[Fish Sandwich]

Kakuranger 50-51:

50 is kind of halfway between being the the last hurrah for standard monster-of-the-week episodes, and being the start of the show's final arc. It's probably that lack of commitment that made feel strangely unimpactful. It's not wild and fun enough to be a great standalone Kakuranger story, and the plot still having relatively low stakes makes it hard to feel the sense of impending doom until the very end. It's doing important setup. I mean, we get to meet Daimaou's family, of all things, so it's not like this is some pointless filler to be skipped over. It's just that at this point, with all the crap they've endured, the Kakurangers are too awesome for a mysterious inn to be that imposing. Sasuke has gotten separated from his team in the woods so many times by now, he barely flinches when it happens here. Ninjaman will turn into a samurai and roast a giant monster without even needing to be called a novice first. Heck, Muteki Shogun's even back to being a regular member of the cast. These guys are bascially unstoppable. So what if the episode ends with spooky storm clouds literally on the horizon? What could possibly give the Kakurangers trouble anymore?

Well, an angry mob, a whole lot of destruction of property, and a plan to completely break Tsuruhime mentally, leaving the team without their leader. Yeah, I'd say 51 definitely provides some good answers to that question. This show has pushed its heroes to the brink plenty of times before, and it's no less effective here. The big difference this time is that the focus is squarely on Tsuruhime, for whom the stakes are much more immediate and personal. It's not an episode about how the Kakurangers are gonna stop the bad guys. It's an episode about how Tsuruhime has to make a horrible decision, and how the others are trying to stop her from going through with it. Actually defeating evil is a secondary concern at best right now. In the moment, simply not actively playing into their hands is about all the team can hope for.