radiguet’s relationship with any person who held more power than him.  His drive for power filled consumed him.  But he wasn’t the most powerful.  Most others around him held more power than he did, but he couldn’t stand not being on top.  And despite gaining the power than he initially sought, it wasn’t enough to keep him from losing (granted this is a type of show where the good guys always have to win in the end but still…).
• Grey’s relationship with Maria.  Despite this falling under the realm of “romantic”, I consider this the romantic relationship done right.  Also Maria didn’t reciprocate Grey’s feelings but I believe his feelings were subtle enough that she might not have known until later on that he loved her.  Despite Grey being a robot, he had the most heart of any of the Vyram.  Despite being a programmed warrior, he still had the ability to care and the ability to appreciate what’s beautiful in the world.  Despite the Vyram hating humans, Grey fell in love with Maria and even after learning that she was human he still cared for her as she was.  As much as he loved her, he always wanted the best for her.  He’d rather her become human again rather than transform into a mindless beast.
• The relationship between Grey and Gai.  Now admittedly this wasn’t a real “relationship” persay.  Rather it was a subtle connection and understanding that these two characters had.  Their personalities and passions mirrored each other.

So what do I think of the relationships?  Aside from the relationships between Ryu and Rie and Grey and Maria, the romance is bland and borders on unrealistic.  Watching it, you get beat over the head so much with Ryu’s relationship with Rie that you can even get annoyed with that.  However, watching the characters develop as individuals and watching their relationships as friends/co-workers/enemies/etc. change over time is wonderful.  Most of the characters are well established and relatable and their growth over the course of the series is realistic.  Most of the relationships were pushed as far as they could go.  Though if there were any that I felt needed a little more meat behind them, it would have to be Tran’s relationship with the rest of the Vyram elite.  While you understand that they treat him like a child, you’re only shown that in a few episodes.  Otherwise he’s treated no different than the rest of them.  But other than that, the characters and their relationships are well developed.

That’s it for part one.  Stick around for part two which will cover the story, a few other character details, and questions that were left unanswered.