Flashman Episode 26

A divisive episode that really doesn't hold back on the weirdness or goofery. You either love it or hate it and I think it's pretty fun, with a lot of surprise gags that you don't expect. Believe it or not, there was a time when toku didn't have such bonkers humor, so an episode like this really stuck out as being strange and different. Toku's gotten so goofy, there's been plenty of shows entirely devoted to wacky comedy, so that this episode might not look so strange to a viewer brought up on modern shows, but...it is.

This episode is food-themed, and I like that it begins with the Flashman sitting down to a meal served by Magu. And we learn the Flashman have been living on...a little red bead, basically a supplement that provides them their nutritional needs, but isn't any fun to eat. We're halfway into the show, and our heroes are still on the outside looking in, knowing of all of the great food on Earth, but not getting to enjoy any of it regularly. Tired of eating this untasty Space Pill, they all set out to go look for some good food to eat; we follow Ruu as she's out trying to find a nice restaurant, a place called Sweet Pumpkin catching her eye. (A popular place that has dozens in line waiting; Ruu oblivious to the idea of lines and getting chewed out by a real a-hole for cutting is one of many humorous highlights.)

Unfortunately for Ruu, the Sweet Pumpkin is run by Mess! Their signature dish incorporates a funky space pumpkin which Kaura discovered on one of his space journeys which, when eaten by a human, will...end up turning that human into a pumpkin. (They're referred to as "pumpkin people," but the show depicts this by just having a person's noggin turn into a pumpkin, so they're more like "pumpkin heads," and not the one Lance Henriksen battles.) That's it! That's all we're told. We don't know if the person survives as they are or mutate further or if it ends up killing them or what the hell Mess could possibly want with a pumpkin-headed person -- none of that. Will monsters eat these human-pumpkinheads? Who knows!?

It's a goofy plan, but by keeping you in the dark like this, it gives the scenario an element of WTFery and it almost works better just keeping it mysterious, like a curious injoke that's ruined upon explanation. It's funnier not knowing. That this plan is started by someone like Kaura, who's been shown to be a smart and formidable enemy, further adds to its weirdness. And none of the Mess actors are playing it like it's a silly plan -- Nakata plays Kaura as being slightly amused by this idea, but they're all straight faced, and THAT adds a further layer to the absurdist humor of this episode. Besides, this is a silly episode that's not about the villain plan...

Ruu eventually gets a table and is served at the Sweet Pumpkin, enjoying a tasty meal. (It's hilarious how excited Neferu is that Ruu's eating the pumpkin; she's mentally already sizing up Ruu's coffin.) Ruu's attention is caught once she hears an argument coming from the entrance of the kitchen. Another diner, a housewife named Ruriko Kashima, enjoyed her meal and, always looking for new recipes to try, wanted to see if she could get any tips. She's chased off by the waitresses Kiruto and Ulk before being shown the door by waitress Neferu. Ruu catches up with her, not getting what the secrecy is about, and helps take her to the back of the restaurant to peep in on the kitchen and see what she can find! Our heroine, helping break some laws. Well, she might regret it, since what Ruriko discovers is...a Beast Soldier and Zoros in the kitchen whipping up all of the Sweet Pumpkin's dishes! (The health code violations, man!)

Once Ruriko freaks and makes their presence known, Ruu's pulled into a battle which makes its way to the restaurant's kitchen, where every nearby ingredient is used as a weapon by both parties. There's several sight gags and puns popping off in this scene, my favorite of which is Neferu flinging the contents of a shishkabob off in order to have a makeshift version of her baton weapon. The scene ends with the other Flashman storming in the tiny kitchen to help, Green Flash lamenting Mess' great timing interrupting his enjoyment of yakisoba. (He's still trying to eat while transformed, people. I guess Dragon Ranger took his flute playin' lessons from Dai.)

I just have to say how much I like the design of this episode's monster, The Gourmess. He's just...hilarious. Just one look at him makes me chuckle. Izubuchi's design sketch looks like if Charles Addams designed a Sentai monster. He's just freakish and funny, especially when he's wearing a toque and apron while in the kitchen. His one hand has a fork-ish claw and the other is a knife-ish sword -- for as outlandish as the monster and his gimmick is, there's a nice restraint. Lesser designers would have been lazy and just made it obvious giving him, like, ketchup and mustard cannons and stuff.

Eventually, Ruriko and Ruu make it to Ruriko's house, where Ruu enjoys some of Ruriko's homemade meals. (To the puzzlement of Ruriko's sons, who aren't afraid to say how awful they find their mother's food to be.) Ruriko lays out her whole story, of how her husband and kids hate her food, so she's always looking to improve herself, but she's touched to see Ruu enjoying her cooking so much. Ruu, who's used to Magu's little Space Pill and not regular Earth food, knows no such thing as a homemade meal. To Ruu, it's delicious, and she's appreciative. It's her first time enjoying a homemade meal, a meal made out of love by a hardworking mother. (And it's this reason why the episode is more than just a typical goofy one; it's grounded in genuine emotion and tying into the overall theme of the show, the finding of surrogate families and making up for lost time.)

Mayumi Yoshida has a good rapport with guest star Midori Ebina, and Ebina's commitment helps the episode work more than it might have. It's a tricky kind of role; the episode's tone is very off-the-wall, and some guest actors have trouble acclimating themselves to a henshin hero's unique environment in the first place, but an episode this out-there? There are many cases where the guest will lean too much into the comedy, wanting to draw attention to the nuttiness by seeming crazy, but Ebina makes the comedy work with a good, traditional style of humor. That she plays so well off of Yoshida like she's already been on the show, and Yoshida looks like she's having a blast and surrendering to the shenanigans, really helps this episode sail. But it wouldn't work if Ebina didn't also make you just like and feel bad for her character and her struggles.

In the midst of this joyfulness, Ruriko and Ruu hear from the others the effect of the Mess attack: that whoever ate any of the pumpkin dishes at the Sweet Pumpkin will turn into a pumpkin person. And, of course, the two of them ate there, so they're in danger, and yet...they haven't mutated. Before they can figure out why, Mess attacks -- as Neferu was spying outside -- and they want to capture Ruriko to examine why she's not mutating. (I guess they know better than to try and capture Ruu.) The Gourmess breaks through Ruriko's wall like the Kool-Aid guy and is chased off and wounded once he gets a pot of Ruriko's soup thrown in his face. (Confirming for Ruriko's sons what they've known their entire lives -- her cooking is lethal.)

That the monster has such an extreme reaction to taking a face full of the soup, and since neither Ruriko or Ruu have transformed, Sara puts together that it must have something to do with an ingredient Ruriko uses in her food, and that this could potentially cure the monster's victims. (So, I suppose this means that Gourmess is created from the genetic material of the space pumpkin.) This leads Neferu to add Ruriko to her undoubtedly long list of people to kill, and the remainder of the episode is Mess' pursuit of Ruriko as Ruu tries to protect her.

And, I gotta say, Sayoko Hagiwara really helps anchor this episode. She's playing it straight, and not in some ironic tongue-in-cheek way like the '60s Batman show. No, she remains the typically murderous Neferu. You think she's going to get in on the chuckles? No. She's not locked in here with you, you're locked here in with her. She has no problem killing this innocent mother and wife just because her terrible cooking might derail Mess' bizarre plan that nobody but Kaura really understands. Neferu is committed to the cause, man. A comedic episode doesn't lessen her homicidal tendencies. You don't want to be messing with her.

And you gotta love the big showdown with Gourmess -- he's rolling Pink Flash up as an onigiri, he's throwing pepper in their face, he's throwing eggs at the Flashman. (Funny how the production team didn't want to get eggs on the suits, so they put up a plastic barrier.) And, of course, the ultra classic bit -- when a fed up Pink Flash gets Gourmess' oversized pepper shaker from him and sprinkles the Mess force, sending everyone -- Gourmess, Zoros, Neferu, KAURA -- into sneezing fits. (It's kinda sad that Wanda's not in this episode, because I think Hirose would have enjoyed getting in on some of this craziness.) The Flashman wrap up their fight with Gourmess, blasting him with the Rolling Vulcan as usual. Business as usual, with Kaura then calling for Kragen...and then a beat...and then one last sneeze. (An improvisation by Jouji Nakata. A great improvisation, with a perfect amount of space between the big sneeze scene and this callback.)

And, unlike other Sentai scenarios, the killing of Gourmess DOESN'T fix the problem. The pumpkin people are still around, only saved by Jin's injecting them with whatever crazy stuff Ruriko's putting in her soup. That might sound stupid, but it makes sense thematically, with the whole episode being about cooking with a "mother's flavor." Ruriko's disparaged cooking saves the day.

I like the way the episode ends with Magu trying his hand at cooking, with Ruu being the only one to appreciate his efforts. He might be a machine and definitely not a mother, but Magu made the food with care, so Ruu appreciates it. It might not be the tastiest food, but if it's made with love, well...then it fills not just the belly, but the soul.

I really feel like I've done this episode a disservice. You can't summarize comedy, and it kills comedy to explain it, and there's just so much wacky stuff happening in this episode that I wanted to cover some of my favorite bits, but...well, it's best to just watch it and have fun. (I didn't even mention one part that cracks me up, which is when an exhausted Ruriko starts to drink from a fountain, she freezes in fear as the camera pans over to show that a recovering-from-her-soup GOURMESS is drinking from the fountain, as well.)

Neferu Disguise Watch: A waitress at the Sweet Pumpkin. Speaking of which, the summary of this episode in the Keibunsha Daihyakka -- which only covers up until this episode of Flashman, meaning they were working off of earlier info -- lists the restaurant's name as being the Italian Pumpkin.