[Androzani84]

Scroll 34: Mushrooms and 100 Points

This episode is Maekawa’s second episode in a row (he can finally join the club that Miyashita, Sakai and Arakawa are in with this show). Aside from that, I regret to say that from next week, there may be some delay to me posting reviews (after episode 37, if you’re wondering), because I’m moving house. But the thread will remain open during the hiatus for anyone who wants to drop in and share their thoughts. That said, on with the review.

We begin where last episode left off, with the Jakanja witnessing Ikkou’s defeat of Manmarva. While Tau Zant decides to punish Satarakura (even though, as he points out, Satarakura had nothing to do with Manmarva’s death). Wendinu on the other hand, is absolutely furious and vows revenge.



Wendinu: Sargain, the puppet, if you please.

Sargain (literally scared naked): Yes, ma’am.

At Ninja Base, Oboro wonders how Shurikenger built Revolver Mammoth, while Hamster Headmaster wonders how long he can keep Master Gozen a secret from the others. Back with the heroes, Yosuke light-heartedly calls out Ikkou for defeating Manmarva on his own. But the others are too upset, counting down how many they’ve got left to kill.

Nanami: We’ve only got 4 more Spears left to defeat.

Isshu: Five. Remember, there are SEVEN Spears, including one who hasn’t shown up yet.

Ikkou: And Tau Zant.

Kouta: But it won’t be easy, especially since we’ve killed two of Jakanja’s commanders. They’ll be on alert.

The next day, Wendinu has taken over a cram school, along with the latest puppet, Brainwashing Ninja Jukinoko (Who I will nickname Motorboard Mushroom, or MM for short) and discusses the plan to brainwash the children.





Wendinu then goes around various places, adopting a variety of disguises in order to persuade parents to send their children to the “Wendy Cram School”





At the Centipede, Sargain is embarrassed, but reluctant to actually take over the plan. Satarakura tries to start his own plan, only to be told he’s been grounded. When he tries to force the issue, Furabijo gags him.



Wendinu’s Sishi-Henge spree takes her to a supermarket, where she ends up attracting the attention of real cashier Hashimoto (played by Yoshihiro Masujima, better known as Naoki Dumon/Blue Race in Gekisou Sentai Carranger).





She tries to recruit him to work at her school, only for him to be scared by a monster… at which point MM appears, offering to take over the job of handing out fliers. Predictably, this just causes panic and Wendinu beats him up for it. The Hurricanegers then show up to see this, with Yosuke and Kouta thinking that the pretty woman who beat up the monster is a friend of Shurikenger (come on, really?). It takes Nanami (who I remind you, has probably seen one of the Jakanja naked) to point out that it’s Wendinu, at which point the two make their exit… but not without picking up fliers for the cram school.

The next day, as the students March into the cram school, Hashimoto shows up (wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase, for some reason) and takes over the reception area, where Wendinu was getting a massage. MM then zaps the children with his spores (which the sun informs me are “not photons”. Good to know), making them susceptible to brainwashing. As the Hurricanegers sneak into the school, they overhear a physics lesson involving magnifying glasses (which have the Jakanja logo on them. Hooray for corporate branding). Since the classroom doors are electrified (but not to lethal levels, apparently), Hashimoto shows them a way into the Japanese class through the boiler room. In the class, Wendinu is teaching the kids theat the Hurricanegers are the enemies of the people, the Gouraigers are the messengers of the devil (which isn’t too far off from how they were introduced) and that Shurikenger is the origin of all evil (At least she doesn’t use doctored footage like that one episode of Sun Vulcan). The Hurricanegers break into the classroom and Shinobi Change, but Wendinu deploys the kids to strangle them. (But only Nanami appears to be in any actual danger from this).



Just when all hope seems lost…

Hashimoto (making a finger pistol motion): Hold up.

Wendinu wonders what he’s doing… until he pulls out the Shuriken Ball (and if you’re not convinced he’s Blue Racer, he does the Carranger/Turbo pose)



Shurikenger reveals that he knocked out the real Hashimoto and took his place to investigate, which makes Wendinu mad (again). Elsewhere, the cram school physics class attack the Kasumi Bros with their magnifying glasses, which have lasers built in (I have to wonder if anyone actually invented something like this in real life). They reunite with the other heroes and Shinobi Change into the Gouraigers, but he kids manage to overwhelm the 6… until they do the spare costume trick. After which a combination of KabutoRaiger’s Raigeki-zan, Shurikenger using the Ninjamisen as a gun (yes, it can do that as well as summon a giant robot mammoth) and the Hurricanegers using the Sonic Gadget defeats MM. This makes Wendinu so mad she freakishly deforms (seriously, what the hell)?) before returning to her normal appearance… as a giant.





Tau Zant explains that his is what happens when Wendinu gets too stressed and that the last time she did this, she destroyed a whole planet (in the midst of this, Satarakura tries to mime his scheme, only for Furabijo to borrow a move from Shurikenger). Sure enough, Giant!Wendinu manages to hand both Senpuujin and Gouraijin their asses, before proceeding to corrupt the Earth… which gets interrupted when she sees Hashimoto, causing her to shrink back to normal.



After Hashimoto runs away in fear, calling Wendinu a monster (which causes me to wonder what was the joke the last time he did this), she looks in the mirror and reveals she’s vain… and, you know, summons a Copy Giant to grow MM. MM proceeds to hand GouraiSenpuujin its ass, but loses when Shurikenger allows them to become Revolver GouraiSenpuujin. As Furabijo fails Wendinu and Sargain laments the waste of a perfectly good puppet, Tau Zant says something ominous.

Tau Zant: Don’t you think now is the time… Manmarva?

In Manmarva’s chamber, the cocoon he prepared earlier hatches to reveal an exact copy of Floaty-Head, as the episode ends.





Next time: Ninja shamisen lessons! This and more on Scroll 35: Sparkle and Shamisen.

Final thoughts: This was a pretty average episode. Nothing really bad, but nothing really good either.