Ninja Sentai Kakuranger 18 – Hello, Mushroom Boy!

Best friends forever.

Meet Zashiki-Warashi, a playful Yokai who only wants to have fun. In short, he is good guy and thus, the Kakurangers ended up making friends with him, with Jiraiya becoming his new best friend. But there seems to be a problem, Junior wants him to become a bad guy! Can the Kakurangers stop Junior's plan?

This episode reminded me Jiraiya's debut episode when it comes to the befriending the Yokai plot. Unlike in that episode, the reason why the Yokai starts running amok is because he is fed up with how humans treat their taxi drivers. In the case of this episode, Zashiki-Warashi is from top to bottom, a good guy who just wants to have fun. This is why I love the montage of scenes wherein Zashiki-Warashi is having fun with Jiraiya and the kids. This scene showed us that not all Yokai are evil, some of them just want to have fun.

But this kind of fun is not what Junior wanted, and thus, he decides to turn Zashiki-Warashi into an evil Yokai. This episode is one of those rare times that we see Junior do most of the work. I mean, if he wants to, he can just send the Flower Kunoichi Gang just to do the job but nope, he personally did the job of finding and force Zashiki-Warashi to become evil. But the Kakurangers will not let this happen and so, our heroes try to protect their new friend, especially Jiraiya. Because of this, Jiraiya ends up dueling Junior.

The duel between the two is fantastic and if there is one thing worth noting about it is that Junior has a mini-chainsaw for a weapon! I can get why Junior's rock star outfit matched with his skeleton monster form, but having his monster form have a chainsaw for a weapon? I find it really weird, that is of course, if Junior's overall theme has something to do with those gore horror films. At the end, Jiraiya is defeated but before Junior can deliver the finishing blow, Zashiki-Warashi made a proposition; he will become evil just as long as Junior will not harm Jiraiya.

Jiraiya is saved but with the price of his friend becoming evil. Later in Junior's mansion, Junior starts doing his ceremony to turn Zashiki-Warashi into an evil Yokai. Speaking of which, Zashiki-Warashi's Yokai form looks more alien than demonic to me in my opinion. As for the ceremony, it is not as creepy or over the top like Bandora's ceremonies but hey, at least the ceremony turned Zashiki-Warashi evil.

And so in the next day, Zashiki-Warashi begins his rampage. While watching this scene, I can't help but notice that his shoulder pads is a controller for a Sega Genesis (or Sega Megadrive in Japan)! What's more, this evil version of Zashiki-Warashi has joysticks in his feet and that has those colorful buttons from your standard box arcade machine in his body! Because of his rampage, our heroes have no choice but to defeat him, except for Jiraiya and the kids who has faith that the good Zashiki-Warashi that we know and love will return.

As for the giant fight in this episode... there is no giant fight in this episode because the giant scenes are spent mostly on the Kakurangers and the kids wanting the old Zashiki-Warashi back. It's a really emotional scene, especially the fact that even though they are advised by Tsuruhime to run away, the kids stayed because they want to see their old friend back. Even though the evil Zashiki-Warashi continues his rampage, these kids tried their best to wake up the good Zashiki-Warashi residing beneath the evil one. What's admirable about it is that the kids continued doing it even if they are stuck in a pile of rubble!

Zashiki-Warashi reverted back to normal but he cannot forgive Junior's actions, and so he decides fighting him, only to die in the end. No, I can't consider it a fight because it is really one sided; it is more like a man stepping on a helpless ant. The sun is setting down and so is Zashiki-Warashi's remaining life. He bids farewell to his new friends, and things start to become more emotional. Even I was affected by it because I ended up getting teary eyed while watching this scene. Thinking about it, the episode started in a very happy note and it ended with this bittersweet ending. Bittersweet in a sense that even though Zashiki-Warashi died, his spirit lives on in a form of a mushroom, hoping that someday, he will be back again and bring more joy to all kids.