[DreamSword]

Episode 11: Power of the Thunder Key

Losing sight of what's important can be costly.

When Jack Moon decides to send in a clone of himself powered by the Thunder Key, a divide between the motives of Kenji and SHOT soon forms.

And it's a cool showcase of how the grander takeaway of this adventure differs between Kenji and SHOT. SHOT remains focused on protecting the people of Akebono; Pure defense.

Kenji, however, has gotten used to the Toku formula of new toy, new powers, beat the bad guy. Combine that with his own trait of trying to find the simplest solution of whatever problem is directly infront of him and his idea of justice is primarily defeating the bad guys. Especially Jack Moon after the defeat Kenji suffered before.

And Jack Moon, well, he totally jives with that idea. Infact, he encourages Ryukendo to get as strong as he can, and as quickly as he can too. But yet he also recognizes just how rash his rival is being. He teaches Kenji in the same way a parent lets their child touch a hot stove; Go ahead, use the Thunder Key without any proper preparation and watch what happens.

Had Kenji not been so focused on one goal and one goal only, he also could've appealed to Jack Moon's' ego and told him to wait if he wants a truly strong rival to fight. But again, his primary motivation throughout the episode is to take Jack Moon out as quickly as possible, and both him and Gekiryuken end up worse off for it. It's a rather neat subversion on the formula we've gotten so far when it comes to obtaining new keys, and I dug it.

I suppose, then, that this technically counts as our first two-parter of the show, as I imagine the next episode will be dealing with the direct aftermath of this one, and I am very interested in seeing where it will go.