Recap / Mashin Sentai Kiramager Ep 32 Theres Something About Sayo

There's Something About Sayo

Original Airdate: November 22, 2020
Written by: Naruhisa Arakawa
Directed by: Kiyotaka Taguchi

Summary:

Sayo's on a date?! According to Tametomo, Sayo's going on a date with her friend from medical school, Yujin Kusaka. On top of that, Yujin has something important to tell her, which generates quite a bit of buzz around the base. On the other side of things, the Yodonheim generals enact their biggest plan yet.

Tropes:

• Bait-and-Switch: Yujin looks like he's about to confess to Sayo, but it turns out that he tricked her into helping him genetically modify the Yodon Ivy seed.
• The Bus Came Back: After a two-episode absence, Galza makes his grand return.
• Cliffhanger: To sum it up, Sayo's taken out, Galza is in Atamald, the Yodon Ivy is dangerously close to sprouting, and there are three Jamen Beasts on the loose. Yes, this is all in one episode.
• Dancing Theme: After 9 episodes of its absence to make way for the Kiramai Music Festival, the ending theme finally makes its return in this episode.
• Darkest Hour: Galza corrupts Hakobu and makes his way to Atamald, Yodonna managed to trick Yujin and Sayo in accelerating the growth of the Yodon Ivy, which will turn into Earth into another Yodonheim and Carantula unleashes three Jamen Beasts in the city.
• Deal with the Devil: Yujin strikes a deal with Yodonheim, helping them take over Earth in exchange for sparing him and Sayo.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • The gigantic cliffhanger is followed up by the ever happy Dancing Theme and comical end-credits scene.
  • The whole entire episode can be placed under this trope as it shifts rapidly from the lighthearted antics of the team trying to figure out Sayo's relationship with Yujin while still fighting the Jamenshi to Sayo and Yujin confronting Yodonna about the Yodon Ivy and the implications surrounding it. Not to mention, Galza's back in the picture, which is also played dead seriously.
• Mythology Gag: The plot of the episode takes some heavy inspiration to previous Sentai series that have set up their female rangers with outside civilians, such as Gosei Sentai Dairanger, Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger and Engine Sentai Go-onger. It turns out to be a major subversion at the end of the episode.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Sayo is horrified upon realizing that she unknowingly put Earth in jeopardy by helping Yujin modify the Yodon Ivy seed.
  • Yujin is hit by this big time when Yodonna reneges on their deal and Sayo covers his escape.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Despite her initial concerns after learning what Yujin was bringing her to wasn't a love confession, Sayo still helps him in his project to genetically modify a mysterious plant seed. She realized all too late that what she did was awaken the Yodon Ivy seedling, which immediately starts sprouting to consume Earth.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The episode title is one to the 1985 anime film Bobby's In Deep (ボビーに首ったけ/Bobī ni Kubittake). The English translated title is one to the 1998 American movie There's Something About Mary, due to the latter film's Japanese title also being a reference to the former's title itself (メリーに首ったけ/Merī ni Kubittake/Mary's In Deep).
• The Quisling: Yujin is revealed to have sold out Earth to Yodonheim in exchange for his and Sayo's lives. He tries to justify it by saying that Earth doesn't stand a chance against Yodonheim.
• Serial Escalation: If you think that this was a typical "Sentai ranger goes on a date" episode, you are dead wrong. The episode starts out innocently enough, but shifts drastically halfway through the episode as the stakes dangerously escalate in favor of Yodonheim.
• Ship Tease:
  • Sayo obviously gets some with Yujin, but it doesn't turn out the way that anybody expected...
  • On a one-sided note, Shiguru looks to be rather jealous of Yujin, often reacting to anything about Sayo and Yujin with obvious disappointment or indifference.
• Skewed Priorities: The Kiramagers talk Sayo's date with Yujin and possible marriage... while also trying to fight off the MOTW. Luckily they aren't hit too hard, but you think that they would know better.
• Too Dumb to Live: Yujin helps Yodonheim because he's afraid that Earth can't hope to defeat them. Apparently he missed how their invasions get thwarted literally every week.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: The episode has no less than four plots running all at once throughout the episode:
  • Sayo and Yujin supposedly go out on a "date" with each other, making the team think that Yujin will propose to her. However, it turns out that Yujin needed Sayo to fix his genetic modifications that can accelerate the growth of the Yodon Ivy. When it succeeds, Yodonna reneges on her deal with Yujin and takes Sayo hostage after Yujin escapes with Sayo's Kiramai Changer.
  • Galza is back from the mysterious "valley of corruption" and uses his newfound abilities to corrupt Hakobu to take him to Atamald. From there, he confronts Oradin, intent of sealing him away for good.
  • While Sayo is on her "date", the Kiramagers fight off Riddle Jamen, needing to figure out a riddle that he gave them in order to take off the stickers that prevent them from defeating him.
  • Carantula has a new plan in place that would help accelerate Earth's downfall. Using the Dark Energy gathered from Riddle Jamen, he creates three separate Jamen Beasts to unleash havoc on the city.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Sayo becomes this when she unknowingly fixes a genetic modification that accelerates the growth of the Yodon Ivy seed. Naturally, she gets pissed at both Yodonna and Yujin.
• Wham Episode: This one starts out innocently enough... until Yujin shows Sayo the Yodon Ivy seed that Yodonna gave him. After Sayo inputs a formula to accelerate its growth, it suddenly grows to a gargantuan size, allowing Yodonheim to create another Yodonheim by corrupting the Earth with Yodonium. As if that wasn't enough, Hakobu was corrupted by Galza to take the latter to Atamald so that he can imprison Oradin. On top of all that, Sayo leaves her Kiramai Changer with Yujin so that they can get help, unfortunately leaving her helpless against Yodonna and her Bechats. Oh, and there's three Jamen Beasts on a rampage throughout the city, leaving the team with their hands completely tied.
• The Worf Effect:
  • The Kiramagers (sans Sayo) are hit with this pretty hard as Riddle Jamen places question marks on them, preventing the team from touching him. The thing is, the stickers can be taken off once they answer the riddle, which naturally occurs pretty quickly for them.
  • Yodonna quickly gets gunned down by a pissed-off Sayo before she hands off her Kiramai Changer to Yujin. Unfortunately, she gets beat up by the Bechats soon afterwards without her changer.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Yodonna immediately orders Yujin's death after he has successfully awakened the Yodon Ivy seed.
• You Said You Would Let Them Go: Yujin says this nearly word-for-word when Yodonna orders her Bechats to kill him and Sayo; Yodonna's response is exactly as expected.