Recap / Ohsama Sentai King Ohger Ep 34 Shugo Masks Counterattack

Shugo Mask's Counterattack

Original Airdate: October 22, 2023
Written by: Minato Takano
Directed by: Hiroyuki Kato

Summary

"Gira. I’m doing something extremely wicked."

Jeramie: The six kings were transported away to a very familiar planet named Earth.
The Ohsama Sentai battled alongside the Kyoryugers and defeated Deboth, who was a servant of the Galactinsect King.
Caucasus Kabuto Castle — which had transformed into a spaceship — then flew in to retrieve them.
And so, the kings had found their way home.
...Or so the story goes.

The team has finally made it back home, ready to resume the fight with the Galactinsects. However, they don't receive a friendly welcome. Turns out they've been gone for longer than they thought, and in that time a mysterious masked man known as the "Shugo Mask" had taken over Tikyū. He's gained the citizens' approval and they're now against the ones who supposedly abandoned them.

Just who is Shugo Mask? Surely it couldn't be him... could it?

Tropes

• Art Shift: The scenes near and at the orphanage where Kogane and Boone live are filmed in a manner that utilizes more width and distance compared to the series' usually close shots, akin to recent Kamen Rider series. The scenes are also a bit more high-definition than usual.
• Bread and Circuses: Shugo Mask won the loyalty of Shugoddam's populace by showering them with gifts forcibly taken from the other kingdoms.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Gabutyra's "Minityra" form returns after a long absence from the small screen.
  • Racules makes his grand return.
• Call-Back:
  • The monarchs do a Team Power Walk much like #1 under the assumption that their people will welcome them. They are sadly proven wrong as Shugoddam's citizens pelt them with stones.
  • Suzume is reintroduced using Douga as a footrest and making him say "gii", just like how she made Kaguragi in #18.
  • When Suzume pulls rank on him, Kaguragi uses his "Sususu" Verbal Tic in response like he did the last time she puzzled him.
  • Racules uses the exact same words Gira told him in #17 to announce his return.
• The Cameo: Masashi Takada and Shogo Teramoto, Spider Kumonos and Hachi Ohger's suit actors, appear as the characters in the video game Boone is playing.
• Conspicuous Consumption: Played for Drama. Shugoddam's people are seen wearing Ishabana's national treasures casually, the orphans are playing unreleased games from N'Kosopa and KinBaejim is even covered in gold. This is all to highlight the sheer amount of excess the Galactinsects are smothering Tikyu with. Kogane is the only one that seems to notice, let alone feel, that something's very wrong.
• Dance Battler: King Kyoryuzin is shown to fight using samba-esque movements, which prove to be surprisingly effective against the equally-slick Baejim.
• Darkest Hour: The Galactinsects have effectively conquered Tikyu and turned everyone against the monarchs. Also, Shugoddam's conqueror Shugo Mask is none other than Racules.
• Death by Materialism: The Galactinsects' new plan for Tikyu following the kings' return involves shackling humanity to its selfishness in the hopes peoples' egos and greed will get them killed.
• Destructive Savior: Invoked. Dagded and the Galactinsects have done a complete 180 from their original plan to have everyone directly kill each other and have instead showered everyone (in Shugoddam) in luxuries in the hopes of having Tikyu fold under the weight of its own excess.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Gira seems to take Shugoddam's sudden peace at the hands of Shugo Mask eerily well, which Kogane calls him out for. Later he finds out this peace came at the expense of the other kingdoms and shoots it down for how hollow it is.
• Dramatic Unmask: Shugo Mask's identity reveal is played for full dramatic effect.
• False Utopia: The people of Shugoddam seemingly live under a new age of prosperity, enjoying the luxuries from other kingdoms. Of course, this comes at the price of the other kingdoms having been violently subjugated by the Jesters and the new ruler submitting Shugoddam to Dagded's dominance.
• Fat Slob: Goroge has put on a tremendous amount of weight and shows neither manner nor courtesy to the returning kings.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Shugo Mask's first appearance on screen shows off his Vader Breath, immediately hinting a familiar connection.
• Foreshadowing: Gira hears a roar as he and the others return home, which hints at Minityra stowing away with the monarchs to Tikyū.
• Genre Savvy: When Hymeno tries to retrieve her jewels, Gira stops her, guessing that this might be another of Dadged's tricks to tear the team apart.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: The citizens aren't exactly liking the team due to thinking they abandoned their kingdoms for six months.
• Hypocrite: Played for Laughs with Kaguragi while he and Yanma are hiding from the townsfolk. He warns Yanma that cracking down on the citizens will do no better than hiding from them like they are. One of their pursuers then mentions Suzume offhand, leading to Kaguragi grabbing the man by the scruff and cracking down on him for intel.
• Ironic Echo: When Racules reveals himself to still be alive, he says he has "returned from the depths of Hell", which is exactly what Gira said when he revealed himself to still be alive at the end of #17.
• More than Mind Control: With the citizens going after them, Gira assumes they've been brainwashed again. Hymeno tells him no: it's only human nature .
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Gira's somehow able to understand Gabutyra despite the mech not being a Shugod. Yanma even asks about it before the mech-fight, but is ignored.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title is one to Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack.
• Properly Paranoid: While Gira seems to like how everything seems to be at peace, Kogane tells him she's uneasy because the so-called "peace" Shugo Mask has imposed feels like a cover-up. She's proven completely right in the end.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • Racules' new appearance (wearing a blue coat with short hair) serves as a contrast to Gira's post-timeskip look (Racules' old attire with longer hair), a mirror of their pre-timeskip outfits. This serves as a representation of their roles now: In the first arc, Racules was a tyrant that Gira usurped with his friends' aid. Now, Gira is the good king and Racules usurped him with the Galactinsects' help.
  • Racules' speech after his Dramatic Unmask makes a reference to all six King-Ohgers, indicating how he's effectively ruling the planet on behalf of the Galactinsects.
    Racules: With my intellect, I will manipulate that which is beautiful, to dominate with power.
    I will kiss the earth, drinking from a puddle... so that even if the heavens seek to judge me, the only story ever told will be that of my conquest.
    I have returned from the depths of Hell.
• The Remnant: Implied, with the fact that there is a Kaijim willing to go against Jeramie's attempts at peace by attacking the other monarchs.
• Swapped Roles: The monarchs are now in the exact same position Gira started the show in: fugitive pariahs in the eyes of the entire planet dominated by Evil Overlords exploiting their people.
• Time Dilation: Yanma guesses that due to the distance between Earth and Tikyū, what felt like a week-long excursion for the team was six months for the people on Tikyū.
• Vader Breath: Shugo Mask sports this despite wearing a mask that covers his upper face rather than his lower face. This is more to foreshadow that he's related to the protagonist.
• Wham Episode: The royals return home, only to discover they've been gone for six months, everyone worships Dagded, and a new ruler named Shugo Mask took over in their place, leading to a supposed era of peace where Shugoddam was able to freely indulge in the other kingdoms' resources. This turns out to be a lie though: Shugo Mask is an ally of the Galactinsects, and Shugoddom's apparent luxuries came at the cost of rest of the kingdoms being ruined and ruled by him and four of the Jesters (Shugo Mask in Shugoddam, Hillbill in N'Kosopa, Kamejim in Ishabana, Grodie in Toufu, and Goma in Gokkan). The real kicker? Shugo Mask is actually Racules.
• Wham Shot: Shugo Mask revealing himself to be none other than Racules.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Kogane calls out Gira for seemingly accepting the peace Tikyū is under.