Flashman Episode 32

The culmination of the past several episodes as the Flashman finally get a power-up. I always kinda thought they should have obtained a power-up once their powers returned at the end of the last episode, but I guess that doesn't make much sense, so we get this episode which...looks to be kinda trying to save some money. We needed the wrap-up of this arc, with the Flashman successfully getting their power-up, but the save-some-money feel holds it back a little. It's a really reduced episode, with hardly any scenes of other cast members that aren't the Flashman. (Even Neferu spends most of this episode as Neferura, so...someone didn't want to pay Sayoko Hagiwara, just her suit actress! Who probably makes much less, and I can't imagine Hagiwara making that much herself...)

The episode is focused on Magu as he experiments on the Flashman suits' source of energy, their individual forehead prisms, to try to power them up. (Considering what they just went through, I don't think it's the time to be messing around with their powers, but that's me.) Thinking he's successful, the Flashman find out the hard way in their next battle he wasn't, as each of their prisms fall from their helmets and shatter. This leads to each Flashman member ripping Magu a new exhausthole, as Magu is determined to fix his mistake and complete his experiment.

The episode will work for you depending on how much you like Magu. I like Magu more than Peebo, but not as much as I like Koron. Magu's just supposed to be cute, they don't try to humanize him like Koron, and they don't try to make him as important as Earthur G6. (God, the ONLY thing that Flashman-wannabe Fiveman did better than Flashman was have Earthur G6 be a surrogate parent. If Magu had that same role, or even if he just was, like, the butler of the Flash aliens and the team got to know him and befriend him when they were kids, that would really help the show.) Anyway, I guess all of that about Magu's addressed a bit here, and it IS sad that he just wanted to feel useful to the team in this episode. There's a nice scene with Jin offering him encouraging words -- which leads him to come through and save the day -- but, like I said, I don't think Magu should've been messing with this stuff since they just went through a few episodes getting kicked around until their powers came back in full strength. He could have at least told them! I think that's what bugs me, that he does it in secret, the little round bastard.

Magu takes the shattered prisms and tries to restore them. How? He needs massive heat and massive pressure to do it, and uses the power reactor in the Flash Titan, the only thing that could have gotten the job done. I point this out because it's nice that he didn't just get a new package of upgraded prisms from Bandai, as he would have in a modern show. He used his saucer-shaped noggin to solve the problem.

In fact, he does successfully complete his experiment and gives the Flashman new powers and NONE of the new powers rely on a new toy or trinket or anything for Bandai to plug. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. I've always kind of been mixed on these new moves each of the Flashman have, though, compared to the old ones they're replacing. I liked Red's Fire Thunder more than his new Super Cutter move and accompanying special effect. I liked Snow Freeze and Mach Blizzard more than Yellow's new Super Version, which just turns her into a taketombo effects graphic. (Not to mention -- the usage of coldness made more sense for her, duh.) Blue's Prism Ball effect is given a more updated effect, but since it's just a blob colored over in SFX, it loses the notion that it's a crystalized ball to match the other members' crystalized weapons. (Too bad they could never get Prism Ball to look crystalline to match the others. It's either a graphic or a large rubber ball, but imagine a plastic ball. Maybe that would have been too hamster ball-like, though?) So, the only new power I really like is Pink's Super Tap.

Now, it might seem weird for a superhero to have a tap-dance-based attack. And ordinarily I'd agree. But the way it's depicted in Flashman is pretty cool -- she causes tremors! She cracks open the ground for it to swallow opponents! The special effects might not hold up, but it's a pretty neat power, if you ask me. (And you didn't, but it's my blog, so if you're reading this, you might as well have asked me.)

The monster of the week also has a cool design, and his gimmick is that he turns things invisible. While this is shown through fun little sequences of turning cars invisible only to have them crash or Blue Flash's Flash Hawk being turned invisible as Blue Flash freaks at riding nothing, the coolest idea is the monster turning floating orb-bombs invisible and sending them the Flashman's way. The destruction caused by this monster isn't fully conveyed with the episode's money-saving feel, so that's a shame, since it's the first Mess plan in a few episodes to not focus completely on targeting the Flashman. They're finally trying to get back to messing with the world, no pun intended.

I don't want to give the impression that this episode is bad, or I don't like it or that it's -- ugh -- "filler." It just doesn't feel like the exciting exclamation point at the end of this arc that it should. It doesn't have the same urgency or tension as the past few episodes, and doesn't have the same heart or emotional resonance as the previous episodes had by using the Tokimuras. Sorry, Magu, you're just the cute mascot. I said it in my post about Sentai's Mentors and Allies -- Magu seems kind of pointless to me since Jin and Sara are supposed to be so intelligent and scientific, so they could and should easily figure out most of what Magu does. Magu's not like Peebo, in the role of mentor, because Jin is. And wouldn't this episode be more interesting if Jin or Sara had been trying to make the upgrades, but miscalculated? It would be an even bigger and higher stakes version of the Changeman episode with the Anti-Gravity belts. There's not a whole lot of conflict between the Flashman members, which is a bit understandable since they're supposed to be so close from sharing the same experience. But it's a bit of a cheat to have this situation that they can just take out on the cute robot, isn't it?

Flashman Episode 31

We're winding down on this arc of the Flashman's seeming to be depowering while their villains are powering up. The episode begins mid-battle with the latest Beast Soldier, and it's never a good sign for our heroes when the episode begins like that -- it tends to mean things will be going south for 'em. During this battle, all five have their powers conk out. Wandala has them cornered, ready to freeze them when Tokimura arrives to bail them out in his own invention, what he calls a supercar.

Tokimura volunteers to help the Flashman out of their dilemma and look for the answers they seek. Knowing Magu has to have some knowledge of their situation that he can't access, Tokimura cracks open Magu's noggin and hacks it. (I remember, as a kid, feeling like Tokimura was a jerk for doing this, but it actually plays comedically, and is a scene I now find funny thanks to how casually actor Ishihama plays it.)

It's sweet how much the Tokimuras want to help out and repay the Flashman. Daughters Midori and Kaori decide to set out to a university to enlist the help of a Nobel prize winning scientist to help (remember, they think their dad is well-intentioned, but a bit of a kook), only to be targeted by Mess, who want them to take them to the Flashman. The five arrive to save the Tokimura girls, and they feel bad to have been the reason for the Flashman to show themselves. (So, it's a good thing they're not around to know that the Beast Soldier lays a sneak attack, sending them a gross slime which attaches itself to a host body.)

Powerless, still weak from the previous battle and now fighting off the Beast Soldier's parasitic slime, the Flashman are again cornered by Wandala when Tokimura finally solves their problem -- he discovers that the Flash planets are aligned, an anomaly which causes the energies the planets emit to cancel each other out. He can't calculate how long the effect will last, which Magu helps figure out, coming to the answer that they should shift out of alignment in sixty minutes. Once that happens, the Flashman's abilities and powers should be restored. This leads to a neat segment where the Flashman decide to run and stall for time, hurling themselves from cliffs to avoid attacks and just having to suck it up and endure. They just make it, transforming and winning the day...and it's sad, because it probably gives them a false hope. Throughout the episode, they're talking about Baraki's dying words. They think they're going to be killed at one point by Wandala. And then their powers are restored, and they probably think that's it for their problems, that it's all over and...well, those of us who have seen the show know better.

The Tokimuras are just such a kind, helpful bunch, I don't understand some of the criticism I see against them out there. Here they help pull the Flashman out of danger and discover crucial information, and the ending scene is touching when the five are saying a farewell to the Tokimuras, with the narrator saying that they each wished the Tokimuras were their real family.

Flashman Episode 30

Neferu's turn to power up! And the show's smart enough to not show us the process SHE went through -- it would be repetitive and unnecessary. Plus, it leaves something to the imagination. She refused Keflen's summons in the previous episode out of terror, and she couldn't bear to hear Wanda's screams. But Neferu's a bad-ass, so I imagine once she caught a glimpse of Wanda, she was like "Pfff...if Johnny Bravo can handle it, I sure as hell can. And I won't be screaming like some punk, either. And I'll be sure to come out of the other side with a cooler power than stopping time for three measly seconds."

Because, while Wanda does manage to cause a lot of trouble with those three lousy seconds, Neferu's new power as the Phantom Beast Neferura has the better, more useful power, IMO -- to cause illusions. (The show seems to favor Wandala's Time Stop, though, because Neferura never uses her illusions that much.) She puts her new ability to nasty effect in this episode; first, the Flashman are lured out by the Alien Hunters kidnapping babies. (And as I've said before, if there's one thing the Flashman can't stand Mess doing, it's repeating the horror that happened to them 20 years ago.) Once the Flashman are lured out into a field and Neferura makes her reveal, she traps them in a batshit illusion which makes them relive the sensation and trauma of their own kidnapping. Damn! That's so cruel. (The scenes of the Alien Hunters creeping around through the night, kidnapping babies, is pretty disturbing, too, and had to have upset young viewers.)

It's an interesting way they depict Neferura's world of illusions -- it's conveyed mostly by unsettling filming techniques and by the actors' performances. Since Neferura's looking to get them to respond to deep feelings they experienced when infants and toddlers, you're not going to be able to convey that sense of dread and pain to the viewer, so unsettling filming techniques is an interesting way to convey that deep torture. (It's pretty unpleasant having a big portion of the episode that's divided by color -- the screen being split, alternating between a diagonal and vertical line, each section colored either red or blue.)

The newly kidnapped babies are put to use in the illusion, their cries, the situation they're in triggering the Flashman's reliving of their own experience, which hits Sara the hardest. We see her get glimpses of being plucked from her home by Kerao, otherwise the team's experience is presented in a way that's mostly suggestive. While I like those nutty Space Sheriff episodes of this type where it's just a bunch of insane, nonsensical, drug-induced WTFery thrown at you, you could easily imagine the Flashman staff going for that kind of thing here, but they don't, and that's a good choice. It would be harder to take seriously. And while they haul out those moai which represent Toku WTFery, it's still fairly reserved. Here, it's pretty unclear just what the characters are enduring, and something about the mystery of that helps make it creepier.

Again, I like these Phantom Beast forms bringing supernatural elements to the show, similar to the way Super Giluke does in Changeman. And while I like this design for Neferura and think the costume is very well made...the face is on the cutesy side, which is a strange choice, off-putting and doesn't lend itself well to the feeling these upgrades are meant to evoke. Spoiler alert, they thankfully address this and she -- with no in-show explanation -- in a later episode changes expression, into a more ferocious, bestial face, far more fitting of the creepy and intimidating power these forms are meant to represent.

The high point of the episode is, as the Flashman are giving in to their base fears, Magu has the idea to enlist the Tokimuras to send words of encouragement via the Prism Flash. Hearing from "mother" and "father" give them the drive they need to fight through and defeat the monster, even though their powers are showing further signs of faltering. (Geez, the psychological trauma wasn't enough for our heroes, but the mysterious buggy powers pop up, too. See the difference between heroes who are overpowered and heroes who struggle for their victories?) Prior to this scene is the professor sounding pretty certain that Bun is his son, with Setsuko voicing her hesitation, not wanting him to get his hopes up. (She thinks Bun was doing a kindness and trying to get through to the injured professor; it's interesting that this scene turns into Magu busting through the hospital to have the Tokimuras return that kindness.) So, the mystery of who the Tokimura child is continues.

Flashman Episode 29

Wanda's time to power-up. The titles for the forms that Wanda and Neferu get are called the "Phantom Beast Soldiers." Keflen begins this episode by noting Garus' death; he says loss of life is essential to all of his experiments, many lifeforms are sacrificed for the sake of his creating new ones, and he's learned of yet another new life form: the Phantom Beast Soldiers.

There's probably a TV Magazine that explains it more, but the show only briefly suggests that Keflen has made a kind of supernatural discovery, and that's what's really the factor of these "phantom" forms. Keflen's phrasing, asking Wanda and Neferu which one is willing to "give their life," also makes me think that they actually have to DIE to obtain this power-up and these supernatural abilities, and I think that's pretty interesting, combining science with the supernatural. Wanda's the one who volunteers, and his screams as he's being worked on by Keflen are proof enough that the procedure is painful and, yeah, probably deadly, and it's enough to make Neferu cover her ears and shout out his name in concern.

(I really like how Hirose plays this scene; he goes from being legitimately terrified by the idea of undergoing whatever crazy experiment he knows Keflen's planning, and he doesn't want to be as weak as Garus, but he has faith in Keflen and quickly summons the courage to volunteer. The way he enters what I call the "Test Tube" -- where the monsters of the weak typically appear once they're created -- is pretty cool, too. He's just still and prepared...until the pain hits.)

As Magu examines Jin for possibilities of why his power went on the fritz in the previous episode, Wanda leads an attack for the sole purpose of calling out the Flashman. Wanting to prevent more destruction, the Flashman comply, meeting Wanda where he transforms into the hideous monster, his Phantom form, Wandala. The henshin sequence is the beginning of what will be many crazy henshin sequences for Hirose, in which he makes his mad expressions and ghoulish growls, transforming into a usually crazily-costumed character. In this sequence, they have Wanda's pompadour scattering all over the place in what must have been the origin of my family nicknaming Wanda, and subsequently Beauty Beast Kemp, as "cotton candy-head." As in "Hey, this actor looks familiar. Do I know him?" "Yeah, it's Cotton Candy-head."

The Wandala design is pretty cool and creepy and I like it, even though it's no substitute for Hirose. It's a scary look, and Hirose gives a menacing, growling voice performance, and I love the added touch that Wandala's eyes are able to light up. This dude needs an official figure.

With Wandala's new form comes new abilities, the biggest being the ability to stop time for three seconds. He can move independently and is able to strike, and being one bad sonuvabitch, three seconds is enough for him to cause major, major damage, so holster those jokes about three seconds being useless. (I've always wondered if there was a significance to that particular time limit, some kind of mythology I'm not aware of or something.) Wandala freezes time to attack the Flashman just as Dr. Tokimura is firing up his newly rebuilt time-machine, ready to go into the past and search for answers again!

This is what a well-oiled, fast-paced, jam-packed show Flashman is -- this is the first time we see the Tokimuras since their first appearance TWENTY EPISODES AGO! And it doesn't feel that long ago at all. Flashman's done a great job of just throwing great episode after episode at you that you haven't had the chance to stop and realize that the Tokimuras haven't been seen since their debut.

Wandala's Time Stop is noticed by Tokimura in his machine, just as the machine malfunctions and explodes, sending him to the hospital. Tokimura's family eventually notifies the Flashman via Magu in a panic, while the Flashman are all on the run after being pwned by Wandala. The news of the seriously wounded Professor Tokimura hits Bun the hardest, and he makes it his mission to make it to the hospital to see him just in case he doesn't pull through. (The Flashman had been successful in hiding from Mess after taking such a beating; Bun hitching a ride to the hospital gets noticed immediately by the newest Beast Soldier. Also: Blue Flash's powers went on the fritz during battle the same way Jin's did. Not a good time to disobey orders, Bun! But you can't fault him for it.)

The scene of a dirtied and hurt Bun making his way to Tokimura's hospital room is well done by all the actors, and it's a scene that always made me believe that Bun was originally intended to be the real Tokimura. I noted before that the daughters take an instant liking and acceptance to Bun, and here everyone's noting how much like a son Bun seems. Not only that, but Bun's sad speech -- about how he spent his time on the harsh Blue Star just wanting to return to Earth and find his father -- ends with tears that waken the professor, the first time he becomes conscious since his injury. But the clincher? When Bun leaves on Flashman business, the half out-of-it Tokimura father reaches for Bun, his hand up in the air, the shot recalling the flashback we see of when the Tokimura child was abducted and he reached upward for his child before losing consciousness. C'mon. That says to me they were beginning to lay down the resolution of this story, that the choice was Bun. (Kaori's actress even says in one of the book's interviews that she was certain Bun would be the real sibling.)

A favorite moment of mine is when Wanda's attacking the hospital, trash-talking the Flashman, pointing out that he knows there's something going on with their wonky powers -- the way Tarumi plays Jin here is great, he's REALLY just pissed and fed up with Wanda.

So, a turnaround from the last episode, in that the stakes are high, our heroes are really feeling the pressure, and we have more emotionally resonant, deeper content.

Flashman Episode 28

The kick-off to a big five-parter. This episode's a bit of a sneaky trick, though, in the way it misleads you. Spoiler alert, the next couple of episodes are about our villains powering up and causing problems that require the Flashman to step up their game, and this episode is about Garus being the first to power up, only...surprise! It's actually Garus' final episode. It's not only a mean misdirect for the audience, but ends up being mean for the Flashman!

This episode's always seemed a little weird to me in the way that it forces a group of kids into the mix. There's definitely a feeling of "Oh, shit, we haven't featured kids for a while. Well...squeeze some in here." Because they're just so random and unessential to what's happening. It's nothing major, but it just sticks out. I guess the real reason is that this is the last of the "summer-y" feeling episodes, and this group of kids are reminiscent of the standard groups of kids that hung around in '70s tokus. At least they help provide some info for our heroes, they're not just pains that get themselves in trouble.

While Garus is a regular villain, he's never been made to be all that important. Nevertheless, this is the final episode of one of our regular villains, but it's not treated all that importantly. It's meant to be pretty big, but there's a real cheapness to this episode that shrinks the events. For starters, it all takes place in practically one outside location and that cave Toei used to love. (Along with its companion piece, the cave interior set that Toei used to love.) Another thing is the effects. Now...I try to not poke fun at effects at the time. It's easy to do, I've done it, but I don't like it. But not only are the special effects graphics weak here, but so too the effects of the pyrotechnic kind.

This episode's at that point in the series when the head villain is tired of tasting defeat, so he's taking it out on his co-workers and giving them an ultimatum. Keflen steps in and offers to power-up his underlings, requesting Deus give them another chance. He whisks Neferu, Wanda and Garus to Toei's cave set, where he reveals some weird-ass flower-tentacle thing out of an X-Rated manga called the Energy Flower. It's a flower he's cultivated, that's attached to the Earth's core and he can merge it with someone who can utilize its abilities -- some real nutty stuff. Stuff so crazy, that when he asks for volunteers, even Neferu and Wanda are kind of backing away in terror. (At what the ritual entails, or at what a crazy idea of Keflen's this is? You decide!) Garus steps up, which tells you all you need to know about this plan. (It ain't gonna go far.)

Flashman track unusual activity in the nearby forest and investigate, where they stumble upon that group of kids. The kids hang out outdoors in a clubhouse, where they said they spotted a bear. They ask the Flashman to help them, and it's a good thing they do, because it ends up not being a bear on the loose, but Garus! Garus absorbed fiery power from the Energy Flower and starts to wreak havoc in the surrounding forest.

This power-up for Garus...you can tell they don't want to spend the money. They know they're writing him off and that Wanda and Neferu are going to get the cooler, costly power-ups. So how do they depict this fire-powered Garus? They just color him red via effects. He's got a cartoon red glow of a vaguely flame design around him. It's...not impressive. And he spits cartoon fireballs, and you expect Junji Yamaoka to unleash some of the fiery hell he did for Super Giluke's Space Buster move, but he doesn't. It's just all so small seeming and disappointing. (Spot how Hirose REALLY overreacts to some fire he's witnessing Garus unleash -- he, too, was obviously expecting more impressive explosions to be added later.) The ONLY neat thing is when Garus takes the Prism Sei-ken and burns it. They set that thing on fire for the shot, which lets you know how cheap that prop must be. (I still dream of a Premium Bandai Prism Sei-ken, dammit!)

But...it's Garus. The show knows you're not exactly impressed with him, that he's not one of your favorites, so they think you'll excuse them for saving some change here. Because the more important thing of this episode is when Red Flash weakens and his power goes haywire at a bad time in a fight. He worries it has something to do with Baraki's dying words -- whatever was responsible for Hero Titan's demise, the thing that threatens anyone from the Flash planets.

So, the Flashman are in a tight spot -- this mysterious dip in their power begins to happen just as Mess is actually powering up and becoming stronger. And here's what's mean about the episode: the powered-up Garus IS a pain in the ass who's difficult to defeat -- taking TWO hits from the Rolling Vulcan to fall -- but Red Flash powers through and they just manage to win. Despite worrying what the weakening of his powers could mean, this victory has a strange taste to it. They think they've overcome obstacles and beaten Garus, so maybe there's nothing to worry about, but...knowing what we know about the show makes things twice as messed up, and I'll mention why in a few episodes.

And, so we bid farewell to Garus. While designer Yutaka Izubuchi says that they knew the character wasn't intended to last the entire series, you know a silent, costumed character just couldn't keep up with dynamic performers like Sayoko Hagiwara and Yutaka Hirose. And once Kaura came into the picture? Forget it.

What I think *was* interesting about Garus is that he was a cyborg. We're never given any information about him, but it's easy to imagine that he's a very, very early experiment of Keflen's, one of the first experiments in creating a really new type of lifeform, before focusing on splicing lifeforms' genetic material together instead. It's sad I never realized it before, but Izubuchi says Garus' design is based on the Terminator -- check out the metallic arm and red eye. Too bad Garus never felt as intimidating as he was obviously meant to be, just an inscrutable, hard-ass beastman cyborg.

Flashman Episode 27

Inoue returns. This episode is pretty much known as "the one Red Mask was in." I miss when a guest star from the previous show would end up playing a lead in the next. And in a curious way of life imitating art, the character Ryousuke Kaizu plays is a cook with a ramen cart, with Kaizu going on to run his own successful ramen shop. And I like that it ties directly to the previous episode, with the Flashman again bummed out to be eating only the Space Pill, which is how the guys find Takeru's -- I mean, Ryuu's! He's named Ryuu here -- ramen cart. Dai strikes up a friendship with him, once they realize they also share a love for boxing.

This episode is somewhat unusual for Inoue in that it somehow avoids having a tragic ending. We know how this sort of scenario goes in a toku; a hero's pal or love interest is turned into a monster, chances are that person gets killed by the episode's end and the episode ends with our heroes standing over a pathetic makeshift grave somewhere. And that's certainly the Inoue way of doing things, but, surprisingly, not here. He was either feeling generous the day he wrote this script, or was reallllllllllly trying to play it safe since this was only his second toku script. (And he probably was scared straight by Michiru Shimada's episode 21.)

Kaizu's character, Ryu, while a modest proprietor of a ramen cart, has aspirations to become a boxer. Dai agrees to help him train. And this is where it really sinks in that the show has abandoned the Flashman's own abilities. Dai has super strength! He was shown in earlier episodes busting through walls like the Kool-Aid guy or punching heads off of things like he's in Mortal Kombat! But here, regular citizen Ryuu continuously bests him in boxing. There is no way he should be able to punch out Dai, unless Dai was holding back. (I guess Kaizu was already developing the Godhand. Speaking of which, Kaizu tells a story saying that Kihachiro Uemura knew that he'd end up playing the next Red and would tell that to the Flashman crew.)

What's interesting about this episode is the idea that Keflen targets Ryuu because of his athletic ability, and it's supposed to be unsettling and terrifying that we get to see, for the first time as viewers, his experimenting on a human being. And the human part wins out, as Dai is able to successfully reach through to the monster and calm him with music, forcing Keflen to actually separate the two. Triumph of the human spirit.

It's a familiar toku scenario, but done well, with a great guest star and some damn cool action scenes. (The way they film the attack and kidnapping of Ryuu on the beach looks amazing; the overcast weather gives it a real ominous touch.) And, while he sat the last episode out, Wanda returns in a big way here, and is just so cruel and menacing that I think this episode is what made Hirose stick out to Inoue, leading him to write so many parts for him in his subsequent shows.

And I like Green Flash's fight with the monster, once Ryuu has separated. This being a boxing-themed episode, there's these nice boxer moves from Kouji Matoba in-suit, with this great shot of him posing after delivering the final blow, his fist quivering, conveying just how pissed off he is that this monster made use of his buddy. "Think of these fists as Ryuu's fists," he warns the monster.

As I noted before, this episode was the highest rated episode of the series, with a 16.3% number. (The finale comes close, with a 16.2%.) I don't really understand why. I don't put much stock in television ratings, but this is a real mystery for me.

Flashman Episode 26

A divisive episode that really doesn't hold back on the weirdness or goofery. You either love it or hate it and I think it's pretty fun, with a lot of surprise gags that you don't expect. Believe it or not, there was a time when toku didn't have such bonkers humor, so an episode like this really stuck out as being strange and different. Toku's gotten so goofy, there's been plenty of shows entirely devoted to wacky comedy, so that this episode might not look so strange to a viewer brought up on modern shows, but...it is.

This episode is food-themed, and I like that it begins with the Flashman sitting down to a meal served by Magu. And we learn the Flashman have been living on...a little red bead, basically a supplement that provides them their nutritional needs, but isn't any fun to eat. We're halfway into the show, and our heroes are still on the outside looking in, knowing of all of the great food on Earth, but not getting to enjoy any of it regularly. Tired of eating this untasty Space Pill, they all set out to go look for some good food to eat; we follow Ruu as she's out trying to find a nice restaurant, a place called Sweet Pumpkin catching her eye. (A popular place that has dozens in line waiting; Ruu oblivious to the idea of lines and getting chewed out by a real a-hole for cutting is one of many humorous highlights.)

Unfortunately for Ruu, the Sweet Pumpkin is run by Mess! Their signature dish incorporates a funky space pumpkin which Kaura discovered on one of his space journeys which, when eaten by a human, will...end up turning that human into a pumpkin. (They're referred to as "pumpkin people," but the show depicts this by just having a person's noggin turn into a pumpkin, so they're more like "pumpkin heads," and not the one Lance Henriksen battles.) That's it! That's all we're told. We don't know if the person survives as they are or mutate further or if it ends up killing them or what the hell Mess could possibly want with a pumpkin-headed person -- none of that. Will monsters eat these human-pumpkinheads? Who knows!?

It's a goofy plan, but by keeping you in the dark like this, it gives the scenario an element of WTFery and it almost works better just keeping it mysterious, like a curious injoke that's ruined upon explanation. It's funnier not knowing. That this plan is started by someone like Kaura, who's been shown to be a smart and formidable enemy, further adds to its weirdness. And none of the Mess actors are playing it like it's a silly plan -- Nakata plays Kaura as being slightly amused by this idea, but they're all straight faced, and THAT adds a further layer to the absurdist humor of this episode. Besides, this is a silly episode that's not about the villain plan...

Ruu eventually gets a table and is served at the Sweet Pumpkin, enjoying a tasty meal. (It's hilarious how excited Neferu is that Ruu's eating the pumpkin; she's mentally already sizing up Ruu's coffin.) Ruu's attention is caught once she hears an argument coming from the entrance of the kitchen. Another diner, a housewife named Ruriko Kashima, enjoyed her meal and, always looking for new recipes to try, wanted to see if she could get any tips. She's chased off by the waitresses Kiruto and Ulk before being shown the door by waitress Neferu. Ruu catches up with her, not getting what the secrecy is about, and helps take her to the back of the restaurant to peep in on the kitchen and see what she can find! Our heroine, helping break some laws. Well, she might regret it, since what Ruriko discovers is...a Beast Soldier and Zoros in the kitchen whipping up all of the Sweet Pumpkin's dishes! (The health code violations, man!)

Once Ruriko freaks and makes their presence known, Ruu's pulled into a battle which makes its way to the restaurant's kitchen, where every nearby ingredient is used as a weapon by both parties. There's several sight gags and puns popping off in this scene, my favorite of which is Neferu flinging the contents of a shishkabob off in order to have a makeshift version of her baton weapon. The scene ends with the other Flashman storming in the tiny kitchen to help, Green Flash lamenting Mess' great timing interrupting his enjoyment of yakisoba. (He's still trying to eat while transformed, people. I guess Dragon Ranger took his flute playin' lessons from Dai.)

I just have to say how much I like the design of this episode's monster, The Gourmess. He's just...hilarious. Just one look at him makes me chuckle. Izubuchi's design sketch looks like if Charles Addams designed a Sentai monster. He's just freakish and funny, especially when he's wearing a toque and apron while in the kitchen. His one hand has a fork-ish claw and the other is a knife-ish sword -- for as outlandish as the monster and his gimmick is, there's a nice restraint. Lesser designers would have been lazy and just made it obvious giving him, like, ketchup and mustard cannons and stuff.

Eventually, Ruriko and Ruu make it to Ruriko's house, where Ruu enjoys some of Ruriko's homemade meals. (To the puzzlement of Ruriko's sons, who aren't afraid to say how awful they find their mother's food to be.) Ruriko lays out her whole story, of how her husband and kids hate her food, so she's always looking to improve herself, but she's touched to see Ruu enjoying her cooking so much. Ruu, who's used to Magu's little Space Pill and not regular Earth food, knows no such thing as a homemade meal. To Ruu, it's delicious, and she's appreciative. It's her first time enjoying a homemade meal, a meal made out of love by a hardworking mother. (And it's this reason why the episode is more than just a typical goofy one; it's grounded in genuine emotion and tying into the overall theme of the show, the finding of surrogate families and making up for lost time.)

Mayumi Yoshida has a good rapport with guest star Midori Ebina, and Ebina's commitment helps the episode work more than it might have. It's a tricky kind of role; the episode's tone is very off-the-wall, and some guest actors have trouble acclimating themselves to a henshin hero's unique environment in the first place, but an episode this out-there? There are many cases where the guest will lean too much into the comedy, wanting to draw attention to the nuttiness by seeming crazy, but Ebina makes the comedy work with a good, traditional style of humor. That she plays so well off of Yoshida like she's already been on the show, and Yoshida looks like she's having a blast and surrendering to the shenanigans, really helps this episode sail. But it wouldn't work if Ebina didn't also make you just like and feel bad for her character and her struggles.

In the midst of this joyfulness, Ruriko and Ruu hear from the others the effect of the Mess attack: that whoever ate any of the pumpkin dishes at the Sweet Pumpkin will turn into a pumpkin person. And, of course, the two of them ate there, so they're in danger, and yet...they haven't mutated. Before they can figure out why, Mess attacks -- as Neferu was spying outside -- and they want to capture Ruriko to examine why she's not mutating. (I guess they know better than to try and capture Ruu.) The Gourmess breaks through Ruriko's wall like the Kool-Aid guy and is chased off and wounded once he gets a pot of Ruriko's soup thrown in his face. (Confirming for Ruriko's sons what they've known their entire lives -- her cooking is lethal.)

That the monster has such an extreme reaction to taking a face full of the soup, and since neither Ruriko or Ruu have transformed, Sara puts together that it must have something to do with an ingredient Ruriko uses in her food, and that this could potentially cure the monster's victims. (So, I suppose this means that Gourmess is created from the genetic material of the space pumpkin.) This leads Neferu to add Ruriko to her undoubtedly long list of people to kill, and the remainder of the episode is Mess' pursuit of Ruriko as Ruu tries to protect her.

And, I gotta say, Sayoko Hagiwara really helps anchor this episode. She's playing it straight, and not in some ironic tongue-in-cheek way like the '60s Batman show. No, she remains the typically murderous Neferu. You think she's going to get in on the chuckles? No. She's not locked in here with you, you're locked here in with her. She has no problem killing this innocent mother and wife just because her terrible cooking might derail Mess' bizarre plan that nobody but Kaura really understands. Neferu is committed to the cause, man. A comedic episode doesn't lessen her homicidal tendencies. You don't want to be messing with her.

And you gotta love the big showdown with Gourmess -- he's rolling Pink Flash up as an onigiri, he's throwing pepper in their face, he's throwing eggs at the Flashman. (Funny how the production team didn't want to get eggs on the suits, so they put up a plastic barrier.) And, of course, the ultra classic bit -- when a fed up Pink Flash gets Gourmess' oversized pepper shaker from him and sprinkles the Mess force, sending everyone -- Gourmess, Zoros, Neferu, KAURA -- into sneezing fits. (It's kinda sad that Wanda's not in this episode, because I think Hirose would have enjoyed getting in on some of this craziness.) The Flashman wrap up their fight with Gourmess, blasting him with the Rolling Vulcan as usual. Business as usual, with Kaura then calling for Kragen...and then a beat...and then one last sneeze. (An improvisation by Jouji Nakata. A great improvisation, with a perfect amount of space between the big sneeze scene and this callback.)

And, unlike other Sentai scenarios, the killing of Gourmess DOESN'T fix the problem. The pumpkin people are still around, only saved by Jin's injecting them with whatever crazy stuff Ruriko's putting in her soup. That might sound stupid, but it makes sense thematically, with the whole episode being about cooking with a "mother's flavor." Ruriko's disparaged cooking saves the day.

I like the way the episode ends with Magu trying his hand at cooking, with Ruu being the only one to appreciate his efforts. He might be a machine and definitely not a mother, but Magu made the food with care, so Ruu appreciates it. It might not be the tastiest food, but if it's made with love, well...then it fills not just the belly, but the soul.

I really feel like I've done this episode a disservice. You can't summarize comedy, and it kills comedy to explain it, and there's just so much wacky stuff happening in this episode that I wanted to cover some of my favorite bits, but...well, it's best to just watch it and have fun. (I didn't even mention one part that cracks me up, which is when an exhausted Ruriko starts to drink from a fountain, she freezes in fear as the camera pans over to show that a recovering-from-her-soup GOURMESS is drinking from the fountain, as well.)

Neferu Disguise Watch: A waitress at the Sweet Pumpkin. Speaking of which, the summary of this episode in the Keibunsha Daihyakka -- which only covers up until this episode of Flashman, meaning they were working off of earlier info -- lists the restaurant's name as being the Italian Pumpkin.