[Fish Sandwich]

EPISODE 31: "Retaliation"

Recap episode time again! Kind of! See, this episode sort of exists in halves. It's partially a recap, and partially a completely new story, with a plot beyond Kuuga fighting a monster for two hours. It's also got one foot in the last two-parter, and the other in the next one, which means it kind of frustratingly fits in with neither, and thus I once again get to talk about a clip show by itself.

Like I said though, this one is a bit different. It's still directed by Nobuhiro Suzumura, but Arakawa is actually on board to write this time, presumably just for the new bits. Going on this assumption would mean that Kiyoshi Takenaka, the other credited writer, handled the two segments of narration over the old footage. I'd love to give some trivia about who Takenaka is, and what he went on to do after Kuuga, but I honestly have no clue who this guy is, or what else he's worked on. So your guess is as good as mine.

Fortunately, there's actually stuff worth talking about in the episode this time. It opens up with Yuusuke and Minori chatting at Pole Pole, and seeing some news about the big explosion last episode. Fortunately, as is confirmed here, nobody did end up getting hurt, but that kind of collateral damage is sill a problem in its own right, and I don't think anyone is very happy about how things turned out. Including Yuusuke, who once again gets a nice little pensive moment watching the television.



Beyond this, there are only a few real highlights of Yuusuke's scenes. One is him explaining to Sakurako how the Rising forms were created by comparing it to the way he got his base forms essentially by wanting them hard enough, which is yet one more fact to add on top of the ever growing pile of explanations for how Kuuga's big power-up happened, which might be considered excessive at this point, but I mean, I've also seen shows where people wish things like this were given more explanation, so it depends what you're after, I guess. The other is just him riding off to deal with the latest Unidentified Lifeform at the end as Kuuga, driving down the road towards the camera to narration like the ending of an episode of an old Showa series, which is cute.

Speaking of, the Grongi get their obilgatory new scene here too, which is pretty okay. If Watanabe is Ishida Jr. when it comes to directing their scenes, then I suppose Suzumura can be Watanabe Jr. The washed out colors are definitely on point here. As for what the scene is about, it's just Badaa getting ready to start his game, which is mostly setup for the next episode, but I will give this one some credit for having one scene of Badaa terrorizing a person with his bike. Keeps things a little more exciting, and the more screentime that bike gets, the better. Also, I guess this isn't true of Badaa's previous appearances, since he only starts being credited here, but the guy doing his bike stunts is actually Takumi Narita's younger brother Ryou, who's a trial rider in his own right. Just a fun extra thing to keep in mind when Badaa and Kuuga start going at it next time.



The other chunk of new material is a brief scene with Ichijou and Sakurai. Uh, I haven't really mentioned Sakurai yet, have I? You might know him better as "the not Sugita one". Anyway, their scene serves to establish that the police have decided to distance themselves from Unidentified Lifeform #4... right after they were finally starting to admit they consider #4 an ally. A little cowardly, maybe, but to be fair, it's hard to trust someone you've never met. Even Sakurai asks Ichijou to be more upfront with what he knows about Kuuga.

...And I think that's about all I can manage to squeeze out of this episode! Obviously not a high point for the series, or anything. Actually, I think I respect this one a lot less than the first recap episode for being so uncommitted. Unlike that episode, which totally owned its format, this one wants to pretend to have relevance to the progressing story. Don't be fooled. There are no valuable insights into the characters or plot you're missing here. It's still ultimately just a straightforward summary of everything that's happened since the last clip show. And it's not bad at that, to be fair, but there's nothing to really recommend about it either.

THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER

A couple more are featured in old footage, but as I said with episode 17, only new ones count.



Total thumbs up count: 55+1 = 56