[DreamSword]

Episode 8: In Charge of Promotion

DS: So hey question, was this episode written by Inoue?

Androzani: Not as far as I can tell.

En-chan: Yeah, I'm pretty sure it wasn't.

DS: I ask because it features both food and misunderstandings. All it needed was water and we'd've been set.

En-chan: Sadly I do not think our local heroes have the budget for drenching their outfits in rivers full of water.

Androzani: My first impression of the fictional KitaQMan, knowing that a) he doesn't have an IRL secret identity and b) he crowdfunded the destruction of his car to get a new vehicle, is that he's a guy with no sense of personal boundaries who's all about advertising.

DS: You're not far off.

Speaking of internet presence though, I just wanna say, this episode was a bit of a slip in terms of the usual quality subs that GaGaGa tends to do for Dogengers. There were a handful of untranslated lines in this one, ontop of some weird word choices at times.

En-chan: Yeah, even the opening and ending sponsor bits weren't translated either.

Androzani: Not to mention they didn't translate the sponsor section gags. Thankfully, Google Translate was my friend there.

DS: But, that aside, this episode actually reminded me alot of Nice Buddy, in that it lured me into a false sense of security before sucker punching me when I least expected it.

En-chan: I'm assuming you're referring to our ending, given the choice of gif for today.

Androzani: One minute, it's a funny dating episode, the next it's Mako formally joining the Dogengers. (When are Bincho Fire and Koujin Ex getting their memberships?)

DS: Koujin Ex is a bit tied up at the moment.

But yeah, that ending though. It's surprising how I'm actually kinda into this, given the trend my reviews usually have of me not being invested in the romances at all.

En-chan: I suppose it's because we've got a new wrinkle in the idea of "changing" that this season's set us on.

And that's an identity crisis as a result!

DS: What also helped was that despite the more downtrodden turn at the end, this episode was surprisingly funny! I actually laughed quite a bit during this one.

Androzani: The teacher gets a sneeze cut when Ohgaman recalls him because, unlike the other regulars, he's not doing anything this week.

En-chan: What probably helps the humor is that we've not only got KitaQMan as the headliner this week, but we've got the rest of the core Dogengers as well showing up for some fun.

Androzani: And what do you know, the robot's still useful at small size.

DS: For sure. Although personally, my favorite bit was towards the beginning, with the girls resetting to neutral instantly when Daisuke came back into the room.

Androzani: "Crap, it's a boy. Back to tsundere mode."

En-chan: I enjoyed where both Akine and Ryoko immediately just went to keep Kireko from mugging Daisuke.

DS: "I have to take a nap!"

Friggen mood, right there.

But yeah, similar to El Brave's' episode, while this is the "KitaQman" episode, he's really only there to move everyone else along, rather than being the center focus. And I think they made it work rather well, all things considered.

Androzani: Especially since we get a lengthy fight set to the theme song out of it.

En-chan: Considering how KitaQman is, it does end up lending to his strengths I feel.

DS: Him being a troll just comes natural. Must be due to all the social media he consumes. And I mean, when it comes to advertising, he was right, technically speaking.

Androzani: I still have to question him knowing Mako well enough from, I presume following her Twitter, to intrude on her morning jog.

DS: I mean, maybe it's different nowadays, but back in my day, when computers were just freshly sprouting, teens were absolutely posting literally everything about themselves on socials.

En-chan: I'll be honest.

Considering the amount of posts I see urging younger people to not post everything about themselves online, I'd say it's very prevalent nowadays still.

DS: Makes sense. Take that advice, kids.

But yeah, the main plot of this episode is that Mako and Daisuke finally go on a date and... man, is this gonna be the second dating episode that ends up being my favorite for the toku shows I've reviewed? And for two shows that are on very opposite sides of the spectrum, too.

Androzani: I know my favourite for High School is the next one we're reviewing.

DS: Speaking of favorites, now that you've been introduced to them all... Androzani! Who is your favorite Dogenger so far?

Androzani: If we're sticking to existing members, I'll go with Aoron.

DS: Blueron is a very specific pick but I'll allow it.

And now you En-chan! Who is your fave?

En-chan: Oh this is hard... they're all so great in their own ways...

If I had to pick one over the other though... Fukuokalibur.

DS: En-chan likes them good bois, I see.

But yeah this episode was just fun all around, and probably the first from this season that I was super into from start to finish.

Were there any other highlights for you guys?

Androzani: Well I've already mentioned the fight, so I'll say the big moment where Mako meets the Dogengers again and calls back to everyone focused on in their previous focused episodes.

En-chan: Despite being part of a villainous organization, Shaberryman still takes the time out of his day to help people take photos.

DS: I mean he is a cameraman.

But okay then. With that done, we hope you enjoyed this episode as much as we did. Tune in next time where, following KitaQman's' example, we will bury ourselves in thousands upon thousands of selfies, all tagged with stuff like #fyp and #algorithm, because the kids do that nowadays, right? Right?