Super Space Sheriff Gavan Infinity Episode 4: "Underground Fortress" Discussion
 

On MultiEarth Σ3302, a series of bizarre incidents occur where vital facilities vanish one after another! Reiji, dispatched to the scene, encounters the Galaxy Federal Police investigative duo: Mikuro Arimoto and Shoko Hamura.

Now this show HAS to be in the Guinness for having the genre's first-ever insect toku hero.
LFG :rock:
And the puns were on point. :lolol
Also, next week's guest star will be Takashi Kitadai, who Gaim fans will remember as the boy who was supposed to be Bravo.

I'm glad to see they are already using the multiverse as an excuse to go to whatever silly setting the writers want. It was pretty much impossible not to smile at an ant turning into Gavan and beating up a bunch of humans. :lol

I wonder if this show is going to have tons of Gavans instead of tons of different monsters, since most of the Emons we have seen are minor variations on the base suit.

That's the spirit! :lolol

I actually love that possibility. It's almost like seeing Hibiki, in terms of giving fans room to think up of their own Gavan that may be in whatever universe. That said, would be great if they explained the naming scheme for the worlds. Even a "we just randomly choose whatever" would be re-assuring.

The first totally good and enjoyable episode so far! I mean, Episode 3 was still fine, a classic Metal Hero story like I said, but not one I felt was specific to Gavan Infinity in any meaningful way. Episode 4 stands out from the start, taking ad-ant-age of the multiverse story to do something totally unexpected that would be otherwise impossible (ari-enai). Ground Earth is shaped like GoGo Drill, but much bigger as it towers over Cosmo Gavarion! Got to love unique realistic settings like this underground pursuit for the giant battles and the novelty of seeing the normal size ant-agonists getting beaten by an enemy they cannot follow. Everything onscreen is cool, which is exactly the kind of dedication RED needs to distinguish itself.

It's worth noting that this is the first episode written by Yamaguchi, who wrote most of the better episodes of Boonboomger alongside Higuchi and Konuta. Having finished that show, I can say with much more confidence now that Producer Kuji should've appointed one of those 3 guys as head writer, instead of Tomioka.

I do have one complaint after watching this, but it's about a flaw in the merchandise, not the episode. Gekido, Hiso and Kanki are the only Emorgears so far that have the click mechanic, which means you cannot roleplay as any Gavans outside of the main 3, such as Ameise who uses Maikka here.

Okay, so I was going to complain about the lack of OP, since Zeztz had it by Episode 4 which means Gavan doesn't have one, but I also got what I asked for in the above quote, so that kind of balances, huh. Now we know where the resources for that OP went anyway, to Play Back. Hmm, actually, losing Visions and an OP for Gavan at the same time is probably something I can complain about, but whatever, I can get over it. I imagine the Agi narrations were also done to stall for time. What do people think of these anyway, cute, pointless, both?

Awesome episode, this is definitely one to remember.

I love how much fun this show has by doing the silliest things and go all the way with the execution.

Gavan Ameise… genius :lol

*Googles word* Oh, so that's what that was! Didn't expect wordplay on the phrase "amai ze(甘いぜ)" and "ameisen," the German word for ant.

A good, interesting filler. It follows Reiji's standard investigation. Teaming up with local detectives, Infinity stops an arms dealer who, in addition to the Emorgear, also has a huge drill in his arsenal. I also liked that this episode addressed two minor flaws that were present in the previous ones:
1) Emphasized the unusualness of the land being visited;
2) Made Gavarion's drill-boosting feature memorable.
Because the Galactic Police is a huge organization and Reiji and his friends barely work on Gavarion, it's much less memorable than Sentai Mecha. Even despite the excellent and varied action. But similar plots will definitely help fix that.
And of course, Gavan ant is great, fun and unique. It also adds a lot of variety to the action. I hope we'll see Arimoto and Hanemura again.
However, the next episode promises to be less easy and much more important. Because Reiji will team up with Setsuna again, and the mysterious merchant Emorgears, who travels through worlds, will finally reveal himself.
My impressions are extremely positive. I'm looking forward to what happens next.

In this episode, the insertion was indeed unnecessary, as it explained something already known and understood. But overall, it's funny and helps Agi be remembered, considering that he and Daisuke don't get much screen time.