Changeman Episodes 42-43

 

11/16, Episode 42 -- "Sailor Suit Nana"

Ghost Giluke finally hatches a plan for his return that once again brings poor Nana into the mix in this episode, which is largely a set-up for episode 43.

What begins with a lighthearted, funny scene of the Changeman distracted from their patrol near a street festival, ends up taking a dark turn for Nana, while also spotlighting her sweet bond with Tsurugi and making references to her first two appearances. (This is the episode that really begins to make a case for the Tsurugi-Nana shippers out there.)

I love that first scene at the festival, though. Shirou Izumi steals those scenes, as he's just stuffing his face full of food and embarrassing Hayate in front of girls he's trying to impress. (Hayate's a bit too much like Matthew McConaughey's character in Dazed and Confused here. "That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age.") But before you freak out and call Chris Hansen, they get distracted once they encounter a familiar face...Nana! The Change team's so surprised to see her doing well and seeming happy, she seems like a whole different person. But you know her happiness isn't going to last...

Fed up with being a ghost on a time limit, Giluke sees Nana as his best chance of resurrection. How? The old Rigeru Aura. Despite the fact that everyone knows -- and Giluke is reminded -- that the Rigeru Aura was a once-in-a-lifetime happening, Giluke decides to use black magic to try to extract it from Nana. He kidnaps her and, in some creepily-filmed scenes, begins a mass, complete with mysterious hooded beings and a crucifix dripping blood, all while an unconscious Nana lays on a perch. (I'm pretty surprised this didn't scare me when I was a kid.) Ahames still wants to be top dog, so she wants to stop Giluke, and chooses to do this by implementing Space Beast Soldier Kaage's ability -- the ability to take control over anyone whose shadow he can enter. So, poor Nana is once again caught in a tug-of-war between Giluke and Ahames.

When Kaage succeeds in taking over Nana, Tsurugi takes it upon himself to face her attacks to try and reach through her. At this last stage in the series, it's nice to see them reference those early episodes, and have Nana realize just how much Tsurugi has done for her and strengthening their bond. There's a couple of fun moments in the battle when Kaage takes over Change Pegasus and Change Griffin, so there's some Changeman VS Changeman action until Dragon comes up with the awesome move of CAUSING AN ECLIPSE with his Dragon Thunder move. (Tsurugi's bad-ass moment of the week.)

The episode ends with a quick, fun little night get-together at the festival, where Tsurugi and Nana happily dance together. Besides providing fuel for shippers, it's another sad look at in what small doses Nana's given happiness, because things get pretty dark in next week's episode.

One last thing. Even though it's obvious that Kaage's name derives from the word shadow (kage), since that's his area of skill, but I always wondered if it could also be a tribute to our theme songs' singer.

 

 

11/23, Episode 43 -- "Super Giluke"

Everyone's in deep shit now, Francis. Because Giluke is back with a vengeance.

Continuing from the last episode, his mind is still on Nana providing his means for returning to the world of the living. In a cool move, he totally botches Ahames' latest plan of the week by taking the energy-draining lifeforms she was using and combining them into a single lifeform which he makes his own personal Space Beast Soldier, Gooda. (Curious that his interest in Ahames' lifeforms is their energy-leeching ability, which he says he'll use to drain more Rigeru Aura from Nana, but he NEVER uses Gooda for that purpose, relying instead on more dark magic.)

Poor Nana's kind of trying to convince herself she's in the clear in this episode, going right back to school as if she's not in danger -- she thinks since it's impossible for a Rigeru girl to emit the Aura a second time, that should keep her safe. Sayaka and Mai keep an eye on her, and for good reason, because Ahames's orders this time are to kill her so Giluke won't get to her, and because, well, she's pissed that he screwed up her plans! Strangely enough, Bazuu forbids Ahames from killing Nana, impressed by Giluke's will to live, and believing he has the ability to summon the Rigeru Aura once again, although it's supposed to be a one-time deal, you know.

And if being in the middle of Gozma plots isn't enough, now Nana's being pestered by our heroes! Tsurugi proposes that Nana join them in their fight against Gozma, not only because of her advanced intelligence, but since Gozma's not seeming to leave her alone anyway, why not? Nana refuses, wanting to be left alone, until Giluke has Gooda capture Tsurugi to lure her out. That certainly gets to Nana, because it's shown in this episode and the last that she has feelings for Tsurugi. (While fans like to ship 'em, I always just felt like any feelings were all on Nana's side, which is understandable with how much Tsurugi's gone out of his way to help her.) She frees Tsurugi but is herself captured, leading us to the creepiest part of this episode...

While the Changeman fight off Gooda, the episode keeps cutting back to Giluke resuming his black mass, with a trapped Nana screaming in pain as he's chanting away, trying to unnaturally extract an ability from Nana that's already occurred. The Rigeru Aura is something that happens once in a girl's life on Rigeru, and it naturally occurred way back in 33 when Ahames soaked up the Aura. So this is a very nasty, horrible violation of Nana that Giluke is committing, and Tokie Shibata does a great job of showing Nana's terror and pain. (Check out her screaming as the Rigeru Aura is pouring out; that didn't happen the first time, highlighting that this isn't natural.) But, for Giluke, his plan works, and like Ahames, he bathes in the Aura, and he's reborn as Super Giluke. The occult stuff is again filmed in an appropriately creepy way -- director Takao Nagaishi does a lot with a little sound stage -- and Super Giluke is given a great, creepy reveal. (No, not even those weird little pauses as he poses with the multi-colored laser lights going off can ruin the mood.)

Super Giluke is my favorite of Giluke's forms. Ever since Giluke's been bouncing between death and the living, they've introduced this supernatural element to him that culminates with Super Giluke. I suppose since he used dark magic to extract the Aura, it informed the way he was brought back, because he's so much darker, has a more horror-y vibe going for him, and is said to have demonic abilities. Actor Shouhei Yamamoto really switches up his performance as Super Giluke, becoming far more menacing and evil, which I'll probably talk about more in following episodes since Super Giluke's only in this episode for one scene at the end. If it wasn't for Super Giluke only being in about 10 episodes, he'd probably be my favorite Super Sentai villain. (He's ONE of my favorites. Flashman's Kaura is my favorite Sentai villain, in case you were wondering.)

And poor Nana -- the episode ends with her leaving town, feeling guilty for Tsurugi getting captured! Cripes, man, will she get a break? I'm surprised that the unnatural occurrence of a second Rigeru Auraing didn't further age her into, like, a decrepit 80 year old, or even kill her! That seems to be Nana's luck. (I think if Changeman had been made just a few years later, things would have turned out that way.)

This episode features a couple of neat callbacks to previous episodes. It begins with a night patrol, which is reminiscent of the frequent night patrols in the early episodes; Sayaka and Mai dressing like high-schoolers to go undercover and keep an eye on Nana recalls episode 6; the way Tsurugi is captured by the Space Beast Soldier is reminiscent of when Ahames has him captured by Giruba in her debut episode.

And also...THE CAR appears.