Nightmare Fuel / Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger

Now that's how to make Kirby's appetite look tame...

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• #1: "The Thieves Everyone’s Talking About":
  • The first Gangler we see is running an illegal casino where losing all your money leads to the Gangler harvesting the loser’s organs! And the episode implies this has been going on for a while! This is just the first Monster of the Week for the series!
  • Unlike most Super Sentai antagonists, the Gangler are perfectly capable of taking on human disguises and blending into society.
  • The fact that the Lupinrangers are fully willing to sacrifice each other if it means one of them survives to fulfill their dream. It's a stunning revelation considering the nature of Sentai. Sure it's because collecting the Lupin Collection means they can, presumably, revive both their lost loved ones and the fallen Lupinrangers, but it's still unsettling to know that they're fully willing to die for their ambitions.
• #2: "Global Police, Find Them!":
  • We see the circumstances that led to the Lupinrangers accepted Kogure's offer, and it's... not pretty. A strange monster in a wide-rimmed hat used some sort of ice power to freeze a bunch of people. Among the monster's victims are Kairi's older brother, Touma's fiance, and Umika's friend. Unfortunately, this isn't Harmless Freezing. Seemingly within minutes of being frozen, the monster's victims all shatter into pieces. It's no wonder the thieves are so interested in having their wish granted.
  • Adding onto this is what we see of the mystery monster's attitude when it attacks. The monster passes right by Kairi and seemingly ignores Umika, whistling as it comes and goes. This wasn't just some random rampage— the monster seemed to pick and choose its victims, bringing to mind a very cold mindset.
  • Kairi's reaction to his brother shattering deserves a mention, too. He lets out a very anguished scream and seemingly breaks down. Asahi Itou's performance is pretty chilling, and it's aided by the screen being tinted red during his freak-out.
• #3: "We Will Get Them Back!":
  • While it is played for laughs in this episode, the Lupinrangers deliberately led the Patrangers into a Gangler's trap just to confirm the trap and get them out of their way while they pursue the Lupin Collection Piece. Consider that there are more dangerous Gangler out there and the Lupinrangers could be leading the Patrangers into something that could get them killed.
  • Goodie Striker is absolutely terrified of Kogure that he tries to flee the moment he hears his name. For what reasons is Goodie Striker so terrified of the butler?
• #4: "An Unacceptable Relationship": The Monster of the Week is a human trafficker, and even worse is that his modus operandi seems specifically targeted towards children, and even the elderly are not safe from this. At one point Gauche even asks Dograino to buy her some so she can experiment on them. Considering the first Gangler was running a rigged casino as an organ harvesting operation, if Gauche actually got her humans the results would likely not be pretty.
• #7: "Always Saved":
  • The Monster of the Week uses his Collection Piece to expand his stomach to eat people. Complete with digestive fluids in the form of a mist. Kairi, Touma and the Monster's previous victims (Which includes a mother and child pair) have to hold themselves on top of the tables that got dragged in with them to avoid being melted alive. However, it's clear they don't have long when one of the tables collapse and nearly drop the child into the acid.
  • And he hit at least one restaurant before we see him in the episode. And no points for guessing what happened to those poor souls.
  • Kogure's line about the VS Vehicles. It becomes clear that he doesn't care an iota about Kairi and the others, outside of their mission. It also makes one concerned about if he's going to keep his word...
• #8: "The Phantom Thieves' Identities":
  • It's confirmed that Gauche performs human experimentation to amuse herself. Not for some nefarious purpose or to further the Ganglers' goals. Just because she can.
  • And here's another bit for you to mull over: Remember how the Lupinrangers lost loved ones a year ago? Well in this episode, we learn that the police think, because there is no trace of corpses or evidences to be claimed as murders, the incident was just a mass disappearance! Imagine, if you will, that someone you loved was murdered, but the police only think they've gone missing; no wonder Kairi and Touma don't trust the police.
• #10: "It's Not Over Yet": Zamigo's attitude in the whole episode. He is clearly nonchalant about killing people, simply laugh it off, and he definitely had some skills to back it up. He managed to shot Kairi's hat as the thief only about to shoot him. The duel gives a vibe that Zamigo only played around with Kairi, and let him go simply because 'he likes him'.
• #13: "Worse and Best Holiday": Because the girls had to team up after getting chained together, they both attempted to take out the Gangler by using each other. However during a moment where they collided into each other, the Gangler went into a full slash, and to protect herself, Lupin Yellow restrained Patren #3 to take the full force of the blow. Fortunately it was a trick between the two (Lupin Yellow had handed Patren #3 her mask as protection and because the Patrangers have a more protective suit) and Lupin Yellow managed to score the collection piece in the confusion. Thus everything hinged on Patren #3 knowing her plan without Lupin Yellow saying a thing, otherwise she may have been killed.
• #14: "The Trap Is Set": Because of a trap sprang by Togeno, Keichirou was poisoned heavily. Keichirou proceed his mission even though his life is in danger. On top of that, his allies were ambushed by Ganglers and nearly died because of Dogranio last minute intervention and Gauche nursing back the MOTW back to life. Indeed Keichirou managed to complete his mission and saved his friends but remember that he was struggling with the sprang poison through sheer will. What if he actually fainted and die like that in deep underground? Rescuing someone deep in the earth was too much trouble already.
• #20: "The New Thief Is An Officer?": The situation at the beginning. A Gangler has kidnapped a teenage girl to get a ransom from her father. The father paid but the Gangler planed to kill them both anyways. There is no sudden appearance of the Lupinrangers, no sudden rescue by the Patrangers. If it wasn't for Noel's surprise appearance they would have been killed and nobody would have known.
• #23: "Status Gold": How many people were kidnapped and killed before Touma and Noel were grabbed? It's all but implied they died and at the end of the episode, Noel reports back that the "Case is closed" with no mention of any kidnapees.
• #24: "A Promise to Return Alive": Giwi's plan is the stuff of nightmares. First he spread rumors about pendants that would give the wearer good luck, then he started distributing said pendants using his human disguise. The pendants are a trap that ensnare the victim in a cocoon of ivy the moment something lucky happens to them and slowly drain them of their life force. The ivy can't be pulled off and regenerates too fast for even the VS Changer to remove it. Oh yeah, and the trigger can be anything from winning the jackpot at the lottery to finding a dropped coin on the street. On top of that we get a glimpse of what might be Lymon's Collection Piece power. He can grow into an even bigger giant than other Ganglers without being defeated first.
• #25: "I'll Make You Stronger Than Ever": The above entry about Lymon's Collection Piece power becomes even more horrifying with this episode. It's not turning into a giant, it's a Healing Factor. Lymon turning into a giant is just something he can naturally do.
• #31: "The Gangler Who Surrendered":
  • Ever wonder how the safes get put on the Gangler's body? Easy, Gauche just forces them onto the body, implied to be surgically given her powers. And just as a reminder, there have been several episodes where a Porderman's head was replaced by a safe. Consider that all of the Gangler have these safes, including herself and Dogranio Yabun, put into their bodies, it gives a bit more perspective.
  • Even worse, she has managed to put together a Status Quintuple from both destroyed safes and safes she may or may not have gotten from other Ganglers. The monstrosity this became is like a Frankenstein project (the Gangler itself even looks like one before the additional safes).
• #32: "A Request To A Duel": When Gauche was about to put her auxiliary Collection Piece, the Guéris le monde, into her safe, Noel, upon noticing it, freaked out and told the Lupinrangers they needed to escape before forcibly teleporting them all away without explanation. Then, when the Lupinrangers brought it up to Kogure, he freaked out and left in a hurry. It implies that Gauche's Collection Piece isn't a mere pair of binoculars and may be one of the most powerful and dangerous pieces there is.
• #34: "The Legendary Gun": Kogure's eerie comment about Kairi exceeding the potential that he expected. It turns out to be a Red Herring, but still.
• #36: "Shoot The Bomb": While many will not feel sorry for Pecker, but having his own bomb forced into his body then being shot externally to detonate the bomb inside him is not a pretty way to go out. Before that, while it was played for laugh, the fact that Sakuya being affected to act careless (technically) on purpose regardless what he does and the necklaces Pecker distributed changed anger into energy to activate a bomb was freaky. Had Noel and Jim figured out later, plus with Sakuya's unintended carelessness, it is all too late.
• #39: "Bet on This"
  • Zamigo has gotten even creepier when it comes to his abilities. Remember Iselob, the Shrimp gangler from episode 38 who supposedly died when Zamigo froze him? Well, it turned out that he actually teleported him to a distant location that only he knows. If this is what his main ability his after all then it means the Lupinrangers' loved ones may be still alive...yet are somewhere that only Zamigo knows about.
  • Also, right when the Lupinrangers supposedly manage to hit the finishing blow on Zamigo, he pulls Iselob into the line of fire and gets him killed. After he taunts the Lupins before leaving, you can see the contained yet visible amount of rage that they have over him getting away again. This, alongside the level of aggression Kairi used against Zamigo, makes Keichirou even more suspicious and unnerved over the Lupinrangers' actions.
  • And if that wasn't enough, the fact that Noel wasn't aware of Zamigo before checking him on the computer files and had lost a loved one implicate something...there's someone else who commit the murders...Or Noel may be hiding something even more for probably shady means.
• #42: "Time to Battle"
  • Destra gets one of the largest, most detailed city-destruction scenes Super Sentai has had in a while. There's no way tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people didn't die in it.
  • Following Destra's destruction at the hands of both Sentai, Dograino has a mournful moment over the loss of his right-hand man before giving what is clearly a Death Glare. The time where Dograino finally subverts Orcus on His Throne may be drawing near with him seeking revenge on the Lupinrangers and Patrangers, and considering we've seen a glimpse of what he can do, it'll no doubt be a truly brutal Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• #43: "The Man Who Returned"
  • Combined with Tear Jerker over the recent Awful Truth regarding Noel, the fight with the Lupin Kaiser against Tokagale, one usually expects the fight to be quick and precise against the Gangler. This time however, the Lupins use most pieces of their collection against him in successive fashion, and when they head back to the ground, they use both the Buzzsaw and Machine Gun against him while pinned on the ground, and it culminates in Tokagale being disintegrated with the Lupin Magnum. Even Goodie is unnerved by this.
    Goodie: Is it me or are you guys ticked off?
    Kairi: Just shut up for a sec.
    Goodie: Ohhhhhh...They're totally ticked off...
  • And once it's all done they don't even do their usual closure catchphrase. Even with their mission, they must tolerate camaraderie to a greater extent to the point that betrayal must feel very close to them.
• #44: "The Truth Found"
  • Combined with Ascended Fridge Horror, the truth about the Gangler disguises is revealed: they are made from the skins of dead humans.
  • After this episode, Satoru's seeming death has become the trigger for the Patrangers to go after the Ganglers. Before this it was just them upholding their duties, but with this spark it's become a personal matter. With the Lupins already having personal anger towards the Ganglers and Dogranio out for blood after Destra's death, all three factions are now serious about their fight and we're marching ever faster towards the Grand Finale.
  • At the end of the episode we see Zamigo casually remarking about losing an informant that had infiltrated the ranks of the GSPO. There's nothing saying he doesn't have more.
  • Considering that Zamigo was said in his debut to be the one who "procures" the Gangler disguises, what's stopping him from giving a few Ganglers the deceased loved ones of the Lupinrangers as disguises?
  • We also learn that Noel owed Arsene Lupin for giving him the will to live but his saviour was killed by none other than Dogranio Yabuun, the big boss of Ganglar. You can see how anguished Noel was when he saw Arsene surrounded by a sea of flames as the collection pieces were all snatched away from Arsene.
• #45: "Looking Forward to Christmas": The episode further continues with the Ascended Fridge Horror of the previous episode, the Global Police are doing some research regarding the Gangler's disguises matching the ones of people who have disappeared in the incident from 2017. Then Keiichirou finds something even shocking: All the "disappearances" of the ones matched by the Global Police happened in February of that year. This further indicates that the attacks conducted by Zamigo weren't random at all, it had a purpose after all...
• #47: With Destra gone, now Gauche takes his place to wreck the city in havoc. While the destruction was not overwhelming and straightforward like Destra, Gauche was rather cunning when she laughed out creepily for doing this. She even got a new collection piece which summonned an arm sword, which worsened when she easily defeat Patrangers and Noel.
  • The Golam that Gauche remodelled was overwhelming too, being able to do a straight and strong spinning attack at Pat Kaiser. Had Noel not entrusted Siren Striker to Keiichirou at that time, the Patrangers might get wiped out.
• #48: Dogranio revealed to Noel that he murdered Arsene just to get the Lupin Collection. Not a grudge, nothing personal against the great phantom thief. This Boss is just ruthless and do what he likes.
  • This trait justifies further in the episode. Gauche summoned an ally, which has five safes like the one in episode 31-32 to even up against the Lupinrangers and Patrangers. Dogranio just butt in and took away the experiment's and Gauche's collections all together. As much as Ganglar's do not have face to reveal their emotional expression, you can understand how distraught Gauche was when her boss, whom she had been loyal to, betrayed her and she was completely powerless without the collection.
• #49: "As A Phantom Thief, As A Police Officer": We finally see Dogranio Yabun cut loose, and it's not pretty. Not only do the Lupinrangers find out that they can't cut the chains off his safe, but Dogranio shows how much power the Lupin Collection has by combining some into a nuclear explosion that destroys a good chunck of the city!
  • The reason why Victory Lupin Kaiser Blue Yellow and X Emperor lost against Dogranio? Zamigo disturbed the core Lupins by bringing the thieves' loved ones in mid-battle. While glad they have not turned into disguises yet, they were shocked how Zamigo knew about them. To be specific, Zamigo already researched about them beforehand by touching the frozen humans and became amused. The reason he did that, he wants to have fun with Lupin Red specifically, as in fighting him to death.
• #51: "Definitely Meet Again"
  • While Dogranio is trapped in a Tailor-Made Prison with no pieces of the Collection, he's still alive and given the collapse of his organization likely pissed as hell at both teams. If he ever breaks out...