Level E - Episode 5

After toying with the viewer for the entirety of episode four, Level E and its Dogurian prince need some new subjects to toy with for this latest story arc... enter a bunch of normal, everyday school kids.

Before they know it, these youngsters are kidnapped and whisked aboard Baka's spacecraft, where these five boys are equipped as bringers of justice to the universe, complete with embarrassing costumes which can be deployed with consummate ease.  Baka calls them the "Colour Rangers"; however, the enthusiasm of his young charges couldn't be much more different from those of your average Power Rangers-esque hero show, as they'd much rather be out on dates or generally messing about, while all but the class representative and red ranger are more than a little ambivalent to the idea of fighting for justice.

If having all of this junk dumped on them by a bored alien isn't bad enough, the Colour Ranger gang soon learn that there's an alien in their midst at school - in fact, it's their teacher to be precise, a cold-blooded assassin who now appears to have turned her attention to this ragtag collection of kids.  Still, come the end of it all it appears that she isn't quite the threat she first appeared to be, leaving the Colour Rangers with a new mission - to get rid of those ridiculous costumes and the annoying Prince's telepathic voice from their heads.  To do this is going to require a significant amount of levelling up and a journey to claim a key from a powerful rival... an adventure which Baka will no doubt enjoy watching from afar.

Although this episode didn't hold any of the surprise value of either of the past couple of instalments, it still managed to work pretty well with the vein of comedy which it decided to plumb - hero show parodies of Power Rangers and its ilk aren't exactly uncommon in anime (hell, Mitsudomoe managed a hilarious one just a few weeks ago), but Level E's take on the matter still had a good number of laughs, largely provided by the jaded, apathetic modern kids that are the very opposite of the squeaky clean and eager heroes of the shows having fun poked at them here.  Ostensibly that's all there is to it - a story arc designed to parody and just have a lot of fun with its premise, and that it does in this week's episode.  My only real worry is that this arc could wear a little thin if it's spread over too many episodes, but that's a concern for another day, and for now Level E has left me with a grin on my face once again.