[Fish Sandwich]

Kakuranger 20-21:

20 is the third time in half a dozen episodes the show has pumped the "Sasuke gets separated from the team" well for plot ideas, which, by all rights, should be getting old by now. Yet, this episode is good enough in its own right, and just barely different enough, that I can't be too upset. The unique twist this time is that Sasuke has to protect a little kid while on the run, who Junior's goon squad of kunoichi are also trying to kill specifically because they know having to worry about that on top of everything will throw Sasuke off his game. It's another really good showing for Sasuke, portraying him as a vulnerable human being, who pushes past his own physical limitations through sheer heroic determination, never giving up until the last possible second. He fights the good fight here, and you know it's the case because at the end Muteki Shogun tosses him the big flaming sword in approval, so he can turn the tables on his foes. Awesome. Hard to go wrong with this one. It's good drama with a tasteful dash of the usual wackiness where it counts. I mean, where else are you gonna see an evil mad scientist with radio equipment strapped to his head riding around on a bicycle?

21 is all about the Kakurangers hitting the streets to raise public awareness of how cool and interesting ninjas are. Come on guys, I'm sure the show's not doing that poorly, have some dignity! This ends up leading to a monkey with sweet shades learning to copy all their awesome ninja abilities to fight them with, and if that isn't enough to sell you on the episode, I don't know what is. Pretty fortunate, too, because this is another one that doesn't have much going on beyond a straightforward confrontation between the team and the Youkai of the week. No Muteki Shogun, even! Although, just to be honest for a second, it's hard not to acknowledge that scenes with the Jusho Fighters have more energy to them, and that's certainly appropriate for a lighthearted, goofy episode like this one.

Back on the subject of minor changes to the show's formula for a second, it seems they're still having trouble deciding exactly what they want to do with those quizzes at the end. When they first started, the questions were about things in the episode, to see if you were paying attention, which makes sense. Then they were about trivia related to the episode, like whether or not spiders are insects, or the etymology of the word "kunoichi". You know, stuff that might actually be mildly interesting? But now here comes the end of episode 21 with a completely random riddle that's just a setup for a terrible pun. I can only imagine the disappointment of kids back in '94 who actually had to wait through an entire commercial break for that answer.