[Fish Sandwich]

Every time there's an episode focusing on Stacey, I always end up thinking back to that anecdote about how his entire character only exists because the show's staff happened to be impressed by his actor's audition for the series. They had a plan all ready to go that didn't include Stacey at all, and now most of the show's overarching plotting revolves almost entirely around him. That's a little crazy.

It's also crazy good. I'm really never going to get tired of episodes focusing on this stuff. You just can't go wrong! This one is basically all Stacey, all the time. There's the briefest moment right after the opening where Kaito is being a beloved member of the community as always (which is delightful in its own right), but it doesn't take long at all for Stacey to rock up to the place with a sharp new look, and from that point on, we're in drama mode pretty much the whole way through.

The initial fight between Zenkaiser and the powered-up Stacaesar is great, as their fights usually are. Between the direction and the choreography, it really conveys a sense of non-stop aggression and power to Stacaesar that impressed me, because I don't think any of that intensity is inherent to that suit's design. Like, even the big upgrade he gets is just a shield and a bracelet, right? But no, that shield gets some work done, and the bracelet shoots a possibly inexhaustible supply of missiles! Stacey gets quite the performance out of just those two new things, and it's no surprise he'd be happy to brag to his boss about it later to show up his dad. Which doesn't work out too well when Ijirude takes all the credit and his dad just makes fun of him for immediately getting out-bootlicked. (Have I mentioned how fun the villain dynamic is in Zenkaiger lately? Just one more thing that's all thanks to Stacey!)

Still though, he takes it in stride, and shows right back up in front of Kaito with a brand new robot (I miss the old one, but this one is still neat) and some enhanced summoning abilities, because he's totally prepared to beat Zenkaiser, and it's as simple as that!

...It's not at all that simple, of course. Stacey is still struggling to process that whole "warmth and affection" thing he discovered hanging around Yatsude, which means finding Kaito's mom may or may not have pushed him to do something a tiny bit noble for once, and on the other side of all of that, Kaito's alleged resolve to take on Stacey in a proper fight isn't all it's cracked up to be either. One of the many brilliant things about good Stacey episodes (i.e. all of them) is that they're just as often good Kaito episodes, and I like where he ends up by the end of this one. It isn't some mind-blowing twist that a guy like Kaito would land on wanting to be Stacey's friend after all, but the way the show portrayed that process in such detail was fantastic. I like the idea of Kaito getting all mopey and indecisive for a bit before realizing his whole character is based around just going for what he wants, no matter how impossible it seems. I don't think redeeming an evil purple rival guy in a Sentai show can be considered a world first (well, maybe in the Zenkaigers' world...), but that won't stop me from rooting for him anyway!