[Androzani84]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Kakuranger 32-33:

32 goes back to basics after the previous arc, which is a polite way of saying it's an episode where nothing really happens and nobody really learns anything. It's maybe like a quarter of the way there though? We've got Saizou, the guy on the team who has been established to be the most vain, in the spotlight for a plot about a Youkai going around stealing faces. So the concept is actually pretty strong. It's just that this is the kind of episode that isn't too concerned with expanding on the characters, or anything like that. Fortunately, it's also one that's good enough at being weird and silly to pull off coasting by on that alone. Because, crucially, it is fun. You've got great gags like Saizou jokingly suggesting the Youkai must be stealing faces to hang them up and sit around admiring his collection, followed by cutting to the Youkai doing exactly that. You've got some classic Sentai dramedy with Saizou and a little girl having an emotional scene without faces to emote with. It's an episode that probably could've been better, but left me with enough of a smile on my face that I can't care too much.

33 is much the same deal, being little more than another straightforward, no frills, fight the monster plot. It doesn't get particularly wacky, nor does it push the drama any harder than it needs to. A completely serviceable, if safe, episode of Kakuranger. Most of the highlights for me are the more trivial parts. Once again, the show is having a little trouble sticking to a format, because after a string of having the Youkai give their own introductions in this bold new, post-narrator world, Sasuke takes up the job here. Which I don't like as much. The absurdity of the monsters suddenly launching into expository rants fit the atmosphere of Kakuranger perfectly. The mecha action also pulled a trick I don't think I've seen too often (at all?), with Sasuke hopping into God Saruder before the rest of the team gets there, and then having them all show up, already combined into a one-armed Super Kakure Dai-Shogun. It's not really that exciting, I guess. They just took an arm off off the model for a few shots (since Super Kakure Dai-Shogun is just a largely static prop and not a suit), but I don't know. It's weird, and it stood out to me. Either way, it meant more screentime for God Saruder, which I'm totally down for. He even gets to do the finishing move!

Just a heads up, the next two episodes are a lot more comical, with one of them basically being a joke on how the actor playing Tsuruhime was in a Fushigi Comedy series before doing Kakuranger.