Senritsu Sentai World Egusugi!1

HAMA Tours - Meeting Room
Kaede

Um, what is this…?

1

Akuta

Whuh?! What do you mean?! It’s our tour concept!

Kaede

Y-Yeah…

Nanaki

This is the info document, right? There’s a…crab thing? Drawn on it.

Akuta

It’s not a “crab thing,” it’s a floral egg crab. Come on, dude, stop acting like you don’t know!

Kiroku

I…like…the…drawing…

Ushio

Yeah, well, we’re not holding an art exhibition.

Sakujiro

Let us look past the quality of the art for now. The most important aspect is the content.

Akuta

‘Kay, lemme explain! Everyone, please take a look at page one of the material!

Muneuji

This is the only page.

Akuta

So I think our concept’s gotta be somethin’ crazy and action-y.

Our guests will all get to be action stars! Cool, right? Right? Just thinking about it makes you excited!

And I call it “Tourism Sentai Rangers: The Sorcerer Floral Egg Crab Strikes Back!”

Ushio

Rangers…?

Muneuji

Come to think of it, a few days ago, you seemed very eager to take a class on sentai shows. You said you signed up for a subscription.

Akuta

Picture this: a sorcerer floral egg crab turns into a giant and attacks Asu High! His favorite foods are the brains of tourists and pork buns!

Kaede

(That sounds kind of gross…!)

Akuta

The school building gets crushed! And explodes! The students and their guardians are in a frenzy! They need someone to help them!

And then we’ll show up as the Tourism Sentai Rangers to save the day!

I’m gonna be Tourism Orange! Kiroku’s Purple and Nanaki’s Turquoise! Muneuji’s gonna be Pink, and Ushio’s gonna be Lime!

Oh, and when we show up, there’s gonna be ANOTHER explosion with smoke in our image colors. Just like a real sentai show!

Then we defeat the crab sorcerer, and Asu High will be peaceful for a while, buuuut…

Kaede

Wait, before you continue, what’s this hishio-don-looking thing?

Akuta

Oh, they were so friggin’ good that I just drew it for fun.

Nanaki

So it doesn’t have anything to do with the concept?

Akuta

Okay, moving on! Keep listening, guys!

Timeskip
Akuta

And finally, we’ll put on an AWESOME concert and revue with the sorcerer crab! The end!

So? Howdja like it?!

Kaede

So to sum it up… The concept is “sentai action show.” Does that sound right?

Akuta

Yeppers!

Nanaki

How long did you think about this for?

Akuta

Few seconds?

Sakujiro

I find it impressive that you came up with this in mere seconds, however…it is quite confusing.

Akuta

Confusing! Yay, yay!

Kaede

Sakujiro-san, I think Akuta-kun considers “confusing” to be a compliment.

Sakujiro

Then excuse me.

Ushio

The brain-eating thing is gross, so change that. And why are there so many explosions? Why do you wanna blow things up in the first place? I don’t get any of this.

Akuta

Art is an explosion, my friend.

Kiroku

How will…we…make things…explode…?

Akuta

With the egg, duh!

Muneuji

But it returned to the ocean.

Kaede

What egg?

Nanaki

Ahh… Um, it’s an egg-shaped bomb…thing. It’s been going around on dazzle lately.

Ushio

We’re just talking about some stupid anime, so don’t worry about it. We’re kids, after all.

Kaede

(I really didn’t expect Akuta-kun to throw out such a crazy idea… I was careless.)

(I should’ve kept an eye on him. If I did, I could’ve kept him in check, especially since I know he tends to speed out of control.)

Ushio

So? What’s our team name?

Akuta

I said it already! The Tourism Sentai Rangers!

Ushio

I-I don’t even know how to express how cringe that is.

Kaede

(This is my fault. I need to figure out how to settle things…)

Nanaki

…This won’t work.

Kiroku

…Mm…

Nanaki

We can’t turn a sorcerer crab into a giant in real life, and we’re not allowed to destroy the school…

Akuta

No, but, like, we can just ask the guests to act everything out!

Ushio

So they’re gonna show up to an open campus and act…? No way.

Muneuji

Even if they were to act out the scenario, would they actually enjoy this concept?

There will be people from all demographics. We should think of a concept that everyone can enjoy.

Ushio

And what if someone gets hurt in the explosions? That’ll be social suicide for us.

Cut it out with all the explosions. Not just for the safety of the guests, but for our sake too.

Kiroku

…I think…you…didn’t consider…the…budget.

Akuta

Urgh…

Nanaki

And none of this has anything to do with Asu High or HAMA.

Ushio

Don’t just throw out something random. We need something that makes sense.

Akuta

W-Why are you guys only talking about the bad stuff?! J.J. Park2 always says something nice after criticizing things. So where’s my praise?!

Muneuji

I’ve been trying to think of something good to say, but I’m finding it difficult.

Akuta

No waaaay…

Kiroku

…I think…the drawings…are…really nice…

Akuta

……

I gotta poop.

*door opening* *running*

Kaede

A-Akuta-kun…!

(It’s rare for him to have such a stiff expression on his face… Maybe I should try to clear the air.)

Okay, everyone! It’s a little early, but let’s take a lunch break.

HAMA Tours - Office Floor
Kaede

(I hope Akuta-kun’s doing alright…)

Nanaki

……

Kaede

Nanaki-kun! Is Akuta-kun in the meeting room?

2

Nanaki

Ah… I don’t know.

Kaede

Oh, okay. Thanks anyway.

Nanaki

…No problem.

Kaede

(I should buy a bento from the shop on the first floor for him and say something to cheer him up.)

HAMA Tours - Pier

3

Akuta

……

Nanaki

What are you spacing out for?

Akuta

WOAH?! You scared me, dude!

Nanaki

I did it on purpose… Can I sit on this elephant?

Akuta

Yep, yep. It’s not mine anyway.

Nanaki

…I had a feeling that you got pretty upset at what happened, with all the criticism and stuff.

Akuta

Ahh…

Nanaki

I kinda know what it feels like, since I compose music.

You really gotta lay yourself bare when you make art, so I know how scary it is to show it to other people.

But it’s like… Even if your work isn’t perfect, nothing’s gonna start if you don’t expose it.

And we became ward mayors because we wanted to start new things.

Of course we’re gonna go through a lotta challenges and run into some people who don’t approve of us… Actually, we’re gonna run into a lot of those people.

But I still wanna start things. You think so too, right?

Akuta

Hah.

Nanaki

Hm?

Akuta

Thanks! You’re, like, a genius at being nice, Nanaki. But I’m not really all that sad!

People who don’t get what I’m about are just a buncha dudes who wanna cover up my charisma, so…

I just gotta say goodbye to them. Simple!

Everyone in the world has the freedom to not understand each other, y’know? Or at least that’s what my uncle told me.

Nanaki

……

Pfft… Hahahaha! You got me worried for nothing. Damn, you’re resilient, dude. That’s pretty funny.

Akuta

Buuut…

I don’t wanna say goodbye to this whole thing just yet. It’d be too easy, so I don’t wanna.

Nanaki

……

Akuta

Oh, you want some of these? They’re good. Kiroku came to give them to me earlier and left without sayin’ anything.

Nanaki

Kiddie bolo biscuits… That kinda suits him. Thanks. *munch…*

Akuta

*munch, munch…* Oh yeah, can you make the song for our hospitality live?

Nanaki

Huh?

Akuta

Your songs rock! You were the first person I thought to ask!

Nanaki

Ahh… Uh, I mean, sure, but… Actually, lemme think about it.

I’ve been trying to stay away from composing recently.

Akuta

Whuh?! Why?!

Nanaki

Um… Uh…

I…keep writing love songs…

Akuta

Huhhh?!

Nanaki

I really wanna stop, because, well, I feel like I’m getting stuck in a bad loop again, so I wanna put a stop to my feelings, but…

Akuta

What are you murmuring about, dude? We don’t need a love song. Just make a normal song.

Nanaki

I know, but… Don’t you have something like that? Where you can’t stop thinking about it no matter if you’re asleep or awake?

Akuta

……

Nanaki

So, yeah, that’s what’s been going on. But y’know, I think I can say the same thing about you.

The concept you came up with was a giant mess of everything you wanted to do.

I think you should pick one thing that’s at the forefront of your mind and use that as a basis for everything else.

Not necessarily movies, but…something from inside you.

Akuta

From inside… Like what?

Nanaki

Like… L-Lovesickness…or something…

Kaede

Ah! I finally found you two.

Nanaki

Ah…?!

Akuta

Hey, Teach!

Nanaki

Okay, I gotta go now! Bye!

Kaede

Oh, he left…

Akuta

Yeah. Hmmm…


Footnotes

  1. A reference to Senritsu Kaiki World Kowasugi! (2023). While the movie is always referred to with a romanized title in English film circles, a literal translation of it would be “Terrifying Mysterious World, So Scary!” In turn, a literal translation of this story track would be “Terrifying Sentai World, So Gross!” Sentai is a subgenre of Japanese action films and TV shows that involve a squadron of superheroes (e.g. Power Rangers).

  2. A parody of filmmaker J.J. Abrams, known for works such as Star Trek (2009) and several Star Wars films.