ROJ Episode 1 Notes

RETURN OF JETMAN

"Throwing The Gauntlet"
(Episode 1)
Production Notes
by Christopher Elam
© 2002-2010 Christopher Elam

 

These notes are based on material originally posted on December 3, 2002 on the now-defunct OWARI Message Board (formerly http://pub14.ezboard.com/bowari, currently http://owari.yuku.com/).

Return of Jetman Episode 1 - "Throwing The Gauntlet" (the title refers both to Lord Xenotos' arrival & to Jet Phoenix's challenge to his new charges) wrapped principal writing on June 4, 2002. An earlier version of this story, written by Lewis Smith and edited by the present author, appeared in OWARI #2 (May 1996). This first episode is based directly on Lewis' story and many of the special touches outlined in these notes are due to his fertile imagination.

Episode 1 definitely shows the signs (to me, anyway) of being a tentative first effort. Lewis had not yet settled on a direction when he crafted the original story (which had at least four drafts), and I was still very unsure of myself when I wrote this version (which had at least three drafts). As a result, the plot is rather basic and adheres firmly to the conventions of the sentai genre. This isn't necessarily a bad thing.

There are portions of this story that kind of make me wince today, but I think it is a success overall. It establishes most of the main characters, gives them a bit of characterization, and sets at least a couple of storylines in motion. It's played reasonably straight, but with the clear knowledge that it's not the most important thing in the world. On the whole, I think it works as a nice little bit of fun and as a harbinger of better things to come. Not too shabby.

• The Prologue sequence is designed to give the basics of the original JETMAN series, for those who might be unfamiliar with it. It is one of the few parts of the story that I quoted almost verbatim from Lewis' original.
  
  
  
• 22,300 miles above Earth, the space station Skyforce Earthship 2 floated silently in the void of space. - 22,300 miles is geosynchronous orbit (give or take) for an artificial satellite. I learned this from the JLA Satellite in the Justice League of America comics of the 1970s and 80s. This may be the only non-metric measurement used in the series (NASA currently defines a metric geosynchronous orbit as 35,786 km.). And yes, there was an "Earthship" space station in the original JETMAN series.
  
  
  
• Supreme Commander Aya Odagiri - Odagiri was the chokan ("commander") of the team in JETMAN - the first female sentai commander ever. In this series, we felt it only right that she be head of Skyforce, the organization responsible for creating Jetman in the first place.
  
  
  
• Ensign Sakurai - Named for Hiroko Sakurai, who played "Fuji" in ULTRAMAN (1966-67).
  
  
  
• Dr. Masaru Komyoji - Yep, this is an adult version of Masaru (played by Masahiro Kamiya) from JINZO NINGEN KIKAIDA. In crafting ROJ, I was fascinated by the concept of seeing some of the little kids from these shows as grown-ups. It's a theme that will be revisited during the series.
  
  
  
• "J Project" - the original name for the project to create Jetman.
  
  
  
• Skycamp - Jetman's HQ in the TV series.
  
  
  
• Jet Phoenix - Lewis created this mystery character to serve as both the commander and so-called "sixth ranger" of the team. He shares his name with an attack formation of the Icarus Hakken ship in the series. I almost renamed him "Fire Phoenix," but forgot this until it was too late. Probably just as well.
  
  
  
• Each team member is named for a figure from Japanese fantasy. Gai Tendo, for example, is named after Gai Yuki, the Black Condor from the JETMAN TV series.
  
  
  
• Ken Tendo, on the other hand, is named after the leader of KAGAKU NINJA TAI GATCHAMAN, a 1970s anime series that was either a direct or indirect influence on JETMAN.
  
  
  
• One conceit both Lewis and I found amusing was to turn the names Gai and Ken on their stereotypical heads. So Gai is the responsible leader type (his namesake was a rebel without a pause) and Ken is a hothead (rather than a heroic stalwart like his namesake).
  
  
  
• Reiko Hayasaka (whom Lewis gave dyed white hair for reasons which escape him) is named for Reiko Chiba, who played "Mei" in KYORYU SENTAI ZYURANGER. We both REALLY liked her in the mid-1990s.
  
  
  
• Etsuko Oishi is named for Etsuko Shiomi, star of special effects and martial arts films and programs like MESSAGE FROM SPACE, SISTER STREETFIGHTER, and others too numerous to list here.
  
  
  
• Gohan Oishi? I think it's obvious now that he is named for a character from the DRAGONBALL anime series. Hey, it was a lot more obscure back in 1995!
  
  
  
• The Chaos Coalition - I created this name to give the villains their own identity rather than making them a new incarnation of the Byram (or Vyram or Vairamu - whatever Romanization floats your boat) villains from the JETMAN series. However, Chaos' motives are essentially the same as those of the new Byram in the original version of ROJ.
  
  
  
• The planet Perwor's name is a play on Hyper World, which was the only name we managed for the new Byram's home planet back during the first go-round for ROJ.
  
  
  
• The name "Helldevil" has been floating through my head for years, looking for an outlet. The villains' starship finally provided just such an outlet. It's one of those details where I try to give a certain Japanese-style English flavor to the proceedings.
  
  
  
• Lord Xenotos - In the original version of ROJ, his name was "Thanatos" and he was the brother of Radeige, JETMAN's chief villain. This connection was dropped so he could better stand on his own merits as a character. Lewis re-imagined him visually as well, and made him far more dynamic. The name "Xenotos" is derived from the Greek word xenos ("stranger").
  
  
  
• Dystron - Originally "Destron" (named for the villain organization of KAMEN RIDER V3), I gave him a slightly more distinctive name and Lewis made him look quite different than he had first pictured him. Dys is Greek for "bad".
  
  
  
• Hedes - Originally called "Hades," his new name was meant to conjure up Dis (the Roman name for the Underworld), as well as "hideous." However, I mistakenly thought "Dis" was spelled "Des" on the night I wrote the first scene with him (it was late!), and I decided not to go back and correct the error. So Hedes it is.
  
  
  
• Miira - Originally just "Mira." It would be great if you would think of her name as being based on the Latin mirari, which means "wonder at" or "admire" and is the root of both "mirage" and "mirror." Neither Lewis or I will claim to be clever enough to have actually thought of that at the time. If we had, her name would probably be "Mirari." She didn't turn up in the original ROJ series until the sixth installment, but I decided it would be best to establish her character right from the outset.
  
  
  
• "It was most fortunate to discover these 'Jetmen' were powered by the same energy we use as Chaos Energy," she gloated. - This line establishes that "Birdonic Waves" and "Chaos Energy" are different names for the same thing.
  
  
  
• The Garo - These henchmen for the Chaos Coalition are never described in the narrative, and will not be throughout the series. Most henchmen from Japanese superhero shows look sort of stupid to me, so I want the reader to use their imagination to create a henchman that works for them. The alternative would be making henchmen that look like helmet-wearing waiters or orange pirates.
  
  
  
• Gamenon - He was not a turtle monster in the original draft(s), but part of a group of "knights" which also included Destron/Dystron. I wrote the other two knights out because they really had nothing to do in the series (in fact, Lewis himself wrote them out of the original series after a couple of stories for the same reason). Since kame is Japanese for "turtle", it was a short trip to make Gamenon (think "Gamera") a turtle monster - an enforcer who is one of the creatures that I will be calling "Chaos Beasts."
  
  
  
• I suppose I cheated a little by skipping from the kids being offered the powers of Jetman to them flying into battle in their Jet Fighters. Truthfully, I wanted to keep the story moving along at a reasonable pace and avoid an excess of "talking heads." I also wanted to let the reader fill in details that I just didn't feel like providing. There will be more focus on both Jetman's training and their personal interactions away from battle in later installments.
  
  
  
• Oh, perhaps I should mention that the "Phoenix Fighter" was the Bird Garuda/Jet Garuda from the original JETMAN series in the initial version. I changed that part to slide away from the TV show a little more and to give us some flexibility.
  
  
  
• Gohan, as some of you might notice, is a total otaku ("fanboy") for many, many things. This seemed a lot more original back in 1995 when we were creating this series. Now the Japanese have similar characters in both cartoons and live-action programs.
  
  
  
• Yes, I did make sure to mention the status of Gohan and Etsuko's mother, even though she isn't part of Jetman.
  
  
  
• I did the teaser on a whim, and liked it so much that I ended up writing them for every episode. It was rather fun to emulate the "coming attractions" segments so vital to TV sentai. This teaser, and all subsequent ones, were written prior to the story they were previewing.
  

 

© Christopher Elam.