I'm sure this episode gets mocked for having a silly villain plan, but when you really think about it, it's pretty gruesome. The latest Bouma-Beast specializes in mashing humans together and turning them into dango he plans to feed Ragon in celebration of his return. This is human sacrifice. We're even shown what that would look like, with a piece of the human dango -- a couple of severed body parts -- being cut from the treat and served to Ragon. This is screwed up! And while you might laugh at the depiction of the human dango -- obviously a collision of rubber limbs, wigs and clothing -- it still paints a more disturbing image than what they'd probably do today, which would be to literally turn the people into just regular old real dango...actually, probably CGI dango.
While we have that creepy villain plot, on the hero side, Riki's getting a taste of Yamaguchi's wrath because his grades have been slipping ever since he became a Turboranger. (Of course, she doesn't know anything about his being a Turboranger, and it makes sense why they don't volunteer the information.) He's even slipping at baseball, which Yamaguchi threatens to have him removed from, anyway, until his grades improve. It's a dilemma that doesn't get neatly fixed by the end of this episode -- it's going to keep occurring in the series. Yamaguchi is harsh, but she means well, and I like where they take the character throughout the course of the show.
Comedy comes in the form of Yamaguchi and Dazai -- I've mentioned before that I think Dazai must be partially inspired by Doc Brown, and Yamaguchi is the Strickland to his Doc Brown. She knows of him, that he's a kooky scientist, she thinks he's no good and that his bad influence is causing her students to stray, so she lets him have an earful...before they're both caught and rolled into a human dango! This episode has its seriousness, its grisliness and some comedy on top of it.
The episode has always reminded me of the Katamari video games, except with the prospect of the balls of humans being eaten. I do like the “ball interior” shots, as they give a more visceral look at the people about to be devoured/run over by a train.
ReplyDeleteThe Yamaguchi/Dazai relationship does have some really fun moments, and it’s one of the spots where I think the show exceeds Megaranger’s take on the high school setting. A female teacher acting as a foil for Jouji Costanza might have improved Costanza’s arc.
I’m not sure if Satou played baseball in high school (he probably did, but not to the same level as Hamada), but he looks “appropriate” as a pitcher. The sport even fits into his character, as he’s always looking for an opening to exploit in a fight (taking advantage of Rheda’s distraction, diving at Ragon, listening to Yamimaru’s advice, etc.), like a batter searching for the right pitch.
I actually have in a later post that I think Turbo beats Mega as the high-school Sentai, and it's because of Yamaguchi. (I also had something typed up, but I think I ended up scrapping it, about how the Megaranger villains desperately needed a Yamimaru and Kirika to make it a more personal fight for the heroes. Megaranger REALLY needed something to support the bad guy side of the show; Costanza's friendship with Samejima, mentioned for just a couple of episodes, just doesn't cut it.)
ReplyDeleteGood point about Riki's baseball informing the character! I didn't take that into consideration.