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Thread
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Mashin Sentai Kiramager Episode 45- "You Guys Shined!" Discussion
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03-02-2021, 10:00 PM
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Fish Sandwich
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
There's not really any fantastic thematic resolution here that makes me take back everything I said about Garza. There's not some big final impressive message the show leaves on that stunned me with its unparalleled brilliance. There's not any shockingly unexpected twist on the formula that makes the story feel insanely fresh and gripping.
But man, I started crying in the middle of this episode, and any critical thing I could possibly say about Kiramager's finale can't begin to compare with the weight of that.
It was the roll call that did it. Anyone who's been a Sentai fan for a while knows that it's tradition for the team to do their routine in the final episode without their helmets – a big deal because, with a few exceptions, Sentai teams tend not to take those off too often, and because it gives the actors a chance to both show they can nail those poses, as well as simply lending the scene some extra gravitas through their facial expressions, which you obviously can't get from the usual suit actors. It's an
event
, and one I always look forward to each year. But as soon as it started happening in
Kiramager
, a wave of emotion came over me as I remembered that this is something that happens
in the final episode
. This was it. I wasn't getting a new Kiramager episode every week after this, and more than usual – more than with Sentai I've liked even more – I wasn't ready to let go.
That's the feeling I was chewing on for the rest of the episode, and all while thinking about it afterwards, and it got me to realize it's maybe more important to speak from my heart than from my brain right now. I think a surprisingly important facet of how people form opinions on art is just how and when it happens to find them in life, and while I won't go quite as far as saying Kiramager was "what we needed right now" or anything
too
hackneyed and hyperbolic, it quickly became apparent to me why I was feeling this level of attachment to it. Not simply because it was such a fun series. Not only because I went to the effort of writing these reviews for all but a few episodes by Tete Inoue and those half-dozen or so early on I skipped out on entirely while writing that huge Kuuga thread. No, it was the pure, underlying root of all that, which is that
it was a show I was genuinely glad to have in my life when it was.
If you ask the Internet, a lot of years have been The Worst Year, but it's hard to deny how unusually,
extremely
rough 2020 was for a whole lot of people, and that's why I feel so grateful that Kiramager happened to be the Sentai born into that.
Kiramager wasn't Sentai as an epic dinosaur fantasy, or a grounded crime drama, or anything else like that. It was Sentai as itself, trimmed of excess, and polished to perfection. Rather than try to add on top of the base formula to create something novel and unique, Kiramager focused on finding the absolute core of the franchise and taking that one thing as far as it could. The core in question, as I see it, is just how
uplifting
Super Sentai is. It's a franchise about literally colorful characters who inspire the viewers by heroically triumphing over evil, and that's why Kiramager's motif is so perfectly suited to its goals. It's a show about dazzling brightness overwhelming the murky darkness, because, at the end of the day, aren't they all?
And it's with all that in mind that I think this finale nailed what it was going for. While it didn't focus on any of the more specific things I felt were thematically strong about Kiramager, the celebratory tone shows a great understanding of how important the overall positive energy of the series is to its identity. The key is how it frames itself around Mabusheena. The effusive speeches she gives during the final battle paying individual tribute to how amazing each of the Kiramagers is could come off as self-indulgent at a glance, but it's totally critical to the point the show is making by having her become the queen of Crystalia in the epilogue, when she gives the credit to the Kiramagers
for being such great role-models.
Again, I could sit here all day talking about all the hypothetical stuff I would've liked to see with Garza, but I'd have to be insane to act like Arakawa doesn't get his own show when that's the note he chose to end it on.
Essentially, I think what the show was doing with its final arc, in retrospect, was saying that all the proper
lessons
– all those often wildly outside-the-box morals and twists on common themes I loved so much throughout the year – were done already, and the final stretch was simply a chance to sum up that fundamental point of how cool it was to spend time with this group over the past 40+ episodes. And they are really cool people who really are worth looking up to! As friends, they were endlessly supportive of one another, and find such joy in each other's company that they often devolve in just like, making
noise
at things like Kakihara dragging Juuru away at the end here. Sentai's far from short on teams with tight bonds, of course, but the Kiramagers have such a particular vibe to them and I don't think I've seen it elsewhere. And as allies in battle, they're brave and daring and clever and skilled and, again, all sorts of things you could say about most Sentai teams too, but Kiramager always knew how to make it work for all it was worth.
That's all true of this final showdown with Emperor Yodon, too. Straightforward and familiar in concept, but delightful in its execution, demonstrating every facet of these characters it can, with tried-and-true classics ranging from Tametomo being the one to make up the plan, because he's good at those, to Shiguru visibly being the most emotional when it's all over, because he's only cool when he actively remembers to act cool. Yodon's a real nobody when all is said and done, even with some last-minute backstory, sure, but for what this finale is really about, that's only natural. I mean, we aren't here to watch
him
, are we? While it's not a finale that does everything I would've liked to see, it's also one that does nothing I
didn't
like, and it still payed decent tribute to the whole art angle where it could. Crunchula seemingly teaching a painting class in the epilogue was great, as was saying that Juuru's mystical connection with Oradin and Garza was a coincidental result of their shared passions and basically nothing else, which, once again, probably looks like lazy writing at a glance, but is secretly extremely considered!
It's a good episode of a great show. I'm honestly not sure where Kiramager would land on a Top However-many list of Sentai for me. Partially because I'm terrible at making those, but mostly because, as strange as it is to say, it's never been... actually, hang on, I don't even know how to put this in a way that makes any sense. Obviously I feel a pretty huge degree of personal connection to it, but it's more specific than that. Go-Busters is my favorite toku show because of how much it means to me, but Kiramager is a toku show I look at and just really want it to mean a lot to
everyone
, and I think that's why it gets me so excited. I can talk about it at such lengths so effortlessly because the idea of sharing that excitement just feels like the natural thing to do. This is a show I'm almost certainly going to be singing the praises of any time somebody asks for recommendations on a Sentai to watch, or whenever else, for that matter. It's smart, witty, action-packed, and at times quite dramatic, but more than any of that, Kiramager is
nice
, and I genuinely believe anybody willing to open their heart to that will be glad they did.
So thank you, Kiramager, for all the great times over the past year; I'm looking forward to what the next one has in store.
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