Turboranger Episode 30

The End of Reida! The writing was on the wall for this guy, but he still gets pissed when he's defeated by Red Turbo (in a really cool fight set to the OP theme).

Yamimaru's kidnapping of Dazai doesn't last long; he wants to trade Dazai for the Turbo Rugger. Red alone pilots the Turbo Rugger to deliver to Yamimaru, while the other four plan a sneak attack to get Dazai back. (The plan works. I guess Yamimaru needed to stay in school, fool!) The Turboranger don't get to celebrate this victory for long, because Reida shows up, pulling out all the stops -- magic, illusions, fisticuffs and the latest monster, the giant ChoMaJin Bouma, a guardian of the Bouma Hyaku Zoku. The monster is big and intimidating and I'm surprised they didn't base this entire new mecha arc around it, the way Liveman did with the Giga Volt.

While the ChoMaJin is attacking on a giant scale, Reida is attacking on ground. Dazai makes a decision which goes against a lot of the standard Sentai way of thinking when it comes to new mecha -- he decides he'll pilot the Turbo Rugger as a distraction (taking inspiration from Daichi's play with the Turbo Truck in the previous episode), while the others repair Turbo Truck and get Turbo Robo up and running again. Usually the Sentai way of thinking is the new robot stands the best chance against some new big, bad and tough monster, but here it's saying they really need the Turbo Robo instead. Dazai struggles to pilot the Turbo Rugger -- he's still handcuffed from when Yamimaru had him as a prisoner -- and doesn't really last long before Reida causes the Turbo Rugger to be pulled into a sinkhole.

The best part of this scene, though? Turbo Builder joins the fight, blasting back the ChoMaJin to buy the Turboranger time to flee the scene. Who's operating the Turbo Builder? Shiron! They built this big oversized lever prop for Ohmura to use, which is always great. This isn't the first time -- and not the last -- that Shiron helps the team out. So, again, why do people have a problem with her? I can immediately name ten Sentai commanders and/or robot mentors who are actually sucky or contribute nothing and really deserve the scorn, yet are beloved by the fans.

My problem with Shiron's appearance, as cool and helpful as it is, is that the writers are hoping you forget the past three episodes. It was one thing when she was attacked by Rin, and they didn't follow through on what happened. That was a standalone episode by a sub-writer, so you don't expect that to be immediately followed up, especially in the midst of a big arc by the main writer. But we haven't seen Shiron since the fairy power-draining Demonic Aura harmed her. I guess since she seems fine and the Turboranger have been transforming without any problems, the powers have recovered, energy has replenished? Please have continuity in the way Dazai says he's basing his decoy plan off of Daichi's Turbo Truck plan, but don't address the situation which was presented as absolutely dire in episode 28. Yeah, just brush that one aside. The Demonic Aura is never mentioned again in the series, other than vaguely in Kirika's debut episode. You think the Bouma would have tried seeking out such a power. How did dream Kirika obtain it? How did Yamimaru get it from a dream? Does he still retain any of that power, or was it good for just that one time use? Mysteries, and not in a good "it's up for interpretation" way, but in a frustrating, there-was-an-oversight-in-the-writing kind of way.

The Turboranger succeed in getting Turbo Truck repaired and set out to help as Turbo Robo. They film some new footage of each mecha departing Turbo Builder, which reminds me a lot of when Changerion called his ugly-ass robot pals from the ugly-ass Crystal Station. (Turbo Builder and the Turbo Machines are better than that, but now I just can't help thinking that Dazai, like SAIDOC's Munakata, put a second mortgage on his house for the sake of Turbo Builder.)

So, Turbo Robo's now in the fight, but Turbo Rugger is sinking into the earth, buried to its neck. Dazai's unconscious in the cockpit, running out of air. Reida's a problem that keeps sending attacks, but Red Turbo's got it covered, and jumps down for a showdown. In this episode, Reida reveals for all of you perverts what he's been hiding under that cloak...a body that looks like it's made of SpaghettiOs. His cloak has a power which he can control, like one that sends Red Turbo into a dimension where he has to fight the ghosts of Jinba and Jarmine. (Which, unfortunately, isn't as cool as it sounds.) Things aren't looking good for Red Turbo, but they're also looking bad for Dazai. Turbo Robo, fighting off the ChoMaJin, finally gets close enough to grab Turbo Rugger's hand and a blinding light emits from within each mecha's hands. The light shines through the dimension Red Turbo's trapped in, where he realizes the magic cloak needs to be destroyed in order to free himself...

Once he escapes the dimension, it's time for the sweet final battle with Reida. It's a cool damn fight, made cooler being set to the theme song. It's one of the classic main villain VS Niibori fights. In a way, it's sad that Turboranger gets one of those when Liveman didn't, and Liveman had more memorable villains than Reida, but Masashi Ishibashi deserves a big send-off. He was meant to be a get for the anniversary show, having already played three -- er, I mean TWO -- main villains in Super Sentai. (Because JAKQ doesn't count yet, remember). He was a main villain in the "first" Super Sentai, and here he was as a main villain in its tenth anniversary series. So they send him off with a bang -- literally. After Red performs his GT Crash finisher, turning his back on the dying Reida, they raise Reida on wires as he's setting off sparks and then exploding, giving us this cool aerial explosion, and then setting off explosions all around Red Turbo. It looks awesome, and Niibori's just standing there, chill. The shot gets completely covered by the explosions! It's a Dynaman-worthy explosion, which I guess is appropriate since Ishibashi terrorized that team as General Kar.

Red Turbo returns to the Turbo Robo, not saying a word of this Toku Moment of Awesometicity he just accomplished. Turbo Rugger is pulled free from the sinkhole, with that mysterious light still shining. Something is guiding them and they decide to combine the two mecha, the birth of Super Turbo Robo, which quickly ends the fight. When Dazai regains consciousness, Riki tells him that they combined to make Super Turbo Robo. His reaction is a kind of surprise and puzzlement, the implication being that that wasn't what he had planned for the mechas. They keep referring to the combination as a miracle, the same as that light appearing. Dazai says the strong feelings that he and the other five felt between each other, wanting to save each other, was transferred over to the robots, and created this new power of combining. It's similar to when Riki and the others were powerless, but their commitment, courage, selflessness and care for each other -- showed by them putting themselves in harm's way to protect each other -- helped them power themselves enough to transform again...

I think they needed to dwell on this idea a bit more, not shove this into a quick speech in the episode's last scene. The "miraculous" light that was emitted was similar to the fairy light, so if the show is saying that our five heroes are creating a new power that's similar to the fairy light -- or even just blending with the fairy power and boosting it, becoming an extension of it -- that's interesting, and a new development, but it's brushed off pretty quickly. This talk about miracles and feelings going into the mecha and creating additional power...a lot of Sentai teams have similarly grandiose ways of expressing what a new robot means to them. Here, it's supposed to be much more than purdy words, but something that ties into the backbone of the series and adds to the lore; either that humans might have deep within them a power similar to the fairies or that their values are close enough to that of the fairies' to reinforce the fairy power. It's a new force and power that apparently didn't exist in the past when the humans and fairies teamed up in their previous battle. (Not to mention that it involves Dazai more; as an ordinary person who believed in the fairies, but couldn't see them, as the ordinary man who contributed via his scientific inventions and knowledge, it's interesting that there came a point where he was able to contribute to the magic-side of things.) But it's not treated like that big of a deal at all...

That's the problem with this big Super Turbo Robo three-parter -- it's so focused on ditching the three old Bouma villains and keeping things moving that it doesn't want to slow down and explore some of the ideas it's presenting. It's not only a sense of out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new, but I feel like they're also attempting to conceal and wriggle around some of these questions by covering them up with nonstop action. Because these episodes mainly are just action, action, action. That, of course, isn't necessarily a bad thing --  writing out three main villains and introducing new mechas and powers should feel like a spectacle, and these episodes accomplish that. They're entertaining episodes, especially considering they're mecha-debut episodes that are often tedious. Just follow through when the smoke clears, dammit. There's good and meaningful material there that you're racing past! I understand why they'd place priority on clearing the board and bringing Kirika in, keeping a momentum, but...maybe instead of having a Youhei face-swap episode, that could have been an episode devoted to dealing with the lingering questions of this three-parter.