Ep. 40: The Future is the Past

The Future is the Past is the fortieth episode of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. It is (officially) a tribute to Mirai Sentai Timeranger.

Synopsis
The former TimeYellow, Domon, tells the Gokaigers that they must go back in time to help the Goseigers and Shinkengers.

Plot
During lunch time, the Gokai Galleon is suddenly shaken by the appearance of the GoZyu Drill, stationed outside. When Gai looks into it, he finds a Tomorrow Research badge, containing a hologram of Domon, the former TimeYellow.

Showing it to his teammates, they find it is a holographic message left to them by Domon, charging the Gokaigers with going back in time to October 2, 2010 and protecting the Megakure Shrine, which had mysteriously exploded that day, in exchange for one of the Grand Powers. The Gokaigers are puzzled, since they already have the Timerangers' Grand Power, but accept the task nonetheless.

Arriving at the shrine in the past, they find a boy being accosted by many Strenghtened Nanashi troopers, and make quick work of them. Ahim tells Gai to tend to the boy while the rest of the team goes off to find whoever could be the responsible for the explosion.

In a quarry nearby, they spot the Goseiger and Shinkenger teams fighting against the Nanashi together, then later they find Shitari of the Bones rallying more of the Nanashi. Concluding him to be the villain, the Gokaigers decide to fight him, with Marvelous reasoning that he would be destroyed by one of the two other teams anyway. They jump down and take out the Nanashi, proceeding to destroy Shitari by using the powers of different Red warriors.

Meanwhile, Gai talks to the boy, who had run away from home (though he insists he was "moving out"), because his mother, a freelance writer, is always moving, so he has no time to stay and make friends. Gai tells him that, like the boy, he too moved from city to city frequently because of his parents when he was a child, but nevertheless, he had a lot of friends because he always tried hard to make new friends at every place he arrived.

Just then, Metal Alice of the Agent comes by, analyzing the Megakure Shrine and marking it for destruction, a task she assigns Zan-KT-0 of the Shot with. Zan-KT-0 is confronted by Gai, who takes him to a safe place, but cannot seem to break through his enemy's defense. When the Gokaigers arrive, they all decide to use the Timerangers' powers to fight and defeat Zan-KT-0, much to the amazement of Metal Alice, who has no data on the Gokaigers. Before leaving, however, she enlarges Zan-KT-0 with her Bibi Bugs, and GokaiSilver offers to fight him alone in the GoZyu Drill. Zan-KT-0 is defeated when GokaiSilver uses the BullBlack key on the GoZyuJin for a new attack, the GoZyu Eidan.

Later on at the Megakure Shrine, the boy's mother arrives, apologizing for her son's behavior, and as she is revealed to be Honami Moriyama (the girlfriend Domon had left in the late 20th century), Don reminds Gai to take a picture of them at the shrine to prove their success, asking Honami and her son, Mirai, to join them. In the present, the gang is relieved to see that the temple made it through to November 2011, but suddenly everyone gets distressed when Navi reminds them of the Grand Power Domon had promised them, and they forgot to claim.

In the year 3011, Domon enters the GoZyu Drill and finds a letter that Gai left on the cockpit for him. Domon reads the letter and then looks at the photograph. Initially upset that they interacted with people from the past (something they had orders not to), he soon recognizes Honami in the picture and, concluding that the boy next to her is the son he never met, Domon sits alone at the cockpit, crying.

Cast

 * Ryota Ozawa as Captain Marvelous (GokaiRed)
 * Yuuki Yamada as Joe Gibken (GokaiBlue)
 * Mao Ichimichi as Luka Millfy (GokaiYellow)
 * Kazuki Shimizu as Don Dogoier (GokaiGreen)
 * Yui Koike as Ahim de Famille (GokaiPink)
 * Junya Ikeda as Gai Ikari (GokaiSilver)
 * Yukari Tamura as Navi (voice)
 * Shuhei Izumi as Domon (TimeYellow†)
 * Asuka Komiya as Mirai Moriyama
 * Cho as Shitari of the Bones (voice)
 * Tora Take as Zan-KT of the Shield (voice)
 * Marina Inoue as Metal Alice of the Agent (voice)
 * Tamao Yoshimura as Honami Moriyama
 * Yudai Chiba as GoseiRed (voice†)
 * Tori Matsuzaka as ShinkenRed (voice†)
 * Kento Ono as GoseiBlue (voice†)
 * Hiroki Aiba as ShinkenBlue (voice†)
 * Mikiho Niwa as GoseiYellow (voice†)
 * Suzuka Morita as ShinkenYellow (voice†)
 * Kyousuke Hamao as GoseiBlack (voice†)
 * Shogo Suzuki as ShinkenGreen (voice†)
 * Rika Satoh as GoseiPink (voice†)
 * Rin Takanashi as ShinkenPink (voice†)

Episode info

 * Writer: Junko Kōmura
 * Director:
 * Original airdate: November 27, 2011

Trivia

 * Gokai Changes in The Future is the Past:
 * GokaiRed - Go-On Red, TimeRed
 * GokaiBlue - BoukenRed, TimeBlue
 * GokaiYellow - GekiRed, TimeYellow
 * GokaiGreen - DekaRed, TimeGreen
 * GokaiPink - MagiRed, TimePink
 * GokaiSilver - ShinkenGold, KingRanger, TimeFire
 * This is the first episode to feature a Monster of the Week used in a past Sentai series.
 * This is also the first episode that Gai uses the Gokai Shooting Star finisher since its debut in episode 17.

Elements/Homages to Timeranger

 * The title of this episode homages the main concept of Timeranger: heroes going back in time to perform actions that ultimately shape the future (in some ways creating a paradox even when the main team was trying to prevent paradoxes from happening in series)
 * Like every episode of Timeranger, a specific date is used to notify where it takes place, specifically placing it in a particular place and time. In the case of this episode, the date is October 2nd, 2010, which specifically takes places right between Goseiger episodes 32 and 33.
 * This episode furthers along the idea of Domon himself creating a time paradox at the end of Timeranger by conceiving his own ancestor with Honami Moriyama during the series, thereby forcing his protection so that his own existence would remain. This further connects to Timeranger's concepts of the connection of past and future, in a way similar to the need for Tatsuya Asami to be TimeRed due to his connection to descendent Ryuuya Asami, the TimeRed of the future.
 * Ironically, Domon himself didn't realize he had a child in the past until the events of this episode.
 * The usage of the Matrintis in this episode may be a connection to the true mechanical villains of Timeranger, particularly the cyborg main villain Gien.

Connection With Tensou Sentai Goseiger vs. Shinkenger: Epic on Ginmaku

 * This episode explains why the Gokaigers were able to use the Ranger Keys during their cameo, even though the keys didn't exist until after the Legendary War, which took place after the Goseigers defeated Brajira.
 * The entire cameo from the movie where the Gokaigers kill off Shinkenger villain Shitari of the Bones is shown completely in episode as was done in the film.