Chōjin Sentai Jetman (Aviator Squadron Jetman) is the fifteenth Super Sentai series, running from 1991 to 1992. Notable for being a tribute of Gatchaman.An international army, Skyforce, is working on a project to create superhumans by infusing them with "Birdonic Waves". Five of the best Skyforce officers are chosen to receive the treatment. Unfortunately, right after the first officer, Ryū Tendō, receives the treatment, extradimensional invaders known as the Vyram attack Skyforce's orbital base. The remaining four Birdonic Waves are scattered around the globe Japan, where they strike four random civilians. Even worse, one of the candidates, Ryū's lover Rie Aoi, is sucked out into space. Ryū and the project's leader, Chief Aya Odagiri, must now find the four civilians struck by the Birdonic Waves and recruit them to fight the Vyram.(A fan adaptation was completed in 2009, see Power Rangers Take Flighthere)
Chief Aya Odagiri: The Team Mom, The Mentor. Based on Gatchaman's Dr. Nanbu.
The Shadow Dimension War Party Vyram:
Radiguet: Dragon-in-Chief at first, becomes the Big Bad late in the series. Later develops a feud with Tranza. A really evil monster through and through.
Tran: Evil Tagalong Kid with an annoying laugh. Despite his age, just as much of a monster as Radiguet. Later rapidly ages into Tranza, starting an Enemy Civil War with Radiguet... and actually winning.
Cool Bike: Black Condor and Blue Swallow both got their own Jet Speeder motorcycles...
Cool Car: ...while Red Hawk gets the Jet Striker race car. Yellow Owl drives the Jet Bouncer jeep with White Swan.
Eye Catch: The eyecatch before the break features the Jetman team (in their suits) posing somewhere in a side of a mountain. Their positions from left to right (from the viewer's view) featured Black Condor seating with his right leg over his left leg, White Swan stands behind him, Red Hawk is at the center, Yellow Owl is in a side view, and sitting beside him is Blue Swallow. The end of the commercial break features the Jetman team in their Human forms in the same positions.
Humongous Mecha: Like Fiveman, the Jetman's main set of mechas could combine into two forms. This time both forms could be upgraded. The team also received a third robot.
Animal Mecha: The Jet Machines are borderline examples, since they're really just jets with cockpits shaped like the respective birds each one is based on. The Garuda is based on the mythical creature of the same name.
Make My Monster Grow: The Jigenmushi fulfills this role; if it can latch off the monster as it's destroyed, it can bring it back giant size. It can be destroyed, thus keeping the monster from coming back.
Monsters Of The Week: The Jigenjū (Dimensional Beasts), which were created from material objects that were implanted with a breed of parasites known as "Jigenmushi" (Dimensional Bug). Notable in that it had three sympathetic Monsters of the Week.
Psycho Rangers: The Shadow Jetman team in Episode 25. The only one who didn't get his own Evil Counterpart was Black Condor, who was absent during the time the clones were made.
Two Girls to a Team: White and Blue instead of the traditional Pink and Yellow (although White Swan does have pink spandex on her suit). Notable that it's the second time both of these colors were used for female rangers (following Change Mermaid and Blue Dolphin) and the only time they were ever used together (not counting Mahou Sentai Magiranger, which had the white-clad Magi Mother joining her daughters Pink and Blue during the final story arc). This would also be the last Sentai team with two female rangers for the next three years.
The Ace: Ryu and Gai, for different reasons. Ryu was already a trained soldier before the series started and thus didn't need to undergo the Training from Hell that the others (minus Gai) did. Gai was just naturally talented (and had a history of getting into fistfights).
Actor Allusion: The final episode features cameos by Kazuo Niibori and Naoki Ofuji, the suit actors for Red Hawk and Black Condor, as the priest who conducts Ryu's wedding with Kaori and the mugger who stabs Gai respectively.
All Girls Want Bad Boys: Subverted. While Kaori does end up dating Gai for a while, it is boy scout Ryu whom she is more attracted to and ends up marrying.
Anti-Hero Substitute: The Neo Jetman team from Episode 40 and 41, who are assembled by Chief Ichijō (Odagiri's rival) to replace the original team. They end up being less effective than the original team.
Babies Ever After: If the Toei Hero Encyclopedia 2 is to be believed Ryu and Kaori have a son, named Gai, 6 years after the final battle. It's also mentioned that Raita will soon be a father as well.
Big Bad: Subverted, after having no leader for almost 20 episodes, Empress Juza, the leader of Vyram comes back to life. She lasts two episodes before being killed.
Bittersweet Ending: Gai is stabbed to death by a random mugger in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue (even more bittersweet is that he was saving a woman who got mugged). None of the other Jetmen notice, despite him collapsing right next to them.
Rie/Maria, who sacrifices herself after finally remembering who she was.
Drink Order: Ryu and his hot, sugar-free milk. On the contrary, Gai orders whiskies all the time.
In one episode they almost share some Wild Turkey, but then the alarm goes off.
Enemy Civil War: Radiguet and Tranza seize power from each other back and forth.
Enemy Mine: Radiguet and Ryū team up to defeat Tranza once and for all. Considering what kind of person Radiguet is, no surprise that he'd turn against Ryū once he served his purposes.
Radiguet did it before too, when he gave the Jetman the hint on how to beat Juza.
Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?: Darn it, Dryer Jigen tries to be a terrifying menace, but can't resist helping people in need. By the end of the episode he gives up evil and becomes a hairdresser. Really.
Gomi Jigen was the same. He never wanted to do no harm to anyone in the first place, because the main part of his mind comes from a teddy bear which Ako used to care a lot for when she was a child. To see what else happened, refer to Nightmare Fuel in YMMV. Anyway, he came back to his senses thanks to Ako, only to have a disgusted Maria kill him, inadvertently hitting a Berserk Button in Blue Swallow in the process.
Hidden Depths: Played around in the 11th episode. A drink from the Vending Machine Jigen makes a hidden aspect of the the Jetmen's personalities become their dominant one: Ryū becomes a Lazy Bum, Gai becomes The Messiah (counts as a hidden depth for his Sociopathic Hero tendencies, he's actually a Jerk with a Heart of Gold), Raita becomes a jerk, Kaori turns into a rich snob worse than her pre-development phase, Ako turns into Girly Girl. They get better in the end...
Hope Spot: Brutally in Episode 24 - After getting curbstomped by Queen Juuza's fully-grown monster child, the team is rescued by Jet Garuda, piloted by three warriors from another dimension. After a whole episode of making it compatible, the warriors set off with Jet Garuda to save the day and combine into Great Icarus! Then Radiguet murders them and Gundamjacks it.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Noodle Jigen. Inspired by instant ramen and created by Tran, anyone affected by eating his noodles get extremely aggressive and try to get everything done as quickly as possible until they die of overworking themselves. He didn't count on Yellow Owl eating his noodles, which caused him to kill the monster as fast as possible.
Though with some, as Aya coined, 'pathetic excuse of human being' like Commander Ichijou, Radiguet might be partially right (though he's still no better).
Hypocrite: Especially Radiguet in terms of the trope above:
Ryū: Why do you attack humans!?
Radiguet: Because they're ugly and foolish like bugs. And bugs deserve to be squished!
Ryū: No! Humans are not like that! They are able to love and develop...
Instant Expert: Averted with everybody (except Ryū, for whom the trope doesn't even apply). Cue Training from Hell to the other four (or three, since Gai's not the training kind).
Last Of Their Kind: The Dimensian Soldiers Ray, Kanna, and Dan; each of whom possess powers similar to the Jetman. All three are introduced and killed off within two episodes.
Love Triangle: Ryū is still hung up over losing Rie. Kaori likes Ryū. Gai likes Kaori. Kaori doesn't like Gai. Gai hates Ryū's guts. Then we find out that Rie is still alive as Maria, and Grey likes Maria... Also, Kaori starts liking Gai, but Gai broke up with her and lets her to be together with Ryū
Morality Pet: In one episode, Radiguet loses his memories and is turned into a human by Empress Juza. During this period, Radiguet falls in love with a human girl and learns to appreciate the beauty of mankind. This doesn't last long after Radiguet regains his memories and returns to his old ways. Just to be sure, he kills the girl.
Nonindicative Name: The name of the jet mode of their giant combining mecha is the Icarus Haken, not the Jet Icarus. Same thing applies to the Jet Garuda, which is the robot form of the Bird Garuda jet.
Not So Invincible After All: Gai. A year of surviving against the Vyram does him no good to a stab by a mere mugger.
Novelization: The Jetman novels by Toshiki Inoue, which were published a few years after the TV series ended, managed to be darker and edgier than the show itself. The giant mechs and Dimensional Monsters were eliminated completely in favor of having the Jetmen fight human test subjects that were subjected to Vyram's experiments. Empress Juza also has a bigger role than in the TV series.
Opposites Attract: Subverted with Gai and Kaori, they were way too opposite for their relationship to last any longer.
Orcus on His Throne: Averted. Even though Radiguet is the Big Bad, he is more prone to jump into the battlefield. His 'superior' Empress Juza also doesn't like sitting on the throne way too often.
Our Vampires Are Different: In #48, Maria transforms into a vampire, slowly transforming into a more monstrous form. The victims do not die of blood loss, but evaporate.
Punny Name: Ōishi (Raita's surname) means "big rock," like the ones he throws or drops from his ship. It also a play on oishii, meaning delicious, a reference to his weight.
Right Hand Versus Left Hand: The Vyram Elite often fail their battles, not because the Jetmen are superior to them, but because one of them is always trying to sabotage the success of the other.
The Starscream: While technically the Big Bad, Radiguet pulls this twice. When Empress Juza comes back to claim her place as ruler of the Vyram, Radiguet kills her. Later, Tranza seizes control and has the rest of the Vyram leaders pilot his robot. Radiguet teams up with Ryū and beats Tranza within an inch of his life, but spares Tranza, who winds up in a mental hospital.
Time Travel: In episode 26, the team is thrown thousands of years back in time. However, since Raita tackled the monster while it was doing this, he ended up thrown somewhere else and stuck for most of the episode with a primitive tribe which worships him like a god due to him introducing them to fire and agriculture... Plus, among these tribesmen, there happens to be a Vision Of Another Self of Kaori who falls in love with Raita. And, considering Raita's own feelings for Kaori...
To Hell and Back: Ako, Gai and Raita in episode 27. The "back" part is thanks to Ryu.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: Ako and Kaori. Though, by the end of the series, it became a subversion. Kaori becomes less shallow and materialistic over the course of the series, while initially tomboyish Ako becomes more looks-conscious, grows out her hair and eventually becomes a heavily made up idol singer after the events of the show.
Took a Level in Badass: Tran, after forcing himself into adulthood and transforming into Tranza, becomes way more assertive with the other Vyram members and more aggressive against the Jetmen.
Arguably, most of the team qualifies, as they started out as civilians with no combat experience whatsoever - by the finale, they're taking names.
Villain Song: The Grinam get one, "Sad Soldiers Grinam" sung and composed by series composer Kazuhiko Toyama.
Villainous Rescue: Radiguet has done this lots of times for the Jetman for one reason or another when another bad guy was close to defeating them.
"Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Three years after the final battle, Ryū and Kaori get married, Gai became a businessman and gets stabbed to death in a random act of heroism, Ako becomes an idol singer, and Raita runs a farm.
The Toei TV Hero Encyclopedia compilation goes further by showing Ryū and Kaori and their son, Gai six years later.
Your Size May Vary: The Jet Machines. When the machines are seen uncombined in flying shots (such as the opening sequence, where they fly between the buildings of the city), they seem to be roughly the size of normal fighter jets. Their combined form, the Jet Icarus, however, is a behemoth that towers over the same buildings that the Jet Machines can comfortably fly between.
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