Chikyu Sentai Fiveman


Chikyu Sentai Fiveman is a Japanese Tokusatsu television series. It was Toei Company's fourteenth installment of the Super Sentai metaseries. It aired on TV Asahi from March 2, 1990, to February 8, 1991, with a total of 48 episodes replacing Kousoku Sentai Turboranger and was replaced by Chōjin Sentai Jetman. The names given by Toei for international distribution are Fiveman or Sky Rangers.
It was released by Shout! Factory on Region 1 DVD on September 6, 2022, as part of Shout! Factory's new partnership with Hasbro. It originally was teased to be released in 2019. This is the second Super Sentai series to be officially released in North America that does not have a Power Rangers counterpart. The first one released was Chōjin Sentai Jetman, which was the series that came out the year following Fiveman. Jetman was released in the region on September 25, 2018.

Plot

In 1970, Doctor Hoshikawa was researching how to transform the planet Sedon into a green, lush world, testing it by attempting to grow flowers. On the day the first flower bloomed, the Zone Empire launched an assault on the planet, separating him and his wife from their five children. Arthur G6 took the five children back to Earth and raised them while after the attack, Doctor Hoshikawa safely went to the Planet P16 Milky Way.
Twenty years later, the five are now teachers at the same school, the Newtown Elementary School. The Galactic Imperial Army Zone led by Empress Meadow and Captain Garoa now prepares to invade Earth as its thousandth target to destroy for immortality of Empress Meadow. As they begin the attack, three vehicles appear and counter the offensive. Five warriors descend from the vehicles and confront Zone.
The Hoshikawa siblings have been developing the Fiveman technology and training hard upon the possibility of Zone invading Earth. Now the five siblings are ready to battle with the familiar foes as Fiveman.

Characters

Fivemen

The eponymous Fivemen is the first Super Sentai group to consist entirely of siblings. The five siblings of the Hoshikawa Family were separated from their parents during a sudden Zone attack, sent to board a ship along with Arthur G6 to be raised and learn of the Fiveman technology. They pose as teachers at New Town School, planting a garden of Sidon Flowers which they brought from planet Sidon.
  • Gaku Hoshikawa/Five Red: The first born and leader of the team at 27 years old. He is a Science teacher skilled in kendo. He was 7 at the time of the Zone's attack on Sidon. Calm, responsible and a strict teacher, he had the task of raising his four younger siblings along with Arthur G6, making him not just a big brother but also a leader and a parental figure. Out of fear, he fired a gun at Garoa's face, scarring him, creating a rivalry between the two. Even though he is a reliable and brave leader, he has a major weakness with the supernatural.
  • * His helmet has the science symbol on the front, and the triangle-shaped visor having no stripes indicates him being the first member.
  • * Weapons: V Sword, V Shuttler
  • * Attacks: V Sword Spark
  • Ken Hoshikawa/Five Blue: The second born and second-in-command of the team at 25 years old. He is a Physical education teacher skilled in judo. Although reckless, he is extremely passionate in everything he does, relies more in the body combat than in weapons. He even taught one of his students the meaning of courage by defeating a foe without transforming. He can also lift heavy objects, even monsters in fighting.
  • *His helmet has a P.E. symbol on the front, and the white horizontal stripe splitting the diamond-shaped visor into two parts indicates him being the second member.
  • * Weapons: Twin Arrays, Twin Risbees, Twin Yo-yos
  • * Attacks: Rolling Arrays
  • Fumiya Hoshikawa/Five Black: The fifth born, youngest son, and younger twin brother of Remi at 20 years old. He is a Japanese teacher skilled in karate. He has a wide range knowledge of various languages, even alien ones. He can read alien languages and speak and understand alien languages Despite this, he tends to be childish and reckless like Ken and sometimes ill-tempered and clumsy. He is thoughtful and good in spy-warfare, stunts and sometimes fight without transformation. In episode 43, he teaches Yoshio-Kun the meaning of having playmates. He and Remi were only 1 year old during the attack on Sidon, therefore they continuously suffer for not remembering their parent's faces.
  • * His helmet has 語 on the front, and two white diagonal stripes forming a "V" and splitting the half-circle-shaped visor into three parts indicates him being the third member.
  • * Weapons: Power Cutter, Black Jaw, Cutter Discs
  • * Attacks: Screw Cutter
  • Kazumi Hoshikawa/Five Pink: The third born and eldest daughter at 23 years old. She is a Math teacher skilled in fencing. Sometimes, tagged as "Old maid". Calm and intelligent, she can analyze and calculate with her "computer like" brain. She was three years old at the time of the attack on Sidon and remembers nothing but fear which she had to overcome to do battle with Zone as an adult. Protective and caring, she is a maternal figure to Fumiya and Remi. She may be considered as strict but practical but willing to sacrifice and in charge of household on Magma Base with Arthur G6.
  • * Her helmet has a unique math symbol on the front, and three white horizontal stripes splitting the heart-shaped visor into four parts indicates her being the fourth member.
  • * Weapons: Cutie Circle, Circle Puter
  • * Attacks: Circle Finish
  • Remi Hoshikawa/Five Yellow: The fourth born, youngest daughter, and older twin sister of Fumiya at 20 years old. A music teacher skilled in kung fu. She is disastrous at housekeeping and cleaning tasks which she leaves to either Kazumi or Arthur. She has excellent rhythm and musical senses, she is also a rhythmic gymnast and dancer, which she applies to her fighting. She teaches children kung-fu in her spare time. In episode 4, she got drunk when water was turned into alcohol, yet she fought using the Drunken Fist and defeated the galactic warrior. During the events of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, she appeared and granted the Greater Power of the Fiveman to the Gokaigers. She would appear in the final episode of the series receiving the Five Yellow Ranger Key as the Gokaigers depart Earth.
  • *Her helmet has a single eighth note on the front, and four white horizontal stripes splitting the pentagon-shaped visor into five parts indicates her being the fifth member.
  • * Weapons: Melody Tact, Yellow Flute
  • * Attacks: Tact Attack

Allies

  • Arthur G6: A support robot created by Doctor Hoshikawa, Arthur was the one who raised the orphaned children on Earth, becoming the closest thing they had to their parents. He usually aids Fiveman from the Magma Base but at times he can fly out from base and transform into Earth Cannon.
  • Gunther : Known as "Raging Wolf of the Galaxy", Gunther was cared for by Doctor Hoshikawa and his wife when severely injured before he stole the Star Carrier. But arriving on Earth, Gunther battled the Fivemen but eventually could make friends with Gaku before he returns the Star Carrier to them and then was turned to stone. However, he was but was unintentionally revived by Iwakasekigin's spell and helps Gaku while he is trapped with Vulgyre. He sacrifices himself to save Gaku from Billion, and reveals in his dying breath his sins and receive forgiveness before he dies.
  • Five-kun Dolls: These plush dolls first appeared in episode 23, from a parallel dimension. The five members are Red-kun, Blue-kun, Black-kun, Pink-chan, and Yellow-chan. While watching TV, Fivemen must assist the plush dolls. The enemy of the dolls is Garoa-don Doll. They made a few more cameos in the series, watching certain scenes in the episodes and expressing their thoughts of it.

Silver Imperial Army Zone

The Silver Imperial Unit Zone is an alien army plotting to rule the entire Milky Way, it flies across universe attacking worlds with its Galactic Warriors. Earth will be its 1,000th destroyed planet, at which point Meadow will gain eternal life. They operate from their ship Vulgyre and can send smaller battleships called Vulgols. They use the Galactic currency Dolyen which is said to be equal to 100 Japanese yens.
  • Galactic Super Beast Vulgyre: The true ruler of Zone. Even though being a living organism, he operated as the Zone headquarters called Galactic Ship Vulgyre. Projecting into the sky the face of a dead alien woman named Meadow, who he was in love with and killed for refusing him, Vulgyre gave orders to Zone under the "Ōkubi" persona of Empress Meadow. Vulgyre had been traveling the galaxy to destroy a total of 1,000 stars. When the star number 1000 is destroyed, he would obtain eternal life and become "God" of the Milky Way. When Five Red exposed the truth, Vulgyre goes on the offensive on the city until he is exposed to New Town School's Sidon flowers and crashes into the mountainside where he confirms his identity. From there, Vulgyre forcefully combines Doldora and Zaza to destroy the Earth-grown Sidon flowers. Believing the one thing that can kill him is gone, Vulgyre reveals to the rest of Zone that he would be undergoing his "Galactic Eclosion", in which he would become "Super Galactic Beast" and that he needed a "final energy" to complete this. It is first thought that it is the deaths of the Fivemen but the truth was uncovered after Five Red defeated Chevalier: Vulgyre coveted the energy of Chevalier's death, and not Fiveman's, in order to begin his metamorphosis, explaining that Chevalier had committed multiple murders across the galaxy and his soul would be full with the blood of his victims, the source of the "last energy", resulting in the disturbing revelation that he had deceived Chevalier from the very beginning. After hatching, destroyed the Magma Base with remarkable ease. The Sidon Flowers are his weakness as they are the first sprout of new life in the very first planet he destroyed, using them the Fivemen weakened him and was ultimately destroyed by the Super Five Robo in the finale.
  • * Galactic Empress Meadow: The white-skinned, silver-maned, purple-lipped, golden-eyed mystery ruler of the Zone Empire. She is only seen to be the face of a woman surrounded by a silver mane that appears from the sky. Extremely powerful. She seeks to devour life from planets and when the 1,000th is destroyed, she will gain eternal life. Later on, she appeared in reddish form, far more angry after continuous failure of Zone. She is revealed to be a simulation created by Vulgyre after the flowers of Sidon destroyed her. The real Meadow was an alien woman Vulgyre wanted to be his queen in galactic conquest but refused. In the end, her spirit helped the Sidon flowers destroy Vulgyre once and for all avenging herself for all the wrongs Vulgyre did in her name.
  • Captain Garoa: The captain of Vulgyre in black and gray armor over red clothes, armed with a sword. He got scarred by Five Red as a child creating a rivalry between them. An expert swordsman, could handle even the five siblings by himself in battle, with his special technique "Taifuu Shaken". Although a field commander, he would not show up much in fight, giving orders from Meadow to the others but at times shows up to make the lives of the Fivemen miserable if the missions are failing. The continuing failures and the arrival of Chevalier eventually caused Garoa's dismissal, having been assigned the janitor post after his monster Goriwashigin was destroyed when he promised "Meadow" the deaths of the Fivemen. He eventually found a secret energy source in Vulgyre, and, unaware of its true nature, he used it on a Gorlin, creating the "Big Garoa", a powerful robotic monster which temporarily destroyed the Super Five Robo, earning him the Captain position back. Even though he tried the hardest to succeed in his plans and, along Dongoros, was the last survivor of Zone, Garoa found his demise trapped in the coffin of Meadow, with his armor destroyed, in the middle of burning Dolyen bills as Vulgyre exploded in the series finale.
  • First Captain Chevalier: He is actually Vulgyre's first captain but ironically younger-looking than Garoa suggesting he might be a gifted child himself. He had been gone and was operating alone when he heard of Zone's struggle in Earth and returned much to Garoa's chagrin. Eventually takes over captaincy after Galois, becoming Five Red's rival. He controls a black Gorlin. This self-proclaimed "Hero of the Galaxy" enjoys music and has sword abilities that surpass even those of Garoa's. When he first appeared, he sang the 1970s song "Hero" by the Kai Band. Chevalier shows up in battle more often than Garoa. He is scheming and sadistic as well as cool and even humorous. He uses extremely dangerous tactics against the Fivemen and makes their lives twice as miserable. In the finale, he challenges Five Red to a "Chain Deathmatch" in which an unbreakable chain would link them together until one of them died. He lost to Five Red and then Vulgyre revealed that he made Chevalier fight to death because he needed the "Energy of the most powerful death in the Galaxy" and deceived Chevalier in thinking it was Fiveman's deaths when it was really his that was needed. His explosion released the final energy for Vulgyre's final transformation.
  • * Weapons: Barok Stick, Barok Fencer, Barok Shoot, Barok Byoot
  • Batsuler Soldiers: The black-skinned grunts with orange heads, armed with crab claws, bearing the Zone crest on their chests. They are also capable of disguise. The Batsuler Soldiers' name comes from the "batsu" on their heads. There was a special Batsuler known as Number 339 who had a turtle-like shell. In episode 26, The group Became Superior Over Galois and the Triumvirate During Topsy-Turvy Day. The group were later summoned by Zaigan during Super Sentai World.
  • Enlarging Beast Gorlin: A giant white-skinned robot alien which absorbs and mimics the defeated Galactic Warriors. Even though, if the Galactic Warrior had completely died, the Gorlin would not be able to mimic it. Each Gorlin has its serial number and there have been interesting cases: Gorlin number 13 combined itself with the Sidon demon warped around it instead of absorbing it; Gorlin number 12 fell down while running and could not reach Bat-rugin before he died, failing to enlarge him; Gorlin number 36 was used by Galois to create the giant robot Big Garoa. Each Gorlin costs 100,000 Dolyen, considerably cheap given its dimensions. It resembled Michelin's mascot Bibendum a little bit.
  • * Black Gorlin: A special Gorlin Chevalier had modified to serve him as a fighting robot. It has laser cannons on its shoulders and bears the Zone crest on its chest. It was destroyed before the finale by two consecutive Super Vector Punches from the Super Five Robo at the same time that Chevalier fell against Five Red.

Galactic Commanders

The Galactic Commanders are somewhat the triumvirate of the Empire only answering to Galois and later to Chevalier. They are the ones who serve as the field commanders of the Zone Empire.
  • Galactic Swordsman Billion: He was probably the best swordsman in the galaxy, white-maned in white armor over blue tights. A lover of liquor and swords, this sadistic left-handed warrior enjoys fighting. When he finds an even minimally weaker foe, he challenges to battle and defeats him. He is bitter rivals with Five Red. He would not hesitate to execute a plan even at the cost of a comrade's welfare. He is scheming and manipulative, most of the time using others to accomplish his goals. This can be seen in the different types of monsters and strategies he chose in contrast to Doldora and Dongoros. While using Sabergin, Billion evolved into the more powerful Saber Billion, able to enlarge himself to fight the Five Robo. However, once his weapon was destroyed, Billion returned to normal. After being witness to Rose Dolgin's creation to his disgust of the recent truth, Billion attempts to kill Gaku when Gunther intervene and died as a result. He then battles Five Red one on one in a final duel, shattering his sake bottle and discarding his cape, before he ultimately killed by Five Red in Armor Mode's flying sword thrust attack causing him to explode after he got close to victory.
  • Galactic Doctor Doldora: Scientist and weapons researcher of Zone in gold scorpion-like armor over black tights, she is more of a strategist, although she also has high combat levels. Having a gift for disguise as well, she even fooled Fumiya once posing as a cute girl. She is much less violent than Billion and Dongoros but no less evil. She prefers to let Zaza, her underling, do most of her dirty work, and uses subtle tactics and deceitful monsters as she believes brains work better than direct force. After knowing Vulgyre's true identity and going into insanity, Doldora was forcefully united with Zaza by him as well some of Vulgyre's energies to become the scorpion/rose Combined Galactic Warrior Bara Dolgin to destroy the Sidon flowers in the New Town School by converting them into red roses with Five Black, Blue, Yellow and Pink powerless to stop her. With only one remaining, she goes after Tatsuya as he runs off with it. But Gaku arrives to stop her with Gunther's aid. She battles the other siblings until Billion is killed and a Gorlin absorbs her. Piloting Star Five, the Fivemen manage to kill Bara Dolgin.
  • * Galactic Fang Zaza: Doldora's underling and loyal bodyguard in black tights with purple armor, born from an egg. Zaza was turned into a cyborg by Doldora when just born and swore absolute servitude to her. She used to operate along Billion at times. She is rivals with Remi. She does most of Doldora's dirty work and does not question her mistress at all. Attempting to shield Doldora from Vulgyre, she was merged with her mistress.
  • Galactic Merchant Dongoros: A grotesque, short, fat space merchant who enjoys making money and carries an abacus. He prefers to use brute force to accomplish the job but at times he would use subtle tactics as well when necessary like using a Voodoo Monster. In the finale, Dongoros was killed in the explosion of Vulgyre as he was desperately packing all the Dolyens and gold bars he could before fleeing, falling as a victim of his own greed.

Ginga Sentai Gingaman

The Ginga Sentai Gingaman are a comedic all male evil Squadron of five aliens who first formed by Doldora as part of her plan to hypnotize the masses. But they would later return to serve Chevalier. They were killed by the Fivemen near finale. Not to be confused with 1998's Super Sentai series Seijuu Sentai Gingaman.
  • Baikanian Ginga Red: A member of Ginga Sentai Gingaman from the planet Baikan.
  • Monomenian Ginga Blue: A one-eyed member of Ginga Sentai Gingaman from the planet Monome.
  • Grachisian Ginga Black: A member of Ginga Sentai Gingaman from the planet Grachis who wields a crab-like claw mounted on his right arm.
  • Fujiminian Ginga Pink: A member of Ginga Sentai Gingaman from the planet Fujimin.
  • Gringanian Ginga Yellow: A member of Ginga Sentai Gingaman from the planet Gringa.

Galactic Warriors

The Galactic Warriors are alien monsters with the appearances of Earth animals that are used by the Silver Zone Imperial Army in their plans.

Others

The following are not in the categories above:
  • Enokiraagin is a Galactic Warrior created by Galactic Doctor Doldora who fused an Experimental Alien with a mushroom.
  • Galaxy Plant Sidon Demon is a Galactic Warrior created by Galactic Empress Meadow from a crushed Sidon Flower.
  • Barrugin: A Baal-themed Galactic Wizard that allied with the Silver Imperial Zone Army.
  • Wandering Swordsman Queen Killer: A bee-themed swordswoman who is summoned to Earth by Galactic Empress Meadow.
  • Kaijurugin: A faceless alien from the planet Nopperi that can fuse with a plush toy of a kaiju.
  • Galactic Ninja Batsulergin: A ninja-like alien who is summoned by the Silver Imperial Zone Army to improve the Batsuler Soldiers.
  • Galactic Beast Anmonaiton: An Ammonite-like alien with a head on its right tendril that was previously used by First Captain Chevalier in his earlier campaigns.
  • Mirian Solar: A warrior from the planet Miria who helped the Silver Zone Imperial Army due to her developing a crush on Galactic Swordsman Billion. She would later take a pills that would turn her into Dark Solar where the green one has her temporary transforming into Dark Solar and the red pill would permanently transform her until she gets killed. Solar is killed by Galactic Swordsman Billions and she dies in the Fivemen's presence.
  • Galactic Demon Sword Saberugin: A demonic sword that Galactic Swordsman Billion summoned to Earth. Anyone who wields it will become possessed and only be interested in battling.

Cast

  • Gaku Hoshikawa: Toshiya Fuji
  • Ken Hoshikawa: Kei Shindachiya
  • Fumiya Hoshikawa: Ryouhei Kobayashi
  • Kazumi Hoshikawa: Kazuko Miyata
  • Remi Hoshikawa: Ryo Narushima
  • Doldora: Hatsue Nishi
  • Zaza: Motoko Watanabe
  • Chevalier: Kihachirō Uemura

Voice actors

  • Arthur G6: Rica Matsumoto
  • Meadow: Keiko Konno
  • Dongoros: Takuzō Kamiyama, Osamu Katou
  • Vulgyre: Seizō Katō
  • Five-kun Dolls: Tomoko Hiratsuji, Kotoe Taichi, Makoto Kōsaka, Takeshi Kuwabara
  • Garoa-don: Hideyuki Umezu, Keiko Itsumi
  • Narration: Eiichi Onoda
  • Sara: Youko Nakamura

Guest stars

  • Yuriko: Youko Nakamura

Songs

;Opening Theme
  • "Chikyu Sentai Fiveman"
  • *Lyrics: Masao Urino
  • *Composition: Yasuo Kosugi
  • *Arrangement: Kenji Yamamoto
  • *Artist: Kenji Suzuki
;Ending Theme
  • "Fiveman, Ai no Thema"
  • *Lyrics: Masao Urino
  • *Composition: Yasuo Kosugi
  • *Arrangement: Kazuya Matsushita
  • *Artist: Kenji Suzuki

International broadcast and home video

  • Fiveman was aired in France as the sixth Super Sentai series to air in the country on TV with a French dub produced and licensed by AB Groupe with dubbing work by Studio SOFI. It premiered on June 12, 1991, on TF1's Club Dorothée block. 23 episodes were actually dubbed, but only the first five episodes were aired on the network likely due to low interest as viewership declined towards the Super Sentai series in the region. With five being aired, it is the shortest series in the Super Sentai franchise to air in France to date.
  • In Thailand, two Thai dubs are said to exist. One for Channel 7 where they used the original title and one for the home video released by Video Square where it was released under the international Sky Rangers title. As for Channel 7, the series aired on Fridays from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm in 1993, but it did not air until the final episode.
  • In the Philippines, the series was very popular and aired with a Tagalog dub on RPN from 1993 to 1994 and later re-aired with a new Tagalog dub was made for ABC-5 and aired from 1999 to 2000.
  • In Hong Kong, the series aired on TVB Jade with a Chinese, Including Cantonese dub on June 20, 1998, until February 13, 1999, As 地球戰隊五人組 with all episodes being dubbed and broadcast.
  • In Indonesia, the series was first dubbed in Indonesian and broadcast on RCTI and also later on Indosiar in 1998–1999.
  • In North America, the series receive a DVD release by Shout! Factory on September 6, 2022, in the original Japanese audio with English subtitles, although it is only available sold exclusively on their website. This is the second Super Sentai series to be officially released on DVD that does not have a Power Rangers counterpart. The DVD was later released in other DVD retailers besides the Shout! Factory website on April 18, 2023.

Appearances in ''Power Rangers''

Despite never being directly adapted for a Power Rangers counterpart series, Five Yellow's suit was still adapted into the Power Rangers Megaforce episode "The Wrath" as the Yellow Supersonic Ranger. The entire Fiveman team appeared later in a comic story Power Rangers Supersonic which is in the Boom! Studios Power Rangers Year Two Deluxe Edition. In the story, the team is composed of Ace, Star, Gent, Pyre, Brute with a Green Ranger named Trek being added to the team. They are also aliens from the planet Xybria. Trek betrays the team and murders them. He would later become Psycho Green the first Psycho Ranger.