Last we left off, we saw the sparks of a bit of a love triangle brewing between Gai, Kaori and Ryu. I’m pretty sure this is going to turn into a thing.

During a flight training session, we see that the team is not exactly on the same wavelength when it comes to combining their mechs. Ryu gets upset that Gai tried to rush things along while Gai refused to step down to their level of skill. Classic Gai… He sees both Ryu and Kaori team up on him in confrontation and immediately backlashes at the fact that they make a good couple. Obviously, he’s pissed that Kaori is more fond of Ryu than of him. He runs off and Kaori follows, trying to console him with a lunch date. Gai sees through this ploy and proclaims that he will make her fall for him his own way, but that he is not patient and will probably find another girl before she comes around. This is where Gai becomes a pimp and picks up the cute waitress.

The waitress asks Gai to stop by her place so that she can change and happily obliges. At her apartment, he hears her scream and finds her being attacked by….the room. Of course, this is the work of Vyram who sent down the House Dimension to take over the apartment building and devour the residents. Gai gets caught while rescuing the girl and calls on the team to help out. Ryu rescues Gai but gets consumed into the belly of the beast where he meets Radiguet, one of the Vyram revolutionaries. He vows to defeat Ryu and starts to attack. Meanwhile, the team manage to form Jet Icarus Robo without Ryu but retreat in order for Gai to dive into the giant House Dimension monster and rescue Ryu. Man, a lot of rescuing going on in this episode. They reform the Jet Icarus Robo and defeat the monster, adding a new weapon to their arsenal in a big giant robot.

If there was an episode that made you say “Yup, this was directed by Keita Amemiya.”, it’s probably this one. The monster in this episode, the House Dimension is basically a huge mouth and tentacles that appear throughout the building and eats its victims slowly. The practical effects they use for the mouth and the way they made the monster “eat” its victims, sucking them up through the ceiling, for example really felt surreal and something you’d expect from this director. It downright felt like Nightmare on Elm Street in parts, seeing people disappear into a building structure like that.

Another sign of that would be some of the shots included in the formation of the robot. Usually, Sentai shows will show the pieces of the robot come together and then you’ll see the suit actor in the suit. Here, you’ll see the legs form and then a shot of the suit actor moving his legs. Then you’ll see the arms come together and then a shot of the suit actor flexing his fingers. These little touches add to the realism effect that this is a functioning robot. It bridges that gap of model and suit actor more seamlessly and I really wish more shows did that.

As far as the little love situation between Gai, Kaori and Ryu, it all stems from the previous two episode. Ryu pushed and motivated Kaori to recover from her injuries, so she feels a bit of gratitude and probably a bit more towards him. But, Gai is the one that helped her escape the attacks from the monster in those episodes. And seeing her toughen through her struggles made him interested in her, so of course he’s pissed that she likes the leader dude. But, leader dude seems to still be in love with Rie, the woman he lost in Vyram’s initial attacks, who also bares resemblance to one of the Vyram revolutionaries. It’s like a weird soap opera wrapped in an awesome tokusatsu series.

 

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