Mashin Sentai Kiramager Episode 22- "Are You Prepared? The Witch Is There!"
 

The Kiramagers must travel back in time to restore a lost Kirame Stone & save Mabushina's life, but they have to act without distorting the timeline...

Kiramager continues to impress on all fronts. Have to say the effects this episode were out of this world. Overshadowed its bigger brother Kamen Rider Saber on its debut episode in that regard. They did the "other-world" effects and giant vs humanoid confrontation a lot better here.

Awesome action this time around from Sakamoto.

Welp, I guess it's official. Zabyun is modeled after a shark. Really expected it to be an electric eel because it is a bullet train/shinkansen and was based off of an aquatic animal, but hey, no complaints.

Anyone else really feel like Takamichi needs a Wonder Ride Book crossover item for Kamen Rider Saber?

That would be wonderful.

So Numajo isn’t going to stick around? Can we at least get Minjo in as a regular in a couple of episodes?

It would also be wonderful to see the "master of pen" meet the "master of crayon". Juru should apply for a job at Fantastic Kamiyama after graduation.

Another TimeRanger reference! And this time, it's the Traffic Light Land Team (Juuru, Tametomo and Sena) that went to the time hole to alter the scenes and to stop the new Yodon villain. They "go over time and space" to retrieve another Kanaema Stone. They're the Kiramager male versions of Tatsuya Asami, Domon and the female version of Sion, who had the same colors (Red, Yellow and Green) as the other Super Sentai teams unless otherwise noted. So, any other Super Sentai references aside from this one?

Time travel in Super Sentai isn’t automatically a Timeranger reference. The Wiki has a whole page on Time Travel that barely has Timeranger as a footnote.

Also, the traffic light team doesn’t work as a name, since in Japan, the combo is red, yellow, blue.

This was an entirely satisfying conclusion, but I do wish it could've been maybe a bit more. Between the emphasis on advancing an overarching plot, the debut of a new mecha, and the use of an exciting cliffhanger in the previous episode, I get the feeling this was meant to come off as a bit more of an event than it ended up being. There's not a lot about either of these episodes that particularly blew my mind, or that felt more tense and/or emotional than the average episode of Kiramager.

The upside here being, of course, that an average episode of Kiramager is still supremely enjoyable. Literally the first second of the episode put a smile on my face when the recap included the lecture on sharks from the beginning of the first part. Like, was that seriously relevant information that's going to pay off in this one? It was endearingly brazen to lead off with that, even before it became apparent that it actually was, in part, relevant to the climax here. Not really in a big enough capacity where it needed to be in the recap, but if it wasn't, I might not have appreciated how solid the construction here is as much.

For example, it makes a lot more sense now why Fire specifically felt the need to relate the backstory last week, because, hey, guess what? It turns out that was setting up how the time travelling adventure in this one takes place. And that chunk of the episode was loads of fun. You just can't compete with how adorable Juuru is trying to play off his blatant attempt at theft like he's just here to help out.

Of course, he is there to help out, since Takamichi chooses to remain in the present, making the responsible decision since there's a giant monster on the loose, and he's the only one with a working robot right now. His "arc" here is still a whole lot of nothing I feel like we didn't get already, but I did enjoy how it played out nonetheless. It's sort of weirdly heartwarming how just collapses once Juuru shows up in Zabyun. It does a lot to make him look heroic to show that he was pushing himself way past his limits, yet only gave in to exhaustion once he knew for sure things were going to work out. It also sells how much living up to Mabusheena's expectations means to him nicely since he's doing all that work entirely to protect the city. Just a really great beat all around.

All of this is bolstered by the continued energetic direction of Sakamoto, adding some wild action scenes that come together to make this probably not a great episode of Kiramager, but certainly a good one. No real complaints from me here.

https://i.imgur.com/imDwnSF.png

Well, we're more or less almost halfway through the show, and I'm really enjoying it. First time I'm actually enjoying a Sentai in a long time, on top of a great two parter.
So now that Mabusheena's curse is lifted, there's not really a purpose to gather the rest of the wishing stones. They could hand wave it and say "To stop the bad guys from getting them" since Garza might inform Yodonheim about them. I reckon It'll lead to the power up or a new mecha when all 4 are gathered.

I actually liked it, but more for the action and new Mecha introduction than anything else.

The careful consideration over not creating a paradox was a nice touch, as was the initial plan to steal a teacup.

I'm sorry, but the King came across as incredibly dense for not seeing that the "grunts" weren't really grunts! Thinking that they're akin to a "mutation" just makes him look a little foolish.

Watching Takamichi battle Motorboat Basura was a nice touch by Sakamoto. This is slowly looking like a vehicle for Sakamoto's action style. The energy is wild and the scenes are beautiful.

King Express Zabyun is a beautiful Mecha design and one of my favorites of the series, much more than its predecessors. I very much liked its finisher compared to King Express, who had a lackluster finisher. Not a bad touch to have Sayo pilot Express either. Feel as though the whirlwind shot from the left hand was a Go-Busters Movie reference.

It's pretty obvious that we aren't through with the stones just yet. They wouldn't set that up as a plot device with four of them, only to make them completely inconsequential this soon before we even find all four. When Sentai crams in a MacGuffin, they push and milk it for all that it'll give!

Zabyu-n is awesome indeed! Cool sun glass wearing mecha!