Shir's Posts

The guy who was to become Gai

The other day I read a post on Henshin Justice Unlimited on similarities between Chojin Sentai Jetman and Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger. I had to agree that there are many similarities to be found between those two shows. Of course, there are similarities to be found between all Super Sentai shows. However I believe that there are many similarities to be found between Maskman and Jetman. Sometimes I think that Maskman was actually a Jetman prototype. I may be mistaken or maybe Maskman is just a forgotten show.

Toshiki Inoue worked on a few Maskman episodes. The most famous episode he worked on was episode 39: The Return of the Mysterious X1 Mask. As everybody knows, Mr. Inoue is a very inventive guy: he never repeats himself.

I'll start with a little anecdote on the X1 Mask costume. I recently found out that it was actually a prototype for a previous Sentai show.

That being said, let's take a look at this character called X1 Mask.

The man behind the mask is Ryo Asaka, a young rebellious man in his early 20's. He's overflowing with energy and has a bad mouth. His personality is very similar to Jetman's Gai Yuki. Above that, he rides a bike and spends time in bars drinking and shooting pool.

Left: Ryo Asaka; Right: Gai Yuki

Ryo Asaka at a bar

Left: Gai yuki shooting pool; Right: Ryo Asaka pointing a cue at Takeru

Takeru wants Ryo to join the Maskman team and decides to stalk follow him. He follows him to the bar, to a casino and keeps on following him by bike afterwards. Does this sound familiar?

Left: Ryo: Right: Gai

While riding their bikes Ryo proposes Takeru to play a little game: a bike race. If he wins, Takeru should stop following him and would stop trying to make him join the Maskman team. The exact same thing happened between Ryu and Gai in Jetman episode 3.

Left: scene in Maskman ep.39; Right: scene in Jetman ep.3

Although there is a small differnce in the conclusion of these scenes, the story is pretty similar: in Jetman Gai and Ryu are attacked by Vyram to which Gai decides to continue the race. In Maskman however,Takeru wins the race. After the race they are attacked by Tube, to which Ryo decides to make his exit.

Left: scene in Maskman ep.39; Right: scene in Jetman ep.3

Ryo can't get Takeru's words out of his head and decides to head back and help him. Gai did exactly the same thing. And yes, both used their bike to make their entry.

Left: scene in Maskman ep.39; Right: scene in Jetman ep.3

When returned, Takeru thanks Ryo saying "I knew you'd come back". The exact same line is used in Jetman between Ryu and Gai.

This is where the story ends. Episode 39 of Maskman is in my opinion not a great episode, but it is very intriguing. What bothers me about the story of Ryo Asaka is that it feels very rushed. I think Mr. Inoue wanted to make a full ark of this 'rebellious' sentai member. It's obvious that he couldn't do the because he was not the lead writer of the series, so he experimented with the idea. As we all know, he reused this idea in Jetman.

Another thing that bothered me about this episode is the way it was wrapped up. Suddenly Ryo loses his Aura power and leaves. Ah... I guess Mr. Inoue is just not that good with wrapping up stories.

Of course there are other similarities between Maskman and Jetman: Blue mask being a midget and Blue Swallow being a child. Red Mask and Red Hawk lose their girlfriends in the first episode of the show and are reunited towards the end.

I wonder if the same piano is used in Maskman and Jetman. Can anyone confirm this?

And for the Gokaiger fans among you: do you remember this location?

The screenshots used in this post are from the Grown Ups In Spandex release of Jetman and Maskman.