[Fish Sandwich]

EPISODE 17: "Preparation"

Hey, you all like recap episodes, right? No? Well I'm going to talk about why this is a good one anyway.



See, unlike a lot of people, I actually appreciate the value of an episode like this. They're obviously never going to be exciting to established fans following the series, but there are practical benefits to them I don't think should be understated.

From the production perspective, obviously, assembling a "new" product out of old material is just a dream come true for the bean counters, and when Kuuga is spending all this money on elaborate ruins and church sets, I think it's only fair they take at least a week to breathe. An episode with minimal new content also provides a perfect opportunity to give up-and-coming staff a shot at working on that next level in an environment with less consequences. This episode was directed by Nobuhiro Suzumura, one of the show's assistant directors, who made his debut with Kuuga, and who has gone on to have a long career with Toei, directing proper episodes of shows here and there, as well as seemingly being a go-to guy for spin-offs, handling stuff like Ex-Aid's Another Ending trilogy and the ROGUE miniseries from Build. On the writing end, the episode is the work of both Katsura Murayama, one of the two people responsible for creating all the fictional bits of culture in Kuuga like the Grongi language, and Tsuyoshi Kida, who would of course go on to be a main writer for both Hibiki and Wizard.

The other thing about a recap episode that I think often goes overlooked is simply that not everyone watches an entire TV show from the start. This is probably becoming more and more unthinkable in the age of streaming, but it's entirely likely there were people walking in on Kuuga at, say, the sixth episode, or the eleventh, or even this exact one, and providing a succinct explanation of the show would've legitimately been helpful to them. And that's what I think I want to say about this episode the most. As a recap episode, it's exceedingly clear and concise. Boring, yes, but also extremely practical. It fills you in on everything you need to know about Kuuga. He's a guy who transforms to fight monsters who want to kill people. Here's his secret identity. Here are all his friends, and what they do. Here are the police, who matter immensely. Here are Kuuga's different forms. Here are the Grongi, this is what "we" know about them, this is what we don't. It's an effective little video encyclopedia on Kuuga, and there's a certain novelty to Fumihiko Tachiki getting to do narration beyond one word in a preview each week. Also, while I'm on a trivia kick, for those who don't know, Tachiki would later do the narration in Double, as well as providing the voice for the Gaia Memories. Suffice it to say, he's got a cool voice, which is another point in this episode's favor.

The actual new material here consists of roughly seven minutes of new footage, which centers simply on a new Grongi, Me-Gadora-Da (the tiger one!), going to wreck up the place, and Kuuga's efforts to stop him. And I do mean effort. The timestamps here mean I can say with certainty that Yuusuke was fighting this dude for several hours straight. I know he works hard for people's smiles, but man, I hope he got a good night's sleep after all that. The good news about it taking so long is that you get more cool nighttime action, concluding the episode with Kuuga's second ever Mighty Kick, and more cool shots of things lit by fire, which, again, always works in this show. I'm pleasantly surprised by this episode. It's not doing much, but what it does, it does very well.



THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER

I went through all the trouble of debating with myself whether or not a thumbs up we've seen before counts twice (it doesn't), and then the episode saves me the trouble by not having any at all.

Total thumbs up count: 30+0 = 30