Flashman Episode 31

We're winding down on this arc of the Flashman's seeming to be depowering while their villains are powering up. The episode begins mid-battle with the latest Beast Soldier, and it's never a good sign for our heroes when the episode begins like that -- it tends to mean things will be going south for 'em. During this battle, all five have their powers conk out. Wandala has them cornered, ready to freeze them when Tokimura arrives to bail them out in his own invention, what he calls a supercar.

Tokimura volunteers to help the Flashman out of their dilemma and look for the answers they seek. Knowing Magu has to have some knowledge of their situation that he can't access, Tokimura cracks open Magu's noggin and hacks it. (I remember, as a kid, feeling like Tokimura was a jerk for doing this, but it actually plays comedically, and is a scene I now find funny thanks to how casually actor Ishihama plays it.)

It's sweet how much the Tokimuras want to help out and repay the Flashman. Daughters Midori and Kaori decide to set out to a university to enlist the help of a Nobel prize winning scientist to help (remember, they think their dad is well-intentioned, but a bit of a kook), only to be targeted by Mess, who want them to take them to the Flashman. The five arrive to save the Tokimura girls, and they feel bad to have been the reason for the Flashman to show themselves. (So, it's a good thing they're not around to know that the Beast Soldier lays a sneak attack, sending them a gross slime which attaches itself to a host body.)

Powerless, still weak from the previous battle and now fighting off the Beast Soldier's parasitic slime, the Flashman are again cornered by Wandala when Tokimura finally solves their problem -- he discovers that the Flash planets are aligned, an anomaly which causes the energies the planets emit to cancel each other out. He can't calculate how long the effect will last, which Magu helps figure out, coming to the answer that they should shift out of alignment in sixty minutes. Once that happens, the Flashman's abilities and powers should be restored. This leads to a neat segment where the Flashman decide to run and stall for time, hurling themselves from cliffs to avoid attacks and just having to suck it up and endure. They just make it, transforming and winning the day...and it's sad, because it probably gives them a false hope. Throughout the episode, they're talking about Baraki's dying words. They think they're going to be killed at one point by Wandala. And then their powers are restored, and they probably think that's it for their problems, that it's all over and...well, those of us who have seen the show know better.

The Tokimuras are just such a kind, helpful bunch, I don't understand some of the criticism I see against them out there. Here they help pull the Flashman out of danger and discover crucial information, and the ending scene is touching when the five are saying a farewell to the Tokimuras, with the narrator saying that they each wished the Tokimuras were their real family.