Recap: Shuriken Sentai Ninninger, Episode 40 – Look Out for Santa Claus!

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Takaharu is out for a run and realizes it’s almost Christmas. He sees the perfect gifts for his sister and cousins.

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Quick cut to Kibaoni Mangetsu calling his mother an old bitch and proceeding to assault her by kicking her back and stepping on her head. WTF?!

Masakage gets Mangetsu to stop. The asshole leaves, but Ariake no Kata tells Masakage it’s alright to tolerate a little “naughtiness” from her son since Mangetsu is “wild just like his father.” She likes that.

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Takaharu arrives home, trying to hide the presents he’s bought from Nagi and Fuuka, but they know exactly where he’s been. They say Takaharu is really bad at hiding things.

Anyway, he wonders why they’re studying in the hallway instead of in the living room. Before Nagi and Fuuka can stop him, he opens the door to find three Kasumis working on new inventions: a Karakuri Nin Youkai Call, Karakuri Nin Remote Control and a Karakuri Nin Lie Detector.

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Ah! Takaharu remembers Kasumi was pretty fooled by Mangetsu…

But before Takaharu can continue, Yakumo pulls him out of the living room and the cousins leave Kasumi alone.

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“Mangetsu,” “loss” and “slump” are all banned words around Kasumi. She seems to be overcompensating after her first ever loss, that’s why she’s working so hard on the new inventions. They tell Takaharu to make sure not to let Kasumi know they’re worried about her.

The Gamagamu-jus ribbit and the Ninningers head downtown. But all they find is Santa-san giving out presents to the kiddies. No Youkai in sight. After Fuuka randomly notices Kinji’s been acting weird lately, Kasumi suggests they use her new invention to call the Youkai.

Instead, the device just calls unsuspecting Jukkarage who wonder what’s going on. And a small number of Jukkarage only too.

Takaharu really thinks Kasumi is in a “slu…”

Yakumo punches Takaharu and tells Kasumi they should go take care of the Jukkarage.

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Fuuka grabs her oniichan by the collar and reminds him not to say anything to Kasumi about her slump. She and Nagi run off to take care of the Jukkarage.

Takaharu believes it’s best to be straightforward though.

Meanwhile, Santa-san goes all creeper status by giving people in the plaza rings that promise them wealth.

Masakage explains to Mangetsu that Santa-san is actually Advanced Youkai Binbougami. Mangetsu doesn’t care about any of that so long as the Youkai gets results. He leaves to check out something that smells unpleasant.

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Over in the forest, Kinji finds Kyuuemon and attacks. Kyuuemon reminds Kinji that it was he who helped prevent Kinji from becoming a Youkai and now he’s here blasting him.

Kinji says he hasn’t forgotten, but he is never at peace whenever he’s around the Igasakis. Kyuuemon understands he feels guilty.

Kinji adds that at the very least, he should retrieve Father’s Nintality which Kyuuemon stole. He henges straight to SuperStar and fights Kyuuemon who gets a taste of Kinji’s new power for the first time.

But they are suddenly both attacked… by Mangetsu.

Back in the plaza, Santa-san wraps up his ring giving while Takaharu takes care of his last Jukkarage. He notices one of Binbougami’s rings on the ground and picks it up.

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Back in the forest, Kinji fills Kyuuemon in on the newborn Mangetsu. He decides to introduce himself as Gengetsu’s page. Mangetsu calls him his retainer and Kyuuemon obliges. But Mangetsu still smells something fishy here.

Mangetsu tells Kyuuemon to kill Kinji, but Kinji manages to get away. Kyuuemon excuses himself to go after Kinji.

Mangetsu isn’t sure why, but he doesn’t like Kyuuemon one bit.

Back downtown, Kasumi tries using her new remote control to manipulate the Jukkarage, but she instead shoots it at Yakumo. She apologizes, but Kinji arrives just in time to help.

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The Ninningers head back to Takaharu who has been waiting in the plaza. Nagi asks Kinji where he’s been, but he just says he had sudden business to take care.

Binbougami decides to flip the switch and the rings suddenly turn the wearers’ nice clothes into rags. The Ninningers try asking them what’s happened, but they all remember Santa-san warning them not to tell anyone about him.

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Turns out Takaharu put the ring on as well and his clothes turn into rags too. Kinji recognizes this modus as that of Binbougami. They realize it must be the ring everyone is wearing. Yakumo tries using magic to remove it from a man, but it doesn’t work.

Binbougami enacts the next step of the plan and the rings further gets the people naked. Including Takaharu.

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Takaharu definitely does not feel hot right now.

Masakage is pleased so far.

The Ninningers give the victims some blankets since it’s freezing. But they can’t do anything since no one will tell them anything.

Kasumi decides to use her brand new lie detector. But it merely confirms what they already knew, that they were lying about knowing anything.

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Ah. Kasumi admits she hadn’t thought about what to do after confirming the lies.

Takaharu speaks up. He says Kasumi would have usually figured something out by now. She really is in a slump.

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Yakumo, Fuuka and Nagi freak out and try to say nothing’s wrong with Kasumi. But the lie detector, which actually does work, confirms that the three of them are actually lying.

Kasumi knows they were just thinking of her feelings, but she admits she’s in a slump. Losing to Mangetsu really sucked.

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Yakumo, Fuuka and Nagi apologize. Takaharu says it’s never good to hide things and that goes for all of them.

That makes Kinji admit his secret as well, that he has been fighting Kyuuemon on his own to get Tsumuji’s powers back.

They don’t really seem to care and Takaharu tells Kasumi to be open about her feelings and ask for help if she’s feeling down. Kasumi agrees and asks Yakumo to cast a spell on her lie detector for a nice magic, technology and Ninjutsu collab.

The lie detector is now a Truth Teller. Kasumi points it at the people and they all point at Santa-san.

Kasumi points the Truth Teller at Santa-san and Binbougami reverts to his true form.

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The Ninningers run after Binbougami and henge.

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The Ninningers work together to fight Binbougami. But Takaharu’s still “poor,” so his usual Ninjutsu doesn’t work.

Kasumi suggests Takaharu gets fancy and luxurious so he goes Chozetsu. That helps a lot, but Kinji hands Takaheru the Gekiatsuto to get even more sosyal.

Takaharu delivers a very glamorous final strike and defeats Binbougami’s first life. The rings all disappear and everyone is back to normal.

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Mangetsu suddenly pops up and attacks Kasumi specifically to take her Lie Detector-turned-Truth Teller. He’ll leave them alone today in exchange for it.

Kasumi is definitely upset at being taken advantage of again. But no time to slump. The Ninningers hop into Ha-Oh ShurikenJin.

Binbougami forces them to separate. So the Ninningers decide to get fancy with numbers. They summon Surfermaru, UFOmaru and Paonmaru to come help.

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And the OtomoNin All-Stars defeat Binbougami.

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Back home, Takaharu wants to sneak out and buy a Christmas tree, but the cousins know exactly where he’s going. He decides to take Nagi and Fuuka along.

Yakumo comments on Takaharu really being bad at hiding things. But Kasumi says thanks to Takaharu-kun, she was able to admit her frustration. Kinji says Takaharu’s natural honesty must be what makes him strongest.

Takaharu says they should all come too. Kasumi says they’ll be right there.

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“I will not lose, Takaharu-kun!”

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Meanwhile, Mangetsu is attacking Kyuuemon, demanding to know who he is. Mangetsu activates the Truth Teller and Kyuuemon says…

“I am neither a page nor a shinobi… I am actually… Kibaoni…”

Kyuuemon manages to break free of the Truth Teller’s power and escapes.

Mangetsu vows to grab the kitsune by the tail.

Episode Thoughts

Hmm… this was an interesting episode.

First off, we start with a nice little scene of Takaharu deciding to buy Christmas presents for his sister and cousins. Then we see Mangetsu assaulting his mother. WTF?!?!?!?!

The “old hag” comments from last episode didn’t seem like much. But now we see Mangetsu is a violent asshole who beats his mother who he probably calls a “bitch” now and then too. Add the fact that Ariake no Kata went from being light and fun to being a battered mother. And likely a battered wife since she says Mangetsu is just like his father. So he was an abusive husband now? DOUBLE WTF?!?!?!?!

If this is to give Kyuuemon some kind of redemption arc for the finale, then hopefully Mangetsu gets what he deserves. If not, then Mangetsu is an unfortunate, twisted character. And not in a good way.

The final scene twist/mystery would’ve been very nice and much more shocking had Toei not spoiled it in the bumper during the first commercial break. Come on now Toei.

I definitely hope Kyuuemon’s “real identity” is something huge.

Continuing Kasumi’s story into this episode was great for her character as we see her deal with failure. That’s a nice character moment and we saw how the cousins tried to support her, in their own way.

But they basically ignored Kinji and his “big” secret. They merely threw it in here even though they’ve been hinting at it the last couple of episodes. Kinji feeling guilty and wanting to repay the Igasakis for accepting him and taking him in deserves at least its own episode. But we just got him admitting what he was doing and the cousins’ non-reaction. Huh?!

There were some fun moments in the episode though.

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I liked the couple pointing at Takaharu when he asked if they’ve seen any weirdos around.

The scene of Fuuka holding Takaharu by the collar was hilariously awesome and Kasumi’s inventions were fun too.

Kasumi’s lie detector revealing her cousins’ true feelings also could’ve filled their own episode as well.

But there were just some really twisted, strange things this episode. And it feels even more odd after last week’s excellent episode. =(

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