Disclaimer: the opinions herein are my own. If they sound overly serious, they’re probably not. At the end of the day I’m enjoying YSST. That said, I have every intent of projecting a bit of friendly psychic damage your way. I do my best to present correct information. Any mistakes within are my own.
The following contains spoilers for Yoroi Shinden Samurai Troopers Episode 15.
Recapping the end of Episode 14 from Gai's point of view, Gai is a prisoner in his own mind until spectral silhouettes of the late myojigumi / Last Name Group set him free. This coincides with Kaito launching the Sword of Domination at his body to break Ramaga's control.
Gai is going to have a permanent crater in his chest by the end of this show.
Gai wields Haoutei in order to confront brainwashed and crazy Ryusei. Or not. Inmei decides they've achieved their goal and orders a withdrawal, except he has one more trick up his sleeve. There's that pesky divine realm crest again. And... huh, this sure feels familiar.
Pardon the potato quality. A cutaway shows both the youja soldiers fleeing the market, and the Zabiru becoming trapped behind debris. It was important enough to show on screen, so presumably we haven't seen the last of Mirei the Zabiru.
Musashi is subsequently blacklisted from owning any sort of pet.
Inmei bails out. Shion attempts to get Ryusei to touch the Green Ranger sword to jog his memory, but he walks off without taking the bait.
Should've tried throwing the DST coffee at him.
With the youjakai falling around them, Sasuke runs into the collapsing castle to retrieve his most important possession: his limited edition Gibson sanshin.
Back in the city, the boys are vomited out of the youjakai gate faster than you can say cyclospora outbreak.
But they're not alone. The Braves (can we talk about their fabulous heels?) have been kicked out of the house so they're here for the ride. Cue shenanigans.
My boy Seikai poking it out for the youjakai.
Sagume summons leviathan to help her place the populace of Tokyo under her control. The full sequence had to be redacted for time but I found a clip on Youtube.
Come on Sagume I don't have time for this I need to go to work.
The rest of Sagume's crew show up to supervise: Gomei, Shimei, and Gaimei who is arguably a character from World of Warcraft.
The new Beast Warriors order the controlled humans to take out the Troopers. While the boys do their best not to harm the civilians, I'm not sure that an armored kick to the collar won't result in a broken clavicle. I hear those are incredibly painful.
Gomei states that humans haven't been very good stewards to the planet, so the divine realm has decided to take control of them in order to "remake" it. The Braves don't understand the Troopers' hesitation to fight back.
Kamanosuke's resume boasts solution-driven approaches.
Kamanosuke offers to lend a killing hand but Shimei has other ideas. On that note, I find it interesting that her power is purple.
To this point, we've seen purple associated to the demons and yellow associated to the divine realm. If you've ever seen a color wheel you know that yellow and purple are also complementary colors. Insert something here about balance between the realms, etc.
Shimei puts the delinquent children down for a nap.
+1 to the Kamanosuke whump counter.
Things aren't looking good for the Troopers. Gai hears the voice of Ramaga, and sees his (notably masked) reflection in the Sword of Domination.
The Beast Warriors demand for Gai to hand over Haoutei. With Gai's back against the wall, he chooses to follow along with Ramaga's plan. At Gai's (via Ramaga's) command, Musashi throws his knife and manages to glance Gaimei's cheek. He dismisses it as superficial, until poison rapidly spreads from the wound. Gomei deduces that Ramaga is still alive, requiring a "revision" to the divine plan.
Tis only a flesh wound! Maybe not...
Under Ramaga's guidance, Gai uses Heavenly Arts to raise a barrier around the city. Not Divine Arts this time. Sasuke recognizes it as Kakei's sorcery. Also this is coming on the heels of Shion talking to himself in Episode 13 about the Braves not using demon magic.
Translator's note: kekkai means 'go watch X'
While Gai's patting himself on the back, Ramaga reminds him not to get too cocky. I wonder if there's any significance to his reflection showing up on the right or left halves of the sword. I bring it up because a character in Final Fantasy XIV had a tell depending on whether he smiled with the left or right side of his mouth. But this isn't Final Fantasy, so we'll see.
Thanks for nothing, old man.
I am happy that Gai doesn't beat around the bush and outright tells the others that he's hearing Ramaga's voice. Gai says he's "squatting in [the] sword" and... again, if you've ever played FFXIV and know anything about a certain dragon's eyes... yeah.
The group falls back to the DST headquarters to recap events since they entered the youjakai. And these guys are here now.
The way Isa continues to wear his mask, I have to wonder if it's some sort of safety blanket for him. Like Gai, they have a taste for the bizarre flavors.
A correction here to a prior post of mine. I thought the characters said the Braves "are" human, but the distinction seems to be that they "were" human. Allegedly they're demons now. Regardless, Kaito assures Jun that they're not enemies.
I still think they have a connection to the orphanage, but it remains to be seen.
I also like here that everyone acknowledges the Braves were manipulated by Ramaga. It's a story beat that took half of YST-TV to figure out in relation to the Masho via Shuten, and the remaining three didn't get to do much on screen after their heel-turn. Need I remind you...
Where were you during the final battle? You guys didn't do anything!
Anyhow, I'm really interested in seeing this dynamic now in YSST between the Troopers and the Braves. Ryo doesn't flinch as he steps into the scene. Then again he spent five years playing "Dad" to the Braves.
Yare yare, what a lot of mouths to feed today.
After brief pleasantries, Gai relays that the divine realm wants to get their hands on Haoutei. For some reason. After all the trouble they went to of getting it to the Troopers in the first place.
Ryo seems barely perturbed at hearing that Ramaga is squatting in the sword, but he's also dealt with a lot of crap.
If you haven't picked up on the various clues to this point, Haoutei isn't complete. Gai explains they need to find some Shield of Domination to power up Haoutei, alleging its strength will then exceed the gods. Which, conveniently, Ramaga says he hid away in the divine realm.
To this point I think Sagume has referred to her crew as "servants of the gods" so, what exactly she and her warriors are is still a bit of a mystery.
As a matter of fact, Musashi...
Really, look at the poor kid's face.
The boys realize they aren't strong enough to take on the divine realm in their current state. However they still have the VR training program and can cram 72 hours of preparation into their real-time 3 day window. I'd been wondering if we would see the VR again. It seemed such an odd thing to have in Cour 1 and then dismiss entirely. The Braves, however, are not interested.
Can't really blame them. After all that Ramaga has put them through, Sasuke especially doesn't seem keen on being emotionally damaged any further. But Ramaga insists they're needed in order to secure the shield, so he hijacks Gai's body once more.
Unfortunately for the Braves they're still locked out of the house.
Sasuke finds a convenient flyer advertising a good old fashioned battle of the bands, and the Braves reminisce on better times with the Last Name Group. Just look at them.
Ramagai appears and the Braves immediately recognize Ramaga's presence. He's surprised that the Braves knew it was him despite the Rapunzel hair. My Gai guy, you're not exactly subtle.
Ramagai attacks the Braves who, notably, don't want to armor up and harm Gai's body. They'd also attempted to revive him after he was turned to stone in the Fountain of Annihilation. As ambivalent as they seemed toward him in Cour 1, it appears that the Braves do care for him to some extent. Other than Nezu being Gai's teacher though, I think we still have a lot of blanks to fill in.
Ramagai asks if the Braves despise him for turning them into demons. Again I'm assuming this is something we'll come back to later on. Between Gai's transformation from demon to human at the start of Cour 1 and now all of this talk about the Braves turning from human to demon, and the chitchat in the market scene about hatred making the demons closer to human, it feels like we haven't come full circle yet on this plot point but I'm sure we'll be smacked over the head with it soon enough.
Sasuke and the others are upset with Ramaga for discarding their friends, to which Ramagai says the Last Name Group were puppets made from ambient malice.
He's probably not winning Father of the Year.
Sasuke doesn't want to hear it. He recalls the relationships that the First Name and Last Name groups had established, and via a flashback it looks like the Last Name Group raised the First Namers from childhood.
From within his mind's eye again, Gai and the spectral forms of the Last Name Group within him hear Sasuke's passionate speech. With the power of FRIENDSHIP the Braves manage to suppress Ramaga and return Gai to control of himself.
Seriously look at their heels, they're so fashionable.
And I've hit the image limit.
Gai informs the Braves that their fallen comrades still live within him, to which Sasuke thinks he's full of shit. It quickly becomes clear that he's telling the truth and Sasuke gets a bit of emotional whump.
Now that the Braves are on board with the Troopers they fill in the VR classroom like the outcast kids with an after school Metallica cover band. Musashi tries to introduce them to his Jpop but they aren't interested. Meanwhile, Ramaga agrees to play along with the boys since he still needs Gai to obtain Haoutei. This time it's phrased as "the true Armor of the Supreme Emperor."
And we end on another cliffhanger, as Shion meets with Ryusei in the wrecked gym.
I'll have to come back and edit in my closing thoughts when I have another moment to sit down.
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