Changeman Episodes 38-40

 

10/19, Episode 38 -- "Ghost Baseball"

Last week, Tsurugi broke his teammates' hearts by pretending to be dead. This week, he tastes a bit of karma as he finds himself haunted by dead men. Not only does Ahames' plan for this week utilize the Space Beast Soldier Doron, who can conjure ghosts, but Tsurugi's terrorized in his sleep by a seriously disturbing, nasty free floating full torso vaporous apparition. I really like the way they shot that opening scene, with this mysterious ghost making his way to Tsurugi's quarters at the base, dripping nasty ectoplasm, and then trying to strangle him in his sleep. Who is this mysterious ghost who spouts talk of grudges and revenge to Tsurugi and, later, Ahames? They do a good job keeping these scenes brief and spooky, but the credits let you know who it is! I've always thought this episode was just a great way to introduce Ghost Giluke. He appears independently of Ahames' plan, so his appearance manages to unnerve even her.

There's also a nice funny bit in the beginning where the other team members, disturbed from their sleep by Tsurugi's yells, come to his help, with a bedhead Yuuma, oblivious to the near-miss of a supernatural, just wanting Tsurugi to pipe down.

Things just get worse for Tsurugi as he then keeps finding himself facing attacks from ghostly baseball players. Ahames' plan is to conjure the ghost of a player who was desperate to play Tsurugi in a ball game, but met an early demise, so he died with regret and returned from the grave with ease because of that, leading a team of other ghost players to torment him. This episode is one of the episodes that people like to poke fun of -- it's been called goofy, it's been called weird. I always think of Field of Dreams -- nobody calls that movie or its source novel weird or goofy, it's considered a classic tearjerker. I never really saw a problem with this episode, other than thinking it's a little strange for some high-school kid to know of Tsurugi to the extent that he wanted to face him on the baseball field so bad, but...that's nothing. Toku has expected you to believe in stranger things than that. If you're going to use Tsurugi actor Haruki Hamada's past as a baseball pitcher in the show, there's worse stories you could write around that than a Shoeless Joe/Field of Dreams styled story.

I do think this episode works emotionally, though. The Earth Defense Force team's game opposite the ghost team is strong, made stronger by the use of an instrumental We Can Change, and the lead ghost's little brother happily cheering him on. Also, composer Tatsumi Yano's nice little piano piece once the lead ghost crosses home and vanishes, finally finding peace, leaving behind the uniform the kid brother had been taking care of, really helps, uh, knock that scene out of the park. I like this episode! Haters can pipe down and go dance to Ninninger's ending instead!

The episode still knows how to have fun, though. In their fight with the Hidora, the Changeman transform the Change Sword into baseball bats and smack them out of the park, with the sign flashing homerun. I also like the callback to the last baseball-centered episode, where Tsurugi bests Doron by doing that upside-down Dragonball pitch, but with his sword.

Just a heartfelt, fun episode. This one, and the next couple of episodes, are sort of welcome breathers coming off of those crazy, intense, action-packed multi-parters. People should go easier on them.

 

 10/26, Episode 39 -- "Frightening Hide-and-Go-Seek"

This is probably the first episode I remember really well from my childhood, so I have a soft spot for it. I imagine some viewers probably thinking this is just a weird old episode, but I always thought it was fun, while also having a couple of cool and spooky moments.

Ahames -- once again deciding to plan an attack around the Changeman rather than global domination -- decides to use the monster Damus, who's capable of creating doorways which will take those who enter it and drop them in a completely different location. Today, she's targeting Hayate, who's kindly at a park playing hide-and-go-seek with some kids (his real mission: to impress their teacher). Once she has Damus change all of the nearby doors to his funky doors of doom, not only does Hayate enter one, but one of the kids, who was only looking for a good spot to hide in! This kicks off some cool out of suit action by Kazuoki.

The highlight of this episode, though, is probably that the mysterious ghost figure from the last episode keeps emerging from the dimensional doors, once again spouting lines about haunting and damnation. Change Dragon immediately recognizes this figure to be Giluke. Yep, Giluke has a new look and is haunting his past enemies (Changeman and Ahames, as well), and this episode has a few cool, memorable moments where he shows up and torments Hayate. When Giluke's digging his claws into Hayate's face and Hayate gets all bloody...that kind of spooked me out when I was a kid, especially once the four other Changeman members show up and are just kind of looking on helplessly. And it's nice that Giluke gets some props for a change! That he's managed to pull himself out of the space graveyard and cause terror from beyond the grave impresses Bazuu, and Ahames doesn't like that at all. Now it's HER turn to be afraid. (On another note, it's still weird to me that the intro of Pinch wa Chance da Changeman is kind of made to be Ghost Giluke's unofficial theme.)

Hayate takes a beating in this episode, man. But I like how much it shows his determination. Yeah, he was just wanting to impress the cute teacher, but he's really serious about finding the lost kid (near tears, which makes you wonder if he once got lost as a kid), and repeatedly puts himself through torture just randomly going through Damus' doors until he finds him. There's great acting from Kazuoki in this episode, showing an emotional side to Hayate as well as a playful side and, of course, the ass-kicking action guy side. My family used to get a laugh out of Tsurugi's teasing Hayate for his obsession with his switchblade comb. Some people might think of The Fonz, but when I think of a switchblade comb, the first person who comes to mind is Hayate Shou! Eat that, Fonz!

One of the things I liked about this episode when I was a kid was Damus' funky dimensional door power. The victims being sucked through the door, the falling to a different location, the door as a weapon, the neat way the door would be suspended in open air and the Gozma would exit it. I really liked the final fight where Damus is just sending the Changeman to one weird scenario after another, a little reminiscent of those Metal Hero episodes where just odd stuff would happen to the hero for the whole episode. (I get the feeling these scenes wanted to be a little Makuu Space-like, but they didn't want to put the money into doing such crazy effects. I still like the way they filmed these scenes, though; for some reason, I like when Toei would film portions of a fight on a soundstage with a solid colored background.) A cool fight scene where the Changeman each get to use a power to break through the dimension, set to Pinch wa Chance da? That makes the episode right there.

 

 11/2, Episode 40 -- "Strange Candy"

Kid Me recommends this episode -- I loved this episode when I was a kid. I still love it, it's just a fun, heartfelt episode. It starts with a boy seeing a falling star and making a wish and finding that the falling star was really an alien robot from planet Shigar, a planet known for the sweets it made -- Willy Wonka, eat your heart out. Wishing for a ton of candy for his brother's birthday, the robot creates a whole display for the kid, an estate made out of candy -- a building of wafer cookies with chocolate windows, a fountain of juice. It...is...awesome.

So how does Gozma figure into all of this? I guess Bazuu is a killjoy who wants everyone on the Atkins diet, because he says he destroyed Shigar (Sugar?) long ago. This robot is all that remains of it. Surprise, surprise, the Space Beast Soldier that Ahames selected this week, Zorute, emits a corrosive gas from his mouth, which only gets stronger when he's fueled by the amazing candy made from Shigar's robot. Zorute's gas eats through the Changeman's weaponry (and later Booba's weapon!), and I always liked Toei's melting weapon effect. But this isn't the only problem -- Ghost Giluke is convinced this mystical food will provide sustenance enough for him to last longer and not fade away back to ghostland! So, the chase is on, as the little boy wants to keep the robot for his brother, the Gozma want it and Ibuki wants the robot destroyed to prevent Gozma from using it in any way. Kid-at-heart Yuuma takes a liking to the kid and decides to help him out and guard the robot.

There's a sweet little subplot of the kid wanting so badly for his brother to enjoy the land of candy Shigar's robot creates, because it had once been his dream until he outgrew it, and through Yuuma it becomes a story of keeping the kid within you alive, even if you're an adult. A nice message that counteracts a lot of the cynical bullshit of stories today.

I love the last scene in which a grateful Shigar thanks the Changeman, as well as the kid and his brother, by showering a bunch of cotton candy down upon them as it flies away. The Changeman cast have a blast enjoying their cotton candy -- and stealing it away from each other -- but I remember when I was a kid, my family would get cotton candy and drop it down from overhead so I could catch it and reenact the episode!