So Says Who?
This ep starts right in the middle of the mission, with Tako and Maguro arguing as they hurtle through space in a box attached to an asteroid. Obviously some kind of sinister plot, but how did they get here from there,
Earlier in the day, Maguro discovered Apex (a returning villian who actual appeared before?! No way! He was in World's Tastiest Heroes, by the way) was on the loose, thanks to her new crime detection software. Meanwhile, Tako discovered their rented DVDs were overdue! Ignoring him, Maguro issued orders like a pro, ready to pounce on Apex before he managed to commit any crimes.
Wait! Tako interrupts Maguro's flashback to correct her: it all started when the crime detection device he rigged up detected Apex, no thanks to Maguro's dedication to her star charts, which told her to reorganize her sock drawer, even though she doesn't wear socks. Tako organized the Pack and got ready to roll!
This time Maguro objects to Tako's characterization of her, but Tako points out that it doesn't matter, since they're stuck in space and all. If only they could signal the others back on Earth...
Which is just what the rest of the Pack is trying to do. Ben suggests activating the tracking devices, but since Tako and Maguro are outside of the 25,000 mile range, it's no good. Maguro predicts their imminent doom down to the second, and Tako once again tells her that if she'd followed his orders, they wouldn't need to know how soon they would meet their doom. Maguro insists that her orders were the ones to be followed, so Tako flashes back again...
Tako, Ikura, and Wasabi ran into Apex in a dark alley, and after a few quick quips, they attacked! In the end, Apex was nowhere to be found, but the alley was now very colorful. Who should happen to show up at that point in time but the mayor! Fortunately, he liked it, and took Tako back to City Hall to give him an award. Despite this high point, Maguro points out that Tako let Apex get away. Tako isn't phased by her accusations, but there's little they can do at that moment, anyway.
Back on Earth, Kani backtracks Tako and Maguro all the way to City Hall, and Ben goes to check with the Mayor for the real deal. On the asteriod, Maguro remembers finding residue from Apex's spaceship on the sidewalk (at night? I thought this all happened during the day), and using said residue to pinpoint his current location. She and Kani ran to the same alley that Tako had been in before, still very colorful. Ikura and Wasabi ran into her there, asking for leadership, but before she could give them any, the mayor showed up again. This time he pitched a fit about the mess, and took Maguro to City Hall to get cleaning supplies. The others continued to pursue Apex on Maguro's order.
But that's all either of them can remember. Once they got to City Hall, everything became a blur, and somehow they ended up on the asteroid. By that time, Kani's figured out that Tako and Maguro are in space, and Wharf City is going to be hit by an asteroid in just three minutes, according to Sophia Tucker, Roving Reporter. Tako and Maguro argue semantics, and Maguro tries to meditate. Down on the ground, the rest of the Pack turned the City Hall flag pole into an electromagnet, making a forcefield that can alter the asteroid's course(!), sending it to Wharf City's local hot springs and camping ground (closed for the season). Still, Ben panics about the asteroid's estimated level of devastation, but Kani reassures him that the asteroid will actually hit a geyser which just happens to erupt every 27 days at 11:07 on the dot, which apparently is right now. Sure enough, the geyser goes off, the asteroid hits it, and no devastation occurs.
The box holding Tako and Maguro goes flying off the asteroid and lands in front of the rest of the Pack; Wasabi does a happy dance. Kani gets them out right quick, and Tako and Maguro wonder just what happened, really? Ben checks the script and lets them know that they were both right and both wrong. Here's what really went down:
Apparently, Apex was planning revenge on the Sushi Pack. Kani discovered he was back in town with the Crime Detector that she made (that makes the most sense, really). Once they split up, Apex disguised himself as the Mayor (the real mayor being on vacation during all this) and shot Tako and Maguro into space. But he didn't plan on them hitting the asteroid, sending it off course, and sending them to their almost doom (which probably would have been all right with him, too). Maguro hypthesizes that the crash affected their memories, which is why there flashbacks were all messed up (if amusing). Tako adds that the crash was no excuse for how they treated each other, and goes on a quick spiel about respecting each other, even when they don't see eye-to-eye. Wasabi, meanwhile, agrees with him just a little too much, as if saying, "Yes! This is an aesop I can get behind 100 percent!!" Ending with the following quip:
Maguro: Tako, I like the way you think!
Tako: Me, too!
Ah yes, there's the narcissist we all know and love. But that doesn't hide the fact that Apex got away, as Wasabi points out. But Kani had one more trick up her sleeve: she managed to divert a stream of water from the geyser to Apex's exact location, thoroughly annoying him, and upping his danger of rusting. And that's that.
This episode is a lot of fun to watch, but not as much fun to summarize, really. There's a lot of back and forth between the dialogue on Earth and on the asteroid that I'm not doing justice to here, and the banter between Tako and Maguro has to be seen for yourself.
Darkness and Spice
Now this ep was fun to watch and fun to summarize. It's the first to focus on Uni, which is odd, but then again, as we learned in this episode, so is he. It turns out that he's the Sushi Pack's worst foe not because he's seemingly invincible, as his profile claims, but because he is certifiably insane (which is saying something on this show)!
Things start out quickly, with the mayor briefing the Pack on their latest mission. He tries to illustrate it with a photo, but produces one of himself instead of their intended target, Uni. What I love about this part is that the mayor makes it clear in no uncertain terms just how insane Uni is. The sea urchin, working alone for a change, has been robbing amusement parks, or more specifically, the guests inside, taking all the change he can find. Tako and the mayor narrow down the possible locations for his next heist to Looneyland.
Later, as the Pack preps for the mission, Wasabi reveals that he is deathly afraid of the dark, and he hugs a salt shaker to show his resolve to not go to Looneyland at night. Ikura gets the truth out of him: he's really afraid of the Headless Horseradish, a spectre that comes out at night and eats mustard ("Trippy," comments Ikura). Ikura isn't very sympathetic, but Tako uses calming words and nicknames ("Come on, Wasab," he says), and Maguro tries using dramatic poses to coax Wasabi into going, but this only results in him hugging the napkin canister and crying harder. Ben comes to the rescue and tells Wasabi about his *cough cough* "friend" who got freaked out after watching a movie called Vampire Bus and developed a fear of buses. So Ben rode the bus with his *cough cough* friend, and everything was okay after that. Moral: having someone to rely on makes facing your fears easier. Ikura apologizes and promises to smack up any horseradish they encounter, making Wasabi giggle.
By the time they hit the amusement park, it's already dark, even though the park's probably been open for hours. Wasabi is still pretty spooked, so Tako recommends focusing on the job at hand and watching out for Uni. Little do they know, Uni is right under their noses, masquerading as some dude's pocket. With change in hand, he shapshifts back into himself and takes it to his hideaway, where he outlines his plan to nobody: he'll use the change to play the carnival games and win enough stuffed animals to make a stuffed army, with himself as Colonel! Why not just steal the stuffed animals, we don't know. Maybe he likes the thrill of the games?
Uni continues his crime spree, morphing into roller coaster cars and snack stand counters, even a cash register drawer. With his constant shifting, the Pack can't get a handle on him. Ikura takes off on his own to try and do something, and Tako sends Kani to go after him. Kani refuses, calling Ikura "a cement-headed salmon." Lover's quarrel? Maguro goes instead, chastising Kani. Perhaps she knows what's going on? Meanwhile, Tako, Kani, and Wasabi heed the call of a recently robbed fairgoer, and chase after Uni. Tako proposes they split up, him and Wasabi in the back and Kani in the front, until Wasabi points out that the back is probably darker, so he goes with Kani instead.
On their own, Kani tells Wasabi a tale from her pre-sushi days, all about how she used to be afraid of oven mitts (which she calls oven mittens here) and how she had to face that fear, and thus Wasabi should face his, too. Wasabi, naturally, does not want to do this, but Kani forces him to go in a haunted house with her.
Meanwhile, Uni spots the Ferris Wheel and sees an easy way to get a lot of change fast, enough to promote himself to General. Although this is not how Ferris Wheels work in real life, Uni pushes a lever that makes it goes super-fast! (Now, I've operated a Ferris Wheel, so I can tell you, those things are not built for speed. At all.) Ikura and Maguro spy the wheel activity and split up: Maguro will try and help the people on the ride and Ikura will get the others so they can take down Uni once and for all. Back with the others, Wasabi is more scared than ever after his haunted house experience, and Tako chews out Kani for her lack of judgment. He extends this chewing out to blabbing to Ikura once he shows up, leaving Kani to stew on what she views as an unfair accusation.
Back at the Ferris Wheel, Uni revels in the change raining down on him and reveals more of his plan: with the stuffed animals he'll win from the carnival, he'll liberate more stuffed animals from all the toy stores in Wharf City! But for what purpose? We never actually find out. I guess when you're as deranged as Uni, you don't really need a reason. With the whole Pack assembled, Tako goes to try and slow down the Ferris Wheel while the other distract Uni. Maguro tries to reassure Wasabi with a stupid analogy about coins and fear, but it doesn't work. Kani tells the others that she'll take care of Wasabi; Maguro is skeptical, but what choice do they have?
Tako goes straight to the wheel's middle to slow it down, and Maguro and Ikura charge Uni. But Uni transforms into a screen and bounces back their attack, and Tako loses his grip on the wheel. While all that is going on, Kani apologizes to Wasabi for trying to cure him of his fear against his will, and goes on about fear for a little bit. The main point being that action is better than doing nothing. She even starts to tear up and apologizes again, but there's no time for that now! The rest of the Pack need help! She starts to go and asks Wasabi if he'll be okay by himself, but he decides to come with her and help.
They charge at Uni, but he turns into a bellows and blows them away, straight into the Ferris Wheel's main power. All the lights turn off, and Wasabi cowers in fear (I can attest to this, when the Ferris Wheel lights turn off for the night, it gets really dark, really fast). Kani tells him its okay, and goes after Uni again. This time he turns into a pincher himself and goes after Kani, crowing about how he'll soon be Admiral Uni, in charge of all stuffed animals. Since Kani hasn't been privy to his plans, this basically comes out of the blue, and she comments on the appropriateness of his chosen venue (called, after all, Looneyland). But he gets a grip on her and flips her out of the way. Wasabi freaks out, allowing Uni to sneak up on him and, shifting into a slingshot, fling him away. Landing in some kind of hole, Wasabi's flame lights up the night, giving him new resolve (why didn't he do that earlier? I mean, when you've got a flame on your head, why fear the dark?), and he helps Kani out of the hole she landed in, while filling her in on his plan of attack.
This time around, Wasabi attacks the coins directly, heating them up so Uni can't hold onto them. Meanwhile, Kani fiddles around with the Ferris Wheel controls until the ride comes to a stop, and Wasabi makes a fiery cage for Uni. The others show up (where were they, come to think of it?) and congratulate Wasabi and (at Wasabi's insistance) Kani. Kani assumes that her story helped Wasabi, but Tako bursts in with "Here's a story I never get tired of: We Are the Sushi Pack!" No, really. Just that fast and abrupt. They do the signature end of episode catchphrase and bam, the episode is over.
Okay, if Fat Wasabi is the cutest Wasabi, then Scared Wasabi is the second cutest, for real.
And all the Kani/Wasabi interaction was too cute, too. It's too bad Tako spent most of his time with Kani and Wasabi being mad, or it would have been a perfect triad of cuteness ^_^
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