[Kamen Rider Lucha]

I'm diving back into Hikari Sentai Maskman after a long break. I watched the first 14 episodes last Fall, but got distracted by life. But frankly, fuck life. I’m making time for Maskman.

To recap my feelings on the first 14 episodes:

- The most striking thing about Maskman is its deadly serious tone. I'm so used to the childish bombast of modern Sentai shows that the seriousness of Maskman is somewhat jarring. In a good way. I think.

- Sometimes the tone is so serious that whenever the show tosses out a, "child of the week," episode, it suffers from severe tonal whiplash. Like, one episode we're watching intense, melodramatic political intrigue unfold within the ranks of Underground Empire Tube, and the next we're watching the Maskmen help some annoying alien child return to his home planet (Also, there are aliens now? What???). The show has a tendency to whip from good storytelling to pandering childishness on a dime.

- Similar to Jetman -- which came several years later -- each of the episodes (without the OP and END sequences) runs about 17min. I'm consistently surprised by how much plot they pack into the short runtime. And how much faster I'm able to get through these series.

- Also similar to Jetman is the romance between Takeru (Red Mask) and Mio. This time it's flipped -- Mio was a member of villain group who disguised herself as a human, as opposed to a human who becomes part of the villain group -- but like in Jetman, it's pretty damn effective. In episode one, when Mio gets sucked into the Earth and Takeru can't save her -- I have to say, I had genuine feels. Can't wait to see how this relationship progresses, seeing as Mio is now frozen in a block of magic ice.

- The hero designs for the show are impeccable. I even like – nay, love – the earrings on the women's helmets. Because they're frequently used as bombs.

- Haruka -- aka, YellowMask -- is a badass female character that seems so far ahead of her time. Her struggle with traditional femininity -- and how it doesn't conform to her brutal ninja upbringing -- is a base part of the character. As such, she feels a lot more progressive than even the most modern Sentai heroines.

- Igam might be my favorite female general of any Sentai I've seen so far. She's a lot like Lady Oscar from Rose of Versailles or Utena from, well, Utena -- a girl who was raised to be a boy so she could inherit the throne of the Underground Empire Tube. She -- and those around her -- refers to herself by male pronouns and considers herself Princess Ial’s older brother. Between Haruka and Igram, the gender politics of the series are pretty forward-thinking. Only time will tell whether they amount to anything, but I applaud Hirohisa Soda for at least broaching some potentially interesting topics.

- I’m really into the team’s cover story. They’ve all been assembled to join a secret government (?) facility because of their awesome Aura Power and exceptional martial arts abilities. And how do they keep their secret? By playing pit crew to Takeru’s hotshot Formula One racer. It’s fantastically absurd, but it works – especially when the team has to sacrifice their Grand Prix dreams to upgrade their F1 racecar into a Maskman super car fit for rescuing a kid and his father from some crazy-ass Mobius Strip dimension.

- Last but not least, Emperor Zeba is fucking fabulous. He’s like a monstrous, Victorian David Bowie. I love every jewel in his crazily-proportioned, bedazzled body.

TL;DR

I'll be picking up where I left off – Episode 15, “Carol Love.”

This is the first Momoko (aka Pink Mask)-centric episode. And as such, it’s about flowers. Cause she’s a girl. I didn’t say this series was completely forward thinking in its presentation of gender, did I?

But it’s not just any flower. It’s a magic flower called a, “Carol Love,” and it rescued Momoko from a scary cave when she was a small child. By lighting up and providing a path to the exit.

In debt to the flower, Momoko has cared for it ever since – even though it only blooms for one day every 5 years. The day that it blooms is very special to her because she’s totally in love with that flower. Like a normal human might love a dog or a cat.

Meanwhile, the Underground Empire Tube sends out a MOW who releases Hell Flowers that wreak havoc on everything they touche. And shock of all shocks -- the Carol Love’s pollen (or whatever it is – it’s visualized as tears dripping from the flower. Cause it’s alive and has feelings. Or something.) has the ability to neutralize the Hell Flowers’ evil power. Because that cave Momoko got lost in as a child? It was really an entrance to the Underground Empire Tube.

So Momoko must decide whether to sacrifice the flower or let the world burn. (Hint: She sacrifices that shit. But it’ll live forever in the hearts of all the people it saved. ‘Cause Sentai.)

While this episode sounds really dumb, it’s actually great. It’s the kind of episode that pre-Zyuranger Sentai excels at – one where a character must make a hard, character defining choice… a choice presented in a truly ludicrous package. In this case Momoko’s choice is between saving the Carol Love and saving the city. Are her feelings more important than the safety of dozens of innocents? Ultimately, the greater good is more precious than her sentimentality. And as absurd as it sounds, the episode succeeds at taking us into Momoko’s world, showing us why she cares about the Carol Love, and making us feel for her loss. The loss may be a flower, but the writer skillfully shows us why the flower is important to Momoko. And her sacrifice in the end reveals Momoko as tougher than we expected.

The episode also provides some interesting world-building. It’s revealed that the Empress who preceded Zeba – Igam and Ial’s mother – was a compassionate pacifist, and the Carol Love was her favorite flower. So there’s more to the Tube than we expected. I’m intrigued.

And, as usual, the action was fantastic.

This episode earns 4/5 exploding helmet-earrings.