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Choujin Sentai Jetman
This super sentai series was pretty much conceived as a tribute to Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, though the similarities mostly correspond to the heroes' characterizations and the bird motif of their outfits. It is also regarded as one of, if not the best Super Sentai series ever conceived.
Let's start with what's good about Jetman; it has very capable special effects and fight choreography given the time and budget, Commander Aya Odagiri is among the best team mentors I've ever seen, and the story is well plotted. There's a good balance of filler to plot episodes, and the ratio approaches 1:1 as the series nears its conclusion. The villains are suitably threatening, each with their own distinct design and characterization which informs their individual plans. Furthermore, when the series starts they make an impressive opening move by, among other things, killing Ryu the Red Hawk's girlfriend...or rather capturing her and brainwashing her to join their ranks as is pretty obvious by the fact that both characters are played by the same actress, even before the big reveal. Raita the Yellow Owl, Ako the Blue Swallow, and Kaori the White Swan are all very worthwhile characters as well, so their episodes are always fun to watch. Plus, the final battle is just awesome.
And then we get into the bad with Gai the Black Condor. Basically, take Joe the Condor from Gatchaman, excise his cheesy awesomeness, and replace that with smarmy sexist asshole, because that's what Gai is; a smarmy, arrogant, sexist asshole. Not helping matters much with him is that he brings about a very painful and poorly written love triangle between him, Kaori, and Ryu in a shallow imitation of the tension between Ken, Jun, and Joe. This love triangle takes up the bulk of the first 30 or so episodes of the series and it just really drags everything down. In addition, many of the more plot-focused episodes are unbearably rushed, diminishing their dramatic force considerably. One of the most notable examples involves the villain Radiguet being turned into a human and losing all memory of his former life, meeting a terminally ill young woman, healing her, falling for her, recovering his memories, and marking his return to villainy by killing her...all in one episode. That was a storyline that could easily filled out two or three episodes, which would have given us more time to become emotionally invested and thus giving it the dramatic weight it was clearly going for. Plus, the time skip at the end is just really poorly handled, featuring gratuitous events that seem more about provoking certain fan responses than being a natural dramatic outgrowth of what came before.
Despite all that though, it still is a very good show; just not nearly as good as some people say it is.
Let's start with what's good about Jetman; it has very capable special effects and fight choreography given the time and budget, Commander Aya Odagiri is among the best team mentors I've ever seen, and the story is well plotted. There's a good balance of filler to plot episodes, and the ratio approaches 1:1 as the series nears its conclusion. The villains are suitably threatening, each with their own distinct design and characterization which informs their individual plans. Furthermore, when the series starts they make an impressive opening move by, among other things, killing Ryu the Red Hawk's girlfriend...or rather capturing her and brainwashing her to join their ranks as is pretty obvious by the fact that both characters are played by the same actress, even before the big reveal. Raita the Yellow Owl, Ako the Blue Swallow, and Kaori the White Swan are all very worthwhile characters as well, so their episodes are always fun to watch. Plus, the final battle is just awesome.
And then we get into the bad with Gai the Black Condor. Basically, take Joe the Condor from Gatchaman, excise his cheesy awesomeness, and replace that with smarmy sexist asshole, because that's what Gai is; a smarmy, arrogant, sexist asshole. Not helping matters much with him is that he brings about a very painful and poorly written love triangle between him, Kaori, and Ryu in a shallow imitation of the tension between Ken, Jun, and Joe. This love triangle takes up the bulk of the first 30 or so episodes of the series and it just really drags everything down. In addition, many of the more plot-focused episodes are unbearably rushed, diminishing their dramatic force considerably. One of the most notable examples involves the villain Radiguet being turned into a human and losing all memory of his former life, meeting a terminally ill young woman, healing her, falling for her, recovering his memories, and marking his return to villainy by killing her...all in one episode. That was a storyline that could easily filled out two or three episodes, which would have given us more time to become emotionally invested and thus giving it the dramatic weight it was clearly going for. Plus, the time skip at the end is just really poorly handled, featuring gratuitous events that seem more about provoking certain fan responses than being a natural dramatic outgrowth of what came before.
Despite all that though, it still is a very good show; just not nearly as good as some people say it is.