The Importance of Together with Moffun
The Yeti mascot from King-Ohger is highly recognized and associated with Rita's character, given their love for Moffun. In extension, the in-universe anime and its titular character also connect Rita with Hymeno and Morphonia, to the extent that one of the official character books featuring Hirakawa Yuzuki, Murakami Erica and Hasegawa Kasumi, the cast that plays Rita, Hymeno, and Morphonia, is literally titled "The Bonds Connected by Moffun and Rcules!?" (もっふんがつないだキズナ and ラクレス!?). [Ignore the part about Rcules. This isn't about him and the Dybowskis, okay? /j lol]
While Rita's connection to Moffun is already obvious episodically, looking at the whole series holistically reveals just how cleverly screenwriter TakaMina has tied the in-universe mascot with Rita's growth throughout the series.
Moffun: Representation of Rita's Trust
Many key scenes between Rita and Morphonia, as well as Rita and Hymeno, feature Moffun. As we were shown as early as episode 5, Rita's official introduction episode, Rita has a habit of channelling their inner thoughts through Moffun in private to process their thoughts, Moffun's "voice" allow Rita to express their more personal, emotionally-driven thoughts they kept hidden from others to maintain their appearance as the King of Gokkan and Chief Justice. By conversing with "Moffun", the act offers Rita space to weigh out their options to reinforce their rationality, or give themself a moment of comfort or encouragement.
The first person to see through the hidden side of Rita, and reached Rita through Moffun was their aide - Morphonia.
Episode 10 was a pivotal moment not only in the overall storytelling of King-Ohger, but also specifically important for Rita and Morphonia. We know from episode 5 that Morphonia is already aware of Rita's love for Moffun though her habit of eavesdropping on Rita through Rita's office door. But for the first time in episode 10, Morphonia had snuck into Rita's office to speak to Rita through Moffun while Rita wasn't putting up their strong front of a King. To enter Rita's space like this, Morphonia not only brought down a physical barrier between them, but broke down an emotional boundary the two had maintained for years as King and aide.
This was even more significant when, in episode 25, Rita voluntarily stepped out of their giant Moffun to speak with Morphonia, leading to the iconic kabedon scene.
In episode 10, Moffun acted as a buffer for Morphonia to convince Rita it's okay to get help through working with the Kings. By speaking through Moffun, Morphonia kept a layer of boundary intact after just stepping into Rita's space uninvited. 15 episodes later, Rita (1) invited Morphonia into their office, and (2) voluntarily stepped out of Moffun to ask Morphonia to join them as one of the pilots for God King-Ohger on their most dangerous operation to date. This was both a sign of growth on Rita's character for opening up, and significant development for Rita and Morphonia's relationship.
While episode 11 revealed that Together with Moffun is an Ishabana anime, it is a pleasant surprise to learn in episode 14 that the anime was created by the people of Ishabana to support their young Queen after the loss of her parents.
That this information was revealed to Rita and then used by Rita to stop Hymeno's vengeance-filled rampage against Jeramie, who Hymeno had mistaken as the culprit of Wrath of God, was a highly symbolic, full-circle moment.
This was even more layered when, two episodes later, we learned that Rita's ascension to the throne at a young age was also due to the Wrath of God incident. Episode 16 not only introduced a new element that connects Rita to the Wrath of God storyline that previously was mostly focused on Hymeno, but also implies that the anime created for the sake of Hymeno, had also gave comfort to Rita since the moment it aired, two children thrusted into the throne too soon due to tragedy. The ending doubled-down on the connections started in episode 14 by showing Hymeno gifting Rita a Premium Chibi-Moffun as a sign of gratitude.
Hymeno and Rita's dynamic had significantly warmed up since episode 16, and led to more paired interactions and awesome partnered fight scenes. This shift of dynamic was especially highlighted in episode 30.
At the tea party, not only Rita voluntarily talk about their hatred for scalpers and bring out their Moffun plushie in front of Hymeno. When Rita used the ice seal against Glodi - the murderer of Hymeno's parents and the reason Karras and Shiron were taking away from them, Hymeno's presence was represented by a Moffun when they were on the brink of losing consciousness from the cold.
Since Moffun has been implied to be the only constant source of comfort and support in Rita's isolated life as King of Gokkan, the scene suggests Rita has begun to see Hymeno as someone they felt comfortable trusting and start opening their heart to.
The Rest of Ohsama Sentai
How different Rita interacts or speaks of Moffun in front of others, comparing Chapter 1 vs Chapter 2 of King-Ohger, is also an indication of their growth and trust.
In Chapter 1, Rita had initially kept their love for Moffun secret from everyone. Such as (1) turning around to hide their chibi moffun plushie in episode 5 from Yanma and Yanma's crew, and (2) lying to Hymeno and saying they don't know about the Ishabanan anime in episode 11.
This has slowly changed since the formation of Ohsama Sentai in episode 19, including when Rita starts bringing up improvement on Moffun broadcast as part of their negotiations with Shugodom (jokingly?) in episode 21 and 24.
In Chapter 2, there are several moments that shows that the larger team of Ohsama Sentai are now all aware of Rita's love for the Ishabanan mascot, including some comedic moments that involve the Kings using Moffun to tease Rita or rile them up (but never to judge them maliciously, very, VERY important to clarify!!!).
Three moments are specifically noteworthy because it suggests Rita has become more comfortable being vocal with bringing up Moffun to others, or even sharing it with others:
(1) Episode 28: Rita ask Yanma to bring them their chibi Moffun during the bodyswap incident to help calm them down.
(2) Episode 31: Hymeno and Rita simultenously responding to Gira's question about Moffun's voice actor.
(3) Episode 45: Rita lent their chibi Moffun to babyfied Gira to keep him calm (the bumble bee chew toy representing Kaguragi while Moffun represents Rita in Kaguragi and Rita's Kings Proof episode).
Going back to Hymeno, this reached a 'peak' development during the series epilogue in episode 50, when Hymeno was seen reading a purple book.
The book is the very same Moffun doujinshi Rita wrote and drew! They had tried to keep it hidden in their office, but was discovered by Gira in episode 38 in the undercover fiasco!
The fact Rita lent it to Hymeno is very telling of how close Rita and Hymeno has gotten, that Rita would be comfortable letting Hymeno read their work. (And yes, if you translate the Chikyu language, the book literally says it is written by Rita Kaniska.)
The Importance of "Together" (issho)
The Chikyu language is phonetic, where each character represents a grapheme equivalent to Japanese hiragana/katakana. So a direct translation of the Chikyu language becomes もっふんといっしょ (Moffun to Issho). But when considering the meaning of each of the Hiragana, "いっしょ" becomes the kanji "一緒" :
と (to), which translates to "and" or "with."
一緒 (issho) translates to "together" or "to be with."
In many crucial moments with Rita, we often find 一緒 (issho) used in the dialogue, by Rita or towards Rita.
一緒 (issho) was said by Morphonia and by Hymeno in the important moments where both of them initiated contact with Rita, expressing desire to be with Rita, to spend time together.
These two scenes marked the moment Morphonia and Hymeno explicitly expressed to Rita that they care about Rita in a way that goes beyond seeing them as a King/Judge/colleague. It became an invitation for Rita to also start being more open to Morphonia and Hymeno.
Even more importantly, 一緒 (issho) was used as a promise.
In-universe, "ずっと一緒" (zutto issho) is a signature quote in the Together with Moffun anime. It means "always together" or "together forever".
In episode 25, Rita used the quote to give comfort to Morphonia when asking her to be one of the Shugod pilots of God King-Ohger. Calling back to what Morphonia had said to them through the giant Moffun plushie in episode 10, Rita said the iconic line of "ずっと一緒" (zutto issho).
This is even more powerful when you consider the dialogue "ずっと一緒だから (zutto issho dakara)" is grammatically tense-less in Japanese. As it is a standalone line without a prompter/question to follow, there is no explicit context we can use to determine the tense of this phrase.
When this happens, that vagueness creates nuance in the dialogue and leaves room for multiple interpretations. To put it simply, this could have been interpreted as:
"Because we've been together forever." - Alluding to how long Rita and Morphona have known each other.
"Because we're together forever." - Rita reminds Morphonia that they would be with Morphonia while piloting God King-Ohger.
"Because we'll be together forever." - A promise that Rita intends to be with Morphonia no matter what the outcome is when fighting Dezunaraku in God King-Ohger.
In one short phrase, Rita was saying so, so much: "I need you to fight with me - because you've been by my side, you know me best. I will be with you in this fight, and we will still be together no matter what comes next."
This promise was then reiterated:
By Morphonia in episode 38.
By Rita in episode 45 to test if Morphonia still has her present memory or not when under Minongan's power.
By episode 49 Morphonia, reminding Rita of their mutual promise to both chastise Rita for trying to sacrifice themself in Evacuation Zero, and reminding Rita how important they are to her.
With Hymeno, 一緒 (issho) was not only used by the Queen to invite Rita to tea, but also used when Hymeno pulled them out of the power of their Ice Seal. After expressing not wanting to lose Rita, calling them her friend, to Glodi after already losing her parents to the Wrath of God culprit, Hymeno promised Rita that both of them would take Glodi down together. A gesture that stopped Rita from seeing their sealing power as the only means to stop Glodi.
This was a declaration and promise that solidified their relationship, that only continued to grow as the series progressed, prominent even in the post-series moments, such as in the Final Live Tour and in the movies.
TakaMina seriously did such a phenomenal job in making an in-universe children anime be an important storytelling tool for multiple characters in a children's henshin hero show. It is beautifully meta in demonstrating the point that good storytelling can bring hope, learning, and comfort to its audience. Even a show geared towards children can be positively impactful to adults when done well.
