When I saw the preview of this episode, I was expecting that this episode will be just a standard character development episode featuring some fugitive ninja but nope, the episode gets deeper every second. By deeper, I mean we learned some details about Tube and details about Igam's past and why some hints on why she is posing to be a man. I know, I referred Igam as a he for most of my reviews and I am aware that he is actually a she since day one. I mean, an average dude has no guts to wear what Igam is wearing! Did I mention that he is wearing high heels for most of the time? But for the case of this review, I will refer Igam as a she till they will finally confirm it in a later episode.
The ninja fight between the fugitive ninja and Fumin bored me a bit. Though the idea of exploding shurikens is amazing, I just hated the fact that the clash between these projectiles is so slow that it made the fight quite dragging. As for the bits that didn't bore me, it's seriously fantastic because it is basically two ninjas using their skills to beat the crap out of each other for a crown that the fugitive ninja is carrying.
The ninja is then captured but thanks to Kenta, he was able to grab the crown and at the same time, save the fugitive ninja. What surprised me is that after Kenta saved her life, she wants to have the crown! Considering that Fumin wants the crown and the fugitive ninja is desperate to take a hold of it, it can only mean two things: the crown is important and that the fugitive ninja is an ally. She then leaves even though she didn't obtain the crown.
The mystery on why she wants the crown and what secret it can possible hold caused Kenta and the rest of the Maskmen to search for her. Thanks to Momoko's knowledge about flowers, Kenta goes to a village where the girl is living. Lucky enough, she is indeed living in that village. After convincing that they are fighting Tube, we now learned more about the history of the Underground Empire. To put it simply, there is a royal family governing the empire before Zeba whose aim is to bring peace in the land and to unite with the ones living underground. So yeah, the empire is not the bad guys but the ones governing it.
After seeing a hurt pigeon, the ninja, later identified as Yu has an idea on what happened to her father. He is captured by the Zora Doggler whose mission is to hunt down fugitive ninjas who once served the Underground Empire. Speaking of which, Yu's father is now imprisoned. There is nothing interesting about it at first until Igam entered his cell. Igam knows who is this prisoner, giving me an impression that the two are somewhat close back then... and I was right.
The flashback scene showed us Igam's life before meeting Zeba. Based on this scene, Igam had a happy childhood. We saw her play swords and that since the very beginning; he prefers darker clothes over light ones. This scene is one of the first hints we have about Igam's true sex. If there is one thing I learned from watching too much a cartoon involving a “princess waiting for a prince” is that a prince never wears a skirt, he only wears those puff pants or just those regular long cut pants. In addition to that, Igam's hair is longer than your average prince. Those two elements alone gave us fans that are slow in terms of pick up that Igam is a chick and not a dude.
Aside from this flashback scene, we also learned that the original King wanted his empire to be an empire of peace, the complete opposite of what Zeba is doing. So how the heck Zeba ended up becoming the current leader of the empire? As it turns out, he killed the members of the royal family less Igam and Mio. Though it is natural for the eldest kid to lead the empire once the king is dead, I guess Igam is still too young to lead during that time. This revelation also explained why the heck Igam and Iyal has prince and princess titles respectively. The revelation also made me expect that Zeba will be one awesome final boss in the series.
Baraba and Oyobu arrives and tells them that Yu's father is in their hands right now and to save him, they must give the crown to them. Because of Kenta's resolve, they were able to convince Commander Sugata to give him the crown in exchange of the life of Yu's father. I was expecting that the Maskmen will do something awesome to save Yu's father but nope, Yu's father is the one tried to escape from Tube's clutches with his own hands! I mean seriously, the scene made it look like that there is no need for them to give the ransom in the first place!
To cut long story short, his escape scene is fantastic and finally, he unlocked the final message of Igam's mother about Zeba secrets. Before we can learn what is Zeba's secret and why it will cause the downfall of the current Underground Empire Tube, the Zora Doggler destroys the crown, cutting the message. Deep in my heart, I like this scene. This just shows us how competent some Super Sentai MOTWs are in their respective shows. But for the outside, I hated this scene, I mean; it's the perfect opportunity for us to learn about Zeba's secrets considering what has happened in this episode. But hey, I guess it is too early to reveal the secret since the show hasn't reached the big 20 yet!
Out of rage, Yu's father tried to kill the Angler Soldiers all by himself only to end up getting killed in action. It's a seriously emotional scene as you can feel the rage the boils down in Yu's father. He is angry because the Zora Doggler destroyed their opportunity to find out what are Zeba's secrets. As for the giant battle, it is pretty standard so I can't talk much about it aside that the episode didn't feature the formation of the Great Five.
At the end, Yu buries her father and learned that there are other artifacts related to the queen that has Zeba's secrets in it! Guess this means that this will not be the last time we will see her. Even though Yu's side of the story ended up in tragedy, at least there is a glimmer of hope left outside in the field. But the bigger question is what are these other artifacts that Yu's father revealed? Also, what is Zeba's secret and where is our proper flashback scene about the rise and fall of the royal family.
