I will say this outright: I really, really disliked Operation Overdrive #16.
There seems to have been a trend with the recent OO episodes to remake each corresponding Boukenger episode with an added ‘humourous element’ that really does not do the story any favours, especially when the actual source material isn’t really that fantastic.
But let’s try taking this by degrees. Overdrive #15/Bouken #20 is the beginning of an apparent sequence of OO episodes involving interlinked Precious relics. The Fearcats skip out on their former master/landlord, Flurious in order to go dig up a mountain in search of a cannon. The Overdrive Rangers start trembling and shaking as the Fearcats use some kind of Dark Side Force Lighting magic and then Tyzonn shows up with three new machines, recently borrowed from Dekaranger and saves the day. Bouken #20 follows roughly the same plot with a bit more explaination about the origins of Silver’s machines and Gajah once more in Flurious’ role. There is no real distinction between the two episodes save for the fact that the OO only ever seems to clarify the most superfluous details and edits out most of the Fearcat/Questers’ use of guns.
#16 is possibly the worst Overdrive episode thus far. The idea of Tyzonn’s suddenly decideding he needed to immitate Will was kind of…dull, even more so than Bouken #21’s attempt to showcase a scenario demonstrating how much Ino has grown as a character by pitting him against Takaoka, who has similar feelings of being a ‘lone wolf’.
In fact it is, once again, only Akashi that saves the episode from being a write off – something that Will, sadly, cannot do for the OO episode.
Hopefully things will be better once the proper storylines for both series have returned – and I really hope they will return soon – after the furor caused by the arrival of Tyzonn/Takaoka has subsided.
