[Androzani84]

Scroll 8: Hayate and Ikazuchi

To start with, I fixed the problem with the pictures in the last post. I’d deleted the tweet I’d sourced them from and thus the links went nowhere. I’ve fixed that problem by delinking them to a new tweet. That said, on with the episode.

We begin by recapping last episode, with the Gouraigers appearing, introducing themselves as the Ikazuchi Style’s legendary champions and vowing to defeat the Hurricanegers before Jakanja.

Then we cut back to the present, where our heroes are thinking about recent events, only to be distracted by the kuroko-bots (my new name for them) playing Kendama (a kids game involving a hammer with a ball attached by a string and stored on a spike on top). As Oboro sends them out, Hamster Headmaster recounts the missing details in his history lesson from episode 1: while the Hayate Style won the right for their champions to be called “Hurricanegers”, the Ikazuchi Style and their champions, the Gouraigers, were banished into the darkness. He then reveals that the Kasumi Bros are two of the most dangerous members from the current Ikazuchi students. Our heroes come to the conclusion that the two merely want to settle the old rivalry, since the Jakanja prevented the yearly contest from taking place (Ah, to be young), thinking they can get the two on their side by telling them this.

At the Centipede, Furabijou, Wendinu and Floaty Head continue to gush over the Gouraigers (the latter is still convinced they’re the two Spears. Blind faith, much?), while Chuzoobo still thinks they don’t need them. Tau Zant then bids Sargain begin his next plan to corrupt the planet with a new puppet: Water-Absorbing Ninja Gamajakushi (Who I will refer to as “Tad” from now on).



Tad then proceeds to send out his tadpoles (because he’s amphibious. Geddit?) into every water source, draining them dry. Oboro discovers this through a mix of the news and one of the tadpoles being delivered courtesy of the kuroko-bots, and alerts the trio, who head off to stop Tad, assuming he’ll go after the sea next. (That seems like a logical deduction)

Along the way, they run into Ikkou and Isshu, who are observing Jakanja’s latest scheme and feel confident in labelling them idiots. (That’ll be important later. Remember that now) Our trio try to persuade the brothers with the pitch they were working on earlier. Ikkou calls them naive, before they get interrupted by Tad appearing to kill them all (I guess Sargain decided he wanted the Gouraigers out of the picture). Our trio transforms and does their role call, but none of their weapons prove effective against Tad and he manages to knock them down with his tadpoles. Then the Kasumi bros leap in and do their transformation (in all honesty, this scene manages to work in every way, from the music, to the staging, to the creepy way they say “Shinobi Change”, a phrase you’d normally associate with safety, but not here.), following up with THEIR role call, which you can hear in the video on the last post. I haven’t found a good translation for KuwagaRaiger’s intro, so I’m just leaving it there.

The Gouraigers run in to attack… Tad. (Shocker, I know) Their Ikazuchimarus prove capable of not only deflecting his tadpoles, but dealing major damage to him. They then pull out their personal weapons, the Horn Breaker for Ikkou (a gun) and the Stag Breaker for Isshu (a claw) (somebody called Kabuto and Gatack Gouraigers RX and he had something of a point). These damage Tad further on their own, but when combined into the Double Gadget, manage to finish him off for good. As the Hurricanegers cheer at having apparently won them over, and the Jakanja fume at the apparent betrayal, Tad gets revived as a giant.

The Hurricanegers form Senpuujin, but still prove no match for Tad, even at giant size (just how damn powerful did Sargain make him?). Oboro then gets the idea from the Kendama game to combine Goat Crusher and Tortoise Hammer into the Karakuri Combo: Goat Hammer.



With its new weapon, Senpuujin knocks away Tad’s projectiles before destroying him with their Finish Trick. Goat Hammer: Hurricane Suisei. The Hurricanegers then approach the Gouraigers, assured of their alliance. But the two shove them aside, stating they don’t give a rat’s ass about Ikazuchi (considering them hypocrites afraid to grow stronger) or the Earth. They only stopped Tad because “that” needs water to be born. The Hurricanegers are clueless as to what they’re talking about, causing the two to laugh about how they didn’t know what Jakanja was after (they have a point). Isshu then reveals he wants to use it to remake the Ikazuchi Style into the greatest in the world, while Ikkou states he intends to use it to make the Gouraigers the greatest ninjas in space, (apparently, they didn’t agree on what to use it for) stating they’d rather die trying to get it than let Jakanja or the Hurricanegers obtain it. Speak of the devil, Tau Zant has overheard this and realised the Gouraigers know more about “that” than he does. So he decides to rectify that.



Tau Zant sends a sphere to pick up the Gouraigers. They transform and board it, leaving the Hurricanegers lost for words as the episode ends.



Next time, Yosuke once more tries to appeal to Ishhu’s non-existent better nature (give it a rest man), while Isshu tries to see if he can beat up Yosuke. All this and more in “Scroll 9: Thunder Siblings and Hourglass”.

Final thoughts: Well, my worries about this show being similar to Ryuki were semi-unfounded. The Gouraigers aren’t being set up as secretly good people like Ren was, and they’re all the better as characters for it. And I also like how the Gouraigers, despite being a dangerous wild card, didn’t totally hijack the episode away from the regular bad guys (Looking at you, Basco and Bangray). And the fact they beat a monster the Hurricanegers could barely scratch speaks volumes to the difference in their power levels. This show’s still continuing to deliver and I look forward to the next episode, where our third writer comes in.