[Sh Ranger]

Detective heroine duo VS Phantom thief: Gavan Edition. While the action was mostly good, the plot was the most superficial so far. In concept, it's a story about a mother and daughter fleeing from a toxic relationship, which sounds dramatic enough, but in execution, there aren't any clever twists or developments to make it intriguing and it seems like the phantom thief Fade was added as a gimmick to distract from that hollowness.

Other than being a cliche without any uniqueness to his presentation, the ending suggests that Fade doesn't even know what it means to be one. Like, he's a phantom thief for hire, but then he steals from his client? Pretty sure phantom thieves are supposed to have a code of honor, so this is poor conduct, regardless of how much that guy deserves it. This just makes him look like a poser who only cares about the aesthetic.

Reiji's involvement is too limited here, for the protagonist. He doesn't say anything important and essentially only shows up to help in the climax. This just feels like an episode of Chou Uchuu Keiji Gavan Luminous, which wouldn't be so bad if there was an actual progression to the overall narrative to make it worth watching, if not on a multiversal level then at least universal. Even for Kiki and Koto, whose interactions continue to be amusing, there's basically nothing to see here that wasn't already established in their debut.

Next time we're finally getting a story set in A0073, so I think that'll be the clincher for whether or not I continue to engage with this show.