Light and Wings
Summary
Haruka: Jiro Momotani attempted to defeat Don Momotaro by stealing our powers.
But... it seems he had no memory of what happened.
But... it seems he had no memory of what happened.
Tsubasa Inuzuka, who has been on the run for a year to protect a secret, finally arrives at the promised day to reunite with his beloved Natsumi. On the way there, Tsubasa comes across a man attempting to leap to his death. In the process of transforming into Inu Brother to save him, he learns of Sononi's human identity. Sononi, curious about human romance, makes a bet with Tsubasa — over whether they can change the darkness of a lovelorn potential Hitotsu-Ki into light. Tsubasa decides to encourage the heartbroken young man.
Tropes
- Bait-and-Switch: It was heavily hinted that Makoto Tanabe was going to become a Hitotsu-Ki, as he was shown to have the potential to become one. The one who actually became Choujin-Ki however was his ex-girlfriend Kanako, who crossed the Despair Event Horizon after seeing her crush Tsubasa apparently transform into a "dog" right before her.
- The Chosen One: Why the Jūto had abducted Natsumi, as she was the only one who had a positive response to swallowing their crane origami (Tsubasa himself managed to crush it before it had a chance to enter his mouth). The rest of their troupe members who failed the "test" have been left in a coma ever since.
- Day in the Limelight: Tsubasa gets the majority of the screen time and even a flashback reveal this episode, making up for his usual absences from the group scenes. Sononi also gets a significantly greater amount of focus than she usually does.
- Designated Girl Fight: Oni Sister takes on Sononi when the latter joins in the fray.
- Engineered Heroics: Tsubasa's plan to help Makoto win back his ex-girlfriend was for the former to cosplay a "demon" to harass them which Makoto would protect her from. Unfortunately, Jiro encounters Tsubasa in-costume, deems him as a threat, and swiftly defeats him before he could get on with the plan.
- Exact Words: Tsubasa was finally able to share the full details of what happened to Natsumi, as it has been a full year since the incident, the exact period in which the Jūto that abducted her had made him swear secrecy for in order for a chance to reunite with her. A proper reunion between him and Natsumi did not happen on this day/episode, however.
- Fake Danger Gambit: Recently-dumped civilian Makoto enlists the help of Tsubasa (Inu Brother of the season's team) to help him impress his girlfriend into taking him back, who dumped him after he ran off on her during a monster attack in an earlier episode. Tsubasa commissions an off-screen friend to create an over-the-top villain costume for him to "attack" said girl so Makoto can "save her." Sixth Ranger Jiro stumbles onto Tsubasa before he can enact the plot and, mistaking him for an actual villain, suplexes him into submission before it can go anywhere.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Kanako is revealed to have an unhealthily obsessive crush on Tsubasa, to the point of plastering her entire bedroom and furniture with his wanted poster. Shortly after, the shock of witnessing Tsubasa transform into a "dog" was too much for her to take that she was the one who becomes Choujin-Ki, rather than Makoto.
- Flashback: Tsubasa remembers the time when Natsumi was taken from him. When they were on tour with their acting troupe, he woke up to see Natsumi with an origami in her mouth, namely the crane origami. Right after discovering this, Natsumi wakes up suddenly in a trance before she was suddenly taken into a portal, nowhere to be seen.
- Irony: Tsubasa supports the heartbroken Makoto and heavily encourages him to get back together with his ex-girlfriend Kanako. As it turns out, the reason for their breakup in the first place was because during Chikyuu-Ki's attack Makoto abandoned her while someone else saved her, leading her to have a massive crush on her savior. That person was Tsubasa. Tsubasa flips out over this several times over.
- Missed Him by That Much: Once again, Tsubasa encounters the "Natsumi lookalike" and tries to pursue her. When encountering Tsuyoshi at a flower shop, he assumes "Natsumi" was another pretty lady who passed by earlier and points him to her direction. Right after Tsubasa leaves, Miho comes out of the flower shop Tsuyoshi was at.
- Noodle Incident: It is never revealed why or how Taro ended up sitting atop Shinichi and Haruka's shoulders when they are collectively teleported into battle.Shinichi: (Forcing Taro off) We are not your palanquin!
- Out of Focus: Taro, Haruka and Shinichi only appear out of suit briefly in one scene when they arrive before transforming. In fact this is the first episode to barely feature Taro and Haruka. Kaito and Sonoi meanwhile don't appear at all.
- The Reveal: A year ago, Tsubasa recalls seeing Natsumi with a crane origami in her mouth, highly implying that "Miho" is actually Natsumi under the control of the Crane Juto. After her abduction by them, the Jūto had made him swore to secrecy for a year for a chance of reuniting with her again, while the rest of their troupe members fell into a coma, implied to be the crime he became accused of.
- Shout-Out: Given how the Hitotsu-Ki in this episode is based off Choujin Sentai Jetman, it's almost fitting how Tsubasa losing Natsumi mirrors how Ryu lost Rie in the first episode.
- Wham Shot: A capsule containing a humanoid being is revealed in the Nōto's base, with a mysterious voice known as Mother calling out to it.
