[Androzani84]

Scroll 15: Giant Water Bug and Competition

This is Arakawa’s second episode for the series. And I’ll say now that watching this reminded me of this quote.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

In what I'm sure is a complete coincidence, this episode is by Hirohisa Soda, the same guy who wrote 22, which had a similarly disappointing showing for Muteki Shogun. This leads me to something I've been wanting to mention for a while. Now, Soda is a massively prolific writer for Sentai, and having not seen any of the many, many series he was the head of, I don't want to make any hasty judgments about the quality of his work, but I've gotta speak my mind here. The episodes of Kakuranger written by him, and fellow old-school Sentai veteran (to a lesser extent) Susumu Takaku, have universally been the least entertaining of the series so far, even when I still liked them. Go look at an episode I said had a thin plot, or just plain wasn't great, and rest assured Sugimura probably wasn't the one behind it. While this is the first series helmed by him I've seen too, based on how excellent this show has been, and the reputation of shows like Dairanger, I can't help getting the impression Sugimura and Arakawa were this exciting new wave for Sentai, full of fresh ideas and innovative concepts, that the old guys were starting to struggle to keep up with.

Why? You’ll see when we get on with the review.

We open at night, on a full moon. Gouraijin is approaching a mountain, but this time, a new figure has joined them. The Megatagame, a robot built and piloted by Sargain.



The Gouraigers use the Plant Axe to destroy a mountain, to which Sargain decides to open his face to reveal his ant-self, speaking in his squeaky voice (there’s adding levity to a serious scene and there’s… this). And speaking of squeaky voices, we cut to Manmarva, who has gone from singing the Gouraigers’ praises to criticising their whole operation (This is subtle derailment. It gets worse). We get told that the Kasumi Bros requested he build a robot to their specifications in order to help them cut the small rock they got from the mountain into an even smaller rock. The Kasumi Bros examine the rock, before leaving, with Ikkou dismissing Sargain’s suggestion that he could manufacture it (“If that could be done, I would’ve done it already”), and failing to notice Chuzoobo (who is supposed to be grounded) running after them.

The next day, the Hurricanegers fly over the debris, before reporting back to Hamster Headmaster, with Nanami revealing that the mountain used to be called “Ikazuchi Mountain” (of course). Hamster Headmaster then realises that the Kasumi Bros were after Shinobinium (when looking for a good name for your fake mineral, just add “inium” onto the end of a word), a mineral exclusive to the Ikazuchi Way, which was depleted through a mix of overuse (I can see why Isshu hated them) and scientists stealing the meteorite it came from. We then cut to a university, where the Kasumi Bros assault a professor and his assistant to take a small wedge of Shinobinium (How’d they find out it was there? Hell if I know). On the way out they are confronted by the Hurricanegers, with Yosuke asking what they want with the crystal. Ikkou reaffirms their goal to be the #1 Space Ninjas, with Isshu pointing out that they don’t care about the Earth because it’s going to rot anyway. When Yosuke tries to stop them, they zap him with Lightning from their hands (ass pull much? They haven’t even been hinted to have such a power) and escape to a cave, where they use the crystal to create a hologram of a Knight (played by Return of Ultraman’s Jiro Dan), while Chuzoobo looks on.



The hologram man begins to narrate how to unlock the final secret technique (ie. “that”), but gets disrupted after mention “the brave” by the crystal turning out to be a fake. Our heroes speak to the Professor at the university hospital, where he reveals that they were experimenting to try and manufacture the crystal (you know, the one thing Ikkou said he couldn’t do), the real crystal is in the energy research centre. As they wait, Yosuke states that despite the Kasumi Bros saying that they don’t care for the Earth, he believes there is still good in them (See what I mean about derailment? He already went through this arc 6 episodes ago and grew out of it) and wants to prove this through the power of their teamwork (which wouldn’t work. The Gouraigers would just dismiss your speech and then beat the crap out of you, either on the ground or in Gouraijin). The first half of the episode ends with Chuzoobo running to Tau Zant, to tell him what he discovered.

As the Hurricanegers stand guard over the Shinobinium vault, Kouta wonders where that second pair of giant footprints at the ruins of Ikazuchi Mountain came from. As if on cue, Megatagame teleports down, with Sargain aiming to capture the Shinobinium. Since they need to fight him and protect the vault at the same time, the Hurricanegers form Senpuujin, with Nanami being given full control by Oboro, the Gatling Leo Shinobi Medal by Kouta and a chocolate coin from Yosuke. As the two robots clash (and Megatagame reveals that it has Lightning powers), the Kasumi Bros break into the vault and steal the Shinobinium, with Yosuke and Kouta racing to stop them. The former two shinobi change into the Gouraigers and beat the crap out of the latter two (see what I was talking about) as Megatagame begins to get the upper hand against Senpuujin. But things turn around after Nanami eats Yosuke’s chocolate, giving her the resolve to fight back using the spin gimmick on her dolphin arm (which works the same way as the Tategami Hurricane), befor summoning both Gatling Leo and Squid Attacker to form a new Karakuri Combo: Gatling Attacker



At the same time, Yosuke gets propelled into Ikkou’s back by Kouta, allowing him to reclaim the crystal. The Gouraigers form the Double Gadget, but Ikkou’s newfound back problems make him unable to fire it, forcing Isshu to give chase alone. Nanami then destroys Megatagame with the Finish Trick: Hurricane Spiral, which, despite the weapon clearly being a drill, acts more like a gun (which makes me wonder why they didn’t just use Gatling Leo instead of pointlessly attacking the Squid Attacker to it. For that matter, how did Nanami know how to do that? At least with the Goat Hammer, they showed Oboro coming up with the idea and had her tell them about it. This is just lazy writing). The Megatagame explodes, with Sargain escaping and vowing to crush them with the next model (hopefully, it’s a lot more mobile than this one. Seriously, I wonder how the suit actor can even move in that thing). As the Hurricanegers celebrate their victory, an almost rabid Isshu attacks, trying to get the crystal back and avenge the Ikazuchi Way (I thought he hated those guys). It’s then that Ikkou recovers and fires the Double Gadget at the Hurricanegers… and his own brother Isshu!!!



Ikkou chides his brother for being weak and the two leave. The episode then ends with Chuzoobo approaching the Kasumi Bros in their cave (seriously, do they live there now? What happened to the gym? Why do they keep coming back there?) stating that Tau Zant wants to meet them. The next instalment teases the prophecy “When the brave defeats the brave at the fated hour, the final secret will be revealed.” (Make your own Kyoryuger joke. I’m too lazy). All this and more on Scroll 16: Mist and Prophecy Machine.

Final Thoughts: So yeah, this episode wasn’t much better than Arakawa’s previous contribution to the series. The reason I used the quote was because this time, Arakawa is the older writer who’s output had been pretty bad, while everyone else has been comparatively fresh (Miyashita and Sakai, while more experienced, had only done episodes for one Sentai show each, while Maekawa was in the middle of his three year trial period), making the strengths of their scripts stand out compared to Arakawa’s weaknesses.

One thing in particular I would change would be to get rid of the Megatagame altogether and just have Isshu pilot Gouraijin alone, contrasting with Nanami piloting Senpuujin alone. Not only would it allow the Hurricanegers to gain a much needed victory over the Gouraigers, but it would add greater impact to Ikkou shooting his own brother for weakness than the cheap shock value it ultimately was.

Luckily, Miyashita will be doing the rest of the arc this episode started, so I have hope this is just the slow start to a great arc.