Hikari Sentai Maskman 27 – The Thief Knight Kiros!

He's on a mutant horse. That's quite badass.

A man named Thief Knight Kiros appears before the Maskman and his mission is defeating our heroes! To make things interesting, he is not allied with the Tube Empire. What's the reason why he attacked our heroes? Is it for some personal reason or he wants to be repaid for this action?

This is how you introduce a new villain, give him one badass looking mutant horse, beat the crap out of our heroes and to make it more awesome, make him wear badass sunglasses and make him remove him after he is done beating the heroes. Yup, this is how badass Kiros was when he made his debut. It didn't help that he had one great one-on-one duel with Red Mask! This duel is the first time we saw Red Mask used the God Hand technique after it was first introduced. Which reminds me, he rarely used this move. Aside that he easily defeated our heroes, what makes this guy really interesting is why he is doing it. 

2 years ago, he saw Princess Ial taking a bath and fell in love with her. But because of the Whirlwind Hell, Princess Ial almost died and decided to save her, causing him to get stuck in the Whirlwind Hell and accordingly, there is no escape in this place. But before talking about how he escaped, what's interesting is Ial's acting. To those who didn't figure it out, Ial and Igam have the same actress. As Ial, the way she speaks is softer, and much more princess-like. As Igam, she sounds rough and commanding. It is really impressive, making me wish that Ial has more screen time outside of flashbacks.

Back to the main story, Kiros managed to escape because he is developing a new technique that led him to his escape. Said technique is used to defeat the Maskmen and the Shot Bomber later in the episode. As for the technique itself, it's just him spinning a chain to create some vortex. Considering that this move lifted him out of the chasm, it's no surprise that it destroyed the Shot Bomber in the process when our heroes tried to defeat him with it. It's one interesting scene and it is one of the rare times we see a Super Sentai weapon destroyed by the bad guys. 

After defeating the heroes, Kiros made one interesting proposition to the Tube Empire; he wants Princess Ial's hand in marriage. Well that is underwhelming, but justified. It's underwhelming because the man made one badass entrance and gave me an impression that he hates our heroes so much because he is irritated by their presence. It's justified because he fell in love with Ial at first sight and considering that he is kinda creepy when he first approached Ial 2 years ago, I guess he will not stop until he marries Ial.

Back to our heroes, now that they don't have the Shot Bomber in their disposal, what weapon they can use to defeat Kiros and his mutant horse who happens to be the MOTW? Turns out that all they need is Aura Power. The use of Aura Power makes sense, considering that their standard weapons are not enough to defeat a MOTW. Sadly, their power is not enough, causing Commander Sugata to use his own Aura Power to aide our heroes. It's one the Commander's badass moments in the series and it shows us that he is more than just the guy sitting in the base and commands our heroes what they will do next. He can also fight with our heroes in spirit thanks to Aura Power. 

The Maskmen defeated the MOTW and it's time for the giant battle. There is nothing much to talk about the giant fight so I'll just skip to the ending. At the end, our heroes defeated the MOTW but they learned that they have one new villain to face. Can our heroes defeat Kiros now that they don't have the Shot Bomber? Can Commander Sugata perform the dangerous Aura Power move after this first encounter with Kiros? The episode left a lot of interesting questions and I can't wait to see the next one!