Omegahorn 02

Watch Analysis

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The Brilliant Freedom of Omegahorn’s Power System

After watching Omegahorn Episode 2, I came away really impressed by how elegant the show’s design is.

I only watched the first episode of Gavan Infinity, so I don’t have much context to compare it against. What I do have is years of watching Super Sentai, that one episode of Gavan Infinity, and now two episodes of Omegahorn. Based on that, I think they’ve stumbled onto something really interesting.

The way the Omegahorn, the Gears, and the Awakener all work together creates a level of flexibility I wasn’t expecting.

I started noticing it a little bit back in Episode 1 during the Hunter battle. Both hunters used their Awakeners and Gears to empower their weapons, and I thought that was neat.

Episode 2 takes that idea much further.

The scammer isn’t wearing some elaborate suit. He’s basically just a guy with a goofy pair of glasses. The glasses aren’t even what give him his power. That’s just part of his appraisal gimmick.

What actually matters are the Gear and the Awakener.

With those alone, he’s able to manifest shields, move them around, attack, defend, and become a genuine threat.

Visually, it doesn’t even matter that I can’t completely explain how it works.

It works because it feels good.

It reminds me a little of the way Sentai eventually moved away from giant cockpit sets full of levers and buttons. Eventually the heroes were just standing inside the robot, making gestures, and somehow controlling everything. Logically, it’s probably less believable, but visually it’s much more expressive.

This feels similar.

Instead of building complicated sets or requiring elaborate suits every time somebody has powers, the show can simply let someone use a Gear and some visual effects, and suddenly they can do almost anything.

The moment that really sold me, though, was Shout’s fight.

In Episode 1, he already proved how capable he was just wearing the suit he’d built himself. Then, in Episode 2, he asks Enkaku if he can borrow his power.

That’s when everything clicked.

His suit is already his weapon.

Then Enkaku’s power supercharges it.

The abilities Shout gains are incredible, but what impressed me even more was what that says about the world.

With an Awakener and a Gear, almost anybody can become a huge threat.

Anybody can punch way above their weight class.

That’s what I find so exciting.

Instead of thinking about fixed power levels, the show almost has a sliding scale of power. A normal person can suddenly compete with someone far stronger than they should. Someone with the right Gear can dramatically change what kind of fight they’re capable of having.

That gives the writers so much freedom.

If they want somebody in a simple costume with incredible powers, they can do that.

If they want somebody in a wild costume with equally wild abilities, they can do that too.

If they want a monster to appear, they can do that.

If they want a hunter to fight using a monster’s power without the monster ever appearing, they can do that too.

Now I’m already thinking about all the other possibilities.

Could someone put a monster’s power into a weapon and hand that weapon to somebody else?

Could different powers stack together?

What happens as Shout collects more Gears?

What happens to hunters who lose theirs? Do they buy another one? Find another partner? Earn one?

Those are fun questions to think about.

The show is naturally making me imagine new possibilities, and I think that’s a really good sign.

The flexibility also makes the toy line smarter.

Kids don’t just have one power anymore.

They can imagine having Enkaku’s power today and somebody else’s tomorrow. They can imagine combinations the show hasn’t even done yet.

That’s exactly what you want from a toy.

It’s fun.

It’s imaginative.

And it works because it also makes the storytelling better.

The last thing that makes this work is Shout himself.

He’s becoming less like somebody who’s simply hunting monsters and more like a genuine superhero.

The way he rescues the hostage in this episode is just cool. He’s using these powers to protect people, not simply to win fights, and I think that makes him a much stronger protagonist.

If he keeps growing as a character while collecting more Gears, then every new power has the chance to mean something beyond simply making him stronger.

That’s why Episode 2 impressed me so much.

The flexibility of this system doesn’t just make better fights.

It makes me excited to see what the writers do with it next.

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Inspector’s Notes

The Power of Ego

I didn’t really pay much attention to Omegahorn before it came out. I just knew it was the second PROJECT R.E.D. series, and I figured I’d check it out.

One thing that has surprised me, though, is how Enkaku talks about ego.

Back in Episode 1, he tells Shout that his strong sense of self is what drew him to him in the first place. Now, in Episode 2, he compliments the twins by saying they have strong egos.

That’s interesting because “ego” is almost always used as an insult. We say someone has a big ego when they’re arrogant or narcissistic.

Enkaku means it as a compliment.

I don’t know exactly where the show is going with this yet. Maybe there’s pre-release material that explains it better. Maybe it’s something we’ll simply learn as the series goes on.

Either way, I like the direction it’s pointing.

Having confidence, believing in yourself, and actively pursuing the things that matter to you are generally good qualities. If you’re passive, if you never take initiative, you’re probably not going to live a very fulfilling life.

That’s an unfortunate truth, but I think it is true.

If that’s what Omegahorn is encouraging—having a strong sense of self, confidence, and the courage to pursue your own path—then I think that’s a genuinely positive message for kids.

Maybe that’s what Enkaku means when he talks about ego.

We’ll have to see.

What do you think? Does that seem like the direction the series is heading?

The Most Dangerous Thing About Omegahorn’s World

The tremendous power this scammer displays in Episode 2 made me realize something.

The world of Omegahorn is dangerous.

Not because there are monsters.

Because power seems to be completely decentralized.

As far as we can tell so far, there isn’t any governing system deciding who gets to wield the power of the Kakujū. There doesn’t seem to be any licensing process, any compatibility requirement, or any organization making sure these powers stay out of the wrong hands.

Case in point…

This guy.

He’s not trying to conquer the world.

He’s not some legendary warrior.

He’s just a scammer.

A con artist.

And yet he has access to power that feels comparable to a tank, a giant monster, or at least something far beyond what an ordinary person should be able to handle.

In fact, he’s dangerous enough that another Beast Hunter is the only person who can realistically stop him.

That immediately made me wonder…

Where are the Beast Hunter police?

Where are the officers equipped with Gears who deal with situations like this every day?

Maybe they exist and we just haven’t met them yet.

But if they don’t…

This world is basically the Wild West.

Now, yes, the historical Wild West is often exaggerated.

But from a storytelling perspective, it’s a fantastic setup.

Power is available to almost anyone.

Some people are going to use it responsibly.

Some people are going to exploit it.

Some people are going to terrorize others simply because they can.

That naturally creates a world where the strong prey on the weak until somebody stronger—and hopefully more principled—steps in to stop them.

That’s classic superhero storytelling.

It’s also a world that can generate an almost endless variety of conflicts.

What fascinates me most is how open the system feels.

Right now, I don’t even know what it takes to become a Beast Hunter or use one of these Gears.

There doesn’t appear to be any special compatibility.

It almost feels like if you can get your hands on one…

You can use it.

If that’s really how this world works, then almost anyone has the potential to become incredibly dangerous.

I love that.

It makes the setting feel unpredictable.

It makes every new character a potential threat.

And it means the writers aren’t limited to giant monsters whenever they want to raise the stakes.

That’s an exciting place to build stories.

I’m curious whether that’s where Omegahorn is actually heading, or if future episodes are going to reveal more rules governing who can use these powers.

Either way, I think it’s one of the most interesting pieces of worldbuilding Episode 2 introduced.

Did Super Sentai Forget to Have Fun?

I don’t know if that’s necessarily true, but watching Episode 2 of Omegahorn made me think about it.

This whole sequence with the scammer trapping Enkaku inside a giant prison made out of energy shields is just… fun.

It’s creative.

It’s not simply, “This guy is stronger.”

It’s not, “This guy punches harder.”

Instead, this really powerful character gets completely shut down because somebody has an ability he doesn’t understand.

Enkaku can’t simply muscle his way out.

He actually needs Gokaku’s help to escape.

I love that.

It immediately reminded me of Yu Yu Hakusho after the Dark Tournament, when Yusuke starts encountering people with Territories—or Domains, I honestly can’t remember which the anime called them. Suddenly, raw power isn’t enough anymore. These characters have strange, specific abilities that create problems Yusuke can’t simply punch through.

That’s exciting.

Those kinds of powers force characters to think instead of simply overpowering the enemy.

That’s exactly what I hope Omegahorn keeps doing.

I want the Kakujū powers to stay weird.

I want them to stay imaginative.

I want one monster to trap people.

Another to manipulate the battlefield.

Another to create strange conditions or limitations.

Those kinds of abilities naturally create more interesting fights because the solution isn’t always “hit harder.”

Sometimes it’s:

• hit the right place,
• figure out the trick,
• escape the trap,
• or solve the problem before you can even start fighting.

That’s a much more creative style of action.

Maybe Super Sentai never completely lost that spirit.

Maybe I’m giving Omegahorn too much credit after only two episodes.

But I hope this is the direction PROJECT R.E.D. keeps going.

Because I find these kinds of powers far more memorable than simply making every new character stronger than the last one.

Loose Threads

This Monster, This Megazord

I don’t know that Enkaku knew he could do this.

I don’t know that the twins knew he could do this.

Shout certainly had no idea he could combine Kakujū together like this.

As far as I can tell, this is new for everybody.

That’s actually a really cool idea.

Everybody is discovering this new possibility together, both the characters and us as the audience.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that’s not even the coolest part.

The coolest part is what this means outside the story.

Enkaku is basically replacing the Megazord.

That’s why I wanted to call this “This Monster, This Megazord.”

He’s taking over the role that the giant combining robot normally fills.

Or, if you prefer…

The Megazord, if you will.

Which I will.

Because I must.

That’s my culture.

People get so weird about calling giant robots Megazords. Yeah, I know “Megazord” comes from Power Rangers. I know “mecha” is the broader term. But not every mecha is a combining robot either, and I’ve never heard anybody insist we call every combining robot a “gattai mecha.”

It’s just one of those internet arguments that has always seemed a little silly to me.

Anyway…

PROJECT R.E.D. inherited the old Super Sentai time slot. That’s a huge responsibility. Whether that was the intention from day one or not, these shows have to solve one really big problem.

How do you replace the Megazord?

For decades, the combining robot was one of the defining parts of Super Sentai. You expected one every year.

Now Omegahorn is trying something different.

Instead of combining robots…

They’re combining monsters.

That’s brilliant.

I already talked in my main review about how much I like the Kakujū designs.

Now they’ve somehow made Enkaku even cooler.

He’s already carrying what looks like an entire ship on his back that opens into a cannon.

Now he has Dokaku’s giant mechanical fists.

He suddenly looks less like a monster…

…and more like a Megazord.

Not because he’s a robot.

Because he’s filling the same role.

That’s such a fascinating idea.

Instead of introducing another giant machine, they’re letting the monster become the big customizable centerpiece.

And because he’s still a monster, he fights like one.

He can stay down on all fours.

He can charge with his horns.

He can fire the cannon.

Then he can stand up and start throwing punches like Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson.

Iron Enkaku over here.

That’s fun.

It’s not just visually different from a robot.

It lets him fight differently too.

Immediately my brain starts asking questions.

What other combinations are possible?

How many Kakujū can combine like this?

Can they swap parts around?

Will different monsters specialize in different fighting styles?

That’s the kind of thing I love.

The show is making me imagine possibilities it hasn’t even shown me yet.

That’s one of the best compliments I can give a new series.

It makes tokusatsu fun.

It makes you want to play with the ideas.

And yes…

I’m sure some of that is the novelty.

But I also think they just did a really good job.

It helps that this surprises everybody.

The audience didn’t know this was possible.

The characters didn’t know this was possible.

So we’re all discovering this together.

That makes the moment feel genuinely special.

The only thing I’m wondering now is what happens next.

If PROJECT R.E.D. keeps going for years, I don’t think they should just keep doing “the monster becomes the Megazord.”

Eventually that becomes the new normal.

I’d rather see them develop four or five different answers to the old Megazord question over the next several years.

Maybe sometimes it’s a giant robot.

Maybe sometimes it’s combining monsters.

Maybe another season finds a completely different solution.

That variety is what keeps a long-running franchise healthy.

After all, Super Sentai kept giant robots exciting for decades by constantly reinventing them.

PROJECT R.E.D. doesn’t have to copy that formula.

It just has to follow the same philosophy.

Keep introducing new ideas.

Keep letting them develop.

Don’t rush to the next gimmick.

Let them cook.

Because if this is the direction they’re going…

I think turning the monster into the Megazord might be one of the smartest ideas the franchise has had yet.