As soon as I string you along, it's the Spoiler Warning because of my strength, okay?
***
Ryôtarô's bike gets stolen by a crook, and he winds up as his hostage in a Sentô (public bath), which is empty save for one other guy, Hakamada. Ryôtarô asks Momotaros to help him out, but Hana tells Momo that he can't take over Ryôtarô unless an Imagin appears. She tells Ryôtarô to hang on a little while longer, the Den-Liner will stop and she'll give him a hand.
Airi is informed of the situation when the criminal calls her up using Ryôtarô's phone. This scene is just really ridiculous, the crook calls her up and actually identifies himself as "the criminal", and when asked about the situation by Miura & Ozaki (the later of which makes just about every facial expression possible) she cheerily says "he's become a hostage!" and goes about her business. Fortunately the guys convince her that she should probably do something. You know, so 'ol Ryô-chan doesn't come home in a body bag.
The incredibly slow-speaking Whale Imagin appears and attacks fishermen. This convinces Hana (who is basically channeling Ozaki in this episode and making weird faces at everything Momotaros says) to let Momotaros work his magic. As much as this episode either triumphs or fails in its humor, one thing is certain: Momotaros is always funny. He has my favorite line in the episode: "The bear is hibernating, and the turtle is flirting!"
Momo enters Ryôtarô and busts loose. The Den-Liner appears, freezing time, and Hana exchanges places with MomoRyôtarô so he can go fight the Imagin, and of course this confuses everyone else. Unfortunately, when MomoRyôtarô goes to Henshin and fight Whale Imagin, a mix-up in words awakens Kintaros, and he takes over. And this, in my opinion, is the best part of the episode. As Momotaros is sent flying back into the Den-Liner, KinRyôtarô transforms and takes on Whale Imagin, set to "Double Action Axe Form", which is a bit of an accquired taste. But lemme say that it is the perfect song for Kintaros and I can't wait to get the single. Whale Imagin sprays water from his mouth, covering his escape. Axe Form has my second-favorite line in the episode: "You ran away because of my strength!"
Ryôtarô returns to the hostage situation, and things just go completely out of control. Hakamada takes the gun that the other crook loses to Hana and becomes the captor, as he is also on the run from the police. Airi enters in through the back, bringing along refreshments for all involved. Urataros lends a hand in keeping the police from barging in with his smooth-talkin'. A strange sort of calm is formed when everyone eats (this is so goofy) and Ryôtarô learns more about the captors. The original crook, Mogi, is a robber fleeing from the police. As for Hakamada, he's a former factory worker who left after his boss, Higuchi, accused him of a crime. Having explained himself, Hakamada feels he should just turn himself over and end it, not wanting to inconvenience everyone else. But Airi, moved by his words, wants to help prove his innocence, and Ryôtarô agrees.
Whale Imagin appears again, and Hana covers for Ryôtarô as he lets Urataros take control and, as Den-O Rod Form, battles the Imagin once more. But the Kaijin escapes again. Hakamada recognizes those who were attacked (on TV) as being former coworkers. Ryôtarô goes to find Higuchi, who appears belligerent. At that moment, Ryuutaros takes control, changes to Gun Form, and begins wildly firing on Higuchi, thinking that by killing the contract person he will be able to stop the Imagin as well. Ryôtarô tries to tell him to stop, but Gun Form keeps up the assault. Whale Imagin appears to protect his contract party, but is beaten back by Gun Form and seemingly destroyed. The out-of-control Rider continues firing on the fleeing Higuchi...
To Be Continued...
***
What We Learned This Episode:
- The Den-O writers are all smoking crack.
- You apparently can't see a gun until it comes into focus.
- Ryôtarô' = The Audience
- Ozaki has uncontrollable muscle spasms in his face (seriously, check out 06:04, what the hell is that?)
- Hana has a "going into hostage situation" outfit.
- Whale Imagin is... you know, I'm not even going to say it. You can figure it out.
- Shadow Moon would have had a great theme song.
- Criminals in Japan are all pretty incompetent.
- Airi is also smoking crack.
- Hana apparenly likes being tied up. Hmmm....
- Urataros: Been there, literally done that.
- UraRyôtarô's Henshin makes Femme's Henshin look manly by comparison.
- Rod Form's big gimmick is fishing, right? So why does he always let the monsters get away when they go in the water (it happened with Rhino Imagin too.) Does he need to lengthen his fishing pole or something?
- Ryuutaros is so crazy!
- Someone at Toei forgot that a cliffhanger should usually have the bad guy about to coldly murder someone while hero appears to die, not the other way around.
Screenies:
Next Week:
Axe Form was great, Rod Form gave up too easily, and Gun Form is just being weird, but next time Sword Form appears to show 'em all how it's done!
