OOH-AH-OOH! Octoroo is sad that the sootballs are not as musically pleasing as Dayu and her harmonium. Up pops Switchbeast from the Sanzu, a newcomer who serves another master. He offers to help Xandred with his Ranger troubles.
Mike and Emily visit Antonio at a flea market where he’s set up shop to sell some fish burgers. But all of a sudden, people start falling into weird shapes. Turns out, Switchbeast switches (or traps as he says… I guess) humans with inanimate objects. For example a guy and a mailbox, Bulk into a soda can and Antonio with a fish. Mike and Emily try to fight him off. The others arrive to help, but Switchbeast ends up switching Jayden with a Travelocity gnome, Mia with an electric fan and Kevin with a ballerina music box.
Switchbeast goes back to the Sanzu to refill and Mike and Emily bring the others’ human bodies and new inanimate bodies home. Mike, somehow, immediately figures everything out and knows if the object in which the humans’ spirits are trapped is destroyed, the human will be killed. Mentor/Ji/notJii pipes in too.
OOH-AH-OOH! Octoroo compliments Switchbeast , but the best is yet to come. Humans will be cleaning up the junk themselves, so really, they’ll be the ones killing each other. Fun fun fun!
Mike is fiercely training since it’s just him and Emily now. They flirt a little. Inside, Mike’s put a tutu on Kevin who is still in a ballerina’s pose of course. And Antonio’s fish is starting to spoil and smell. Mentor/Ji decides to take the fish to the fridge, but the alarm sounds and he leaves the fish on the coutner. Mentor/Ji/notGrumm gives Mike the Black Box before they run off.
While the cans, newspapers, and fish people are in danger of getting smooshed, pooped on, and eaten, Mike and Emily enact their plan using Switchbeast ‘s own power against him by switching him with Mike and later with a soccer ball. They strongarm the Nighlok into putting all the people back in their place.
Mike goes SUPER!!!!! and he and Emily man the Megazord themselves to finish off Switchbeast.
OOH-AH-OOH! They could use Dayu’s music right about now. Xandred is upset, of course, grabs a sootball and hurls it out the window. It drifts to a little lake where Dayu picks it up.
“Missing Dayu! Missing Dayu” the sootball repeats. “I missed you! I missed you!” Dayu takes the sootball to have someone to talk to as she wanders with her burned harmonium.
Episode Thoughts
How Much Better Was Sentai Than Power Rangers?
Corresponding Shinkenger Episode: Act 27 – The Switched Lives
I’ve been waiting for this episode to get translated! Even though I’ve been completely disappointed in how Power Rangers Samurai has turned out, I still wanted to see how they’d mess up translate (or God forbid, adapt!) some of my favorite Shinkenger episodes. Surprisingly, they captured the hilarity and fun of the original episode here, even with the unfunny Bulk and Spike thrown in.
It was pretty much a direct translation, save for rearranging the Sanzu/Dayu scenes as well as changing the switched objects between a Maneki Neko/lucky cat figurine and a Travelocity roaming gnome (it certainly wasn’t an everyday garden gnome), sushi and fish and a peeing figurine with a much tamer ballerina music box.
And again, much to my surprise, they didn’t screw it up. Maybe because the source material was so light and fluffy, it was easier to plug into Google Translate.
My favorite part though was Dayu and her new friend. If Samurai keeps that little part of the Shinkenger story with regards to Dayu, I will be happy. It was one of the best things about the latter half of the series and it ends with a surprisingly touching moment. Can’t wait to see how that turns out on Samurai.
When I first saw the preview clip of the episode and realized it was going to be that Shinkenger episode, I said I’d forgive all the horrible episodes we’ve had so far if they did justice to the original.
While I won’t go that far, I did sincerely enjoy this episode of Samurai. Again, there might be some small glimmer of hope for this season yet!
Power Rangers is on DVD!
Want to own Power Rangers Samurai? The entire season available at
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And you can finally own the first seven seasons of Power Rangers, from Mighty Morphin to Lost Galaxy by ordering now:
