[Fish Sandwich]

That should really be a picture of Kaito and his dad or something up there, but I simply refuse to close out the year with anyone other than Magine, okay? It's like a Christmas present I'm giving to myself! (And if the Twitter account for Zenkaiger is any indication, pictures of Magine are a pretty in-demand gift!)

If I might attempt to connect my choice of screencap to an actual thought about the episode, I will say, I appreciate the way Cutanner and Ricky always seem to be hanging around in scenes lately? I don't know how much factual basis there is for this, but it feels like somewhere along the line, the show started using the physical props for them way more often, and it's become part of the fun of each episode to see where those two will be whimsically integrated into whatever shots that particular week. Such as in this week, where they're helping out Flint as she fires off shots at mooks. Maybe it's always been this way and it's just taken me this long to notice, but yeah, I've grown to like these two goofballs. I mean really, with why I chose it, it probably says something that I even registered Cutanner's presence in that picture at all, right?

There's also a really nice story about Kaito's dad in here, by the way! Right from the opening montage establishing how insatiable his curiosity is, Isao fits into the group dynamic extremely well. He's as fun as everyone else, and making the audience like him as a character makes the connection between him and Kaito that much more palpable. A lot of this episode is dominated by a typically insane weekly plot where a monster makes people act weird(er than usual), but it's balanced out by a surprising amount of slower, more thoughtful moments, which really elevates it. It's even sort of contextualized visually in a neat way, where during Kaito and Isao's whole heartfelt conversation about friends and all that, the wacky antics of everyone making noodles are literally slowed down and emphasized like a dramatic moment would be. This one was directed by Ryuuta Tasaki, and as is usually the case for him, there are plenty of slick touches like this that convey what's going on super clearly.

And while the emotional core here is the thing I want to highlight, it should still go without saying that the usual insanity is as charming as ever. Kaito's genius plan to turn everyone against the monster was just about the most amusing possible way to demonstrate his qualities as a leader, they *STILL* haven't run out of different ways to do the roll call, and the giant-sized stuff kept the comedic momentum going especially well. (I also found it funny when they blatantly filmed the robots separating by just pulling apart the toys, which comes off like it was done as a deliberately tongue-in-cheek bit of budget-saving camp.)

Plus, on top of all this, there's some advancement going on with the main villains in the background, which is neat. I definitely didn't expect to see Ijirude getting straight up tortured, but on top of somehow not feeling incongruous tonally, it reminds you that these really are *bad* guys, underscoring how much Stacey really needs to get the heck out of that environment as soon as he can. It's good to know Kaito is still thinking of him, because with Hakaiser gone, there's not a lot of people left who are!