[Androzani84]

Scroll 29: Lingering Summer Heat and Stamp

This episode introduces our final new writer for this series: Shin Yoshida. If you’re a purely Tokusatsu person, I don’t expect you to have heard of him, since this and 3 other Hurricaneger episodes are his sole contribution to the genre. He’s mostly known for his work in the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise, having written the Waking the Dragons and Millennium World arcs of Duel Monsters, the infamous Season 4 of GX, everything after the Fortune Cup in 5Ds, the entirety of ZEXAL (anime and manga), the manga for Arc-V and the entirety of VRAINS. He’s fairly controversial among the crowd that insists everything should be dark and gritty, but ZEXAL is the most popular Yu-Gi-Oh series in Japan, and I’ve seen it has more fans than detractors (it’s just that Yu-Gi-Oh’s detractors can be REALLY vocal). Will this episode follow suit? Let’s find out.

The episode opens with Kouta suffering under the heavy sun, while the rest of Ninja Base tries to alleviate this by making curry (If you ask me, that’ll just make things worse). Hamster Headmaster thinks that with the Kamen Ninjas and Karakuri Giants Jakanja is throwing at them (even though they only sent out two of the latter), the Hurricanegers need a leader (then what’s Yosuke been doing for 28 episodes?). After Kouta stops everyone from turning the curry into a spicy disaster, Hamster Headmaster decides to make him the leader. Yosuke gets dejected and leaves. Elsewhere, Jakanja had summoned Lingering Summer Heat Ninja Bero-Tan (who I will refer to as the Licker).



Licker’s special ability activates. For everyone he takes down, he gains a stamp counter. Yosuke shows up and, motivated by a traffic light laughing at him (specifically, the yellow light) and the fact that he should be leader because he’s in the centre, decides to fight him alone, summoning Sky Ninja HurricaneRed. Unfortunately, Nanami and Kouta caught wind of Licker on the monitors, summoning Water Ninja HurricaneBlue and Land Ninja HurricaneYellow to join the duel. But when Licker proves immune to the Quake Gadget, Yosuke and Kouta argue over who deserves to be leader, much to Nanami’s concern (maybe SHE should be leader. Just saying). Luckily for them, since there are three Ninja Hurricane monsters on the field, Ikkou can summon Horn Ninja KabutoRaiger to the field, with Isshu being able to summon Fang Ninja KuwagaRaiger to join him. But then Manmarva triggers his trap, Curse of the Space Scorpion, which cuts KabutoRaiger’s ATK points in half so he can attack. After warning that Ikkou will die on the next full moon, Manmarva leaves with Licker. Isshu sees Yosuke and Kouta still arguing, and leaves in disgust with Ikkou (and that’s all they do in this episode). As Nanami drags the two boys kicking and screaming back to Ninja Base, Shurikenger looks on.

Hamster Headmaster and Oboro try to teach the boys that while one arrow can break easily, three arrows are unbreakable… only for the three arrows to break easier than the one (Oops). Yosuke suggests that a single arrow made of steel wouldn’t break easily and vows to be the steel arrow, to which Kouta insists he’ll be an arrow stronger than steel (they’re both taking this metaphor a tad too literally). We then cut to two near identical scenes where the two try and fail to destroy a scarecrow after destroying one easily, before the other appears to throw them a torn scroll with a new move on it.

At the Centipede, we see that Satarakura has Licker and the other 3 Spears writing his postcards (including to one guy named after producer Hideaki Tsukada). It turns out that he’s converting Licker’s stamp counters into letter counters. And once Licker amasses enough of both, he’ll unleash a fireball that will reduce the Earth’s LP to 0, while delivering all of Satarakura’s postcards to their recipients (Hey Satarakura, Emperor Exhaus from Carranger called, even he thinks your plan is dumb). The Hurricanegers arrive to where Licker is preparing to unleash his load. Yosuke activates the spell Hayate Style Technique - Sky Slash, while Kouta follows suit with the Hayate Style Technique - Earth Slash. Oboro realises that Hamster Headmaster tore the two apart so they’d become stronger (to which he basically says “sure, whatever”). But it turns out Licker survived both hits, causing the two to argue again over who failed to kill him.



As Nanami gets frustrated again, Licker takes the opportunity to capture her.



As the two react in horror to this, Shurikenger appears to give the lesson HH and Oboro failed to give earlier: the Hurricanegers can’t function without teamwork (it helps that he isn’t trying to use cheap arrows to make his point. He just explains the gravity of the situation). As the two apologise, they decide to combine the two attacks and hit Licker at the same time.



This works, destroying Licker. Shurikenger then reveals that the two torn scrolls are actually one that he ripped in half and disguised himself as Kouta and Yosuke in order to teach them a lesson. As they’re talking, Satarakura activates the spell “Giant Mask”, which not only resurrects Licker from the GY, but also doubles his ATK points. Yosuke, Nanami and Kouta summon Shinobi Machines Hurricane Hawk, Hurricane Dolphin and Hurricane Leon, using them to Link Summon Karakuri Giant Senpuujin. This trigger’s Licker’s Trap, Tongue of Constraint, tying them up. This is resolved when Shurikenger summons Tenkuujin, using its special ability to negate the last Trap that was played. Oboro then reveals she’s completed a new Karakuri Ball, which Kouta and Nanami both suggest she give to their leader, Yosuke. Touched by their faith in him (where was this faith when this whole mess started?), Yosuke equips Senpuujin with Karakuri Ball 13: Karakuri Stamp (a candy toy that made its way into the show. It comes in red, as seen here, or in green and has seven stamps).



The Stamp’s effect is that when a monster equipped with it battles, the attack is negated, and the opposing monster loses all counters placed on it (so, would the people trapped in stamps have died if Licker hadn’t been made a giant? That’s pretty grim). Shurikenger then activates Tenkuujin’s other effect: since Senpuujin is on the field and Hurricane Dolphin is in the GY, he can banish the latter to equip Tenkuujin onto the former. TenkuuSenpuujin destroys Licker for good and we end the episode with our trio eating curry with Oboro and Hamster Headmaster. Next time: Furabijo quits Jakanja and joins a reluctant Nanami as an idol group. This and more on Scroll 30: Idol and Friendship.

Final thoughts: I’m… not quite sure what to say about this episode. It’s fairly decent as a stand-alone episode, but it’s not got that great a premise.