[Fish Sandwich]

Oh man, now that's a payoff.





It took a whole year of dino knights in between, but I guess thieves really did make a comeback!

I mean, hey, I'd read it.

So, even putting aside the fact that it took the shortest possible route to my heart by making such a direct reference to LuPat, I loved this episode. It's not exactly flawless in its construction though. The way the central dilemma plays out doesn't feel quite right in ways I struggle to put my finger on, and the entire debut fight for Land Mage (despite being loads of fun) combined with the rather truncated epilogue (to put it mildly) makes it feel an awful lot like the episode "ends" four minutes before it ends. Still, all those issues totally fade away for me in the face of how delightful this show's energy continues to be.

It's not even like the story is a bust or anything, too. There's solid characterization for Juuru, Sena, and even Tametomo, with his continued rival vibes. I give the show major props for getting right to the point and having Sena be just as much the focus here as anyone, even getting the big hero moment in the fight at the end. The stuff actually about Juuru isn't exactly groundbreaking or anything. I think most Sentai shows with childlike Reds do an episode early on laying out why they have a legitimate claim to a leadership position above their infinitely more mature comrades, and this one isn't a bad one of those. Sort of a diet version of episode 3 of ToQger, which is a comparison Kiramager might have some trouble escaping, but, you know, ToQger was great.