Rescue Sentai Go Go Five aka: Kyuukyuu Sentai Go Go Five
Kyūkyū Sentai Gogo V (Rescue Squadron Gogo Five) is the twenty-third installment in the Super Sentai series, running from 1999 to 2000.In the year 1999, the Tatsumi siblings, a family of rescue workers, is contacted by their long-absent father, Mondo Tatsumi. He tells them of the coming invasion of the evil Saima Clan, and gives them the means to fight them. Now, as the Rescue Sentai GoGoFive, the Tatsumis must stop the Saima from resurrecting their Queen, Grandiene.
The Tatsumi Family:
Matoi Tatsumi / Go Red: The Hero and eldest son. A firefighter.
Nagare Tatsumi / Go Blue: The Smart Guy and second son. A chemist who combines strategies with brute force.
Shō Tatsumi / Go Green: The Lancer (has the most issues with authority). The middle son and a helicopter pilot.
All Your Powers Combined: The Life Bird, which transforms from flying bird drone to blaster. It is composed of five different weapons. These do not have a set member, meaning anyone can use them.
A wordplay: "99"/"Nine-Nine" is read as "kyūkyū" in Japanese, which is also the word for "rescue".
(the rescue vehicles that form the Victory Walker and Victory Robo), the Go Liners (the train cars that form the Five Liner and the Grand Liner) and the Mars Machines (the component of the Victory Mars)
Red Ladder + Green Hover + Victory Walker = Victory Robo
Go Liner 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = Five Liner (the train mode that carried each of the 99-Machines) or Grand Liner (robot mode)
Red Mars 1 + Blue Mars 2 + Green Mars 3 + Yellow Mars 4 + Pinks Marks 5 = Beetle Mars, which transforms into the Victory Mars
Transforming Mecha: The Liner Boy, which can transform into a train car called the Max Liner, which can then transform into a spacecraft called the Max Shuttle. The Victory Mars is a transformed version of the Beetle Mars.
Mecha Expansion Pack: Liner Boy serves this function to both Victory Robo and the Go Liners.
Victory Robo + Liner Boy = Max Victory Robo
Max Liner + Five Liner = Max Go Liner
Max Shuttle + Five Liner = Space Go Liner (which serves as a carrier for each of the Mars Machines)
Rescue, of course! In fact, Mission 8 reveals that the Tatsumi family line goes way back to the Edo era as firefighters, so assumingly, the rescue spirit runs in the family.
And it's not just a visual motif either; the series tries to emphasize the spirit and essence of rescue work and workers whenever possible. Missions 8 and 11, for example, put focus on this.
The letter "V"; both as the Roman numeral for "5", as a visual motif, and also possibly referring to "Victory". As if to keep the motif clean, there wasn't even a Sixth Ranger.
And "Kyukyu"/"Rescue" and "99", to a lesser extent.
Which turns into Fridge Brilliance when you consider that the series with the Rescue motif was released in 1999
Parent-child relationship, reflected by both the Tatsumi family and Saima clan. And the vast contrast between the head, and sole, parent's disposition and affection towards the children.
While we're at the topic of "Family": Sibling bond. This is a major theme also reflected by both sides, though unlike the absolute polarity with parent-child relationship, both sides exhibit the same nature of closeness between the siblings, with slightly varying degrees, of course.
Ironically for a Super Sentai title, the series has quite a bit of realism scattered throughout; character and setting realism for the most part, but arguably, also due to the "Earth Technology" motif.*
The Movie: Gogo-V: Gekitotsu! Aratanaru Chōsenshi ("Clash! The New Super Warrior", also known as Gogo-V vs. Zeek on the DVD back cover). Unlike previous movies, this was a straight-to-video release and it's officially counted as the fifth Sentai Vs. movie, despite not being an actual crossover (since Zeek was a new character made for the film).
The Smurfette Principle: Dr. Mondo only made enough suits for his five children, leaving Go Pink as the only female member. However, Kyoko, the self-proclaimed sixth member of Gogo-V, does get the chance to help out the team as a legitimate heroine when she dons the Zeektector armor, if only for the movie.
Catch Phrase: "Mission Complete!". Also used as one of the "The End" phrases at the end of each Mission, which can vary depending on how the episode ended.
Distaff Counterpart: Denus' personal imps are dressed in "skirts", and are assumingly females. Then again, the Imps are directly stated as Familiars, so it's questionable whether they have genders to begin with.
Giant Robot Hands Save Lives: The Red Ladder mecha's ladders form the arms of Victory Robo, so the giant hands of said robot come in handy to pull civilians out of the danger zone.
Hoist by His Own Petard: MaxVictoryRobo's solar panels can absorb, in addition to sunlight, also (light and/or energy from) flames and explosions the Saimas throw at it, and return full-force with Max Nova.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Matsuri was briefly involved in a Love Triangle with her best friend and another guy, but conceded to let him marry her friend for this reason.
Instant Expert: Subverted; Dr. Tatsumi already installed the instruction database in the suits beforehand.
Oh Crap: Zylpheeza, when he realizes that the Max Victory Robo just ate his explosion for breakfast.
Doubles as a Meaningful Name, as 555 is the rescue phone number in Japan (also explained in the Punny Name entry in Faiz's trope page).
Parental Abandonment: Their father vanishes for ten years to develop the means to fight evil demons, and their mother vanishes in a plane crash. He comes back in the first episode, she comes back in the last episode.
The Saima also spend the first half of the show without their mother's physical presence.
Parental Favoritism: Zylpheeza, then Salamandes earned the right by their mother to be called the Dark King. In the end though, she reveals she never gave a damn about her kids at all.
Sixth Ranger: Averted in the actual series. The creative team avoided adding a recurring sixth member since they wanted to stay true to the show's title and its five-member motif. In the DTV movie, Kyoko temporarily becomes a sixth member of sort when she inherits Zeek's armor after he dies.
Stealth Pun: "Kyukyu" means "Rescue", yes, but with different Kanji, it can also mean "Nine-Nine". Guess which year GoGoFive ran in.
Mint's name is also one, according to its image song; the song title is written in Kanji as "5 people".
Team Dad: Mondo Tatsumi, by virtue of being their father.
Theme Naming: According to The Other Wiki, the Tatsumi siblings are all named after traditional firefighting equipments.
"Matoi" means "to wind"—as in "winding things up in a rope"—and refers to the ropes used in rescues.
"Nagare" means "to flow"—as in "flowing water"—and refers to the water used to douse fires.
"Shou" means "bell"—as in "big ones that tolls"—and refers to the bells tolled to warn people of dangers.
"Daimon" means "big door"—as in "gate"—and refers to the gateway to safety.
"Matsuri" means "festivals"—as in "the banner hoisted in festivals"—and refers to the ceremonial banners (usually used in festivals) that were raised to mark a safety exit.
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