[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

This one starts with a scene I really like. It's just Pops and Yuusuke having a little chat at Pole Pole, which ordinarily would be of little consequence, but it builds on the developments of the previous few episodes in a nice way, with Pops telling Yuusuke it's okay if he leaves on an adventure whenever he wants to.

Oh so this one did happen. Though it's not about Kazari asking Yusuke outside his adventure... but asking deeper inside it about him finding a girlfriend. And again about Yusuke showcasing Kuuga... umm... warrior symbol to a clueless Kazari. I wonder if Yusuke's going to cook a food that is Kuuga/warrior shaped...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

The police are having one of their usual "how f***ed are we?" meetings to discuss all the new information, and the new things they wish they had information on.

I wonder now how did they suspect that rose tattoo woman was #0.... there are other Grongis around and she doesn't seem to take charge of them... unless it's from her posture alone. The optimistic side would be that Daguva reduces the potential threatening Grongis with him killing them. But yeah... now they're dealing with quality (Daguva) over quantity (killed Grongis). They should remember that there are humans killing other humans, and Grongis seem to be the case too. But it's also said that Daguva revives them just to kill again...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

It's business as usual for the Grongi, too, who are continuing with their usual games.

So up to now there are no Grongis achieving what Gegeru asks so far because Kuuga killed them?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Yuusuke lightens the mood over at the police station by calling in on the BeatChaser's radio simply to ask if anyone there has caught a cold while on his way to meet up with Ichijou, Sakurako, and Enokida for their own meeting about Kuuga and the Grongi.

Yusuke's call to police would seem unecessary and disturbing to some people regarding authorities. So yeah there's a talk. From the Grongi talk, possibly only now that the translation Sakurako has been confused over makes sense, and not related to Yusuke at all, after previously it's all about Rising Forms. Yusuke truly sees now what makes him a monster, besides Tsubaki explanation, that is the implication he may be Daguva... I wish for Yusuke to actually bring up more about it with him being possibly the head Grongi, or related to him. And Yusuke doesn't explain himself why he had to climb the window (I mean he said he had to!).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

He's figured a lot of this out on his own already, as could be picked up from his reactions to things like Ichijou mentioning the symbol with four horns a few episodes back.

So the vision wasn't only something to show to the viewer about Yusuke giving in the hatred... but Yusuke did actually see it. And now it's indirectly revealed that Rising Mighty is the strongest one with Yusuke not using it against Jaraji and opts to use Rising Titan instead. I thought it's also partly to make Jaraji suffer more with a slow death.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Once they get back to business, the topic of discussion becomes the nature of Kuuga's powers, and how the Grongi are starting to possess similar abilities, like changing objects into weapons.

Changing form Grongi? Oh well just hope that the forms are like Kuuga's, more of multiform balance rather than vastly stronger ones (while also healing them with the new form). Because I want to also emphasize that quality isn't always the same as quantity. Having many forms doesn't guarantee you as stronger. BTW, it's already referenced back then by Tsubaki.... Yusuke after becoming Kuuga, has enhanced physical qualities even as human like Grongis (Ichijou shooting #B1!) and it grows over time. Yusuke is a pure hero, but his body has become monstrous back then. It's fantasy, but now I finally get the information about weapon changing that it's just atom manipulation. I still wonder how broken this ability could be, unless the atom manipulation limits what kind of object they can change.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

All in all, not his best fight! Once things have settled down, Yuusuke makes it clear to Ichijou (and the audience) that the presence he felt reminded him of #0 back in the forest, meaning we just got our first glimpse at Daguva's human form, who can manage to ruin Kuuga's day just by standing in place. That's pretty impressive!

Not even Pegasus Form's enhanced sense can detect Jaaza? Pegasus is made for these kind of situation! At least Jaaza didn't continue to relentlessly attack Kuuga for him to escape. So this is Daguva's first defeat of Kuuga?!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Sugita drives up with some new info, which includes a hint as to what's next, deliberately given to the police by Jaaza, as well as the fact that the victims on the plane she attacked consisted largely of the elderly. She's taking this "easy game" thing very seriously, evidently.

I want to know, how did the pilot survive at the plane? To give Sugita the info he needed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

At Pole Pole, Pops is also taking Nana's problems very seriously, to the point he's actually closed up the shop to take the time to talk about this with her.

I need the translations of the note written in front of Pole Pole door, my sub didn't do it. Aside from his compassionate side, Kazari did admit he had a thought of killing someone. And he's completely right that you cannot know someone's problem if they don't talk it out, though he could've taken a hint that Nana failed the audition (though that's not the actual problem).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

He gets off to a fantastic start by thinking to look for Nana at a place he remembers her saying she used to practice with her teacher at, before the whole incident with Garume. It's less directly relevant to solving her problems than it was with Mika, but I can't get enough of Yuusuke demonstrating how much he cares about people to figure out where the sentimental places they'd go when feeling down are. It'd be so simple to just have the scene start with Yuusuke driving along on his bike until he turns to the side and says "huh?", having randomly found who he's looking for, but that's not good enough for this show. And of course, the reason she's so upset does come back to her teacher. Turns out one of the prompts at her audition was to act like someone you care about is being killed by an Unidentified Lifeform in front of you, which, uh... kinda seems like an oddly specific and insensitive thing to ask of somebody! You know, in case exactly what happened happened? Amazingly, this cruel reminder of what happened to the person who trained her to this point was not the reason she's talking about wanting to kill someone. No, that got her upset, but what tipped her over the edge was one of the other girls at the audition casually saying the fact her teacher actually died would come in handy for the performance. Which, like, yeah, pretty freakin' devastating. Even Yuusuke can understand why Nana would want to beat the crap out of her. He knows it's only human, but he also knows how painful it really is to solve your problems with violence. He asks Nana to take a deep breath, and gives her a spiel about how it's more important to make sure you've let the other person know they've done something wrong in a way that lets them understand, and how trying to do it with your fists doesn't really accomplish that.

Nana isn't having any of this right now. She's Yuusuke's number one fan, sure, but none of this is how the "real world" works, right? Nana thinks everything Yuusuke is spouting right now is naive idealism. Yuusuke has a pretty simple retort to this. Of course it is, and that's exactly why it's something you'd want to make real. Things being bad is just all the more reason to try making them better. Because a world where people only know how to solve things by fighting is far too sad. Summarizing it doesn't do justice to the usual great minimalist touch of Kuuga's dialogue, either. I don't know how adequately I can convey this, but the way that instead of saying "with your fists", he just says "like this" while gesturing with his fists, it's so much more powerful for some reason.

And that's what I think this whole scene is. Powerful. It's probably more than evident at this point how much I love the themes that take center stage during the last stretch of the show, and these episodes do an absolutely fantastic job of taking everything that was implied back in 34/35 and just running with it. We get a much deeper look into Yuusuke's psyche here, and what makes his advice to Nana click so well, is that we know where it's coming from. These aren't just hollow suggestions. Yuusuke is starting to feel the pressure of being Kuuga more than ever. All the pain of that lifestyle. All the tragedy. All the anger. It's not hypothetical to him. The Grongi are people who truly can't be reasoned with, and it's precisely because he deals with them the way he does that he's all the more dedicated to making sure us regular humans realize we can talk things out. Joe Odagiri's acting here is also pretty excellent, continuing a trend he's developed in these recent episodes where there are the briefest little pauses in Yuusuke's smile. Occasionally, just for a moment, all that confidence completely leaves his face, and all the weight he's carrying underneath is plain to see. Like when the BeatChaser's radio starts beeping and he realizes he has to leave, even though he clearly doesn't want to, and he struggles for a second to actually tell Nana he needs to go.

The audition probably asks to make a kind of action/horror film, only that the kind of horror like Grongi actually exists irl. It makes sense that, to solve a problem you need to talk it out rather than fighting it out, though, I also think that the kind of heartless person Nana interacts at the audition, may not be able to be reasoned with and just revels over others misery like this (probably even a psychological manipulation to take out the competition). Even though it's seemingly not the case. That person didn't even berate or leave Nana when she was freezing at first when confronting her.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Once he does leave, he gets the latest news on Jaaza. Turns out she was cryptically announcing her targets via the internet, and the police have managed to crack the code and find out she's after a cruise ship next.

Lol at one point the cops thought the internet message was just a troll! The clue reminds me of the Kuuga-Daguva stuff regarding the sun. And that shot of Kuuga's clenching hand corresponding with Nana's.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

There's obviously the whole rest of the fight I could talk about. Cool stuff like paying off Enokida's earlier talk by having Jaaza changes forms, or Kuuga turning from Dragon to Titan and seemingly changing the rod straight into a sword, or, heck, Rising Titan with two swords.

So now it's finally seen Kuuga Rising Titan with 2 swords.... didn't expect to take this long to see it. Regarding the weapon changing ability, this is what I meant by Kuuga utilizing it fully, like Jaaza, she has many tools to use as a weapon, and she creates numerous of that, more than 2 (like what she can hold in her hand). And would that mean the weapons can stay morphed when not touched? And that Kuuga Titan, even not in Rising, can dual wield too?