J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai

J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai is the second installment in the Super Sentai metaseries. It aired from April 9, 1977, to December 24, 1977. Created by Shotaro Ishinomori, the series ran for 35 episodes and marks the franchise’s first appearance of a White Ranger. Toei distributes the series internationally under the title The Jackers.

Iron Claw leads a global criminal empire known as “Crime.” The organization has a network of wealthy, influential sympathizers and employs an army of faceless thugs wearing leather masks, as well as cyborg assassins. Its goal is to become the world’s most powerful mafia organization.

To fight Crime, ISSIS, the International Science Special Investigation Squad, is formed. The series focuses on ISSIS’s battles against Crime in Tokyo and across Japan.

Daisuke Kujirai, commander of ISSIS’s Tokyo branch, proposes a radical experiment. Using the code name “Joker,” he recruits four young test subjects for his cyborg enhancement project: Goro Sakurai, a multitalented athlete and Olympic gold medalist; Ryu Higashi, a disgraced boxing champion; Karen Mizuki, a policewoman who has been critically injured; and Bunta Daichi, an oceanographer who is clinically dead and being kept alive through cryogenic support. All four undergo surgery and receive various bionic enhancements, along with powers to manipulate energy. They are given the code name J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai, or J.A.K.Q. (pronounced “Jacker”), and tasked with destroying Crime. Later in the series, Joker leaves to lead ISSIS’s advanced engineering branch. Sokichi Banba, a master of disguise and a cyborg, takes over as their new boss, known as Big One.