[Fish Sandwich]

The poor kid really can't catch a break, you know? Finally works up the nerve to challenge his rival to an all-or-nothing showdown, and the whole situation escalates into this huge mess that leaves him firmly on the "nothing" side of things. I love it though. The contrast of Stacey ending that fight unconscious by a river, all alone, while Kaito is kindly escorted home by his best four friends in the world. And Kaito knows how much worse Stacey has it than him. In all the celebration, there's that little moment of realization and sympathy, and it made for a brilliant note to leave the heroes on for the episode. Because, really, this is an episode that's way more about moving Kaito forward than anyone else.

Stacey ends pretty much in the same situation as always, with a humiliating defeat and a big ol' repair bill for his giant robot (come on Ijirude, Battle Caesar Robo III, make it happen!). I mean, there will probably be some consequences for him after this latest failure, by the looks of things, but it's all stuff that's in the hands of other characters, and even being used as a literal tool is already part of Stacey's character.

With Kaito, it's still no huge shift, but you really see him continuing to reevaluate his whole dynamic with Stacey entirely on his own, and I thought that was a strong point for this episode. Wanting to be nice to people is nothing out of the ordinary, but it's rare to see Kaito get this contemplative, and I liked how he put all the puzzle pieces together here about what's going through Stacey's head. What I liked even more was the conclusion he came to – basically deciding that the best option he had was to show his rival respect by taking the fight seriously even though he still kinda doesn't want to himself. It's a way more interesting turn than I expected, and makes Kaito out to be surprisingly intelligent in a way that's still true to his overall personality.

Plus, you know, I'd watch any number of scenes of him and Zyuran grabbing some ramen together. Plenty of fun, down-to-earth character moments for a lot of the cast in this episode. Again, Zyuran is great here, and I liked Zox's whole stance on getting involved in the big fight, but I also found it weirdly striking seeing Gaon get checked out by some random doctor? It's the most minor bit, but I don't know, something about that was just neat to me. I think it's because it makes the world feel more lived-in? In a pinch, you could just write that scene so it's one of the other main characters slapping some bandages on Gaon back at their house without it affecting the narrative flow at all, but they went with a way less boring option, and I appreciate that.

And naturally, the action here was pretty fun. There were some especially stylish visuals going on when the Zenkaiser/Stacaesar fight begins, and then once it starts getting crazy after that, it's succeeding simply on the level of stuff it throws at the viewer. You've got like, three whole Sentai teams, all of Twokaiser's different forms, two brand new mecha combinations... it's busy! But that feels right for Zenkaiger. The powered-up mecha don't leave a huge impression, but like, if you only have a certain budget for physical suits, prioritizing the cool robot dinosaur was absolutely the smart move. I am entirely okay with seeing that more often than its formations with the other mecha in the show.

Really solid episode this week. Looking forward to seeing how quickly Koumura can manage to swerve away from that cliffhanger next time!