Recap: Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger, Episode 23 – Status Gold

Dogranio, Destra and Goche arrive in the throne room to find the Raimon Gang, Raimon Gaorufang, Ushibaroque the Brawl and Giwi Newzie making themselves at home.

Over at Jurer, Noel compliments a still-suspicious Tooma on his cooking and says he’ll be perfect for this mission. A Gangler is suspected in the disappearance of several culinary school teachers. The Pats tried going undercover, but they can’t cook for sh…

So Noel proposes he accompany Tooma who will pose as a chef so they can get taken by the Gangler.

Tooma holds some classes and impresses one of the students who turns out to be Ushibaroque. He takes both Tooma and Noel back to the Raimon ship and locks them in the bridge. But they easily get themselves out to explore the hideout. They overhear Ushibaroque and morph.

They battle up on the deck, but Ushibaroque uses his microwave Collection Piece power on them. Raimon and Giwi arrive and Noel notices Raimon has a “Status Gold” safe. This is bad!

The Raimon Gang are too much for Noel and Tooma. Tooma finds his VS Vehicle can’t open the Status Gold safe. Raimon swats Tooma aside, damaging his VS Vehicle in the process. Tooma is forced to demorph.

Noel quickly whisks he and Tooma back down to the bridge. He asks Good Striker to quickly get Kairi and Umika over here. Ushibaroque announces that the cooking competition will begin in five minutes. If Tooma beats him, he will work as his personal chef forever.

Noel tells Tooma to go to the competition while he stays to repair the VS Vehicle. Tooma doesn’t want to entrust his VS Vehicle to “stranger” Noel. Noel says he can’t blame Tooma, but he is no stranger.

Noel points out how even while ensuring the success of the mission, Tooma was very serious and happy about his cooking. He was a professional chef who cared about what he was doing. Noel is the same. He is a Collection maintenance professional while playing the part of kaitou and cop.

Noel asks Tooma if he can at least trust his passion as a pro. Tooma says he does and hands over his VS Vehicle.

Tooma heads to the kitchen. He and Ushibaroque can use whatever ingredients they want. Raimon and Giwi will judge their dishes after. If Tooma loses, he will immediately be killed.

They get cooking while Noel begins Vehicle repairs.

Ushibaroque presents his dishes first and Raimon and Giwi love them. They are intrigued at how calm Tooma is contrary to the other chefs who are all dead now. They both try Tooma’s food. Suddenly, they freeze and begin giggling. Ushibaroque thinks Tooma has poisoned them, but really, they LOVE Tooma’s food and think it is all incredibly delicious. They scarf everything else down.

Raimon and Giwi are excited for their new chef, but Ushibaroque will not stand for any of this. He learned how to cook for Raimon-chan and will not let some interloper become the new chef. He attacks Tooma and they make their way to the deck.

Noel hands Tooma his repaired VS Vehicle and they both morph. Kairi and Umika hop in to join the fun as the four Lups take on the three Raimon Gang members.

Raimon and Giwi mess around with the Lups for a little before leaving Ushibaroque to unsuccessfully fend for himself.

Goche nurses Ushibaroque to embiggening and Noel hops into X Emperor Slash. The Lups also hop into LupinKaiser. And together they finish off Ushibaroque for good.

Later, Noel tells the Pats that he’s already solved the culinary case by working with the kaitous. Tsukasa and Sakuya are a little upset, but Keiichiro says the important thing is for Noel to fill them in on the two Ganglers who got away.

Back at Jurer, Tooma also fills Kairi and Umika in on the Gold safes. Umika comments that Tooma seems to trust Noel now.

Episode Thoughts

This was a good episode. I think it was a good Noel and Tooma joint-focus ep. We got some nice insight into both Noel and Tooma and their personalities. Of course, it’s always great to know more about Noel as our 6th Ranger in his first episodes. We understand he’s a pro at what he does. That might be our first clue as to what his real agenda might be.

For Tooma, his last focus ep (episode 12) was one of the best. Him being an older brother really softened his stiff, broody personality. Him being stubborn about not trusting Noel was a good set up to him understanding Noel and relating to him as a “pro” in this episode. Seeing that Tooma really is passionate about cooking is another great way to make his character more well-rounded and accessible.

The Raimon Gang introduction was a little meh. Though the fact that a bunch of chefs are now dead is another morbid thought after last week realizing all the fished people were dead too. Lol

I’m really more excited about the next episode as Zamigo pops up again. I hope he becomes a little more regular now.

Overall, a good episode, especially for Noel and Tooma’s character development.