Gosei Sentai Dairanger Ep3 - Your Souls, Please!

 

As much as I appreciate a polite villain, I do not think I will be giving you my soul. Think that will work? Probably not. Click "Read More" and let's see how the Daiangers handled it.

Analysis

The episode begins with Soji and Kazu racing recklessly in the street. It is a back and forth race with plenty of taunting. Naturally, this is the part where a kid runs out into the street after arguing with his sister. Soji and Kazu both barely miss hitting him and pull over to check on the kid who has become motionless while blaming each other for the near miss. Both of the rangers get a lecture from the kids big sister who forces them to give her their names and addresses.

I wonder if Japan has the name problem with frivolous lawsuits as we do in the US.

One cutaway later, we are introduced to a man skating at night who seems to be obsessed with keys. This is of course our monster of the week in human form. He sneaks into kids bedrooms at night and uses his keys to open their chests and take their souls. Good Lord that is disturbing.

I thing the soul being a glowing ball made this scene less gruesome visually.

This child victime is of course the same kid that was almost hit by Soji and Kazu and his sister is quick to blame the two of them. At the hospital, the doctor informs Soji, Kazu, and the kids sister that they have been receiving a lot of children like this and it is probably not due to the accident, but the sister is adamant that it is the rangers fault. While walking off, the two Dairangers are depressed and wondering what they should do with all that is happening and I it is their fault. Then, somebody steals a car and tries to run them over. After narrowly avoiding being hit, it is revealed that the car is being driven by a possessed doll.

Something like this always seems to happen whenever soul stealing is involved.

Back at the Diarangers base, Kazu tries to tell everyone what happened but Ryo and Rin don't seem to believe him. Master Kaku stays silent then leaves. Rin thinks it's a prank and Ryo says that Soji and Kazu should be enough for just a small doll. Daigo is the only one that decides to help. 

Wow rude. Last episode they fought a purse monster and now they want to say a doll is too far fetched.

The monster of week, whose name is revealed to be Key Jester, is scolded by the Gorma leaders for the doll rampage and order him to stick to his main objective of stealing childrens souls. Meanwhile, Soji, Kazu, and Daigo try questioning the childs sister, (who is named Kaori and little brother Masao), about the incident again. Daigo ends up bonding a little with Kaori after the other two Dairangers leave and gets to know their story when they overhear Key Jester stealing another soul. They try to chase after him but are ambushed by more dolls.

Why is Kaori also giving chase? And how did Daigo end up stealing the spotlight?

After a short struggle with the dolls and the camera almost completely hiding the puppeteers, the dolls escape in the same car as before. Kazu and Soji have given up and gone to a restaurant while Daigo and Kaori have followed the car. They discover building where Key Jester has a large collection of those possessed dolls. He brings the dolls to life using the stolen souls and is having them sing.

Five Nights of Freddy gots nothing on this creep factory.

One of the dolls knocks Daigo and Kaori into the building with a barrel and there is a familiar confrontation. Monster says what he is doing, the two visitors are next, and a fight breaks out. Daigo henshins into ShishiRanger and they take the fight outside. It is a one on one fight with Key Jester having the advantage; Daigo witnesses Kaori being chased by Cotpotoros and calls the HQ for backup. 

He could have done that this whole time?

Gorma's leaders also join in the fight and Daigo is getting taking a lot of hits. Key Jester steals Kaori's soul and pushes her body off the cliff, but Daigo is able to catch her. The other 4 Dairangers finally show up just in time to watch the villains teleport away. Kaori is left unresponsive. 

Daigo stands up full of rage, punches Kazu and Soji and angrily asks everyone where were they when he needed them. Nobody has a response. The episode ends on a cliffhanger, the narrator says to stay tuned or the next episode  to find out what happens. TO BE CONTINUED!

Final Thoughts

This episode was good but creepy. The scary man at night, sneaking into children's rooms to steal their souls and use them to animate dolls that sing about doing bad things and go on rampages where they try to run people over. Nightmare fuel.

Besides that, it's an important character act for Rangers. Showing the consequences of not taking their roles as Rangers seriously or ignoring possible trouble. The only issue I have is how it randomly switched from being about Kazu and Soji to Daigo. The formal two were the ones being setup the first half of the episode and were ignored, Daigo was the only responsible one, but he was not even involved until that headquarters scene. Does not make any scenes how Kazu would just accept that it must be a prank and leave when he witnessed first hand the puppet being alive. Thankfully, Daigo's emotional outburst at the end really saved the message and makes you want to see part 2. Overall, I would say that unless you cannot handle horror themes, this is an episode worth watching. 4/5