Recap: No.1 Sentai Gozyuger, Episode 18 – Mystery GP! The Detective Is in the Village

The Gozyus find an Aryee dead by stabbing and Mystery No.1 appears to declare this a Tega Sword Village locked-room murder. They are all trapped in the café until the mystery is solved.

Sumino says this is her chance as a high-class, luxury detective to challenge Mystery No.1 in a battle.

They first establish that Hoeru, Kinjiro, Ryugi, and Rikuo were the only ones here in the morning. Mashiro suddenly crashes through the skylight into the café. The NoWan explains people cannot leave, but anyone can come in as they please.

Sumino can read people’s minds with her Ring power. But it doesn’t work on anyone also with a Ring. And when she touches the NoWan, he seems to worry about who the culprit might be as well.

Mashiro wants to take the lead in the investigation, belittling Sumino’s capabilities as a detective. She takes that personally and they challenge each other as well.

The three investigators take the four guys into the interrogation room to ask about their alibis.

Hoeru goes first and says he was working on his resume. Mashiro believes Hoeru’s motive could have been taking the Aryee’s head and melting it down for money.

Kinjiro says he was partying with darts in his room. Sumino says darts can be considered a weapon.

Rikuo was live on TikTok with his fans, but Mashiro doesn’t trust his handsome face.

Ryugi was writing a song for Tega Sword-sama and starts to sing it to prove that.

Kinjiro suddenly panics and says he worries he could be the next one killed. He would rather be alone so he leaves the interrogation room. But as soon as he heads outside, he dies.

Hoeru smells something and they hurry to find Fire Candle lighting a candle for his old drinking buddy. He prays for his friend and cries. But they think he is still very suspicious.

Ryugi uses his super strength to drag Fire Candle into the interrogation room. But as soon as the door closes, they both scream. The others hurry in and find them both dead.

They see Ryugi used his blood to write the number “72” on the table. But Sumino sees it’s actually katakana for “Kuma” as in “Kumade”.

Meanwhile, TegaSword has summoned GoodeBurn to ask why he has aligned with Mashiro. GoodeBurn says his Ring chose him and he trusts Mashiro. TegaSword warns him not to let his guard down around Mashiro.

GoodeBurn refuses to have anyone talk bad about Mashiro, even if it is Tega Sword.

Tega Sword says he knew Tega Naguru would be dangerous in this state. But GoodeBurn will not let Tega Sword push him around. He will live as he pleases from now on. And with Mashiro.

Back at the café, Mashiro can’t believe they would suspect him. Especially since he had arrived only after the murder. Rikuo says he didn’t want to mention it, but he did see some kind of a white shadow earlier.

Rikuo takes a sip of coffee and Hoeru sucks on a flower. And both suddenly drop dead.

Sumino goes behind the bar to see a bottle of poison. And not only that, the culprit had stepped in flour before touching it, leaving their prints.

Mashiro can’t believe it. Sumino officially points the finger at BearKuma.

BearKuma says he could never stab, punch, or poison an innocent person. Sumino points out that Kinjiro, Ryugi, and Fire Candle’s cause of death was never identified. So why mention a “punch”?

BearKuma is left speechless. Mashiro says he misjudged him. BearKuma says if Mashiro hates him, he might as well fry himself in the hot oil.

Mashiro calls BearKuma a criminal for rebelling against him, the soon to be god. BearKuma apologizes. But Sumino says deep down, BearKuma is not a bad person. She asks him to tell her his true feelings.

BearKuma explains that he started out as a simple toy. But with Mashiro’s Ring, he was given life. Since Mashiro could only use that power once, BearKuma recognized how precious doing that was. So BearKuma wanted to repay Mashiro. And that’s why he killed everyone.

Sumino says BearKuma’s heart was in the right place, but went about it all wrong. She offers they start over.

BearKuma cries and apologizes to Mashiro.

Sumino tells Mashiro that he is unfit to be an investigator here since they must always listen to the culprit and understand them rather than corner and intimidate. That’s why she is a high class detective and the winner of this challenge.

Mashiro understands and the NoWan declares this case closed. He releases everyone from the mystery world and everyone is alive again. Fire Candle has a happy reunion with his best bro Pat.

The NoWan, however, will not allow them to beat him in mystery solving. The Gozyus henshin and take on Aryees. Mashiro offers to help her for free in exchange for Sumino’s grace earlier.

Sumino takes on Mystery No.1 and figures his body’s design refers to Go-Onger. She uphenshins to Go-On Red and then finishes off the NoWan after releasing the human inside it.

GoodeBurn arrives and asks Mashiro to help him out from TegaSword. Mashiro hops in and asks BearKuma to fight alongside him once more. He is his one and only partner. GoodeBurn hops onto BearKuma.

Mashiro thanks Sumino for getting him one step closer to god status. Sumino hops into Tega Sword Black Rush Mode and faces off against Mashiro and GoodeBurn.

Mashiro says Sumino is not bad as they battle. Hoeru hops in to help out and he is able to knock GoodeBurn off of BearKuma. Mashiro refuses to lose to Hoeru.

But suddenly, Black Daizyuzin arrives and is powered up by Rings of Engine-O, GaoKing and ShinkenOh. Black Daizyuzin shoots at both Hoeru and Mashiro.

Episode Thoughts

I hope I did not make a mistake in watching Gozyuger first today. I might need Gozyuger after Gavv to make me feel better or cheer me up. But that’s okay. Lol

To be honest, this was just an okay episode of Gozyuger for me. It was fun and amusing. But I think a lot of the episode went over my head. That, or I’m just eagerly anticipating Gavv‘s episode today so I’m not too focused on the Gozyus lol

I did think it would be a Sumino focus, but we got some more Mashiro focus as well. And great to even get some character insight into both GoodeBurn and BearKuma. Which you might not usually expect. I mean, some seasons barely develop the main team, let alone the mecha and weapons as characters lol

But as it has been, it will be interesting to know more about Tega Sword and his Tega family lol

The murder mystery, which surprisingly only took up half the episode (it felt like longer lol), was a good way to just showcase the group dynamic. Mashiro included. At least that’s what I took away most from it. The boys were killed off early. But Sumino and Mashiro being the last ones standing allowed the show to contrast them. And even Mashiro from the other Gozyus as well. And Fire Candle included. Especially after last week when we saw initially Sumino liked seeing Mashiro’s high class lifestyle.

I mean, it’s all little, shallow stuff on the surface. But I think it’s important in the sense that it helped roll out more of how this team’s dynamic works. Rivals, but also can work as a team when needed. Competitive, but it doesn’t take over their lives. They don’t make the competition for Rings their entire personalities. Lol

And like I’ve harped on every week, that’s a dynamic I really appreciate on this season.

Good action in the end. And again, fun stuff with the “mystery”. But overall, just an okay episode for me. I guess it sets up Hoeru and Mashiro coming together next week. But the ep doesn’t reach the heights of most of the other episodes of Gozyuger. But that doesn’t mean this episode was bad at all. Good on its own, but maybe not as much oomph as the recent weeks.