Recap: Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger, Episode 8 – Door to Door to Another World?!

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Episode 8 Recap

Stacey summons even more mecha. Zyuran and Gaon charge forward to try and take them on, one by one, but get thrown back. Just then, the robos begin disappearing on their own. Even Stacey is shocked by the development. Ijirude explains to Bokkowaus that using so many Gears at the same time drains the Geartozinger of energy.

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Episode 8 Recap

The Zenkaigers come back together and face Stacey who curses Ijirude. But Papa Barashitara arrives and says that’s what Stacey gets for trusting him. Barashitara is accompanied by Door World and says he wanted to help celebrate his son’s first battle.

The Zenkaigers are shocked by this revelation. Barashitara says Stacey’s mother was human, though he isn’t sure if she was his 398th or 483rd wife. Stacey sternly corrects him and says she was his 893rd.

Anyway, Door World shoots and five doors pop up out of nowhere. Barashitara whacks the Zenkaigers and each of them gets hurled through one of the doors.

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Episode 8 Recap

Stacey dehenshins and tells his father that he did not need his help. Barashitara tells Door World to stay with Stacey for now.

Kaito gets thrown into a family’s home, Gaon into an office, Zyuran into a Japanese-style home, Magine into an elevator and Vroom out of a mall.

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Episode 8 Recap

Kaito apologizes for the intrusion and walks back out the door only to find himself in a men’s restroom. Zyuran ends up in a café where two women (a human and a Kikainoid) are fighting over a guy before ending up in a zoo. Gaon finds himself in a van and Magine is transported into a bathhouse with naked men. Vroom ends up in a dojo and then walks into an interrogation room.

Kaito ends up in a small office when Secchan calls to say the city is going mad as no one is able to get to where they’re going.

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Episode 8 Recap

Grandma Yacchan opens the door to go sweep outside the shop, but ends up in a movie theater playing a Toei movie.

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Episode 8 Recap

Kaito realizes this is the work of Door World. So he thinks jumping out the window instead of a door will fix things. But it doesn’t. The others also try to figure out a way to get back to the shop, but they just keep ending up in weird places including reaching London, Paris, Egypt and the North Pole.

Over at the Palace, Barashitara asks Gege if he can watch the footage of Stacey’s first battle. Gege is surprised Barashitara is interested in his son, but Barashitara says he only wants to enjoy an amusing battle.

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Episode 8 Recap

Kaito finds himself by the creek where he runs into Stacey who has been looking for him.

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Episode 8 Recap

Stacey is annoyed about having to go looking around since all of Door World’s shenanigans is because of his father. Kaito is amused that even someone like Barashitara cares about his son. Stacey grabs Kaito by the collar and says he doesn’t know a damn thing. Stacey recalls the pain Barashitara put his mother through.

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Episode 8 Recap

Stacey remembers Kaito asked about his own parents. But if the Tojitendo are involved, Kaito’s parents are probably lying dead in a ditch somewhere, just like his own mother.

However, Stacey says the opposite could also be true. Kaito’s parents might have just abandoned him just like Barashitara did to Stacey.

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Episode 8 Recap

Kaito refuses to believe such a possibility. He believes his parents would never do that because he has full power faith in them.

Stacey changes his mind and says he now despises Kaito. Both Stacey and Kaito henshin.

As they begin battle, Door World arrives to help, but Stacey tells him to stay out of it. Stacey summons Maskman and Fiveman fakes to battle Kaito. He says Kaito has no chance on his own. But Kaito says he is motivated to become the first person in the world who can defeat two fake Sentai teams.

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Episode 8 Recap

Just then, the others arrive as they were able to bypass the doors by embiggening into their mecha forms. The reunited team do a roll call. Door World prepares to use Doortopia’s power, but Stacey shoots a Darkness Shadow Crunch to kill him and fuse his Gear with a Kudaitest.

Great Door World makes several doors appear and the Zenkaigers combine into ZyuraGaon and VrooMagine to take him on. Out of each of the doors are different types of attacks. Magine and Vroom take to the air to blast the doors away.

Stacey moves to battle Kaito who is still on the ground and summons FakeFlashman to keep Kaito busy.

Secchan suggests Kaito uses Kiramager Gears and the Hirameking power helps him defeat the Fakes while the others finish off Door World.

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Episode 8 Recap

Stacey punches Kaito in the face and summons Gekiranger and Goseiger’s mecha robos. But they get blasted away as the sky turns dark. A large flying ship appears, much to everyone’s surprise.

A mysterious man jumps down from it.

This man sings that he is a pirate in search of treasure as he travels from world to world.

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Episode 8 Recap

Kaito asks who in the world is he and the man introduces himself as Zox Goldtweaker.

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Episode 8 Recap

Zox points at Stacey, feeling that he has a lot of Gears. For now, Zox says he will help himself to them.

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Episode 8 Recap

Zox whips out a Gokaiger Gear and henshins to Twokaiser. Kaito applauds the flashy entrance.

The other Zenkaigers appear just in time to see Zox absolutely overpower Stacey, even knocking some Gears out of his pockets. Zox looks at the Gears and see they’re kind of worthless so he shoots to destroy them.

Stacey takes his leave.

Zox turns to the Zenkaiger and asks “What’s your deal?!”

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Episode 8 Recap

Episode Thoughts

What an entrance for Zox! It’s certainly not an easy task to match Takamichi’s excellent debut this year. But they certainly came close with Zox! What a immediately likeable debut for our 6th Ranger.

Atsuki Mashiko is very charismatic and charming and he absolutely owned that fun little tune. Ahead of this episode, I learned he’s a member of co-ed group GENIC. (I will definitely be checking them out right after this.) But I never expected his first scene would have him singing and dancing! And unlike Power Rangers‘s various musical attempts in the last few years, Zox’s little tune was actually GOOD! And definitely catchy.

I am very excited to see what’s in store for Zox. Being based upon Gokaiger, you can definitely see the influence of the team’s flash and flair. Even some of Basco too. And Basco was just as awesome as the Gokaigers.

Having more human characters is definitely a good thing. And it opens up lots of great story.

Just like with Stacey. It would’ve been a good guess that his mother was human. But the backstory he describes of Barashitara basically mistreating her as one of his 900(!!!!!!!!) wives is another twist I definitely did not expect. That too opens up a lot of possibilities, especially for Stacey’s character. Some potential for him is what I thought maybe Gaon’s backstory would be about. That is, a past of abuse or discrimination or prejudice or something like that.

Also, the idea of humans and Kikainoids having children is something I wonder how the show will tackle in a way that isn’t either a throwaway detail or creepy and weird. Lol

Stacey and Kaito’s confrontation was a great scene. I liked Stacey being very brutal with his words, but Kaito remaining positive.

The rest of the episode was also very fun. Like the garbage episode, they popped in to many different locations for seconds-long scenes. But here, it really helped to show how crazy things got with Door World’s power. It was certainly very amusing. From a human and Kikainoid fighting over a man to Grandma Yacchan walking into a Toei movie; lots of fun and simply amusing moments for a couple of minutes in the episode.

That was of course in contrast to Stacey’s pretty serious revelation about his family dynamic and then Zox’s flashy debut.

I just realized the human-Kikainoid love triangle Zyuran stumbled upon probably foreshadowed Stacey revealing his mother was human. Very nice.

Elsewhere, I enjoyed seeing them use actual clips of mecha finishers from older seasons. And being able to explain Stacey can’t just summon fake mecha or Sentai teams all the time because it would overload was clever.

Overall, this was a very fun and enjoyable episode. Very full and action-packed. Maybe my favorite episode so far? I am definitely excited to see what’s to come.

4 thoughts on “Recap: Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger, Episode 8 – Door to Door to Another World?!

  1. Yeah! This eps. was very fun indeed.

    And Zox’s introduction as Twokaiser was hilarious and his Intro song is very catchy.

    1. It’s great to see an episode like this as I was still trying to get myself excited for the season. But this episode really did it for me. It’s a refreshing new dynamic.

  2. It’s kind of interesting within 2 months of the show, not only we got new villain, Stacey, but we also got new ranger, GokaiGold… I mean TwoKaiser.

    I don’t have much to say, other than he’s apparently a space pirate?
    I guess. I like his dance move though. He’s literally 7th Gokaiger for obvious reason, so I’m curious if we’re going to see crossover with Gokaiger on the line.

    Last time we got new hero this early was back in Kyoryuger (2013), where we got 2 new rangers by episode 9 (Ramirez/Cyan I and Utsusemimayu/Gold), though at least for that show, it ended up with 10 rangers, so in narrative perspective it made sense.
    Say what you want about Power Rangers, but at least they spend more time with default/main characters, BEFORE introducing new rangers, which tends to be AFTER hiatus, which works for most time.

    I understand Toei and Bandai are really betting for this show by introducing tons of characters and toys to sell, due to declining rating and toy sales, which resulting danger to cancellation, but I would really appreciate if the show had more time to breathe, where there should be more character developments for default team; Gaon issue has literally tossed out of window, which frustrates me.
    At this rate, I hope the show doesn’t run out of steam by summer (mid-20’s).

    1. I think Zenkaiger is a little different since four of the five team members are not “human” so there isn’t as much to develop with them so far. And because of that, they needed to add more “human” characters earlier.

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