[DreamSword]

Episode 4: Frozen Armament! Aqua Ryukendo!

One of the things that makes the story of Getter Robo so interesting is how, despite it being one of the first super robot stories ever written, it manages to showcase a rather dramatic deconstruction of the trope known as "serial escalation." The idea that the heroes must get continuously stronger.

I bring this up because, surprisingly, for a show that's made it a point to introduce a new toy with every episode, the plot of this episode follows the same general idea. Only it's full of wacky comedy rather than being played for drama and only drama like how Getter tends to do. Both sides of the Akebono conflict are trying harder and harder to get rid of eachother, and the townsfolk are the ones caught in the crossfire.

And while a plot that heavy sounding mixed with the sort of hijinks that Ryukendo has now made itself known for might sound like a recipe for disaster, I found the overall tone of the episode to be surprisingly well handled.

The angle they go for essentially being that Kenji is ignorant of the greater threat going on, and is simply focusing on what's immediately infront of him. Played for alot of comedy, sure, but the climax especially doesn't shy away from the potential consequences. Ones that, thankfully, the rest of SHOT and the local public services are ready to try and handle.

There was also a solid bit of world building here too. Not only in terms of introducing a couple more locales, but also elaborating on how the Demons tend to cause mischief and what exactly the Canon of Light is, even if SHOT themselves don't fully understand it.

This was just a rather fun and interesting episode all around. I dug it.