It seems like a pretty lovable show!

She's definitely great in this episode, even before the triumphant finale, and the fight scene before that hug. I like how she gets all emotional about wanting to do Tanabata again, because she had such a good time for her first one, and then Zenkaiser's like But We Only Do It Once A Year, and she gets theatrically upset, and then Zenkaiser's like What If We Were The First Ones To Ever Do It Twice, and she's all cheered up, and I'm like YES. That, and her realizing that she was definitely going to get chained up by the bad guys once she identified herself as a member of Zenkaiger. Both terrific moments, and I think I just covered everything she did in the episode as being notable and fantastic.

I'm getting on this wavelength of yours!

Well here we are, at part two. I’ll start with more etymology.

Kaito Goshikida: five-colour world person.

Juran: derived from “Jurassic”

Gaon: onomatopoeia for a lion’s roar

Magine: Derived from “Majin” (Mage), but with the last syllable sounding like the onomatopoeia for nervousness.

Vroon: Onomatopoeia for a car starting.

Yatsude: From Saburo Yatsude, Toei’s equivalent to Alan Smithee

Bokkowaus: Derived from bukkowausu (to destroy)

Barashitara: onomatopoeia for disassembling.

Ijirude: From Izil (tinker)

And I totally called Fish would go into details about Magine. To explain my initial response, Yumi Yamamoto is Angela Mei’s real name. I’ll also mention that the embrace between the two at the end was not in the script. And this fangirling was notable enough that it was being referenced during Donbrothers.(In the midst of jokes about Sononi and Mezool becoming fast friends due to their shared goal of experiencing love, and then fast enemies due to the former’s mission to destroy overwhelming desire clashing with the latter being… well, you know)

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...2/IMG_1189.JPG

And I mentioned last time that Orihime Wald was voiced by a man, and I’ll reveal why here. The same VA - Soichiro Hoshi (who Toku fans may recognise as Birca from Go-Onger, and for dubbing over C K Lee in Power Rangers, while Cartoon Network fans may recognise him as the Japanese VA for Ben 10 and several characters in Bakugan) also voices Hikkoboshi Wald (it was the idea of one of the associate producers, to tie into the Tanabata theme)

And we end this two parter with a demon escaping his seal. I’ll use this chance to mention that one early plan for the series was for the giant sword in the background of Wonder World to turn out to be a prison for a demon king that would become the final boss.

Great fun episode. Fish Sandwich has already covered the entire behind-the-scenes story, so I'll focus on the aspects that were left untouched. Despite its frivolity and crossover nature, in those 20 minutes the episode also managed to talk about Ryoga's relationship with his sister and give Zox some development. In general, playing on the similarity of these two as older brothers, despite the fact that they are completely different in character, is very interesting. And the moment when Durandal uses his time dilation to hit the monster at the same time as Twokaizer! In a word, a wonderful episode and one of the best crossovers between Riders and Sentai. But still, it would be more correct to compare Senki with Taisens, both because of the duration and because of the crowds.


A great fun fanfic that's a good continuation of the previous one. I liked it very much.

This only just occurred to me, but I feel like it says a lot about Zenkaiger that you described that episode that way instead of as "the one with Don Momotaro", which I assume is why you were watching it in the first place? I think you might already be a fan of this show without knowing it, Die!

I showed him that episode as part of an event in a Discord server we’re mutually in. I was in charge of the event that week (it was supposed to be a one-off, but then I got given the authority to make as many events as I want) and went with a “Donbrothers Preview” theme (the other featured episode was Ohranger 15).

Though I can say his memory is faulty, since he was there when I had episode 29 as part of a “sports” event (alongside Gaim 37. He noted the irony that the solo hero franchise had an epsidoe about a teamwork sport, but the teamwork franchise had an episode about a solo sport). Another event had Zenkaiger 26 (alongside Transformers Super Link 39, as part of a “Black Repaint” event), but he wasn’t there for that one.

I also can't delve two deeply into this, as this is a midway part of an another series, and I usually won't watch a series which is aired midway.

Mei here only asks Touma for ideas probably slightly (yeah, since Kamijo's death), but this is the one where Rintaro actually defends Touma to tell Mei off that she shouldn't be too pushy, as he understands writer's block. An evolution for Rintaro's social awareness (also him being the one to tell Mei instead of the other way around of her being his social "guide")? Touma screwing up people by making the Wonder Ride Books disappear kinda highlights attachment being weakness - though it got Mei to do the "finishing" job of handling the henshin. Reika displays her brother worship by being possessive of him of even other males getting affectionate with him, so she's still a hostile person after "changing" sides. I'd also think it's nice that "Orihime" can contain many puns as done by the villain here.

I guess from what I get in this episode, he's really a morally grey anti-hero type who does good not out for the goodness itself, but he only cares for personal gain and not so much for anything else (people can care for both others and personal gain, but he's not one), befitting of a definition of pirate. I thought this'd be unusual for a perhaps major Sentai to be like this, but, well, he's not the main character so it makes more sense that he can be less heroic than characters like red Sentai.

Haha, I like how you use Ryouga's stoicism for comedic effect. If the show did that more often, I think he would've been a much more endearing character.

Well, now that Fish has started this, I also feel obliged as a Zenkaiger fan to properly represent my favorite.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/77/e9...97d2b29f1e.png

Juran quickly became an inspiration to me. A lot of people were depressed at the start of 2021, following a year of dealing with you-know-what. It was the same problem for me. Going in to Zenkaiger, I was hoping it would once more show people the true meaning of justice that Super Sentai is loved for, to remind people what it's like to be a hero and hold on to hope in the face of despair.

From the first episode, I got pretty much exactly what I wanted in Juran. Without going in to too much spoiler, he's introduced as a fun party-loving dude who's trying his best to adapt to his sudden new co-habitation with humanity. When Tozitendo show up and start terrorizing people, some of the humans lump all the Kikainoids with them and Juran is left to deal with the invasion on his own.

However, despite that prejudice towards him, prejudice in general being what I'd consider as one of the show's main themes, Juran still goes out of his way to protect a scared human kid from Tozitendo, as it was simply the right thing to do. This act of heroism stabilizes the relationship between humans and Kikainoids and that feeling sticks throughout the whole show, as an exploration of alternate worlds becomes the stage for a celebration of people's differences. None of that would've been possible without Juran's spontaneous moment of selfless heroism and that's why he's always at the front of my mind when I think about Zenkaiger.

Thanks for the acknowledgement and likewise, I respect your opinion as well. It probably helps that Zenkaiger/Saber is like my favorite SHT pair ever, so while I'm against the concept on principle, I was glad that the content was actually okay and not too harmful, even though I'm not exactly the Shindais' biggest fan. Everything is disliked by someone, but I can't truly begrudge the existence of something that has the potential to make someone happy, even though I personally don't get much out of it.

Oh, good choice! Inoue writes the best Yuji focus episodes.

Neat! Thanks!

Yeah, it's... I don't know if the episode did as much with this as I'd've liked? It basically just uses one overlapping character trait to move Zox from Completely Selfish to Ugh Fine I'll Help. Like, Zox didn't need the Wonder Ride Book for anything, so him giving it back to Ryoga is the most minor assistance he can provide. (Taking on the monster was a little more assistance, but that one's purely him trying to protect his sister.) The idea of the two of them wanting to protect their sisters is a linking element in the episode, but it never felt like a big deal to me.

Ha ha, I completely forgot that that episode is the cameo from Don Momotaro! My memory is the worst. To wit:

I very dimly recall this episode, now that you've described it. It's the tennis one? Right?

People keep telling me that Zox has a slightly more heroic attitude in the main Zenkaiger show, so it might just be how he comes off as a guest-star written by a different writer.

Thanks for sharing that! I don't know that I got a lot out of Juran in this episode -- it's VERY overstuffed -- but I liked hearing how much he meant to you. I like when these shows connect with people!

Oh, you know, now that we're talking about it that way, I just realized I could've said something much more concrete about Magine for once by mentioning how a lot of what really attracted me to her right away was how she's a hero whose arc is all about overcoming her own fears and trepidation to gain the courage to stand up for what she wants in life, and how that sort of archetype always resonates with me, and how it's also extra on-point for a character pulling from Magiranger for her design motif, and...

...I mean, none of this has to do with Saber at all, but like I said earlier, I'll take any chance I can get.

(Zyuran's also real cool, though! Really feels like the heart of that whole team in a way.)

Oh, misunderstanding. Zox is not a more heroic character in the main show. He's a pirate, first and foremost, and they only barely got him to stop robbing people (in this world) and he will still endanger civilians without direct Zenkaiger intervention. Part of the theme of Zenkaiger is adjusting and dealing with alternate world views, so Zox plays into that by giving them someone with no respect for the general social mores of their world that they have to try and corral and work with/around anyways.

Charm point <3