Ninja Sentai Kakuranger 23 – Tsubasamaru Takes Flight

That not CGI robot bird.

Tsuruhime has just turned 16 and what better way to celebrate it with friends is by fighting some Yokai and saving some kids! Meanwhile, Prince Junior is now performing a ceremony to revive his boss, the Infernal King.

Like I said in my intro, the episode confirmed Tsuruhime's current age, that she started leading the team at the age of 15. For a 15 year old, that is quite an accomplishment. Granted that there are times Sasuke is leading the team, but for most part it's Tsuruhime who is calling the shots and the one who is keeping her teammates in check. Speaking of teammates, they also received these promise bracelets from Tsuruhime that they will continue on fighting together as a team. Wow, even if today is Tsuruhime's birthday, she is the one who is giving the gifts.

As for the Yokai, Junior is now being bothered by the Infernal King about his revival. What's great about Infernal King's first appearance is that they never showed us his face. They only lighted some parts of his features, giving him this kind of eerie and creepy look. In addition to that is how they highlighted his eyes, which makes him scarier. The bigger question is what is the episode that will mark his official debut since hey, this episode is focused on the ceremony of his revival so when we will see his proper debut?

Because the name of this villain is the Infernal King, it kinda makes sense that they need some human sacrifices for his revival and in this case, we have kids as sacrifices. This kinda reminded me of Zyuranger's Great Satan, except a bit more brutal. Compared to Great Satan who only needs 13 kids, Infernal King needs as many kids as possible for the human sacrifices needed for his revival. With that in mind, I am expecting a lot of great things from him. I mean seriously, if you need a lot of human sacrifices just for a villain revival, it can only mean that the show is getting closer to its end game.

Because of this, Junior didn't waste any time to start the ceremonial ritual for Infernal King's revival. The ceremony is basically a rock concert... an evil rock concert. It's really fun watching Junior having a lot of fun while the Kakurangers are busy fighting the Yokai assigned for this task of gathering the kids. Since this is an evil rock concert meant to revive the Infernal King, I can't help but notice the amount of symbolism used in the concert. The only thing missing is to throw some blood or Junior drinking some blood like most death metal concerts does. He flipped the bird in one episode and it passed the censors, so why not have a blood drinking scene? Oh well, it will be a bit too over the top for the show.

As for our heroes, they are struggling to defeat the enemy and to make matters worse; they can't beat it even with the Muteki Shogun when it decided to enlarge itself! Oh and he almost killed the show's narrator in one his attacks, making him more despicable for a MOTW. I mean, why attack the most dedicated narrator in the history of Super Sentai who even watches the fight outside of his usual narrating area? With all hope lost after seeing the power of the Yokai, a new mecha appears in the form of Tsubasamaru.

Tsubasamaru's debut is amazing, I just love that in an era where CGI is not widely used, Tsubasamaru's animation is really well made. The flapping of its wings looks realistic and as for its moves, I just love that the wings shoot some bullets instead of having a typical bird cry attack. Sandayuu also returns in this episode as he puts emphasis that Tsubasamaru and Muteki Shogun are sentient beings.

We also see Tsubasamaru and Muteki Shogun combine to form the Super Muteki Shogun. The combination looks simple but does the job of destroying the Yokai. My only disappointment with it is that they still use the same effects for Tsubasamaru's regular attacks just with more lights. Guess I was expecting too much that the finisher is one powerful laser beam attack. Oh and one more thing, I can't help but notice that in one shot, Tsubasamaru is smaller than Muteki Shogun and that its wings are not big enough to make the combination. Guess they don't have the right model for this scene.

After our heroes defeated the Yokai, Prince Junior appears in front of our heroes and with Sandayuu around; we learned that his true name is Gashadokuro. But who cares about his true name, what's more important is that the seal from the first episode is now in the city and that they only have a month for them to stop it from opening. If they can't stop it, it will mark the rise of the Infernal King.

This is when I realize something, the Infernal King kinder compared to Great Satan. Great Satan only needs 13 kids and he is revived in just one episode, in Infernal King's case, he needs a lot of kids but it will take a month for his revival, giving our heroes more time to prepare once he is out of the seal and save the kids in the process. But the bigger question is what's the reason behind Sandayuu's recent appearance? Also, why is Tsubasamaru helping them right now?