Flashman Episode 38

Inoue's final script for the series and it's a wild one. Not having the idea of infighting amongst the Flashman out of his system, he goes to the limit here. And not only that, but he practically has Wanda save the day! That's so Inoue.

In this one, Jin experiences the birthday from hell. It's not sad enough that he doesn't know his actual birthday, so they're trying to have this makeshift birthday (he was designated on Flash Star) be good enough, but Kaura has to come along with a Beast Soldier that possesses the other four Flashman members, who proceed to spend the day nearly beating Jin to death? And if that's not enough, there's a point where the four act like they're healed, and approach Jin when he's at a low point. He thinks the storm has passed, but...nah, they're still bad, and the fight's back on.

This episode looks like another "let's try to save some money episodes" -- there's pretty much only two locales, a park and a cave entrance -- but it makes up for it with an emotional punch. This episode kinda spooked me out when I was a kid -- maybe that's the point, and maybe that's why the Flashman never had any natural reason to argue. Because an episode like this comes along where they're made evil, and made to LOOK evil, and it's a total shock that messes you up. You feel Jin's pain. Tarumi's great in this episode; I especially love the hurt look he gives when he finally caves in and fights Bad!Dai and Bad!Bun back, punching them, after holding back for so long. All of 'em are great in this episode, especially Ishiwata and Yoshida, who seem to like playing villains. (It's a shame Yoshida never went on to play a regular Sentai villain.) Ishiwata's really committed and even puts on this creepy, growling voice, which he retains for Blue Flash's voiceovers.

It's getting tiresome to repeat, but Izubuchi delivers another great, fresh monster design in this one. All of his monsters in this show are pretty much great. But Flashman also takes great care and detail in bringing these designs to life, the costumes are usually just so well-made and look to have money and effort going into making them. This Beast Soldier is a five-faced, vicious-looking, furry bastard -- his extra faces separate from him, becoming masks that possess whoever's unlucky enough to have them fit to their face. Kaura's plan is nearly a success -- the four Flashman get the mask early on, with Red Flash slicing in half the mask that was targeting him.

This episode's also notable for putting even more cracks in the Keflen and Kaura situation. This monster is a find of Kaura's, this plan is his, and he's arrogantly boasting about what an instant success it is, that Keflen's a failure who's too damn old to be in the game. When Keflen catches the species of beast Kaura's monster is, he nearly lets Kaura in on a secret before catching himself -- it's info he'll use to his advantage, and Kaura's too full of himself to catch the slip up and just gets more insults in. But it's gonna cost him!

The secret is that the species of monster has a weak reaction to gamma light rays. And what can cause gamma rays to flash? When Red Flash's Prism Sei-ken crosses blades with Wanda's Killer Saber. So Keflen sends Wanda to "assist" Kaura with his plan, with Wanda intent on fighting Red Flash on his own. Red Flash picks up on the monster's hold weakening, injuring the others as he fights Wanda, eventually grabbing the Killer Saber, luring the others to him and crossing the blades. The constant blasts of gamma rays free them, but his business isn't over -- he charges after the monster in that awesome scene that was used in the kickass sword-fighting montage in Gaoranger VS Super Sentai. (And it's not a good day to be a Beast Soldier, because when the other four are freed, they're all pissed off and transform just to get a vengeful hit in on the monster.)

After his failure, a PISSED Kaura faces Keflen, accusing him of sabotage. He figures out that the Killer Saber is made of crystallized gamma light particles, and that he only sent Wanda because he knew that. I love the way Shimizu plays this scene, just casually playing the Gene Synthesizer, with just a mocking tone of voice, unable to hide his satisfied smirk, just totally talking down to Kaura after all of the trash talking Kaura did about him. "You didn't know everything like you thought. You're too young, Kaura," Keflen says, leaving him with a taunting laugh, the way Kaura's done him. You know Kaura's not going to let this slide. Nakata's just so furious in this scene, it's great. You just knew he was going to end up playing a MAIN villain one day. (Who knew it was only going to be two years later, though? I remember the first time I found out Bias was Kaura and was like "HUH?!")

I like that last scene, of Jin and the others standing on a bridge at nightfall, Jin vowing to never forget that day. When the others apologize, he waves it off, knowing it wasn't their fault. They each are so happy that Jin's so forgiving, saving his anger as fuel to keep fighting Mess. Dai begins to say something starting with "We...we're," and Jin finishes for him, saying "Flashman," but I always liked to think he was going to say "family."