[Androzani84]

Scroll 2: Giant and Karakuri

Since this is a milestone episode, I’m going to include some pictures this time. Though I had to watch the episode twice in order to get them.

So we start where last episode left off, with Hamster Headmaster regaining his speech and the Jakanja’s arrival. This time, Furabijo summons the other villains to join her on the battlefield











(Note that Sargain had dialogue in this scene, but I just didn’t take the picture at the point he was saying it. And yes, we already introduced all these guys last week. I don’t know why we’re doing it again)

Nanami then asks who they are, (Really? Who do you think they are?) so the obligingly introduce themselves



(Then why are there only 5 of you?)

The Jakanja then proceed to attack our heroes, with Chuzoobo using a giant staff and Furabijo causing an explosion with her hand. But our heroes survive thanks to the empty suit switcheroo, and liberate Hamster Headmaster.

One week later, Oboro is being berated to work on something by her dad (so even as a hamster, he’s still an asshole. Good to know). And we learn that he’s stuck in the body of a hamster because he mispronounced his own spell. (Make of that what you will).

We then show what our heroes are up to, with Nanami having her priorities in order.



She is then abducted, er scouted by a talent agent, who decides she is what he’s looking for. He then gets her clothes off (not in that manner, you dirty devils), including her Hurricane Gyro.

Meanwhile, Yosuke has become a window cleaner. One with an extremely horrible Union, it seems.



The boss basically tells him to shut up and get to work on those windows (not answering the question, I might add). He then chooses to grumble about his situation.





(Gotta say, he does have a bit of a point here. It might be a bit more productive to locate and destroy the Jakanja, rather than wait for them to attack and then destroy them) He then sees that Kouta is walking into a pre-school, and decides to investigate (he is so fired).

At the Centipede, Tau Zant wants to corrupt the planet further until he can get around to finding “that” (I don’t know, seems counterproductive). Sargain then insists that his puppets will make up for Chuzoobo’s failure. When Chuzoobo takes umbrage at this, Sargain decides to say it to his face, leading to this reveal.



Yep, Sargain is controlled by a tiny insect who sits in his head. It’s as freaky as it sounds.

With that settled, Sargain proceeds to awaken his first puppet, having been given the greenlight from Tau Zant.



We then cut back to the pre-school, where it turns out Kouta is now a physical therapist for a disabled girl. It’s a fairly wholesome scene, until Yosuke notices that Kouta isn’t wearing his Gyro.

And because, as Disney says, it’s a small world after all, the two then see Nanami performing at the same pre-school, singing a song that seems specially written for her.

It turns out she’s stuck performing enka (I don’t know enough about JP culture to explain what that is, but I assume it’s basically performing at pre-schools), and to add insult to injury, she’s a substitute. Yosuke then notices that she’s not wearing her Gyro either (apparently, they’re going out of style).

Elsewhere, Jishakumo attacks, magnetising people to each other and turning them into metal. Oboro sends out the distress signal to the Hurricanegers, but only Yosuke hears it. Seeing the other two joining in the pre-school activities, he leaves without them. Arriving at the scene of Jishakumo’s attack, Yosuke states he can take on the puppet by himself. This being a show based around friendship, of course he can’t and ends up trapped between several metal objects.

To get the other two into the fight, Hamster Headmaster orders the distress frequency to be amplified, alerting the other two, who show up to save Yosuke and tell him that they don’t want to quit at all and they won’t take their Gyros off again (man, the episode isn’t even half over and we’ve already resolved the main conflict. I think that’s a record).

Jishakumo cares not for their reconciliation and continues the fight. They hit him with their Hayatemaru swords, but it does bugger all and he gains the upper hand quickly. But then Oboro realises he’s a puppet running on a power source and tells them to destroy that to kill him. Kouta then notices his chest glowing and suggests they hit that. They form the Victory Gadget, this time with the Quake Hammer as the front (last time, it was the Dry Gun) and crush Jishakumo with a 100 ton ball, destroying him. Furabijo, who was apparently there the whole time, then marks his performance



If I remember anything from Ninja Storm, it’s at this point that they make him big by sending down the scro-



What?



What the hell is happening?





Oh, so the growth method here is like Fiveman’s (a giant robot copying the smaller monster) but better (in that this one also does personalities and isn’t numbered, so you can feel free to do your own fanfiction using them without causing a continuity snarl)

To face the copied Jishakumo, Oboro reveals her project, a set of Shinobi Machines for the current Hurricanegers: Hurricane Hawk, Hurricane Dolphin and Hurricane Lion. She teleports them onto an aeroplane, a cruise liner and a Ferris wheel (I wonder what happens to the people on those things). The Hurricanegers are told to use their Gyros to control them, leading to a battle. Jishakumo stands up to Hurricane Hawk’s fire attack and Hurricane Dolphin’s hologram tidal wave, but gets hit hard by Hurricane Lion’s attack, blowing him to pieces as our heroes stand triumphant



But then Jishakumo uses his magnet powers to pull himself back together (literally), causing Oboro to reveal the Shinobi Machines’ secondary function: they can combine (dun dun dun)



Fortunately, Hamster Headmaster is there to correct Nanami’s genre blindness by explaining how it works.



And so, our heroes combine, and while you watch the video below me, I’m going to take a moment to gush of Kazunori Miyake’s score for this show. He’s honestly one of my favourite Sentai composers and this show helps contribute to that.

And so, our Karakuri giant is formed.



In all honesty, this is one of my favourite Sentai robot designs, though that may be in part due to nostalgia. I will say, nostalgia aside, I do consider it a solid design. Senpuujin strolls through Jishakumo’s Magnetic Arrow technique, befor Oboro tells them they can use the Shinobi Medals on their Gyros (the thing that helps you the viewer tell the individual Gyros apart) to summon a Karakuri Ball. They do so, summoning Karakuri Ball 01, which provides them with the Sword Slasher. They then use more holograms to do a three pronged attack against Jishakumo.



This proves too much for our puppet of the week, and he explodes for good. Oboro then relays that the affected people have returned to normal (I guess they didn’t have the budget to show that) and explains that the Karakuri Balls tap into an ancient power (which I assume is our collectible for this season) and the episode ends by telling us that the heroes’ journey has only just begun (and we miss out on seeing Yosuke and Kouta begging for their jobs back after skipping work to fight Jishakumo).

Next time, we look set to focus on Nanami’s attempts to become a music sensation in spite of her current position.





Final verdict: The show still continues to be fairly solid, though I do think the episode’s dilemma was too quickly resolved. The Hamster Headmaster is still pretty abrasive, but not enough to be unlikeable (which is a major problem I have with some Toku characters, Ryuki!Ren, Rio, Luka and Yoko being chief among them). Chuzoobo, Sargain and Wendinu get a bit of personality, partially resolving my main issue with last episode (still need something for Manmarva/Floaty Head). Overall, I think I’m going to enjoy this show.

[gashatfreak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

[B][I][U]
To face the copied Jishakumo, Oboro reveals her project, a set of Shinobi Machines for the current Hurricanegers: Hurricane Hawk, Hurricane Dolphin and Hurricane Lion. She teleports them onto an aeroplane, a cruise liner and a Ferris wheel (I wonder what happens to the people on those things). The Hurricanegers are told to use their Gyros to control them, leading to a battle. Jishakumo stands up to Hurricane Hawk’s fire attack and Hurricane Dolphin’s hologram tidal wave, but gets hit hard by Hurricane Lion’s attack, blowing him to pieces as our heroes stand triumphant

Toku no Jutsu: Civillian Vanishment During Mecha Battle. One of the most widely-used jutsu after Toku no Jutsu: Massive Explosion.

EDIT: Also, to fill you in about not knowing what the heck enka is, here's a nice explanation from Japan Times:

Quote:

Translated literally as “performance song,” enka is a genre of popular music that originated back during the Meiji Era as a form of political activism.

When Japan’s first political party was formed in the late 19th century, party leaders were banned from addressing the public. Instead, they wrote songs of political satire to have singers perform on the streets.

Gradually shifting away from its political affiliation, enka experienced its second wave during the postwar years of the Showa Era, when it developed into its current form, encompassing melodramatic lyrics and nostalgic scenery to complement the nation’s traditional identity.

Although no longer as popular as in its heyday, enka can still be heard across Japan and maintains a dedicated audience, mostly those of the older generation.

In other words, enka is dramatic music played with traditional instruments. I listened to a few enka on YouTube out of curiosity and it's definitely something worth checking out. It's quite a unique experience, and one that's definitely not exclusive to pre-schools thankfully.

[Androzani84]

Scroll 3: Impostor and Sixty Seconds

This episode opens with Nanami once more doing her Enka act, and receiving increasingly less attention for it. To the point she blows it off, much to her manager’s consternation and returns to base just as Yosuke and Kouta are asking why their last battle wasn’t on the news (Remember that. It’ll be important later). Hamster Headmaster then instructs the three to investigate people who’ve started acting out of character, examples including a little girl pulling up flowers she planted with her friend and a boss destroying his own office (you know it’d be he disgruntled employees doing that normally). The only link is, coincidentally given Nanami’s dreams of stardom, a tv station.

As our heroes go to investigate, we cut to the Centipede, where Sargain and Furabijo are ready to write Chuzoobo off as a failure for apparently doing nothing. (Typical Sentai villain fare, really) Then Tau Zant and Wendinu reveal that he is working on a plan, but instead of overseeing it personally, he’s searching through Jakanja’s trash for something.

We then cut to the studio, where our three legendary successors search around, with Nanami coming across the famous music producer Yagi, who just so happens to be in charge of the type of acts she wants to become. (Have I mentioned Furabijo is there?) Yagi-P then decides he wants Nanami in his category for The Voice Japan over someone who showed up to audition (what a dick). As Nanami goes in and starts singing a song I haven’t been able to find the name of (it seems to be a more upbeat version of her usual enka song), the mic creates a copy of our Blue Heroine and sucks the real one inside. This turns out to be Chuzoobo’s latest plan to corrupt the planet and find “that”: replace everybody with evil doppelgängers while the real ones are trapped inside the microphone. (How this helps is left as a riddle for the ages). Since the Hurricanegers have shown up, Furabijo decides to have the fake Nanami scout them for the fake Yagi-P.

Meanwhile, Nanami ends up with the originals, including Yagi-P, the office boss and the little girl among several extras, inside a pocket dimension. They then see Yosuke and Kouta fall for fake Nanami’s offer to let them sing and fake Yagi-P calling them good (the real one doesn’t think they’re that good). Nanami tries to change into HurricaneBlue as discreetly as possible (read, telling everyone to cover their eyes and ears), only to find that she can’t do that in here. And to add insult to injury, Yagi-P calls her morph call too old-fashioned (I take it back, he’s more Simon Cowell than a Voice judge). So Nanami instead escapes by using her water ninpo to rocket out of the mic. The mic then transforms into our monster for this episode, Copy Ninja Kuriottsebo (I have no idea if I spelt that correctly)


(Yes, that is the best picture I could find of him)

After a commercial break, Nanami confronts her doppelgänger, who uses the Shuriken feature on her Gyro to attack, only to fall for the empty costume trick and get captured in a harpoon. As Yosuke and Kouta transform to fight Copy Ninja (that’s what I’m calling him for the rest of this post), Nanami transforms and destroys the fake with her Sonic Megaphone (why couldn’t she do that before?)

As the three Hurricanegers reunite, Copy Ninja summons the Megarappas to aid him. Since they’ve already blown the budget on Nanami vs Nanami, we instead get a new Chou Ninpo: Kage no Mai (Dance of the Shadows)


(Get used to this. It becomes a regular thing)

After Copy Ninja turns out to be too fast to hit, Nanami traps him underwater so she can hit him, before they form the Triple Gadget with the Sonic Megaphone up front. This blows Copy Ninja to pieces, while everyone he captured returns to reality as their fakes vanish.

Before Furabijo and Sargain can continue what they started earlier, Chuzoobo shows up with what he was looking for: the lost ancient Jakanja spell (what the heck was it doing in the trash?). Chuzoobo then proceeds to place it on a scroll, giving an ominous hint as to its effects.




(This is starting to look familiar)

Chuzoobo then gives Wendinu the scroll, who then proceeds to fire it from a Bazooka she just happens to have.




(This is getting more familiar)







(Ah yes, the Scroll of Empowerment from Ninja Storm. Now to get a bit off topic, but I’m very partial to shows that give every general their own army with its own motif [Metalder, Black RX, Bee Fighter, Gingaman, Boukenger, Go-Onger, Goseiger and Kyoryuger come to mind], so I’m even happier that this one is giving them individual growth methods).

The Hurricanegers then summon the Shinobi Machines and combine into Senpuujin. But Copy Ninja’s abilities and speed prove too much for them. Cue Oboro.



It turns out that Senpuujin can “hurry up” into a faster form for only 60 seconds. So they do exactly that.



(This exists purely to promote a non transforming, undetailed release of Senpuujin, now available at all good ToysRUs in 2002)

And then this music plays as Senpuujin Hurrier proceeds to whoop ass.

And once Senpuujin “hurries down”, Copy Ninja is so weak that they kill him with their regular finisher. As Hamster Headmaster tells Oboro she knows what to do, our heroes wonder if they’ll actually be on the news this time. Nanami is approached by Yagi-P, who decided after seeing her as HurricaneBlue that he wants to represent her and it all seems like a happy ending for our heroes…

Lol, no.



Hamster Headmaster sends out a team of robot Kuroko to go around and wipe everyone’s memories of the Hurricanegers. (beating both Shinkenger and Goseiger to their respective punches) Thus, Yagi-P forgets about Nanami. But it’s not all bad, as she vows to get famous by continuing down her path of Enka (good luck with that).

Our next episode, Drilling and Siblings, looks to round out our focus episodes for the cast by focusing on Kouta, in addition to introducing a new Karakuri Ball.

Final Thoughts: This episode gave me a good feel for Nanami’s character and I loved Sargain’s rivalry with Chuzoobo. I didn’t expect the big producer to be a main character, so the ending twist isn’t that cruel.

[Androzani84]

Scroll 4: Tunnels and Siblings

I’ll start with a preface explaining my sub situation. I do not live in the US so I do NOT have access to Shout Factory’s version. For these first 4 episodes, I’ve been relying on a group called HaroRangers. But the only did these 4 episodes, forcing me to move to a different company for the rest of the series. They’re not bad, per se, but there are some bizarre translation choices (rendering sanjou, kenzan and suisan as “calling” and translating any application of “Maru” as ball, even when the thing in question is clearly not a ball) and some quality control problems (one episode had the subs 20 seconds behind the corresponding dialogue). So I won’t be relying on them for screenshots unless I absolutely have to. Instead, any pictures I post will be either from Power Rangers Ninja Storm or from the RangerWiki. With that said, on with the review.

We start the episode off with this week’s monster already having made his appearance, one Tunnel-Digging Ninja Mogudrago, who as the name implies, has been digging holes in the ground.

(As a side note, he’s voiced by Kentaro Ito, best known in Tokusatsu as Blaird in Chousei Kantai Sazer-X and Another W in Heisei Generations Forever)

The Hurricanegers show up to stop him, but find themselves unable to deal with his drilling attacks. Yosuke suggests they just blow him up with the Triple Gadget, but Kouta refuses to comply, thinking they should be more cautious (That’s our main conflict for this episode). Yosuke eventually has enough and just pulls the Quake Hammer from his friend. But by then, it’s too late as Mogudrago has decided to flee (which makes him smarter than your average villain of the week in an action series). The three Hurricanegers then argue over whether they should’ve been cautious or taken the risk. (One thing I like is that neither side of this argument is portrayed as wrong. Both have something of a point here). At Ninja Base, Hamster Headmaster is dismayed to see the Hurricanegers’ teamwork is falling apart, inadvertently ruining Oboro’s efforts to create a new Karakuri Ball for this situation with his nagging (at least he wasn’t deliberately a dick this time). Kouta then says he has somewhere important to be and leaves, with Nanami assuming he has a date (which is kind of sweet) while Yosuke is still pissed over their argument (which speaks volumes for their established personalities: Yosuke is the serious one, while Nanami is the silly one).

Kouta then travels to the orphanage where his sister Meiko (worth mentioning that the actor’s actual sister is on this show, playing Furabijo) works, managing to save a child from being crushed by a falling ladder in the process (it’s confirmed. Kouta is the sensitive one). Kouta then catches up with Meiko, who reveals that she’s planning to move to Africa to help the kids over there. Kouta objects, but she calls it no different from him disappearing for a year, to which Kouta almost gives the game away (thankfully, she doesn’t seem to hear him). Yosuke and Nanami then reveal themselves, having overheard the whole thing (Are they stalking him now?), so Kouta explains his life story to them: His parents died shortly after Meiko was born, so they grew up in an orphanage. One day, Kouta left Meiko on her own, but she followed him anyway and got crushed by a piece of falling masonry. While Kouta assumes she remembers nothing and she was able to recover her ability to walk quickly thanks to a good physical therapist. Because of this, Kouta is less willing to take risks (and decided to be a physical therapist when he grew up) (I gotta say, this is a pretty good character study).

We then cut to the Jakanja, who reveal that the plan this week (they they’re all in on, for once) is to construct a subway network so that once they find “that”, they can easily transport it to their possession. Mogudrago continues digging, cutting the power to a hospital, the water to a fire hose and other lines underground he finds annoying (leading to a pretty funny scene where the lights go out in Ninja Base and when the emergency power kicks in, everything has been upended).

Hamster Headmaster thus summons the Hurricanegers, with Yosuke palming off his work onto someone else and Nanami having to pull herself free from her manager’s grip (I’m not sure what to think about this guy right now). Kouta also heads to the construction site where Mogudrago is slacking off from his work (you just can’t get the staff, can you?), but gets distracted when he sees Meiko at the airport. He once more tries to stop her, but she tells him that not taking risks is just as bad as taking risks that don’t pay off (that’s your moral for the day, kids) and that she remembers the accident from years ago, but doesn’t regret it or blame Kouta. With this in mind, Kouta travels to the construction site and proceeds to try and take on Mogudrago by using his Quake Hammer to play the best game of Whac-A-Mole ever (and giving Oboro inspiration for the new Karakuri Ball). Yosuke and Nanami help Kouta detect Mogudrago’s presence, allowing the Hurricanegers to force him above ground and crush him to death with the Triple Gadget in “Quake Gadget” formation. As Furabijo prepares to fail Mogudrago, Wendinu sends out a Copy Giant to resurrect him (complete with a repeat of the same explanation from two episodes ago. What is it with this show and repeated intros?). The Hurricanegers form Senpuujin and try fighting Mogudrago, but are no match for his speed, even in Hurrier formation. It’s at this point that Oboro completes the new Karakuri Ball, sending the Shinobi Medal to Kouta.



(Despite what you might think, there is no toy for this. It’s entirely a show-only prop modified from the Yellow Medal. There is a toy for this however)



Kouta uses the Medal to summon Karakuri Ball 02: Goat Crusher, which has the same effect as Kouta’s Quake Hammer, knocking Mogudrago out of the ground, before beating him to death, all set to the theme song. Furabijo then fails Mogudrago and cancels the project for a Jakanja subway. (It probably wouldn’t have had good sandwiches anyway).

Kouta then goes to the airport, where he tells Meiko he’s now okay with her going off, much to her relief. As she leaves, Yosuke and Nanami argue over whether they should go for hamburgers or ramen (exactly like Kakuranger’s first episode, I might add. All we're missing is the narrator advocating omelette rice), with Kouta once more stating they need to think this through. Hamster Headmaster laments that they haven’t really learned much (to be fair, that’s pretty realistic), while Oboro still affirms that they’re good kids and offers her dad some chocolate (though he says he’d rather have sunflower seeds).

Next time: Hamster Headmaster sends our heroes to work in a bathhouse, but Yosuke has had enough of his shit. Also, Jakanja does something with plants. All this and more on the next episode of Hurricaneger: Master and Bathhouse.

Final thoughts: Overall, a good end to the mini-arc where we get a feel for our characters. I also like how the fact we have two hammer like weapons was acknowledged and used as a minor plot point. And it’s pretty good to see our villains work together on a common goal, even if it was doomed to fail. This shows been on a high road so far, but next episode brings on a new writer. I am cautiously optimistic about that though.

[Androzani84]

Scroll 5: Master and the Bath

This episode is the first to be written by someone other than Jun’ichi Miyashita. Instead, it’s written by one Naoyuki Sakai. In terms of other writing credits, he did a few episodes of Gaoranger, plus he worked with Miyashita on Exceedraft, Janperson and Blue SWAT. If you came to this thread looking for familiar writers, then you’re in the wrong place. You’re likely to recognise at least one of this show’s 5 writers if you’re a general Toku fan. And we’re still a while away from him. With that said, let’s get down to business.

This episode starts with everyone’s favourite floaty-head Manmarva having a prophetic vision of two powerful warriors (and we’re told these prophecies are a regular occurrence, though some of them are pretty boring). Sargain assumes these warriors are the final two Dark Spears (even he acknowledges they’re short-staffed). Personally, I think it’s those guys who appeared briefly in episode 1 and have been in the credits since then.



Tau Zant then dismisses this, asking how Chuzoobo is doing with his latest plan. The latter says that it’s underway, as we see a group of Magerappas out at night (a rarity, I know) planting seeds in the ground (apparently, the plan this time is to start an unpaid, unwanted gardening business). The Hurricanegers show up to stop them, before Yosuke ends up facing this week’s ninja: Poison Flower Ninja Hanasakedonne (Since I don’t expect to spell that the same way every time, I’ll just call him Flora).



Flora beats up Yosuke for about a minute before leaving. Cut back to Ninja Base, where Oboro has had the three gather soil samples, for something she won’t tell them about. Hamster Headmaster then sends them to investigate the Miharaishi Bathhouse undercover, to which Yosuke objects and decides to attack him. After losing a fight to a f*cking hamster (embarrassing, I know), the Master orders them to the Bathhouse. We then see them doing jobs such as keeping the fires going, changing the baskets and scrubbing the floor. Yosuke is (naturally) sick of this and storms off. While Hamster Headmaster hangs up his phone call (look, just go with me on this one, okay?), Oboro explains why he sent them to the bathhouse: the Jakanja were sighted in the area surrounding the bathhouse (Oh, that makes sense). He didn’t tell the kids this because Yosuke interrupted him and that made HH impatient with his hotheadedness. (Yep, that checks out) Yosuke then bursts in to try and attack Hamster Headmaster, only to fail again and get told that he doesn’t have what it takes to be a ninja superhero if he can’t follow orders. Yosuke then goes to an arcade and proceeds to use the games to take out his anger at Hamster Headmaster (Well, it might help).

At the Centipede and in the basement of the Miharaishi Bathhouse, both Chuzoobo and Flora exposit the plan: By growing a central tree in the bathhouse, they can then grow all the seeds they planted into more trees, which will then kill all of humanity (I think there’s a step or two missing there). Nanami and Kouta then find the central tree in the basement, and get captured by Flora just as it sprouts. Thus, Hamster Headmaster summons Yosuke away from his game of Whac-A-Mole (that’s the second time I’ve referenced that in this thread) to save them.

Yosuke arrives on the scene to see Nanami and Kouta captured by Flora. He tries destroying the vines with his Dry Gun, but it fails (what do you know? Hairdryers make terrible weapons against plants). Despite being under attack by a seed that was in the dirt they had gathered earlier, Oboro sends Yosuke a new technique for his Hayatemaru (which, in the first of this sub’s quirks, translates “maru” as ball, which, while not wrong as a translation, is wrong in this context, as the thing is clearly not a ball). Using this new technique, Yosuke completely destroys the plant and frees the others. The three then do the roll call (exposing another of the sub’s quirks: translating any word used to denote presence (sanjou [has arrived], kenzan [has appeared] and suisan [on stage]) as ‘calling’), but find themselves struggling against Flora’s attacks. That same mysterious duo make a reappearance, this time gloating that they have a front row seat for the Hurricanegers’ demise (so it’s confirmed: they’re dicks). Luckily, the Hurricanegers escape using scarecrows and then destroy Flora with the Dry Gadget.

Wendinu then revives Flora as a giant, to which the Hurricanegers summon Senpuujin, ram Flora with its ‘spinning wheel’ mode (showing off its toy gimmick in the process), blasting him with the Tategami Hurricane (basically using the lion head like a beyblade) before destroying him with the Sword Slasher. The Hurricanegers celebrate, Chuzoobo fumes at his loss, Manmarva eagerly anticipates the arrival of the two warriors and the mysterious duo leave laughing (apparently, the Hurricanegers not dying, but actually winning is the funniest thing ever to them). Hamster Headmaster is finally proud of Yosuke… until he says something dumb which earns him a rodent to the face.

Next time: our two female villains try to kill our one female hero, playing out the designated girl fight in all it’s worn out glory. Also, there’s a new puppet with cutting abilities. Join me next time for Scroll 6: Scissors and Kunoichi.

Final Thoughts: Even with a different writer, the show manages to give me some consistent quality storytelling. We get some plot advancement with the two strangers appearing again and getting some dialogue. And there seems to be something going on with Hamster Headmaster (we never did see who he was calling on the phone). The subs may not be the best anymore (not that they were perfect before), but I can still understand things, in spite of the bizarre translation choices.

[Androzani84]

Scroll 6: Scissors and Kunoichi

I’ll start with some etymology



And I’ll also get on my soapbox for a moment because this is an episode focused on a fight with the two humanoid villains. While most people love human villains, I am not one of them and these types of fights are primarily why. They can’t be a physical threat without making use of weapon or special effects, due to the fact the actors often can’t do their own stunts. Not to mention they often go down in one hit against the Rangers before withdrawing or calling in their monsters/henchmen (as one parody noted after Rita Repulsa fired one blast of lightning at the Rangers “Well, I’m spent. Go Aladdin Kruger.”). These problems don’t exist with suit villains, which is why I’m more partial to them. With that said, on with the write up.

This episode opens with Yosuke and Kouta doing reports (yes, even being a secret ninja requires paperwork), while Nanami is sent on an assignment to Mt. Kurosawa to retrieve a statue from a shrine at the summit. Meanwhile, as Sargain introduces his latest puppet Shiransu - the Severing Ninja (I have no idea what he’s supposed to be. The website says he’s a rabbit, the concept artist says he’s a crab and I think he looks like a stag beetle. You can see what he looks like below), our two Jakanja females argue over which of them is better (with Wendinu arguing that Tau Zant called her sexy while Furabijo argues that she’s the First Spear for a reason), eventually deciding to put it to a wager.


We get told from flashbacks that climbing the mountain was part of the curriculum for new members, but Nanami broke her leg during the test and was carried up by Yosuke and Kouta (that being the point the three met for the first time), thus Headmaster Mugensai (as he was known back then. Yosuke takes after me by calling him “Hamster Kancho”) failed her. Oboro notes that Nanami doesn’t need to do it now, this is purely for her self-esteem (and so she can graduate). As Nanami finds the statue she was sent to recover (a small turtle), Shiransu appears in the city and starts using his abilities to make couples and families hate each other. Oboro informs the boys and they tail Shiransu, who proceeds to attack a peace conference where the delegates are giving their reviews of the tuna at the hotel. It then leads to this funny exchange.

American delegate(overracting): Oh my god. I am getting upset for some reason.

Indian delegate(understated): Me too. I hate all of you.

As the delegates turn this peace conference into a free form wrestling tournament (so, a regular peace talk then), the Hurricanegers realise they need to stop this Jakanja before World War 3 starts. Nanami runs to try and help, but gets intercepted by the Jakanja girls, who have decided their contest will be beating up the one girl on the Hurricanegers (Why not the other two? Damned if I know). As Nanami barely evades Furabijo’s flying shuriken attack (see what I mean?), she decides to transform to continue the fight.

In the city, Yosuke and Kouta try confronting Shiransu, but he uses his abilities to make them fight each other. Then Nanami continues to lose to Furabijo’s Hachi Ninpo and Wendinu’s Hebi Ninpo.





(My grievances with fights concerning human villains aside, it’s still a lot more impressive than a scene from Kiramager 34 that some guy declared awesome because Yodonna’s actress did it herself - said stunt was a barrel roll, something a newborn baby could do).

Shiransu then decides to gloat over his advantage by knocking the feuding boys into a car, which breaks his spell (so that means his victims should all have been freed the minute their confrontations got physical). The two then work together to kill Shiransu with a Kage no Mai (I think he might be the weakest monster the show has introduced so far), before rushing to save Nanami who is now injured to the point of being kicked around (literally). Worse, she lost the damn turtle statue. In the middle of this, Sargain asks why Wendinu isn’t growing the monster while Chuzoobo wonders why Furabijo hasn’t failed the monster yet. (They know the formula) Then Yosuke downloads the new sword technique he got last week (yay for continuity) into Nanami’s Hayatemaru (Hurricaneger predicted iCloud. It’s official), allowing her to defeat the two vixens and take the statue back. Our villainesses call it a day and grow Shiransu with a Copy Giant (there’s no explanation this time). Oboro hesitates in calling the Shinobi Machines, because she wants Nanami to break the statue (that’ll hurt any resale value) and look at the scroll that a previous Hayate grandmaster hid in there. After seeing the contents of the scroll, Oboro sends the Shinobi Machines, with the Hurricanegers combining into Senpuujin and trying and failing to defeat Shiransu with the Sword Slasher. Luckily, the contents of that scroll allow Oboro to send Nanami the newest Karakuri Ball. 03: Tortoise Hammer.



With the new weapon in hand, Senpuujin overpowers Shiransu, defeating him. Furabijo then fails everyone who did anything this episode… and Sargain for some reason (Is it because he sent out Shiransu?). The peace conference goes well and Nanami successfully becomes a second year ninja… but the boys still have to do the paperwork. (I assume Nanami did it earlier, which is why her graduation requirement is the one thing she couldn’t do before).

Our next episode trailer shows that our mysterious watchers finally make their full, appearance, introducing themselves as dark ninjas. All in the next episode “Thunder and Ninja”

Final thoughts: While I liked the main plot of Nanami working to build confidence in herself as a warrior, and I got some comedy out of the conference, the action in this episode wasn’t that great. I’d give it a 4/5.

[Androzani84]

Scroll 7: Thunder and Ninja

So here we are, at the point where I stopped watching the show on my first watch. Can I get further this time? Yes I can.

To start off with, our two mysterious watchers are no longer shadowed in the credits, you can see them in all their horny glory (wait, that didn’t come out right)



The episode proper opens with our three Hurricanegers using their elemental specialties in unison to… destroy a scarecrow. They then brag about how perfectly executed that was and that Jakanja won’t be able to stop them now (Pride goeth before a fall, I guess).

Speaking of whom, at the Centipede, Floaty Head Manmarva is having another vision of the two Spears, which everyone dismisses, as they’re dedicated to Chuzoobo’s latest plan: using the Dimension Ninja Futabutabou (who I am going to refer to as “Two-pig” so I don’t constantly misspell it).



Using his Uchu Ninpo: Jigen Buta, Two-pig sends several people, including Nanami’s jerk of a manager into the same city corner, where they almost kill a delivery guy. The Hurricanegers leap into the action with their Hurricane Wingers and find Two-pig on a skyscraper. He then lures them into his dimension, wherein they get attacked by kids on bikes in a street corner, gangsters in a movie at the cinema and a tank at the quarry (One guy compared this show to Metal Heroes and he wasn’t kidding). But, to Two-pig’s surprise, Yosuke, Nanami and Kouta all enjoyed the changing scenery and give him recommendations, causing him to return to the rooftop in anger. As the Hurricanegers take advantage of his getting distracted to shoot him, Manmarva searches around looking for the figures in his vision. And he ends up finding them (what a coincidence).

.

Back at the Centipede, as Chuzoobo disciplines Two-pig for his running away, Floaty Head returns with his findings, who introduce themselves.



The Gouraigers then get down to business, stating they intended to be hired by Jakanja in order to find the secret ninja technique that Jakanja is looking for (Nice to see that plot’s going somewhere). Then Tau Zant reveals that the two are actually humans rather than the remaining two Spears, causing everyone to reject the Gouraigers as beneath them. To this, the red one tells them they have no idea who they’re messing with, before leaving with his blue partner.

As the Hurricanegers and Oboro toast their victory (I don’t see why people always celebrate minor successes. They’re just asking to fail). As Hamster Headmaster calls them out on being lax, Two-pig returns at the quarry. The Hurricanegers go to face him, but he’s upped his game since last time, managing to utilise his secret weapon: flying pig snouts (No, really).



From the side, the Gouraigers look on as the Hurricanegers struggle to fight back.



Our heroes eventually get the advantage when Yosuke has them use the manoeuvre they were practicing earlier to get onto his Jigen Buta and ram it into him, weakening him to be destroyed by the Dry Gadget. As our heroes celebrate, they get blasted backwards by the Gouraigers, who state that they intend to finish what the Jakanja failed to do (And I’ll take a moment to gush at their main leitmotif. Kazunori Miyabe man)

Yosuke tries to use that same manoeuvre again to counter the Gouraigers, but the blue one counters it by doing a Rider Kick (or should that be a Raiger Kick? Never mind, he does kind of look like a Kamen Rider so the joke works either way). They then introduce themselves as the Gouraigers, the Ikazuchi Style’s legendary champions.(remember them?) Hamster Headmaster is shocked by this, while Oboro wonders why Earth Ninjas are fighting each other (Did she forget about the ongoing feud between their two schools? Good god, is this gonna be like Ryuki again?)



Just as the Gouraigers have downed our heroes and won the hearts of the female Jakanja Spears, Two-pig returns as a giant to knock them out of the way, causing them to leave in outrage at the Jakanja for undermining them. The Hurricanegers summon the Shinobi Machines and hit Two-pig with everything in their basic Mecha arsenal (ie. No Goat Crusher or Tortoise Hammer) to kill him. Yosuke, Nanami and Kouta then return to the ground to confront the Gouraigers once more, who transform back into their human forms, giving us a pair of faces and a pair of names: Ikazuchi Style’s KabutoRaiger Ikkou Kasumi (R) and Ikazuchi Style’s KuwagaRaiger Isshu Kasumi (L)



The two Kasumi brothers then make what RangerWiki calls “contemptuous huffing noises”, before taking their leave. And thats where it ends. Next time, the Hurricanegers try to appeal to the Gouraigers’ better nature (Good god, is this just going to be another Ryuki? Because I really don’t want it to be another Ryuki).

Final thoughts: This wasn’t so much focused on any one character so much as it was on debuting the new guys at long last. I like how they’re basically full on jerks with hearts of jerk at this point, as opposed to the show trying to tell me they have a better nature to be appealed to (I really hate it when shows do that, mostly because it’s rarely done well). And I like that they basically gave our heroes a healthy reality check when they were developing a bit of an ego. Overall, I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next.

EDIT: It seems that some of the pictures haven’t loaded on the post when I try viewing. Can someone help me by confirming whether or not they see the last three pictures?

[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

Scroll 7: Thunder and Ninja

YAAAASSSSSSSS

[DreamSword]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

[B][I][U]EDIT: It seems that some of the pictures haven’t loaded on the post when I try viewing. Can someone help me by confirming whether or not they see the last three pictures?

They're definitely not loading on my end.

[Androzani84]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

They're definitely not loading on my end.

Weirdly enough, as I was reading this, the pictures started consistently appearing.