[Fish Sandwich]

Okay, you know what's definitely one bad thing I can say about Zenkaiger lately? They haven't been giving me nearly enough opportunities to talk about Magine! She's my absolute favorite character in the show, and yet it feels like I've gone forever without mentioning her. And the worst/best part is... all the not her things in this episode are so good, I'm still going to want to focus on talking about them.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I have things to say about Magine in this one. Every second she's on the screen is great (as always), whether she's adorably geeking out with those kids, adorably lamenting how lonely her hobbies are, or adorably seething with vengeful rage against a monster who has indirectly gotten in the way of those kids and their shared hobbies. Scary Magine is still good Magine! It's just like, I totally want to do the post that is literally All Magine, All The Time one of these days, and this one unfortunately won't be that. It's a spotlight episode for her, for sure, but it's not the sort that offers a ton in the way of added character depth or anything like that I could really dig into. Magine is in it, and she's cute – which is all I could ever need – but her role here is more of a reminder of things we already know, simply for the sake of making sure we don't forget – as if I ever could.

For real though? As much as I hate to say it, Zyuran ended up being the breakout star of this one for me. All the stuff with him being invisible, from start to finish, was fantastic. His natural inclination towards frustrated snark means he is quite possibly the most perfect character in the show to put in a situation like this, and his reactions to every bit of suffering and misfortune he endures are hilarious because of that. But then it gets even better, because there's also the angle where he's dedicated to pushing through all that frustration for the sake of cheering Magine and those kids up. It ends up being a nice rounded look at Zyuran, where you also get to see his legitimately mature, kinda parental side, always trying to look out for the younger crowd, even if he'd still prefer to think of himself as part of it.

I feel like the roll call gag this time really highlights my dilemma here. It's hilarious when Zyuran is straight up not in his own footage, and you're staring at blank backgrounds, but then it's ALSO hilarious when everything down to the music abruptly changes for Magine, only to change right back for Vroom to wrap things up. Either of those things is so great on their own I couldn't possibly put one over the other. But put 'em together, and you've got an escalation that makes for one of my favorite takes on the roll call yet. Although now that I think about it, I suppose good things being better in a group is basically the entire premise of this whole franchise, isn't it...?

At any rate, this is another stellar episode when it comes to the comedy, with another simple but strong concept for the monster of the week to run around causing all kinds of clever trouble with. Plenty of smaller little things I loved throughout too, like the whole family dancing along with Zox at the start, or the quick reminders of the ongoing dynamic with the villains. Still though, it'd be even better if I were talking about Magine more!