France Five

France Five (フランスファイブ, Furansu Faibu), originally titled Jūshi Sentai France Five (銃士戦隊フランスファイブ, Jūshi Sentai Furansu Faibu; translated as Musketeers Squadron France Five) and later known as Shin Kenjūshi France Five (新剣銃士フランスファイブ, Shin Kenjūshi Furansu Faibu; translated as New Sword Musketeers France Five), is a French mini-series directed by Alex Pilot and produced by Buki X-4 Productions from 2000 to 2013 (with a hiatus between 2004 and 2012). It is an homage to Toei's popular Super Sentai series, which was extremely popular in France in the 1980s and the 1990s. As a nod to Super Sentai titles having certain motifs, France Five has each member themed after certain aspects of French culture. There have been four half-hour episodes of France Five produced. The fifth episode aired on May 5, 2012, during a projection in Paris, and also premiered in June for Japan and the French television, Nolife, created by the creators of France Five. The episode includes a preview of the sixth and final episode. This series is said to be a nod to another Sentai pastiche, Aikoku Sentai Dai-Nippon (Patriot Squadron Great Japan) (1982) by Daicon Films (now Gainax). The series has become somewhat popular in Japan as well, with singer Akira Kushida singing an original theme for the series starting with episode 4. Prior to that point, the themes were French remixes of older Sentai theme songs (Choujin Sentai Jetman and Choudenshi Bioman) as well as an original French theme.