Hikari Sentai Maskman 17 – Takeru Alone

Takeru is accused of stealing someone's purse and thus, he begins searching for the true culprit. As it turns out, the purse stealing is actually part of some bigger plan created by Tube to defeat Takeru! Can he survive this trap set by his enemies?

After weeks of having the other Maskmen in the spotlight, it is once again time for Takeru to be star of the episode! The way they started the episode feels like it is not related to the main plot of the episode. The initial impression I had is that this is a fake Takeru episode, only for the episode to end up becoming an episode featuring Takeru falling to a Tube trap. The trap is something I didn't expect at first but end up liking it. Tube basically took advantage of Takeru's rage so that they can use it against him when they trap him the labyrinth that they created just for him!

Takeru inside the labyrinth is basically getting beaten up by whatever the MOTW throws at him. To make matters worse, his teammates can't interfere in this one! To put it simply, Takeru is alone in this one. Even if that is the case, the other Maskmen and Commander Sugata didn't lose hope that they can bring Takeru back in our dimension. He is having the fight of his life.

Takeru's fighting spirit is one of the reasons why this episode is amazing; his realization that he can't just die there and that he should fight back is the episode's strongest points. This scene also strengthens one of the elements established in the show. The power of the Aura Power is infinite, just as long as the person using it doesn't give up till the very end, which is basically what Takeru did in this episode. He didn't give up, and thus, unleashing more of his untapped Aura Power. Because of its glow, his teammates know where he is and used their own Aura Power to free Takeru out of the dimension.

Now that everyone is out inside the labyrinth, it is time for the team fight and later, the giant battle. The ground fights continue to amaze me while as for the giant fight; it is a bit longer than the average giant fight. My problem with it is that it is kinda boring. At the end, Takeru's teammates are asking for forgiveness because they didn't trust Takeru in the first place. As for Takeru, he realized that it is also partly his fault for charging in without thinking of the possible consequences of his actions.