The 44th episode, continues off the cliffhanger from last time. No time for silly jokes so let's click "read more" and jump right into it.
Analysis
The episode begins right where the previous one left off, with Keiichiro lost in thought in the rain. Satoru shows up and returns Keiichiro's gun to him believing he had finally convinced him of Noël Takao's guilt.
Speaking of Noël Takao, Goodstriker finds him and has lead the Lupinrangers to his location. Our Phantom Thieves came to learn the truth about what Noël Takao actually is. Reminder, last episode revealed he isn't human.
Cut to into! Decent enough way to start the episode.
Returning to the episode, Noël Takao begins to explain the origin of his species. One thousand years ago, they created the Lupin Collection while living in the same world as the Ganglers.
They kinda just look like humans with gray hair. Remember kids, aliens are only good if they look like us.
The Gangler world used to belong to his race's tribes before the Ganglers arrived and conquered everything. Any survivors fled to the human world where they were scattered among them along with the Lupin Collection. Good thing they already looked like humans. Kogure, Noël Takao, the legendary thief Arsène Lupin, and everybody who worked for the Lupin Estate have the blood of these race of creatures. Whom they still haven't given a name too besides "not human".
Noël Takao finishes his story by telling how Arsène Lupin gathered all the collection pieces and got his wish granted. However, Kairi, Tooma, and Umika cannot believe someone who came from the Gangler world.
At the Patrangers HQ, Tsukasa and Commander Hilltop are convinced Noël Takao is are Gangler spy, but Sakuya still tries to believe in him. Keiichiro is not fully convinced Noël Takao is a traitor either. He sits in the cop car with Satoru and has flashbacks of both his duel with Lupin X and memories of Satoru telling him to listen to other peoples feelings. Poor guy just doesn't know what to think. Satoru dismisses Keichiro's mindset and takes off for unspecified business. Even leaves behind his famous music player.
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| Who still uses these things in 2018? |
Meanwhile, there are nothing but sad faces back at the Lupinrangers's Bistro. Kogure shows up and reveals that the one Noël Takao wants brought back is their master Arsène Lupin. This legendary thief apparently saved the lives of everyone who served him. That's one heck of a boss. A flashback reveals Noël Takao was once an orphan that was rescued from despair by Arsène.
Why is it always raining when the life changing events happen?
Long story short, Arsène raised Noël Takao and is the one who taught him how to modify the collection pieces. But, when the Ganglers attacked the estate, Arsène died and Noël Takao lost everything and put all his faith in Arsène's words about a wish being granted if the collection is gathered. Kogure shares this same wish and pleads with the Lupinrangers to continue their efforts.
I'll be honest, I didn't really trust Kogure until this moment. It was a pretty powerful scene that was almost a tearjerker.
Back at the Patrangers HQ, Sakuya and Tsukasa discover a whole in the Noël Takao is a spy theory. Information was leaking before he arrived and they got attacked when transporting the Gangler Yoshii. (Episode 31.)
A couple scenes later, the Patangers confront Satoru after figuring out that the leak was coming from the Franch HQ branch not Japan's. Not only that, Satoru has been deceiving them as well. He isn't acting like himself and his music player is empty.
That's a careless blunder. How hard is it to download a few songs?
Now the truth is out, Satoru uses a power that makes the Patrangers point their guns at each other. However, Noël Takao shows up and stops them from shooting while revealing that it was this same power that made Noël Takao shoot at the Patrangers in the last episode and that he already knew the leak was coming from the France HQ from Jim's computer. Then why didn't Jim know that? As one final piece of truth, Noël Takao reveals Satoru's true form as a Gangler. Dun dun dun!
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| Narizama He can change is voice and control peoples movements |
What a lame design for all that build up.
Everything was a setup.
As if the Patrangers weren't angry enough, one final truth is revealed. This Gangler says that if Satoru had become a disguise he is most likely dead. That was delivered perfectly and brutal to hear. Just when I thought the writers had given up on the Patrangers, here we are.
With all the truths revealed, the saddened and enraged Patrangers henshin up and go on the attack. The rangers fight very aggressively and show off some cool moves like Keiichiro have a punch blocked only for Tsukasa to kick it forward. However, they all fall into the spell of being controlled again and are about to blast each other when the Lupinrangers show up and quickly steal the 2 collection pieces.
That's Abarekillers' Wing Pentact and Shurkinger's sword. They would not be pleased.
They finish off the Gangler with Super Lupin X and the fused Patrangers. Too bad Patran X never got a cool new finisher. Naturally, the monster grows and it is time for the giant battle. Amazingly, the Patrangers actually get to do the giant battle with Patkasier for the first time in I've lost count of how many episodes.
The giant battle starts off with a simple shootout when, even more amazingly, the Patrangers actually get a new super robo combination.
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| Siren PatKaiser |
Okay, yes this is just the Patrangers' counterpart to Siren Lupinakiser which happened several episodes ago and this is long overdue. But, better late then never.
This new combination makes short work of Narizama with a new big gun blast attack. Zamigo is watching in disappointment of the loss of his source of information. Just had to involve him.
The episode ends with the Patrangers having a moment for the real Satoru where they promise to end things for him and the Lupinrangers renewing their trust in Noël Takao. The End!
Final Thoughts
This was easily the best episode so far. After so many episodes of giving only the Lupinrangers any form of real story and development, they not only give one to the Patrangers but they give them a huge one. Granted, there were some minor issues. The big break through being that the leak was coming from the French HQ and not Japans was good enough. But, if Noël Takao was able to figure that out from just Jim's computer, why didn't Jim know that? Also, what's up with the random heavy rainfalls? But, those really are just nitpicks.
Okay, it sounds like I'm being bias towards the Patrangers, but hear me out. I will admit the Lupinrangers are the cooler costumes and much more interesting story so to a degree I understand why they get more episodes, but the blatant favoritism they have been getting was really getting old. Having an actual rival team of rangers was this seasons biggest selling point, but they have been far from equally treated. Guess I'm just a sucker for the underdogs. Regardless of my views, this was a good example of how the duo should have been played. Even though the Patrangers were the starts, the Lupinrangers still got a little screen time that was enough to develop their story and keep them in our minds as viewers. I just wish they could have kept that formula for both teams.
Overall, great episode. Only 6 left to go. 5/5
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