Also, the debut of this guy.
Hyde continues his attempt to contact the Guardian Realm and learns that there is a way for them to return but it can only happen only once. Meanwhile, Warstar's latest plan is to capture humans. Will Hyde save the humans or proceed to the plan to return to the Guardian Realm?
The previous episode left us a cliffhanger featuring Dareptor and Alata, instead of them having a rematch, what we have is Dareptor insulting Alata about his injury. It's disappointing for my part since the closest thing we have for a Dareptor and Alata fight is a flashback scene featuring how Alata got his injury. Later, we are introduced to Nozomu's father, an astronomer. Based on what is happening in this scene, it seems that Nozomu is promoted from a kid of the week character to a recurring support character. I don't see any problem with this transition since he was in the first episode and acted as their first secret keeper. It makes sense that he will end up as a support character in this series.
Nozomu's father is some guy who is busy with his job. I mean, he analyzes stuff that he shouldn't normally analyze while walking! His first meeting with Alata gave me an impression that he is a type of guy that might be bad in keeping secrets as Nozomu stopped Alata from telling him about his secret that he is a Guardian Angel. The said scene made me like Nozomu more as a character as he did his job as the team secret keeper quite well in front of his own father.
Meanwhile, Hyde and Eri are busy trying to find a way to contact the Guardian Realm, they are successful except that the message they got from Master Head is rather vague; vague in a sense that they can barely understand a thing, like his signal is a bit choppy. This made me realize that aside that it serves as a bridge between two worlds; the Tower of Heaven also acts as a communications tower between the Guardian Realm to our world. This show is starting to get interesting thanks to the concepts that it introduced.
As for Moune and Agri, they spotted the MOTW whose name is based on the movie, "The Planet of the Apes" and just like the smart apes in the movie, his ability is to capture humans in giant nets! Since we don't have other kids in this episode, Nozomu ends up getting captured by the MOTW! The Landick siblings arrive, shoot some B.B.s. Pink then arrive to shoot more B.B.s and tell us that Hyde is analyzing Master Head's choppy message. To sum up the message, they need to gather all of their power to open a gate to the Guardian Realm. This special gate can only be opened once the solar flares reach its peak, to put it simply, it's a rare opportunity they shouldn't miss.
With that in mind, Hyde must choose between saving the humans they promised to protect or return to their home world. It's a rather simple choice if you ask me since they can find other ways to return to their world and besides, Warstar still has plans to invade Earth. Assuming that they can't return to our world after a short trip to the Guardian Realm, who will protect it from Warstar? You will say that the past 33 Super Sentai teams will save our planet but if there is one thing I learn from watching Super Sentai Versus movies is that these guys need a break after a year (or in the Gorangers case, 3 years) of saving the world from evil.
Thanks to Nozomu's screams of help, Hyde finally realized his mission; he should care more about the lives of the planet that he is defending rather than their return to their home world. Though it took him quite some time for him to realize it, at least he finally got what he should supposed to do while he is on Earth. GoseiBlue's fight in this episode is fantastic and if there is one thing that I like about it how he dragged the MOTW underwater just to shoot him there. It's kinda cool and until now, I can't figure out how they did the water fights. Is it done with CGI or a mix of practical and CGI?
They finally defeated the MOTW thanks to the Gosei Buster but Bladerun has something prepared for this kind of situation. Using his B.B. Bugs, he enlarged the MOTW! Without any weapons to fight this giant, the five legendary Gosei Machines finally makes its debut appearance. Aside that they recycled that the Headder summoning footage from the previous episode, I just love that the Gosei Machines replicated the structure of a vehicle. It kinda reminds me of the Shinobi Machines from Hurricaneger except that they aren't cloaked somewhere in the city.
What made their debut more impressive are the great use of practical effects and the minimal use of CGI. Seeing actual flapping mechanical wings and body bending on the Gosei Dragon made my jaw drop for a few seconds. It's been a while since I saw that kind of effect in Super Sentai. What's more, the aerial battle featuring the Gosei Dragon and the Gosei Phoenix reminded me of the 80's and early 90's Super Sentai shows that I watch! It feels like I am watching some 80's and early 90's Super Sentai show, except it is made in this era of HD cameras and other technological marvels such as CGI, which was barely used in this episode.
After seeing the epic Gosei Machine debut, it is time to combine the five Gosei Machines to form GoseiGreat! The GoseiGreat formation scene looks very fantastic. His first fight is also well done and I just love the random rocks flying around every time GoseiGreat slashes the MOTW. Since the show introduced us the concept of Headders, we saw how the GoseiGreat utilize the five heads found in his body.
The use of the Headders in battle is really interesting. Instead of just staying there like most Super Sentai robots do with their animal heads, GoseiGreat just let them loose in battle! One thing I notice about the Headders in battle is that they act like how their animal is supposed to act and I like it. As for the finisher, one thing that stuns me about it is that they use an actual burning prop sword just to show us that GoseiGreat's sword strike features a burning sword.
Take note, the effects team can just use CGI flames for this one but nope, they decided to go with an actual burning sword! What's more, it's been more than a decade since Super Sentai has a giant robot that has a burning sword for a finishing move! The only thing the effects team did with the burning sword finisher that has something to with computers are the CGI cards and enhancing the effect of the burning sword finisher by adding some effects to put more emphasis on the attack and it worked. It's so amazing seeing this kind of thing in Super Sentai.
The episode ends with the victims having their memories wiped less Nozomu's and Hyde thanking Nozomu for making him realize their mission as Guardian Angels. But this mission is far from over as Warstar continues to plan their invasion of Earth while Master Head is watching the progress of these angels in-training back in the Guardian Realm.
