[Sh Ranger]

Don Momotarou shows his serious side and he can be pretty scary when he's not allowed to have fun. After Sononi murders Kurokuma, breaking one of his treasured bonds, it vexes him so much that he becomes hyper-focused on fighting her and continues to fight his own teammates even after she retreats. The only consolation is getting the Lupinranger Avatarou Gear, but otherwise this episode is a win for the Noto. It's an intriguing conflict, where both sides are fighting the same enemy, but the difference is whether than enemy is seen as a monster to be destroyed or a person to be saved.

Kito learns an important moral about prejudice here, that you should learn to understand someone first before judging them. Not everybody is like a manga or anime protagonist, with "hero" resounding in their every action. The Donbrothers are heroes, but they're also just random guys. Kito inadvertently sabotaged her quest to find Tarou by limiting her search to her specific criteria and she would have learned his identity sooner if she wasn't so quick to dismiss him as civilian. I do pity her getting kicked again after accepting her mistake, but it was probably a bad idea to swear fealty when Don Momotarou was ticked off like that. Would make a great humorous GIF though!

I dislike the ToQGer Avatar Change and ToQ Alter Change, but I was expecting it, so I can't be too annoyed. The Alter gimmick in general continues to seem superfluous though, as there's probably other ways Tarou could've stopped that car without risking a road accident by abandoning the wheel.

About that, is Tarou actually a competent leader? He seems reluctant to communicate any of his tactics to the others and mostly leaves them to figure everything out on their own. I'm not sure how they're all supposed to come together as a real team when he's so flighty like this. He even leaves a fight after morphing just so he can make a cooler entrance on his CGI motorcycle. It's good that he has such high spirits, but for the sake of the team, maybe he should also learn a little restraint.

Saruhara is smart, cool, strong and even kind to kids. He's got a great personality so far! Some of his quirks like not believing in money might get him in trouble as not all business owners are generous like Kaito or care about haikus, but I appreciate his desire to want to give something more unique and profound to people than mere paper and metal with arbitrary value. I'm not picking favorites until I get more information about Inuzuka outside his bio, but it's currently between Saruhara and Kijino.