9/21, Episode 34 -- "Ahames the Terrible"
I always thought this was a neat little episode. Ahames is testing some of her newly gained powers, one of which is the ability to create durable barriers of energy -- the Hard Walls -- which she uses to block off city streets and cause mayhem. The episode's way of focusing on this is showing the way the Wall caused a school-bus to crash, with a girl seriously injured, with the local clinic waiting for a blood delivery to save her.
After a struggle in the cordoned off village, the Changeman are mostly split up, but Tsurugi stays behind in order to find a way to deliver the blood to the clinic. Tsurugi's determined, he takes a heck of a beating from the monster Dabun, but Hayate -- upon learning that Tsurugi is on his own -- leaves the safety of the base and goes out to find him, the two against Gozma in order to deliver the blood in time, trying to navigate the blocked sections of the city while keeping ahead of Gozma. It might not seem like the biggest struggle or threat, but I think it's a very effective race-against-the-clock dilemma for a Sentai hero to face, and one that has more weight than, like, racing the villains to find the last (insert collectible gimmick here). It's...heroic. Remember when tokusatsu heroes were HEROIC, and not frivolous buffoons who liked collecting Bandai stuff?!?!
After a struggle, the Changeman manage to defeat Dabun, but Ahames doesn't make it easy for them. Soaring above the Change Robo on the Jangeran, she traps the Change Robo in a hamster wheel looking Hard Wall-type of thing (the Hard Ball?) and gives it a beating. (Apparently, another one of Ahames' newly acquired powers is turning the Change Robo into the DX Chogokin.) The Changeman are saved by...Nana's poor little pet dragon, Kuuku! Kuuku leaves the Earth Defense Force base to help the Changeman, and is attacked and set ablaze by Ahames. Kuuku falls, causing an explosion which cracks the ground, unleashing a massive, Earth Force-like energy from within the Earth, which manages to break Change Robo free (AND knock Ahames off of Jangeran). Kuuku, who was already injured in the previous episode, operated on by the Earth Defense Force's doctors, and being nursed back to health of Tsurugi, sacrifices itself to save the day. Remember Kuuku's name...
Once again, there's a lot of cool action in this episode. One of my favorite bits is Hayate jumping down a flight of stairs, fists extended, falling into a punch and smashing Dabun's head in. (Hayate's pained reaction is hilarious, too.) There's also another cool bit where Change Dragon jumps over Dabun, into an aerial somersault, kicking Dabun in the head from behind.
Beginning with this episode, the end credits change. Since Giluke's out, there's instead a shot of General Ahames aboard the Gozmard. (The show's working hard to keep up the illusion that Giluke's dead, OK? Thirty year old spoiler alert.) Things ain't going to be easy for the Changeman from here on.
9/28, Episode 35 -- "Earth! Help Us!"
The Changeman's Multi-Arc of Suffering(tm) continues. Without much of a down-time, they're found and attacked once again by Ahames, her adjutants and her remaining Two Officers, who are out for revenge for Dabun. And with Ahames' new Hard Attack, the Changeman take their biggest hit yet, a pain-packed attack with such force that it cancels out their transformation and leaves them weakened. Wounded, desperate, they're beaten by the monsters, until Yuuma can't take it no more...
This is the episode where Yuuma has a bit of a breakdown. Things look hopeless and he's cornered by Jeera -- who, remember, is meant to be more powerful than the average Space Beast Soldier -- and is sent on the run by her. When a distraught Yuuma feels earth tremors, his mind interprets it as the Earth Force reactivating to save them. Believing the Earth Force could somehow show itself again catches Ahames' interest, so the episode becomes the villains chasing Yuuma to find this potential power while the Changeman chase Yuuma to save him. Because it ain't the Earth Force he's running after, but a volcano ready to erupt. Only a massive knuckle-sandwich by Chef Tsurugi gets him to calm down. But Yuuma's pretty sad belief in the tremors being the Earth Force unite the other Changeman into realizing just how unique the Earth Force is, how special it is that they have it, and that gets them through the rest of the day's fight, but things aren't completely right with them yet. With Ahames' new powers, their powers and abilities are still on the fritz, so they can't rest easy yet.
10/5, Episode 36 -- "Behold! Our Power"
The conclusion of the Multi-Arc of Suffering(tm), this episode has some nice throwbacks to the first few episodes of the series. If the last episode was the Changeman needing to recognize the uniqueness of the Earth Force and their faith in it, this episode is about recognizing the struggle of their comrades, and their comrades' faith in them. They once again lose the ability to transform and take serious damage from Ahames. (I really like the way the show buries the actors under dirt and boulders to show the aftermath of Ahames' attack. It's pretty effective, in my opinion.)
Calling back to the first episode, Ibuki arrives to give them some tough love. There's a recreation of Tsurugi struggling with a gun-wielding Ibuki, but here Ibuki is trying to prove to a confidence-shaken team that there's still plenty of fight in them, and that they haven't even tapped into the Earth Force's full abilities.
Also calling back to the early episodes is the reappearance of Commander Honda of the Earth Defense Force, who's targeted by Gozma as he leads talks about beefing up the Earth Defense Force's security. (Ibuki gets a chance to kick ass, leading a rescue mission and getting in on some action, taking out some Hidoras and facing off against Buuba and Shiima!) This episode also highlights the Soldier Group, who arrive in their own kind of armor to pick up where Changeman's left off. There's the cool realization that the Soldier Group were actually once auditioners for Changeman, that they, too, suffered Ibuki's brutal training, that they're more than the office drones that you might perceive them to be. Their willingness to fight, despite not having super-powers, their obvious sadness at not being selected by the Earth Force help open the Changeman's eyes and see their allies in a new way and gives them just the edge they need to endure Ahames' attack until they come back full throttle, with a renewed energy -- basically, they're powered-up, but without the show trying to sell you Bandai shit.
I always liked that the Soldier Group shows up in plain black armor. They confiscate the Changeman's vehicles in order to go battle Gozma at an army base, and manage to do SOME damage. I would have liked to have seen them fight physically, they instead rely on guns, grenades and the arsenal that the Change Cruiser and Auto Changers are equipped with. What I like about the Soldier Group's efforts in this episode is that I always felt like this is how the Earth Defense Force would be without the Earth Force. The Earth Defense Force was already in action creating weapons and technology and forming the Dengeki Sentai, it was pretty fortunate the way Ibuki's hopes for the Earth Force appearing to help defend Earth came to be. So, I picture an Earth Force-less Changeman basically being kind of Blue Swat -- they don't transform, they suit-up with special armor and rely on wits and technology to fight off the alien invasion.
The episode ends in a recreation of a scene from the second episode in which the Changeman, in an underground corridor of their base, is welcomed home with applause by the Soldier Group. Tsurugi has a line noting this, but mentions that this time around, he feels like a true Changeman, which is a nice way of acknowledging the way they've grown, how far they've come, and how to better rely on their many allies since episode two, when they were strutting into the place like rock stars. At that time, the overzealous praise was a little unearned. Now they've fought their share of battles and proven themselves and have become heroes worth applauding for their actions. Another nice touch: the debut of the epic song "We Can Change."
Great episode, great arc. Tune in next week for Tsurugi's death.
10/12, Episode 37 -- "Dragon Has Vanished!"
Ever since her promotion, Ahames has kind of been focusing on attacking the Changeman directly, rather than coming up with offbeat ways to take over or ruin the world. In this episode, she enlists the help of the super-intelligent Space Beast Soldier Baruruka; it might look like she's making him watch some Changeman reruns, but she's using him to memorize all of Changeman's attacks. It's a successful strategy, because the Changeman get their asses handed to them, with Change Dragon taking a bad hit for the rest of the team, which seemingly obliterates him...
That's right, Change Dragon is presumed to be dead, so we get a glimpse of the team reacting to losing their leader and how they might move on without him. It's something that's become a bit of a cliche in Sentai, but I think was still a little new -- or maybe even completely new -- with this Changeman episode, and the cast does a good job at conveying their sadness at losing Tsurugi and the rage of letting him go to keep on fighting. It's a difficult scenario to play in a 17+ minute running time, but I think they manage to make it work here.
And Tsurugi took a beating, man. He's left buried under rubble for an entire day. Once he recovers, he comes up with the plan to defeat Baruruka -- the element of surprise. To not fight him as Tsurugi or Change Dragon. Nowadays, Super Sentai will do this by just having the team members switch weapons or attacks, and that's fun, but Tsurugi's a bad-ass. He takes this creepy approach of coming up with a spooky masked costume, luring the monster to attempt attacking him, all while tricking Baruruka into attacking Hidora soldiers he disguises as himself, a nice allusion to Westerns. And just when Baruruka is in a frenzy, unable to sort out what the hell's going on, Tsurugi strikes...and lobotomizes him! And then they're able to take him down. Tsurugi moment of bad-assery number...really, I've lost count.
I like the way the episode ends with the team playfully shunning Tsurugi for keeping them out of the loop with his plan to play dead. They toss Tsurugi down a hill and it looks like actor Haruki Hamada actually got a little hurt.
Tune in next week when karma pays Tsurugi back for this whole faking his death thing.
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