Recap: Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger, Episode 28 – Weekly Shonen Manga World of Great Illustrations

While Kaito uses the Godtsuiker ship to search for his mother, Zox and his brothers are crashing at the shop. Today, Kaito is accompanied by Gaon with Flint of course as captain of the ship.

Grandma Yacchan is worried about her daughter in law, but Zox says the two professors are too valuable to be put in harm’s way by the Tojitendo. The others try to reassure her.

While eating breakfast, Zox and Vroom are about to bond over a shared love of manga. But Secchan alerts them that, coincidentally, the city is being turned into manga.

Zox, Zyuran, Vroom and Magine hurry downtown where Manga World is turning people into pages and then binding them into a Weekly Shonen issue. They henshin and battle Kudakks. The twins try to sneak up on Manga World, but they too get paged.

Manga World threatens to rip the pages up if they come close. He shoots his ink at Zyuran and Magine and narrowly misses Vroom just as Kaito and Gaon arrive.

Manga World tosses rejected manuscripts at them so he can retreat.

Over at the palace, Gege and Barashitara inform Bokkowaus about Ijirude losing one of his samples. Ijirude assures Bokkowaus that he’s got everything under control.

Back at the shop, the Zenkaigers try to figure out what to do next. Kaito suggests they lure Manga World out by drawing their own manga. But Zox is annoyed that he thinks anyone can draw good manga. He storms out and Flint runs after him.

Grandma Yacchan wonders if Zox wanted to be a mangaka one day. Secchan says Zox is actually very artistic.

If an amateur’s manga won’t cut it, Gaon says they’ll have to go with a pro then.

Back at the palace, Ijirude is very annoyed by Barashitara. Stacey comes in and says he’ll keep his mouth shut since spilling the beans would only help his father and he does not want that. Anyway, Stacey asks about Papa Goshikida and Ijirude says he’s put him in a nonresistant state in order to directly analyze his brain.

Downtown, the Zenkaigers have bought the most popular manga and laid out a trail of them to use as bait for Manga World. Manga World arrives, collects all the manga and sits down to enjoy them. Kaito tries to sneak over to grab Manga World’s original issue. But Manga World knows he’s there and shoots ink at him.

Before Manga World can page Vroom and Gaon too, Zox arrives and rains down some excellent original manga pages. Manga World can’t get enough of them and that gives Zox enough time to swipe his manga.

Zox explains that these are pages that he actually looted from Mangatopia.

The Zenkaigers all henshin, including Kaito, Zyuran and Magine in the pages.

While battling Kudakks, Stacey appears and battles Kaito. Secchan suggests Kaito use a Dynaman Gear.

Zox, meanwhile, finishes Manga World off and all the manga people return to normal.

Dai Manga World appears and Kaito and Zox transform into Zenkaiju-Oh to finish the Tojitendo off for good.

Over in his lab, Ijirude concludes that there’s nothing left to extract from Papa Goshikida’s brain. But he considers stimulating the brain after years in stasis to produce some results.

Back at the shop, Grandma Yacchan gives them some treats for their job well done today. Zox explains that he really enjoyed the manga from Mangatopia. But is willing to give up such wonderful treasure to save his family.

Thankfully, Vroom was able to pick up all the pages and the others want to read them. Grandma Yacchan tells them to return the pages back to Mangatopia.

Episode Thoughts

This was a fun filler episode. I very much enjoyed the creativity they had with the theme. Having different pages to deliver Zyuran, Magine and Kaito’s lines was great. And then incorporating panels into the fight sequences later was awesome.

Nice to get a little bit of insight into Zox’s character. You wouldn’t expect him to enjoy some manga in his free time. So it’s a nice little look into his personality. But I wish it was more than just him having stolen the pages. I would’ve liked to have had Zox and Vroom bond over manga more too. We haven’t seen those kinds of interactions this season that we usually do in others. Having different members of the team pair up for an episode’s plot or something like that.

With the Tojitendo crew, I like seeing the continued friction between Ijirude and Barashitara. As well as Stacey’s mysterious movements. What could he be planning next on his own? But Stacey popping in to battle Kaito was really forced unless it’s his own bit of research or something too.

Overall, a simple, but very enjoyable episode.