7/20, Episode 25 -- "Sing! With a Big Voice"
I think this is one of the funniest Sentai episodes of all time, and a lot of the credit goes to the performers -- especially Shirou Izumi, voice-actor Takeshi Kuwabara as Space Beast Soldier Zonos and Pegasus suit actor Tsutomu Kitagawa -- and the direction. I love the chaotic camera movements once Yuuma starts singing his karaoke song and the reactions of everyone, the way the scene goes from being hilarious to actually pretty sad as Izumi switches gears from Yuuma's obliviously singing to noticing the reaction he's getting and winding up in tears.
And as fate would have it, after that embarrassing debacle, the Space Beast Soldier threat he faces is an operatic singer who can cause damage by singing -- specifically singing, along with Gator, the song that Yuuma butchered on karaoke night. The songs Mai, Yuuma and the kid, Hideki, sing throughout the episode are all real mainstream songs of 1985, by the then-popular likes of Akina Nakamori and The Checkers. I liked when tokusatsu shows would use actual songs, it made the shows seem "realer," like these heroes are in the same world as you are. Now it's all so manufactured, all they play is songs made specifically for the shows, so nowadays they'd be singing some generic character songs composed by Project.R just for the series.
And what's Zonos' weakness? Bad singing. Yuuma's bad singing saves the day, and he fights by singing the Changeman opening theme and, later, the Change Robo theme. Izumi does it in a way that it's not immediately noticeable and Kitagawa has a lot of fun with it, so I don't find it to be as distracting as when other shows will destroy the fourth wall by acknowledging their own theme songs. (I'm looking at you, Fiveman, and your awkward mecha cockpit concert complete with a dancing Remi.)
7/27, Episode 26 -- "20 Year Old Mai's First Love"
A good character episode that's juggling a lot of things. 17 minutes is a short time to make you believe in Mai's love at first sight with Doctor Togo, a new character who you'll have to care about for the episode's ending to pay-off, while having to care for the plight of a newly introduced planet and alien race. The planet Rindo is under attack by Gozma, who uses the disgusting disease-carrying Space Beast Soldier Hougle to spreading a mumps-like illness across the planet. Hougle also stabs Mai with a bunch of poisoned feathers. Like I said -- disgusting.
I think the episode works, for the most part. It's a bit sad that a child of the planet Rindo sends its pet to call for help, and the kid alien's taped plea for help is sad and urgent and convincing. It's a good thing that Mai and Doctor Togo happened to be where the alien creature crashed as Togo, a newly transferred (from the Earth Defense Force's American branch!) doctor, dives right into danger to save the creature, eventually volunteering to go treat the aliens of Rindo. Togo's a good guy, played by a likable actor, so it's a bit of a shame he never appeared again later in the series. This episode gives me a MASH-y vibe (MASH is one of my favorite TV shows), so I like to jokingly call him "Hawkeye" Togo.
And Mai, of course, gets to kick a lot of ass in this episode, the coolest being when she breaks out of Gozma's restraints by hanging upside down to plunge her wrists into flames in order to burn off the ropes tying her arms...and then, AND THEN, when the room she and Togo are in gets blasted by Gozma, she just walks on through with Togo, in the fiery powers of the phoenix.
8/3, Episode 27 -- "The Dreams of the Gator Family"
One that ends up laying down the foundation for the rest of Gator's arc down the road. The debut of Gator's wife and kid, Zoorii and Waraji. This episode will work depending on how much you like Gator, and end up liking his wife and son. What I like most about the episode, though, is Hayate's sincere devotion at helping Zoorii and Gator. (Yuuma gets a dig in about Hayate only wanting to help an alien chick, which is funny, but wrong.) Tsurugi is skeptical and turns out to be right. It's funny that Tsurugi and Hayate's positions are reversed in a similar situation in a later episode. (Well, it IS Gator. I think I'd initially be suspicious of anything involved with him, too.)
This episode hits all the notes that's the point of Gator's storyline -- what a soldier, an infantry man's involvement in war does to the family left behind, but it also manages to squeeze in some damn cool action. Kazuoki once again delivers some cool fight scenes as Hayate, saving the day with his comb.
Note the way Zoorii looks in this episode. She gets A LOT of work done by the time we next see her. Things on Navi can't be too bad, the Gator family must have it somewhat good for her to afford plastic surgery. She definitely looks closer to Gator here than later on. You might think it's weird that the Changeman initially mistake Zoorii for Gator, but...keep in mind how she looks here, and how the team's first sighting of Gator was when he was in disguise. The dude just likes dressing up, what?
8/10, Episode 28 -- "The Cursed Crayon"
The final of three episodes written by Kyoko Sagiyama, this one has Bazuu breaking out an imprisoned alien whose race attempted to use their ability against him when he invaded. Their ability? To illustrate with their blood and have the events depicted in the painting to come true, which I think is a cool, alien power for the series to introduce.
Hayate has quite a few funny moments in this episode, which is mostly lighthearted for him after coming off of so many more serious ones. That's not to say the episode is goofy fluff -- the Gozma are downright bastards to Rie, the little girl they kidnap so she can draw Hayate. But Rie has some sweet, nice moments with Hayate before things go bad. (C'mon, it's funny when he's modeling on the kids' playground for her and getting defensive when mocked by passersby.) Rie, of course, is played by Megumi Kiyofuji, who would go on to play Kaori Tokimura in the following year's Flashman.
This episode has not only another display of Hayate saving the day with his comb (!), but the day being saved by Sayaka's noggin when she invents a device that can track the energy emitted from Space Beast Soldier Pain's blood/ink. She ain't the Earth Defense Force's top brain for nothin'.
An interesting thing to note about Pain is that we're introduced to him in a jail cell that's floating in space, placed there by Bazuu. He's not introduced ferocious seeming, but panicked, pleading with Bazuu for freedom, which he gets once Bazuu ensares him for his latest plan to attack Earth. It's long been established that Bazuu is extorting a lot of his underlings -- even the chief officers like Giluke and Ahames are loyal to him out of hope of getting back their planets, getting back their lives before his invasion -- but the show mainly leaves it to the viewer when it comes to the lowly Space Beast Soldiers.
8/17, Episode 29 -- "Guard the Flowers! The Illusionary Butterfly"
This episode is almost on the same level of Episode 23, "The Boy Who Rides Dolphins." But I think this episode at least has a little more going for it than 23. (Both 23 and 29 are written by secondary writer Kunio Fujii, who can turn in really strong, awesome episodes, but turn around and turn in a clunker like 23. It's puzzling.)
First of all, it's interesting to give Ahames a plan that's personal for her, not just in terms of taking over the world of killing Changeman. She wants the power of the Golden Butterfly for immortality, which will in turn harm nature...somehow. Yeah. Secondly, we're introduced to Gigara, who's not a Space Beast Soldier, but...a Space Pirate! We finally get to meet one of Buuba's pirate buds, and he and Buuba really lay down some whopping beatings in this episode. Which brings me to reason number three: this episode has cool action, and is just nicely filmed in its sparse location. (Seriously: like Episode 23, the action takes place all at one outside location. But the mountains and greenery in this episode inspire more nicely framed shots.) Last, but not least: this episode is the debut of "Pinch wa Chance da! Changeman," one of my all-time favorite tokusatsu songs. It's a shame that, as a Tsurugi episode, he's not given much more to do than babysit the kid guest of the week, though -- he's kind of a bystander, as it's the kid who's knowledgeable about the legendary butterfly.
One funny thing to note -- when Dragon is fighting Gigara, you briefly see footage of him wearing Sayaka's Anti-Gravity belt. I suppose you could say he used it momentarily as a way to get the upper hand on Gigara, but it's most likely just a goof and they were just reusing footage from episode 19, hoping nobody would notice.
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