Ninja Sentai Kakuranger 20 – Sasuke vs. The Flower Kunoichi Gang

Total badass? Total badass.

The Flower Kunoichi Gang is back and they want Sasuke dead. With a little help coming from Doctor Yugami, he managed to jam the Doron Changer's signal, preventing him to transform and communicate with his teammates. To make matters worse, a civilian gets involved in this one!

This episode is obviously a Sasuke focused episode featuring the Flower Kunoichi Gang. What's interesting about this episode is that the Storyteller didn't appear till the end of the episode, the episode doesn't have a monster of the week and the most important part of all, this episode doesn't have a giant battle! As for the kid of the week plot, you can just ignore it because it is about Sasuke making the choice if he has to protect the civilian or not from the Flower Kunoichi Gang who is following him thanks to his Doron Changer's signal.

Before talking about the actual episode, here's one thing I notice in this episode. From all the five members of the team, only Sakura has the most number of speaking lines. It didn't help that her actress once played Remi Hoshikawa aka Five Yellow in Fiveman! Since Remi is my first Super Sentai crush, I can't help but to be filled with joy every time I saw her in the screen playing an evil character. Because of this, the other members of the Flower Kunoichi Gang are not that memorable, except for one member who kinda looks like Mei's stunt double in one episode of Zyuranger.

Now that I am done talking about the basic details about this episode, it's time to talk about the... entire episode! What I like about this episode is that the kid of the week doesn't trust Sasuke after learning that it was partly Sasuke's fault why a group of female ninjas now want to kill him. But as time went on, I just love that even for a short period of time; they were able to build this kind of friendly relationship with Sasuke.

As for Sasuke in this episode, just like the time where his teammates are under the clutches Shuten-Doji brothers, it is just Sasuke alone, unable to transform thanks to Doctor Yugami's signal jammer and is now being chased by a group of flower-themed female ninjas. The chase scenes are really fantastic and a bit weird at some times. Also, I can't help but notice that the bike scene kinda reminded me of the bike scene coming from Dairanger's first episode. The only difference is that the bikers transform into the Flower Kunoichi Gang and not the disposable foot soldiers.

Because he is being chased by the Flower Kunoichi Gang, we see Sasuke at his best; you can say that this is one of his finest moments. We see him make a decision that he is fine losing his powers just as long as he can save the kid and get him out of this mess. Then it hit me, the fact that he is still protecting the boy even without his ability to transform shows us that you don't need to wear a fancy costume just to be a hero. All you need to have is the intention to help people and this kind of act will be rewarded in due time. In this case, Muteki Shogun acted on its own and lends him his freakin' sword!

With the help of Muteki Shogun's sword, he defeats the Flower Kunoichi Gang's special rocket attack. Said rocket attack involves two of the girls riding it and while on top of the rocket, shoot Sasuke with some machine guns ammunition! I am not sure what's the relationship of machine guns, ninjas and rockets but this is probably, one of the weirdest combos I have ever seen in this TV series. The special effects used for the flaming sword is really amazing. Pausing the screen for a bit made me notice that Sasuke's actor is holding a wooden prop sword being burned in flames. Also, the black background added more to the impact of the sword's flames on screen.

After Sasuke got his Doron Changer back thanks to his teammates who are looking for him, it is time for one awesome fight scene. The fight scenes are really impressive. The only disappointment I have with it is that they shoot the scene wherein Ninja Red is fighting some foot soldiers with Muteki Shogun's flaming sword still using the same black background. I am disappointed with it because it doesn't give much impact to me compared to the scene wherein Sasuke is using the sword not transformed. Oh well, at least they defeated the Flower Kunoichi Gang and the kid is safe. That's what is important right now.