Recap: Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger, Episode 43 – The Overlord’s Deadly Sin

While the remaining Jesters work on something regarding breaking a seal, Rita has Racules stand trial for conspiring with Dagded to invade Chikyuu and commit genocide. But she offers the possibility that Racules did all that to save the Chikyuuians and defeat Dagded.

Racules begins to explain that their family had feigned loyalty to Dagded in order to wait for the right time to strike. The turning point happened during the reign of his father, Causus Husty. In exchange for that 2000 year loyalty, King Causus asked Dagded for a destructive power. That is when Dagded waved his finger and impregnated the queen.

The queen died while giving birth to Gira. King Causus regarded him as a miracle baby, but kept his existence a secret outside of the castle due to the inexplicable circumstances. Racules, however, regards Gira as his one and only brother.

While Racules is telling his story, Gira gets a phone call from a now-elderly Douga. The people of Chikyuu have flipped their ages. The old have become young and the young have become old. Minongan oversees the chaos that has been brought about by breaking the seal and revels in the impending death of all involved.

Yanma tells the others he was able to copy the programming from Racules’ sword, so they can kill the unkillable without any problems. The Ohgers, except Rita, hurry back to Shugoddam. But they also grow younger by many years.

A still relatively adult Kaguragi leads the kids into a henshin to take on Minongan.

Meanwhile, Racules continues relating history to Rita. By orders of King Causus, Racules had once served rainbow jururira to Gira when he was a child. Gira thought it was a delicious treat, but in reality it was the soul of God Kuwagata’s ShuGod. King Causus said Gira is nothing but a tool to defeat Dagded and accomplish their family’s 2000 year wish.

All this is information Racules should have learned only on the day of his coronation, but King Causus was sick and time was running out.

In Shugoddam, Gira is able to slash at Minongan, returning him to his true age. But he suddenly collapses and begins to regain his memories from his childhood. He flashes back to the day of the jururira when he had also collapsed. Boshimar was there to catch him. But Kamejim, disguised as a soldier, was there and ready to take the boy. This is when Kamejim eventually killed Boshimar to assume his body.

Afterwards, Gira regained consciousness, but also lost all his memories. And he stormed the castle with a sword just as King Causus had been revealing everything to Racules. King Causus says the more insect souls Gira ingests, the closer he becomes to actually becoming one. Gira will forget everything, including the fact that he is human. And that is all in order for him to become an obedient tool in defeating Dagded.

King Causus had said that they have no future if they don’t defeat Dagded. And they must use Gira to fight him. Racules refuses to lose his brother. But King Causus said that if Racules understands what it means to lose a family member, he must think about the tens of thousands of families who would feel the same. King Causus makes clear that this is part of the king’s responsibility.

Racules refuses to acknowledge Gira is merely a tool. King Causus watches as Racules grabs Gira’s hand and runs out of the castle. He says he too wishes he could protect his family.

Outside, Racules promised to become king and protect Gira. He hugs his little brother tightly, vowing Gira will stay being Gira.

Back in the present, Gira finally remembers and realizes his brother had been protecting him all along.

Back in the courtroom, Racules continues to explain how Kamejim, now as Boshimar, had been able to learn of King Causus’ plans against Dagded. King Causus faced off against Gurodi and was able to use OhgerCalibur to henshin to Oh Kuwagata(r) Ohger. King Causus did not survive that battle.

Rita points out that officially, King Causus’ death was reported as being due to illness. But Racules assures what he is telling her is true.

After this, the Wrath of God happened and Racules became king. He could not do anything but watch many people die. That is when Racules decided he too had to become evil in order to continue moving toward their family’s desire to be free.

Racules had sent Gira to an orphanage in order to hide him from Dagded and out of his desire to keep him safe. But Gira himself had chosen to fight. And Racules takes comfort in the fact that Gira’s own freewill led him to that decision.

Racules requests Rita erase everything he’s just told her off the record. He does not want it to serve as justification for anything he has done or to draw pity for him. He would prefer to be remembered as a terrible, evil king. Rita understands and issues her verdict. He is guilty and will receive the death penalty.

However, Rita says the victims have deemed that punishment insufficient.

The other Ohgers arrive having returned to their true ages and after slicing Minongan open. Unfortunately, out of Minongan popped out a resurrected Dagded. Dagded reminds them that he is the creator of all and can even recreate himself.

So now, Rita will grant Racules a postponement of his sentence and other Ohgers condemn Racules to live with his sins while serving as their tool to defeat Dagded. Gira steps forward and says Racules’ answer should be obvious if he really cares about the lives of the peoples.

Racules, obviously, has no problem with their offer as he had already devoted his life to saving peoples.

Gira declares that is indeed a king’s responsibility. And that people will always reach out to protect those important to them. So now, this is the opportunity for Racules to fulfill that mission.

The Husty Bros take each other’s hand.

Episode Thoughts

Finally! The truth is revealed. And in the most King-Ohger way possible. Lol

I’ll get to the nitpicking first. This episode overall felt like a recap of something else. Like perhaps a movie telling the story of the Husty Family. And we were seeing the usual thing Toei does by doing quick flashbacks in-series to reference something that happened in a theatrical release that they want to include in the main story, but most people have not seen yet. You know?

But that’s how King-Ohger is. They like to fill in the blanks for us instead of with us. So instead of a “OMG so that’s how it happened!”, for me it’s more “Oh, that’s really interesting.” And so I wish I were more excited and blown away. And that applies to a lot of the good ideas the season has had.

Sandwiched between Jeramie and Kaguragi/Yanma, Racules has probably been my favorite character of the season. Which is why I was disappointed when they killed him off so soon. I felt like there was a lot of potential for good story with him being the perceived antagonist/puppet. Especially when it relates to Gira’s own story and the way the season explored the different ruling styles and personality of each Ohger.

So when it comes to Gira, I feel now like between Racules’ first death and this revelation about his past, there wasn’t much movement for him as a character. And that makes me feel like there was a lot of wasted potential and time for him. Maybe it didn’t feel that way while watching. But looking back now, it somehow feels like such a long time of buffering for some reason. I dunno. I enjoyed most of the second group of focus eps for the other Ohgers post-Kyoryutopia. But maybe the season’s awkward pacing really affected how I’ve absorbed the overall story.

Anyway, for this episode, I could’ve done without the unnecessary comedy bit with the kids. Though an episode where the Ohgers all reverted back to children would’ve been a fun mid-30s episode. Especially if they connected it to their backstories too.

But the other Ohgers’ involvement wasn’t that interesting to me. Instead, I would’ve preferred to have focused just on the Husty Family and getting more with Racules and Gira. Wonderful moments with both the younger and adult versions of the Husty Bros. That’s why I wanted moar!

Could’ve even done a full-on flashback episode to the Day of Jururira. Are they saving it for a TTFC episode? lol But really, all those scenes with the father and sons were so good. Dramatic, exciting, emotional. That’s the kind of stuff I wish there were more of. And how much more impactful if the show had spent the 20s and 30s building up to these revelations with more conflict between the brothers. And between the Ohgers and Racules too.

Because to be honest, it wasn’t really a surprise that Racules wasn’t “evil”. At least to me, if only because I held on to two moments that really stuck with me from the early third of the season. That is of course, the scene between young Racules and young Gira and then Racules holding back from fatally injuring Gira in that one battle. Really, it was more of my stubbornness that made me keep hoping for some grand, emotional story about brothers and family. Or perhaps it’s my Kobayashi-biased self that has made me look for such epic stories in every toku season I watch lol

Anyway, I loved the parts of this episode that dealt with the Husty Family. Most especially those flashbacks. And seeing more of the Husty Bros. It’s kind of crazy to think there’s still seven episodes though. So we’ll see what shenanigans the season has left in the tank.