Turboranger Episode 10

Another Fujii script, one that feels a little unlike him -- it reminds me more of a Susumu Takaku script. Takaku was a writer who liked incorporating real Japanese-y themes and focusing on making episodes that were appealing to the young boy viewers; Takaku also liked writing animal-related episodes. Here we have an episode that takes place on Children's Day (Boys' Day, back then), set at Mount Ashigara, with an oni-related Bouma-Beast, talk of the Kintaro legend and focusing on a small boy and his horse. I think this episode has a fun, adventurous feel and quick pace to it. (Again, it needs a bigger budget for what it wants to do, but it works anyhow.)

I like that the episode starts with Riki wondering if there could be any truth to old folk tales like Kintaro, while Daichi argues that, if there are Bouma, then there's the possibility that folk tales are valid. While it would have been enough to just ponder that, this episode pretty much suggests that Kintaro did exist and was the one who sealed this week's Bouma-Beast, Oni Bouma, locking it into a samurai doll. (I also like that Shiron and Jinba both sense the Bouma-Beast within the doll at the same time, which creates a race between the heroes and the Bouma to get to the doll.)

And I'm an animal lover, so all of the stuff with the boy and his horse, which is taken and used by Oni Bouma, gets to me. Thankfully, unlike a lot of other animal-related toku episodes, they manage to break the horse free of Oni Bouma's control via the cursed ofuda and save it. The horse, once clear of control, also throws Oni Bouma from it, which is cool. And, unlike episode 5, the boy and his elder are both nice and sympathetic, so the episode just sails better.