Series / Kyūkyū Sentai GoGoV

Saving one's life means saving the future.

Save the Earth! (Save the Earth!)
Save a life! (Save a life!)
Hurry, Kyukyu Sentai Go-Go-Five!

Kyūkyū Sentai GoGoFive (Rescue Squadron GoGoFive) is the twenty-third installment in the Super Sentai series, running from 1999 to 2000. The Title Theme Tune was performed by Shinichi Ishihara.

In 1999, the Tatsumi siblings, a family of rescue workers, is contacted by their long-absent father, Mondo Tatsumi. He tells them of the coming invasion of the evil Saima Clan, and gives them the means to fight them. Now, as the Kyukyu Sentai GoGoFive, the Tatsumis must stop the Saima from resurrecting their Queen, Grandiene, in Capital City.

In its final episodes, it notably aired alongside the first revived Kamen Rider series, Kamen Rider Kuuga, in what would later be known as the Super Hero Time block.

The series is available to stream for free at Shout! Factory TV.

Adapted as Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue.

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Recurring Super Sentai tropes:

• Alas, Poor Villain: Despite them being demons bent on killing us, it's hard not to feel sad for the Saima children, except for Salamandes, when they die.
• All Your Powers Combined: The Life Bird, which transforms from flying bird drone to blaster. It is composed of five different weapons. These do not have a set member, meaning anyone can use them.
• Breather Episode: Episode 17. A mostly goofy and fun episode happening just before the Hades Deck saga and the end of the battles against Zylpheeza.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: It must be the shortest one ever: "Suit up!"^note "Chakusou!"/"Equip suit!"
• Calling Your Attacks
• Color Character: Another "[team prefix] [English color]" Sentai.
• Combination Attack
• Cool Bike: Go Red's sidecar-equipped Command Attacker.
• Cowboy Episode: #29.
• Crossover: Gogo-V vs. Gingaman.
• Custom Uniform: The first Sentai series to legitimately use this trope, though they were only a slight step up from the uniforms of Ohranger.
• Designated Girl Fight: Matsuri and Dinus have one in #24.
• Eleventh Hour Deadly Humongous Mecha: The Max Victory Robo Sigma Project- a Black Palette Swap of the Max Victory Robo that's incredibly powerful, but the mecha consumes mental energy as fuel.
• Finishing Move: "Sword, call upon the light! Victory Prominence!"
  • "Raging Fists, call upon the firestorm! GRAND... STORM!"
• Home Base: Super Rescue Labs; consists of the Tatsumi household and mainly the Bay Areas.
• Humongous Mecha
  • A Mech by Any Other Name: The 99-Machines^note A wordplay: "99"/"Nine-Nine" is read as "kyūkyū" in Japanese, which is also the word for "rescue" (the rescue vehicles that form the Victory Walker and Victory Robo), the Go Liners (the train cars that form the Five Liner and the Grand Liner) and the Mars Machines (the component of the Victory Mars)
  • Combining Mecha
    • Blue Thrower + Yellow Armor + Pink Aider = Victory Walker
    • Red Ladder + Green Hover + Victory Walker = Victory Robo
    • Go Liner 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = Five Liner (the train mode that carried each of the 99-Machines) or Grand Liner (robot mode)
    • Red Mars 1 + Blue Mars 2 + Green Mars 3 + Yellow Mars 4 + Pinks Mars 5 = Beetle Mars, which transforms into the Victory Mars
  • Transforming Mecha: The Liner Boy, which can transform into a train car called the Max Liner, which can then transform into a spacecraft called the Max Shuttle. The Victory Mars is a transformed version of the Beetle Mars.
  • Mecha Expansion Pack: Liner Boy serves this function to both Victory Robo and the Go Liners.
    • Victory Robo + Liner Boy = Max Victory Robo
    • Max Liner + Five Liner = Max Go Liner
    • Max Shuttle + Five Liner = Space Go Liner (which serves as a carrier for each of the Mars Machines)
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: "Missions".
• In the Name of the Moon: A pretty simple one.
  Matoi: "GoRed!"
  Nagare: "GoBlue!"
  Sho: "GoGreen!"
  Daimon: "GoYellow!"
  Matsuri: "GoPink!"

  Matoi: "The lives of people are the future of this planet!"

  Nagare: "Burning Rescue spirits!"

  Sho: "KyuKyu Sentai - !"

  Daimon: "Go - !"

  Matsuri: "Go - !"

  All: "Five!"

  Matoi: "Mobilize!"
  • Lampshaded in the second episode.
  • They do a combined roll call with Timeranger during its team-up movie.
  Tatsuya: "The lives of people are the future of this planet!"

  Matoi: "Burning Rescue spirits!"

  GoGo Five: "Kyukyu Sentai - !"

  Matoi: "Go! Go!"

  All: "Five!" "Timeranger!"
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: Matoi gets his own motorcycle, the Command Attacker. The others, meanwhile, get no individual means of transport.
• Make My Monster Grow: Pierre's responsibility; he does this by tossing the Saima Cards at the monster's remains and chanting a magic spell.
• Mini Dress Of Power: Part of Go Pink's costume.
• Missing Mom: Subverted. Mrs. Tatsumi is very much alive, and reunites with her family in the finale.
• Monster of the Week: The Psyma Beasts, divided into the categories of fire, air, earth, and water.
• Mook: The imps.
• Motif: Boy, is there a lot!
  • Rescue, of course! In fact, Mission 8 reveals that the Tatsumi family line goes way back to the Edo era as firefighters, so assumingly, the rescue spirit runs in the family.
    • And it's not just a visual motif either; the series tries to emphasize the spirit and essence of rescue work and workers whenever possible. Missions 8 and 11, for example, put focus on this.
  • The letter "V"; both as the Roman numeral for "5", as a visual motif, and also possibly referring to "Victory". As if to keep the motif clean, there wasn't even a Sixth Ranger.
    • And V for Victory, of course, the resident Combining Mecha being known as Victory Robo. And more subtly with the team's ally and fellow superhero Demon Hunter Sieg, whose named means victory in German.
  • And "Kyukyu"/"Rescue" and "99", to a lesser extent.
  • Parent-child relationship, reflected by both the Tatsumi family and Saima clan. And the vast contrast between the head, and sole, parent's disposition and affection towards the children.
  • While we're at the topic of "Family": Sibling bond. This is a major theme also reflected by both sides, though unlike the absolute polarity with parent-child relationship, both sides exhibit the same nature of closeness between the siblings, with slightly varying degrees, of course.
  • Ironically for a Super Sentai title, the series has quite a bit of realism scattered throughout; character and setting realism for the most part, but arguably, also due to the "Earth Technology" motif. Then again, we're talking about the technology which created an underwater train station,sentient robots and a gigantic train holding several Combining Mecha components, which, in addition, can be launched into space...
• The Movie: Gogo-V: Gekitotsu! Aratanaru Chōsenshi ("Clash! The New Super Warrior", also known as Gogo-V vs. Zeek on the DVD back cover). Unlike previous movies, this was a straight-to-video release and it's officially counted as the fifth Sentai Vs. movie, despite not being an actual crossover (since Zeek was a new character made for the film).
• Narrator: This time around, it's Daisuke Gōri who takes on the role.
• "On the Next Episode of..." Catch-Phrase: "Emergency Signal!"^note "Kinkyuutsuho!"
• Robot Buddy: LinerBoy and Mint.
• The Smurfette Principle: Dr. Mondo only made enough suits for his five children, leaving Go Pink as the only female member. However, Kyouko, the self-proclaimed sixth member of Gogo-V, does get the chance to help out the team as a legitimate heroine when she dons the Zeektector armor, if only for the movie.
• Super Mode
• Supervillain Lair: Saima Paradico, located in the North Pole.
• Theme Music Power-Up
• Transformation Trinket
• Villains Act, Heroes React: As is the norm for Super Sentai, we generally have the Psyma sending out a MOTW with an Evil Plan Once an Episode, with our heroes then arriving on the scene to stop them. Justified as our Sentai for the year is a rescue force.
• Weapon-Based Characterization:
  • Swiss-Army Weapon: The Five Lasers.^note Gun and Stick Modes.
    • Bifurcated Weapon: The Five Laser's Laser Grips can detach from the blaster to attach to the Life Bird components.
  • The V-Lancers.
    • Hand Cannon: V-Lancer + Laser Grip = V-Machine Gun.
  • Battle Boomerang: The V-Boomerangs, which are attached to the shafts of the V-Lancers.
  • Super Wrist-Gadget: The V-Mode Braces.
  • Give Me a Sword: Unlike previous series, the personal weapons for this team can be used by anyone. The standard issue armament for each Go Go Five:
    • Matoi: Claw Anchor
    • Nagare: Build Discharger^note A fire extinguisher
    • Sho: Wing Spreader^note A Jaws-of-Life-style pair of scissor appendages
    • Daimon: Beak Driller
    • Matsuri: Tail Injector

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Tropes specific to Rescue Sentai GoGo Five:

• Actor Allusion:
  • As early as episode 3, Kyouko, played by Yuko Miyamura, utters "Are you that dumb?"^note Anta baka? Miyamura's character from Neon Genesis Evangelion, Asuka Langley Sohryu, also uses it as one of her catchphrases.
  • Go Blue is now the more-brutal-yet-still-intelligent Kamen Rider Amazon Alpha going into Amazon hunting.
  • In Episode 9, Matsuri mentions that her paramedic mentor, Mizuki, likes orchids. Mizuki's actress previously portrayed Flower Ninja Ran.^note ("Ran" is Japanese for orchid.)
  • Zeek from The Movie is played by Keiichi Wada, or Ryo of DaiRanger. Three guesses what his henshin pose looks like.
• An Ass-Kicking Christmas: A huge Christmas battle happens in episode 43 When the rangers kill off Salamandes.
• Back from the Dead: Zylpheeza; multiple times.
• Badass Creed: "Sword - Call upon the light! Victory Prominence!"
  • "Raging fists - Call upon the firestorm! Grand Storm!"
  • And Victory Mars' improvised finisher: "Sword - Call upon the crimson flames! Mars Prominence!"
  • In this case, it was kinda justified- all their big weaponry had "Plus energy", which would counteract the "Minus energy" present in Saima beasts and destroy them.
• Badass Family: The father made all the equipments, the base and the Humongous Mechas; the kids beat the snot out of an invading demon clan. Badass Family indeed!
• Brother–Sister Team: Notably, the series pits two Brother Sister Teams against each other: the GoGoFive VS the Saima siblings.
• Catchphrase: "Mission Complete!". Also used as one of the "The End" phrases at the end of each Mission, which can vary depending on how the episode ended.
  • Mint's "Emergency Signal! Emergency Signal!" Also used by the episode previews as they start.
• Christmas Episode: Episodes 42 and 43.
• City of Adventure: Gogo-V takes place in Metropolis/Capital City.^note Both terms are applicable to 首都 in Japanese.
• Cool Train: The GrandLiner; oh, so very, very cool.
• Danger Room Cold Open: Episode 28.
• Darker and Edgier: This is one hell of a darker show. Hints of this are on:
  • Rather nightmarish disaster settings, with fire, car accidents and rather claustrophobic ambience.
  • Gruesome depiction of the victims injuries, to showcase the horrors rescue workers have to live with in their jobs.
  • The monsters' design and what they do to people. Special mention goes to the Tree Monster from episode 5 and the Spider Monster from episode 18.
  • Very mature themes and plots. Ranging from a kid surviving while lost in a mountain to regaining power after being crippled.
  • And Grandienne, aka the bitchiest big bad in Sentai ever.
• Demon Slaying: Zeek.
• Distaff Counterpart: Denus' personal imps are dressed in "skirts", and are assumingly females. Then again, the Imps are directly stated as Familiars, so it's questionable whether they have genders to begin with.
  • In Gogo-V vs. Zeek, Kyouko becomes Zeek's opposite-gender successor, Zeek-Jeanne, right down to wearing a female version of the Zeektector armor.
• Dream Land: Matoi has to go through the dreams of all his siblings as well as Kyouko's in episode 45.
• Elemental Powers: Most of the Saima Clan each have one: Blow You Away - Zylpheeza, Dishing Out Dirt - Cobolda, Making a Splash - Venus, Playing with Fire - Salamandes.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The team's Finishing Move, the Calamity Breaker - it breaks (demons which create) calamities.
• Evil Will Fail: The Saima Family's end came about due to Grandiene's disregard for her children. First, she traps Salamandes in Saima Hell for failing her too many times, leading to him defecting before shortly being killed by the GoGoFive. She then forces Zylpheeza to shoot at the GoGoFive, even though her most loyal son Cobolda was also caught in the blast and dies. Finally, she transforms Zylpheeza and Salamandes into soulless giants to house her spirit as she begins her final attack. As a result, after the GoGoFive destroy Zylpheeza and Salamandes, along with Grandiene's spirit, the Saima Family's threat has ended.
• Fake-Out Fade-Out: At the end of episode 36, we think the martial arts master Tetsu is dying in the hospital. Even Daimon is screaming about it. The show starts to fade out, and almost puts the words "To Be Continued" on the screen. Then the show comes back on, and the doctor says he has no life-threatening injuries, Tetsu is just asleep and exhausted. Daimon is furious. And then the episode really ends with the words "Mission Complete", like normal.
• Femme Fatalons: Grand Witch Grandiene.
• Feuding Families: The Tatsumis vs. the Saimas, of course.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: Zylpheeza's three Hades Demon Siblings fit this motif:
  • Guuru has incredible strength, with his hands looking like a pair of brass knuckles (Fighter)
  • Jiin relies on speed attacks (Thief)
  • Zoodo is the most skilled, having a sword for a hand and able to generate explosive feathers (Mage)
• Fountain of Youth: In episode 24, the Monster Of The Week turns a bunch of adults into kids, including Dr. Tatsumi and his sons, leaving Matsuri to do all the work.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: In episode 37, the Galvalia monster ends up swapping bodies with both Tsugumi Inue and Matoi Tatsumi.
• Giant Robot Hands Save Lives: The Red Ladder mecha's ladders form the arms of Victory Robo, so the giant hands of said robot come in handy to pull civilians out of the danger zone.
• The Heartless: Denus once said to the GoGoFive that Saima Beast doesn't have such a thing called heart. Of course, since the Monster of the Week Thanatos does have heart, she rectified that even if he had one, she will destroy it.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: MaxVictoryRobo's solar panels can absorb, in addition to sunlight, also (light and/or energy from) flames and explosions the Saimas throw at it, and return full-force with the Max Nova.
• Homage: The entire premise, possibly. Five siblings recruited by their father to operate massive rescue-themed vehicles, plus the antagonist(s) living in a pyramid..
  • Continuing the theme, there's the use of an underwater base, and the fact that a lot of this was done using miniatures.
  • And let's not forget how they rescue a spaceshuttle in episode 2, by having it land on top of Yellow Armor. Trapped in the Sky anyone?
• Hot-Blooded: Particularly during the Mecha Finishing Moves.
• Hurl It into the Sun: In Episode 39, the rangers know as long as a Infinity Chain card exists, their attacks will not have any effect on the monsters. So instead of blowing up Monster Of The Week Lizardes, the siblings use Victory Mars to toss the monster into the sun, destroying him, and the Infinity Chain card.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Matsuri was briefly involved in a Love Triangle with her best friend and another guy, but conceded to let him marry her friend for this reason in episode 32.
• Instant Expert: Subverted; Dr. Tatsumi already installed the instruction database in the suits beforehand.
• Lensman Arms Race: Discussed in episode 39 - Matoi brings up how the cycle of Nagare developing weapons could continue with each weapon getting affected by the Infinite Chain.
• Millennium Bug: In episode 44, Mint gets hit on the head on New Year's Eve 1999, and he thinks it's one day later, causing his behavior to go haywire. It's because Dr. Tatsumi forgot to put in the Y2K bug fixing software.
• No Communities Were Harmed: Capital/Metropolis City is a stand-in for Tokyo.
• Oddly Named Sequel: Until the premiere of Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters, this was the last Sentai season to have a non-standard title (i.e., one without the "-(ran)ger" or "-man" suffix).
• Oh, Crap!: Zylpheeza, when he realizes that the Max Victory Robo just ate his explosion for breakfast.
• One, Two, Three, Four, Go!: The title of the show, GoGo-V is literally "555". Doubles as a Meaningful Name, as 555 is the rescue phone number in Japan. (Which proves to be a Hilarious in Hindsight moment when Shou/GoGreen's actor took on a major role in Kamen Rider 555.)
• Our Kobolds Are Different: The Psyma Clan member Kobold, besides sharing a name with the mythological creature, is the leader of the Earth Demons.
• Parental Abandonment: Their father vanishes for ten years to develop the means to fight evil demons, and their mother vanishes in a plane crash. He comes back in the first episode, she comes back in the last episode.
  • As such, Dr. Tatsumi spent a good part of the plot trying to reconnect with his children again, often resulting in awkward moments.
  • The Saima also spend the first half of the show without their mother's physical presence.
• Parental Favoritism: Zylpheeza, then Salamandes earned the right by their mother to be called the Dark King. In the end though, she reveals she never gave a damn about her kids at all.
• P.O.V. Cam: Used for laughs at the end of episode 45. Everyone makes their New Year's wishes at the shrine. Matoi says he's hoping to do well at the firefighter parade. The show switches to his view as Matoi's siblings get in his face, complaining that he should wish for health, the well-being of his family, or to get rid of the monsters.
• Recap Episode: Episode 44.
• Rescue
• Rings of Activation: Kinkyu Gattai Victory Robo's Finishing Move involves generating a ring of fire with its sword and then slashing through it to generate a fiery Sword Beam.
• Second Episode Introduction: The second episode is named "Meet The Catastraphiend Family" for a reason.
• Shirtless Scene: At the end of the movie when the siblings relax at the pool.
• Sixth Ranger: Averted in the actual series. The creative team avoided adding a recurring sixth member since they wanted to stay true to the show's title and its five-member motif. In the DTV movie, Kyouko temporarily becomes a sixth member of sort when she inherits Zeek's armor after he dies. Also, episode 21 plays with the trope, as it's plot centers around the GoGoV believing their father plans to recruit a sixth member based on drawings for Liner Boy. This ultimately turns out to be a misunderstanding.
• Spiritual Successor: To Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman.
• Stealth Pun: "Kyukyu" means "Rescue", yes, but with different kanji, it can also mean "Nine-Nine". Guess which year GoGoFive ran in.
  • Mint's name is also one, according to its image song; the song title is written in Kanji as "5 people".
• Take a Third Option: In Episode 34, Monster Of The Week Barda leaves the rangers stuck with flowers stuck n their hands that can't be removed. He tells them either commit suicide, or let the flowers bloom in a few hours. But when the flowers bloom, they'll release a pollen that will eat through everything on the planet like acid. Instead the rangers go into outer space on Liner Boy, open the airlock, causing all the pollen to blow out into space, close the airlock before the rangers get sucked out (though they nearly lose Matsuri in the process), and blast the pollen out of existence with lasers, before coming back down to Earth and killing the monster.
• Team Dad: Mondo Tatsumi, by virtue of being their father.
• Theme Naming:
  • According to The Other Wiki, the Tatsumi siblings are all named after traditional firefighting equipments.
    • "Matoi" means "to wind"—as in "winding things up in a rope"—and refers to the ropes used in rescues.
    • "Nagare" means "to flow"—as in "flowing water"—and refers to the water used to douse fires.
    • "Shou" means "bell"—as in "big ones that tolls"—and refers to the bells tolled to warn people of dangers.
    • "Daimon" means "big door"—as in "gate"—and refers to the gateway to safety.
    • "Matsuri" means "festivals"—as in "the banner hoisted in festivals"—and refers to the ceremonial banners (usually used in festivals) that were raised to mark a safety exit.
  • And since we're at the spot, the Saima siblings are named after the mythological creatures associated with the four elements.
    • "Zylpheeza": Sylph, the spirit of wind.
    • "Cobolda": Kobold.
    • "Denus": Her name is a bit special, it come from Undine, the water spirit and Venus, goddess that was born from waves. As for why they chose a name of a goddess for demon? Well, take a guess.
    • "Salamandes": Salamander, obviously.
• This Cannot Be!: Throughout the series, Grandiene was disgusted with her children due to them continuously losing to a bunch of humans. In the Grand Finale, when she fights the GoGoV herself, her last moments are of shock that even she was no match for them.
  Grandiene: (About to explode) How could I lose?!
• Thrown Out the Airlock: A variation. To get rid of the pollen that would destroy life on Earth in episode 34, the Tatsumis, go into outer space on Liner Boy and open the airlock to have all the pollen vacuumed out and then laser blasted, while being strapped into their seats.
• Tragic Monster: Thanatos
• Underwater Base: Bay Area 55^note GoGo and Max Area.
• Villain Song: "Denus Syndrome" by Denus and Pierre's "Tango Sai Ma".
• Wham Episode: Dear god, episode 19. It is titled "Total Defeat" for a reason.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In episode 7, Denus assumes the identity of a female scientist named Kiyomi Inoue after ambushing the real deal in an airport restroom. The real Kiyomi is last seen being knocked unconscious by Denus, and it's unclear what happened to her afterwards.
• When the Planets Align: The first half of the series has the Saima preparing for the planets to align into the Grand Cross so they may bring back Grandiene.
• Your Head A-Splode: This happened to Grandiene in the final episode; her spirit retreated to the upper atmosphere and exploded as a result of all the Plus energy from Salamandes' and Zylpheeza's destruction going back into her.

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