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.

Your Toy Box Unboxing: Big Brother Edition

We're doing something a little different with today’s unboxing as it's not mine. That's because my older brother was intrigued enough by my first month of Your Toy Box that he decided to try it out for himself. Unlike mine, I can't report on which categories he choose for his subscription though I know he picked out more stuff than I did.

Before we move on to the items, I forgot to mention in my last toy box post that I initially learned of this service from a youtube cat by the name of Johnny Tellez. Guy's an absolute hoot thanks to his boundless enthusiasm. If you ever feel like viewing some unboxings of various subscriptions I highly recommend his antics.

Also on the cool guy front is the head honcho of Your Toy Box, Trevor Taylor. E-mailed him last week to change a few preferences and mentioned my blog coveridge. Within an hour he'd done the changes, read the entry, and even answered a few questions from the blog itself, now that's service!

Let's kick things off with Star Wars. It's not very obvious in the photo but my bro ended up with two SW items. The first is Luke in his pilot get-up from the 90's Kenner line. Didn't have the heart to tell him that I've probably got a boxed version of this buried in the storage room, but what he doesn't know can't disappoint him. Much cooler is the translucent blue Darth Maul figure. It really says something about Mr. Maul that even when you make him look like a candy sculpture, he's still a bad ass.

One of the brand new items were these Marvel Bonka Zonks. They're kinda like a weighted dreidel or if you're old enough to remember, spinfighters only without a launcher. For my brother's part I don't think he found these terribly interesting since he's aiming for stuff that's more display quality. I think they're pretty damn fun though.

There's a rather strange Bart Simpson figure. It's obvious he's in laughing position but it's weird, like he's having an involuntary poop laugh. On the plus side, he's pretty easy to display.

And for the “where did that come from?” item we've got this Harry Potter million dollar bill. I saw another unboxing where someone had something similar but it was Jurassic Park themed. Best I can figure is these must come from the Universal Studios park.

Now for the three heavyweights. First up is a Star Trek TNG figure of Captain Picard in his Dixon Hill persona. Owned a lot of TNG figures back in the day, a few of em are still in a tote downstairs which is why I decided against adding trek to my subscription, but never had this one. If you don't understand the figure, Dixon Hill was an old Noir style detective series that Picard liked to play on the holodeck. It even popped up in First Contact when he goes all tommy gun commando on some borg.

To the left is a go-bot. I freely admit to having almost zero knowledge of Go-bots or their ways. That being said, this one is still very cool and in great shape for something as old as me. It must work out.

On the right is a nice & spiffy Mr. Sinister figure. Oddly enough I've got massive love for this guy dispute only ever reading like one comic with him. It's just something about the look and the name, you just know he's total dickweed. Quick question: Is he left-handed? Ya know, to go with that whole sinister thing.

So how did this box stack up? Personally I don't think it was a good as mine but at the same time,my brother picked some categories that I have no interest in, so it gets a little subjective. With things like the Dickson Hill figure of hologram Darth Maul, it still made for a fun treat. He was planing on canceling his subscription which you shouldn't see as a condemnation of the box because my brother ordering something like this was way out of character to begin with. Thing is, I don't think he remembered to cancel in time which means the next unboxing will be a showdown. Brother against brother in the battle for the best toys. In the meantime I've got a few extra things lined up for CosmicSparky's upcoming second birthday. Stay Tuned.

Gamera Ultimate Collection vol 1 blu-ray

When it comes to giant monsters, if it's really neat and full of turtle meat you've got yourself Gamera. The other big G. A flying fire breathing (and eating) turtle who's starred in a dozen films so far. A couple years ago I watched the 90's trilogy which are actually some pretty solid kaiju fun. They also feature Steven Seagal's daughter who I never even knew about until watching them. Maybe that shouldn't matter but every time I saw the girl, the image of her father hiding his fat gut under a trench coat kept creeping into my consciousness. While those may be decent flicks, what about the older franchise entries? Sure I'd seen em on Mystery Science Theater and TV back when you could find stuff other than reality nonsense, but those were the horrid U.S. Edits with shit dubbing, However; a few weeks ago I picked up the first volume of his classic movies in their original edits. Let's give a quick look.

Note: screen shots are just pictures of the TV while the movies play. Until I can afford a blu-ray drive for this thing, that's just the way it's gotta be.

Gamera the Giant Monster

Not unlike the first Godzilla, this doesn't quite feel like a normal Gamera flick. His role isn't fully developed just yet and there are no other monsters for him to smash. Instead we get a fairly standard issue big monster yarn with a side helping of annoying kid loves giant turtle. Really there isn't too much of a story here. Gamera is awakened by bomb tests and goes on a rampage while scientists and military try to stop him. Over multiple engagements we learn that our beast can fly, loves to eat fire, and is weak to icy temperatures. After repeated failures to slay the creature, the world works together to trap him in a rocket and send his ass to Mars.

Gamer vs. Barugon

A stray comet busts open Gamera's rocket before he makes it to Mars. Upon his swift return to Earth he stars causing trouble and eating fire. Meanwhile a few gents travel to a mystical island in search of immense jewels. One of the dudes is a majorly murderous asshole though who gets one of his teamates killed and leaves the other for dead. Little does he know that his treasured jewel is actually an egg from which we get Barugon, a giant lizard with ice breath and rainbow beams.

The guy who was left for dead returns to Japan alone with a fine native girl who hopes to stop Barugon. Of course we get plenty of monster vs monster/military action along with some people on people action since the dickhead can't quite stop himself from murdering everyone around him.

All said and done, this is actually a pretty fun kaiju tale with it's only big issue being that it's just a little too long for what it is. Still a decent time to be had.

Gamera vs. Gayos

This is where things start to take a turn for the crazy, which can be a good or bad thing depending on who you are but seeing as you're reading my site it's definitely a good thing.

Once again there's very little in the way of story. A construction company is trying to build a highway through the mountains but the local villagers are holding out on selling their land for more money. Little do they know the mountain is home to a nocturnal, laser spewing, flying beast.

Gamera actually gets his butt handed to him in this one until he mans up for the final showdown involving a sit & spin blood fountain. If those details fail to perk your interest than this is not the movie for you.

Gamera vs. Viras

Oh god is this one a trip. We're introduced to Maseo and Jim, two boy scouts who are just the fucking worst. Their whole troop only thinks of them as rotten pranksters which is about right though Maseo has some skills when it comes to electronics.

Some aliens traveling around in a ship that resembles a collection of bee butts are intent on conquering the Earth. First they have to deal with Gamera. Knowing his fondness for children, they kidnap the bratty boy scouts and soon brainwash the giant turtle into doing their evil bidding. It's important to note that part of the brainwashing procedure involves a memory scan which is close to 20 minutes of footage from the previous movies. If you're hungry, behind on some chores, or just need a trip to the can, there's plenty of time to do it. I personally pissed, finished the dishes, and ate a bowl of crispix just in time to return to the actual movie.

Most of the film is just the two kids runing around the space ship trying to thwart the aliens schemes. Monster footage is in short supply and most of the shots where Gamera is destroying cities under alien control are just shots from the first movie which is painfully obvious since everything suddenly becomes black and white.

Only in the last ten minutes do we actually get some new kaiju action when a mind probe free Gamera faces off against a giant space squid. It's an ok battle that along with a few crazy bits of the movie almost make it bearable. Gonna have to put a warning label on this one as it's only for a hardcore Gamera viewer.

So if the temptation ever strikes and you're thinking of picking up this blu-ray, I'd say go ahead so long as you're getting it for ten bucks or less. I've seen people complain about the video quality but considering how cheap both the movies and the release is, they're not too bad, still a nice step up from older releases. Audio is likewise acceptable. Some folks may not be very happy with the lack of dubbed versions so if you care about that sort of thing keep in mind that there's just Japanese with subtitles. That's where my only real issue lies as there are a few instances of the subtitle timing being a bit off. It's not a major flaw as it only happens once or twice but it warrants a mention. On a scale of “oh god no” to “absolutely” this disc earns a simple “why not?”

Shuriken Sentai Ninninger Episode 13

If the previous episode of Ninninger were a food item it woulda been something like your basic hot dog: tasty, none too filling, with a distinct taste of hog anus. Sure it's enjoyable but nothing much you can report on after the fact. Today's story is more like a chipotle burrito in how it's almost dangerously overloaded with goodies. Of course this show isn't as nutritionally beneficial so maybe throw some Twizzlers in that burrito to make the analogy work. Now enough about food, we've got a lot to discuss.

First on the agenda is further conversation about the former apprenticeship of Kyuuemon under gramps. Apparently the kid had some major potential until self-doubt and second guessing led them down the wrong path. Oh, and we still don't get any solid answers on that whole gender question since gramps uses lingo like “they” throughout his tale. The old man relates this directly to Kinji's current situation as the guy is getting too friendly with the grandkids to kill them. According to oldie, since there can only be one last ninja, they must be willing to do whatever it takes without hesitation. It's very much the nut up or shut up mentality.

Meanwhile. Kyuuemon is busy bring another general back from the depths of hell. This time it's Tsugomori Masakage. He's the strategist and kind of a creepy dude. Like he's a bug with a partial human mask on. According to him the big bad's almost ready to return as well. We get several villain scenes throughout this ep, leading up to the last one where Tsugomori reveals that he knows Kyuuemon is lying about originally being part of their group but he doesn't really care so long as (s)he proves to be useful.

As for the team. They get themselves wrapped up in a ninja competition masterminded by the baddies. We get some light action and comedy bits as Starninger tries to kill them during different challenges. Eventually it all shifts focus to Nagi and Kinji and the show tries to work out one of it's lingering problems. All this time, Nagi hasn't really had a set role or personality but now we finally learn that he's the nice guy whose good at getting everybody to work together. Not the most complicated role to play but at least it marks him as a decent guy. We also get the backstory on that family photo Kinji keeps with him. Seems both his father and older brother were also yokai hunters who died when or cowboy was just a lil shit. That's why he set out to be the best hunter around and learn from the last ninja himself. Getting back to that whole Nagi's good at teamwork thing though. It ends up coming in handy when half the team is kidnapped and the only way to save them is a three legged race against a cheating monster made out of track shoes. This is still sentai after all.

After the token action scenes both big and small we arrive back at the dojo where Kinji stands by his decision to no longer help the team out so much, lest he become weak. Then grandpappy shows up to reveal that with a new evil guy on the loose, the team must find a flying ninja ally. Whoever finds it first will receive the end shuriken as their prize.

Whew! Like I said before, this one was just bursting with content. It's kind of amazing how it served as a main plot line, self contained, and character focused episode all at once and still did most of it fairly well. It would be nice for Nagi to get a story truly focused him for once. Poor kid can't catch a break. Overall, I'd rank this as one of the top episodes so far. Very close to number eight but that one had lots of Fuuka to bump it up a notch. Speaking of which, she's the focus for episode fourteen. Be sure to come back for that one.

Shuriken Sentai Ninninger Episode 12

It's been so long since the last Ninninger recap, y’all might think I'd forgotten about the show. That's not the case at all. Fact of the matter is I hit a bit of writers block when it came to this episode. Not because it's bad. The show continues to make a slow and steady climb toward quality. The block is due to this one being almost entirely spectacle. Sure there's a little story/character development but overall it's a lot of action scenes, good ones too.

Carrying from last week, Takaharu's in recovery from his injuries from fighting Gabi so the rest of the crew steps up their training to take on the big man. In an alarming turn of events, Kasumi continued to be pleasant and useful as she worked on a formula for combing Kinji's robots with their own. Oh and we get an explanation for all that Starninger equipment. Apparently Kinji learned how to make it all from grandpas book. Also on his front were repeated sightings of an old family photo which is left hanging for another time.

With that all out of the way we end up with tons of action. Four ninja take on Gabi and some thugs themselves, then Takaharu joins in soon followed by Kinji. Some very nice moves are put on display including a new finisher that reminds me of the sword-fu in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (a flick I should really write about sometime). Once we move on to the giant robot phase the team manages to combine with Starninger's toys for more flashy fun.

I'm very proud of the ending to this episode when Kinji asks gramps why he's so resistant to take on a student. The old man replies that he had an apprentice once and it went poorly. Most shows would leave us dangling for a good half a season before revealing the identity of the disciple but not Ninninger. It's Kyuuemon. The fox lady...or man..still not quite clear on the gender but it makes for a good revelation all the same.

Time for me to catch up on some more episodes and squeeze in a few different articles as well. I've just started a novel that I think will make for one of the best entries ever. Seriously, if I had a mustache I'd totally be twirling it right now. Stay tuned.

Avengers the Crossing Omnibus Review Part 6: The End

It's the end! Complete with technical issues and poor grammar!

There are times in life when you finish a work of fiction be it television, film, or literature and the results leave you awestruck, filled to the brim with new ideas and concepts, a whole new outlook which seemed foreign to you just hours before. Then there's times when you finish something like The Crossing which leaves you cross eyed, achy, and seeking the comfort of pudding. Under normal circumstances those feelings would have been dealt with in part 5 coinciding with the defeat of the villains and the rise of a new Iron Man, but this is the crossing bitches! Normal story structure means nothing here. Instead of cutting their losses and ending this mess Marvel pumped out four more issues in an attempt to tie up some loose threads while creating a few more. Now sit back and watch this narrative sweater unravel.

Force Works #21

It's a somber day at Force Works HQ as the team views a holographic message from the formerly living Tony Stark. He's got some basic platitudes about believing in the cause and how the future is always bright and full of possibilities. Doesn't seem like much of the team buys into it since the final week of his life involved multiple homicide.

The next order of business is much more interesting/confusing. Remember Suzi Endo? The pretty Asian lady who moonlights as cybermancer and turned out to be Tony's evil henchman while also somehow being locked inside a cryogenic chamber? Well she's still around....both of her. Apparently Tony had his own gateway for dimensional/time travel and he employed the Suzi Endo of another time and or place to do some of his dirty work. I can hear you asking, “why did he bother inviting regular/good Suzi to join the team then?” Good question. I initially though we might have a situation where good Suzi was the one who created the tech which would have forced Tony to take her captive in order to gain a power suit for his Suzi. I was giving the story far too much credit as the actual answer is that the suit was made by bad Suzi as well, they just invited the regular one over so they could freeze her, thous keeping her from screwing up the dastardly plan. Why they didn't just kill her instead of bothering with refrigeration bills, we'll never know.

Elsewhere in the building, love is in the air as we learn that Century has fallen for Scarlet Witch. Normally I wouldn't think of a fictional character as lucky but our gray alien friend hit the jackpot when he slipped into obscurity before his dream girl went all crazy pants. Trust me buddy, that's one honey pot you don't want your paws in. Spider-Woman and the teams tech guy, Fisher share a few knowing glances of their own. Now this guy has realistic goals. Single mothers in spider tights make for achievable love affairs.

Eventually all this lovey dovey stuff gets kicked to the curb as Stark's magic doorway opens, allowing two intruders to bust into the joint. One is a bio-organic and somewhat nice version of Ultron and the other is an extra douchy version of Wonder Man, the regular version of which was apparently dead at the time. All these future people claim that horrible war and destruction await us in the future but of course it's all just as vague and meaningless as Kang's talk of a greater threat. Force works tussles with these intruders who eventually free their Suzi. In the confusion, nobody notices that the time gate starts pulling our universe into it. Yeah, it's that kind of party.

Force Works #22

The final issue of Force Works is a tad messy. It kicks off with the team trying to figure out the whole reality eating time gate issue while a trio of temporal intruders run around the base looking for the cybermancer suit. A good deal of this first chunk revolves around developing these misplaced folk. In particular we get the quite unique version of Ultron that's more of a wise cracking sidekick. Guy cares about the environment for some reason and we even see him fear for his life at one point, and rightfully so since his people start to fade from existence. Best guess is that their time-line is being destroyed by.....let's say salamanders (it's more answer than we get in the story), and the trio vanishing like a bad flashback is a side effect. The Force Works team tries to save them, after assaulting them, that is.

Sadly everyone's efforts amount to nothing as the time travelers are scrubbed from reality. The portal they used to enter our world however continues to grow in strength until regular Suzi Endo launches the cybermancer suit into it. Seriously, that was it. They just needed to throw stuff back into the time gate until it went boom. With all that out of the way, the team sits down for coffee (cause that's what heroes do in the crossing) and discuss their future plans. Everyone decides to take a break and maybe reform Force Works later . Spoiler alert! They never do. Spider-Woman wants to check in with her boyfriend from another time line, she doesn't. Century wants to travel, he disappears into comic book limbo. Fisher wants to test out some new technology, also in limbo. Scarlet Witch wants to check in with the Avengers, only to immediately forget this team and cause lots of trouble. U.S. Agent would go on to a few more books over the years and eventually lose an arm...I think...he might have gotten it back. The team never reforms properly but at the very end they run off together to take on one final threat while the A.I. Plato comments on how they'll be better than okey. Poor bastard doesn't realize no one's coming back for him.

War Machine #24

Those of you with good memories might recall several cutaways to a side story about one of Rohdey's lady friends suddenly aging. Guess the writers thought it was finally time to do something with that particular plot thread. Here's the details in short. Before the crossing began, James and Sheva were caught up in something called a time quake which left them both with temporal tissue damage. Cause, ya know, that's a real thing. Said damage has left Sheva in a state of rapid aging. Doctors try to figure out why Rhodes shows zero signs of the condition and he's apparently being safeguarded by his fancy new alien technology. While all this is going on, Sheva has flashbacks like when she first encountered War machine. An event which gives us one final ass shot for the feature, huzzah!

Another woman named Rae who I guess was in a romance with James shows up to check on their aging friend but doesn't miss the opportunity to nag our hero. In the process she drops the bomb that while she was visiting his racist parents they revealed that James has a son with an old girlfriend. He takes the news like a champ.

Sheva magically returns to her actual age long enough for Jim to take his shirt off for her. Then she suddenly ages even more than before and eventually croaks. Oh and Shield wants a piece of the warware suit.

War Machine #25

For a final issue of both a series and an event, this is one sparse little tale. War Machine smacks down the Shield agents who are trying to take his technology, says goodbye to his job and coworkers, hooks up with Rae, packs his bags, beats down Shield agents again, then drives off into the sunset with his lady. Naturally there are a few more details than that but it doesn't matter as all this was soon pushed to the side and forgotten. Gotta point out my favorite bit though where Jame's decides that he can't go in search of his possible son until he finds himself. Guy must have never found himself cause that kid's still waiting for a daddy.

I keep forgetting to note that at some point in the story, think it was back in Stark's Satellite, James learned that he was bonded with the warware until death. Felt that worth mentioning since it didn't take long for him to be free of it and he's still alive & well.

So yeah, that's it. The crossing is an interesting specimen not only for it's poorly plotted antics but for it's historical context as well. In an effort to boost the sales of Avengers and Iron Man titles, Marvel made a mess so bad that the clean-up operation was almost immediate. Force Works wrapped up with little fanfare. That team has never seen a resurgence with several members still floating in the comic either. War Machine faded into the background of other books eventually losing the space armor and never bothering to look up his kid. Teen Tony only lasted for about half a year before the events of Heroes Reborn returned an adult Stark to the pages. Wasp got to be a human once again in just over a year I think. Many of the small support characters like Tuc or Deathunt were never heard from again. As if all that wasn't bad enough, Avengers Forever did it's damnedest to reduce these events to the level of a fever dream.

Seeing as I've labeled these articles as a review, I suppose it's only fair to comment on whether or not any of you should spend your time seeking it out. Depending on your tolerance for stupidity I'd say maybe give it a shot. There are lots of bad comics, and plenty of shitty comic events to choose from, but the The Crossing is special in how it blends greed and laziness together. The majority of it can be blamed on Bob Harris who was Marvel's editor-in-chief for some of their worst years, currently he holds the same position for DC (poor bastards). Terry Kavanagh works with him and as a team write like drunken children. Abnet and Lanning have their parts to play as well but it frequently feels like they're just along for the ride. There's so much melodrama and silly plotting that could still be delved into so if you find my recaps to be entertaining, the real experience will prove to be absolutely fascinating.

I recently got a trade that collects the Iron Man and Avengers issues that follow this mess. We'll be taking a look at those fairly soon in preparation for something much bigger. Soon after the crossing failed, Marvel attempted another rotten cash crab with an event called Onslaught. And wouldn't ya know it's getting an omnibus this summer and I can not wait! Of course recaps will be in order though I plan to do them in smaller, more frequent chunks. Stay tuned folks. The Crossing may finally be over, but we're on this train for the long haul.

Shuriken Sentai Ninninger episode 11

Some might think that after months of recaps I'd be something of a well-oiled machine, churning them out as required. Sadly there is the greatest enemy of any writing, laziness to contend with. The fine folks behind the scenes of this show are not falling into the lazy trap just yet as they continue to craft Ninninger into something better than it was at the beginning. Let's check on their progress.

Picking up from last week's capper that Kinji needs to defeat the team in order to become grandpa's apprentice. We find that he's taken up a duel role; one is that of an assassins who attempts to murder them in their sleep, the other is that a nursemaid who cooks them breakfast since he feels like he owes it to his potential master to take care of the kids. As an excuse for him to interact with the team and still be a rival it works quite well. Makes for some good comedy too.

Of course it's not long before a monster shows up in the form of a mopey tea kettle alongside one of those giant skeleton. On top of that, Shinobimaru (the red robot) runs off in a huff. While Yakumo and Kinji take on the big critter, the others try to find their runaway robot and the other baddie. Once they find Shinobimaru, Kasumi pulls her newest invention right out of thin air, one that allows them to communicate with things that otherwise can't talk. Kudos to the show on this front as they come up with multiple ways for her to use her smarts and strange mannerisms to be useful without coming across as an asshole. Along with her progress over the past few episodes she's officially upgraded in my view to.....let's go with that sleepy goo you get in the corners of your eyes.

Getting back on topic, the robot's having a freakout cause he thinks he'll be forgotten amongst all the new shiny toys they've collected. Takaharu stays behind to work on the situation while the others chase the tea kettle and find that his power is turning people (and apparently robots) into sad sacks. An affliction he then places on Fuuka & Nagi.

While all this is going on we have a subplot with Kinji and Yakumo butting heads over each ones individual style. Kinji can't forgive a decedent of the last ninja for using magic, and Yakumo won't listen to some daffy rock & roll cowboys judgment. The two of them meet up with the others and fix Fuuka and Nagi with a strange plan of dancing and self-deprecation. Oh and during this, Takaharu gets into another duel with Gabi wherein both of them get beat down something fierce.

 The cowboy and magician learn to work together, people get their shit together, Taka shows up in time for the giant robot fight only to pass out from his wounds once the fight is finished. All in all it was a very busy episode that really illustrated how much the show has improved since the beginning. Humor and action are solid, the stories are flowing smoothly, and the characters all have a voice save for one. Poor Nagi is still tragically underdeveloped. However; it looks like the show is about to give him another shot in the spotlight soon as well as bringing in some new villains. How will the next few episodes pan out? You won't have to wait long to find out since I've got last weeks on tap and another one is about to air in just a few hours. If only those ninjas could slay the lazy monster.