After a good stretch of activity I've
taken the opportunity to be a slug this past week. Sure I've done
plenty of things from reading, writing, exorcising, just not much of
importance. Think it as an unofficial vacation complete with sleeping
odd hours and watch odd combinations of vintage commercials, Live
PD, and of course Super Sentai. Lest ye think I'm a total
sponge I do want to share a few updates with you before today's
topic. First off I have another article up at Horror News Net. I'd
appreciate whatever extra views you can send that way. Here at home
we will soon see the return of Star Wars book reviews after
their unintended hiatus. Finally there will be something for this
upcoming Friday the 13th since it'd be downright
blasphemous to forget the patron saint of campground slaughter.
Given how the first few installments
of Luinranger vs Patranger have established the world and characters,
I'd say we're now able to tackle the series by episode rather than
topic. That being the case here's a trio of one great installment,
one weaker adventure, and a big game-changer.
Episode 7:
Our first tale of the evening places
the spotlight firmly on Umika, AKA Lupin Yellow. If this serves as
any indication for the quality of her focus episodes then I'm looking
forward to every one of em. The reason is that despite her role as
the girly hero she ends up giving us a very dramatic story with a lot
more depth than you might expect.
It begins innocently enough with
Sakuya asking her out on a date, a prospect that holds little
interest for our heroine though her teammates suggest that it could
provide a good opportunity to get information on their rivals. The
conversation doesn't last long as they must go hunt down the current
monster who uses his collection piece to expand his stomach in order
to eat people.
Kairi and Tooma are devoured in the
ensuing fight which sends Umika into a bit of an emotional panic.
We've seen this sort of thing before in tokusatsu or anime
programming but here it feels valed. This is a teenager who in less
than a year has lost her best friend, dropped out of school, and
began a life of stealing from interdimensional monsters. Seeing her
two new friends possibly killed in the process of protecting her is
almost enough to push the girl over the edge.
Figuring she has some time before her
friends are digested, she figures out where the goon will strike next
and accepts a date from Sakuya provided they visit that restaurant.
Once the Patranger engage the criminal, Umika makes her move to steal
the collection piece which forces the monster to vomit out his
current crop of victims. Our thieves leave the police to clean up the
mess.
In just a single episode we see so
many sides of Umika. She's shy, socially awkward, and emotionally
frail. Yet she revealed herself to be smart tactician and manipulator
devoted to becoming a better hero who can protect her friends despite
their statement of accomplishing the mission no matter the cost. None
of this would work without a decent performance and Haruka Kudo
proves to be up to the task. Let's face it, a good deal of Sentai
actors are hired for their physicality, both their looks and an
ability to fight or dance. It would be easy to think she got the job
simply by being adorable but she actually plays the more emotional
elements quite well. Girl's got some real potential to be the
backbone of this series.
Episode 8:
During our last update I mentioned my
general dislike for Jim Carter as the sort of standard cutesy mascot
so you might imagine a story that gives him more screen-time kinda
drags down the quality. That is very much the case for part 8. Even
so, a weak installment of this series is better than anything
Kyuranger threw at us. Simply put; better tools equal better
work.
The main focus is on a sting operation
steming from Tsukasa's suspicions that her teams favorite cafe
workers may in fact be the phantom thieves. The police then send out
Jim Carter as a decoy Bangler while they watch the cafe. Of course
the cops didn't count on Good Striker revealing their plan to the
thieves.
Naturally Lupinranger pulls out just
enough trickery to clear their names and this whole sub-plot was fun
if a bit of a time waste. The episode did manage to move the main
story along a bit further as Kairi stumbles across a secret Gangler
base where Goche is carrying out human experiments. Little is known
about what her actual plan is but during the ensuing fight she uses a
collection piece as some sort of biological scanner.
As if the weird experiments weren't
enough we get yet another hint that Kogure has a much grander scheme
going on when he feigns ignorance about the scanner before flashing
the audience a sinister smile. A similar incident occurred in part 7
when after comforting Umika and giving the impression that he
honestly gives a crap about her, he then went on to spout some
cryptic garble to himself about their giant machines.
Anyway, number 8 was-one half goofy
filler, one-half mystery, and just ok. As I said earlier though, if
this is the worst this show has to offer then it's still packing one
hell of a pedigree.
Episode 9:
Our final tale tonight was devoted to
Kairi meeting a woman who increases his drive to restore the Lupin
collection and regain his brother. This isn't a romantic plot though,
they're relationship is totally platonic. What brings these two
together is a pendant. Turns out there was a collection piece stolen
some time before the Ganglers ran off with the majority of it. This
item was passed down to a jewelry designer named Ema who has no clue
that freakish criminals are out to get her heirloom.
The Lupinrangers rescue Ema from an
initial attack and hide her away at the cafe. Meanwhile Patranger
puts together a fake jewelry showcase in order to draw out her
assailant. The phantom thieves then split up so Kairi can convince
Ema to give up her pendant while Umika and Tooma steal the Ganglers
item.
Destra catches on to the situation and
goes after Ema forcing kairi to reveal his identity to both the girl
and villains while seeming more heroic than ever. Ema gladly parts
with the pendant and hopes to mend her relationship with her sister
and that her protector may one day see his brother again. wouldn't ya
know her bauble happens to be a two-piece robot for our hero to use
in battle. The day won the lad marches home with a renewed sense of
purpose. All sounds pretty nice, doesn't it?
While Lupin red was off saving pretty
ladies his team struggled with Patrangers and a rather Gangler. In
the scuffle, the beast was destroyed along with his collection piece
thus eliminating their chance at restoring the Lupin collection and
seeing their loved ones again. Obviously this is a huge change for
the show going forward. Not only does it drastically impact the
thieves mission but it also alters their rivalry with the cops.
Before now the police were just irritating. Now the thieves have a
real reason to hate the other team. Just think of Sakuya who harbors
his massive crush on Umika who will now see him as a man who stopped
her from saving her friend. This is a development I thought may came
eventually but not this early. Personally I can't wait to see where
things go from here.
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