Recap: Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger, Episode 18 – Secret of the Collection

An embiggened Gangler suddenly appears in the city. But this Gangler looks very familiar. It is Anidara Maximov, the brother of Ododo Maximov.

The Pats hurry out and Good Striker conveniently appears, feeling like helping them out this time. They hop into PatKaiser. Anidara shoots missiles at them, but the Pats are able to dodge out of the way.

It appears Anidara’s Collection Piece allows the missiles to turn into heat seeking missiles, hitting PatKaiser on target. Good Striker realizes there is a Collection Piece in the safe so he tries to get the Pats to stop before they destroy it. He forces PatKaiser to separate and then links up with the Lups to form LupinKaiser.

But Anidara disappears. Good Striker tells them about the Collection Piece.

At the GSPO, Jim Carter briefs the Pats. They believe Anidara came from the safe remains that were being held in the lab. But how did Goche sneak into the building, let alone know they had the remains in the first place. Keiichiro thinks there’s a mole in the building.

Down in the underworld, Destra tells Goche that it was Zamigo who passed on the information about Anidara’s remains. Anidara thanks them for reviving him.

Goche says Destra owes him one. She leaves.

Destra asks Anidara to open his safe. “Just as I thought,” Destra says.

Destra has given Anidara his Collection Piece which can be used to improve his accuracy. With it, Anidara will be able to avenge his brother against the Pats.

Goche has been listening and says this must be an important experiment for Destra to have handed his Piece over to Anidara. Destra says he understands now that the Lupin Collection was originally created in their world. Humans shouldn’t be able to use any of the items. But a human modified them to enable them to be used by humans.

Jim Carter is monitoring any sightings of Anidara. But suddenly, they hear his voice coming through the computers. Anidara wants a duel with the Pats at 3pm on Mt. Tokiori.

But the Pats need Good Striker to form PatKaiser. They must take Good Striker back from the kaitous. Keiichiro has an idea.

At Jurer, the Lups are also trying to figure out how to find Anidara. Kairi is a little annoyed Good Striker is taking this situation so lightly. Good Striker says he always takes this seriously as he has a responsibility to protect the Collection.

Then why does he always help the cops? Good Striker says he gets good feelings about them sometimes. Kairi is still annoyed by Good Striker’s carefree attitude. “We’re the ones risking our lives to retrieve the Collection!”

That upsets Good Striker. “You think you’re the only ones who take this seriously?! It’s not like I get good feelings because I want to!”

Good Striker flies out the door.

Kogure appears and explains to them that Good Striker was created by Arsene Lupin himself. It was Lupin who modified the Collection to allow human use. And his very first piece, Good Striker, held a special place in his heart.

Lupin instructed Good Striker to use his power to strengthen the other Pieces and to protect the Collection.

Kogure says that request by Lupin caused Good Striker to develop free will.

“He is capricious and troublesome, but that is the burden free will brings with it.”

Those words seem to hit Kairi hard. He excuses himself and goes for a walk.

Tooma and Umika ask Kogure to watch the bistro while they go out to look for Anidara. While looking, they see the breaking news reports about the impending duel between the Pats and Anidara. People are being ordered to evacuate the area around Mt. Tokiori.

This is part of Keiichiro’s plan. While they can keep the people in the area safe, they can also draw out the Pats and take Good Striker back.

Kairi finds Good Striker on a swing and he joins him. Good Striker is thinking about Lupin’s words to him. Kairi apologizes for his harsh words earlier. Good Striker says he can’t help if he gets good vibes from the Pats sometimes.

Good Striker says it is his responsibility to protect the Collection after all, so he will help the Lups.

The Lups are at Mt. Tokiori where Anidara is waiting. The Lups emerge from the bushes and morph even though Anidara says he has no business with them. But suddenly, the Pats drill themselves out of the ground. That provides an opening for Keiichiro to literally drop in and grab Good Striker.

Keiichiro forces Good Striker to form PatKaiser with them. But before Keiichiro can attach to PatKaiser, Kairi knocks him away and docks instead. Tsukasa and Sakuya fight Kairi while Tooma and Umika take on Keiichiro down on the ground.

While the three are fighting in the cockpit, Anidara is able to take advantage and attack, including using Destra’s Collection Piece. But Kairi is able to open the safe, though they find the Collection Piece is regular sized. Tooma and Umika zoom into the safe to retrieve it.

Tooma and Umika hop into Cyclone and Scissors. Kairi kicks Sakuya and Tsukasa a second time as Good Striker forces the two Pats to un-dock. That allows Tooma and Umika to dock instead to form LupinKaiser Cyclone Knight.

They finish off Anidara and fly away.

Destra seems pleased by what he has witnessed. Down in the underworld, Goche expresses to Dogranio how she doesn’t understand Destra’s actions. Dogranio says Destra has his reasons and he is intrigued.

Good Striker tells the Lups that he is not sure yet if he will stop helping the cops or not. He flies away. Kairi says it’s fine since it’s very human of Good Striker to want to listen to his feelings.

Episode Thoughts

Well, definitely nowhere near as amazing an episode as the last couple of weeks. But it was still interesting as a Good Striker episode.

First of all Kairi, how dare you kick Tsukasa. Like, a full-on kick to the back. That’s f–ked up. Hmph.

Less messed up, but still kind of weird is Keiichiro forcing Good Striker into his Blaster to form PatKaiser. Like, they established Good Striker has free will. So they have Keiichiro forcing him to do something against his will. Yikes.

Setting aside these problematic parts of the episode, it was kind of interesting to show that Good Striker has human qualities. I guess. It helped make Kogure’s exposition about Arsene Lupin feel less like exposition and more like a simple backstory flashback for Good Striker.

I am actually more interested though in what Destra is doing and Zamigo’s intentions are in providing such information. The back and forth between Destra and Goche is also pretty fun in the fleeting moments we get. I hope we get longer and more substantial scenes in the future because villain politics has always been interesting if done well.

Anyway, I wonder if there’s something to the “Good Striker is human-ish” idea. We’ll just have to wait and see I guess.

Overall, it was an okay episode. But it definitely felt underwhelming after the last couple of weeks.