[Fish Sandwich]

EPISODE 27: "Ripple"

History repeats a little here, because after a fantastic, emotional two-parter featuring Kanzaki so good the normally ominous music in the preview was replaced with the theme song, the opening changes yet again. The first version is still the best, but I think I like this one more than the second. Say goodbye to Negative Ichijou, and hello to this shot of Rising Titan Form posing with suave style.



Considering the show is still just in the middle of introducing the Rising forms (which kinda makes the new opening a spoiler!), this isn't quite the start of a new chapter like the last time this happened, but it is another two-parter written by Inoue that will feature Dragon Form fighting a monster by the water for its climax. Things in Kuuga have a way of looping back around, huh?

Well, uh, yeah, they kind of do, since first thing after the cold open, Yuusuke is telling Sakurako about Tsubaki's "joke" theory about the electrical shocks that led to Kuuga gaining the Rising power being caused by the time he used a defibrillator on Yuusuke. The show essentially takes a second here to put two and two together for the audience, and clarifies that, joke or not, Tsubaki was probably right on the mark, which would also explain why Sakurako hasn't found any ancient text that actually mentions any of this. Because this didn't happen to the ancient Kuuga.

The conversation then turns to Pops' vacation plans, where it becomes apparent he's cheaped out on heading to the coast in favor of hitting up a nearby water park. Yuusuke brings up that with people less willing to travel while the Grongi are around, the park has lost a lot of its regular customers. What we can take away from this is that Pops supports local businesses. Or I suppose we could take away that these episodes are about the effects the Grongi are having on society. The ripples, if you will. That might be more important. These episodes may have some surface-level similarities to episodes 13 and 14, but unlike them, they get to the point a lot quicker. Right after this scene, the episode moves over to the water park in question, where Pops, Nana, Minori, and Minori's friend from work, Keiko, are having fun in the sun.

Keiko is actually the major guest character here. She's been around the preschool in a few episodes before this, if you're keeping track. I don't know if Kuuga just had a super easy time getting actors back for some reason, but it's surprising how rare it actually is for someone entirely new to show up. It seems like any possible prior connection between characters gets used, to the point even an extra like Keiko can become a huge part of a story at some point. It's like once you've been introduced in Kuuga, the show never really forgets about you. Even Kameyama, Ichijou's old partner from Nagano, manages to keep squeezing in appearances every now and then. Anyway, Keiko's whole dilemma here is that she's pregnant, which she's very happy about because having a child is a wonderful thing, and she can't wait to see her child grow up to live a happy, fulfilling life in a world that's so... full of monsters. Oh, right. That might be a problem. A lot of Keiko's optimism ends up pretty crushed when it turns out the latest Unidentified Lifeform stopped by the pool they were at only a little bit after they left, which would certainly make things feel a lot closer to home.

Thankfully, the police are still working as hard as ever to sort this mess out. I mean, they've still barely got a clue what's going on, but they are trying. All the progress they've made up to this point has been significantly undermined by the fact that they're dealing with the Go level Grongi now. They're tougher, smarter, they have weapons, yeah, but that matters more to Kuuga. For the police, what's the most worrying right now is that the patterns they're using to kill people are more complex, and thus harder to predict, ruining what was pretty much the only thing the cops were consistently on top of. They managed to get Buuro taken down last time, but as Ichijou points out here, they never did manage to figure out why he was flying to the areas he was. Another problem they've yet to solve is finding equipment that's of any use against them. Although Enokida is shown looking at a screen with designs of a bike that doesn't quite look like the Try Chaser, and she mentions a mysterious "BTCS" to Ichijou at the end of their scene together. Huh.

As for the Grongi themselves, they're hanging out as usual -- in weird rooms with poor lighting. It's Katsuya Watanabe's turn in the director rotation again, and while I still don't have much to say about his style overall, I will note he's kind of become Ishida Jr. when it comes to Grongi scenes. He plays it a bit safer, but has the basics down, like the mostly monochromatic colors, and the shots that aren't focused on the thing you're actually supposed to be looking at.



Yuusuke ends up leaving a very busy Pole Pole in the hands of Sakurako to go help out Ichijou. Sakurako keeps busy by dealing with Tsubaki asking her out to lunch again, Tsubaki trying to score a date apparently being how you know it's an Inoue episode. Yuusuke keeps busy, because, despite heading out to help with the pool murders, he ends up distracted by Go-Badaa-Ba, the bike guy, who it turns out is also another grasshopper one. I guess somebody realized that idea was too good to only last two episodes, so they go all out with Badaa. He's tougher than Badzuu, and as we find out here, on top of having his own transforming bike, he even does his own transformation pose, taking the Rider inspiration to the next level. And speaking of transformations, Yuusuke's has a weird little easter egg of sorts.



There's like a straight up sci-fi earpiece that appears before the helmet forms around him. You might think this means someone didn't get the memo that Kuuga's powers are more fantastic, but then, the Pegasus Bowgun has some high tech detail on it, and Kuuga also has a pet beetle robot, so I don't know. What I do know is that this episode ends with some sweet, sweet bike action, followed by Kuuga getting caught in a fiery explosion. Uh oh.

THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER

I guess it's only fair an episode that ends with Kuuga getting blown up skips out on the thumb action.

Total thumbs up count: 49+0 = 49

EPISODE 28: "Clarification"

Of course, that explosion turns out to not be a huge deal, with Kuuga shaking it off, and managing to get back on his bike, still ready for action. This seems to impress Badaa enough that he calls it a day, and rides off. This whole fight sequence is insanely cool, by the way. There's a nice gradual escalation the show does with Kuuga's encounters with Badaa. The first time he showed up, it was just to say hello. This time, he's clearly just testing Kuuga's skills more than anything. Badaa is great rival material, and the way the show decides to build that rivalry is smart. There's an anticipation for what comes next. When is Badaa going to take off the training wheels and really go after Kuuga? Is Yuusuke going to be ready? Making it so Badaa isn't taking things seriously at first means there's still a mystery to him whenever he shows up, because we haven't seen him giving his all yet. And if this is him not trying, then when he finally is, it's bound to be the kind of bad day for Kuuga that makes for great television.



After the opening, Ichijou heads to the scene of the latest pool murder, where he briefly takes note of a woman nearby playing a piano. He doesn't quite suspect it yet, but this is in fact Go-Bemiu-Gi, the sea snake responsible for all these deaths. Her patterns are proving difficult for the police to crack, but they're starting to put the pieces together, noting that the number of victims at each scene seems to vary too much to simply be random. Yuusuke points Ichijou in the right direction when he suggests looking for some kind of sequence in the locations, which leads to him finally cracking both Buuro and Bemiu's logic. Buuro was targeting Tokyo's different wards in the order of the gojuuon (alphabetically, basically), while Bemiu's killings are based on a piece of classical music, with the number of people killed representing the type of note, and the name of each location representing its place on a musical scale. Thankfully Ichijou, being a class act himself, knows the composition in question is a piece by Chopin just from the tiny bit of it he heard Bemiu playing earlier, and just like that, the police have their edge back, able to make preparations for the next set of murders. Bemiu isn't too happy when she realizes nobody is at the pool she was going to next.

While all this is going down, there's of course plenty happening with the supporting cast. This episode sees Nana also learning her and the others from Pole Pole could've been attacked by an Unidentified Lifeform if they had merely happened to stay at that pool a while longer, and this scene, I really like. There's a mention of her teacher being killed again, and overall it really works to start putting some value into her plotline by suggesting that these things do weigh down on her, even if she doesn't always show it on the surface. Keiko sits down for a discussion with Minori where she admits she's worried bringing a child into such a chaotic world is a mistake. It's pretty weighty stuff handled quite well. One thing I really like is that the Godai Speech this time is coming from Minori Godai. Again, Inoue's take on Yuusuke often ends up feeling a little different in moments like these, so to just not have him be the one lifting people's spirits ends up being a point in the story's favor. And, also like I've said before, I like Minori's characterization and the similarities she has with her brother a lot, so this feels like a natural progression. It's a very Kuuga kind of outlook being presented, with Minori telling Keiko than even if life is full of suffering and hardship, it's also full of things that will make you glad you're alive. It's not the most complex moral in the world, I guess, but it's a good scene. I have to confess, though, I'm even more fond of the scene in here between Enokida and my main man Jean, who gives her a gift for her son: a book of papercraft projects he wants her and Sayuru to work on together. This is the kind of sweet gesture you'd never get out of a guy like Tsubaki, you know? Not only was Jean paying attention to what that phone call was about, he even makes sure to tell Enokida he thinks it's wonderful how much she enjoys her job while giving the book to her, just so there's no misunderstanding his motive here. Jean's just out here bringing families closer together, because that's how he rolls.

At the episode's climax, Bemiu has decided a beach is an acceptable substitute for a pool, and has resumed doing her thing there, because of course summer vacation in the world of Kuuga means a high chance of getting whipped by a snake monster. Kuuga's there to deal with it, using Dragon Form in a fight that has a super interesting progression to it. He actually gets one end of the Dragon Rod broken clean off, and then loses it entirely, shortly after getting thrown into a shack, but then lucks out when the tide brings in a random stick for him to use as a new weapon, leading to Rising Dragon's debut, which is strictly business, going straight to the finishing move, with Kuuga ramming Bemiu through, and then tossing her into the sea, where she creates an explosion that's notably more huge than usual, something also true of Buuro last time. Hm.



And that about wraps these episodes up! I still have a soft spot for Chouno, but this is definitely Inoue's most solid work on Kuuga to this point. The detective drama is legitimately compelling, really having the cops think their way through the current case, and even the last one, which is extra impressive. The heartfelt human part has a great angle, and lands well. And the two fight scenes are both really frenetic and fun. Any way you look at it, I think this is a winner of a two-parter.

THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER

Still light on the thumb action, but Minori is making her brother proud here.




Total thumbs up count: 49+2 = 51