[Sh Ranger]

Actually a decent episode. No major complaints this time. Maybe next time, depending on the state of the missing OP.

After that loser brother from Λ8018, Ι5109 gives us a sympathetic criminal with clear motivation and a despicable victim, which brings back the feeling of a classic Metal Hero story. The heroism of fighting to protect people, even when they don't deserve it, while encouraging the criminal to find a healthy way to deal with their tragedy. Losing a pet is something many of us can understand. The poacher may have served his sentence, but the fact that this rich man continues to live as a terrible person while Tama stays dead doesn't feel like the ideal justice, huh. However, it's not an Uchuu Keiji's job to force ex-cons to repent and Reiji does what justice needs of him.

Anyway, this episode is called Kiki and Koto, so I should talk about those two. For the sake of the misdirection, I would've called it Koto and Kiki, to maintain the illusion that Koto is Gavan. Kiki has the ability to remember anything she reads, just like Melt from Ryusoulger. She's also this universe's Uchuu Keiji Gavan, despite Koto having the more conventional Keiji role compared to Kiki as a forensic specialist. Koto shines as a skilled physical fighter though, so she won't let her partner overshadow her. She also loves to eat and her first scene is talking in detail about her experience of a food dream, so I think she'll be entertaining.

I was also surprised that we got to check in with Λ8018's team, where we finally saw a brief interaction between Setsuna and Amou. While Setsuna respects his chief, he's willing to lie to her about his "failure" to arrest Reiji. You might've expected a guy with limited emotions to have difficulty with that, but nope, Setsuna can lie.