Hikari Sentai Maskman 20 – Momoko's Determination

AKA why Momoko is a badass: the episode.

A woman named Kotsuhi is challenging Momoko's skills as a martial artist and as a teacher, causing Momoko to fight her. As it turns out, she is one of the agents sent by Tube to eliminate her and her students! Can Momoko stop her or is she part of a much bigger plan?

To be honest, I wasn't expecting a lot from the episode since this is a Momoko focused episode and for most of the time, all I can see from her is that she is one great martial artist, not a badass. But after seeing this episode, I can't believe that she is indeed one heck of a badass. I mean, for half of the episode's run, she fights the enemies without transforming at least once. Heck, she didn't transform when Kotsuhi transformed into the Dokuro Dogler! She just keeps on fighting her still she ends up becoming exhausted after the long fight.

As for the fights itself, they are all amazing. Momoko's actress indeed put her A game in this episode as she was able to convince us that she is indeed a tai chi practitioner and that she can use her tai chi skills in battle. Her entire fight sequence with Kotsuhi without any of them transformed is what I can say the highlight of this episode. It's just pure and awesome kung fu fun that will just leave you in awe after watching it. After watching this episode, I suddenly wished that Momoko should have more character focused episodes. That's how awesome Momoko is in this episode that you want to see more of her in action.

Now for the actual meat of this episode, aside from being a Momoko focused episode, this episode also marked the second time Tube is close to its victory. I think the biggest twist of this episode is that all the badassery Momoko did in this episode is actually part of Tube's plan to wear off one Maskman so that the Maskmen can't fight in its full force once the Great Five is summoned in battle. This plan is probably, one of the best plans I saw in the series. Unlike the earlier episodes wherein the enemy plots sounds so random, this one makes a lot of sense. Without the Great Five, those ridiculous plans will succeed at some point after our heroes disposed them in battle.

Having Momoko as the target for this plan is kinda interesting, but if there is one thing that I am bothered with it is the fact that from all people, why Momoko? I guess they have this impression that she is the weakest from the five but after watching this episode, it made me realize that all five Maskmen are equally strong, they just specialized on some martial arts field. Because of Momoko's injury, she can't pilot the Great Five and the Maskmen have no choice but to enter Great Five's cockpit without Momoko.

At first I thought that they can manage it but just like the episode of Bioman wherein they need a fifth member for them to properly pilot the Bio Robo, it didn't end up well. What really surprised me is that the Maskmen are completely powerless against the MOTW. Watching this scene made me pity Great Five. Even if Takeru and the rest tried their best to pilot the Great Five without Momoko, they can't ignore the fact that Momoko is needed if they want to use Great Five in its full potential. At the end, the Great Five is buried to the ground thanks to Dokuro Dogler, forcing the four Maskmen to leave Great Five. Without Great Five, how can the Maskman fight Tube? Will this be the end of our planet or will our heroes find a way to fight back Tube?