Recap: Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger, Episode 22 – The Great Gathering of the Shugods

The first official battle of the King-Ohgers with Gira as king of Shugoddam does not go well as Daigorg surprises them when he eats the Souls of the Shugods. This allows him to embiggen beyond normal embiggening limits. The Ohgers hop into Extreme KingOhger, but Gira quickly realizes the Souls that Daigorg swallowed are Kabuto, Scorpion, Hopper and Tarantula.

Rita says they should back off for now, but Yanma says Daigorg’s size makes him an easier target. The others push forward, but Gira screams to stop and retreat. Daigorg slams his pickaxe at KingOhger, causing a huge reverberation across Shugoddam and resulting in many buildings to explode and collapse in an outer town.

The Ohgers get ejected from KingOhger and are forced to dehenshin when they slam back to the ground. Kamejim laughs as Daigorg continues to grow until a single strike from him will eventually level Shugoddam to nothing. Gira tries to attack Kamejim, but the general says Daigorg’s power will reach its peak tomorrow morning.

Yanma points his sword at Gira’s neck, demanding he explain why he backed down earlier. Gira says they were all on the verge of death earlier and Kuwagon-tachi were trembling in fear. Yanma says the Shugods are just AI machines and he can always build something to take their place if their Souls are eaten. Gira says their Souls are their lives. But Yanma is more concerned about people lives.

Jerami tries to calm the situation to say he used his webs to protect the people during the explosive wave.

The Shugoddamians beg Gira to save them. Racules had easily defeated these enemies. So they want assurance from the new king that he will do the same. Gira remains silent.

Jerami brings up a story about how humanity resisted the Bugnarak 2000 years ago by joining forces with the Shugods. The Shugods only trusted one man, the first king of Shugoddam, and together they were able to save Chikyuu. Jerami points out that Gira is that man today. But Gira says he cannot call the Shugods now. The Shugoddamians don’t understand. Why is their king allowing their demise.

Kaguragi says to hold on as he believes the castle may have what they need to counter the impending attack. The Ohgers head up into the castle as Kaguragi recounts to them what he learned about the lance from Racules.

Racules had said the lance is the key to the castle. During Gira and Racules’ duel, Kaguragi snuck into the palace to find out more. Rita and Hymeno think Kaguragi should be prosecuted for his selfish act. But Gira says Kaguragi had come to help with the lance anyway. Yanma says Kaguragi probably just gave Gira the lance because he had no idea how to use it.

The strange thing was when Boshimar swiped the fake lance, he headed straight into the palace instead of bringing it to Racules. So Kaguragi followed and asked if “Boshimar” knew what Racules meant by saying it was the “key to the castle.”

Down in the tunnels, Kamejim reports to Desnarak about finding out the palace’s secret. But Desnarak is a bit peeved that Kamejim would keep secrets, such as going around in disguises. Kamejim says to successfully deceive others, you have to deceive your allies first. And the secret of the castle is a threat that is even greater than KingOhger. That’s why he sent a ShuGod Hunter to capture the Shugoshins.

The Ohgers head inside the castle to find Suzume crying over Racules’ coffin as they have supposedly found his dead body. She gives Kaguragi the signal and he asks her if she knows anything about the castle’s secret. She stops crying, happily smiles and says the castle is a giant robo. He had told her one night while she was “crying” herself to sleep that the castle will reveal its true form when someone of Shugoddam royal blood inserts the spear into the pedestal.

They quickly have Gira try it out, but the walls close in and merely zap Gira drunk. Just then, the ShuGod Hunter Iragajim appears outside. The other Ohgers quickly henshin and take him on.

Yanma punches Gira to snap him out of his stupor and tells him to figure out how to get the castle up and running. If Gira dies, everyone in Shugoddam dies. But Gira instead runs off somewhere else as the others are forced to dehenshin by Iragajim.

Gira finds Kuwagon and asks him to fight alongside him to protect the other ShuGods. Kuwagon says he’ll be fine since he doesn’t have a ShuGod Soul. This is news to Gira. But before he can process it, an embiggened Iragajim appears.

Gira comes to a realization. He scoffs and begins to laugh maniacally.

Yanma hears his loud cackles and addresses the ShuGods. He advises them to think long and hard. He isn’t one for pep talks, but he does have faith in the evolution of technology. He knows the ShuGods are not afraid to move and reminds them what Gira did for them in the past. So are they now going to just sit and watch them, their friends, all die?

At the same time, Gira declares himself the tyrant king of Shugoddam and vows to conquer the world. Just then Kuwagon perks up as do the other ShuGods. They fly into position just like in the legend. Gira henshins to King and easily finishes Iragajim.

Gira runs back inside the palace to meet the others and first greets Yanma who says he just gave the Shugods an order. But Gira says they told him Yanma called them friends.

Gira gives the lance another try, but it still doesn’t work.

Episode Thoughts

A good episode to have after last week’s breather. It takes things relatively slow, having Gira still needing to adjust to being the new king. All while the other Ohgers continue working for their own interests and at the same time offering up just the little pieces needed for them to work well as a team.

Nice dynamic growth for Yanma and his Takominchi.

The legend exposition was done much better this week as it didn’t feel like we were attending a university lecture in Chikyuu History 101 like previous weeks. Lol And the idea of the castle being a robo, was at least well-hinted at in both the series and even in the Racules minisodes. Not overtly, but it’s one of those things where you look back and go “Oh!!!!!!!”

It’s only been two weeks, but I already miss Racules. Lol Nice to see him pop up in fresh “flashbacks.” But I definitely hope his return will be a big deal for the season. There’s a lot of great potential there. And of course the Husty/Hasty/Hastee/Hasuti family drama/history will still be a major part of the season’s story.

I loved the shots after Daigorg smashed his pickaxe into the ground. Exciting practical effects which is definitely refreshing compared to the CGI and green screen stuff. I definitely noticed a moment where the CGI rubble jumped up off the ground just because the camera moved lol

Overall, a solid episode. For me so far, I don’t know that I have one specific episode I would point to as my favorite or the best. And that’s merely because the series’ serialized nature and its nonstop pace (save for last week) really pushes me to absorb everything as a whole rather than weekly pieces. So that is definitely an interesting feeling I haven’t had for either Sentai or Kamen Rider, I don’t think. But thinking that now only raises my expectations again for the end when I want to hold myself back from expecting too much! lol