Recap: Ressha Sentai ToQger, Final Station (Episode 47) – That Which Shines

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This is it!

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Right lies in the darkness, distraught, thinking about whether there is anything else he can do. Suddenly, he hears a train whistle. It’s the Resshas!

The others push the train doors open and hurry over to Right. “Why?!” Right asks. They help him inside the darkened trains.

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Right asks why they are even here. Tokatti shows him their passes and says they somehow made it here despite being swallowed by the darkness.

Right asks again what they’re doing here when they finally already returned home. But does he even have to ask? They wouldn’t return to being normal at the cost of forgetting everything.

“How mean!”

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“But there was no other w…” Tokatti covers Right’s mouth. “Yes there is!”

Tokatti kneels down and says he doesn’t want to forget. “Not our journey together, nor our time together as ToQgers.”

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Hikari, Mio and Kagura also kneel closer to Right. “Not the fun times nor the painful times. None of them! They’re memories that I never want to lose.”

“I’d rather remain an adult than forget everything to be a child again. That’s our decision.”

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They all take their passes out to show Right.

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They remind Right of their most important rule. One that he came up with. “The five of us will always help each other out!”

Right looks at his friends, each of them tearily nodding assurance.

Right breaks down in tears. They hug him.

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Listening to the tracks, Akira is sure there is still one connection to the Rainbow Line left somewhere. He seems to have found one, but Nero arrives, prepared to end both Zaram and the Rainbow Line.

“I won’t allow it!” Akira says, “This rail is…”
“Another one of your places to die?”
“No, the Rainbow Line… is… my place to live.”

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Akira henshins.

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Back on the Resshas, the ToQgers are trying to figure out a way to escape the darkness. But down below, they see a faint light. Looking more clearly, they see it is a lantern from the Festival.

Right sees the lone illuminated lantern is being set down by his own mother who is still frozen.

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After having such strange feelings of missing someone, Right’s mother decided to draw a lantern with a star on it after the kids were singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” earlier.

The kids say they hope to meet this person. Right’s grandfather says they should make a wish.

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Suddenly, light spreads from that one lantern to the others on either side of the steps. The light begins to extend straight into the sky.

Marchioness Mork sees the lights. Zett gets up to see. He says this is the shining he saw in the darkness.

The lights begin forming train tracks and connect directly to the Resshas before extending out in front of them. Power is restored to the trains.

Nero forces Akira to dehenshin, but the track Akira felt earlier lights up. The Resshas are coming!

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As the Resshas exit the darkness, the darkness begins to recede from Subarugahama once again. The townspeople are unfrozen.

Akira excitedly looks up to see a rainbow as the Resshas turn back around and are now joined by Build Ressha and Diesel-tachi.

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Mork tells Zett to destroy them all with his darkness as the trains all link up and speed directly toward Castle Terminal.

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President says darkness is always vast, able to swallow up the light in an instant. But there is only one force that can counter that, only one that is needed. “Dreams, hopes, fantasy, prayers… the power connecting them all is…”

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“IMAGINATION!!!!!”

The Resshas speed through Castle Terminal twice, completely obliterating it.

Nero joins Zett and Mork as the ToQgers disembark from the Resshas.

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“Right! How dare you!” Zett smiles.
“Zett! I tried to defeat you using the power of darkness. But I was wrong. The power of darkness may be powerful, but we have our own power. We have to fight using the power of Imagination! Until the very end!”

Zett laughs. “You’re really sparkling!” Zett transforms.



The ToQgers henshin.

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The ToQgers easily take care of the Kuros before taking on Zett, Mork and Nero head on.

Strongest Girl Kagura, Hikari, Tokatti and Mio take on Mork while Akira fights Nero. They all then join together to form the Renketsu Bazooka with a Yudou Rainbow Rush to force Zett out of his Shadow form.

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Zett struggles to get up, but collapses. Mork and Nero catch him before he falls to the ground. They tell their Emperor to use their darkness to fill him up. They are willing to sacrifice themselves so Zett can be filled with darkness again.

“Stop it. Don’t you dare start shining on me now.”

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Zett squeezes their hands and he sucks them up. The huge surge of darkness forces everyone but Right to dehenshin.

Right fights Zett, but gets thrown back to the ground.

Tokatti tells the others to help Right by giving him their power. They all toss their Resshas to him. IMAGINATION!

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Right transfers to Blue, Yellow, Green, Pink and Orange. Then, after inserting Hyper Ressha, he connects to Rainbow.

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Right charges toward Zett and absolutely owns him before pointing the Daikaiten Cannon right at him. The others put their hands on Right to add their power and Zett reverts back to his human form.

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Right also dehenshins and falls unconscious as everyone gets thrown to the ground from the explosion.

Zett looks up into the sky. He sees the rainbow and tries to reach for it before he suddenly turns into a black cloud.

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Hikari tells everyone they must protect Right from the new darkness. But just as suddenly, a Kuliner appears.

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It is Gritta! She has taken Zett onboard.

“The sparkle that you wanted only shines because there is darkness.”

Gritta takes the Kuliner back into the darkness.

The ToQgers are relieved Gritta is alive.

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They are also relieved to see Right is coming to. And he’s hungry.

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The ToQgers head to the beach. Akira asks why aren’t they going home yet. They say they can’t become children again.

Right asks Akira if he will continue maintaining the Rainbow Line. Akira says yes.

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“Then, let’s continue traveling together.”

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The ToQgers head back to the Resshas, but are met by the President.

“I came to say goodbye,” President says.
Right asks him to take his head off just this once then.
“I can’t,” President replies. “Also, you shouldn’t always jump to conclusions. Try imagining.”

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“That Imagination lets us exist. It’s what fuels us.”

“That’s right,” Conductor adds. “We’ll always be close by.”
“So intensely don’t forget us, okay?” Wagon adds.

The ToQgers are not sure what they mean.

Coming up the hill, however, are their families who excitedly hurry over to them.

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Mom and Grandma wave to Hikari. Dad calls for Mio. Big brother calls for Haru. Mom and Dad wave at Kagura.

But how?! Ticket says their families also have strong Imaginations. Wagon says their families must have intensely received their letters.

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The ToQgers happily reunite with their families who absolutely recognize them.

Akira asks Right about his family, but Right says it’s okay. “I’m a bit different.”

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Not so. Right’s little brother and sister run over to him and hug him. His grandfather tells him how proud he is of him. And finally, Right’s mother welcomes him home.

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As soon as Right hugs his mother, he returns to being a kid.

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Conductor, Ticket and Wagon cannot hold back their tears. Akira tries.

The others revert back with a hug as well.

Akira heads back to the Resshas and the trains depart the station.

The kids run after the trains to wave goodbye.

Conductor waves out the window as Ticket yells “Thank you!” to them.

“Till we intensely meet again,” Wagon says as she and Akira wave as well.

The ToQgers say goodbye to their friends as the Resshas speed off into the sky under the rainbow.

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“I can see it. Someday we will see that train again.”

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Later, the ToQgers return to their normal lives. It is morning and the kids are getting ready for school.

Kagura leaves home first and meets with Mio before they pick-up Hikari.

They go over to pick-up Tokatti who is walking his brother. Mio grabs Haru’s hand, much to his surprise. Ryo and Hikari smile.

And finally, they go pick Right up and they all head over to their Secret Base.



Akira and their older selves appear for some fun.

The Resshas appear and the kids run towards them.

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Episode Thoughts

This episode, I think this series was the very definition of MaGMCM. I mean, I was already crying within the first 2 minutes of the episode. And I am definitely not afraid or ashamed to admit that. A 20-something year old man crying over a kid’s show.

But hey, when it’s written and brought to life better than most “adult” dramas, then I have no problem admitting I got emotional. VERY emotional.

This was an absolutely beautiful finale. I am so happy Toei decided against chopping it up or doing something dumb like not airing the episodes. Because damn, this was just beautiful. So affecting and successful in wrapping up the season as well as tugging on the right strings to make you feel all the emotions intended in Yasuko Kobayashi’s writing. I will buy all the toys. And that’s because I loved the show. Thank you very much.

There were plenty of exciting moments of action. The destruction of Castle Terminal was thrilling. Seeing the trains appear and then link-up before delivering what are essentially the equivalents of a direct punch to the face and an overhand boxing punch was awesome. They could have easily had a full mecha battle with Castle Terminal moving around as a robo, but I thought this was excellent. And it allowed to use the time for other, more emotional moments.

The final roll call was AMAZING!!!! And the following fights were great. Then of course, Right transferring one last time before connecting! to Rainbow was awesome.

But the biggest parts of the episode were definitely the emotional moments. First, we had the others reminding Right that they’d always help each other. It was one of the rules Right himself made up. Seeing Right actually break down and cry was really powerful, even more when they all hugged him. Phenomenal way to start the episode. They even included Tokatti doing to Right what Right used to regularly do to Tokatti (covering his mouth).

Then we got Akira saying: “The Rainbow Line is… my place… to LIVE!”
That was the next moment that got me bawling. Who’d have thought his wanting to die all season would lead up to that amazing line? It was a perfect line to underscore just how strong and deep their bond has become.

That Right’s mother’s lantern is what gets the ToQgers out of the darkness, I’d like to think, represents a theme that’s been present the entire season. The ToQgers have been able to overcome any obstacle or problem with the help of their friends and their belief in each other. That also applies to their families. As soon as the ToQgers remembered they actually had families, their families and getting home to them became one of the prime motivators for pushing forward. It shows that with family and friends, anything is possible with Imagination. They can face anything.

The ToQgers coming to terms with staying adults was a very touching moment. Much kudos to Nagahama Shin for a great job expressing both happiness and sadness in that moment. Happy that he would be able to stay with his new friends, but also sad knowing what they are giving up.

But the moment their families start running toward them, recognizing them even as adults, that did it. That was the sucker punch I expected from Kobayashi. And the tears flowed accordingly. Such a perfectly laid out scene. The families excited to see their children again and proud of all they had accomplished. The kids, a happy kind of shock and relief that their families recognized them. Then Kobayashi had to go and throw in that special little moment for Right and his family, and most especially, his mother.

It was the perfect moment to get them turned back into kids.

The goodbyes the ToQgers shared with Conductor, Ticket, Wagon and Akira was just so heartbreaking, yet happy and hopeful too. I believe that is another Kobayashi staple as well; beautiful, bittersweet endings.

Seeing the kids picking each other up on the way to the Secret Base, including Mio grabbing Tokatti’s hand, was sweet.

And finally, the kids and the grown up ToQgers having fun together to cap it all off.

The episode even managed to slip in one more shot of the awesome white line, one final line transfer and even one more SUPER KAGURA.

As for Zett, I think it makes sense for him not to be destroyed. Gritta (who really has been such an awesome character) mentioned it; The shining shimmering splendid cannot exist without darkness. And if Zett was destroyed, then there would be no darkness left in the world.

Hmm! How philosophical!

President also mentioned how even with darkness being so vast, it can be combated with Imagination, and that encompasses a whole number of things including hopes, dreams and prayers.

Just wonderful.

This finale episode hit all the marks. I couldn’t ask for anything more. Well, I want more ToQgers other than a V Cinema and next year’s vs. movie. But this was an excellent episode that wrapped up an amazingly awesome season.

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