It's time for another episode for our new hero, Ucchi (very sorry for spelling it wrong in the last review). This time we see him taking the initiative since there is trouble with kids thanks to the Debos. Will the team finally get Ucchi to be a full member now or will he keep separating himself?
The most important thing about this episode is Ucchi of course and this episode is another saving moment for him. In the beginning he still tries to be the strict samurai he wants to be as he has to hide any possible emotion. We even get a flashback scene with Amy teaching him about this. There is a part of him he cannot hide though and thus leads to the Debos. It seems Ucchi is very kind towards children which does connect well to the flashback of where his lord died protecting him since he checked to see if a child was alright. So he goes in blindly yet again since the monster from his past returned as well. It works well cause we get to see and learn more about his attitude, in the past there were mostly the briefest of hints, but I will say things do connect well for this part.
Then moving is that Ucchi becomes a full member of the team in this episode thanks to our King helping him realize something. Since Daigo resembled Ucchi's lord, Ucchi was trying to keep him away from the battle since he was injured from the last battle. To do this Ucchi gives him a sleeping drug to heal him over time, but Dagio had his gun bite his butt....... which kept him up..... okay then. There Daigo tells him that he is no lord, he's just Daigo as he would never want to have anyone in his Sentai to be underlings even though he is fine being called King. This gives Ucchi something to laugh about since he should have realized this from the beginning and now he can see Daigo as a comrade. It's a good message since Ucchi is a samurai and that idea of no underlings is false for them, but Ucchi is very different since he wasn't from some lineage. He was just picked up and was trained the way of the samurai. He still kept his overall personality though, but still had to fight with himself since he wanted to follow his lord's final words.
Continuing on with Ucchi since he can be more open with the team now he is ten times more happy. Even when he did the group transformation he was doing it with a smile. Also he is way too helpful as after the battle he does a lot of chores. He did the team's laundry, made food for Nossan's family and yes he calls him Nossan as well, then he deleted all of the numbers on Ian's phone. I will say this his character in the beginning didn't seem that special, but he picked up a whole lot. He is a very kind person who tried to hide it, but this just made an inner conflict for himself. It's something a lot of people can relate to since people want to be completely nice, but they know that can never be possible. Now though he has found his way and is being a very charismatic member of the team.
Now this was a very heavy gold focus episode, but there were two other members who had some focus. Amy was another one of course since she was trying to help Ucchi with hiding his emotions. I will say though that plot point did get resolved a little too early, but the pay off is still very good though so I will let it slide. With Amy her scenes were when she was teaching him of ways to hide his true self from the team. A little funny, but did the camera really have to focus in on her legs? Daigo though was the other star player since he helped Ucchi become a member of the team. This is another nice callback to the previous episodes since Daigo did the same with the other four. He helped them realize what's truly important causing them to fight with their full potential. The other three were just there again, but at least they had their own moment at the end of the episode.
There was one big issue with this episode though. They put a child motif in the episode, but it's gets ignored later on since this is the episode of Gold. In the beginning there is a Child's Day sumo tournament where a kid loses even after all the training he had with King. Then the monster comes in and takes the child away and he starts to use three children he captured to just fight with rage. They actually had real swords and were attacking Daigo, one actually slit his hand! Also there is Ucchi who wants to protect the kids very much, but as I said they really don't become the focus in the episode. When Daigo and Ucchi are trapped it felt more like an escape episode rather than a rescue episode. The kids were mostly there to make the problem happen and then they are just around really.
Then another thing that bothered me was we see Dogold being in charge of the mission. He does appear and attacks Daigo head on as he deals damage on him. It was a very good ambush as Daigo couldn't transform in this new realm. Then he just goes away when Ucchi comes in and storms the house where he and the MOTW were at. I guess they are saving a fight like for later since I know Dogold and Ucchi are going to have rivalry fights. Still you think he would want to make sure the plan stays a success, I mean the two heroes can't transform so this is the best moment to fight them. I guess he really trusted his monster for this plan.
Also I'm not a fan of the extra fur on his suit.
The villain's plan though was a good one because they would have the kids fight with anger the whole time and heck using them to fight the heroes is smart since who would hurt a kid? I mean really those three kids could have been used more, but Daigo did get them free pretty fast so there's that. The MOTW was also a very interesting one mostly because of the things he did later on. I am a huge fan of his designs though, it looks like he should celebrating something. Which is fits with the Child's Day theme in this episode. He also pulls a neat trick in the mecha fight as he grows a tail all of a sudden. I was not expecting that at all from him and it's not like a snake tail, it's like the end part of the paper carps which again fits his theme. So yea the MOTW was pretty surprising thanks to some of his abilities.
For the action it was handled very well. First we got three songs and it was the fight theme, the opening theme, and Gold's theme. You usually don't hear three songs playing in the same episode, but each moment fits fight they were selected for. The fight theme was when Ucchi has his realization and fights with Daigo, out of suit! Even though I can easily tell that there are stunt actors being used it was still nice to see Daigo and Ucchi cut up some foes with their swords. Also it wasn't very obvious with the stunt men even if they did the hiding face technique. Then we got the opening theme when Gold fully fights with the team for the first time and that fits a lot since it's a big moment for the team. There weren't many reveals though, but the fifteenth battery got used in combat which is good. The best part of the team fight was when they use Kentrospiker along with Gold's finisher as Red and Gold both get high in the air for their attack. Also lightning effects make everything better.
Finally, Gold's theme was used for the mecha fight. First I really love this song for him. I can say I love a lot of Psychic Lover's songs and this song could be my favorite. It combines a nice natural instrumental with the rock which I am a big fan of. Going on though the mech fight was probably one of the best in the series so far. First it was longer than most of the fights, the MOTW grew a tail which was surprising, there was a struggle, and a new reveal! We get to see Raiden Kyoryujin and it's a simple combination with Ptreagordon's wings on the back and then having it's head be the new helmet. It's a very good a simple change that adds a lot to the suit. Then it was a fight in the sky as they don't show the tail effect for the monster the whole time, but that's reasonable. The finisher was a big slash with lightning!
Overall it was a very enjoyable episode even with some little flaws here and there. Ucchi got a whole lot more likeable as a character as he is probably my 2nd or 3rd fave member of the team right now. The fights were handled well and I am disappointed that the pay off did come quickly, but the pay off was very good. I would give this episode an A- because somethings could still have been added to make the impact stronger.
Next Time: Class and cross dressing in session.
No comments:
Post a Comment