Summary: Haruto and the gang work to try and track down Manami, but the Gnome Phantom is also waiting to sniff her out

Aquagaze’s Thoughts: As per what can almost be considered tradition already, the second and final episode of this little arc featured another nice “Wow, I did not see that coming” moment. Manami’s backstory and resolution were well-thought out, and even the clever ending contained a nice little moral. Even Haruto himself showed some nice determination and the Phantom of the week did a great job at being an utter douche. Sadly enough, his positively malicious-looking human form was gravely underused. I’d like to see some more “who-is-the-Phantom?” plot lines in the future, rather than the fact that the Phantoms having human alter egos no longer being relevant after the first episode.

The battle scenes this week saw Wizard dishing out some kickass wrestling moves, and Haruto himself even came into action unmorphed. It is quite obvious that unlike some other toku heroes, his actor has had no real training in martial arts, but his sudden attack on the Phantom was pretty awesome, especially the drop from the window that followed after. The battle sequence with the pipes, as seen above, was another hilarious instance of Wizard‘s clever direction. Heck, even BIG made a reappearance, together with another new power that might just be Wizard’s most gimmicky power to date: SMELL. I’d be surprised if we ever see that one again, but it sure made for some great jokes this week.

Dragonzigg’s Thoughts: There wasn’t anything particularly shocking about the denouement to this plotline – it turns out that Manami was really a good person after all, hurt by a traumatic event in her past – but Wizard executes well on the basic idea and this episode is full of neat little scenes. There’s a surprising amount of cinematic flair here as well, from the Phantom’s tower-top meeting to Haruto’s battle with the Phantom shot through dozens of pipes. It’s a pleasant surprise for a show whose style often might be deemed workmanlike at best.

One could argue Manami’s motivation is a little shallow, and there’s a pretty major plothole involved (if her father was ruined by a con-artist, why did she become…a con-artist?) but it nevertheless delivers a satisfying emotional punch and the confrontation between Manami, Haruto and the Phantom inside the burning house was an excellently staged one, helped by the fact that Toei have gotten significantly better with their CGI fire (it’s still not good though). I also like the ending – at first I thought Manami’s rich boyfriend was just going to buy her the house and they’d live happily ever after, but buying the house and promising to look after it until she can buy it from him, it delivers a happy ending but also one that’s more responsible and acknowledging of her misdeeds. Good stuff writers.

Action wise, as Aqua mentioned there’s some good stuff this week, with the window jump (if we over look the janky CGI glass) an impressive bit of stuntwork. While the SMELL ring is an obvious gimmick it makes for a couple of pretty decent jokes, and it’s nice to see BIG making a reappearance. Wizard’s spinning drill kick was pretty awesome too, although we’ve had quite a lot of that recently with Fourze. Next week looks like it’ll be a major arc, as after his truly epic tantrum Phoenix takes to the battlefield himself, the elusive Wiseman makes an appearance and the discovery of a new magic stone suggest we’re about to get the first of many powerups.