It occurs to me that I once said Warumono-san was basically my doppelgänger. And then, last week, I called him “kind of an anti-social Winnie-the-Pooh”. I didn’t really think about the implications of that – and frankly I prefer not to think about them now. But I can say that even though this was a very good episode and probably a necessary one (and wholly adapted from the manga) I missed the General this week. I enjoy the Rangers a lot, but things just aren’t the same without him.
You knew something was different when the episode opened with the ED (and yes, it closed with the OP). This was bass-ackwards week – the Rangers even got the eyecatches. Almost every episode has revolved around a holiday at least indirectly, and this time we got two – the eternally joined at the hip Valentine’s Day and White Day. Pink and Blue are so totally into each other it’s beyond obvious, though she does undeniably have a schoolgirl crush on Warumono-san. She’s not too tsundere with others but with Blue Pink is off the charts (one piece of chocolate, LOL).
Pink shops for everyone (but Blue), so of course in March they all have to shop for her. Red gets lost at the mall, naturally. Then we get a segment told from Blue’s perspective, which peels back some of the layers of mystery surrounding the Rangers. They do have families – Blue does, at least – but they’re taken away from them when they’re identified as Rangers. The Ranger “gene” isn’t passed genetically – parentage has nothing to do with it. When the old ranger dies, a new one is born (or powered up, I’m not clear which) to take their place. And they live or lived at a kind of secret complex with a bunch of scientists and the like. And Blue has a stomach problem which plays up whenever he gets anxious.
It seems that Black was the last survivor of the previous generation (ouch), and it thus fell on him to search out their successors. Red was the hardest to find – presumably lost – but the transition was toughest on Green. Mugi and Sora were taken in when they were too young to understand why their parents were not there (I’d kinda like to know that too). Also, they gattai into one Ranger whenever they power up, and could do so from toddlerhood. Black’s role as a parent in all this is pretty clear-cut – he’s the oldest and the most experienced, and the responsibility falls on him. And he’s better at it than he thinks he is.
It was interesting looking at the Rangers’ dynamic, no question. Things are complicated between Blue and Pink, and there is a sibling vibe there for sure – but this 1000% goes deeper that. They resonate, all right. Still, I would have been happier if this had been half an episode, because it’s with the General that this series achieves its highest comic and emotional heights. It seems very much as if there are no real bad guys in this story, which is going to be an interesting thing when the times comes to bring it to a close (which we’ll almost certainly never see in anime form). Next week the starting lineup returns, along with the sakura spirit, and I suspect Kyuujitsu’s more poetical side.
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