Recap / Mashin Sentai Kiramager Ep 16 Marshmallow Royale

Marshmallow Royale

Original Airdate: July 26, 2020
Written by: Tete Inoue
Directed by: Noboru Takemoto

Summary:

It is revealed Takamichi has an irrational fear of marshmallows that stemmed from an incident involving his high school crush. Sena aims to help him overcome the fear.

Tropes:

• Ambiguous Ending: Juru points out that Sena seemed a little too personally invested in the situation and happy at the resolution for her stated reason of just wanting Takamichi to be at his best to be the sole reason she dragged him through so many hoops to resolve it but it's never said just what more the reason was other than Sena seemingly denying that it was because she had a similar romantic situation in the past.
• Chekhov's Gun: Tametomo gets inspiration from frozen marshmallows that broke earlier to create the ice bullet needed to defeat Marshmallow Jamen.
• The Day the Music Lied: The music winds down during Takamichi's part of the roll-call as he's completely out of it. Tametomo tries to spur him out of it to no result.
• Easily-Overheard Conversation: Akiho (Takamichi's high school crush) happens to hear Takamichi declare to his friends he didn't want the chocolate she gave him.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: If you look on the blackboard behind Takamichi during his flashback, there are the family names of Black Turbo and Blue Turbo written in the right corner.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Takamichi’s school has the same name and uniform as the one from Kousoku Sentai Turboranger. Kenta Satou (Turbo Red's actor) actually noted about it on his Twitter.
    • On the blackboard behind Takamichi, there are kanji that are the family names of Black Turbo and Blue Turbo respectively.
  • Kiramazin Magellan has a finisher not unlike Dekaranger Robo, complete with the camera cuts and all.
    • On that note, the mech battle seems to heavily call-back to Dekaranger, which head-writer Naruhisa Arakawa also penned.
  • The dual battle with Takamichi handling the MOTW while the Kiramagers handle the Jamen Beast may remind one of the first episode of Tokumei Sentai Go Busters.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The episode's title is a reference to Battle Royale.
• Stealth Insult: Akiho asking Takamichi for marshmallows. To elaborate, giving someone marshmallows as a love gift in Japan is a sign you want to break up with them. Akiho very subtly lampshades at the end of the episode, although there weren't any hard feelings felt.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Downplayed. Sayo gets a bit displeased about what Takamichi did back in high school. To his credit though, he got pressured into it by his friends, but still.