[DreamSword]

Episode #6: A Mother's' Feelings

This episode was torture, but in the good way!

Look, as far as I'm concerned, the majority of this episode does not matter. Why? Because those final couple of minutes are so incredibly satisfying that it could've been the entire episode and I would've come out of it cheering.

I was really worried throughout it too, because I felt like this show was gonna take the out that so many others have in trying to make the awful parent sympathetic.

But nope! Nakamura's' mother finally gets what's coming to her in a moment that is now one of my favorite moments in any TV show ever. There was no "oh but she god divorced" or "oh but she's a single mom" or "oh but her behavior is human therefor it's okay." Just pure, raw, comeuppance. I love it.

If you just want my impression of this episode of Tokusatsu GaGaGa in and of itself and nothing else, there you go. You can stop reading now. But the overall subject matter that it brings up, I feel like talking a bit about how I relate to it as well as directly comparing it to something else that it reminded me of: Episode 31 of Kamen Rider Hibiki.

For those not in the know, episode 31 of Hibiki is my most hated episode of any Tokusatsu show that I've ever seen. For those who haven't seen it, the episode is about the main character, Asumu, and how his father walked out on the family. Asumu never actually meets with him, and the episode ends with the father being neglectful being framed as an overall good thing and that Asumu's' dad is a good man for doing so.

Needless to say, this struck a serious nerve with me, having been a child whose parents were both very neglectful, including the father walking out on the family and disowning his own son. Because here's the thing. The episode did not at take into account children like me, instead opting for trying to convince the audience that the father is a good man via the accounts of coworkers and strangers, as if people's' public and private appearances are exactly the same. If you didn't know: They very much are not!

So when it came time for episode 6 of GaGaGa, wherein Nakamura's' mom is someone who's incredibly manipulative in the same way that the writing of Hibiki 31 tried to be. It, frankly, does not matter what happened to the mother in the past or if she's doing something out of love or whatever. She's still pushing her own life onto her children, on top of breaking into her daughter's' apartment and destroying property. There was a very thick line that Nakamura's' mother crossed a long time ago. And thankfully, instead of leaning on "oh she just wants what's best for her kids" what do we get instead?

A pure, full force slap to the face that legitimately had me jump out of my seat and cheer.

Because here's something I learned the hard way with my own family: You can't reason with manipulative people like that, and you shouldn't even try. The best course of action is to stand up for yourself, fight back, and keep them as out of your life as much as you possibly can. Family obligations or not, keeping toxic people in your life does you no good, and you are by no means required to put up with it(a lesson also taught by a Pretty Cure show I recently finished!).

Yeah, sure, there's other stuff to the episode like how the lives of Nakamura's' friends continue to evolve, but man, talk about the most satisfying hit I've seen on TV in a long time. Great stuff.