Rambo Christmas Special: When S.A.V.A.G.E. Stole Santa.

As far as the history books are likely to remember it this Christmas seems like a bit of a late-bloomer. I've seen people in my neighborhood, folks on the internet, all over really, mention that they just aren't feeling the spirit this year. I counted myself among them until just recently. What changed you asked? Well there's finally some gifts under the tree, I started shopping as well despite my poor finances, and while I was avoiding Rise of Skywalker spoilers I dove into some weird holiday specials and found something wonderfully absurd. Throughout the years I've wondered why no one has had the good sense to turn The Night the Reindeer Died or KISS Saves Santa into real specials. While not quite as spectacular as those I may have found the next best thing with a Christmas carton staring America's favorite emotionally crippled killing machine, Rambo.

Rambo: Force of Freedom was the result of producers looking to turn a purely adult action/thriller film series into the latest cartoon and toy line for kiddies. The idea garnered some controversy and the show itself wasn't popular enough to last more than a season, though 80s cartoon seasons are pretty massive which means there are plenty of episodes. The show found PTSD addled murder monster John Rambo leading a crack team of commandos against the forces of S.A.V.A.G.E. Basically it's just G.I. Joe with emotional instability. As expected this animated format required Rambo to forgo his usual killing sprees and utilize less lethal methods of combat. I'd never really watched the show before this episode so that low violence policy had me frightened but the writers still manage to come up with badass crazy stunts for our man to do. What's better are the musical cues pulled straight from the films which makes for one of the coolest sounding cartoons ever.

The story begins on Christmas Eve at an orphanage in the mountains of Colorado where children apparently exist without adult supervision of any kind. Isn't a nun supposed to be beating them with a ruler? There's a new kid this year named, bobby or Johnny or some generic ass name. Fuck it, we're going with Ricky. Who's gonna correct us? Not his parents, that's for sure. In case you think I'm being too cruel about orphans, Ricky himself has got some downright grim views on the subject. When one of the girls tries to comfort him with the knowledge that Santa brings them gifts every year he savagely reminds her that nobody cares about orphans before storming off.

Ricky walks by Santa's village where he witnesses someone in a Santa suit loading up gifts in a sack. For any rational person this would be reason enough to return and apologize to the little girl, but not this kid. He scoffs at this lame excuse for a Santa before opting to wander off into the wilderness during a blizzard. Sorta makes ya wonder what happened to his parents. Wow... just realized this may be the first holiday special to ever allow the option of victim blaming an orphan.

Whereas most children stuck in a rocky mountain snowstorm would simply die of exposure, Ricky just so happens to know the best way to signal for help. By this point in the 80s parents groups had started to demand educational content in shows so this series went with a theme of survival tips meaning Ricky knows how to signal S.O.S. With a flashlight. Who else should spot this call for aid but Rambo himself riding the outside of a helicopter in a sleeveless hoodie. The pilot is another Force of Freedom member voiced by the late great James Avery of Shredder and Uncle Phil fame who unfortunately departs the episode after dropping off Rambo and the kid back at the village.

You might be wondering why Rambo of all people just happened to be hanging out on a helicopter in the rocky mountains. Cause he's coming to see his old buddy Santa of course. Err. I mean Kris Kaufman. This Santa lookalike used to be a weapons engineer for some faraway country until Rambo freed him. Now they spend every Christmas, at least the ones where John isn't in military prison or Burma, together delivering handmade toys to orphans. Their reunion is quickly interrupted by the forces of S.A.V.A.G.E. Who wish to kidnap Kris and force him to build rockets for their cause. This is where one of the shows weaknesses makes itself clear. Any toy-shilling cartoon worth it's weight has instantly recognizable characters like Skeletor or Slimer. The two primary goons that show up for this seasonal snatch and grab are powerfully generic. One's just a big vaguely Russian guy whereas his partner has both a robot hook hand and an eye-patch, pick a novelty buddy.

The initial kidnapping is a bust so the villains make off with Ricky as their hostage prompting a pile-up of action sequences. Upon witnessing the boy... oh my god, it's Brian, that's his name! Anyhow Brian/Ricky is carried off on snowmobile which leads to the first in a series of close-ups on Rambo as his anger builds. Then we're treated to a snowmobile chase where the kid is saved before the pair are forced to walk back to Santa's village. When they arrive Kris has been properly santanapped and Rambo suddenly has a bow and arrow combo. Now it's time to rescue his old friend with the only transportation available... Santa's sleigh. Despite being told to stay put Brian hops in the backseat somehow without Rambo noticing.

What follows is a sequence of events involving Santa's sleigh taking rocket fire from a crop duster followed a fistfight on the wing of the plane that caps off with a dramatic crash. It's all about as hurried & senseless as it sounds and god is it ever silly fun. Ruskies are shooting rockets at Reindeer for christsake! The only way it could be capped off is by having Rambo cross a river on floating logs while defeating his enemies through feats of balance and buoyancy. Apparently one of Rambo's other traditions must be the Paul Bonyon challenge.

While the action so far has been fun, the audience is about to be treated with two of the most badass moments in any Christmas episode. The first of these majestic feats comes whil Rambo is approaching the enemy who are held up in a log camp. He slides down the log chute when two guards toss a grenade his way. Our hero punches said explosive out of the sky and right into the villains' trucks parked nearby. Realizing they're dealing with a man who punches explosive ordinance for fun, the guards flee in terror.

The following scene is one of those standard bits where the hero almost saves the day before being trapped under something, in this case a pile of logs, allowing the bad guys to escape with Kris in tow. Then something major happens, the moment in every 80s action story when all bets are off. Beginning with yet another slow zoom on Rambo's enraged face we're treated to a gear-up montage. Knives are put in holsters, bandanas are wrapped around heads, and shirts are torn away as our hero needs zero wind-resistance for his next move. He grabs a hubcap from a flaming truck, throws it on the ground, and uses it to surf down a mountain in order to jump on the enemy transport. The whole thing ranks among the top five Christmas miracles.

Everything after that point wraps up as expected. S.A.V.A.G.E. Flees the scene While Rambo, Santa (Kaufman), and Brian (Ricky) all head back to the orphanage to hand out gifts, share the joys of the season, and have a hearty laugh or two. Seriously, this ends with Rambo joyfully laughing it up.

Much like a fine wine this special has only gotten stranger with time. Consider that when it was made the world was still fresh off the success of First Blood Part II. While that film still contained plenty of violence and dark aspects it is easily the most traditional crowd-pleasing entry of the entire franchise which makes it a little easier to imagine that John might make a few new friends and begin to sort his life out. Watching this fresh off the grim ultraviolence of Last Blood is akin to whiplash. Sure Rambo was still bringing presents in that film, only the gifts were things like a claw-hammer slammed into someones testicles.

When S.A.V.A.G.E Stole Santa is weird, wonderful Christmas fun. There's no reason for it to exist and more intellectual types might claim it to be downright irresponsible to make a kids show from such violent subject matter. Basically it's the perfect kind of oft-forgotten vintage entertainment that people would like to emulate but are too damn self-aware to ever pull-off. As excited as I am to share this special with you all, it can easily be found online, there's even better news. There's a goddamn Halloween episode. Guess we know how to start next years Holiday content.

I sincerely hope everyone out there is feeling some of the Christmas spirit, or Kwanzaa if you're revving up for that. If not then please look up odd shows like this to bring a spark of something different to your celebrations. With any luck I'll have one more piece of Christmas material in time for the big day, but in case I get too busy, have a wonderful holiday no matter which one you celebrate.

Friday the 13th The Series. Best Episodes of Season 3.

Sleighbells are ringing and carolers are singing but that doesn't change the wonderful fact that it's Friday the 13^th. Always a reliable night for good fun, and possibly bad luck, this night could be just the thing to jostle everyone into a brighter mood. And what better way to reach such emotional heights than through scary stories? At last it is time to wrap-up an article series that began way back in August as we look at the five (kinda six) best episodes from the third and final season of Friday the 13^th the series.

This third season marked a major transition early on with the depature of Ryan as played by and the full time replacement by Johnny Ventura (). I'd heard a lot about this switch over the years with most people coming down harshly on the new male lead but I found Johnny provides an action hero vibe that wasn't possible with the original trio while still getting in a few good dramatic bits. A few story elements were also clipped short in this third year with Micki's witchy powers from the second season finale vanishing along with all mentions of Rashid since the show wasn't able to establish him as a supporting character. The overall flow of stroytelling shifts as well beginning with a truly epic premier before shifting back to stories of the week with a noted absence of Uncle Lewis or the devil. Perhaps they would have returned had the season reached a proper end but for some damn reason the series was canceled with the nineteenth episode being almost completely stand-alone save for a final scene that vaguely acknowledges the shows departure. That leaves the vast majority of this season adrift in the typical case of the week structure with no major developments past the premier. It's an absolute shame cause while the season in total isn't quite up to the level of the second the highlights that are here rank among the best.

Before we start the countdown I should note why this is kind of six episodes rather than the usual five. One of the below picks is double length and after its initial airing was split into two parts. For the sake of this countdown it will count it as one installment

My Wife as a Dog:

While this episode follows the case of the week structure so closely that it nearly casts the main cast aside in favor of a more darkly comic tale. The focus is on a firefighter whose personal life is just a mess. His wife has left which he refuses to believe and his dog is dying which he'll do anything to prevent. In a twist of fate he obtains an antique dog leash that helps cure his dog with every life taken by strangulation. Furthermore the dog begins to gain intelligence during the recovery process as it slowly becomes the perfect companion. What then is to be done with the wife? I'll leave that part for you to discover on your own.

Lacking for scare or atmosphere, My Wife as a Dog makes for worthwhile viewing simply by being so damn weird and miserable. The main character is a pathetic excuse for a man yet you can't help but feel a little sympathy for him as his world falls apart. This makes watching the results of quest to restore love to his life all the more fun since you'd be entertained to see him punished or rewarded for his actions. It may not be up to the exact same level as the other episodes in this list but mearly having the guts to do something different keeps it fresh.

Crippled Inside:

Just a couple weeks after joining the team full time we get a Johnny focused episode, and I mean focused since Jack and Miki are essentially M.I.A. For this adventure. Thankfully for us viewers, Johnny's first time at solo curse fighting comes with a truckload of moral ambiguity.

In the opening scene we're introduced to a girl who is sexually assaulted by a group of young men. While running from her attackers she is hit by a car and paralyzed. Some time later we find her a sad shell of a girl, confined to a wheelchair with little to live for until an elderly neighbor provides her with an antique wheelchair that had previously helped him to recover from his injuries. The chair allows a person to astral project which the girl uses to seek vengeance upon her attackers. With each strike against them she recovers a little more of her body movement. Johnny soon tracks the chair down and has to consider whether the benefits of this girl regaining her life outweigh the loss of life, a question that only deepens when her tormentors get wind of what she's been up too.

I'm not gonna lie to you, this is one mean and depressing installment. Every character is basically place in a no-win situation and some of them come out worse than would seem possible. It's dark, nasty, and a perfect trial by fire for the new guy.

Hate on Your Dial:

Every so often when viewing these old syndicated shows you encounter an episode that just leaves you staring in astonishment that it ever made it past censors to the airwaves. Sometines this wonderment comes from the amount of gore, other times from how strange the story is, or in this case the sheer quantity of adult content. The short list includes the likes of child-murder/abuse, spousal abuse, lynching, people burning alive, and so forth. What sort of subject matter could possibly provide so much filth? Time-traveling racists of course.

So there's a modern day, for the early 90s anyway, racist who idolizes his dead KKK daddy. This dude spends his time fixing cars, mistreating his mentally stunted brother, and being a straight-up piece of shit. One day he gets the proper radio for his classic car which allows him to travel through time and space to befriend his dad back in the segregation era south. This eventually leads to Jack and Johnny following the villain back through time.

This one is just wow all over. I mean they don't sugarcoat the racist aspect at all, save for certain words that television wont allow. And for as distasful as that all may seem there's the wonderful flipside of watching Johnny Ventura kick klan ass. Oh, and what happens to the main baddie is a thing of pure beauty. Honestly the only thing holding this one back from ranking higher is that it's not so much of a traditional horror tale and by focusing on real-world terror I can see it hitting a few people too close to home. If you're not easily offended however than this is such a blast.

The Prophecies:

The season premier has some detractors due to its wildly different tone and the... shall we say unique way it writes out Ryan from the series. And while some complaints have a bit of merit the sheer scope and style of this premier reach an epic level that the series had never seen before, or since for that matter. That size and scope mostly comes down to the feature-length running time and direction by tom McLoughlin of Jason Lives fame.

Our story begins by introducing a sub-plot with the appearance of Ryan's mother who wishes to mend the broken relationship with her son. The pair have relatively little time before he and Micki must leave for France in order to help Jack with a case involving a miracle healer nun who is under siege from strange supernatural forces. Turns out there's a servant of Satan who seeks to bring about the birth of the anti-Christ. This acolyte of evil begins to exert his influence over Ryan, forcing him to become a kind of possessed goon which then prompts Micki to call up Johnny for some added help, oh and there's a sick little girl in search of a miracle, a massive funeral service, demonic gang members, madhouse crucifixions, and an appearance from mother Mary herself. It's the only episode to feature all four core characters working on the same case with there being plenty of crazy shit for them to deal with.

Two common complaints I hear regarding this episode are that the larger mythology elements like the plan to raise the anti-Christ aren't touched on again but that's the fault of the show being canceled rather than the episode itself. Many people complain about the manner in which Ryan leaves the show, and while it is weird, the writers only had so many options given John D. LeMay was leaving no matter what. At least they left some wiggle room for the character to be brought back should the actor wish to return. If anything I'd say the biggest weakness of this premier serves double-duty as one of its strengths, which is how it doesn't feel like the rest of the series. From European village setting. to the heavier dramatic beats, and let's not forget the downright crazy cameos from biblical figures. I'd love to glimpse the alternate reality where the show continued and periodically revisited these themes but for this plane of existence The Prophecies will have to suffice.

Midnight Riders:

It's been mentioned a few times in the past that one of my absolute favorite horror films is John Carpenter's The Fog. That unabashed love is largely due to the perfect campfire story vibe of the whole thing. Now take that same vibe, and similar story beats. Then insert the Curios Goods team and replace leprous sailors with a vengeful biker gang. That pitch alone should make you all tingly in the neither regions.

Our trio is out in the countryside one night viewing a rare planetary alignment. Who would have thought this heavenly phenomenon would resurrect a biker gang that was murdered in a nearby town. There are plenty of feuds, secrets, and even a pair of star-crossed lovers within this tale. What makes it all the more interesting is the unexpected prescience of Jack's father whom he hasn't seen in years along with the gangs plans to revive their headless leader.

Every episode I've highlighted tonight reaches the top thanks to one specialty or another. Some of them feature thought-provoking moral dilemmas or real-world issues but this one, it's just pure fun the whole way through. There's already a solid enough story just with the towns secrets but when you add Jack's dad to the mix it touches on the recurring theme of his shattered family. Likewise the threat of the bikers is only amplified as time goes on, culminating in a moment that walked the line between awesome and hilariously absurd. Like many of the all-time great installments to this series it makes a great introduction to the world and style of the show for newbies and serves as pure comfort food for established fans.

With that we have wrapped this article series though you will likely see a piece or two about this show in the future in the form of individual episode spotlights. Having finished the show right after Halloween I already miss ot as part of my weekly ritual. It may not have the pop-cultural clout of the big guy with the hockey mask but this show is just as deserving of a little love every Friday the 13^th. And so I leave you enjoy this special day, prideful that I actually managed to finish this post in time. Gonna hit the showers. Pray I'm not attacked by a large man in sports attire.

Swayze Christmas Barstool, Partridge in a Pair Tree, and Christmas Tidbits 2019.

Crazy as it may be we're well on our way towards Christmas, with celebrations begin even closer for some of the other holidays. Maybe it's because I seem to have a slump after turkey day, or maybe it's because it took far too long to decorate, but I'm just not ready for Santa to wiggle his fat butt down the chimney. Reality dictates that there's only two weeks left before presents and eggnog flow freely so if we want to enjoy this season while it's here we may need to step things up. That's the plan for today, sharing as many festive odds and ends as possible with you all and maybe inspire a little celebrating.

One excellent way to boost the holiday spirit is to come up with something new, possibly even a new tradition. Back to when I was taking down Halloween decorations, which feels like an eternity ago, an idea occurred that was just cheeky enough to work. In the continuing battle to improve the Christmas display something just had to be done with our pear tree. I mean it's in the song, right? A partridge in a pear tree, so why not Keith Partridge? In an odd twist this particular notion didn't simply fade away. Instead it took a decent printer, some lamination, along with a paper punch and zip-ties have yielded the perfect melding of festive decoration and embodiment of bad puns. It's just big enough to be seen from the street but I've yet to hear any comments from the neighborhood. Wouldn't be surprised if some poor sap who doesn't know any better mistakes it for a memorial to some family member. Or maybe that's just me hoping for the chance to giggle at someone while they express sympathy for our loss. Even if nobody says a thing the best part is I can do this for years to come with different Partridge folks. Maybe next year will be Danny Bonaduce or Susan Dey.

Another way to lift our collective holiday mood is indulging in traditions which means it's time to show off the annual Patrick Swayze Christmas Barstool. Those who recall the written rules should know that any chair is acceptable for this task which turned out to be a godsend as the usual stool has up and vanished. With the change in seating I thought it best to alter the mood a bit for this edition. Instead of trying to replicate a seedy roadhouse I thought maybe Swayze could bounce for a more feminine environment, the sort of place with specials on mimosas. Given the sudden rush of this month that was about all the inspiration I could muster which resulted in a largely freeballed display. Gotta say I still like the results. The tree provides decent accompaniment without overshadowing the chair while the big plastic noel candle serves as a focal point. Those who remember this years Halloween mood table might recognize Clancy Brown Bear, this time sporting a Krampus mask. On one hand I know that if given more supplies I could have done a better job yet this seems to match the season perfectly.

One tradition I've never had much luck with is advent calendars. Up until a few years ago I'd never even had one of the things, and even then it wasn't all that great. That changed a little this month when my sister brought back something strange from Canada. This big ole slab of cardboard is a rather adult Abtey Chocolates advent-calendar Inside each compartment is a chocolate filled with hooch. There's an interesting variety here with some fruity and a few more traditional drinks on offer be it Cointreau, Kirsch, or some fine Camus Cognac. The actual flavor and eating experience can change wildly. For instance I've had two Cointreau chocolates so far that were far removed from each-other. The first surprised me by popping in my mouth like an orange liqueur zit to the point that I nearly spat some out. The second however either had less filling to begin with or had simply absorbed more of it which lent a nice alcoholic burn to a solid orange chocolate. Even with such variances there are still clear favorites and one type to be dreaded. The absolute winners thus far are Label 5 whisky and Camus Cognac whereas the Saint James Rum is pretty awful. There's yet another Camus offering that I've yet to encounter though, given an educated guess, it seems like they are likely in the two large compartments for the 23^rd and 24^th. While this certainly isn't a holiday tradition for everyone, wet alcoholic chocolate can be a bit off-putting after all, it's still a fun way to mix things up and make this Christmas a little different.

It just wouldn't be Santa season without the stash of yuletide horror movies. This year I decided to continue displaying items on the corner shelf with all the xmas terror tales placed in levels of importance. On top are most of the essentials like Christmas Evil, P2, the original Black Christmas, the stuff that just has to be viewed each and every December. Level two is for the really good but not always necessary films like The Box, Better Watch Out, and Krampus, Three gets into trashier territory along the lines of Jack Frost, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (bet you forgot that was a festive flick), and the Black Christmas remake. Actually we have to start calling that the first remake, don't we? That's gonna be a problem in casual conversation. The final level is is a grab bag of weaker or extra trashy fare, Don't Open till Christmas, combined with a pile of films that only barely include the holiday, Blue Sunshine. Streaming services have offered some extra experiences this month, first with Blood Beat. If you ever had a weirdly specific wish for a samurai possession film set in rural Wisconsin for the holidays then this is for you. Seriously though this movie is absolutely nuts and occasionally hilarious yet it never makes a bit of damn sense. On the opposite end of the spectrum is I Trapped the Devil which is too slow for its own good only to mostly make up for it with a solid final act. Of the two the latter is the more festive... then again it totally lacks psychic samurai action.

For those of you who are extra brave there's always the risks and rewards of digging up old forgotten holiday specials on physical media or by scouring the halls of streaming services. Just this very night I settled in for A Very Merry Cricket. Like so many of these things there's a rather sizable history to this special but the short version is there was a popular book called The Cricket in Times Square which then had an animated special directed by Chuck Jones. Both the book and special would have their own sequels with this being the second of an animated trilogy that would later cap off with Yankee Doodle Cricket.

The story for this holiday special revolves around how hectic, noisy, and downright awful New York City is during the holidays, and during the 70s in general. Harry the cat and Tucker the mouse are upset by the horrific hustle and bustle created by people who've obviously forgotten the meaning of Christmas. The duo quickly recap the previous special where they made a friend named Chester the Cricket who was a musical genius that once managed to make New York quiet down and listen for the first time in history. Deciding Chester is the answer the pair set out for Connecticut in order to retrieve their buggy friend. The journey two and fro isn't all that exciting and then the group fails in their plan as the city is simply too loud for Chester to be heard. Eventually the demands of the public exhaust the power grid allowing Chester to play and once again bring peace to New York as people join hands and light the city with candles. Despite having not seen the previous tale this one still stunk of sequelitis. The trio even has a song about how they're going to do this again. There's nothing all that spectacular here, don't come at it expecting a forgotten Grinch level gem, the message is solid enough though. Lord knows many of the best holiday memories are formed in those quiet moments like sitting with a pet and some jolly drink by the light of the Christmas tree. Actually that sounds quite nice. Think I'm gonna get drunk with the cat.

. That's all for this sampling of holiday cheer. Would love to hear some new and old holiday practices from everyone out there, maybe even a hot tip on weird specials and movies. Got a good amount to work on today but n case you though this update was two small, worry not. I've got a special Friday the 13^th update for you all tomorrow. See you then.

Ryusoulger Episodes 28-33 Review

It's no secret that the Super Sentai recaps have fallen way behind of late with this update still leaving things a month behind schedule. For once there's a better reason than the usual excuse of holidays and laziness. Yours truly has gotten some great news regarding the return to school which will result in far less debt when all is said and done. While I look ahead at a full-scale barrage of coursework that will have me entering the coming decade with a fresh bachelor's degree I finally carved out some time to sit back and play catch-up with Ryusoulger. And while the first few episodes we're gonna talk about maintain the usual quality of the series thus far it is a double whammy of episodes 32 and 33 that mark what is likely to be the definitive moment in this show's run. Settle in with your comfort blanket folks cause shit's about to get heavy.

Story:

For the 28^th installment of the show we're given something almost like body-horror. This unsettling development occurs when Asuna's body is invaded by a minusaur who wraps his saw-like tail around her heart which makes it so any pain delivered onto him immediately transfers into her. Worse still, and far more gross, is the threat of what will happen once he grows to giant-size. This puts the whole team on the clock as some rush off to try and prevent the minusaur host from letting it grow while Koh attempts to learn a special punching technique that will expel the beast from Asuna at the risk of exploding her heart.

This is a solid adventure with some good emotions from the crew. The best part is easilly when Bamba lets his concern for Asuna's welfare become obvious, guy may have even shed a tear. The teams new friend, Nada tries to help Koh with his training only to end up feeding the red rangers fears of failure. It becomes very obvious here that something is up with Nada, and that is what forms the backbone of each episode to come.

Next up the focus shifts to Canelo and his continuing quest to find a bride. It would seem he's finally found the woman of his dreams though she has one demand for marriage, that he not do anything dangerous. Nada encourages Canelo to follow his goal and leave the superhero lifestyle behind but in the end Canelo chooses to continue the fight against Druidons. In the process we see a beginning to some kind of rivalry between him and Gachireus which I'll come back to later in the article. The biggest revelation of the episode comes near the end when Bamba and Towa are fighting Gaisorg and discover Nada is the one who's been under the armor this whole time.

thirty is largely based on the fall-out of the revelation that Nada and Gaisorg are one and the same. This is played out against another Canelo storyline that... yeah... we didn't need two Canelo episodes in a row did we? Thankfully it's sort of the b-plot as the group tries to work out the whole Nada thing. We learn that the Gaisorg armor slowly learns the emotional weakness of its host in order to gain control over them. In this case once it seems like Nada might have enough control his great need to be a Ryusoulger becomes his undoing and he injures Koh. Otherwise this is a fairly standard tale which is a bit disappointing given that it features a guest role from Nao Nagasawa of Hurricanger fame.

We continue to move on with the team deciding how to deal with Nada which is further complicated by a flying musical minusaur that makes people focus on fun to the determent of all other things, they'd rather starve than not have fun. Frankly I don't see how one can have fun on an empty stomach but that's an argument for another time. Only three people are left unaffected by this beast, Canelo and his sister as they have altered hearing from living underwater, and Koh due to the pain of his injury. The big push here is getting the newest dinoknight, Piitan into the mix allowing for airborne giant-robot antics. Ok episode, nothing amazing.

At last we reach the two-part story that marks the high-point for this show, and possibly the primary narrative it may be remembered for in the future. There is still some disagreement over whether Nada can be saved from the Gaisorg armor or if it is even possible to do so, a debate that is all the more relevent when an extra dangerous minusaur enters the picture. Our heroes hope to focus on the monster that absorbs hatred from human hearts only to concentrate and convert it into rain that causes hatred and violence wherever it falls. Unfortunately their battle with this critter is interrupted by Gaisorg who is even more violent than usual.

There's so much going on of note in this episode. The direction is mostly somber with some very slow and emotional scenes that are played out with some excellent cinematography. Each character does their part in the fight to free Nada, and even some of the dinokights go off together to handle the minusaur while our main heroes tackle this problem, but the big moment where it all comes together is something special. Towa beats Nada enough to encourage Gaisorg to seek a new host which is when Koh offers himself to the armor and absorbs all the hatred absorbed within it. The others must keep the entire armor from overcoming their friend, spurring Nada to hold onto a little of it himself, and have the minusaur absorb Gaisorg's hatred sort of like an exorcism.

Everything culminates in a seminal installment of the show, one of the best episodes of Sentai I've been blessed to see during a currently running series. It begins with everyone together having a good time as they play ping-pong for an afternoon away from battle. Little do they know another Druidon named Uden has appeared. He's the quest and deadly sort who quickly makes his prescience known by defeating and capturing both Towa and Canelo. His trick is to capture warriors inside a pocket dimension where copies of himself attack them. Anyone stranded in this situation is essentially doomed as the copies can kill them but fighting back only allows Uden to absorbs their fighting moves and lifeforce.

Eventually the core team are all captured, leaving their new man Nada to try and save the day. At first he enjoys the theatrics of posing and doing the role-call but it becomes clear is his up against a much stronger opponent. The fight is rough and dirty but Nada provides an opening for Koh to escape though the effort costs him his life. He dies having saved the friends who gave his life new meaning and focus but before passing he entrust his soul to Koh as a new powerful armor that allows the red ranger to destroy Uden and free the rest of the team.

The final scene is an absolute beauty with Ui revealing a video Nada had filmed as a goodbye. He had planned to leave for training rather than slow the team down but he wanted each of them to know how skilled unique each of them was while thanking them for changing his life. It's a great big gut-punch of a scene with these actors pulling their weight.

Heroes:

By this point in the series it's only natural to see how much the performances have improved across the board and that two-part with the salvation and death of Nada make it all the more clear this show has some real talent in its roster, namely Ichika Osaki (Asuna) and Tatsuya Kishida (Bamba) who are knocking their parts out of the park lately. Osaki has also become quite the ace at those tear-jerking scenes. Even Hayate Ichinose (Koh) who has generally been towards the pack of the pack makes some excellent gains here which is becoming all the more important as the series has been paying more attention to him. The core five heroes have proven to be a solid group and I can't wait to see where they go now that the severity of their battle has been made more obvious. On that note I want to see a wider variety of character focused episodes and some different pairings before the eventual endgame rush occurs.

One issue I do have is Canelo. While his initial introduction was rather entertaining he has quickly begun to suffer from a common problem among sixth rangers which is a lack of reason for being around. He provides very little to the overall story and though his theme of finding a bride should tie into the greater theme of connecting souls it often plays out as a simple gag on constant repeat. The writers are obviously trying to push him into the spotlight whenever possible, even going so far as to pair him off in battle with Gachireus in one fight after another. When you consider these two have no real beef with each-other that feud becomes empty window-dressing.

Then we have the matter of Oto. Honestly she's sort of fun to have around with how she plays off of characters like Melto but once again the question must be asked, what is the point of her being around? When the show began Ui was the person who discovered the Ryusoul tribe and brought them into her home, she earned their friendship and has served as a helper in the past but it seems like she's getting phased out in favor of Oto who has less thematic ties to the greater whole of this series.

Villains:

Much in the same way that the heroes seem to have excess members that aren't pulling their weight, the villains need to trim some weight before long. Wyzul is tremendously fun and has proven to be a threat multiple times over. Kreon has become something more than the generic mascot baddie he was early on. And that Uden guy, despite only being in one episode, was one nasty piece of work. He was the sort of quiet and vicious villain that doesn't appear often enough in modern Sentai.

The problem here is Gachireus. The guy's a poor threat who needs to go. His personality is only occasionally fun, there's zero depth to him, he's just a strong guy who's evil purely for the sake of being evil. As mentioned previously his newfound rivalry with Canelo came out of the blue has provided nothing of dramatic worth. I know another Druidon General is on the way so can we please give this dude the boot?

Action:

The fight scenes seem to have evened out of late with the series finding a groove in how much gimmicky toys to mix in with proper martial-arts. Giant-Robot sequences are still ranking among the best the franchise has to offer. Nothing hiuge to report in this department though major props are due to the crazy looking cloud set used for flying robot fights.

Overall:

While I haven't always been able to recommend this show wholeheartedly to everyone out there the double-feature of episodes 32 and 33 is something for the history books. The Nada story-arc, though short and rushed in some areas, delivered on the themes of human connection in a way that's rare for this franchise, to say nothing of imitators. If you have the means and the interest this is an ideal way to discover how excellent tokusatsu programming can be.

Moving forward it's hard not to wonder how this arc will effect the remainder of the series. From this point there are maybe twenty episodes left to go and no clear direction for what needs to be accomplished. There are more Druidon generals out there for certain, which only adds to the argument that some of them need to be trimmed out, but that's about it. Anything is possible from this point onward and I can't help be be a little excited when I consider how Sentai usually takes this point in each show to optimize toy sales rather than push emotional content. With that I will redouble efforts to get on top of things and keep you all in the know on whether this show builds to something wonderful or wastes this remarkable dramatic push.