Recap / Mashin Sentai Kiramager Ep 40 Aching Person

Aching Person

Original Airdate: January 24, 2021
Written by: Tomihiko Tokunaga
Directed by: Koichiro Hayama

Summary:

Juru meets up with a popular internet artist named Saburo Hatta, a talented but timid person. While all seems to be going well, something doesn't feel right with his friend Calorie, but Juru doesn't know what. Meanwhile, the other Kiramagers have to deal with the enigmatic Wire Jamen, a Jamenshi that can disguise himself however he wants.

Tropes:

• Ambiguous Situation: Is Calorie real? In Saburo's mind, he's very real, but there are heavy implications that Calorie is simply a figment of his imagination.
  • For that matter is Saburo real? Because every trace of his presence is gone the next day including his entire home and his art is being displayed as a manga that's clearly been running for a while despite him only applying for it the day before.
• Ambiguous Ending: While the episode does end on a supposedly happy note, the audience (as well as Sena and Tametomo) really have no idea what happened to Saburo after the Wire Jamen incident.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • We're led to assume Wire Jamen disguised himself as Saburo Hatta, due to the suspicious bandage on his finger. As it turns out, the Jamenshi's target was Saburo himself, with the former disguising himself as his best friend Calorie to push the latter past the Despair Event Horizon.
  • While it looks like Yodonna's trying to protect Wire Jamen, it turns out that she has no use for him anymore and quickly takes off with Illusia.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Juru doesn't even give Wire Jamen a fighting chance before he one-shots him out of pure anger.
• Despair Event Horizon: Ultimately, Saburo goes off the deep end after his artwork got rejected and viciously mocked by the internet. It isn't until Juru finds a way to get to him through the Jamen Beast that he's able to get better. To what extent is up to the audience.
• Forced Transformation: Carantula revises his plans and now schemes to convert humans into an entire army of Jamen Beasts through the Kanaema Stone Illusia.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: This episode notably stands out from previous fillers (and the series in general) as it's a Psychological Horror-influenced episode that focuses heavily on the victim rather than the team or the MOTW. It's also only episode by far that doesn't have a conclusive ending, leaving the audience (and the team) to wonder what really happened to Saburo after Wire Jamen was destroyed. Episode writer Tomihiko Tokunaga is primarily known for Police Procedural dramas such as Tokusou9 and Aibou and has never written any tokusatsu episode before up until this episode, which is a possible reason why this episode stands out.
• Humans Are Bastards: What really sets Saburo off the deep end wasn't Wire Jamen himself, but rather the vicious comments about his artwork when it revealed that it was rejected.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Saburo Hatta's name is one letter off from the collective pen name for the writer of Super Sentai, Saburo Hatte.
  • Good Three shows up again as a poster on Saburo's wall, revealing that it got an anime adaptation.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: To the 2015 film The Mourner (悼む人/Itamu Hito).
• Superhero Horror: The episode takes elements from the Psychological Horror genres as it takes a more cerebral approach with the main conflict of Saburo and "Calorie" (aka Wire Jamen), exploring Saburo's psyche as he get emotionally abused and manipulated throughout the episode. Then there's the Ambiguous Ending, where even the Kiramagers (sans Juru) are confused on what really happened with Saburo.
• Reclusive Artistinvoked: Saburo is described as this by the people nearby him, as he rarely goes out to focus on his art.
• Ret-Gone: Saburo Hatta's entire house disappeared the day after the conflict. While Juru chanced upon a newly serialised manga he claims is Saburo's art style and that Saburo's finally found his success, Tametomo and Sena are left pondering how much of the Saburo they met the previous day was real.