[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Being Kuuga, there are, of course, other things going on in the background.

Sometimes to search for the texts, you can't stay in your office. Now Sakurako has to go to the Gouram's experiment place, where she meets Enokida. Wow Enokida's being relatable for staying up all night and waking up very late. I wonder if she's obliged to go to her institute on time or the place's not that strict. I just noticed the cloned Ginoga doesn't have a belt, where it just melts. Does that mean it's the end of Ginoga?

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Speaking of the Grongi, there's a ton going on with them here. The primary monster this time is Me-Garume-Re (the chameleon one!), who's out taking advantage of his power of invisibility to murder hapless victims and, rather distressingly, is also announcing the location of his next killing to people at the scene of each crime. Apparently this makes "the game" more "fun" for him, which, uh, whatever he's talking about, can't be good news. As though this weren't enough by itself, we also get our first appearance from a new face who promises to be yet more trouble for our heroes. Well, I say "face", but we don't actually get a lot of that this episode. More credit where credit is due for Katsuya Watanabe, the direction in that introductory scene is pretty stylish. It's not the wild, alien feel Ishida likes to go for, which I prefer, but there's a real grimy crime thriller vibe to all these Grongi hanging out in a poorly lit room waiting to meet a mysterious new associate. Mysterious to us, anyway. The other Grongi go way, way back with this guy, but all we know for now is that he has a rather familiar haircut, and a sweet scarf.

This may be one of the most dangerous and scary Grongi yet, because when it's invisible you can't even know if you're being hunted until it's too late. O̶b̶v̶i̶o̶u̶s̶l̶y̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶a̶y̶s̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶g̶o̶o̶d̶ ̶n̶e̶w̶s̶,̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶n̶e̶x̶t̶ ̶l̶o̶c̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶m̶u̶r̶d̶e̶r̶.̶ Oh I also forget to mention this. I finally know now the role of Sasayama in the police; so she's the informant but stays in the headquarters.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Meanwhile, a bunch of cops have gathered to stop Garume's next murder, which becomes ironic when it turns out they're the victims.

The consequence of charging it without knowing anything about what will you face. To be fair being invisible obviously they can't see anything. The cops should just evacuate others from the spot Garume arrives.... though probably one of them has to stay to hear the next spot Garume will come. It's surely fun for Garume to see the confusion and futility humans show that he keeps doing that. Also are the cops using their old guns again as the bullets just bounce off Garume's body without any effect like in earlier part of the series.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Now, in case all this Grongi action wasn't enough, the obligatory Kuuga fight for the episode actually sees Yuusuke going up against Gooma again, bringing us full circle with him at night, although Kuuga's a lot less helpless than those cops from the beginning. It's a super cool throwdown in another memorable location, with a swaying spotlight illuminating an otherwise faintly lit warehouse. Gooma puts up a solid fight considering Yuusuke had nearly 20 episodes to improve his skills, but ultimately, Kuuga has him on the ropes, and ready for a good Rider Kick. Now, in case all this Grongi action still wasn't enough for you, Gooma gets lucky when Kuuga is interrupted by the sudden arrival of that mysterious new guy, who comes crashing into the warehouse on a motorcycle, with his helmet covering his face, as though he were some sort of... kinda like a... like a masked rider, or something.

The Grongi on the motorcycle distracts Kuuga long enough for Gooma to slip out, and leaves himself right after. Which is just as well for me. Why bother talking about exciting superhero action when I could be talking about Jean, instead?

Well, even Growing Kuuga is more impactul to Grongi than the cops so yeah.... Gooma obviously has his flight to take advantage of the sticking-to-the-ground Mighty Form. The new guy doesn't seem to has Grongi attributes but he acts like a Grongi by calling him Kuuga.... and yeah he does give masked rider vibes... those that watched newer series first would probably think it's a debut of a secondary/tertiary/etc. Rider!

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Okay, well, to be fair, this is actually more about Enokida's plot.

Damn eavesdropping Jean.... what will you do with the information about Enokida's familial ties you gain?

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Sakurako practically has to drag him out of the room since they're supposed to be leaving, and when they grab a bite to eat later, she questions what seems to have him so upset. Jean, man of mystery that he is, tries to dodge the question, however. I definitely feel for Sakurako on this one. After all, I'm still trying to figure out if he collects stamps or not. Alas, it's not that easy.

Did they eat at (again) 24 hours restaurant? Because it seems that they left Enokida at very late night.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Another thing that's not easy is tracking down the Grongi, but the police have two solid ideas of where they might be hiding out, and Ichijou and Yuusuke split up to check them out.

They think Grongis speaking Japanese may be a danger... because they potentially can sneak in daily human activities... do you actually think so? Grongis have no obligation to communicate with humans anyway to kill them and also Grongis have distinct traits like the tattoos.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

An element of the plot that's interesting to note here (and forgive me in advance for all the numbers I'm about to throw your way) is that Garume was one of the Grongi introduced way back in episode 3, and this episode makes reference to a previous encounter with him that happened offscreen, in the gap between episodes 6 and 7. This is apparent due to Yuusuke referencing the events happening between the cases of Unidentified Lifeforms #10 and #11, who we never actually saw. Badzuu was #6, and the episode after he was defeated, things picked up with Badjisu, who was #14. Episode 7 even opened with a conversation between Sugita and Ichijou making specific reference to the Unidentified Lifeform cases that happened in that gap. And there have been other gaps in the count since. While I'm sure the time skips were simply to keep the show more or less in "real time" the way Rider shows generally are, I'm totally unaware if there was a motive for creating these offscreen Kuuga adventures beyond it being logical the Grongi would be active more than twice a month. It seems like the kind of stuff that would be chronicled in some comic spin-off or something, but to my (limited) knowledge, these extra Grongi have never gotten more than names.

The cops and humans refer to Grongis via numbers so probably good way to keep track, as you are hearing more about the numbers than the Grongi's names. I just feel that most of Kuugas are 2-parters with 1 Grongis of the week so the only difference is the Grongi number, but if there are no off-screen parts like this, there would just be a lot less Grongis to fight, but the show would still give the same screentime and portion of each Grongis.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Putting the trivia aside, what's important to take away is that, while an invisible enemy might have been tricky to deal with for a Kuuga that only had Mighty and Dragon Forms to work with, Yuusuke now has Pegasus Form's enhanced senses to give him the edge against Garume's visual trickery. The good news there being Pegasus Form is finally getting a second appearance. The bad news is that Yuusuke isn't too sure how easy it'll be to line up a shot with all the buildings and whatnot getting in the way in an urban environment. Yuusuke does have one idea to deal with that though: asking Gouram for a lift. Bit of an oddball plan, but hey, Sakurako does manage to find some ancient text that might point to what Yuusuke wants.

So this episode teaches me that Pegasus' enhanced senses are more than just tracking someone from distance but also... detecting invisibility. This is Yusuke's development! He claimed it himself he knows now how Gouram works, therefore he makes better use for it. Also if Kuuga Mighty improves his attacks by training to jump kick, what does Pegasus Form do to improve his attacks for a finisher? I haven't seen any of finisher attempt other than Mighty.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

In the meantime, there's a quick scene at Pole Pole I definitely need to talk about, which involves a forlorn Nana coming in to reveal one of Garume's recent victims was actually her acting teacher.

Yeah especially if it's Garume, you don't even know if you're hunted, but you instantly die anyway. Other Grongis (probably except the Bee ones) at least is visible so that you have a chance to escape, not necessarily successful but still. So Minori has 2 occupations to help out at Pole Pole and teach kids... do her schedules not interrupt each other? Because she was helping at morning (9.45 a.m) there. Protecting other people's smiles means preventing this tragedy to happen to anyone! With Kuuga killing the races that would kill humans.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

The police are able to keep him visible long enough for Mighty Form to get some hits in, but the second Garume can, he runs for the hills, but that's no problem for Kuuga, who puts that plan for earlier into action, sniping Garume from the skies with Gouram's help.

At least the police figures out its weakness where bright light can disable his invisibility for 5 minutes. But still using the same bullets? Oh well Yusuke can track him down now. I'm quite amused and a bit baffled that Kuuga was surprised when Garume goes invisible again...I mean didn't you listen Ichijou warning you about Garume's invisibility right before that, lol.