Recap: Ressha Sentai ToQger, Station (Episode) 5 – The Other Side of the Vanishing Tracks

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Wagon wishes the ToQgers a Good Morning as she brings them breakfast. But before they can even start enjoying their food, the PA announces that not only will they be entering the Shadow Line soon, they are about to come to an emergency stop.

“Please brace yourselves.”

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The train comes to a screeching halt. Right and Tokatti look out the window to see the train tracks have broken off across the river. Conductor comes in and says the Shadow Line must have already taken over the next station which is why the Rainbow Line cannot reconnect.

Ticket says the darkness appears pretty thick this time and taking a detour would waste too much time.

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Conductor hands them a new Ressha and Right inserts it into his ToQ Changer to summon the Car Carrier Ressha. Ticket explains that the Rainbow Line has several different Support Trains, like the Car Carrier Ressha and the Shield Ressha from the other day.

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The ToQgers hop into their respective colored cars and Conductor and Ticket explain the cars are powered by their imaginations, but are not meant for prolonged use. Right’s stomach growls. They still haven’t had breakfast.

Can’t you take this seriously, Ticket says. Conductor tells the ToQgers to put both hands on the steering wheel and imagine crossing over to the other side of the river.

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Right goes first. He steps on the gas and goes flying into the darkness and into the forest. The car disappears on impact and Right gets thrown towards the creek where he hits his head on a rock. There’s a nearby camp and the campers come out of their tents to see what that sound was.

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The others are worried Right might have gone too far. Ticket tells them to take note, adjust and not follow Right’s bad example. They all launch across the river together and land on the road, but also get thrown out on impact. They wonder where Right could have landed, but Hikari says he’ll turn up.

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Nearby, the townspeople are begging Bucket Shadow not to take all their food, especially from their hungry children who could DIE without food. The Kuros have also been collecting food and the darkness starts emanating from the hungry people.

The ToQgers find they are at Harapeko or Starvation Station and confront Bucket Shadow. They henshin.

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Kagura gets the people to safety as Tokatti, Mio and Hikari fight off the Kuros.

Facing Bucket Shadow, he demands they hand over their food. But they say don’t have any food, it’s not like they’re here on a picnic. Fine, Bucket Shadow says, then I don’t care about you guys. So he leaves after tossing them aside.

They decide to hurry and look for Right.

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Back at the camp site, the campers have bandaged Right up, but he still seems out of it. The campers say they need to take Right away while they have the chance as their last cup of noodles will barely feed them five, let alone this new arrival.

But suddenly, they turn to see Right already eating the noodles. They go to stop him, but Right ends up dropping the cup in the tussle.

What’s wrong with you, man?! That was our last food.

The campers explain the kaijin has been attacking town and they are lucky to have been here camping instead. But they only brought a little food.

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You’re no different than the monster, go away! one of the campers tells Right.

Right sees the darkness emanating from them and says before he leaves, why don’t they imagine some delicious food to keep them from being depressed. The beef bento, fried chicken and burger steak are indeed beautiful things to imagine, but damn it, it’s made them more hungry. Thanks a lot red-clothed person.

The campers shove him to the ground and he apologizes before getting up to leave. He thanks them for the bandage though.

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Bucket Shadow reports his progress to Baron Nero. Nero is happy and is loving the yummy darkness one of his own men is producing. Indeed, Madame Noa says, Bucket Shadow is providing a great service to Gritta.

You are mistaken, Nero says though. This is for the Emperor, not Gritta. Same thing, Noa says, since Gritta is betrothed to the Emperor. Gritta turns to look longingly at Schwartz-sama.

Nero turns his back to the mother and daughter and says this marriage talk is nonsense and now he has no idea what Schwartz is even scheming on his own. Nero wants the Emperor to arrive soon so he can dispatch his useless comrades.

Gritta swoons as she watches Schwartz focused on a little gadget of his.

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Back at the campsite, the campers start to feel guilty about shooing Right away. The other ToQgers arrive asking if the campers have seen a red-clothed guy around here just as Right comes out of the forest with some fish and young bamboo shoots.

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That’s amazing, the campers say, since they couldn’t find anything since they’ve been there. The others smile as they remember Right was always good at scrounging up for food which was a good thing considering he’s a glutton.

Right asks the campers for some cooking supplies and they are surprised Right is offering they eat as well.

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Back in town, Bucket Shadow is taking the last of a baby’s milk when he suddenly smells the salmon Right is cooking over the fire. The campers apologize for not having shared in the first place, but Right says it’s okay since he did ruin their cup of noodles. It was all because they were hungry.

Right is so nice, Kagura says, he never gets mad at anyone. Really? Right says, because I’m pretty pissed at Bucket Shadow right now. I’ll show him…

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Right makes a fist, cracking his knuckles and lets out an evil chuckle.
The other ToQgers know what’s coming next, but Bucket Shadow arrives.

Right leads the others as they henshin.

The ToQgers tell the campers to get to safety and Tokatti puts out the campfire before fighting off the Kuros.

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Right takes on Bucket Shadow who smells salmon on him. Right pulls out the salmon on a stick he’s been eating. He ties Bucket Shadow up with his Rail Slasher. Right goes to take a bite of his fish, but can’t with his helmet on, so he de-henshins.

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Right proceeds to tease Bucket Shadow by deliciously eating his fish and not giving him any. Right is pretty scary when he’s mad, Kagura says. Mio says she thinks it’s called “being childish.” Tokatti and Hikari says grudges over food can be nasty.

Bucket Shadow begs for a bite, but Right doesn’t give him any. Everyone else was at least that hungry and in pain when you wouldn’t let them eat, he says. Get it now!?

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Shut up, Bucket Shadow says as he breaks free of the rails. Right henshins again, but Bucket Shadow swats him away. Right decides to switch lines with Hikari and shoves the Tunnel Axe into Bucket Shadow’s mouth.

Right goes to switch lines with Mio and takes her Signal Hammer to hit Bucket Shadow around and down to the ground.

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Mio and Hikari come to switch back to their colors and they decide to use their Renketsu Bazooka to deliver a Rainbow Rush. This time, the finisher is of a huge salmon gobbling Bucket Shadow up.

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Bucket Shadow embiggens and Right goes to summon the Resshas, but they remember they can’t make it over the river. Ticket calls and says it’s okay, they can make it over now.

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Car Carrier Ressha gets into the river and provides tracks for the Resshas to make it across.

The ToQgers form ToQ-Oh, but Right suggests they combine with Car Carrier too. Car Carrier Ressha attaches to Yellow Ressha and they form ToQ-Oh Car Carrier.

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It’s incredible, Tokatti says, but I don’t know why.

Bucket Shadow gets ready to eat Car Carrier Ressha, but when the ToQgers launch their cars in a Car Carrier Dash, Bucket Shadow can’t take it and blows up.

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Right is excited to get back to his bento as Starvation Station is renamed back to Omori or Large Helping Station.

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The others are handing out free bento to the townspeople as Right enjoys lunch with some kids.

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Back on the Ressha, Conductor says they did a good job today, but the Car Carrier Ressha is the last Support Ressha they have on hand. They rest are missing, lost from the Rainbow Line during the expansion of the Shadow Line. So, Ticket says, their other duty will be to find those missing Support Ressha in towns, forests, mountains, the sea… who knows where they could be.

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Oh! Right says. He wonders if that light blue looking thing he saw in the mountains could be one of missing Ressha.

IT WAS! Conductor and Ticket say. Darn it Right, the others say, you should tell us these things sooner.

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Little do they know, Schwartz has been listening to every single word they’ve said thanks to a bug planted to the outside of the main Ressha.

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Episode Thoughts
You definitely do not want to get on Right’s bad side. Definitely very scary.

This was another episode where we see that even with all the food and flying cars, there is plenty of darkness to the story. (Pun?) One week we have a Shadow Creep trapping schoolchildren in a coffin and this week we have a Shadow Creep starving people, including babies, to death. Like seriously, this is insanity.

But I love it of course.

I don’t know if this episode had any big clues like the first four have had. Maybe Right being “childish” about food?

Thank goodness for Conductor and Ticket saying they have no more Resshas to pop out when needed. If they had continued to pull Resshas out of their butts, they’d have turned into Gosei and his “YOU’VE WON A PRIZE!” handouts. The search for other Ressha also adds to the search for their home, which of course can’t possibly take up 50 episodes without turning dull even with a talented writer in charge.

Again, it is great NOT to see the regular Toei locations. ToQger traveling Japan might end up being my favorite part of the season if only just to get the opportunity to see some fresh, and beautiful, new locations. That the Shadow Line is taking over small countryside towns too helps build up that danger and threat. They’re not just attacking Tokyo and pseudoTokyos, they are attacking the entire country. And the ToQgers must fight to stop them. It helps build their world outside of Toei City. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy Operation Overdrive because of their globetrotting.

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Anyway, nothing to complain about from me. ToQger is love so far. =]

Like this from each of the five opening title sequence:


2 thoughts on “Recap: Ressha Sentai ToQger, Station (Episode) 5 – The Other Side of the Vanishing Tracks

  1. When Kagura falls down Hikari looks like he’s going to help her up like in episode 1
    Yay more Hikari and Kagura shipping

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