Gosei Sentai Dairanger Ep. 5: The Jewels Have Come

Things are getting well established and more Mecha have been teased. Click "read more" and let's see what comes next.

Analysis

The episode begins by following Rin as she attends school. A women named Megumi Amano approaches Rin out of the blue and gives her a hair clip. Megumi says she is super into Chinese culture and eagerly tries to become Rin's friend.

This is either a monster trap or a creepy classmate who is romanticizes other cultures. I'm not sure which is worse. 

Conveniently, Megumi starts to leave and Ryo shows up immediately as the monster of the week appears. This time it is a Lipstick themed monster. Lipstick Songstress.

Maybe this has a deeper meaning. Perhaps lipstick is evil because it is one of the factors that reinforce the unrealistic standards of beauty forced on young women. Or much more likely, the creators just thought it looked scary. More creepy if you ask me.

Lipstick Songstress attacks Megumi, putting dark purple lipstick on her which makes her pass out and then teleports her away. Ryo and Rin go on the attack as the Cotpotoros appear playing music. Ryo henshins but Rin is interrupted before she can morph by a group of Cotpotoros dog pilling on her. Ryo saves Rin but ends up taking several sword slashes from Lipstick Songstress, injuring him as the other 3 Rangers show up. Lipstick Songstress attacks with music themed beams which hit all 5 Rangers. Rin tries to charge in alone and throws her staff before getting blasted. This leaves a cut.

Lipstick Songstress is furious at her face being scared and makes herself giant in a fit of rage. Ryo summons his Chi Beast RyuseiOh to counter. The Rangers all rush inside, but before they can make a move Ryo's injury from earlier flares up and he cannot move his arms properly. 

As the Rangers are left defenseless, Lipstick Songstress summons her Demon Choir which are 5 girls who have been possessed by her makeup including Megumi.

Creepy.

The 5 girls sing in high pitches which immobilizes the Rangers even further and Lipstick Songstress begins slashing them with her sword. On top of all that, the 3 Leaders of Gorma also appear and begin blasting RyuseiOh. All of the force is enough to send Master Kaku flying out of his Meditation back at the HQ.

It's rare to see a monster of the week get reinforcements like that. 

Through willpower and frustration, the Rangers manage to get a counter attack in and they quickly rush for the finishing blow. Lipstick Songstress also attacks and the clash ends the fight in a draw. The Rangers are knocked out of RyuseiOh and Lipstick Songstress retreats. RyuseiOh is badly damaged and has to retreat as well to the despair of the Rangers especially Ryo. 

Back at the Dairangers' HQ, the Rangers find Master Kaku collapsed from exhaustion. Once he gets up, Master Kaku reveals to the Rangers that he has been using a great deal of his own Chi Power in order to keep RuuseiOh under their control and when they are hit by an attack that badly then he simply doesn't have enough. Rin blames herself for the defeat because she was late to henshin and is an emotional wreck, this leads the other 4 telling her to stay behind and leave the fight to them.

I think the idea is that they want her to keep her emotions in check and fight with her head. But, the delivery just felt mean.

Out by a lake, a depressed Rin is reliving everything that happened so far. She starts taking her anger out with Chi Blasts around the forest before Daigo shows up to stop her from scaring the birds. Daigo tells Rin to always keep on smiling before running off as Rin has a vision of her own Chi Beast and 5 colored balls.

Seriously, why are the guys being so cryptic with her?

After a quick angry monster scene, Rin is back at the HQ to talk with Master Kaku about her weird dreams. Upon hearing the description, Master Kaku things those 5 balls could be the Heavenly Treasure Lai-Lai Balls which were what was originally used to control the Chi Beasts. Now, Kaku things that Rin's dreams could be a vision that the Lai-Lai Balls and the other 4 Chi Beasts may not have been destroyed as previously believed. However, their conversation is interrupted by a call from the other Rangers about Lipstick Songstresses return.

Geez this is a lot of build up for the 5 Mecha combination. They would never do this nowadays, we must have our Megazord on episode 1 or else.

Rin Rushes to the battlefield to help the other Rangers where Lipstick Songstress had been waiting because she is still bitter at Rin for the cut on her face. However, just as the fight gets started, Rin again has the vision of her Chi Beast and the Lai-Lai-Balls, falls to her knees, and starts glowing. Lipstick Songstress tries to strike her down in this instant, but Rin vanishes. The Gorma leaders, who had been watching from the sidelines, appear to scene something and order a retreat. At the same time, Master Kaku informs the Rangers that Rin has been sent to China. 

The episode ends on a cliffhanger with Rin walking around what appears to be a dessert in China. 

Final Thoughts

Honestly, I'm not 100% sure what I think of this episode. It is a good spotlight episode for Rin and does advance the overall story further, but there are a few little things that bother me. First of all, Megumi is barely introduced before she becomes the tragic friend who has been kidnapped so it is hard to really care about her no matter how much Rin stresses over her. Also, why are the guys being so mean to Rin? They tell her stay behind without any explanation, then Daigo comes back just to tell her "he wants her to always smile" and literally runs off. Yes, she screwed up in the first fight but how exactly was acting like that meant to help her or the situation they were in? 

Regardless of that, the good outweigh the bad in this episode easily. There is a lot of good fights and it is nice to see monsters that are an actual threat, even if they have a weird Lipstick design. Overall, good, not great, the final view on it all depends on how the 2nd part plays out. 3.5/5