Bomber the Forgettable goes just as quickly as he came. I still don't get the point of his introduction, I really don't think he was necessary; you could have gotten the same results in another way. I feel it could have just as easily been Acha who decides to take the throne; it would mirror Bacchushund and the other servant robots' original rebellion against the people of the ancient civilization. (The servant robot Acha rising against his superiors.) Bulldont can still be exiled, discover Bacchushund's severed-yet-still-functioning head and be powered up as Kaiser Bulldont and return to reclaim his throne; and then they could just have Acha's memory wiped, and it could be an allusion to when the Big Three tried to usurp Dr. Man in Bioman.
I like Kaiser Bulldont and Malteua, though, the way their big debuts are filmed, and I would rather have had them brought into the show sooner. Maybe it's because their designs are easier to take than the other Baranoia; maybe it's that they remind me of Megiddo and Chimera from Dynaman. It's sad that Kaiser Bulldont's going to be the head villain and is supposed to be so much more vicious now when we've spent so much of the show with him being that whiny, obnoxious, goofball brat. (I just don't like Tomokazu Seki's voicework as the younger Bulldont.)
My big problem with this episode, though, is when Bomber the Great is turned into a missile that Bulldont aims toward the sun and the day is saved by...Gunmajin. I mean, the Ohranger just stand there, looking at the sky, doing jackshit. It's up to some kid to request Gunmajin take care of the situation and he does, as the Ohranger just watch like an audience member. Way to make your heroes look like chumps who don't want to make any kind of effort to save the world, show.
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I think this is a pretty cool episode, and probably the best of the episodes Soda provides. (Or at least my favorite of his Oh episodes.) It's another example of something Ohranger's done well -- a chase episode -- but it also tries to remember Riki and Dorin are characters on the show!
I like the sense that Bulldont and Malteua are supposed to be escalating things; they get right down to business, trapping and capturing the Ohranger, destroying their Power Braces, stringing them up for a public execution. The show might not be getting much money at this point, but Nagaishi makes up for it with directorial skill, providing atmospheric night shots and a tense chase sequence as the cool monster of the week, Bara Hunter, relentlessly pursues Goro.
Dorin feels responsible for the Ohranger being captured and the show tries to make her the symbol of peace; a pure being who doesn't want to fight -- and Riki and the others try to prevent her from getting involved to keep her hands clean. It's nice to remember Dorin and reestablish Riki as her guardian, having her be a symbol for peace. She's the last of her people who were killed by the initial Machine Beast rebellion, so it's great of Soda to try and treat her as important as she should be, setting her up to be the symbolic heart of the show.
The episode's intense: Nagaishi gives it a dark and frantic atmosphere. There's that sense of escalation, and there's a desperation as the heroes are captured and powerless and, thanks to Dorin's impatience, Riki is pulled into activating a forbidden and cursed power in order to help the others. It also helps that Dorin's actress is at least likable -- maybe not the best actress, but likable.
It's a better and more serious episode than Ohranger deserves at this point. But Uehara will see to that in the next one!
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Another episode that I remembered as being worse than it actually is. I'd say this is the goofy one before the end game, but since Uehara's mostly delivered goofy ones, chances are it was going to be goofy regardless. And keep this in mind: this is not just Uehara's last Ohranger script, but his last Sentai script, period. Ohranger was his return to the franchise. His episodes are a very mixed bag, but I know people fond of that area of toku take a liking to his episodes. Uehara is one of -- perhaps the most -- respected writers of toku. He gave this franchise its start, so I expected a little more out of him for his big return than the strange decision to contribute these very bizarre, inconsequential comedy-heavy episodes. (And one terrible movie.)
It's sad to have the villains stepping things up in recent episodes...and then this one is just a totally random plan that would make more sense if this week's Machine Beast was just a renegade doing his own thing. He's random, and his plan is stupid -- but his human avatar is played with such grumpy fun by Hiroshi Ookouchi, it totally helps save this episode. (I didn't recognize him, but he's Himeya's journalist bud from Ultraman Nexus!)
This episode is also a random shichi-henge episode, and one of the few times where the Ohranger are allowed to get into silly shenanigans -- it seems like that's only happened in Uehara episodes, actually. The reason we never saw Riki's actor again after this show is probably thanks to this episode -- he went into hiding out of embarrassment. They could have actually gone further with the Ohranger and their crazy disguises, I think, but the show actually restrains itself from showing them in too unflattering of light. You know they're all masters of disguise, because their boss is Banba Soukichi!
The Costanza family returns for the last time. I have to say...the idea of a recurring family in a Sentai who considers themselves unfortunate because they kept being swept up in supervillain plots IS a pretty funny one but should have been saved for another show, because they've never fit in with Ohranger.
Miura describes the villain plan as targeting the "human desire to escape painful reality." You can really understand that feeling. But this method of plan was the best Baranoia could do? Just making people think they're young's not enough. That's lazy. And these machines want to rule the world...
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Soda's last script for the series and it's a bit of a weird one, if you ask me. When I think of this episode, I refer to it as "goofy," and while it does have a lot of lighthearted or comedic scenes, it's, for the most part, NOT a comedic episode. It's meant to be a genuinely heartfelt send-off for Gunmajin. *dismissive shrug*
The highlight of the episode for me is Malteua taking a human form and targeting the Ohranger guys, later hypnotizing them into fighting for her. It's reminiscent of the Liveman episode Inoue did where Mazenda gets Yuusuke and Jou to fight for her. Malteua is probably my favorite of the Baranoia because she's been a pretty tough ass-kicker since her debut -- setting aside all of the "Schmoopie" stuff between her and Bulldont -- so it's doubly nice to have this episode where she has a human form, named Ai, played by Hiromi Yuhara.
I've talked about Yuhara before (and nobody cared about her until I talked about her), but she's guest-starred in a ton of late '80s and early '90s toku and was always sympathetic and stood out as a performer. Ohranger's the last toku she's appeared in -- the last thing on her filmography, period -- so on one hand, it's nice that it's such a memorable role. On the other, it's strange to see her as an outright villain. But she's so good at it! It's a shame she didn't get more to do here or was never given a regular villain role. (I always wanted to see her grow up to be a toku heroine, but she definitely had it in her to be a good villain, too. The disdain she shows for the Ohranger members...)
Their goal is for Ai to seduce the Ohranger guys into giving over their most precious item. Thinking it will be some UAOH-related secret, the joke is that the Ohranger guys are a little too hardheaded and gift her with very useless personal items instead. (The whole episode could have been Masaru Shishido dramatically reading his mother's 800-page long letter and it would still have been funny.) Shouhei brings her treasured ramen joint coupons and Yuuji his entire bank account of about $40. This stuff all sounds so much like Inoue to me -- add to that the the Ai portion is reminiscent of that Liveman he did, so I have to wonder if he had some input or if Soda's just doing a really good imitation.
The episode would have been just fine being all about that, but they shoehorn in Momo getting Gunmajin's help and it shifts to being about him. And...who cares? This was not a loose end that needed tied up.
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