[Fish Sandwich]

I think my favorite bit in this whole episode was this shot of all the Zenkaigers just sort of spinning around on the court while Kaito cheers them on as if they're accomplishing something. Like, if Zox hadn't intervened, I get the feeling these five would've ended up busting out a line like "the most important thing is that we all had fun!" before heading off to get completely destroyed by the monster of the week. Mind you, I don't want to disparage that positive attitude – it IS important to have fun! It's just that this week, tennis isn't only fun. It's also serious business.

And that's pretty much the key to why this one works so well. A lot of the strongest comedy comes from how no-nonsense all the other characters are being about this nonsense sports manga pastiche they're in, all while the core heroes are struggling to square that with their usual approach to saving the day. They are very much out of their element here, and that disconnect highlights how spot-on the tone is throughout. Or I mean, I assume, anyway. Evidently Koumura knows way more about this stuff than I do, but this does reinforce for me how much Zenkaiger stands on its own, because I still found the entire plot hilarious anyway.

Not that I could ever be unsatisfied when you've got Sta— Satoshi joining in to help save the day. It's not some huge revelation for his character or anything, but him helping the Zenkaigers this blatantly for Yatsude's sake, going so far as to dress for the occasion, highlights that softer side to him quite nicely. Considering that the episode ends with Ijirude revealing a brand new experimental lackey, too, it seems rather purposefully timed. This is an episode that seemingly doesn't have too much to do with anything in terms of the larger plot, but it sort of portends big changes just around the corner in a way I like. Gives things that tiny bit more substance.

As usual, though, the episode hardly needs to rely on big overarching storytelling to have that substance. Zenkaiger's biggest strength is generally in how wildly creative and outside-the-box its episode plots get, and this was no exception. The fun of the writing is supported by a lot of impressively stylistic visual choices, mostly throughout the climax. The extensive use of green screen stuff to push the manga aesthetic has no right to look as appealing as it does, and the surprisingly huge amount of very real explosions works wonders to emphasize how oddly intense this all is for a game of tennis. Zenkaiger always seems to know how to squeeze the absolute most it can get out of a premise, and if it seems like I'm saying things along these lines an awful lot week after week, it's only because this show keeps doing it! This one in particular even feels like a direct extension of the previous episode, taking advantage of things like the idea of Zox's secret hobbies to deliver a new plot that's every bit as crazy, only in a different direction. Maybe that's just Zenkaiger in a nutshell? Always crazy, but never the same crazy twice?