Hikari Sentai Maskman 15 – Carol Love

It's all about Momoko and the flowers, yep.

Tube's latest MOTW released a spore of Hell Flowers that sucks out the life of its victims and thus, the Maskmen investigate this rather odd phenomenon. This is when our heroes discovered that the only thing that can stop these flowers is Momoko's Carol Love, a strange flower that she found in a cave back when she was a kid.

When Momoko said that she found the Carol Love in some cave when she was lost and heard a strange voice telling her to follow the light coming from the flowers, the first thing that came to my mind is the possibility that she ended up somewhere in Tube. I was right about it later in the episode, which I will talk about later in this review. To put it simply, the first few minutes of the episode established the sentimental value of the Carol Love flower to Momoko's life. This flower basically cheered her up when she was down and every time it blooms every 5 years, it's a really special moment for Momoko.

So how the heck this flower ended up getting involved with Tube's latest plot? Simple, one of the Hell Flowers tried to attack Momoko when all of a sudden; Carol Love released this energy that withered the flower. The only time Momoko discovered its ability to destroy evil flowers is when Haruka was attacked by one of the Hell Flowers. After realizing that the Carol Love flower has the ability to destroy evil flowers, Momoko is faced in one tough decision. Will she destroy Carol Love for the sake of everyone or will keep it because of its sentimental value?

To be honest, Momoko has a third option, which is to find the cave where she first found the Carol Love flower that she is taking care of. But considering the time they have, guess this is not a viable option. With the options she has, she has no choice but to destroy her flower so that she can make the antidote to destroy all Hell Flowers. Even though you don't hear the Carol Love flower talk, you can feel the emotion of Momoko talking with the said flower.

The next day, while her teammates are busy fighting Fumin and the rest in the group, she is busy spreading the antidote with the help of the Masky Gyro. Much to Tube's surprise, they learned that a human being from above got hold of the only thing that can destroy the Hell Flowers. This scene basically confirmed my theory that Momoko ended up somewhere in Tube back when she was a kid. But this scene also leads us to more world building in the series.

As it turns out, Carol Love is the favorite flower of Tube's former Empress that happens to be Igam and Ial's mother. Igam's monologue with the sleeping Ial revealed that Tube was once a peaceful underground empire before Zeba appeared and overthrow the Empress. Since the said flower can destroy all evil flowers, it is expected that after the Empress was overthrow, they are ordered to destroy these flowers and the one responsible to its destruction is Ial. It is likely that Ial will save a couple of those flowers but since we know where did the Maskmen got the Carol Love, guess I should save this flora talk once the show will bring up the topic about Tube's ecology.

Aside from the world building, another thing that impressed me in this episode is Momoko's piloting skills. As for the rest of the episode, the fights are as fun as ever and that the giant robot fight featured the usual amount of stock footage that I expect in an 80's Super Sentai mecha fight. The episode ends and Momoko said to herself that even though she destroyed Carol Love, the flower will continue to bloom in her heart for eternity.