Turboranger Episode 33

A quirky, light episode after the high-stakes 5-parter. The next couple episodes are in a similar vein; they're necessary tension breakers, but I have problems with this one. For this to be the first episode after Yamimaru and Kirika have been accepted by Ragon, and they come up with such a questionable plan just doesn't work. (I have a take on why this episode is the way it is and why the villain plan is so seemingly lame, which makes it more tolerable; it has to do with the next episode, though, so I'll talk about it there.) Add to that an unlikable guest character who gets his way when he's a total schmuck.

The Bouma-Beast in this episode is based on the youkai noppera-bo, the face-less youkai who steals people's faces. This one has an upgrade in that he can switch people's faces, but the features of those faces will eventually vanish just the same. Kirika thinks these face-less people will be so lost and in such a despair that they can easily be made slaves for Bouma, and if they outlive their usefulness, they'll then become food for Dragras. Ragon is giddy, thinking this is such a vicious plan, but maybe Zuruten is more on the money when he complains that it's stupid and crap. (He changes his tune once he hears the part about Dragras, though, calling the plan "cruel.")

This ties into a story of this dorky guy who Youhei knows, Kuwata, who's stalking the girls of the high-school fair. While some of the girls are rude to this guy, pretty much outright calling him ugly, there's something still just skeevy and unlikable about him. (That Kuwata is played by the actor who played the similarly sketchy guy who was obsessed with Ako in that awful ramen episode of Jetman certainly doesn't help.) The girls all go crazy when they spot Youhei, though, and soon after Sayoko/Kirika is enticing the guy to lure Youhei into a trap with promises that he "can be like Youhei." Youhei is brought to the Bouma-Beast, who switches his face with Kuwata's. Youhei's concerned about the situation, but Kuwata is happy, ready to face the world with his...uh, new face.

Kuwata returns to try to hit on high-school girls, now looking like the popular Youhei. (His crusty-ass pick-up lines, which failed when he looked like himself, are now successful when it's coming from Youhei's face.) He ends up sullying Youhei's reputation in this episode, looking pervy and cowardly, as he ditches the girls he's with once the Bouma-Beast shows back up. (The Kuwata-looking Youhei, on the other hand, arrives to save the day.) Kuwata inadvertently solves the face-stealin' dilemma, though, when it's discovered that a home-made zit-cream he has (and applied to a honking zit on one of the high school girls, because he's sweet and a gentleman) interferes with the Bouma-Beast's ability to swap faces. (The Bouma-Beast tried to swap the faces of two of the high school girls, one of them being the girl who has the medicine applied to her zit by Kuwata.) When he figures it out, Youhei takes the zit-cream so he can smear it all over the Bouma-Beast's hands, which act as the face-transplanters. The only semi-amusing thing about this nonsense is that, in the big battle, Blue Turbo finally gives the face-less Bouma-Beast a face by carving henohenomo onto it with his sword.

The episode ends with the high-school girls fawning over Kuwata -- get it, because Youhei looked like Kuwata when he was selfless and diving into the center of danger to save them all, while the Youhei-who-was-Kuwata abandoned them in terror? It's supposed to be funny, but it's just screwing over our hero, man. Kuwata tries to shoot apologetic gestures to Youhei, but you know he's not sincere, you know he's a scumbag. He's going to be taking advantage of those girls and use Youhei's brave accomplishments for his own ends. The "lesson" of the episode, we're told by the narrator -- and the schoolgirls now fawning over Kuwata -- is that the heart matters, not the face. That's...not a lesson this episode is teaching? Kuwata's a scumbag! It's not like he learned a lesson or anything, or that he was some funny looking bullied kid who stood up for the girls and Youhei was being a big-headed idiot trying to look cool or anything. The lesson of this episode is more like "Keep an eye on the weaselly scumbags, because they might take credit for your hard work."

Like...it's not only a weak plan for Kirika and Yamimaru to have, but what does the focus on Youhei accomplish? Fine, she's targeting a former classmate and now adversary, but Youhei panics for, about, one second before he focuses on saving the day, because he's a good hero. And...it shouldn't have effected whether or not Kuwata-Youhei could transform. He never does, so I don't know if that was meant to be part of the "drama," but I don't see why he couldn't have henshin'd? They just swapped faces, not bodies, so it shouldn't have affected the ability to transform.

There are worse episodes of Sentai out there, but this episode just bugs me. Kuwata sucks. Keiya Asakura goes a long way in making Youhei so cool and likable, so why drag him through the mud for the sake of a totally hateable guest character? (It's supposed to be funny, but really isn't. Again: Kuwata's a scumbag.)