The Return of the Prince
- Original Airdate: April 9, 2023
Written by: Minato Takano
Directed by: Kyohei Yamaguchi
Summary
Narrator: Gira was brought to the kingdom of Gokkan, where he was tried for international crimes.
The trial ended with the king and chief justice, Rita Kaniska, sentencing him to death!
...Or so it seemed, for a moment; Gira was revealed to be a prince of the royal family of Shugoddam, and declared innocent on all counts.
Now, Gira heads to Shugoddam to challenge Racules for the throne.
Meanwhile, God Scorpion — which had hitherto been hidden away in the shadows — has now fallen into the hands of the Bognaarok.
...Or so the story goes.
The trial ended with the king and chief justice, Rita Kaniska, sentencing him to death!
...Or so it seemed, for a moment; Gira was revealed to be a prince of the royal family of Shugoddam, and declared innocent on all counts.
Now, Gira heads to Shugoddam to challenge Racules for the throne.
Meanwhile, God Scorpion — which had hitherto been hidden away in the shadows — has now fallen into the hands of the Bognaarok.
...Or so the story goes.
With the truth that he is a potential heir to the throne revealed, Gira heads back to Shugoddam to usurp the throne from Racules. Racules seem to welcome his brother with open arms, but there's something off about the whole celebration. As Gira tries to assume his birthright, Racules isn't the type to go down without a fight...
Meanwhile, after obtaining God Scorpion from Gokkan, the Bognaarok draft up their plans to plunge Tikyū into utter chaos.
Tropes
- The Bad Guy Wins: The episode ends with Racules successfully swaying public opinion back in his favor, while simultaneously getting Gira branded as a rebel criminal once more.
- Big Damn Heroes: God Kuwagata, in the form of the King Speeder, bursts into the Caucasus Kabuto Castle to rescue Gira while simultaneously trying to foil Racules' plans to use King-Ohger.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Racules' summoning a black version of God Kuwagata, named "God Kuwagata ZERO".
- Do Not Adjust Your Set: Bognaarok hijacks the broadcast system to announce their plans of attack.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Gira's return as Shugoddam's prince is short-lived as he decides to fully solidify his "tyranny" against Racules' reign by announcing his intent to take over the kingdom. Naturally, Shugoddam's citizens view this less-than-favorably, with one of them even calling him a "devil".
- Mood Whiplash: The Bognaarok's sudden broadcast to announce their new weapons is contrasted by Rita rolling around on the floor as they talk to Moffun about the other day's events.
- Musicalis Interruptus: When Kaguragi attempts to hand over God Scorpion's stone to Racules, the music immediately cuts when Gira steals it.
- Poor Communication Kills: Despite claiming Racules as a liar, Gira's extremely brash actions in his "king of evil" persona in front of Shugoddom's citizens (such as summoning God Scorpion to dangerously crash through the ground right before the crowd) ultimately leads them to believe he is genuinely evil with a much more malicious intent for wanting to take the kingdom from Racules.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title is one to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
- The Reveal: Gira can fully understand what the Shugods are saying, which comes in clutch more than once in this episode.
- Skewed Priorities: Gira has been shown in multiple instances in this episode that he would care less about being acknowledged as prince by his kingdom than to just outright attempt to bring Racules down whenever he could see a chance to.
- Status Quo Is God: Thanks to his actions against Racules despite his blood relation revealed, Gira is once again pegged as a rebel and public enemy of Shugoddom.
- Tempting Fate: Yanma claims Racules' threats of claiming King-Ohger as Shugoddom property are baseless, supposedly due to the fact that he doesn't have a Shugod and thus can't control King-Ohger. The latter half of the episode reveals that he does have his own substitute God Kuwagata and is able to form and control King-Ohger by himself with it.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Racules is able to swiftly win the populace over thanks in part to Gira playing the role of the "tyrant" followed by his inability to summon King-Ohger, allowing him to summon his own version to both save the day and make Gira look worse in comparison at the same time.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Racules uses Gira's vendetta against him as well as his Demon King person in order to turn public opinion against him by making his younger brother look like the aggressor.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: Both the Bugnarok and Racules' schemes aren't so easily foiled by the end of the episode.
- Invoked by Kamejim, who points out that trying to destroy the cocoons before they hatch will lead to them exploding violently.
- Racules manages to influence his way out of being deposed by claiming King-Ohger as Shugoddom property and then using his own God Kuwagata to discredit Gira's claim to the throne.
