Series / J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai

We are the J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai!

J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai (J.A.K.Q.^note pronounced as "Jacker" Blitzkrieg Corps) is the second Super Sentai series^note Although rights issues forced Toei to consider its successor, Battle Fever J, as the first series throughout the late 80s and early 90s, aired in 1977. It lasted only 35 episodes (the shortest run of all Sentai shows) and a later crossover movie involving Goranger. It was the last one to involve the creative influence of Shotaro Ishinomori. The Title Theme Tune was once again sung by Isao Sasaki.

The evil organization, CRIME, sets out to become the greatest criminal organization in the world. Only ISSIS (International Science Special Investigation Squad), a sector of INTERPOL, has the resources to stop the threat. They recruit four people to become playing card-themed cyborg warriors, the JAKQ Dengekitai, in order to take down CRIME.

JAKQ Dengekitai's tie-in projects include: J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai vs. Goranger, the crossover movie with Himitsu Sentai Gorenger.

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JAKQ Dengekitai provides examples of:

• All Your Colors Combined: The JAKQ Covack, where the heroes overload the enemy with their energies and kick it away.
• All Your Powers Combined: Big One can control the same energies as the other four.
• Antlion Monster: The Monster of the Week in episode 25.
• Anyone Can Die: Let it be on random innocents indiscriminately (via destroyed buildings/property) or just at least one to a few victims of the episode. There are a few episodes that avoid innocents being casualties though.
• Badass Cape: The main four; most prominently seen on Big One.
• Barehanded Blade Block: Happens a couple times.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: A tiny amount of the Crime Bosses shown are known ones of the episode's victim(s) yet display zero hesitation in siding with CRIME for their schemes or selfish wants against said victims.
• But Not Too Foreign: Karen.
• Butt-Monkey: Tamasaburou Hime, in spades, whether it him being pushed/carried out of base for being "annoying" to the heroes or being a victim to one of the monsters.
• Card-Carrying Villain: The villains are called CRIME, what more do you want?
• Catchphrase: Karen has one: Do you want another?^note Mo hitotsu, ikaga desu ka?
• Color-Coded Characters: Although they don't use color-based codenames (instead using a different playing card suit as the head word and a rank as the tail), the original four members of J.A.K.Q. wear the same colors as their predecessors in Goranger, minus yellow since they're one member short (although their commander Joker does wear a yellow military jacket and hat). Big One on the other hand wears primarily white and is even nicknamed the "white birdman", but he's really more of a Rainbow Ranger, both literally (due to the four-color symbol on his helmet and chest) and figuratively (he is powered by the same four energies that each of the other members possess individually).
• Cool Airship: The Sky Ace
• Cool Car: The J.A.K.Q. Machines, individual vehicles for each of the original four: the Spade Machine (based on a Fiat X1/9), the Mach Dia (a Formula 1 race car),the Heart Buggy (based on a Mini Moke) and the sole motorcycle of the group, the Auto Clover (a Kawasaki Triple).
• Cool Helmet: The Jackers' helmets bear visors in the shame of their card motifs.
• Creepy Doll: Episode 13 features a doll with a knife that kills a certain fashion designer, which ends up being the episode's case. The heroes eventually find out that there are certain remote mechanics that trigger the dolls murder activation and towards the end of the episode, Jan Muto (the episode's Crime Boss) and (possibly) his model/assistant Reika get executed by the same doll.
• Crossover: J.A.K.Q. vs. Goranger. This was 19 years before the Super Sentai Versus Series was officially started with Ohranger vs. Kakuranger. It also confirms other Ishinomori-created heroes to be in the sentai universe, even longer before Kamen Rider Decade has the Shinkengers drop by and Gokaiger meets Space Sheriff Gavan. However, don't get too excited: it's no longer than a regular episode, the non-sentai heroes are limited to still photos, and the only Goranger who returns in full is Peggy; the rest are Fake Shemps who only turn up for the final battle; not even being played by the same actor as Banba gets Akira a scene.
• Darker and Edgier: JAKQ tried to be this to distinguish itself from Goranger, until Executive Meddling ordered the show to lighten up.
  • The reason for this however was because the darker nature was driving away viewers, once again proving that sometimes Tropes Are Not Good.
• Death by Irony:
  • Some of the Crime Bosses that die end up in this predicament. For example, in episode 16 where one gets hit by an atomic baseball that he tried on the baseball league and explodes like a regular monster.
  • In its later uses, the Big Bomber missile, much like the Goranger Hurricane before it, changed into an item to match the Invader Robot (e.g. a web to ensare a spider monster).
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Crime's monsters explode after being defeated by JAKQ.
• Dress-O-Matic: Unlike most other Super Sentai, this team didn't have portable transformation devices. Instead, they'd enter capsules in their airship headquarters, and those would suit them up in their hero uniforms.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: No giant robot yet and the initial roster consists of four members instead of the usual five (or three for that matter). When Big One joins, he takes over the team's leadership from Spade Ace, subverting the franchise's tradition of having the red ranger as the lead character. Additionally, instead of using transformation devices, the team must enter the "Strengthening Capsule" booths to have their transformations applied.
• Elemental Powers: The four energies used by the team are based on the four fundamental forces: gravity, electromagnetism (in this case split into electricity and magnetism), and the weak/strong nuclear forces are loosely represented by atomic energy.
• Eye Catch: Similar to Goranger's, it features illustrations of the JAKQ team with Joker, and also has a similar sting.
• Fishing for Sole: Happens at the end of episode 18.
• Forced into Evil: A rather complex deconsturction. Episode 10's Crime Boss forces a secretary against her will to be his assistant after his Crimers shoot her previous boss. Later in the episode shows her going along with his scheme and being actively villainous without the previous hesitation she had when first threatened.

• Finishing Move: The team later gets a cannon (each member has one piece of it) that can leave its mark on the villain.
• Fusion Dissonance: In J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai vs. Goranger, the Crime Big Four (Baron Iron Mask, General Sahara, Captain UFO, and Hell Boxer) merge to form the Big Four Robo. No, it isn't a Humongous Mecha; this is before those existed in Super Sentai.
• Home Base: J.A.K.Q. HQ serves as the team's main home.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All episodes contained two sentences, the first ending with an exclamation point (or two). For the first twelve episodes, the first sentence consisted of "[Number] [Noun]!!".
• In the Name of the Moon
  Goro: "Spade Ace!"
  Ryu: "Dia Jack!"
  Karen: "Heart Queen!"
  Bunta: "Clover King!"
  Sokichi: "Big One!"
  All: "We are JAKQ Dengekitai!"
  • The team also has their own individual introductions when entering battle, which get switched out when Big One debuts.
  Ace: The flashing jump of the red wind. The roaring dance of my Nuclear Whip./The blood of justice burns bright red inside me! My Atom Shot pierces through evil!
  Jack: The unbeatable speed of the blue star. The glittering flash of my Electic Sword./Raging electricity echoes through my sword! I will protect the blue Earth!
  King: The deadly punch of the green flame. You’ll see fire in your eyes from my Gravitational Punch./My heavy punch will make you howl. The green wind spins the hurricane.
  Karen: The nimble spirit of the pink flower. Flowers bloom and scatter from my Magnetic Shield./ A girl gives up tears at 18! A pink flower blooms on the battlefield!
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: The Crime Boss from episode 5, to a surprisingly sociopathic degree. He forces Junko Koyama as his spy to perform his scheme, even keeping her father captive as insurance. He even disguises himself as Junko's "grandfather" to prevent ISSIS from noticing him, all in a smug manner when discussing with Junko of her father's fate. His ultimate act of malice involves a deception insuring that Junko gets her father back and once the chicanery is revealed, the Crime Boss reveals the actual professor while having his Crimers shoot Junko, with Ace being too late to save her. Sakurai then goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against him and his men to save the professor.
• Kiai: The Crimers have a distinctive "kwee" sound.
  • And JAKQ vs. Goranger has them teaming up with Goranger's mooks, the hoi-ing Zolders.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: Subverted. Spade Ace starts out as the team's leader, but loses this position once Big One arrives.
• Master of Disguise: The Big One wears a disguise in a lot of episodes. Iron Claw can be disguised too, as seen in episode 29.

• Mini Dress Of Power: Part of Heart Queen's costume, making her the first Sentai heroine to play this trope.
• Monster of the Week: The Machine Monsters (Kikai Kaibutsu, also known as Devil Robots), who are replaced with the Invader Robots from Episode 23 and onward. The early episodes also had human crime bosses that were the ones who employed the Machine Monsters.
• The Movie: Two. The first was a theatrical edition of Episode 7; the second was not only the Series Finale, but serves as a crossover with the previous Sentai team (although, only Peggy Matsuyama appears out of costume, the rest never leave their suits).
• Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: Since this was only the second Sentai show ever made, the "Adjective Sentai Name" template hadn't been established yet for the franchise. As a result, the team's actual name (J.A.K.Q.) precedes the noun (Dengekitai) in the show's title.

• Product Placement: The playing cards used by the heroes were produced by Nintendo (long before they become known for their video games) and the Nintendo logo is clearly visible on the Spade Ace card (fans of Super Mario Bros. 3 will recognize it from the N-Spade minigame).
• The Psycho Rangers: Sort of. In #22, four mooks dress up as JAKQ, but don't fight the real team. Instead, they are used as training for a group of cyborgs led by the monster of the week.

• Retirony: Karen's dad had just retired when he was taken out.
• Retool: Episode 23, where the team are not only joined by Big One, the show becomes a bit more light-hearted and the monsters of the week are completely different.
• Reverse Whodunnit: Episode 13 starts with a locked room murder, and it's made clear shortly after the culprit's introduction that he's both the murderer and a Crime Boss. The rest of the episode centers around the heroes investigating him to find out both how and why he did it.
• Road-Sign Reversal: Done by Crime during a car race in episode 15.
• Scary Black Man: Big Saturn, a competitor in an underground fighting tournament in Episode 9.
• Sixth Ranger: Older Than They Think. Long before Dragon Ranger or even X1 Mask, the first extra warrior introduced mid-season was Big One, though the five-plus-one formation wouldn't be established until much later.
• Something about a Rose: Sōkichi is never seen without a rose: he even takes a sniff of it before morphing into Big One.
• The Smurfette Principle: Heart Queen, notable for being the first Sentai heroine to wear a skirt on her suit (Momo Ranger did not wear one).

• Title Scream: Yes, it's Older Than They Think. Because of Big One's nature, there was a new part added to the opening after he joined. After Big One screams his name, the rest of the team screams "JAKQ!" Then the opening proper starts.
• Torso with a View: This fate befell the first few Invader Robots, a reuslt of the Big Bomber missiles striking their chests.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: JAKQ has what is possibly the longest individual transformation in Sentai history. It's amazing that Tokyo isn't destroyed by the time they're finished.
• Transformation Trinket:
  • Instead of anything like the later wrist-worn or hand-held small transforming devices, JAKQ had the Strengthening Capsules (resembling giant batteries), which the heroes must enter to change - there's a set of four in their base, and another in the Sky Ace.
  • Bamba on the other hand has a rose, which he sniffs and tosses into the air before jumping and then landing as Big One.
• The 'Verse:
  • The JAKQ vs. Goranger movie shows that not only does Goranger exist in the same world as JAKQ, but so do Kamen Rider V3, Kamen Rider Amazon and Kikaider.
  • Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger puts all 34 previous Super Sentai shows into a single verse, from Goranger to Tensou Sentai Goseiger.
  • Kamen Rider and Super Sentai are set to cross over again in Gokaiger, and Let's Go, Kamen Riders reinforces Kikaider (Along with Inazuman and Zubat) being in the same verse as Kamen Rider, and there's not even a Kamen Rider Decade-style dimension jump to say that they're normally separate. The connections are definitely, unambiguously established now.
• Very Special Episode: Of sorts, episode 3 had a drug-addicted character played by the then-unknown Kenji Ōba and his sister as part of it's plot.
• Villains Act, Heroes React: As is the norm for Super Sentai, we generally have Crime sending out a MOTW with an Evil Plan Once an Episode, with our heroes then arriving on the scene to stop them.
• You Killed My Father: Karen lost her father to Crime minions.
• You Have Failed Me: The fate of most of the Crime Bosses who fail to meet Iron Claw's expectations.

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