YMMV / Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman

• Ass Pull: In episode 29 when the Fiveman try fighting Arikanigin even Super Five Robo can't defeat it, it then just turns out their mecha can combine with their base into an ultimate mecha, out of nowhere, with zero foreshadowing beforehand. Not helping this feeling is that despite facing stronger foes later on, the only other time they use Max Magma is when Vulgyre has achieved his Super Galactic Beast form in the series finale, and in that case, it doesn't work and gets completely torn to shreds.
• Awesome Music:
  • The opening theme is a catchy and upbeat tune that does a good job getting the viewer pumped for the show.
  • The ending theme, while a tad bit slower paced, is very melodic and caps off each episode quite nicely.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: A series of them actually. Episode 23 introduced a group of plush dolls of the Fivemen (and Captain Garoa) which get suddenly brought to life at the end and spend the next 10 or so episodes as a Greek Chorus watching the show and commenting on the events that happen, before disappearing and never being referenced again.
• Bizarro Episode: Episode 4, which sees the Zone try to conquer Earth by getting everyone drunk. Conversely, it's also one of the more popular episodes of the series for a particular Moment of Awesome Remi has in it.
• Complete Monster: Vulgyre once desired a woman named Meadow to be his queen and, when she rejected him, chased her until she fell of a cliff, keeping her soul captive within him. Assuming her likeness, Vulgyre takes command of the Galactic Imperial Army Zone as part of his plan to destroy 1,000 inhabited planets—with Earth being the thousandth—as part of a ritual to obtain eternal life so he could become God of the Milky Way. When his true identity is outed to his subordinates, Vulgyre fuses two into a mindless monster to force them to continue serving under him. Corrupting Chevalier's soul using the blood of his victims, Vulgyre absorbs the energy of his death to take on his destructive "Galactic Super Beast" form.
• Creepy Awesome: Vulgyre, as a blood-absorbing Living Ship with a kaiju-esque One-Winged Angel form, definitely makes for one of the most intense and climactic final bosses in Sentai. And you've got Seizo Kato, the voice of Star King Bazoo and Emperor Zeba, giving it his all once more.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: While Fivemen's viewership was sluggish for most of it, Captain Chevalier was quite popular when he was introduced to the point where he singlehandedly boosted the show's ratings starting with the episode he was introduced in. He was so popular that his actor's name was even included in the credits for the final episode, despite Chevalier himself not appearing in it.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Captain Chevalier, a dandy and ruthless warrior with a stellar singing voice and a truckload of charisma, while at the same time being a very formidable threat to the Fivemen every time he appears. Bonus points for his actor being Dai/Green Flash.
  • To a lesser extent, Billion is also quite cool for his skills and swordplay and wicked yet refined demeanor.
  • Even Garoa has his moments when he starts to pick himself up from his Villain Decay, particularly when he builds the Big Garoan and promptly trashes the Fivemen with it.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • A team called Gingaman shows up as secondary antagonists throughout the series (with their first scheme being to pose as heroes only for it to turn out that they're members of Zone), 8 years before Gingaman was a name of a real team of Super Sentai.
  • The guest character of episode eight is an alien from a crystal-themed planet who shreds tears of crystal and whose home world was conquered by the series antagonists. All this being 30 years before Kiramager introduced Princess Mabushina.
  • The monsters-of-the-week are called Galactic Warriors (in one translation). 27 years later, the other side of the sea would battle foes by that name.
  • Goriwashigin, a double-sided eagle/gorilla monster, gets decomposited years later in Zyuohger as Zyuoh Eagle, with his Zyuoh Gorilla mode, and Omoteuria, a double-sided monster.
• Inferred Holocaust: The fact that the Zone exterminated life on 999 planets before coming to Earth means they likely have a body count in the trillions, or billions at least.
• Jerkass Woobie: Doldora, of all people. When the truth about Vulgyre is revealed, she has a complete Villainous Breakdown, realizing she basically had nothing to live for now. And then Vulgyre turned her into a monster, along with Zaza when the latter tried to unsnare her. Yikes.
• Les Yay: Doldora is very devoted to Meadow. When Meadow turns out to not be what "she" seems, Doldora is hit the hardest.
• Magnificent Bastard: First Captain Chevalier is a sophisticated and smooth warrior who served as the original captain of Vulgyre, leading the Zone in numerous successful conquests before being permitted to retire. Growing bored of his life of luxury, Chevalier returns to the Zone and charms his way back into the captain's chair before proceeding to formulate a number of schemes which push the Fiveman to their limits, even killing Gaku in one instance and then paying respect to him as a Worthy Opponent right after. Taking to the field to gather the Fivemen's blood for Vulgyre to power up with, Chevalier chains himself to FiveRed to fight him in a deathmatch while using the Black Gorlin and the Gingamen to keep the other Fivemen at bay. Although slain by Gaku, Chevalier was nonetheless able to ensure Vulgyre's final transformation using his own energy.
• Memetic Mutation: The scene from episode 4 where Remi uses Drunken Boxing to defeat the Monster of the Week has become fairly popular in some circles for how bizarre it is.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • One episode has Doldora using her Monster of the Week to create an illusion of the Fivemen's mother in order to set a trap. Seeing the way Remi holds onto the hope that her mother might be real is enough to send Doldora over.
  • Billion gets a sword that makes its user Brainwashed and Crazy, as well as giving them evil powers. He gets one of Gaku's kendo students to use it, preying on the fact that the kid wants to be stronger in order to protect his parents because he knows the Fivemen won't kill the kid.
  • Then we have Garoa, after destroying the Fivemen's Humongous Mecha, but not the Fivemen themselves, he decides to draw them out, by attacking their school full of children. The scene with the children running to escape like they're about to die cements it. Shortly before these happens, he has dropped his Butt-Monkey status, if you didn't notice.
  • The true villain of the season, Vulgyre, caused Meadow to fall to her death when she refused his offer to rule with him. Though it was a mistake on his part, and he sounded horrified after seeing her fall, he nevertheless got over it and decided to impersonate her for the entirety of the season, all the while manipulating Zone to destroy planets just so he could become all-powerful.
• One-Scene Wonder: He's only in the last three episodes, but Seizō Katō gives a magnifcently terrifying performance as Vulgyre once he's revealed.
• Seasonal Rot: While the decline actually began with the previous series, Kousoku Sentai Turboranger, Fiveman failed to bring the ratings back up enough. Along with Jetman's extreme popularity, this started a middling period for Sentai.
• Shocking Moments: Things really hit the fan by the end of the series: Vulgyre is a Living Ship and The Man Behind the Man! The Fivemen's parents are alive and trying to contact them! Chevalier fights FiveRed in a climactic duel-to-the-death! And the world is on the cusp of being destroyed by a Botanical Abomination seeking godhood!
• Special Effects Failure: During the final battle against Vulgyre, the fact that they're using the toy versions of Max Magma and Super Five Robo is really obvious. The shot where SFR turns around in midair and plunges into Vulgyre's gullet is especially shoddy looking. There are MANY shots during the final episode where the wires holding up the toy robots are perfectly visible - not a Freeze-Frame Bonus or barely noticeable nitpick, but front and center and not hidden in any way.
• Viewer Name Confusion: The Zone's full name can either be translated as the "Silver Imperial Army Zone" or the "Galactic Imperial Army Zone". The confusion is due to their Japanese name (Ginteigun Zōn) being spelled with the character "gin" (銀) which can either mean "silver" or be short for "ginga", meaning "galaxy". That said, viewers more familiar with the Japanese language often default to "Galaxy" due to the Zone's galactic theming.
• Vindicated by History: It was nearly a Franchise Killer thanks to Executive Meddling and some unnecessary additions. But as time passed, this series has been looked upon much more favorably. Its dark first episode is considered to be one of the best beginnings in the franchise, it has quite a few memorable episodes in between its overall Myth Arc, the villains are well-liked, with Chevalier in particular stealing the show after his debut and Vulgyre being a well-done twist villain, and for being the first Sentai season about a Sibling Team, it handles its premise pretty well. When ShoutFactory announced an official subbed release of the season, it was met with an almost entirely positive reception.
• The Woobie: Of all characters, Meadow (or rather, the real Meadow) turns out to be this. She was chased to her death by Vulgyre, who entombed her body and soul inside of himself so she could never leave, all while using her visage to lead a universal campaign of terror and destruction.

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