Recap / Ohsama Sentai King Ohger Ep 38 Immovable Idol Debut

Immovable Idol Debut

Original Airdate: November 26, 2023
Written by: Minato Takano
Directed by: Kazuya Kamihoriuchi

Summary

I know it all began right at that time.
Mundane everyday signs.
The moments ignited in laughter with you remain.
My reflections of those times go on
As brightly shining scenes.

Jeramie: Kaguragi was confronted by Iroki, who had been revived by Grodie's powers.
Faced with the truth of what happened, he successfully liberates Toufu.
Meanwhile...

With another kingdom reclaimed, efforts have moved to Gokkan, where Goma and Minongan are now holding an exclusive idol audition. To everyone's shock, though, Rita is also competing!

How will this stoic king fare in this contest?

Tropes

• An Aesop: Law and order are important for a functioning society, even if enforcing it is a thankless job.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • Goma's plan for Gokkan was to turn its prisoner population into Extreme Doormats whose criminal skills he would then exploit to wreak havoc across the land, until Minongan arrives with a much different plan that has Dagded's backing.
• Breather Episode: After a very serious episode detailing Kaguragi's backstory comes a very silly one where Rita enacts an infiltration scheme by joining Minongan's idol competition.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Minongan spends the majority of the episode talking in an exaggerated American accent to reflect his "role" as a judge in the competition. Upon returning to Dagded's base, he goes back to his usual droning voice.
• The Bus Came Back: Minongan returns after an 8-episode absence.
• The Cameo: Hillbill briefly pops into the competition just to upstage Rita during the ending pose-off. Jeramie realizes that if she's here, then N'Kosopa might be in a position to be saved.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Jeramie accuses Rita of this when everyone's assumptions on why they were participating in the idol competition were wrong. Rita had already stated their motives, the others just didn't believe them.
  Morphonia: (Unsurprised) You folks just don't get Rita.
• Call-Back: While Rita is performing, Yanma goes to Gokkan's evidence lockup to grab the super computer that was confiscated from him when he was arrested during the time skip, hoping to use it to rebuild N’Kosopa.
• Cassandra Truth: When the other monarchs confront Rita regarding what they assume are their Hidden Depths with regards to the idol audition, Rita outright shuts them down and tells them they are simply doing an undercover investigation. No one believes them, not even Morphonia, who believes what they wanted was a means to express their true self they had held supressed for their career all this while. It took Rita going past their Rage Breaking Point to yell that they had been saying the undercover investigation really was their goal and there was never an ulterior motive in order to convince everyone at the scene.
• Character Development: At the end, Rita chooses to no longer wear their mask around Morphonia.
• Creator Cameo:
  • Rina Ikoma of Nogizaka46 appears as "Marina Iko".
  • Head writer Minato Takano himself appears as a member of the audience cheering for Rita.
• Dynamic Entry: Minongan literally crashes Goma's Evil Plan mid-sentence, telling him there's been a change of plans.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • After Rita's battle with the Jesters, Gira, Hymeno and Morphonia all offer themselves to be arrested for interfering in Rita's investigation. When they reveal they did it out of worry however, Rita decides none of them are guilty.
  • Dagded is weirdly-understanding of the Jesters' failure in Gokkan and washes Minongan of all blame, even playing with him like a kid after the exchange.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Morphonia tells the other monarchs that they simply "don't get Rita" during their attempt to discover why they're in the competition. She was right, as Rita gets fed up with all the prying by the end and calls everyone out. There were no Hidden Depths to their involvement. It was just an undercover investigation.
  • Minongan tells Rita that he too is hiding away his true self from the world. When Rita uses their Ohger Finish on him near the end of the episode, they realize he was being literal. There is something underneath his armor.
• Hidden Depths: Played for Laughs. Jeramie, Hymeno, and Gira find evidence that seemingly leads to Rita revealing a side to themselves that no one has ever seen... only for Rita to adamantly deny everything they present by stating that all of their antics was because of an undercover mission to find out what the Jesters were doing. However, this is played straight with the idol competition, in which they get to show off their singing and dancing skills.
• Hypocrite: Discussed. Jeramie calls Rita out for supposedly not telling everyone why they were in the idol competition. Jeramie is the king of leaving important context out of otherwise-simple conversations; something Rita hangs a lampshade on.
  Jeramie: How can we understand if you don't just come out and say it?
  Rita: YOU don't get to say that!
• The Infiltration: Rita's reasons for joining the Idol Competition was to learn about the Jesters' goals for Gokkan.
• Jaw Drop: The team's reaction to Rita joining the idol competition sees them with their jaws hanging in sheer shock.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When "Marina Iko" arrives in Gokkan, she instantly assumes she's in a tokusatsu production due to being surrounded by what she assumes were People in Rubber Suits.
• Living Out a Childhood Dream: Hymeno assumes that Rita is trying to live out their dream of becoming an idol due the drawing she saw in their office. Rita immediately denies this by repeating they're currently doing an undercover mission.
• Mirror Morality Machine: It's revealed early on that Goma used his ninja abilities to reverse the moralities of Gokkan's criminals; partly influencing Rita's decision to (supposedly) resign. Turns out his helmet gave him that power and a shot to the head fixes everything.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Minongan points out that he, like Rita, is using a facade to hide his true self.
• Out-of-Character Alert: Deconstructed. Each of the monarchs come to some variation of the assumption that Rita's participating in the idol competition for the sake of some Hidden Depths; sneaking into their chambers in the hopes of invoking this trope. However, there was no secondary reason they got involved; it was just an undercover investigation that everyone's overthinking was getting in the way of.
• Out of Focus: Yanma and Kaguragi are scarcely seen throughout the episode as they take advantage of the situation to pursue their own agendas.
• The Reveal: Minongan's epithet of "the Hidden" turns out to mean something after all, as he's hiding something within his armor.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Minongan pettily leaves Goma open to an attack in retaliation for the latter accidently slashing him. This ends up undoing the mass-mind swap of Gokkan he'd orchestrated, causing the ninja to wash his hands of the situation and leave.
• Shout-Out: According to Minongan, Dagded is a fan of The Rampage From Exile Tribe.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Goma is only working with Minongan (who rudely butted into his ongoing scheme) because Dagded insisted on it. When Minongan starts being petty during their fight with Papillion Ohger, he decides Screw This, I'm Outta Here.
• Tragic Keepsake: Subverted. Jeramie finds a raggedy Moffun doll within Rita's room, assuming it to be a memento from their dead or absent parents. Rita tells Jeramie that no, their parents are perfectly alive and well and that they visit them regularly.
• Undercover Cop Reveal: Parodied. The monarchs completely misunderstand Rita's reasons for joining the Galactinsects' Idol competition and (after various intrusions into their chambers) make assumptions about their state of mind. Rita gets fed up with the insistent prodding and reveals that the whole thing was an undercover investigation and nothing more.
• Unsafe Haven: Despite Rita's private quarters being secured down with a multitude of locks, Jeramie, Hymeno and Gira were able to break in very easily. In fact, Hymeno was shown to be able to simply waltz into the unlocked room because the locks are all on the inside and could not be locked from the outside.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Minongan does not take the fight with Papillion Ohger seriously; "repaying" Goma's accidental swipes at him by leaving the ninja open to counterattack. This gets Goma's helmet hit with an energy blast, removing his control over Gokkan's populace. Goma gets tired of the antics and teleports away.
• You Are Not Alone: Gira, Hymeno and Morphonia all offer themselves up for arrest after realizing they were interfering in the investigation. Rita asks them why they were prodding. They were all worried about their friend.