Why would anyone do drugs when they could just watch tokusatsu?

I honestly feel as though this episode was Changerion at its peak, and I can't even begin to imagine anything later on in the show topping it.

It's an episode where the main threat is an insurance salesman who kidnaps people with mind controlled, exploding, stuffed rabbits that suck their victims' blood until they run dry so he can feast on their life energy.

Do I even need to say anything more after that? That alone makes up a ton of the absolute insanity that makes up this episode. Not just the very premise, but the action, comedy, and even dramatic tension that all comes out of it. Stuff like this is why I love toku as a medium.

But that's not all the episode has to offer either. Because surprisingly, there's actually character development! The focus of which being Akemi and Eri actually learning to put aside their differences to rescue the people they care about, even find some common ground in order to grow closer as friends. And all while never forgetting the two's' best bit of being catty with eachother.

Oh, and also the robots get a combined form but really, that's small potatoes when compared to all of the, well, literally everything else. This episode is a high energy roller coaster ride from beginning to end, and one that I did not wanna get off of. It was just a really fun time all around and don't think I could complain about a single second of it. Great stuff.

Was not expecting Changerion of all shows to throw a deep, moral quandary at me.

This episode has the balls to ask: "Which is the bigger, more important threat? A monster eating seniors at a retirement home, or someone threatening to bomb a kindergarten?"

Not that it matters a whole lot though, given how both plots end up tying together by the end. But if you're curious, we spend alot more time at the kindergarten than we do at the retirement home.

Which, ya know, I think this is the first Toku I've seen where a retirement home even exists, so much as being involved in a monster of the week plot. Changerion continues to subvert expectations in alot of ways, and I really can't get enough of that aspect of it.

Anyway, the biggest focus and takeaway of the episode is what you might expect from the title: Akemi, and her figuring out what exactly it is she wants to do with her life. Turns out she's really good with kids, to the point she's able to bond with the kid who's known as a troublemaker, though not without some effort on her part.

What's nice is that the kid in question, Takanori, while trouble, never comes across as obnoxious nor is his behavior simply glossed over. He's like a way better done Kiriya from the Inoue half of Kamen Rider Hibiki. Especially given the kid's' troubles primarily stemming from not having a mother in his life. Which, given how many bad/missing dads are in toku, is another somewhat refreshing angle to have.

But yes, by the end, Akemi decides that she wants to be a kindergarten teacher, and as such departs on her own path in life, and as such I imagine she's now out of the show entirely. And I'll be honest, I found it kind of a shame given how I only just recently grew to like everyone in the main cast, and now we're already getting rid of one of them. At the very least I found the story connected nice enough to experience, and it's not like they kill her off gruesomely just for sympathy points.

But yeah, in the end, this was overall satisfying, and I look forward to seeing how Akira plans to cope with Akemi being gone.

Daimajin Kanon.

Wait, really? It's been so long since I've seen Daimajin Kanon that I straight up don't remember this.

This episode was way too relatable.

We're all Tokusatsu fans on these boards, right? As such, many of us are also collectors, I think Japan knew that was a big part of the market even back in the 90s when Changerion was made.

Which makes it kind of a ballsy move to feature an episode where half its content is making fun of collectors, which are a big part of your audience.

Now, don't get me wrong, the episode doesn't make any jokes that are outright offensive at our expense or anything, but it was amusing in a bit of an unintended way that, with almost every crack they made, I found myself more going "Yeah, I get it" than feeling like I was being silly or whatever.

The other part of the plot is how Akira is looking for a new secretary now that Akemi is gone, and weird as it is to say, I actually found that bit of episode to be the more interesting one despite it feeling minor in comparison. Granted, I wasn't expecting too much out of it given that Changerion isn't exactly a hardcore drama or anything; I just found it a touch more intriguing.

And that's kinda all I can really say about this one? Most of it is a one note "Ha, nerds" joke, and while it doesn't devolve to the level of, say, Big Bang Theory in terms of obnoxiousness or anything, it does mean there aren't that many avenues to examine. For me atleast. It just is what it is and, really, I'm not about to hold that against it.

Kanon's father's fianc?e worked there.

An interesting character study on the pros and cons of prioritizing seeing the good in others.

As you might expect from a premise like that, Hayami is the one who takes center stage here, with his encounter with a troubled girl being the plot.

Hayami's' goody-goody nature unfortunately leaves him suspect to not only getting into his own head about the hidden good within others, but also makes him rather gullible and easy to manipulate, as we've seen before.

But unlike the episode where he was able to temporarily become Changerion, this one more so looks at how, yeah, Hayami is a sucker, but it's his attitude of always trying to do the right thing that also endears him to others who are also good at heart.

In the end it's a nice tale about genuine kindness overcoming cynicism, but this episode was refreshing in that it wasn't only Hayami's' kind deeds that won Kiriko over. Akira shines in this episode too with how he not only looks out for his friend, but also forces Kiriko to confront the harm that her lies are doing to the guy she's been manipulating.

Sure, in reality things are hardly ever this clean, and people who take advantage of others will often do so without so much as a care and will keep doing it as long as they continue to gain something out of it. But, in a story, and in a world we often like to dream of being ideal, stories like this are always nice to see, and just maybe, one day we as humans will grow to sprout enough joy and love to one another that such stories won't be just a fantasy.

I know it wasn't the primary focus of the episode, but I learned alot about Akira.

It took me this long to realize that his constant forced smile is infact what he does in universe, as a way of keeping composure in the face of adversity.

It's actually not that uncommon in real life either. Many people(myself included) will let out a smirk or a small laugh as a way to react when they're either not entire sure of what's appropriate or as a way of keeping from expressing something else.

And yeah, I know I'm slow to realize this, as in hindsight it was very much the point the entire time, especially given how Akira is adept at misdirection, but I felt like alot of his character quirks shined in this episode alot better than in most.

For example, his detective's intuition shines greatly here when it comes to investigating the kidnapping of a local high school girl. He deduces rather quickly that both suspects are guilty and a part of DarkZide, and not just because he's frustrated at the situation in and of itself. Sure, he still has those feelings, but they don't get in the way of his job.

Making the character beats even stronger is that this episode in general is actually genuinely funny both in terms of its character humor as well as its general parody of toku tropes; the biggest one being poking fun at Rival characters, with no less than three DarkZide monsters all wanting to claim the title as Changerion's' fated rival and listing off generic reasons as to why such a thing gets established in other superhero shows.

This episode also serves as the first part of the show's' first two-parter, so I gotta wonder where exactly this is all headed, given the end of the episode almost outright says that the initial investigation that kicked it all off is basically irrelevant by this point, not to mention the mysterious figure introduced right at the end who might be yet another rival for Changerion to deal with.

I'm excited for tomorrow's' episode!

I'm honestly starting to question whether Inoue is a genius or just crazy.

Yeah, as you might expect from the title, this episode does continue the joke established in the previous one, with a fourth monster coming in.

But despite both that and some other humorous elements here and there, the episode as a whole is played almost entirely straight; Not unlike something you'd see out of another Tokusatsu's' "mid-season upgrade" episode.

...That is, until the very end.

And given the thumbnail I chose for the episode, I'm sure you might be able to guess what I'm getting at: The big twist is that a stray dog ends up eating Changerion's' power-up item before Akira is able to acquire it, and is thus denied any sort of new power.

That alone is enough to make the average viewer(or atleast me) cry out "Who does that!?" but then... it actually ends up leading to solid character development, ontop of tying in with the plot points brought up in the previous two episodes?? Heck, it ties in with the current plot by reinforcing that Gauzer is infact Changerion's' rival!

Because something to note about nearly every fight that Changerion has been in up to now: If he doesn't win with ease, then he usually has one of the three robo knights there to bail him now. He's never really had to try super hard in order to take out the DarkZide monsters up to now, right? However, seeing DarkZide stomp all over the feelings of an innocent girl is enough to give him the drive to get serious for once, and he shows that he doesn't need any power up.

Said girl also ends up becoming Akira's' new secretary, and yeah, the joke about her cooking at the end is to be expecting, but really, it's such a minor thing that I really can't complain. This entire episode had a surprising amount of thought and heart put into it, and all under the guise of being completely bonkers to boot. And that's also what's made Changerion as a show so fun to watch so far. It somehow has yet to bottom out! I have no idea how long it can maintain this momentum, but I'm still impressed!

This was a great one, absolutely.

Pretty basic, all things considered.

In terms of a mystery, I saw the twist coming a mile away, most of the comedy was bog standard, and the monster plot feels pretty forced.

The episode's' primary focus is to flesh out Rui's' backstory, but not only is her backstory not much in and of itself, it's made even weaker in terms of impact just by the episode in and of itself being so basic.

Like, the episode overall isn't bad per se, but for a show that's been so good about subverting expectations and throwing wild curveballs, I can't help but feel a bit let down, ya know? Oh well, I suppose it does help to let us in on who Rui is as a person a bit more, so it's not a total wash.

Anyway yeah, not much to say about this one. Very standard, very whatever.