Level E 12-13 – FINAL

The series has just gone full circle when it decided to return the setting to Yukitaka and co.! Anyways, in this episode, the Prince is going marriage woes as his brother is trying to force him to get married with some chick he was introduced via webcam! Later we learned that she is an impostor and wants Prince to marry her for the sake of their moon’s freedom!

If there is one thing that I loved about the last two episodes asides from the random pop culture references (Lion King, Transformers, etc.) is the fact that the Prince finally met his match in the form of Princess Luna. As we all know, the Prince has a hobby of destroying lives (from Yukitaka’s, to the Color Rangers and most especially, Craft’s) and mastered the art of trolling and Luna was able to actually outsmart the Prince, an attempt that Craft made in the previous episodes which utterly failed.

What’s more is the plot twist at the end of the arc was fantastic! So fantastic that I didn’t saw it coming! This gives me more reasons to recommend this anime to most people! Damn you Shonen Jump, why did you cancel this comic years ago? This is so epic!

Overall, it was one heck of a final arc. What’s more is that the series ended with all the aliens living on Earth and aliens visiting on Earth making themselves present in front of the Earthlings! If there is one thing that I am really impressed with in this arc is the fact that the arc is more like a battle of wits between a psychotic Princess and a trolling Prince… which is awesome!

Now that I am done with all Winter 2011 titles, I will now start watching the Spring 2011 line-up! Series that I am planning to review are: X-Men, Nichijou, Ao no Exorcist, Tiger & Bunny, [C], Deadman Wonderland and some select episodes of Toriko which I will do once I find a stable internet connection! Expect that I will review the first five episodes in one post!

Level E 11 - Field of Dreams!

Before the series ends (will review the last two episodes on a single post once my source releases ep 13) and since this is Japan, we have a baseball-related episode! But this is not just any baseball-themed episode, we are back with Yukitaka, now with his teammates!

Probably the weakest episode in the entire series, in short filler. It is basically that they are in a space created by someone thoughts because he or she is in stress due to the championships. So why I decided to talk about it? Simply because that Yukitaka is back and the Prince is here to troll Yukitaka for good times sake... well, supposed to be until this whole fiasco happen! Also, those baseball loving Disconians are back. So yeah. That is the only thing that is special in this episode.

Overall, the only thing that is interesting in this episode asides from the ones mentioned above is the concept about that there are supernatural forces existing in the Level E Universe that is not aliens. Period.

Level E 10 – The Return of the ColorRangers!

... along with an alien mermaid!

In this episode, the ColorRangers makes their return and this time around, they met an alien mermaid who has a really cool ability of using her tongue to kill someone who is lying to her… and they will help her from the aliens who are abusing her! But behind the scenes, Blue and Yellow are having problems with their friendship since Blue is going to America!

First things first, unlike most episodes of Level E, the Prince NEVER made an appearance in this episode! No seriously, I was expecting that he will troll us at the end of the episode like what he did in the show’s fourth episode prior to the ColorRanger Arc, but no, not a strand of his hair was seen in this episode, and for that, I salute the writers!

Because the Prince never had any involvement in this episode, let’s get down to business. First thing that I noticed is that the quintet never teleported to the RPG planet that the Prince made, in short that have finished their quest in that planet and now, they can return back to their normal lives.

Good, now we can focus on each character. As we all know, Blue and Yellow are the best of friends, and now, Blue is about to move to another country due to his dad’s work. The chemistry between the two is one of the good things in this episode, it stands out and at the same time, they experimented one of the concept that Super Sentai is known for, fights within the team. Their fights together as a team while fighting the antagonist alien was awesome it was strong.

As for the plot of this episode, it felt like a good written Super Sentai episode. They were able to explore all the characters involved in this episode without cluttering every detail and make it hard to understand. The mermaid’s back story was really good, the background behind the poachers was really good, and how they were able to fool the mermaid who has the ability to kill those who are lying was genius.

Asides from that, we saw more of the team’s overall chemistry and that Red is starting not to act like the team leader like what he did in most episodes that involved the ColorRangers, but what he did is that he act more as the team’s heart. Asides from that, we saw more of their alien teacher’s assassin skills as she secretly helped the ColorRangers in this mission.

Overall, it is one of the strong episodes in the entire series. Strong story wise and character wise due to how they explore the characters in this episode and make this parody Super Sentai into something serious, and it is quite admirable!

Level E 09 – Love me tender

This calls for a Phoenix Wright reference!

In this episode, we learned that the guy from the previous episode is really a she! Also, we learned that Princess Saki is actually smarter and decisive than our men in black, and she is as dedicated about love as ever.

Well, except for this one.

This is one of the rare episodes that the Prince actually never trolls us, no seriously, he doesn’t troll us. Instead, he is helpful with everyone and actually has plans on saving the human race in every way. The closest thing we have for a Prince troll is in the last few minutes of this episode in which he tells Craft the OTHER method on saving Mikihisa… and he was traumatized.

The concept regarding Mikihisa is quite similar to Gen Otoda, a character that Togashi created prior to Yu Yu Hakusho, which was rejected and decided to place him at first volume of the Yu Yu Hakusho manga in one of his notes. Wondering who he is, he is a dude who looks like a lady and cross dresses! Yes, Togashi thought up of a character that cross dresses. Back to Mikihisa, I agree with Craft said, s/he is immature both as a man and as a woman. She tries to push herself with a girl who doesn’t like her, and easily fells for people who accepts her as she is even without knowing them well.

As for the plot in this episode, it was unpredictable, at first I was thinking that with desperation, they would kill Mikihisa since she has the virus and the only way to save our planet is too kill the source since they can’t inject a vaccine, but no, the Prince has a plan in his sleeve. It was something amazing, especially on how Craft explained it and that there is another plan that the Prince thought which is something amazing that Craft’s mind was blown away on how many intergalactic laws they will break! Also, the Princess being smarter than the men in black was a big surprise.

Overall, unlike the other episodes that are three-parters, they were able to execute the plot well in two episodes. Asides from the action in the previous episode, the fact that the Princess Saki’s character is something surprising in this last part of the arc, seriously, I was surprised that she was able to out smart the Prince’s men!

As for Craft in this episode and in the entire arc overall, he shined well in this arc along with some of his men. Sure, he retains the same personality but other aspects about his character shined, like how dedicated he is about his job and that he can actually cooperate with the Prince well even if it means it would ruin his life.

Anyways, in the next episode, the ColorRangers are back and now, they will help a race of mermaid aliens!

Level E 08 – A Love Story… with Aliens!

Yes, our planet is doomed thanks to raging hormones...

In this episode, we have more Craft and less Prince and an alien princess whose race has a reputation of killing the race of their mate after his entire race turned into women! It is all thanks to some virus being spread by the queen… and one unlucky man who has just been dumped by his best friend (I understand how you feel, man) and meets this princess. Yes, the fate of the entire human race lies with some guy doing a deed with some hot alien chick, and Craft and his men are about to stop it from happening.

Prince being not in this episode is good because it lessens the chances that he will troll us at the end of this episode… in a comical note. In a serious note, with Prince not being around in this episode gives other characters to shine, to be exact Craft and Colin and that guy with glasses.

Craft in this episode, under the Prince’s orders must protect Earth by any means. And the current threat to Earth’s extinction is about two people with raging chromosomes doing the deed (remember, O: R is a R-13 blog, so yeah)… and he had problems with stopping them. Yep, this is Craft all right. As for Colin, he is the youngest from the trio and is the one who is a bit of a romantic type from the three and so, he adds up to the problem of their mission for the Princess not to find her mate.

As for the couple, Princess Saki and that guy, they are just a bunch of teens with raging hormones that met for the first time and fell for each other and will do anything for love. In short, those shallow couples who often break up after they saw their own weaknesses and get often in marriage problems. But since she is an alien princess, it will not happen since the guy will lose his Y chromosomes and be turned into a woman.

As for the episode’s plot, it was fun. I mean, the fate of the world lies with some guy not mating with some alien princess?! How fun is that? What adds with the problem is that both of them have raging hormones and they will do anything for love… and three (or two) guys will stop them to prevent the end of the world. Oh, Togashi, why can’t you came up with those cheesy plots in Hunter x Hunter?

Overall, it is not one of the funniest episodes but it is one of the smartly executed episodes around. The execution of the plot along with the problems with two teens having raging chromosomes mating… and will cause the end of the world. The focus of Craft and his team is one of things that I have been waiting for since the day he arrived here on Earth and we have got the chance to see how well coordinate their team was, well that is the case with Craft and that guy with glasses. As for Colin, he was a lovesick puppy, so yeah, he wasn’t that helpful.

Level E 07 – Game Over?

It seems that Gokaiger's Doc now has competition...

Finally, the ColorRanger Arc is near to its completion! In this episode, the ColorRangers will face General Luci, who wants to marry Princess Apparel who turned out to be its our idiot Prince cross-dressing! Will the ColorRangers beat this game and return to Earth now that the Prince is willing to help them finish it since even if he is the creator of this game he is not under control?

It has the same feel with the third episode! Just like the third episode, they will give you this assumption that it will end in something climatic but no, they will instead do a twist that is not related to the events… and I love it! Did it worked for the second time? Yes, it worked well with the RPG elements of this arc. Like the third episode, I will not tell you the twist since it is the cherry on top of this episode. Now I am starting to wonder, why the hell this wasn’t turned into an anime back in the 90’s?! Oh, I suddenly remembered how un-Togashi the art looked like.

As for the RPG elements, they actually played well with it and placed real world elements in it such as restarts the game system and the things you like to do if you had a hard time ending the game and you have plans of starting over. As for the use of Dragon Quest as the major RPG reference, it proves how popular the game is in Japan.

For the Sentai elements in this episode, it never had barely Sentai elements in it. The only Sentai elements in this episode are the poses and the finisher… that caused me to get pissed since the eye catches gave us a glimpse of a giant robot and a bazooka. That was just a minor nitpicking as a Sentai fan, but hey, because of the major RPG elements of this episode and the twist, I ignored it!

Overall, this is one good episode. If I will compare it to the other end of the arc episode, by far, it has the most amount of twist that even if I thought the final twist would end this arc, I was wrong. Oh Prince, you really love trolling the viewers! Anyways, Prince cross-dressing in this episode is weird. Seriously, he is good at dressing us as a girl! As for the overall twist and turns, it is something that surprisingly, Togashi is good at! I hope that in the later arc/s, he would not lose his luster in doing this same quality of plot twist!

Level E 06 – Denshoki Sentai… ColorRanger!

It seems that evil Kraft is not actually their final boss since he simply cooperated with them and gave the key! Anyways, our heroes thought that this is over until they are stuck in a planet faraway from Earth called, Calvary which is one of Prince’s other RPG planets! Now inside Demon Lord Quest VII (An obvious pun of Dragon Quest and if you feel bored, Final Fantasy VII), what will the ColorRangers do? Will they reach the proper level to beat the game?

The top part is just an introduction, anyways, here’s the review. The first few minutes of the episode was a bit boring, till we saw those aliens who are addicted to baseball watching a game! Yep, the following scenes will not be boring. About the overall part of the first half of the episode, it is obvious that Craft won’t fight them (Just make fighting sounds with Blue and Yellow), instead he just hands the key and betrayed the Prince!

The best part in the first half is when the four tried unlocking the braces. It turned out that they need to say the names of their crushes! Poor White, he needs to recite all of them! Yep, he has many crushes. Wondering who doesn’t want to remove the brace? Obviously, Red because he is addicted with it and at the start of the episode on level 10 while at the end of the first half, at level 15!

The second half of the series is when they started getting addicted with the RPG and now, forget all their human dignity and lived up with what most Sentai heroes do, do funky poses and scream their henshin catchphrase! This is when the episode became so much fun to watch! Seriously, the scene where Blue summons Battle Pocari and Yellow summons Battle Light is too funny!

Since this episode has a lot of RPG elements such as NPC’s who always mentions the same words over and over again and leveling, obviously, our heroes before heading to the castle decides to do some quest to raise their respective levels to something higher than level 30, which caused them to get addicted with the game! And yes, our heroes get the hang of it, and after every battle, they always get their does of Battle Pocari, courtesy of Blue!

Overall, this is one fun episode, not the best so far (3 and 4 are the best episodes in my opinion) but one fun episode. Seeing Craft and co. back for a very short while is fun to see, especially when Craft does his trademark punches. Asides from that, this is when the amount of Sentai and RPG elements starting to increase. Finally! This arc is starting to look and feel like a parody of Super Sentai and RPG! At the end of the episode, all of them have reached a level above 30, with Black reaching level 71!

At the next episode, their quest continues and starts doing a reference to Turboranger! So Togashi-sensei watched Turboranger back then…