Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Shuriken Sentai Ninninger Episode 14



Anyone who's ever seen a John Hughes movie is more than likely familiar with the moments where whatever silliness we've been viewing is torn away for a moment of honest drama, usually in the form of a speech. Actually it wasn't a phenomenon reserved for his films as many 80's films would have those surprise dramatic moments. Seriously; just check out the death of Evil Ed in Fright Night or the cassette tape part in Night of the Creeps. It's a very difficult tonal shift to pull off correctly but by god Ninninger did it this week in what was an otherwise goofy episode.

Things kick off with Starninger continuing his efforts to kill the kids, mainly Takaharu. This results in a constant mess at the dojo which has Fuuka rightly pissed. So much that she bans all future assassination attempts within the house. Meanwhile Tsugomori makes a telephone monster he hopes will trick the kids into losing their transformation devices. After a quick battle, Kinji and Fuuka have a conversation where he apologizes for any rift he may be causing between the siblings before sharing the story of his dead family with her too.

Now we get to the part where the episode almost falls apart. The monster calls Takaharu and pretends to be both Fuuka and Gramps while coming up with a story that it stole her changing shuriken and that grampa says they have to gather the others to save hers, oh and that a complete stranger who happens to be helping them will come to pick them up. Taka being a massive idiot falls for it and convinces Nagi, Yakumo, and Kasumi (the supposedly smart one) to give him their shuriken. After he gives them away, they all realize he's been tricked.
The monster then tries a similar scheme with Fuuka but it quickly falls apart since she's smart enough to ask questions and has something called social skills.

After the others meet up with the beast and commence fighting without the ability to change, Fuuka and Kinji show up to take him on proper. During the fight she fakes being a klutz so she can get close and steel the shuriken back. During the next stage of battle the monster tricks everyone by using their voices to make them believe that everyone else is in danger. Guess who doesn't fall for it? If you guessed Fuuka you've earned a cookie. Even during the giant robot fight while the beasts sound attacks prove too much for the others, she has her giant robo dog howl so loudly that it breaks the telephone receivers. Basically if there was a problem, she solved it. Since Kinji helped out, she allows him to attack her brother in the house again, but only during certain hours.

After all the nonesense we get this bizarre ending. Takaharu is doing some solo training at night when Fuuka comes in to join him. She's realized that she still has to look after him (cause he's really dumb) and thous she must become stronger than him. He believes she can do it as they share the same grandfather, She believes she can do it cause Taka is her brother, then they continue to train through the night. It's such an odd and deep scene that's completely different from the rest of this show and yet it works towards improving both characters.


Next time, Kasumi is in the spotlight once again. Will it be a repeat of her shitty performance from episode five? Stay tuned to find out.

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