[Fish Sandwich]

Okay, so, straight up, I was ready for this episode to be terrible. The premise is the kind of thing that just, immediately sounds cringe-worthy the second you hear it, and to top it off, it's the first episode not written by Arakawa.

Which is why I'm so shocked to say this might be my favorite episode yet?

The actual premise of "Sayo gets her face smashed into a rock and has TV amnesia", I mean, it's dumb, but everything the episode does with it is so smart. This is a jam-packed episode featuring our obligatory "trapped inside the monster" plot for the season, and just, loads of great character moments for everybody.

Shiguru and Sena get the most minor role, but Sena's still her usual adorably peppy self, and Shiguru gets that great line about needing to ask his agency to have his photo taken, so they aren't totally left in the dust.

Sayo herself, the episode does that same thing from last episode I like to see of giving us some flashbacks to see why a character is the way they are. Seeing the characters as children is great! Combined with the shtick of having proper occupations, it's continuing to make the Kiramagers feel more like real people than most Sentai teams in recent memory, keeping the show grounded enough despite the cartoonish atmosphere. It's striking a fantastic balance, and, I've gotta be honest, it legitimately pretty エモい the way the plot was perfectly structured so that it came down to Sayo right at the end. Like, it just builds to that moment pefectly by sidelining the flying Machines, and then getting rid of Tametomo and Juuru. It was immensely satisfying.

Speaking of Tametomo and Juuru: they're great here too! They both get a roughly equal amount of time devoted to showcasing their respective leadership talents, with Tametomo doing all the logical planning, and Juuru handling the emotional connections the team needs to work. I think this episode validated Juuru a bit easier than usual, which might be a problem for some, but, within the context of the episode, I think it worked fine, and that respectful fist bump between him and Tametomo was just awesome.

It's worth mentioning this episode was written Ayumi Shimo, who seemingly popped out of nowhere last year to write some generally quite good episodes of Ryusoulger, and if this kind of quality is standard for her, she can write as many episodes of this show as she wants for all I care, because they'll all be awesome.