[DreamSword]

Episode 28: Reza in Grave Danger!! Rasputin's Revenge

Another recap episode.

What? You expect more out of me? Well you're right to, because just like the last one, this is written and directed by Hideki Oka and it goes places.

But whereas the last recap was mostly done in jest, this episode that focuses on Reza's' past is played entirely straight, with a style and tone that matches the second half of BIMA very well.

And it's something that I feel has been really missing from BIMA-X if I'm being honest. The soap opera tone of the original show was something that made BIMA stand out from many other tokusatsu that I'd seen both at the time and even now, a year and a half later. And its return was much appreciated.

So what's the setup? Turns out that there's a space between spaces when it comes to our realm and the Parallel World, this space called the Portral Realm/World. And Rasputin, the big bad of the first show, ended up trapped here after being killed off by Iron Mask. Or at the very least, his soul did. And the ties to Iron Mask are certainly highlighted in a couple key scenes...

I really did find it interesting how this recap episode wasn't about recapping the last dozen episodes, but rather recapping a chunk of BIMA; Probably for the people who decided to tune into BIMA-X without having seen the original. Now granted, I would not recommend anyone watch these two shows out of order, but it is nice that the possibility crossed the minds of the writing staff. And making this episode actually plot important was cool to see too.

In the end though, it's all about how Reza isn't fully over his actions during the original show, and he very well might never be able to fully forgive himself. But at the end of the day, he has a family now, and he knows full well that every one of them loves and cherishes him just as much as he does them. That shot of Azazel surrounded by his family was great, and really did bring everything together.

The two recap episodes together really do show Ika's' range as a writer and a director, and it's almost a shame that it seems like he was in charge of recaps and not much else, because he seems to really understand these characters. But hey, it all works out in the end, I suppose.

A fun time, this one.