[Androzani84]

New week, new set of four reviews. Starting with?

Timeranger Case File 15: Find the Sniper 21/05/2000

We open on Lila transforming into Tatsuya wearing Ryuya?s uniform for the benefit of the Londars? latest hire, Sniper Reihou, a famous hit woman they?ve hired to wipe out the Timerangers. After some bartering, Dolnero agrees to pay her 35 million yen to wipe the group out (7000 per member). Meanwhile, Sion sees Honami in his magazine getting an article about her exploits, much to Yuri?s (and my) annoyance. She?s announced her intent to interview all of the Timerangers, which makes the group determined to keep her safe.

But as it turns out, the article is basically the prose equivalent of clickbait. Honami already said she refuses to get anymore picture of the Timerangers and further refuses to take responsibility for the article. But we learn she still has a crush on TimeYellow and Ayase (who she?s mistaken for the same person). Once Honami gets home, she finds Reihou waiting for her. Yuri leaps off the Time Flyer to spy on Honami?s apartment, which she finds has been ransacked and is now empty, as Reihou has taken the photojournalist hostage.

Checking the apartment, Ayase discovers a blast mark, which Tock attributes to Reihou, who was imprisoned for 120 years on a murder charge (kind of predictable as crimes go). Meanwhile, unable to gather any information from Honami, Reihou uses her sniper gear to shoot out the elevator, trapping them in the room. When Honami still refuses to talks, Reihou manages to find her wallet with pictures of her crush, which gives her an idea.

Soon, Sion detects an irregular space time pulse at a plaza, where Honami sits, a collar of some sort (I?m guessing a bomb) around her neck. As Tock identifies the source of the pulse, and warns them that Reihou can not only penetrate their suits, but she could be anywhere within a 1 kilometre radius (and no, I don?t know what that is in miles). And it turns out the collar is a bomb, one set to go off in 30 minutes. As Honami has an imagine spot of TimeYellow being gunned down, Reihou shoots her badge off her jacket to get he to stay in place.

Elsewhere, Sion reconfigures VolPulsar to create a barrier around the area so they can ascertain Reihou?s location. The group approaches the square with Tatsuya, Ayase and Domon disguising themselves before transforming, while Yuri and Sion sit in the back, waiting for when the barrier will become stable. But the sight of TimeYellow gets Honami to move, despite him tying to warn her otherwise (for a camerawoman, she?s really bad at reading body language).

Fortunately, Reihou can?t hit her due to the barrier. Unfortunately, it?s unstable as a result of being set off prematurely and Honami won?t sit still long enough to be defused. But they do have Reihou?s location, and can defend against her shots long enough for the three main males (Sion?s counted as a femboy for this descriptor) to corner her, while Yuri and Sion get the bomb off Honami by knocking her out.

Reihou?s battle proceeds to the docks, where she summons a load of Zenits for the trio to battle (and I thought she was a professional killer). But she screws up her shot, before Yuri leaps in to beat her up (good thing the Timerangers have one woman on hand). But Reihou proceeds to trigger a rebound to avoid arrest.

After inexplicably ineffectually shooting Reihou with the VolSniper, Yuri has Tock summon the TimeJets, combining them into TimeRobo Alpha (wouldn't Beta be more appropriate? Then we could have a shoot-out). But Reihou proves just as slippery as a giant, planning Tod est Roy the robot for more money (but given she?s stuck as a giant, how would she spend it?). But they quickly do what I suggested and switch to Beta purely to shoot her and trap her in a forcefield, before shifting back to Alpha for he finishing blow to recapture her.

As Yuri returns Honami to her bed, Sion sees just how many pictures she?s taken of TimeYellow, which causes Yuri to ruminate how her frustration caused her to miss the obvious. They then leave her with an email. Meanwhile, Dolnero and Lila return to hear the bad news from Gien, but they?re not broken up about it. And back with the heroes for one last scene, Domon reads an email from Honami, and asks Sion to teach him how to reply, making both parties happy.

Next time: Domon tries to help out a down on his luck soba chef learn the business at the expense of his duties as a Timeranger, in Timeranger Case File 16: A Dream of Soba.

Final thoughts: I liked this better than Honami?s previous outing (and Honami herself came off as more likeable here), with an appropriately tense situation, and we get what looks like the beginnings of a romantic subplot. How well they?ll pull that off remains to be seen though.