[Fish Sandwich]

There are two big things this episode reminds me of.

One is, of all things, Kamen Rider Ghost, which had a third-to-last episode that is almost astonishingly similar to this one in terms of the setup and basic structure, with all the heroes hopping over to Bad Guy World for a climactic showdown with one of the show's main villains, a member of that world's royal family, filled with resentment towards his relatives, who was also not always on such a destructive path, and might even have the potential for redemption. Like, uh, writing it all down like that, it might even be more than just superficial? A lot of the thematic meat underpinning each take on this idea is very much the same.

What's a little painful to say, following on from there, is that I think Kiramager has a few missteps in its execution of this plot that are glaring enough to hold it back from being as great as it could be. Namely, and this is huge – removing the element of free will from Garza's turn to the dark side also removes the drama of the entire plot thread. I still really enjoyed the episode in spite of this for reasons I'll get to in a bit, but I don't want to mince words here. Saying Emperor Yodon put some kind of spell over Garza as a child that made him hate his family is fundamentally uninteresting compared to the alternative, and I'm struggling to see how it fits into Kiramager's ordinarily insanely consistent and strong thematic core.

The idea of Garza as an embittered artist, angry at the world for refusing to acknowledge his greatness to a level that satisfied him, that was rich was potential. I had the thought that Emperor Yodon might still be the real final boss last week, but quickly put it aside because Garza seemed like so much of a better fit as the foe to end the entire series on. I wanted to see these last few episodes dig into him like never before, adding new context to his actions and tying it all back together. And, to be fair, I did get all of that here! It's mostly that sticking point of the new context in question removing depth rather than adding it.

Everything I know about Kiramager points to it being a show that would only ever present the idea that demons over our shoulders are the ones responsible for our issues if it also specifically wanted to subvert that later, and make a point about how we can only choose for ourselves whether or not to let negativity fester in our hearts or some other genius thing I'd be praising effusively. I mean, there's still time, I guess! The fact that Garza was given the straight up monster of the week explosion seems more definitive than usual, but we've already had a villain or two appear to die only to turn out to still have a bigger role left to play. It would make me very happy to see Kiramager redeem some of the seemingly weaker aspects of this episode before it ends!

All of that being said, though, I'm okay enough if it doesn't, too, because the other thing this one reminded me of was nearly every 90's Sentai I've ever seen, and in the best way possible. It's the benefit of Arakawa being the writer, I think. Plenty of recent final Sentai arcs have had some great stakes, but there's something irresistibly old school about how this one is playing out. I struggle to put my finger on exactly why, but it's seriously only missing the Kiramagers' base getting blown to bits to be more on point.

Just something about Emperor Yodon's whole vibe, and the idea of the heroes not so much trying to prevent things from going to crap so much as they are trying to uncrapify the whole planet is great. And then on top of that you of course get these juicy bits of series lore, and an epic rival showdown, and all this stuff on top of that, and it's pretty much flawless, despite also being a flawed episode.

I mean, I'm being way more critical than usual, but I'm not even slightly upset, because the way this was all delivered was still so undeniably entertaining, with great moments for Garza, Oradin, Juuru, and even Tametomo! That last one in particular probably goes a long way towards explaining why I still had a good time here. I can't help how much I like these characters and this show! I mean, come guys – it's still Kiramager, right?