[Phantom Stranger]

Maskman episodes 33 and 34

Christ these were hard to slog through. Both of these episodes pretty much feature the same basic story and the same core issue:They lack development.

33 has quite possibly the most hilariously poorly written one off female character I've seen in sentai yet. She, Eri, gets "saved" from a Doggler by Kiros and she falls in love with him. That's the plot of the episode. Wow, you get saved and you instantly fall in love. Not interested in him or anything like that, outright in love. Strangely, I'm reminded of AsBaR, of all things.

At one point in the episode, she even tries to keep Kiros from getting shot by attempting to take the blast instead. Look, I understand wanting to return the favour, that's one thing, but this is ridiculous. Not only that, she actually tries to stab Takeru. Sheswilling to commits murder for a person she doesn't know and hasn't seen in three years. As his is happening, Kiros shoots at Takeru completely disregarding Eri's safety, which Takeru even points out to her later- And she says it's her fault, and she shouldn't have been in the way and blah blah blah. This poor woman needs some serious help, because she has clearly lost it, and I'm betting the writers didn't intend her to sound this pitiful and crazy. If they did, well then they still failed in portraying a woman rationalizing her abusive(and nonexistent) relationship, since you know, this is the second time she's ever met Kiros. Maybe instead of having this be the second meeting, pre-establishing them as having an abusive relationship beforehand would have worked a lot better and explained away a lot of Eri's strangely obsessive and psychotic behavior.

Poorly written, mental issues. It doesn't matter, this episode is bad either way for me. There's other problems too, like Eri somehow knowing about the Whirling Hell that Kiros was trapped in for two full years, and then also finding out he escaped. I can usually make assumptions, but I'd really like to know how in the hell she found out about all this. Also, Eri's obsession over Kiros is resolved way too easily and in a rather goofy manner.

*sigh* anyway, I like the basic premise, I really do. Having a civilian character in love with with a villain, but also eventually wanting to help the heroes can be really interesting. But it's so badly executed and even creepy at times, for all the wrong reasons.


Alright with episode 34, we have the inverse, but same problem. Our M.O.W is Guron, a 300 year old monster that ends up falling in love with Momoko, due to her appearance being like that of a woman who helped him long ago, or something like that, it's not really clear. I can at least sort of understand this better. Being a monster and having a human show sympathy for you could cause a great impact...but it's still really badly done here and needs more development. I'll give credit and say I feel the writing here is stronger than the previous episode with it's structure and reasoning...buuuuut that's not saying a whole lot. Things still feel too rushed, and some of the editing is similar to the first episode in it's cobbled together look. By that I mean we have a sweet 80s montage of Guron (in Human form, who is portrayed by Bioman's own Blue 2) and Momoko on a date, and they suddenly change clothes in every other scene. This montage is over the course of a day right? That's what was implied, but by the end I'm unsure if it's meant to be over the course of several days or what, because the editing is so disjointed. When and what reason do they have in show for changing clothes? Maybe a scene fell through a plothole.

After the montage there's a nice scene between him and Momo, drawing some Cinderella parallels that I rather enjoy. With Guron not being what he appears, and his own and Momoko's happiness having limited time. Its a good scene that would've had more impact if there was more development between the two before this...and if they weren't on this date because Guron car jacked Takeru while Momo was in said car. Yeah, I don't think I'd go out with someone who stole my boss's car while I was inside.

By the end of the episode Guron reveals he wants to live in the world of light, betraying the underground empire. Again, I really like the idea, I like the dialogue he has, this could've had the potential to have a sympathetic and good monster to be remembered, be Maskman's Whale Mutant, so to speak. But it falls short, and doesn't have as much impact it should and could. Of course he ends up being destroyed because Zeba can make him attack the Maskmen. The final scene has Momoko on a cliff, playing the flute Guron played in his human form. Again, great idea, shot beautifully, but doesn't carry the emotional weight it should.



Both of these episodes, at the very least, needed to be two parters for the stories they wanted to tell, maybe even three. I'd say the best option would've been to drop one episode's plot and focus on only one. Put all effort into telling a well thought out, if short- plot line, rather than the two rushed messes we got.




Episode 35. Good lord what an improvement over the last two. I think the writers stopped their cocaine usage for this one. I really enjoyed a lot in this episode. Akira is given some pretty good (and funny) lines, and the episode has good action and really great little moments that add so much for me.

The basic plot is Kiros is attempting to free an imprisoned doggler, and whoever it is, it unnerves Lord Zeba. So much so he tells his subordinates to prevent it, even if it means killing Kiros. This raises quite a few questions with them. Of course the monster is freed, and apparently causes Zeba to quite literally fly away in retreat(and bleed green goop). This leads to one of my favorite small (yet important) moments of the episode, which is Anagmas checking the historical records on why the hell that doggler was imprisoned in the first place, only to find the page was torn out. This further leads to Oyobu and Baraba checking the destroyed place of imprisonment for clues. I love this. It expands on and reminds us of the underground empire's culture and history. These aren't just bad guys living underground, they have a story, a way of life, and once a great kingdom...all before Zeba came along, anyway. It also shows that something is amiss and deepening the mystery with Zeba. Plus it shows that all of Zeba's underlings- despite being loyal, are not so blind to when something is clearly wrong.

This is why I watch Maskman, or anything for that matter, episodes like this one. Not necessarily main plot important episodes, but well written, coherent, interesting, enjoyable episodes.
Hopefully the next few will be enjoyable, or at the very least not as draining as 33&34 were.