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| ♪完全独走♪ |
EPISODE 42
A frustrating episode because...Gedorian actually has a good, successful-seeming plan in this episode, but Crisis stupidity gets in the way of it. We don't need RX, and we certainly don't need the 10 Riders! Crisis will do themselves in, and not in some Vyram "they're all petty and hate each other" way, but just by their bozoticity.
Gedorian coughs up a worm that sucks up energy. He successfully drains RX of his fighting power, but also the King Stone energy. RX is pretty much toast in the scene when...Dasnerder shows up to interfere, wanting to behead RX himself. (Shut up about beheading people, Dasnerder! You haven't beheaded anyone and you won't. And chances are, if you do, you'll fuck it up like Theon Greyjoy. Because you're a Looser, with a capital L and two incorrect Os, because that's how much you suck, you deserve the 12 year-old internet troll spelling.)
Dasnerder pisses off Gedorian, while the other Crisis officers appear and attack Gedorian. All of this horseshit allows RX to escape, but the Crisis don't care, because they're morons. They all hunt Koutarou down, he's eventually assisted by Joe and Reiko. Joe decides to cause a distraction by confronting the Crisis clowns, and they ARE distracted -- not by Joe, but by the Crisis ship sending down beams of energy. They could easily kill Joe here, but, no, why kill your enemies when you're confused by the appearance of your own ship, and all of the Crisis officers decide to beam back aboard and check this out.
Gedorian's sending the ship's energy down to his monster, and incinerates himself doing so. How? I dunno. It's episode 42 and there's a lot of Crisis regulars to kill. Gedorian's voice-actor is very irritating and indecipherable in this scene. Koutarou's like "Ruh-roh! I better stop that monster." With a look to that stock footage clip of the sky, he transforms (after failing to at first) and saves the day. So, it makes Koutarou look like he was kinda faking as Joe and Reiko hauled his ass throughout the forest, escaping Crisis. Because nothing hurts him. He can escape any jam. There's nothing the writers won't make up for him at this point. He's already overpowered, but we're going to have to sit through a lame-ass team-up with the 10 Fake Shemp Riders as they help him finish the fight with Crisis anyway. *sigh*
Random notes, random show:
1) The episode begins with the Crisis Emperor teleporting a weird-ass Triforce hour glass into the Crisis ship. He's giving the Crisis goons until the Triforce fills with Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice to kill RX and get on with the immigration or he's going to blow 'em all up. He stops it at the last minute, commending Gedorian for doing whatever it takes for the empire. The only thing this guy is leading is Jark and shit. And Jark left town.
2) In this episode we hear the Crisis Emperor, and he's voiced by Goro Naya. That's probably cool for longtime Rider fans, but I think he's kinda mismatched here, and I don't care for the implication that the Crisis Emperor -- leader of these terrible villains -- could actually be the classic Great Leader.
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EPISODE 43
*dundundun* ♪Another one bites the dust♪ *dundundun*
This episode sees Gatezone deciding to take on RX with help of Dasmader. Dasmader sits and studies his video surveillance of RX, looking for a weakness, with the newly revealed info about the King Stone being the source of power. It's a plot hole, I don't get this. Prior to the events of the series, Crisis studied up on Koutarou, remember? They knew all of his abilities and the source of his power in hopes of recruiting him. They knew about the King Stone -- they split it so he'd never transform and sent him floating in space, did they not? Dasmader's the Crisis Emperor, spoiler alert, so he should know this info based on all of Crisis' research. So it's all just pointless time-killin', and more ways to make the villains seem stupid.
Gatezone allows Dasmader to use his "strongest" monster, which will unleash "Death Smoke" to be absorbed by RX at the critical moment he's pulled Revolcane from the King Stone. The plan works, the King Stone's polluted and RX is all writhing around in pain. He's saved by regathering his energy after the monster's deathsmoke blowin' device is damaged by an arrow blasted by Kyoko! And this isn't the first heroic moment for her in this episode, earlier she saves Reiko and Joe, who had been caught and chained up for spying on Crisis. She's had at least four big heroic moments in the show, which is surprising for a character who's come into the show so late, a girl, and so young. But...why is this show afraid to let Reiko do anything?!?! I DON'T UNDERSTAND! It's infuriating.
Reiko's now been paired up with Joe twice in comedic undercover scenes. Despite the fact that she's supposed to be part of the RX Squad now, she's only thrown one kick, and that was to a grunt. If Kyoko can become a master archer off-screen, then Reiko could have become the karate ass-kicking machine we know Makoto Sumikawa is off-screen. I mean, the show even had a scene of her training in a gi! That's more than we got for Kyoko's inexplicable penchant for archery. Did they just want Kyoko to have a signature weapon? Joe's always had his sai. Kyoko's is the arrow, for whatever reason. What, the water power was too goofy? That's supposed to be her thing. Why not make Reiko the archer out of nowhere? Why doesn't she have a signature weapon? We know it's her fists, dammit, but the show doesn't.
Anyway, there's something a little confusing about this episode. We spend a lot of time on the Crisis grunts taking over a gas station and giving people gas that causes their engines to explode and create black smoke. This is the reason Joe and Reiko go undercover, to find out what Crisis is up to. They're captured by Dasmader, who then goes off to make sure his plan to attack the King Stone goes well. This gas plan doesn't seem to have anything to do with anything! It all amounts to nothing! Was this just Crisis' regular plan this week, and it took the backseat since the episode's focus was more about Gatezone going behind Jark's back in order to attack RX on his own? Who knows? The heroes did nothing to stop it. Kyoko destroys a contraption, but it's only the contraption that was keeping Reiko and Joe prisoner.
Speaking of Gatezone, in this episode he has a really random drive to kill RX. Yeah, I know each Crisis member wants him dead to impress their lame boss, but the way the show depicts Gatezone in this episode, they act like it's one of those great personal beefs a toku villain has with a hero, and there's zip between Gatezone and RX. Or RX and any of the Crisis villains, for that matter. And that's one of the many, but one of the larger problems with this show. In Black, it was such an ugly, personal battle for Koutarou. His family was destroyed. There's just nothing connecting Koutarou to the lame-ass villains of this show. Their battles mean nothing. And at this point, the action's not even good anymore, so you can't be like "Well, it was a cool action scene." No, action directors Osamu Kaneda and Jun Murakami have checked out.
After Gatezone's death, Maribaron is seen looking sorrowful for a minute, which Bossgun notices, but she brushes off. There was all this weird stuff earlier in the series where Maribaron would be seen clinging to Gatezone's shoulder or caressing him. Nothing in this show has a payoff, and I don't know what the intention was, but they certainly seemed to be hinting at something between these two characters, which went nowhere. It wasn't even done in a clear enough or constant way to actually interest you in wondering what the untold story was.
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| You deserved so much better, Sumikawa. |
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