Hymeno's Matchmaking Strategy
- Original Airdate: November 12, 2023
Written by: Minato Takano
Directed by: Hiroyuki Kato
Summary
Jeramie: The Ohsama Sentai puts their plan to liberate N'Kosopa into action.
However, Hilbil's scheming forces Yanma's hand, placing the kingdom and the life of his retainer, Shiokara, on a scale.
In the end, Yanma chooses to forgo his kingdom.
Tikyu, with the exception of Ishabana, yet remains in Dagded's clutches.
...Or so the story goes.
However, Hilbil's scheming forces Yanma's hand, placing the kingdom and the life of his retainer, Shiokara, on a scale.
In the end, Yanma chooses to forgo his kingdom.
Tikyu, with the exception of Ishabana, yet remains in Dagded's clutches.
...Or so the story goes.
In the aftermath of the previous episode, the team heads over to the reclaimed Ishabana where Hymeno is now holding a competition to see who gets to marry her. Among the many suitors that show up is a mysterious white-haired man named Romane Dearborn, who claims that he and Hymeno were promised to each other.
In reality, though, "Hymeno" is actually Kamejim in disguise, using the contest as a cover to assassinate the other kings. Meanwhile, the real Hymeno is now held captive, with her and her people being poisoned...
Tropes
- Achievements in Ignorance: Gira's failed attempts in the competition allowed him to avoid Kamejim's assassination attempts on him.
- Black Widow: Kamejim-as-Hymeno's plot is to find a suitor, preferably one of the King-Ohgers, then to assassinate said suitor after their marriage in order to create chaos in Ishabana.
- Blessed with Suck: Sebastian's backstory. He was once Romane Dearborn, the heir to a noble family who was blessed with un-natural beauty and charm. However, the attention prevented him from living a normal life and he nearly disfigures himself out of grief. Hymeno stopped him and helped him change his appearance, transforming him into Sebastian in exchange for his service.
- Breather Episode: Downplayed. Despite the rather serious premise, this is much more comedic than the drama-filled start of the kingdom takeover arc.
- The Bus Came Back: The Ishabanan locals make their return.
- Call-Back:
- The fact that Sebastian is actually Younger Than They Look plays an important plot point when it's revealed that Romane is his true self without the prosthetics.
- Hymeno does the same Badass Boast she did in her first focus episode in #3, with the sun rising behind her just like before.
- Yanma's crush on Hymeno, established all the way back in #3, returns and helps explain why he's struggling so much during the proposal competition.
- Kaguragi makes a reference to the Ohsama Sentai's full name after revealing his whereabouts.
- This is the second instance in which Gira questions blatantly-out-of-place behavior from the other monarchs during desperate circumstances (in this case only one of them), only to be ignored. Unlike the previous case however, they're the ones Locked Out of the Loop for the sake of a secret plan instead of the ones enacting it.
- The Cameo: Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe appears near the end of the episode at a fair.
- Cerebus Retcon: Sebastian being a young man who wears makeup to look like an older man was first used to portray Hymeno as a capricious queen. Here, it's show why he chose to do so, as he possessed unearthly beauty that drove him to self-harm until Hymeno gave him a solution and won his loyalty in the process.
- Civil War: Kamejim's "rule" of Ishabana involved tricking the nation's doctors into circulating his cosmic poison amongst the populace, sparking unrest and turning people on said doctors, resulting in a civil war that only spread it further.
- A Day in the Limelight: Sebastian's past is expanded upon in this episode.
- Didn't See That Coming: While Kamejim managed to keep up his charade as Hymeno, he didn't expect the real Hymeno's retainer to foil his plan.
- Didn't Think This Through: To make Hymeno his willing hostage, Kamejim deliberately poisons her and her people with a substance from space, stating only he has the cure for it. Given that Hymeno's the number one medical expert on the planet, though, she easily creates her own cure.
- Dramatic Irony: It's revealed early into the episode that the marriage competition is an elaborate assassination attempt on the monarchs by Kamejim, making Gira's pleas to "Hymeno" (and the others ignoring him) tragic in retrospect.
- Flashback B-Plot: The episode intersperses scenes from Sebastian's first meeting with Hymeno, showing how he became her attendant.
- Foreshadowing: "Himeno" claims not to remember the first time she met Romane Dearborn. What seems a case of Himeno having simply forgotten somebody due to seeing them as insignificant turns out to be the first clue that Himeno is actually being impersonated by Kamejim.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Gira spends the marriage competition trying to snap Hymeno out of what he thinks is a mental funk, unaware that it isn't her at all. The other monarchs decide to go with the flow instead, leading to Yanma (who's already love-struck as-is) reining Gira in.
- Impostor Forgot One Detail: Kamejim would have won had he known what Sebastian looked like without his makeup.
- Inopportune Impersonation Failure: Kamejim's impersonation of Hymeno is near spot-on. However, he's unaware that Romane Dearborn is Sebastian without his makeup on. Hymeno is eventually rescued while he's distracted by Romane.
- Interrupted Suicide: Hymeno met Romane Dearborn during an attempt to cut up his own face in fear of his own beauty, which quickly escalates into an attempt to stab his own throat. She kicks the knife out of his hand and orders her servants to alter his appearance, turning him into "Sebastian."
- Only Sane Man: Gira (and to a lesser degree Rita) is the only person that finds the idea of hosting a marriage competition during the Jesters' hostile takeover of Tikyu a bad idea and tries repeatedly to get "Hymeno" to see reason; oblivious to the fact that it isn't really her. The other monarchs go along with the event out of sheer curiosity (or in Rita's case, suspicion), leaving Gira's pleas on deaf ears.
- Out-Gambitted: Kamejim thinks by impersonating Hymeno while she deals with helping her people he could assassinate the team, even stealing her sword in case she tries to do anything to keep up the charade. He didn't count on Romane/Sebastian entering the contest, and his actions buy Hymeno enough time to find a cure.
- Out-of-Character Alert:
- Kamejim would've fooled Hymeno whilst pretending to be Sebastian if he had mimicked the butler's concern for the sick. Hymeno realizes Sebastian wouldn't be so callous and attacks him.
- Rita is suspicious enough of Hymeno to wonder if something's wrong, but they're unable to piece together that she's being impersonated by Kamejim.
- Out of Focus: Kaguragi only appears in the final scene, and he says he was busy scouting out Toufu for their reclamation attempt.
- Painting the Medium:
- When Kamejim reveals his full plan to Dagded, the map of Tikyu changes Ishabana's ruler from Hymeno to himself. When Hymeno defeats him later, this changes back.
- To reflect the Pyrrhic Victory of the previous episode, the map of Tikyu has not replaced Hillbill's avatar with Yanma's.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Out of the team, Rita is the only one who figures something is up with "Hymeno", but they assumed they’re being blackmailed, not being impersonated.
- Rule of Symbolism: The map of Tikyuu shown has two distinctions:
- The map still has Hilbil's face next to N'Kosopa to show how much damage she caused last episode.
- The face next to Ishabana keeps switching between Kamejim and Hymeno depending on who's ruling.
- Shipper on Deck: Jeramie notices Yanma's crush on Hymeno and tries to help him out by making him dance like a puppet and whispering suggestions through a string phone created by the Venomix Shooter.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Romane thought this way about his beauty to the point of nearly disfiguring (then killing) himself. Hymeno intervened and created his disguise as Sebastian to deal with it.
- Spanner in the Works:
- Jeramie's attempts to "help" Yanma during the contest ultimately end up saving his life.
- Romane intervenes during Rita's turns in the competition to prevent them from being killed.
- Spotting the Thread:
- Romane instantly knows "Hymeno" is an impostor given that "she" doesn't recognize he's really Sebastian.
- Subverted with Rita, who immediately knows something's up with Hymeno but doesn't see through Kamejim's impersonation of her.
- That Man Is Dead: Downplayed. After Hymeno successfully takes back Ishabana, she asks Sebastian if he's ever thought of becoming Romane Dearborn again. He says that it was only after he was able to conceal his appearance that he was able to live the life he wanted, considering Sebastian his true identity.
- Theme Song Power Up: Hymeno's insert theme, "World is Mine", plays during the final fight.
- Those Two Guys: How Yanma and Jeramie's dynamic plays out during this episode.
- Villainous Breakdown: Kamejim doesn't take well to his plans falling apart, still insisting he's the real Hymeno. Unsurprisingly, nobody believes him.
- Wham Line: Right as Romane manages to take back Hymeno's OhgerCalibur, he reveals his true identity."Romane": Welcome back, Queen Hymeno. Your butler, Sebastian, has returned to duty.
