[Fish Sandwich]

By Zenkaiger's standards, this was actually a really somber episode. Sure, there's a goofy cow monster at the root of everyone's problems, but those problems in of themselves are less goofy than usual. Like, one of the first demonstrations we get of why this dude needs to be stopped is how him spraying milk over everything leads to a traffic accident. That's not funny! That's just dangerous!

That's not to say it's *that* big of a difference, when all the usual humor is still there too, but it definitely came off to me like the script here was pulling back a bit from trying to take whatever random monster concept to the most wacky extremes possible, in favor of something, I guess more "normal", you could say; where it's all about supporting a straightforward and emotional story about Kaito's desire to protect his parents' legacy.

It's fairly solid stuff. You've got the big emphasis on Secchan right away (making time for narration even while preoccupied, like a champ), and other things like Kaito during his fight with Hakaiser, where he once again complains about someone doing bad guy stuff with an invention his mom and dad made for the good of the world. It fits an episode that's in large part about showing off more features of the big cannon they designed, and it's all material that's on-point for Kaito's character, and the overall story the show is telling with him.

I'm admittedly not quite sure it's enough to justify the huge new robot, though? I don't know; I also might just be too hard to please on this? In an ideal world, I feel like we'd have a proper suit for that thing so it can show up a bunch, and have it debut in an episode more specifically about the bond the Zenkaigers have, because it's a five-piece combination, an ordinarily mundane occurrence in Sentai, made into this huge event because of how unique this show is... but it's sort of like, I'm not sure what I'm even asking for at that point? That's not really a better version of this episode as much as it is something entirely different, which is why it feels unfair to hold that over the episode too much.

For what it was, there's a lot about the approach here that definitely feels true to Zenkaiger's style. Having a random, unintimidating monster of the week be the main source of the drama is an odd choice that's responsible for hampering some of the dramatic weight, and yet, I also feel like that fits this show's whole storytelling engine way better than some actual climactic showdown? It's tricky to describe, especially when I'm of two minds on this to begin with, but if there was ever a Sentai that could get away with this, it's definitely Zenkaiger. Koumura already wrote a really dramatic series where an all-CG robot had a grand debut, and she's clearly not shooting for the same exact thing here. There's a looseness to this episode that doesn't feel like an accident to me, and even if I'm not sure it struck the perfect balance, I do really respect that.

But man, look at me, trying to dissect an episode of Zenkaiger as though I'm not missing my own point. Whatever failings this episode may or may not have had dramatically, it's still every bit as entertaining as always. And like I've said before, I don't ever want to take that for granted. This is an episode where Hakaiser just kinda forgets to show up to do his job, you know? I just can't hate gags that funny!