Recap: Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger, Episode 13 – Recycling All Over Again!

Human-obsessed Gaon approaches little human kids who proceed to tickle him with cattails. The children celebrate as Gaon is very ticklish and he rolls down the hill. But Gaon is so thankful he became a Zenkaiger because he loves playing with little children.

People nearby suddenly scream and Gaon is sad to see humans getting sucked into a trash can. Kaito is confused as they had just defeated Trash World. But it’s actually a repainted costume and this is actually Recycle World.

Recycle World has recycled the humans and Kikainoids he’s collected and turned them into Recycled Kudakks. Kaito and Gaon henshin as the Recycled Kudakks begin to attack. Both of them are concerned (only) about the humans who have been recycled and don’t want to hurt them.

Zox pops in. Though Kaito and Gaon beg him not to touch the human Kudakks, Zox knocks a couple of them out when he finds each of them has what looks like a Tojiru Gear inside of them after Barashitara handed them out earlier.

Secchan suggests Kaito uses a Dekaranger Gear and it turns Zyuran, Magine and Vroom into space police, allowing them to handcuff Zox to take him safely back to the shop.

Zox inspects the Gears that fell out of the Recycled Kudakks. But none of them is the SDtopia Gear he is looking for. Vroom concludes they aren’t even Tojiru Gears at all, but fakes.

Grandma Yacchan wonders if all the Tojitendo have the Gears just as a way to show they’re on the same side. Vroom doesn’t remember anything like that from his time at the Palace. But Zox realizes it was just a trap.

Over at the Palace, Barashitara explains his plan to Bokkowaus about pitting the Zenkaigers and Zox against each other. Gege points out Barashitara is making better use of the intel regarding the pirate family’s goals. Barashitara says it’s because Ijirude’s new robo is essentially a failure.

Stacey takes offense and starts to step forward, but Ijirude calms him down before he says anything.

Ijirude says Barashitara took the fake Gears he had made while developing the Tojiru Gear system without permission. But Barashitara says he’s just recycling.

Back at the shop, Zox says he will continue to take on the Recycled Kudakks in the hopes he finds the Gear he needs. The others are appalled at his lack of concern for the humans, but Zox reminds them that he does not care.

An annoyed Gaon chases after Zox. In the meantime, Kaito has an idea.

Gaon begs Zox not to hurt the humans. Zox asks what’s it to him anyway. Gaon replies that he loves all humans so much. Flint and the twins arrive to hold Gaon back to keep him out of their brother’s way.

Just then, Recycled Kudakks arrive and Zox prepares to shoot at them. But Gaon breaks free of the siblings and shields the incoming attackers, absorbing Zox’s attack himself.

The Recycled Kudakks begin to attack Gaon and Zox tells him to just quit while he’s ahead. None of these humans care about his love at the moment. But Kaito and the others arrive to say Zox is wrong. Kaito says he’ll show Zox that they can collect the fake Gears in a safe way.

And that is to pretend they are in Rio for Carnival. They begin to tickle the Recycled Kudakks and are able to pick their pockets of the fake Gears.

Zox laughs that this is the stupidest thing he’s ever seen. But he is still amused by Kaito’s shenanigans.

The twins point Zox toward Recycle World. But Gaon and the others henshin before him and charge toward the World. Recycle World orders the Recycled Kudakks to attack.

Zox henshins and calls on Cutanner to help him uphenshin to Shinken Form.

Secchan tells Gaon to make Zox use a Go-Onger Gear and the two of them use the power of Go-On Wings to wear down the World before Zox uses a Shinken finisher to finish Recycle World’s first life.

All the Recycled Kudakks are back to normal, including any Kikainoids who had been recycled. But Gaon excitedly runs straight for the little human kids.

The Zenkaigers collect all the fake Gears from the victims.

Bokkowaus orders Barashitara to send a Kudaitest while Ijirude says Stacey should deploy as well.

Dai Recycle World recycles some of the Worlds the Zenkaigers have already defeated to form a team of Recycle Sentai Daiworlger. Secchan says this is a tribute to other evil Sentai teams of the past.

The Zenkaigers transform into the ZenkaiOhs to take on the five Dai Worlds. Zox jumps in when the others get whacked into space. The twins help to form TsukaiOh Ricky and are able to finish off four of the Dai Worlds.

When only Dai Recycle World is left, Stacey swoops in with his robo to finish off Dai Recycle World himself with just a single attack. The Goldtsuikers are confused why he would do such a thing.

Episode Thoughts

I don’t know if I’m in some kind of bad mood, but this episode was not it. What was that?

My annoyance level with Gaon seriously made me side with Zox and not care about what happens to those recycled humans. Like seriously. Just out of spite at how annoying Gaon is with his human obsession (and Kaito’s outright enabling of it), I wanted to see Zox knock those Kudakks around for a while. My goodness.

Anything that had to do with Gaon and of course his enabler Kaito, I wanted to fast forward through. I just cringed.

Also cringey was the random Carnival dance outfits. The whole plot of this episode felt lazy. I mean, when it’s an episode focused on recycling and they recycle pretty much everything they’ve done in the 12 episodes prior, it’s going to come across some type of way.

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen!” Zox said. And sadly, I kind of agree. This was Saban Brands/Hasbro Power Rangers-level absurd. And it’s absurdity not in a good or enjoyable way. Low level, childish humor (if you can even call it that) paired with the ~hiLaRiOuS~ idea of self-hating Kikainoid Gaon having a human fetish or whatever that is.

Sentai is usually pretty good with not dumbing things down for the kiddos. But that was not the case in this episode.

I was most interested in Stacey this week. When everything else feels too goofy, even for Sentai, I will be craving some drama and angst. And it looks like Stacey will be the one responsible for delivering it. So more Stacey please.

Otherwise, this was probably my least favorite episode so far this season.