Season 11, Episode 28: Shimazu Returns, Part 1

"Shimazu Returns, Part 1"
Episode 28
Air Date: August 16th, 2003

I remember during this part of the season where the show would become overstuffed with generals and honestly, that's only a problem because the writers have made the villains already present so insufferably in terms of how stupid and incompetent they are.  Honestly, Motordrone was great and Vexacus has already shown promise in the last two episodes but seriously, we haven't really got to know them as villains on a personal level yet...here we are introduced to yet another villain general in the form of Shimazu, who is accidentally brought back to life by Motordrone after he and the idiot nieces attack Cam while tracking down a mysterious new artifact at the museum.  While the mystery of this new weapon of sorts is hidden so far, we get Shimazu's arrival and how he is more than a match for the rangers....well, at least his henchmen at least.  The Wolf Blades, 3 wolf monsters (Oh Zen-Aku flashbacks! :) are unleashed onto Blue Ray Harbor as Shimazu plans to use them to terrorize the city so Lothor can soon rule the world.  Apparently, Shimazu is a 20,000 year old ancient warlord who use to use his Wolf Blades to conquer and terrorize the nearby cities.  Also...he apparently can't speak....until Lothor fires one of his evil ninja blasts at him...and he can all of a sudden.  Yeah, I know it suppose to be funny but.....ehhhh, I didn't find the timing of that that funny at all. Really??? O_o

While Shimazu isn't much of a commanding new opponent than the last two recently introduced generals, his Wolf Blades are awesome tho in terms of fighters and a match for the rangers.  What I really enjoyed about the episode was seeing the 6 rangers split up and how they have to rely more on their awesome numbers as a team and more other their creativity and skills in smaller groups.  At one point, while Cam is scouting across the city for Motordrone, Hunter is facing off against Motordrone on his own (with his stupid Glider Cycle I might add) and the other four rangers are struggling with the Wolf Blades.  There's also a cool Sentai sequence in the woods where the Wind Rangers and the Samurai Ranger are being overwhelmed by the Wolf Blades but the Thunder Rangers arrive just in time to force them into a retreat. I also really enjoyed Shane's solo match with Motordrone who immediately gets owned when Shane, once again, unleashes his battlizer and effectively uses it to force him into a retreat as well.

Also, it was cool seeing Tori, Dustin and Blake come up with a way to outsmart the Wolf Blades and seemingly destroy them in the process.  Too bad it turns out in destroying them, the Wolf Blades return as a combined and fully grown monster that looks both menacing and gruesome at the same time.  Damn!!! O_O  Looks like this two parter is only heating up but so far, it's been pretty okay.  Nothing to really complain about but nothing to praise either.  Although, once again, seeing rangers split apart and having to handle themselves in battle in a very suspenseful way as well as the shocking cliffhanger does make this a fine Part 1 so far. :)

Final Morph: B+