Turboranger Episode 12

Another great episode from Fujii. This episode's Bouma-Beast is a reformed Bouma-Beast; he once battled Rakia in the old days. He impressed Rakia, who healed the monster's wounds and offered to let him fight along his side. The Bouma-Beast then became a Rakia ally, attempting to attack Ragon; Ragon imprisoned him, sealing him under a sea of blood. (There's a sea of blood within the Bouma Castle!) So Zuruten takes it upon himself to break the Bouma-Beast free and execute his own plan, which is to pose as a fellow Rakia follower; he delivers the news that Rakia is dead, but places the blame on Turboranger, who he paints as being on Ragon's side. (I like how, when Reida is ripping Zuruten a new one for going rogue with this plan, Ragon slams Reida by saying he should shut up after so many failed plans. And then he blasts him. Zuruten likes this, too, because he laughs his head off.)

So the majority of this episode is the Bouma-Beast attacking the Turboranger, who try to get through to him, but can't without seeming like liars. They don't know what to make of the situation until the Bouma-Beast starts crying when thinking of the dead Rakia -- this touches Riki and he makes it his mission to save the monster. (I like how, at one point, to keep up the charade, Zuruten even gets Ragon to put in an appearance; he sends some blasts at the Bouma-Beast along with words of encouragement to the Turboranger! He speaks through some weird symbol, though, so the Turboranger don't lay eyes on him yet. Keepin' the big bad mysterious for our heroes is important and really pays off in a later episode.)

Riki gets to shine here again, making attempt after attempt to get through to the Bouma-Beast; he finally does when his words eerily echo words once said by Rakia, and then later when he pushes the Bouma-Beast out of an attack, placing himself in danger instead. The Bouma-Beast remarks that Riki is like Rakia reborn (!) before saving him, taking the rest of the attack and being killed. Zuruten revives the Bouma-Beast as a mindless monster. The Turboranger are hesitant to attack, as per usual in these types of "maybe the monster is good" episodes, but don't hesitate that much. Red's quick to call out the mecha. When the Bouma-Beast reverts to his usual self, the Turboranger pick him up in Turbo Robo and...chuck him into space! It's nicer than it sounds; they do that instead of performing the Turbo Crash on him, and so he can be near Rakia. This episode would have been even better without the total spoilers, not only from the preview, but from the episode title "The Bouma-Beast That Becomes Stars."

I kinda wonder about one thing, though. At one point, the Turboranger are outside and Shiron's filling them in on the monster's past with Rakia. Then the monster shows up and Riki's like "Get the hell outta here, Shiron!" Which makes sense, because she's tiny and they're protective of her since she's the last fairy, BUT...wouldn't she have helped their cause a bit? Wouldn't the Bouma-Beast have seen the fairy with them and been like "Hey, this ain't right! Rakia was protector of the fairies, so if she's with them, they must be the good guys!" And then Zuruten's plan would have failed, like, halfway through the episode and maybe things would have turned out different. Maybe the Bouma-Beast wouldn't have had to been tossed into space, maybe he could have stuck around and been a bangai hero! I guess maybe Riki shouldn't have sent her off in such a panic, huh?