Recap: Ressha Sentai ToQger, Station (Episode) 41 – The Christmas Battle

Merry Christmas!

ToQger 41

The ToQgers are in shock, seeing their beloved secret base having just risen out of the darkness. Akira and Schwarz come running to see, but suddenly, a huge mass of darkness pulses out of the ground.

Conductor and Ticket quickly whisk the ToQgers onto the Resshas.

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Watching the darkness, Akira realizes this is the ToQgers’ rainbow.

Meanwhile, Mork and Nero are picking themselves up. Mork says the Castle rising to the surface is because of Gritta being inside of the Emperor. She says he has plenty of darkness to control all this, but he can’t while Gritta is inside of him. She believes the Emperor is keeping Gritta inside of him because of his deep hatred for the darkness. But now is their chance to eliminate Gritta once and for all.

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Back on the Resshas, the ToQgers tell Conductor and Ticket about finally finding Subarugahama. But they caution them to be careful and look into it first.

Gritta tells them the thing on top of their town is Castle Terminal, the Shadow Line’s main base. Mio asks why it is on their town. Gritta seems to know, but hesitates to explain.

Right basically interrupts and says now that they’ve found their town, they’re going in and saving it. That’s the point of this whole journey.

Conductor, Ticket and Wagon try to stop the ToQgers from rushing in when the lights flicker. Schwarz approaches the Resshas in his Kuliner and tries to stop them by ramming into their side.

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The ToQgers say they can’t do anything about their town without settling this with Schwarz first. They stop their trains and get out to talk.

Mio tells Schwarz that Gritta is asking him to stop this because it will be too dangerous if she leaves the Emperor. Though she still wants to be with Schwarz-sama.

Schwarz says he will not back down and demands the ToQgers get out of his way.

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The ToQgers henshin and they fight anew. They are still in the shadow of Castle Terminal nearby.

Tokatti and Hikari fight Akira, trying to get him to stop this as well. Akira reminds Tokatti about his promise. Right, Mio and Kagura are facing Schwarz.

Mork says this is their perfect chance to retrieve their Emperor. They turn and right in front of them is Gritta. Perfect timing!

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Or not. Gritta speeds toward Mork and Nero and it is Zett that emerges.

“So you too plan to disobey me?”
“This is for your own good,” Mork says. “Today we will eliminate Gritta.”
“It’s for the good of the Shadow Line!”

Zett takes his sword and slashes at both Mork and Nero, sending them flying.

Akira sees Zett. He charges toward Zett and tackles him. Zett takes the Applichanger out and henshins.

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Akira and Zett battle, but Zett easily has the upper hand. He is about to deliver a devastating blow to Akira, but Right is there to block it.

Right demands Zett stop using the Applichanger because Akira is ToQ-6gou. Zett uses the Yudou Breaker to shoot at Right, but Right quickly goes Hyper.
Now it is Right and Zett that battle.

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They both attempt a punch, but end up sending each other flying and dehenshining. Zett is in his Shadow form and the Applichanger and Build Ressha are out of his hands.

Right quickly runs over to retrieve them.

Schwarz has forced the other ToQgers to dehenshin and now he can turn his attention to Zett. Schwarz charges toward Zett and sends him flying over the cliff. He is resolved to release Gritta from Zett’s body.

“You never learn! You can never beat me!”

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Zett has his sword on Schwarz’s shoulder.

“I don’t need to beat you,” Schwarz says as he grabs hold of the sword. “NOW!” he yells.

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Madame Noire appears and stabs a dagger right into Zett’s back.

“Your Majesty. I am taking back my daughter!”

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“Damn you all,” Zett replies and a huge burst of darkness explodes out of him. Gritta emerges and calls to her mother. Noire pulls out the cloth she has prepared and tosses it over Gritta, grabbing her from Zett’s person and releasing her.

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Noire is filled with joy that Gritta is finally free. Schwarz calls to her, but Zett takes his sword and proceeds to slash it across Schwarz’s chest.

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Gritta runs over to her Schwarz-sama.

Zett walks over to Noire.

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“Neat trick. I like it.”
“I’m glad. And I am grateful, you know. That you did not eliminate my daughter. Or perhaps, it’s not that you didn’t, but that you could not.”

Zett picks her up from the ground and proceeds to slash at her. Gritta calls to her mother.

“Your Majesty, you were too late in eliminating me as well,” Noire laughs.

Gritta calls to her mother once more. “Goodbye Gritta. You are free now.”

Noire collapses into a dark cloud of black feathers. She’s gone. Gritta picks one of the feathers up.

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Suddenly, an intense of explosion of darkness bursts out of Zett. Everyone is shocked at what they see. Zett has a horrifying new form.

Mork and Nero emerge on the cliff. Mork happily says this is the embodiment of deep, beautiful darkness.

But Zett is not happy. “Why does only my darkness grow?” he asks himself, “I can’t even obtain a single sparkle.”

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Zett approaches Gritta and reaches out to her. But Schwarz grabs his hand and slashes at his chest.

Schwarz takes Gritta’s hand and tells her he can finally repay her for saving his life. He summons his Kuliner and pushes her into the train as it quickly departs. Gritta calls out to her Schwarz-sama.

But just as the train is out of sight, Zett brutally slashes at Schwarz. Schwarz blocks a swipe and says while he wasn’t able to beat Zett, Zett was unable to beat him either.

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Schwarz lets go of his sword.

“I’ve obtained my sparkle…”

Schwarz laughs and Zett gives one final slash that finishes Schwarz for good.

Mork and Nero approach Zett. Mork is especially excited about the incredibly beautiful darkness the Emperor has just exhibited. But Zett is not as enthused. In fact, he is fed up with everyone around him only trolling out darkness. He turns and slashes at both Marchioness Mork and Baron Nero.

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Zett explodes in darkness once again. The huge amount of darkness feeds into Castle Terminal and that appears to help it sink back into the Darkness, taking the ToQgers’ secret base back with it.

The ToQgers’ rainbow! Akira remembers the moments and times he’s spent with the ToQgers, fighting alongside them. He jumps down from the cliff and tells the ToQgers to wait here as he jumps in to save their town.

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The ToQgers tell him it’s too dangerous, but Akira jumps in anyway.

Another huge darkness explosion and the ToQgers are thrown backward as Castle Terminal, their secret base and their chance to save their town sink back into the Shadow Line.

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The ToQgers struggle to get to their feet and walk over, worried Akira is dead from the explosion. But they see him, in his non-Shadow form laying in the grass down below.

Akira easily pops up and apologizes for allowing their town to sink. He climbs up the hill to join the others.

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The ToQgers are on the verge of tears. Akira tells them not to cry.

But the ToQgers run over and hug Akira, happy and relieved that he is alive.

Akira is confused. Are they not sad about their town sinking again? Yes, but right now, they are just happy he is alive.

Akira tries to process. The ToQgers express how much they care about him and how much he means to them. Akira remembers that odd feeling he had when he and Schwarz were about to storm the Castle.

Suddenly, an army of Kuliners burst out of the ground. They are emerging from Castle Terminal just as Zett slowly walks toward it.

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Right turns to Akira and asks him to fight alongside them once more. Akira says he’s not sure if he was lonely and missing the ToQgers, but right now, he’s extremely happy.

They all smile. The Kuliners turn into robos and the ToQgers henshin.

The ToQgers form ToQ-Oh (piloted by Tokatti and Hikari), Diesel-Oh (with Kagura and Mio), Build Dai-Oh (with Akira) and Hyper Ressha Tei-Oh (with Right).

They take care of the first round of Kuliners before Akira tells them to call on all the support Ressha. They form Build Dai-Oh Drill, Disel-Oh Fire and ToQ-Oh Police.

They then combine into Cho ToQ-Oh Police & Fire. Right takes care of more Kuliners with Hyper Ressha Tei-Oh before taking on two of the big Cho-Kuliner robos.

Akira initiates Cho Cho ToQ-Dai-Oh and they help Right before combining into ToQ Rainbow.

Another round of Kuliners arrive and the ToQgers use a ToQ Rainbow Final Slash to finish them all off for good.

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The ToQgers happily celebrate their big win. ToQ Rainbow even welcomes Akira back.

Right declares that they will surely save their town. The others agree.

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Akira stakes Schwarz’s sword at the place of his death and pays tribute to his fallen comrade. He heads back to the Resshas where the ToQgers have candles ready.

Tokatti hands Akira an orange candle for him and a dark violet for Schwarz. Mio puts a candle by the window for Gritta as well and Kagura hopes she can see it.

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The ToQgers circle around the Christmas tree and sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”

Meanwhile, Gritta places a rose at Schwarz’s sword before walking away.

Outside Castle Terminal, Zett walks to and looks up at the ToQgers’ secret base tree.

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“It’s pitch black…”

Back on the surface, the ToQgers excitedly look out the window to see it has started snowing.

Conductor, Ticket and Wagon then come in to surprise them with a Christmas party. Wagon’s baked a cake for them and the ToQgers decide to change into costumes.

They share a toast and wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Episode Thoughts

OMG. Wrapping up Christmas Day with this episode of ToQger. Bad idea maybe?

If I was bawling last week, I was a huge mess this week. It was an absolutely insane episode. The shock and awe of the incredible battle then the huge emotional gut punch with those grown-up train children and their older brother rainbow protector then that mecha battle that was all awesomeness then the somber candles and wrapping it up with the entire family together to celebrate Christmas.

Like, seriously. WTF. Amazing episode.

Why must Kobayashi do this on Christmas!?!?! Christmas was definitely not an integral piece of the plot here like it was in Go-Busters, but this big climactic episode happening for Christmas week was pretty much perfect. It just fell right into place, having Christmas right after such huge emotional torture (for both us and them!).

I can’t even imagine how Kobayashi can top this episode because these last two weeks were definitely finale-worthy. I hope she has even bigger things planned for the real final episode.

I was expecting and dreading Noire getting killed off after seeing last week’s preview. But I definitely did not expect Zett to pretty much massacre all his underlings. Insanity! I definitely was screaming “NooooOOO!” when Zett took those swipes at Noire.

I mean, that entire sequence especially. Actually, I can’t single out just that sequence because the entire episode just was one continuous chain of gut punching events.

There was Noire’s demise after happily saving her daughter. Schwarz literally pushing Gritta onto his Kuliner. Then Schwarz telling Zett he’s still won since he was able to obtain a sparkle while Mr. Emperor still has not. Mork not stopping herself from talking too much resulting in getting her and Nero killed? Are they dead? What happened there?

Then there’s the whole happy reunion with a confused Akira. The ToQgers also getting a big burst of energy now that they know where Subarugahama is. And later Gritta laying a ROSE!!!! at Schwarz’s sword, which Akira stuck in the ground to honor him.

And of course the happy Christmas celebration at the end.

It was just all amazing.

Plus, the fight choreography has been amazing this season. Loved all the fights we’ve seen and it was no different here. Some amazing, thrilling stuff in that regard. Plus the huge mecha battle was so well done. It wasn’t the clusterfrak that other big mecha free-for-alls usually are. And definitely nowhere near the CGI-mess the Super Hero Taisen and Kamen Rider Movie Wars final battles are.

Totally put on Episode 41 today after the family opened presents and ate their 2nd round of dinner. Though my little nieces (who still love!! Samurai!) were the only ones actually watching with me. lol

They were definitely confused why I was pretty in tears most of the episode lol Because really, what a beautiful, amazing, insane half hour. Damn it Kobayashi! That’s 2 emotional Christmas climaxes from you. I can’t handle it!

2 thoughts on “Recap: Ressha Sentai ToQger, Station (Episode) 41 – The Christmas Battle

  1. Sorry for this but epic fangirl moment coming but when they were saying merry Christmas and the words “merry Xmas” came up near the bottom there was Hikari Kagura Tokatti and Mio now we all know that Tokatti has a crush on Mio and he was standing behind her and Hikari was behind Kagura even around the cake she was playing with his reindeer head and he was smiling also (sorry spoilers) episode 43 is a Hikari and Kagura episode they might be shipping them a little different then Tokatti and Mio but hey I still love it!!!!

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