#inmei

Aww, throwing a birthday party for Gai :3 I appreciate Mirei writing off Ramaga and his bullshit lol Good. But still, appreciating Gai and trying to make him feel more human is nice!

I've been watching a lot of video game speedrun marathons, including retro games, so Musashi getting Gai a retro game (which makes sense, given Gai's interests), is sweet :3

I love that Shion frames it as being a gift from them both, when actually he just stole from Kaito's stuff lol Which Kaito (at least later) does not appreciate or allow.

So Jun knew Ujihara in training <.< This series is doing a lot with corruption and good people trying for better things having bad ends, which is depressing.

I do appreciate Jun taking charge, honestly, rather than just being an irritating kid. He's also quite funny adlkjaldja

I'm kind of distracted because I'm also reading Journey to the West and thinking about all the times the pilgrims reached out to the heavens for aid (or the heavens stepped in when they were struggling). The version I'm reading has Guanyin as a woman, which was what I was thinking about last episode when Jun first communicated with Sagume Yashima. So I'm getting those vibes again.

The Divine World looks exactly like where Helios lives in Sailor Moon lol (Which is the center of the Earth, sort of, and sort of a heaven, I guess?). And it's not clear yet if Sagume Yashima is actually Suzunagi or an entirely different character. Clearly the show is willing to show us more of who she is, but masking her face seems more pointed. So maybe she's Suzunagi? Or just someone whose looks will impress us down the line.

Well, Byakuen died once in Yoroiden Samurai Troopers, canonically, so this is honestly the death I'm least worried about lol There was a whole arc about this, guys lol You literally show it, sans Byakueno, in the clip show lol

...Byakuen stuck with Jun? He left Ryo? Why? I get that during Ryo's absence it makes sense, but Jun's past didn't happen in just the past five years.

adajldajl Considering this is sort of what I expected Ryo to go through if he ever tried to get into regular office worker life, lol

Also interesting that Jun tried to get an office job at least once. And that's the excuse for it not working out lol How did Byakuen even get into the building lol Why was he allowed in a school lol

Aww, Jun had long hair T-T Why'd you cut it T-T And Ujihara gave Jun the shakujo O.o That's intriguing. Who taught Ujihara? Is Kayura around or did Kaos make other villages in all those years?

This shot is adorable:

aldkjaldj Just shoved him off a cliff, what alkjdlaj ...and sold to a zoo? (Also how is this getting him out of your life, Jun, what the fuck???)

....I don't have words for the zoo thing, even having watched the full episode. I get they might have looked after him better, but what about reaching out to Ryo's family or something? Weird, overdramatic child lol

So in this shot, presumably Sagume Yashima's hair seems to be purplish? So it could be Kayura? Or a relative of hers?

Curious who the four followers are. There were specifically four Masho, but one of them died (and Kayura sort of replaced him) so I don't think it's Rajura, Naaza, and Anubis... And obviously Inmei is entirely new. The question is, are the others, as well?

It's interesting Saizo frames the mirror in Episode 7 killing Anayama as "interference", but I guess because Gai still absorbed Anayama, the "plan" of him doing that is fine. Presumably the concern was that given Gai and the other Troopers didn't kill Anayama, Anayama was in danger of not being absorbed by Gai. But it still worked out, so all's well!

I'm good with Sasuke bringing this up now: that them dying one by one is not part of the, "We'll all win in the end" strategy, because you know... any of them could be next. But what, precisely, did Ramaga say before this that made Nezu's plan fine? Did he say like, "There will be casualties, but in the end, we'll win"? But they keep dying?

The Nyudo brothers part of the Last Name Group lol So why do some of them not have last names? And why would this group be more/less powerful? I would assume clan membership = more powerful, but that doesn't quite seem to be the case... Maybe they were also kidnapped from Earth to be demons, so they're weaker?

Is my boi Lin Ling a fan of this girl group XD

"Don't you dare use that name lightly." aldkjaldja I'll do what I want, Kaito.

I don't know that Rock Hara Junior College will have much relevance outside being a group some of the cast are into, but given the tendency of stories like this that keep involving groups like this more in the narrative, I'm sort of getting Hex Girls vibes. I don't know if one or any of the members are priestesses (or maybe even youja, who knows), but it'll be interesting if that's the backstory. Before YSST started airing, I, and I imagine other people, speculated that one of the new team members might be a woman. Since, for whatever reason, that didn't happen because only guys can be Troopers (not always the case in tokusatsu stuff: often enough, there's usually one girl who's the pink one, such as in Mr. Villain's Day Off, where 2/6 of the members are female, and there are multiple female aliens), this could, I guess, be a way to have a sort of female Trooper, especially if they're warriors, judging by those swords? YSST is involving women a lot more than YST is, so I wouldn't put it past them, especially since there haven't been any significant female antagonists yet (other than technically Yoshie).

Gai: We're shounen heroes, we all have parent issues, Kaito. Get over it.

I really liked this eye-close for Gai.

The fate of animals in disasters is pretty brutal, and it's interesting the show is, after a fashion, addressing this. A lot of pets get surrendered - hopefully temporarily - to shelters while humans seek their own escape, since it's hard to transport animals in disasters. Sometimes the pets get abandoned forever, and shelters can only do so much. Animals in zoos (or aquariums or the like), though... Well. You need resources and people to take care of them (and transport and care for them), and animals, particularly in these situations, often aren't prioritized. And given they live in cages and can't escape or provide for themselves, especially those that are injured or raised in captivity, situations like this aren't surprising.

I get they're just revealing the transformations one at a time, and Musashi hasn't gone yet, but it's weird to have Yamato be the one in the Wilderness armor, and yet Musashi is the one with the new transformation this episode lol There's no water nearby.

The Braves live-streaming Unno's maybe-death is fascinating.

While this is a very forced way to show off Unno's powerset, I appreciate that a lot of the fights are with the 2D armors rather than the 3D ones. It's a pity we don't get this more often, but what we do get is nice!

Well besides being possessed, you did sell him to a zoo, Jun. What did you expect?

KITTYYYYY

So cute :3

Inmei's design is nice. And I'm glad we have more disabled characters in the story (Ryusei, who wears glasses, was I think the first), especially one who's a divine official of sorts.

I'm more used to how this happens in Chinese mythology and stories, but often heroes (especially Buddhist ones) have to go through tribulations to be rewarded in these stories, and that can include doing very brutal things (like murder). So having this happen, and having Inmei force it, even if it's meant to be a trick, makes a lot of sense. That it's very obviously a trick, based on what the Sword of Domination is supposed to do (which is cleanse corruption), is not surprising.

Gai trying to comfort Kaito in his own way, despite Kaito being dismissive and cruel to him about family relationships (though also Gai knows seemingly nothing about Kaito's relationships, so Kaito's comment makes some sense, even if he's mean about it), is a nice continued development in their relationship. They're fun.

Also they spinnnn. Like when the original Troopers formed the guardian pentagon around Jun and Nasti in YST. Sort of...? At least this time they didn't abandon their armors.

While Inmei was talking, I was thinking, "You know Unno is still very alive and fine, right?" So his showing up after the Sword of Domination is restored was very validating lol

So this eye thing that the corrupted(?) Sword of Domination does to its bearer seems to be what happened to Shion when they went into the Youjakai.

Given Shion was wielding the Sword of Domination, the question is what was he doing with it, and why? Did he use it to kill his teammates on accident, since Ryusei stated they needed to research it? Or was his attack with it not enough to save them? Clearly it's corrupting, so it might have messed with Shion, too. Maybe we'll learn more of that next episode...

alkdjalj Thank you, Musashi, voice of reason lol

alkdjaldj Very validating alkdjlaj

Hehehe

I really like their relationship :3 There's a lot of fun character work happening in this series, with the Troopers, the Braves, and everyone in general. Not just 1:1 with each other, but also with others observing relationships, whether it's Anayama's relationship with Nezu as observed by others, or the Troopers watching each other. It's fun!

I wonder if Nasti is talking to Kayura O.o Or Shutendoji's spirit? Maybe we'll learn... next time lol Or not, who knows lol Lots of questions and few answers in this series lol

Overall, it was a pretty fun episode :D Looking forward to Episode 9: Outbreak!

Other thoughts:

Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8 (you are here), Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12, Episode 13, Episode 14

Yoroi Shinden Samurai Troopers fanfics