Hikari Sentai Maskman 29 – Jet Cannon Takes Flight!

The final phase for the creation of the new Maskman finishing weapon is not yet over because of some problems when it comes to Aura Power. To make matters worse, Tube attacks the city with a special kind of gas that can destroy everything! Can our heroes finish the new weapon just in time?

What makes this episode really great is not the creation of the new finishing weapon called the Jet Cannon but the ones behind its creation, the dedicated engineer named Akaiki and the Maskmen. The episode finally explained why he is kinda rushing our heroes to finish the new weapon aside from the possible Tube attack is that he wants his revenge for what Tube did to his town 20 years ago. His reason for revenge is justified during the duration of the episode because as it turns out, the reason why he is easily exhausted if he works hard is because the gas that was released in his town affected his body.

As for the Maskmen, what's interesting about them in this episode is that they think that they can defeat Tube without using a finishing weapon because they managed to do it in the previous episode. I love that Akaiki thinks that they are just being arrogant that they can do such feat and ignore the efforts put by the engineers who are making their new weapon. That is why even though it sounds kinda cruel; the scene where we see their weapons melt made me cheer for the engineers working for our heroes. It's all thanks to them that they have the weapons to fight Tube.

So what happened to the weaponless Maskmen? They ended up running away from Tube. As for Takeru, he ended up meeting Akaiki and learned his story and that is why he decided to help him finish the Jet Cannon with his Aura Power. Even if it's just a short time, we see the two bonds and have this common ground when it comes to fighting Tube. This is when I noticed that Takeru doesn't think of Akaiki as just some nameless engineer who is making weapons for them, but an ally of justice who helps them with their fight against Tube.

With his Aura Power, the Jet Cannon is finally finished! What surprised me with its creation is that the covering and later, the system for the new cannon finisher basically appeared out of nowhere after Takeru inserted his Aura in it. I know that Aura Power can create incredible stuff such as Aura ladders and the like, but a working system for a cannon finisher is something that surprised me because I saw the Maskmen build a freakin' car in their garage. Oh well, at least the weapon making process is now over, so let's start talking about the new weapon!

The Jet Cannon is better compared to the Shot Bomber when it comes to portability. I mean, this cannon can fly and you don't need a backpack to power it up! What's more is that it is powered by Aura Power and has this really cool transformation sequence! My only problem with it is that the jet design doesn't feel right sometimes for a cannon. I mean, the portability and flight capabilities is cool and all, but the way they shot how the cannon fires the blast made me feel that there's a bad design choice when it comes to its appearance. The giant fight in this episode is as always, fun to watch and the world is once again safe.

Hikari Sentai Maskman 28 – The Truth About Ial/Mio

Two guys fighting for a necklace. Weird.

The Maskmen are developing a new weapon to replace the destroyed Shot Bomber but because of a Tube attack, Takeru decided to fight it while his teammates are busy channeling their aura in the new weapon. As it turns out, the one responsible for the attack is Kiros, the man who destroyed the team's finishing weapon. What will happen in this new encounter with Kiros?

The series gets better and better as time went on because finally, Takeru and Kiros are now both aware of Ial's activities as Mio and Princess Ial, officially starting this rivalry for Ial's heart and making things much more complicated. But before talking about that, let's first talk about the development of the new weapon. Considering that it was established in a previous episode that there's an organization backing the Maskmen in their fight against Tube, it's no surprise that we see engineers helping our heroes develop a new weapon.

What's interesting about these engineers is that they are aware about Aura Power and its power. Heck, one engineer keeps on telling the team that the amount of Aura Power is enough to power the new weapon! Another thing that bothered me with the development of the new weapon is how much Aura Power is needed for it to be strong enough to counter Kiros' attack. I mean, they've been releasing a lot of aura for two days so how much is enough to defeat that guy? Sadly, the episode is kinda vague when it comes to describing how much they needed and hopefully, they can explain it in the next episode.

Now back to the interesting part about the Takeru and Kiros rivalry, what's great about it is that unlike Takeru's rivalry with Igam, which is basically a brother pissed that his sister is dating a guy he doesn't like, in Kiros' case, it's a suitor who is pissed that the girl he wants is now with some other guy and wants to get her while she is still well, on a relationship with that guy. To put it simply, Kiros' rivalry with Takeru is just him living up to his title of Thief Knight and I like it. The duel between the two is really fun to watch and it didn't help now that Kiros now has a better motivation in defeating the Maskmen.

As for the rest of the team, they ended up helping Takeru fight the Tube threat while he is busy fighting Kiros. What's great about it is that they care more about everyone's safety than finishing a new weapon. This just shows that they want to save the world now than save it when it is already in ruins. Their fight against the MOTW is really interesting that it made them think of strategies in defeating the guy without the use of the Shot Bomber. The strategy they come up is really amazing, which is basically killing two birds with one stone.

What's next is the giant battle and what's great about it is that it takes place in the city! It's rare for the series to have giant battles that happen in the city. Another thing that I find interesting is that they used Great Five's sword outside of the obligatory finishing move. It's an interesting move and made the fight more entertaining. At the end, Kiros is punished for his failure but he is now more determined to defeat the Maskmen. As for our heroes, they must double their efforts so that they can finish the new weapon in time. We don't know if they are lucky to defeat the MOTW without any finishing weapon.

Hikari Sentai Maskman 27 – The Thief Knight Kiros!

He's on a mutant horse. That's quite badass.

A man named Thief Knight Kiros appears before the Maskman and his mission is defeating our heroes! To make things interesting, he is not allied with the Tube Empire. What's the reason why he attacked our heroes? Is it for some personal reason or he wants to be repaid for this action?

This is how you introduce a new villain, give him one badass looking mutant horse, beat the crap out of our heroes and to make it more awesome, make him wear badass sunglasses and make him remove him after he is done beating the heroes. Yup, this is how badass Kiros was when he made his debut. It didn't help that he had one great one-on-one duel with Red Mask! This duel is the first time we saw Red Mask used the God Hand technique after it was first introduced. Which reminds me, he rarely used this move. Aside that he easily defeated our heroes, what makes this guy really interesting is why he is doing it.

2 years ago, he saw Princess Ial taking a bath and fell in love with her. But because of the Whirlwind Hell, Princess Ial almost died and decided to save her, causing him to get stuck in the Whirlwind Hell and accordingly, there is no escape in this place. But before talking about how he escaped, what's interesting is Ial's acting. To those who didn't figure it out, Ial and Igam have the same actress. As Ial, the way she speaks is softer, and much more princess-like. As Igam, she sounds rough and commanding. It is really impressive, making me wish that Ial has more screen time outside of flashbacks.

Back to the main story, Kiros managed to escape because he is developing a new technique that led him to his escape. Said technique is used to defeat the Maskmen and the Shot Bomber later in the episode. As for the technique itself, it's just him spinning a chain to create some vortex. Considering that this move lifted him out of the chasm, it's no surprise that it destroyed the Shot Bomber in the process when our heroes tried to defeat him with it. It's one interesting scene and it is one of the rare times we see a Super Sentai weapon destroyed by the bad guys.

After defeating the heroes, Kiros made one interesting proposition to the Tube Empire; he wants Princess Ial's hand in marriage. Well that is underwhelming, but justified. It's underwhelming because the man made one badass entrance and gave me an impression that he hates our heroes so much because he is irritated by their presence. It's justified because he fell in love with Ial at first sight and considering that he is kinda creepy when he first approached Ial 2 years ago, I guess he will not stop until he marries Ial.

Back to our heroes, now that they don't have the Shot Bomber in their disposal, what weapon they can use to defeat Kiros and his mutant horse who happens to be the MOTW? Turns out that all they need is Aura Power. The use of Aura Power makes sense, considering that their standard weapons are not enough to defeat a MOTW. Sadly, their power is not enough, causing Commander Sugata to use his own Aura Power to aide our heroes. It's one the Commander's badass moments in the series and it shows us that he is more than just the guy sitting in the base and commands our heroes what they will do next. He can also fight with our heroes in spirit thanks to Aura Power.

The Maskmen defeated the MOTW and it's time for the giant battle. There is nothing much to talk about the giant fight so I'll just skip to the ending. At the end, our heroes defeated the MOTW but they learned that they have one new villain to face. Can our heroes defeat Kiros now that they don't have the Shot Bomber? Can Commander Sugata perform the dangerous Aura Power move after this first encounter with Kiros? The episode left a lot of interesting questions and I can't wait to see the next one!

Hikari Sentai Maskman 26 – A Tragic Love

This symbolism man.

Kenta falls in love with some mysterious girl name Seira. To make things interesting turns out that she is working for Tube as their Symbiotic Beasts whose job is to produce food for one of their Ground Beasts. Because of her meeting with Kenta, she starts to think twice about humans.

This episode pretty much feels like what will happen if Takeru will eventually learn the truth about Mio's past and her relationship with Tube. It kinda feels like they are experimenting on that element of acceptance once they decided that it is time for Takeru to learn the truth about Mio. For their first try, they did a really great job with it. I can feel the struggle that Seira is facing and cause me to pity her fate that she is tied in fate that she can't escape, making her one tragic character.

As for Kenta in this episode, I find his sudden interest in Seira a bit weird considering that in one episode, he had a love interest but decided not to pursue her now because of his mission as a Maskman. It feels like he is a being out of character when he fell in love with Seira in first sight. Even if that's the case, I kinda ignored it because of the episode's drama. The drama portions of this episode are the best parts of the episode that I forgot that this is a superhero show until they show us some fight scenes.

The drama of this episode deals with living a very short life and making the most out of it or the option of living a longer life, only to live long enough to be miserable. Seeing Kenta's reaction that Seira basically throw her "life" away just to save the life of a dying bird is really well done. The music and the way they shot his reaction made it really great. Same goes with the scene wherein Kenta learns the truth about Seira that she is working for Tube. For the tragic bit in this episode, it feels too cliché and too predictable, especially the part on how Seira died. I mean seriously, why do a freakin' slow motion?!

After Seira died, the scene is then followed with the standard "I will not forgive you, Tube!” the fight scene ensues, MOTW is defeated and the giant battle. Nothing much to talk about except that Great Five is back. Oh well, at least they didn't forget that Great Five still exists and is treated as Galaxy Robo's equal rather than given the treatment as the weaker first team mecha like how most Super Sentai mechas do these days. At the end, Kenta silently mourns about Seira's death and is later comforted by his friends.

Hikari Sentai Maskman 25 – Akira's True Love

This is badass.

Akira continues his martial arts and to put this into application, he joins a martial arts competition wherein the competitors must fight until they are exhausted. To make things interesting, the girls discovered that he is hiding some letter coming from a girl! To make it more interesting, Tube is involved with the competition.

The plot about Akira's supposed girlfriend is the weakest part of the episode and the girls wanting to discover her identity kinda ruined the mood of the entire episode. For me, the mood of the episode is Akira wanting to make his mother proud by continuing his practice of martial arts. Speaking of martial arts, the fight scenes in the episode are really great. All of Akira's fights are really well done. While taking screencaps, I pause making me notice that Akira's actor did most of the stunts. Most because I am pretty sure that there are parts that Akira has a stunt double doing the complicated work for him.

The big reveal that he is doing this to make his mother proud is really great. It properly sums up Akira's character for me. He is the youngest member of the team and that he has a lot to prove to us audience. This is one of those episodes that showed us that Akira is one great character and I can't wait to see more of Akira in action in later episodes. As for the rest of the episode such as the in-suit fight and the giant fight, it's kinda okay. They maintained the quality of the fights from the previous episodes.

Lastly, aside from Akira being awesome, the other thing worth mentioning about this episode is that the girls feel like they are bit out of character. To be specific, Haruka is not that tomboyish and the one who started the shipping thing with Akira and his mysterious girlfriend. Oh, and for some reason, the Maskmen wear swimsuits in this episode just to reach the place where Akira is fighting the bad guy even though they have other means to reach the island without swimming.