As a wise time-traveling sorcerer once
said, “we're in the endgame now.” Yes indeed after this post we
will have only three episodes to go before Lupinranger vs
Patranger says farewell and leaves us all as lonely sods until
the franchise returns the very next weekend. Our coming period of
abandonment my not last long but it's always a bit sad to face the
end of a decent Sentai entry, even one that hasn't always lived up to
its potential. We'll talk about the long-term pros and cons of this
series when we send it off in a few weeks. For now we've got an odd
mix of elements to talk about ranging from lighthearted holiday
antics to major plot developments.
Episode 45 takes a break from the
heavy plots of the past few outings to have some goofy Christmas fun.
Installments like this can be tricky as Sentai humor often veers too
far into weird or corny territory but the gags and character dynamics
on display here actually work out.
The primary conflict concerns a
Gangler who aims to remove chicken as the Christmas food of choice
and replace it with salmon. This has to be one of the most outright
Japanese plots to come form this series but it's true, people love
their Christmas chicken. Sakuya finds himself personally invested in
this conflict as he's protecting a Christmas party for the same
elementary school from, god, like 30 episodes ago.
It's not all simple holiday fun
however. While Sakuya, Noel, and the bistro crew protect festive
foodstuffs Keiichiro pieces together clues leftover from the
revelation that Ganglers are stealing human forms from presumably
dead people. Eventually he finally puts all the clues together and
figures out that his friends at the bistro must in-fact be the
phantom thieves. Imagine that; a funny holiday outing that actually
manages to propel the main story.
The festive silliness continues in
episode 46 for the token New Year's clip show. Can't help but sound
like a broken record every year when I say we don't need or want even
one clip show, let alone two. Considering this is a franchise that
puts out fresh content essentially every damn week I suppose this is
their version of giving folks a vacation but that doesn't make it any
easier to swallow. At the very least this show has done a far better
job of making these trips down memory lane feel almost like a real
episode which isn't something that can be said of many others.
There are two different framing
devices for this outing. On one end we have the thieves who are
trapped in a sub-dimension and forced to participate in a gameshow
which presents mostly shallow clips of action scenes. Still, the bits
with them interacting with the host are moderately funny and it's
pleasant seeing them ring in the new year.
The cops have a far more serious
situation as they pour over all the mounting evidence to back up the
theory of the bistro crew being the phantom thieves. They come close
to an agreement on the matter but Sakuya won't believe it for a
moment which prompts him to ask for time to make his own
investigation.
So... yeah, it was a clip show, not
the worst one ever though it still felt like a speed-bump before the
big show. Oh, yeah, by the end Zamigo enlists Gauche's help in some
villainous matters so at least there's some progress there.
Episode 47 marks the beginning of the
final sprint. There's but a few installments left to go and plenty to
accomplish, meaning its all hands on deck and not a moment wasted.
The first chunk of this adventure
revolves around Sakuya's efforts to proves the innocence of his
friends. In a rather self-serving form this sting operation takes the
form of a lunch date with Umika. While I've found the pairing of
these two to feels convenient and almost lazy they have found ways to
make it count. The strongest element is that while he's a childish
bungler she's grown to respect what a decent and upstanding guy he
can be. The date marks the strongest point of this episode with the
characters dancing around each-other. He's probing for information,
she's attempting to keep it cool, all while Kairi and Touma spy on
the pair eventually drawing her aside to inform her the cops are
closing in. The added depth from Umika's sadness that Sakuya fully
believes in her while she lies to him makes for a fine added layer of
drama.
The rest of this adventures ends up
being split as the Lupinrangers go after Zamigo who has a new trick.
He had Gauche install a third safe on his back along with a
collection piece that allows him to liquify his body, making him
immune to all manner of attacks. Speaking of Gauche, she's across
town taking on the cops where she gets the upper hand forcing Noel to
hand himself over to spare his comrades. In the process he finally
reveals to them the truth of his heritage. I'm not so much against a
late in the game kidnapping if only it felt more natural. While some
of the battle with Gauche was well-done parts with Noel came across
as if he suddenly forgot how to fight. It really lowers the sense of
urgency when you know the character wasn't doing his best. And so we
go out on a cliffhanger.
Episode 48 brings with it a variety of
major developments including one the audience has been waiting way
too long for. I'll try to keep everything straight. Gauche
commandeers television signals and announces a public dissection of
Noel which is the perfect trap to lure out both teams. The police
arrive first and get the asses handed to em. Then the thieves show up
to save the day which is when the big boss steps in to ask that they
remove their masks on live TV, which they proceed to do.
This is a bit of a misstep as the big
show changing reveal not only comes so late in the series but arrives
under very sloppy circumstance. I basically the main villain says
“jump” and they respond with “how high?”. I mean I guess it
makes sense. Multiple characters are already out of the fight so
there's little chance of these three taking him on. It just feels
like a hollow resolution engineered more to prop him up as the final
threat rather than the big moment it could have been.
With that out of the way, the
Lupinrangers deal with Gauche while the cops recover and rescue Noel.
Boss Dogranio uses his own collection piece which is something of a
treasure magnet to take all of Gauche's toys. He's tired of her shit
and leaves her to her fate which is having all our heroes blast her
to hell. Zamigo is especially fond of this development as all of his
actions up to this point were apparently meant to inspire the old
boss into loving his job again. Once the dust settles the trio of
phantom thieves goes into hiding.
We have to discuss the whole Gauche
thing. Not unlike the last major villain to die off we have to ask
what was the point of her activities? She had this grand obsession
for dissecting and augmenting lifeforms but she was missing something
to make her more interesting be it a tragic backstory or a sinister
plan to gain power. As is she joins the halls of two-dimensional
baddies.
Also found Sakuya's reaction towards
the thieves identity to be terribly childish. Yes he's the trusting
naive sort and he clearly feels betrayed by Umika lying all this
time. Let's be honest here though. You've already got an in with a
crazy hot girl and then learn she spends her days fighting
interdimensional criminals and wearing skin-tight costumes. Put a
ring on it, man. Honestly his attitude better change right quick
cause if the worst part of your relationship is that your girlfriend
is a spandex clad hero you're privilege is showing.
That's all there is for now. The next
recap will be the end for this series and this format. Gonna try a
new style of recap during the Strongest Battle mini-series and
depending on how that works it may be further augmented for
Ryusoulger. This is always an
interesting time for Sentai that's made all the more compelling due
to the coming shift in talent. Ryusoulger is
still being made by folks who know Tokusatsu but they're new to this
franchise. That means the final few entries of this series along with
the upcoming mini could serve as a send-off for the old guard. Either
that or we'll be running back to these people in tears if the new
show turns out to be tripe. Guess we'll find out soon enough.
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