[Androzani84]

So you probably don’t remember, but this was in one of those watch parties we used to do I mentioned back in the Saber thread. It was watched with Zyuohger 29 with the theme being “Sentai version of last week’s event”, which consisted of OOO 28 and Gaim 30 with the theme being “weird team-ups”.

Which is my way of saying that, like the Gaim episode, this is here to promote an upcoming movie. Though unlike the Kikaider movie, Gavan’s is a sequel to the tv show rather than a reboot (which leads to some uncertainty wih who the movie is targeting, since it doesn’t explain much to those unfamiliar with the series, but focuses on new characters the old guard won’t be invested in). But people can’t say this one is disrupting the plot, because, there isn’t a plot to disrupt (at least until the mid-episode reveal that seemingly everything Vaglass survived the previous episode).

And being written by Kento Shimoyama, who’s probably the Toku equivalent of Al Ewing with Marvel, has a lot of homages to the tv show.

Rhino Doubler is homage to Sai Doubler, the first Doubler Monster from Gavan (though not the first monster. That would be BEM Kaiju Mantis Shrimp Monster).

Like in that show, Gavan (and Hiromu, Shelly, and Yoko) fight untransformed for a while before his transformation. The original Space Sheriff shows were primarily an excuse for actors who were also stuntmen to show off (with Shaider being the exception, where they cast a pretty boy as the lead to boost ratings and had his female assistant do the action scenes).

As Gavan’s Deposition process begins, the OST shifts to that of Space Sheriff Gavan (it honestly fits Go-Busters better than its own OST, strangely enough). The subsequent replay stock footage is a faithful recreation of the original scene with Geki replacing his predecessor Retsu and Go-Busters’ narrator (who’s been mostly redundant for a few episodes, having nothing to do but read the title cards) filling in for Gavan’s narrator Issei Masamune (also known for The Transformers and Kamen Rider Black RX), as is DolGiran, Cyberian and the Gavan Dynamic scene.

The footage superimposed when Rhino Doubler sends people into the Makuu Zone (the Earth spinning backwards, a black hole and tides crashing) evokes the imagery of the “into the Makuu Zone” stock footage from the show, albeit without the accompanying dialogue…

Don Horror: Damn you, Gavan. Send him into the Makuu Zone. Axis Shift System, activate!

Narrator: Don Horror can reverse the Earth’s axis and create a Makuu Zone similar to a black hole. Inside this zone, (insert type of opponent) becomes three times more powerful.

The IRL reason for the Makuu Zone is because in traditional Japanese action stories, the enemy attains a more powerful form in time for the final battle, that’s 3 times as powerful. Sentai does the same thing with the giant battles, while Rider does it by having the monster primarily operate in human form prior to said final battle (or of they’re in monster form constantly, transform into a more powerful monster).

As for my noughts on the episode… more next time. This tie-in isn’t over yet.