[Fish Sandwich]

Well this was just delightful, wasn't it? And I mean, this was incredibly fun!

I was even going to be bummed out about this, too! Because you know, this is the first episode of Zenkaiger not written by Junko Koumura, and even though she's still credited in a supervising role, it's sort of sad to see that happen, when the show has gotten so far with nobody else's help, and I was starting to genuinely expect her to be pulling a Riku Sanjou on Kyoryuger and just write the whole show herself. But then like, this episode is every bit as amazing as usual? And then it's also sort of better, because it has characters from Kamen Rider Saber in it, and I'm extremely biased? Really pleasantly surprised by this one!

Maybe Nobuhiro Mouri deserves a lot of credit here for nailing the show's style so well, maybe Koumura just did that good a job whipping the script into shape, heck, maybe Zenkaiger is like, cosmically incapable of doing wrong, but I really felt like this one didn't miss a beat, right from them having Secchan randomly spinning around 2 seconds in. All the comedic timing and everything you'd expect from this show if you're a fan is totally present and accounted for, and apparently no amount of Kamen Riders showing up is enough to get in the way of that. Characters talking over each other, absurd situations, and even an emotional scene where Kaito talks about the importance of trusting in the people you care about while dressed as a cheerleader, because why not! Zenkaiger is just that kinda show! If you're reading this right now as someone who only watched this because of the connection to Saber, please do yourself a favor and take this obvious hint -- Zenkaiger is well worth your time, and everybody else's too.

And of course, the proof of that, as usual, is in how despite all the madness, there's a totally cohesive story being told with a solid little arc to it. Zox is used super well here, and I think the plot makes a smart decision is setting up the idea that Flint being in danger would be motivation for him to help, only for the mere thought of that happening to end up giving him the push he needs. I don't think I'm going to describe how much I liked this part well, but there's a surprising amount of subtlety to how it plays out, and you see a warmer side to Zox without it feeling like any kind of drastic change.

Ryouga comes out of this one looking pretty great too, and a lot of that is precisely because he doesn't always look so great! It's a very natural extension of what Saber has been doing with him and his sister in recent episodes, and as I've established in those threads, I am unironically way into this direction. If you're reading this right now as someone who only watched this because it's an episode of Zenkaiger, with no knowledge of Saber, allow me to note that this is a guy who was introduced as a hyper-serious and threatening servant of one of the show's main antagonists... and now he's getting himself tangled up in ropes swinging his sword around like a crazy person while cartoonish sound effects play to highlight his humiliation. It's amazing. And also, in this case, it stresses how much he genuinely cares about his sister, which is nice. Nothing too elaborate, but it's obvious at this point Ryouga's no complex character, and this episode of Zenkaiger demonstrates pretty nicely how that doesn't have to be such a bad thing. I especially like how he phrases his response to Gaon saying he must be super fond of Reika. Ryouga isn't complex, but he is defined, and that counts for a lot in my book. At the very least, it gelled with Zenkaiger's style quite well.

Then of course, on top of all this, the episode is just plain fun, with all sorts of cool beats like getting to see the Riders doing Sentai roll calls, even if it takes a lot of prompting in Durandal's case. (This sort of meta awareness about toku tropes is just one more of Zenkaiger's many qualities, by the way.) I even got to see Gaon do a Rising Impact! I never thought I'd get to see that, but I did, and now I'm super happy, because that was so awesome! Also awesome was getting to see Magine and Sabela team up, but I don't think I'm the person most excited about that.

I think having Durandal and Sabela of all characters be the ones in this crossover was a pretty bold move, and it makes me wonder if their more comedic current selves have found popularity with children or something, but I know for a fact there's one good reason to have Reika in this show, and that's that her actor, Angela Mei, is actually a MASSIVE fan of Magine, as it turns out! I only found out about this a little to prior to this episode airing, and I'm glad I did, because it explains an awful lot about this episode! I can tell you right now, if I was a guest star on Zenkaiger, I know I'd want to hug Magine too, so with that context, I am both deeply envious and extremely proud of her for living that dream.

It's a party, at the end of the day, exactly the way a crossover of this sort ought to be, and the fact that they were even giving the stars presents certainly speaks to that. Again, I adored this episode. It should've been weird that this is the big debut for Super Twokaiser, but after watching it, I wouldn't have it any other way. As a huge fan of both shows involved, this rocked.