TV-Nihon

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Last week's rating: 4.29 / 5 (7 votes) Higher average, but fewer votes

I think the first 20 minutes of the episode could be spent in a fugue state and that'd be okay. Which is weird, since I do like the moral of the story. Honesty is the basis of all communication (although some kids use it as an excuse to be rude and thoughtless). And I really do like the device of all the Sentai members lying and the machine in Kasumi's hand just going off.

It's just that if Kasumi's still in a slump, then what happened to her turnaround in the previous episode? It feels like we made progress and then slid back a bit for the sake of story. And I really don't feel like Kasumi was as empowered in this episode as she was in the last. So as much as I love all the individuals mechas ganging up on the enemy, this felt like a fairly weaker episode than the previous. Probably have to give it a 2 honestly, the writing is just weak.

I do like the revelation that Kinji is trying to make things up to the other Ninningers by trying to take down Kyuuemon by himself. It makes sense, and explains his previous disappearances.

That said, we finally get a clue about Kyuuemon. So he's related to Kibaoni in some way. Maybe Kibaoni himself? Up till now, I figured he was just some random dude. So this is a neat little revelation. Plus, it's cool to see that Mangetsu and Kyuuemon have an antagonistic relationship. So far, Mangetsu is a pretty good addition to the villain roster.

...but to go back on myself yet again. It is pretty tasteless to have him "comically" beat his mother and then for Ariake to play it off like it's a joke. I think someone said that they were turned off by his treatment of his mother in the previous episode thread, and I have to agree.

Does Toei only have one Christmas tree? I swear it’s the same one every year.

Wow, that opening segment with Mangetsu and his mother was surprisingly brutal. If that’s how Gengetsu treated her, that’s a pretty unhealthy relationship.

It feels weird, but Ninninger has finally made me want to defend Takaharu. Coddling Kasumi seemed to be counter-productive, and Takenoko took the words right out of my mouth about feeling like she took a step backwards this week. It’s not unreasonable to think that someone could fall into a slump after they picked themselves up, but from a storytelling perspective it rehashed ground the audience thought was already covered.

That was a neat roll call. Not quite out-of-suit, but close to it.

I’m thinking Kyuuemon is going to turn out to also be Kibaoni’s son. The Kibaoni part was confirmed by the machine, and I just don’t see Gengetsu hiding his identity and biding his time from what we’ve been told about him. Plus, Mangetsu made a point of announcing himself as Gengetsu’s eldest son after his first encounter with Kyuuemon. Seems like a strange distinction to make unless he suspects he really isn’t. Regardless, it's an unexpected twist, especially since I can't think of anything foreshadowing something like this.

I've been suspecting that Kyuuemon is Kibaoni's son, but that doesn't seem like enough of a twist. Maybe Kyuuemon is actually Kyuuemon's daughter? We see his human form, but that was probably a disguise anyway. Plus, shape-shifting foxy ladies is prevalent in Asian myths.

It's hard to tell what kind of relationship it is. Kyuuemon only says "Kibaoni" not "Kibaoni no..." which would be the English equivalent of "Kibaoni's". So without more context clues, it's not clear which it is.

PHurricane wrote:That was a neat roll call. Not quite out-of-suit, but close to it.

It was similar to the one from the Power Rangers Super Megaforce finale!

Maybe Kyueemon is an unofficial son? as in Gengetsu had a child with some random woman/female youkai besides Ariake, so he's Gengetsu's child, but not officially a member of the family, and therefore unable to inherit any power in the army, so Mangetsu is still technically the oldest child?

plot-twist: Kyuuemon IS Kibaoni Gengentsu himself, somehow splitted up after getting sealed. Maybe a bunshin. He simply know too many secrets of Kibaoni group.

kuroblack wrote:plot-twist: Kyuuemon IS Kibaoni Gengentsu himself, somehow splitted up after getting sealed. Maybe a bunshin. He simply know too many secrets of Kibaoni group.

Yeah, it seems possible that part of his souls somehow possesed some random ninja in the igasaki clan, to take advantage.

Kyuuemon reminds me of Brajira.

It's a nice little twist. It's obvious though that they're setting him up to be endgame boss anyway.

That wasn't a bad episode at all! It wasn't incredible, but it seemed a lot like the first episode to the ending arc which tends to be a little conservative, especially over the last few series. Still, I gave it a 4 because of a few things that made the less-exciting parts more entertaining:

-The "You were about to say slump" scene with Fuuka and Takaharu
-Kasumi threw that remote control so far that it could land during an episode of the next Sentai series
-The semi-suitless roll call. I've said it a million times: out-of-suit roll calls, especially helmetless, are basically the only way I can mentally put the character in the suit
-Takaharu's candle flame on the end of the Ichibantou
-Takaharu nearly mauling the entire group during his Chouzetsu rage
-Not having a complete mecha defeat the MOTW. It's something I'd never considered before, but it was cool that their big robot got busted up and they didn't sit in a corner and cry about it.

We've got probably 10 or so episodes left, and I'm starting to feel like the final arc could save this series for me. The first 38 episodes were mind-numbing, but what happens in this final stretch could save the show from "completely forgettable" status.

i wanted to give it a 4 but that part where kinji admitted where he has been going; it just got a bih anyway from the team. then, at the end they didnt even discuss with him his reveal. so ... why even mention it? even if a set up for later, it still really wasnt acknowledged.

kyuuemon ... my thoughts are mostly part of kibaoni himself as said ... or what if ... a hitokarage wanted to become more powerful? and then started learning ninjutsu, yojutsu, and whatever else to become more powerful? i mean what if a foot solider actually became the big villain? could be different right?

kyuuemon could also be a deserter or cast away looking to reclaim his lost honor with gengetsu?

the preview is on youtube. and after watching it, there was another preview in the suggested videos for ninninger vs toQger!

After watching this episode, I was totally sure that Izayoi is Kibaoni's son. But after reading takenoko's post, I thought that "Yeah, he/she can be his daughter too!"
I have one question in my mind about the shapeshifting kitsune. Are the shapeshifting kitsune all female? Or both male and female foxes have that power?

Not that it means much, but off the top of my head, most of the shape-shifting foxes are female. Although, isn't Naruto supposed to be a mystical fox?

Naruto iirc is a human ninja dude with one of those sealed in his stomach.

As a few people have already noted, the plot in this episode is weak. The bulk of it is re-treading last week's episode. And while I do enjoy Kasumi episodes - she's the least dumb character, and arguably one of the better actors - that doesn't change the fact that watching the same thing as last week isn't terribly captivating. The only thing of real interest here was the B-story of Kyuuemon's history slowly getting unraveled.

That said, artistically this episode had its moments. I'd have to go thumbing through episodes to really pinpoint when they started, but some time in the last few episodes they've started using some new background music, which has been a welcome change from the series' standard fare. And the roll-call/henshin sequence was a great; we don't get too many real-time transformations.

Though is it me, or is everyone else using Kinji's new sword more than he is?

The music surprised me too. I checked the wiki and apparently it's been used 3-4 times before this episode, which surprised me.

Kinji should share the wealth, like a good rich American.