Grab your popcorn, it’s time for my review of Ressha Sentai ToQGer Station 38: ‘Let’s Make a Movie‘!
Kagura is watching movies and wants to know what everyone’s favorite genres are-
Wagon loves intense horror, Right sci-fi because space, Hikari enjoys a good mystery, Tokatti likes love stories, and Mio is a fan of musicals.
The Conductor arrives to tell them that they’re approaching their latest stop: East City Studios Station and that Ticket loves historical films while The Conductor is fond of action flicks.
Everyone is super pumped to go see where movies are made and makes a beeline for the studio.
Suddenly, a man runs out of the studio gates being chased by a creature. The gang soon realizes that it’s not a movie monster, but a Shadow and they follow after them.
They confront the Shadow and fight. After getting tossed around by one of Film Shadow’s illusions, Right starts to use Hyper Express before Film Shadow stops him and tricks Right into letting him go.
They check on the man who was attacked, a film producer, who after much begging and pleading, takes them on a studio tour. After a bunch of looking but no touching, damnit Right and Kagura, the producer shows them his current production…which where the hell is everyone?
Fortunately, the lead actors are still there, discovering that the director and staff have all jumped ship. The producer vows to find another crew and the stars don’t seem too sure until Kagura volunteers everyone.
We find out the movie is about, a drama about two reporters who get into serious shit when they mess with the mob, and everyone has a job, with Kagura as director.
Filming resumes, but Director Kagura decides that the movie needs more fashion!
The producer seems to doubt Director Kagura’s vision, but she assures him that the most important part of making movies is…emotion!
Cut to the Castle Terminal. Zed totes thinks Noire is up to something again and she assures him she only sent Film Shadow to collect darkness, dude, get off her back, she is trying to do her damn job, sheesh.
Back again to our intrepid film crew, to find that the actors have left too! They probably could not handle that kind of puppy cat rainbow realness that they were trying to serve and ran off.
No worries, though! Our Great Director Kagura has replacements on standby!
Enter Akira and Tokatti as our new fair heroines. Do I smell fish?
While our ladies prepare for their feature film debut, Hikari’s out playing Nancy Drew Clue Crew trying to figure out why the original cast and crew have disappeared.
Aaaand ACTION! Shooting starts on Director Kagura’s new vision of the movie, but while filming, Kendama Detective Hikari busts this case wide open!
He explains that, after some sleuthing, no one has left the studio lot, they’re all being held captive in a screening room!
Film Shadow appears and reveals his dastardly plan, to weave everyone’s nightmares into a movie to release worldwide to blanket the whole world in darkness!
Kagura gives Film Shadow a Sailor Moon worthy speech about why movies are important and he’s basically the worst for wanting to use movies like that and his movie is invalid.
The team transforms and it’s fight time.
The producer keeps filming and follows the battle outside.
Film Shadow tries to hit them with the same attack he did earlier, but Hikari ain’t having none of that and deflects it easily, although, Akira, Tokatti, and Kagura get a little caught up in the film.
Kagura is so done with this dude’s shit that she pulls a Cool Guys Don’t Look at Explosions and starts shooting at him.
Cue cool gunfight.
That ends in a standoff between Film Shadow and Kagura…
and the other ToQgers.
They destroy his movie and instead of using the Hyper Ressha to finish him off, they dust off the Ol’ Coupling Bazooka and Kagura pushes Right out of the way to take point like she just won the crown.
They use Rainbow Rush: Security Guard, and Film Shadow is Moon-dusted!
…until he embiggens.
There’s no need to fear, ToQ Rainbow is here!
Film Shadow tries to scare the ToQGers by turning out the lights, which Hikari is thoroughly unimpressed with, causing the illusion to disapate.
They finish Film Shadow off with Final Slash.
Later, on the train, they learn that the film crew ended up finishing the movie after all, garnering in great reviews, even though they left in everything Kagura shot and all the fight with Film Shadow, under the guise of it being all CGI. Whaaaat?????
Final Review
Welcome to this season’s Super Sentai Drag Race!
But seriously, rangers in drag is one of my favorite recurring jokes in Super Sentai. (Something that would be awesome to see but would never happen in Power Rangers!)
Except For Movie Madness Of Course.
Well, well, episode 38, we’ve got a bit to discuss don’t we? You’re definitely a filler episode, but, what a nice little romp you are!
This episode isn’t really blazing any new trails, Sentai is no stranger to tv/movie themed episodes, but this particular episode puts a fun spin on it, putting Kagura in charge.
Speaking of Kagura, it’s nice to see her have fun, take the lead, and basically let her imagination go wild. We don’t really get to see her take that much of a proactive stance in the series often, especially up to this point, that spot usually goes to Mio.
Episodes like this are good for their small insights into personalities, too. Take the cold open with Kagura asking everyone what their favorite genres of movies are. Some choices are totally obvious, like Hikari’s fondness of mysteries and Right’s love of sci-fi, but learning about Mio’s penchant for musicals was a nice glimpse into her character.
Sorry, I gush a bit when the ladies get episodes that don’t involve a romantic subplot at all, but I digress.
Let’s talk about Film Shadow for a second. His power is actually kind of insidious, I mean, living your nightmares over and over, way harsh. Dang. Thinking about that outside of this particular episode and maybe in a more serious one, his power could be used to torture people into inaction. What a waste, right?
All in all, this was a decent episode, even though it would have been nice to see a Hyper ToQ5gou, but we still had fun, right?
I give this episode 3.9 film reels out of 5.
This is Amber/pan2dapan leaving the station!
You can find me @pan2dapan on Twitter/Tumblr/Instagram/Facebook
See you next time!