Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, put your hands together for your host for today’s show- the one and only, Alexia Erizo! Yes viewers, it is I, Alexia, here to welcome you to and through this week’s episode of Retro-Scrutiny. Now, I know what you may be wondering. ‘Where’s Kendall?’ Well don’t fret, she’s just out enjoying the fact that she’s finally twenty-one. She’s probably skipping the classroom for the barroom.
Last time, we were all seeing in shades of lovely blue. But it’s time to go back to our familiar white and orange and see how much trouble he can land himself into this time as he joins the Monster Battle Club Now!
OVERVIEW
The episode begins in the training room with Chiro snubbing his need for training while taking down all of his teammates attacks. As he does this, Nova explains that Master Offay will teach him the same skills she has. Of course, Chiro is cocky until Antauri calls him defenseless and bowls him over like Antauri does.
As they reach the planet Garaxia, they see it has been tie dyed with the Skeleton King’s energy. The team lands and explores a bit before they start feeling strangely ill. They spot the inhabitants-turned-zombies of the planet before the sickness causes them all to fall down in a heap.
The team wakes in a strange room and notice that Chiro is getting weird colored spots on his face.
Gibson scans his leader and explains that the longer they stay on the planet, the more permanent the changes. And they only have four hours. Maybe less.
Guards pull them out of the room and take them to a boxing arena. Inside, a huge crowd is watching one fighter- some weirdo with a golden finger-kick to stuffing out of another anthro dog weirdo.
Nova comments that this arena was the same one she trained in years ago with Master Offay.
The team is informed that the only way to leave the planet is to fight for their lives or be destroyed.
And while the monkeys know that’s a stupid choice, it doesn’t stop Chiro from jumping in the ring and acting stupid.
His first fight doesn’t go as planned, however, and he gets tossed out of the ring. Chiro tells his team that the transformation is making him vicious and overconfident. Suddenly, an old man with a walking stick appears. This is Master Offay, one of the greatest warriors in the galaxy. He’s taught the best of the best, like Nova. The planet has changed his appearance as well, but Chiro still asks for his training.
After a training montage, the team returns to the ring, with Chiro rocking his new grungy teenage Frankenstein sort of look.
Otto, Sparks, and Gibson go in search for an escape route while Antauri and Nova stay with the teacher and student duo. Chiro’s rematch with the land shark grants him his first victory, though Nova notices he’s getting more vicious.
As a montage of Chiro’s battles plays out, the boys find a dungeon slash prison cell. Otto accidentally frees one of the inmates. After he gets his shackles off, the giant thanks them and explains that everyone is being held and forced to fight for the warlord.
He takes them to the warlord’s inner sanctum to show off the mounted heads on the wall and let Gibson discover the warlord’s identity.
Chiro finally fights Korgon the Great, aka Goldfinger I described earlier. He wins and demands his and the team’s freedom, only to learn there is still one more opponent, the warlord himself, Offay.
Offay- suddenly a lit less wrinkled-has been ‘endlessly looking for a worthy opponent, but only finds weaklings.’ The monkey team regroups just in time and attacks, but they get knocked around easily- Nova, Antauri, and Chiro included.
It isn’t until Chiro uses his training and the Inner Primate against his master that he manages to win.
In a spot of good sportsmanship, Chiro reaches out his hand to Offay, who bows his head.
Chiro is the new master of the dojo and his first order of business is to demand that everyone get as far from the planet as possible.
The episode ends with Chiro sitting in Antauri’s room with him and Nova. He’s back to normal and happy about it, but does lament the loss of his crazy fighting moves and extra power.
Antauri gladly tells him that he had faith in him because he had ‘what no other monster fighter had.’ What was it? His humanity.
NEW CHARACTER(S):
MASTER OFFAY (Mako): Kendall and I once labeled Antauri as the wise, strict old teacher. We were wrong. Offay is old and does well in his role of the old teacher. No surprise, considering he’s voiced by Mako. The twist with him being evil was well done, in my opinion anyway.
UNANSWERED QUESTION(S):
- How long was Garaxia under the influence of the Skeleton King’s energy?
- Did the King’s energy turn Offay bad?
- Who else has he trained?
- Will we learn anymore back story for the Hyper Force?
FINAL OPINIONS:
This episode reminds me of The Karate Kid- just a bit. Most of the team is sidelined; Chiro is once again the star of the show, but Nova gets a bit of backstory to go along with Antauri. Chiro’s monster form is just lovely to look at. The main villain is decent.
Chiro’s attitude during the episode is a bit weird. The beginning where he seems to fully love rolling around in the fact that his skills are already impressive is quickly dealt with and the other times it seems as if its his transformation talking. And I absolutely agree that it’s his mutation. The whole point of it is to make him seem stupid and aggressive. Though why it only affects the monkeys when thy first arrive is never explained.
The action is good and so is the writing, but this episode is still fluff and filler. For crying out loud, there are two and a half montages in this episode! I don’t care how much fun they were to watch, they were still montages. This episode does nothing for the majority of the season’s plot, so skipping it is an option.
And with that said, this particular episode has come to its conclusion. I want to say thank you to all who stopped by and I hope you’ll all come back next week. Until then, my name is Alexia Erizo, wishing you all a lovely day.
And Kendall, I want to wish you a Happy 21st Birthday. Please don’t go too crazy without me.
kendallcharleswell 