Recap: Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger, Episode 42 – The Secrets of King Racules

While Dagded is wrapped up, Racules tells Gira it’s time to save the universe. A confused Gira wishes for some answers, but Racules says not to think about it. Their priority at the moment is to defeat Dagded.

Gira gets up and stands by his brother.

At the castle, Suzume runs to Kaguragi saying they need to help King Racules. Kaguragi assures her that Gira is with him and they are fighting together. Suzume asks they strengthen their defenses then in order to protect the peoples.

Kaguragi calls the other Ohgers and decides it’s time to tell them Racules’ story.

It was 17 years ago when Dagded sat on the newly-crowned king Racules’ back, mocking him and taunting him. Dagded said Racules’ father bored him and now he’s dead.

Racules popped up, but Dagded warned him not to try anything stupid. It was at this moment Racules decided he must stoop down to the levels of pure evil in order to eventually defeat Dagded.

For a first step, Racules hoped to harness the power of KingOhger. Though originally, the purpose was to defeat the eventual arrival of the Bugnarak in order to keep up appearances with Dagded. All while in the meantime, Racules would secretly get stronger.

Unfortunately, Gira’s arrival on that fateful day threw a wrench into Racules’ plans. The power inherited from Dagded awakened in Gira. But for Racules, it was too soon. In response, Racules developed Kingohger Zero, an artificial god that could not be controlled by Dagded.

But Gira eventually destroyed Kingohger Zero, thus thwarting another plan.

Racules felt that the power attained by Gira is exactly what he had been looking for. His main desire has been to make Gira stronger in order to defeat Dagded. Everything he has done so far, including entrusting everything he had developed so far, has been to help Gira.

Kaguragi tells the other kings that his original aim was to use Racules, but it instead became the other way around. Kaguragi first realized something was up on the day of Suzume and Racules’ wedding. He had told Suzume that there was still a chance to back out. But Suzume said she trusts Racules and believes he is also a man for the people. She asked Kaguragi to remain unbiased and not let his feelings dictate the situation.

Kaguragi did not understand at the time, but instead merely followed what Suzume would tell him to do. Suzume had found a message from Racules asking that if she was prepared to go to hell for the sake of the peoples, would she like to help him.

When Gira challenged Racules to a duel, Racules felt that was the perfect time to further his goal of eventually having little brother ascend to the throne. That duel allowed Gira to gain favor with the peoples, the Ohgers and even some enemies. And Gira did that not through words, but his own actions.

Racules felt Gira was ready to take the throne, but he was afraid of a spy after seeing how the human-Bugnarak war had escalated. So that paused Racules’ plan to have Gira take over. That is, until Kamejim had revealed himself to be the spy. So during the duel, Racules decided to intentionally lose to Gira instead of trying to win it. In this way, he would be able to expose himself to the people and allow Gira to take over as king of Shugoddam with the support of the people.

After having fallen off the cliff, Suzume rushed to find him. Racules said he cannot die yet. And he is fortunate Gira either missed his vital organs, or Gira was so naïve and still did not try to finish him off for good.

Suzume arrives with an anesthetic given to her by Kaguragi. Racules says it would allow him to feign death, the next part of the plan. Racules asks Suzume if she’s okay with potentially being branded a traitor of humanity by her doing this.

Suzume says she is happy to be getting a good look at Racules after such a long time. Racules says Suzume is the best thing to have happened to his life and she offers to give him the anesthetic through mouth to mouth.

They both laugh as Racules takes the vial and drinks the anesthetic. The drug shut his body down and allowed for a public funeral to take place. Again, completing Gira’s ascension to the throne.

Meanwhile, Suzume would continue relaying the necessary information to the Ohgers while Racules would begin secretly communicating with Dagded, using the throne’s 2000 years of loyalty and servitude to solidify Dagded’s trust in him.

Kaguragi says all of this helped strengthen his own resolve against their immortal enemy.

And now Racules finally has that immortal-killing power. Dagded tries to kill both Husty Bros with a huge ball of flames. But Gira pushes Racules out of the way and absorbs the meteoric attack himself.

Dagded grabs Gira and repeatedly kicks and punches him. Racules recalls how he intentionally pushed Gira to hate him in order for him to become a king with true strength. This is all that an evil king will need to do.

Dagded readies deadly arrows right at Racules. He is unfortunately badly injured by the arrows and admits that he is weak. The people who are afraid to fight on their own are merely cowards.

Racules is forced to dehenshin and he falls to the ground. “I leave everything to you Gira,” Racules says as he tosses his calibur into the air. Dagded swats it away and laughs. But Gira comes flying in to slash at him. With Dagded’s attention on Gira, Racules is able to jam his lance right into Dagded’s back.

Racules says it is time to end this cycle of death and violence. The Husty Bros use their all they’ve got against Dagded.

Gira proclaims that he will do anything, including disgracing his name, stain himself with blood and become a tyrant in order to save people. He is Gira Husty and he declares that he will rule the world.

With a Lord Finish, Dagded explodes. Gira shields his brother from the huge explosion while Dagded laughs away.

Gira is also forced to dehenshin.

Racules is relieved that it appears to truly be over now.

Gira stumbles toward Racules who demands he vow here and now to always save the peoples.

If Gira says he can’t, Racules will take back the throne. But Gira declares that he is Shugoddam’s king who will carry on Racules’ will.

Racules flashes back to the last time he had hugged his little brother.

Racules lowers his sword, smiles and lets out a chuckle in relief. “頑張れ,” he says to Gira before he loses consciousness.

Gira catches his brother before he falls to the ground. Gira calls Racules his “oniichan”.

The other Ohgers arrive and Hymeno quickly checks on Racules. She says she is the only one who can treat him. She asks Jeramie to stop the bleeding with some webbing. He says Racules still has a lot of story to tell.

Yanma says N’Kosopa is developing artificial organs and Racules can be their guinea pig. Kaguargi carries Racules in his arms, saying he will not allow him to die without getting something in return.

Gira is surprised they would help Racules for him. But Rita says it is their responsibility as Ohgers to save lives.

Episode Thoughts

A wonderful episode!

I’ll get the whining out of the way first. Like I mentioned last week, I love this destination. I’m not fully satisfied with how we got here. I really think they should’ve played up the tension and rivalry between Gira and Racules more. Rather than “kill” Racules off for most of the season.

I get his keikaku of needing Gira to ascend the throne. But whether before his fall off the cliff or after he returned as Dagded’s pet dog, seeing more Husty Bro conflict and maybe even more conflict vs. the other Ohgers would make Racules’ 17-year plan even more grand and tragic.

Anyway, I guess it just goes along with my main problem with the season. And that is its penchant for speeding through its great ideas. Whether acting like they are in such a hurry to get every single good idea they came up with done and over with. Or their want to just tell us their good ideas instead of letting us see and absorb all their good ideas.

That’s a little bit how I felt watching the episode. Here we go again with having a storytime to tell us everything we need to know and how to feel.

Still, it doesn’t take away from the main idea of this plot thread. And that is Racules’ sacrifice to save the world. What I like best, other than the Husty Bro piece of the puzzle, is how Racules’ actions fit in perfectly with the idea that every king has their own way of doing things. Even if all the kings have the same goals, they will go about achieving those goals in their own way.

All the kings will do whatever it takes to protect and advance their own peoples. But each of them will have different philosophies and strategies. And each of them makes their own decisions, even to their own detriment, so long as their responsibility of doing good for their people is accomplished.

That’s certainly Racules’ grand plan in a nutshell. Taking on the weight on your own shoulders instead of burdening anyone else with it. It’s your responsibility as king and leader of your peoples. And Racules definitely had to not only give up so much, but need to carefully thread the needle while his younger brother did his best to screw everything up lol

What I hope to see in the next episode is more on Racules’ love and care for his younger brother. I think this episode showed that the scene we saw early in the season with Racules encouraging and being hopeful with his little brother was true and sincere. So I would like to see the show explore that dynamic more next week. How hard was it for Racules to be apart from Gira. How hard was it to fight against him. How hard was it to experience Gira hating him. And on the flipside, how does Gira feel knowing the truth. And is there also a part of them both that is hesitant about actually laying the burden on Gira?

And speaking of, what caused the separation in the first place. Perhaps Racules needing to keep Gira away from the castle while ensuring his plan was successful. I would like to see them address that initial separation. And at least, have some closure between the Husty Bros before we head into the endendgame.

We’ll see what happens. But like I said, this episode, on its own was wonderful. I love good ol’ brotherly angst. And the final scene between Gira and Racules really helped to redeem most of the problems I may have with how we got here.

Out of Studio Locations of the Week

This scene! It made everything worth it! And even better having it actually outside instead of in front of a greenscreen!