[Sh Ranger]

I had an idea.... If the monolith is Gif's heart and Genta is Gif's body, then maybe Demons Driver is Gif's mind? This is the only devil we've met so far who's attached to a thing, rather than a person.

I look forward to seeing the inevitable graphic fanart of Vice's mouth (not in a weird way, if that's what you were thinking)! And good for him, finally getting forgiveness from Yukimi, due to Ikki vouching for him. #NiceVice

That scene with Julio and Sakura in the dojo was kind of lazy, since a variation of that already occurred last episode with the same two people in the same place saying similar dialogue. Feels like filler that could've been used to have Demons show off more instead. It's pretty irrelevant as well. I don't recall seeing any progress with Aguilera's redemption arc here, since she presumably only agrees to team up so he can obtain the Gif Stamp. But that's really my only complaint with this episode.

As I predicted, it was only a matter of time before Olteca got some backstory, which he reveals to Chigusa shortly before feeding her to a Giftarian. Similar to Doctor Nakadai from Abaranger, he was a genius kid who felt out of touch with the world. The motivation seems to be different though, since Olteca doesn't seek to make his life more exciting, but wants to be understood. That's definitely not enough yet to make him redeemable, especially considering the aforementioned Giftarian feeding, but maybe it's setting up his arc for later. I have no doubt that Deadmans are only pretending to understand him, so they can use his genius mind for evil.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rei

Ikki understands the position Hiromi is in, but still encourages him to transform vowing to lay his life down for the sake of protecting him as well, as well as Hiromi mentioning how much Ikki has grown, it's such sweet scene! Ikki's not my comfort character like Touma (Rei, stop mention Saber damnit!) but he's really growing to be a really good protagonist, I'd put him above Aruto at this point.

Five episodes ago, I was starting to get annoyed with Ikki's lack of empathy. But now that's starting to turn around here. Hiromi's right, he actually has grown a lot to be willing to not only acknowledge Hiromi's need for autonomy, but to support it as well. It's like Ikki has become a new man and I respect that. I like the symbolism where he walks in to the space where Wakabayashi's illusion was, implying how Hiromi sees some of the same wisdom in him, encouraging to fight for your dreams.

Which is why I'm inclined to agree with your Reiwa protagonist ranking. Where would you put Vice though, above or below Aruto?

Remix and Machine parallel:

I just did a little quick research and found out the new tortoise Machine has been named as Shellsnapper. A tortoise may be slightly different to a turtle, but I think it's close enough to parallel Jeanne Turtle Genome.