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yeonchi · 1 year

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Combo Rangers Vol 3 Review: We Are Equals

Graphic novel, transcript and translation available on Google Drive

Storyline skit: The Interdimensional Café Part 2A

After finishing the review for the second Combo Rangers graphic novel, We Are Humans, Azuma heard an explosion outside his studio and went outside to find a group of Polvina clones outside. He threw a bunch of throwing knives rigged with explosives at them, but instead of the Polvina clones being eliminated, there were even more Polvina clones from behind the clearing smoke. To recap the five known clone types:

"There's an old saying on Dryland. It goes, 'A true hero recognises trends and adapts to the circumstances.'"

"Onbeishiramandayasowaka... Onbeishiramandayasowaka..."

"Hello, young man. Can I buy you a drink? Maybe we could have a little dance together?"

"Bruuuhhh, I’ve come to eat your brains..."

"I am once again asking for you to get on the beers..."

Azuma steeled himself as he prepared to face the horde of Polvinas head-on when suddenly, Polvina, Sougo Tokiwa and Hiroki Ichigo came into Tumblrverse Y, transforming into Kamen Riders Femme, Zi-O and Decade to fight the Polvina clones.

"So, the clones are on the loose, just as we thought. It's weird that there's so many of them and they all look like... well, me."

"I've got a good feeling we can do this!"

"We've got the gist of the situation. Hurry inside and begin the review of Volume 3!"

"Oh, okay!" Azuma said as he went back inside his studio.

"Right, let's do this!" The three Riders took out their sword weapons as they prepared to charge at their enemies.

"Sword Vent!" Femme used the Sword Vent card in her Blancvisor to summon the double-bladed Wingslasher.

"Jikan Gilade! Ken!" Zi-O took out his Jikan Gilade and got himself into a stance.

*SHWING!* Decade took out his Swiss Booker in Sword Mode and quickly ran his hand along it, as he liked to do.

The three Riders began charging at the horde of Polvina clones, using their sword weapons to cut through them like knives through butter. Some of the Polvina clones did give them a hard time, but the Riders were able to deal with them eventually.

The red variant Polvina clone was amazed at the Riders' strength and was curious to know who they were. "You're so strong. Who in Salacia are you?"

Femme responded, "I am Polvina, princess and future queen of the Octopus Kingdom. Your existence is an injustice to my family's name and I will be the one to give you the peace you deserve."

Zi-O responded, "I'm Sougo Tokiwa, the man who will become the nicest and kindest demonic overlord. Just you wait!"

Decade responded, "I'm Hiroki Ichigo, just a passing-through Kamen Rider. And don't you forget it!"

"Final Vent!" Femme's Contract Monster, Blancwing, appeared behind a bunch of Polvina clones and sent them flying towards Femme with its wings, allowing her to slash them with her Wingslasher as they passed by her, including the red variant Polvina clone.

"Finish Time! Zi-O Giri Giri Slash!" Zi-O loaded his Ridewatch into the Jikan Gilade and began charging at another group of Polvina clones, defeating them one-by-one.

"FINAL ATTACK RIDE: D-D-D-DECADE!" Decade swung his Swiss Booker in an arc, defeating all the Polvina clones around him.

Just as they thought all the Polvina clones were defeated, the other four main clones jumped at Femme and attacked her. Seeing this, Zi-O and Decade decided to escalate the battle by transforming into their final forms:

"Grand Zi-O!"

"K-Touch 21!"

"Grand Time! Iwae! Kamen Rider~ Grand Zi-O!"

"FINAL KAMEN RIDE: DECADE COMPLETE 21!"

As Femme is pushed aside and forcibly detransformed from the damage, Grand Zi-O engaged the zombie and Lula clones in combat while Decade Complete Form 21 engaged the pink variant and provacative-looking clones.

"Finish Time! Grand Zi-O! All Twenty Time Break!"

"FINAL ATTACK RIDE: D-D-D-DECADE!"

The last of the Polvina clones were no match for the two final form Riders as they finished them off with their finisher Rider Kicks, backed by the power of their 20/21 primary Kamen Rider friends and comrades.

Zi-O and Decade detransformed and went to help their friend, Polvina, up.

Sougo commented, "Whew, that was more effort than I thought it would be."

Polvina replied, "Yeah, but that's never stopped us before! No sweat!"

Hiroki retorted, "Says the one who couldn't fight off four of the strongest clones of herself at the same time." Polvina cheekily hit him in the arm before Hiroki continued, "Anyway, job well done. I think Azuma's in his studio doing his review. I'm feeling a bit hungry. Let's head up to the Voidstation and get some snacks and drinks at the interdimensional café. I'll text Azuma and see if he wants to come once he's done." The three of them set off.

Meanwhile, inside Azuma Yeonchi's studio...

Hello and welcome to Atop the Fourth Wall, where bad comics burn. We've got a bit of a situation happening in the studio, but my friends outside are taking care of it right now. So to pass the time, I'll be reviewing the last of the Combo Rangers reboot graphic novels. Although the last two graphic novels were good, there are still some important questions left unanswered, so let's dig into the third and final volume of the Combo Rangers graphic novel reboot trilogy, We Are Equals.

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Prelude: Combo Rangers in: Hero's Day

The Combo Rangers (or rather Fox) go bald to remind everyone that children with cancer have to enjoy their childhoods like any other child.

This is not necessarily a prelude per se, but it appears to be a mini-comic that takes place between the first and second graphic novels given how Mirrorman is still shown with the Mighty Combo and Peacemaker. This mini-comic was published in November 2013 on a mini-site made by GRAACC, a support group for adolescents and children with cancer in Brazil, as part of a campaign known as Carequinhas contra o Câncer Infantil, or Bald Cartoons (for Children's Cancer). This campaign involved Brazilian artists drawing their characters doing the World's Greatest Shave bald in solidarity for children fighting cancer in an attempt to reduce the stigma and prejudice from people around them for being bald.

As such, Fabio Yabu, Michel Borges and Francis Viveiros contributed the Combo Rangers to the campaign by creating this interlude mini-comic, with Fox the only character being drawn bald. And yes, in case you were asking, Fabio Yabu also contributed Polvina, Ester and Tubarina, the three main characters of Sea Princesses, to the campaign in what was probably their only significant moment of relevance after the cartoon series, books and sticker albums. Ironically, the Sea Princesses weren't featured in my personal project in 2013 for the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, but they were featured the year before (for the Salacian Time War) and the year after (for the Salacian Civil War featuring Hiroki Ichigo and the Octonauts). Anyway, enough waffling, here it is:

The Sea Princesses go bald to remind everyone that children with cancer have to enjoy their childhoods like any other child.

GRAACC's internationalisation of the campaign has also led to characters from non-Brazilian franchises being contributed to the campaign, such as Garfield, Rio 2, Snoopy, Adventure Time, Hello Kitty, Popeye, My Little Pony: Equestria Girls and even Lee Falk's The Phantom. The English version of the site appears to have been down since 2020 and the Portuguese version of the site seems to have removed quite a few of the non-Brazilian franchises from it, but the Combo Rangers and Sea Princesses content still appears to be up which is good, at least for now.

So anyway, the mini-comic starts with Fox, having shaved his head, being seen off by his parents as he morphs and flies off to attend a ceremony. Fox calls the other Combo Rangers, but they are occupied with fighting an unnamed Gumby-looking monster from the Evol Empire, leading Fox to fly in and punch the monster into space so they can head to the ceremony.

As the Combo Rangers arrive at the park for the ceremony, which is also being attended by the Mighty Combo, Peacemaker and Mirrorman, TV Machete reporter Melissa Melon opens the Hero's Day ceremony with an ovation to the true superheroes, namely children fighting cancer. Bit of a short one, but that's mostly because the Mighty Combo prelude I reviewed was split into two parts and the Fox prelude had more text. The Combo Rangers and Sea Princesses posters and social media avatars created for the campaign are included in the extras ZIP file in my cloud drive folder linked at the top of the post. Anyway, on to the story.

Story

Based on what we see with the statue of Principal Pile that Lisa was able to construct, We Are Equals takes place at least six months after the events of We Are Humans. Where Giluke was previously having dreams and visions about the old Lisa and the other Combo Rangers, Lisa is now having dreams about the old Luke, which has been happening since Giluke returned to the Evol Empire at the end of the last graphic novel. Lisa wakes up at 6 AM to hear Fox telling the other Combo Rangers about their new mission, having become a model student and hero in contract to his depiction at the start of the trilogy. Once Fox ends the call, Lisa gets up and goes to the bathroom to find a message on the mirror - "SATAN BOSS IS COMING!"

Following the Gokaiger-inspired opening sequence, the Combo Rangers arrive at the New City School as the Mighty Combo explains to Lisa how their powers have evolved over the past six months. Ken, however, does not come to school as he is busy working on a secret project.

Meanwhile, Satan Boss sends General Pile and Mirrorman to attack Earth with Space Monster Mezu. For a while, I struggled to find what Gokaiger monster Yabu decided to homage in this volume until I did some research and found that he was homaging Maze, the final form of Queen Ahames from Changeman. And I almost thought he was homaging Ultraman Belial or Geed or something. We then see Pile and Mirrorman talking to each other as they prepare for their mission; we learn that thanks to Satan Boss, Pile can use his power to change society into one without differences while Mirrorman can look at himself in the mirror without having to worry about flipping between good and evil. You know, I have to wonder what happened to Mirrorman to allow for this; did he have his good and evil sides separated just like Giluke said he would do, did Mirrorman's good side learn to coexist with his evil side, or did both sides decide to willingly merge together...

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...yeah, that's what I thought. Also, in the opening credits, there is a credit for someone named Agamenon Monte Pereira. That is the real name of Principal Pile, or rather, General Pile, who was the main villain in the ball phase. In the ball phase, General Pile is a general from the Deskarga (Flush) Empire and his full name is named after Agamenon Mendes Pedreira, a fictional journalist created for Casseta & Planeta, the Brazilian Monty Python. He was played by Marcelo Adnet and Hubert Aranha in a 2012 comedy film about the character. Of course, for the English translation of this graphic novel, General Pile's full name is Agamenon Monte "Pile" Pereira.

After Lisa and Tati attempt to figure out the meaning of some graffiti on the school bathroom mirror, they head to the school gym, where the Mighty Combo and Fox welcome Rock and Flamey to their ranks as honorary Combo Rangers. Yabu really missed an opportunity to put Sara Moon in, didn't he? Anyway, the Mighty Combo receives word of the Evol Empire attacking the city and Fox allows Rock and Flamey to set off with the Combo Rangers on their first mission.

As the Rangers confront Mezu, Fox attempts to teach Rock and Flamey about the heroic introduction, but they are eager to get into battle. Ken does not join the fight as he continues working on his secret project, though he is able to observe the new strategies of the Evol Empire brought in thanks to General Pile's involvement. The Rangers are unable to damage Mezu and Rock becomes too injured to continue fighting, but when Mezu manages to deflect Flamey's attack, Lisa realises the meaning of the graffiti and has Flamey direct his attack at the ground, causing the asphalt to be splashed onto Mezu and allowing the Rangers to defeat Mezu in a moment of dull surprise (or however you translate "CATAPIMBA" because that's the kind of vibe I was getting from my research).

Back at school, Fox berates Rock and Flamey for throwing themselves into battle without a plan, which leads Rock to storm out, complaining that he is just like his father. Formado sees this and talks to his son in private, telling him that he needs to be patient with the newbies because he was one too. I think this scene really highlights Fox's character development over the course of this trilogy; he's clearly still headstrong at times, but compared to before, he knows how to work as a team and the meaning of being a hero.

Lisa parts with Tati and goes to the gender-neutral toilet (if the pictogram on P33 of the PDF is to be believed) to speak with Mirrorman, who has been communicating with her since the start of this graphic novel, if not earlier. He apparently has an arrangement with Lisa in regards to Luke, who has been imprisoned in a suspended animation pond for some time. Following this, Mirrorman goes to prepare for the final attack with General Pile while Satan Boss is angry over the loss of Mezu, as is tradition. Pile's strategy is to eliminate Kiko and Lisa first as their powers to create portals and prisms are the pillars for the team. Satan Boss points out that Fox is the most unpredictable of the team, but Pile says that he has a way to take care of him.

Pile confronts Formado at the school and we get a flashback to their youth. While Formado apparently followed the rules of society, being a straight white male with powers, Pile was different in that he was gay, which is heavily implied but not directly stated (at least in the flashback). When Pile was confronted by a homophobe, Formado saved him and told him to never let anyone tell him that he was different, to keep his head up and move on forward. From then on, Pile decided to conform to the rules of society by concealing who he really was, joining the army and going on to establish New City School, where everyone is treated equally.

Given that he was the only person who stood up for Pile in his whole life, Formado is given an opportunity to join him and make the world one, but Formado tells Pile that he understood nothing. The Combo Rangers arrive (including Ken), but so do the Evol Empire forces. While the Mighty Combo goes to evacuate the school, a fight ensues between the two sides. Rock and Flamey join the fight as well, but Pile grabs Rock and turns him into an Evol soldier. As an angered Fox pummels Pile, he reveals that aside from the anti-power barrier, which Formado had removed when he became principal, there is also a self-destruct bomb inside the school. Ken confirms this, but he is unable to disarm the bomb since his technopathy only works if he can see (or touch) something.

Kiko goes to help the Mighty Combo evacuate the school, expending his power to open many portals at once, while Lisa expends her power to create a blast shield around the school. Despite their efforts, the school explodes with Kiko and the Mighty Combo still inside, while Lisa is eventually unable to contain the full force of the blast and is knocked unconscious. On top of that, Pile manages to turn Formado into an Evol soldier as well before retreating with the rest of his forces, with both him and Mirrorman's attire clearly becoming scrawny from the dust and debris.

Back on the Evol Empire ship, Satan Boss congratulates his generals on their victory and evolves into his second form, which I think is supposed to homage Emperor Ackdos Gill, the final villain of Gokaiger, but the design of the head and chest reminds me of Brajira, the main and final villain of Goseiger. In private, Mirrorman wonders if they will eventually go on to become like Deck and Giluke while Pile only cares about travelling the cosmos eliminating differences, awaiting the day when there is nobody left to change and he can finally change himself.

Meanwhile, Lisa sees a vision of the old Luke before regaining consciousness and going to a mirror to tell Mirrorman that their arrangement is back on. As Lisa and Fox argue about trusting Mirrorman to save Luke, the Mighty Combo arrives with Kiko, who suffered a power overload and ended up splitting himself everything everywhere all at once, which would eventually cause him to lose focus on his physical form and spread across the universe. Fox agrees on Lisa's plan to board the Evol Empire ship and save Luke, Rock and Formado with the help of Mirrorman, however Satan Boss had already learned of Mirrorman's deception, keeping him alive in order to lure the Combo Rangers into his trap. Pile goes to Luke's chamber and releases him in order to turn him into an Evol soldier.

With Kiko's power, the Combo Rangers board the Evol Empire ship. Kiko finds Mirrorman, who tells him that Satan Boss knows everything. It is then that Satan Boss and his soldiers, including Formado and Rock, directly confront the Combo Rangers. Despite their best efforts, the Combo Rangers are defeated one-by-one; Kiko becomes too weakened and disappears, Ken exerts himself trying to manipulate Evol technology and is suffocated by Satan Boss' darkness (I presume), Tati is defeated protecting Fox and Lisa from Formado, only for them to be swarmed by Evol soldiers as Pile reveals to Lisa what he did to Luke.

After being reminded of what Luke told her while she was unconscious, Lisa somehow manages to reach out and touch Luke, which frees him. Satan Boss identifies him as Super Giluke (referring to Giluke's super form in Changeman), but Luke reveals himself to be the White Combo Ranger. Luke proclaims that he will save everyone, including Pile (who he calls by his real name, Agamenon), who tells Luke that he is beyond salvation only to be told that everyone is worth it and that he somehow cares about Mirrorman, which is barely even implied from the few interactions they had. Luke also saves Kiko and frees the other Rangers along with Formado and Rock.

Satan Boss teleports to New City in an attempt to destroy it. With Ken's moment finally arriving, he tells Peacemaker to deploy the secret project he has been working on for the last few months, the Combo Breaker Megazord (I added the word Megazord for the translation). The Megazord's design appears to be a more sleeker version of the giant robot that stomped on Deck in the first graphic novel, which resembles the Change Robo of Changeman. This makes me wonder why Ken needed all this time to work on the Megazord if the giant robot from the first graphic novel was created from Peacemaker's weapons...

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...though I suppose he didn't have the power boost from the entire city and even if he did, it would have taken time for him to make the Megazord sleeker anyway.

With Ken in the centre (due to him making the Megazord) and Luke joining next to Lisa, the Rangers integrate their individual powers into the Megazord to attack Satan Boss. Lisa uses her powers to summon the Change Shield and Dengeki (Blitzkrieg) Sword and honestly, I think it's amazing that Combo Rangers used a Flashman power to summon/replicate a Changeman weapon. I suppose it's kind of like Ultraman Orb/Geed/Z where they combine the powers of their predecessors, but it's a different approach to Toei's anniversary works or the rest of the New Generation Ultramen where the heroes use the powers of their predecessors individually.

So anyway, the Rangers seemingly gain the upper hand against Satan Boss, but he is able to regenerate himself and grab the Megazord. Lisa asks Luke if Satan Boss has any weaknesses, to which he says that he has none, that all of his cells can regenerate unless they are atomised. This leads Luke to suggest flying Satan Boss to the sun in order to atomise him. You know, I have to wonder; what exactly is the origin of Satan Boss and his generals? What power allowed him to evolve into his second form? What is the reason behind his uncanny ability to regenerate endlessly?

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Oh, okay.

The Rangers knock back Satan Boss and tie him up before teleporting him to the sun and finishing him off there, defeating him for good. The Megazord is apparently destroyed as well, but Luke manages to bring the Rangers back to Earth. A small thing I should point out; there's a scene where the Rangers' parents are looking at the sky alongside Rock, Flamey, the Mighty Combo and Peacemaker. Lisa's dads are a same-sex couple as we saw earlier in the hospital scene. Kiko is mentioned to be the son of divorced parents, so is the man next to his mum her boyfriend or her ex-husband? Tati was apparently an orphan in the original comics, so is that her aunt and uncle in the back there-

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Shut up Gosei, this is important.

As everyone celebrates the Rangers' victory against Satan Boss and the Evol Empire, an Evol ship approaches Earth. Out of it comes a remorseful General Pile, who surrenders to the Rangers and asks for their forgiveness. Fox (calling him Principal Pile) helps him up and together with Formado, they tell him the exact same thing that Formado said to him years ago. With Satan Boss' influence over him gone with his death, Pile enlists Luke's assistance to save the Evol soldiers scattered across the universe and rid the Evol Empire for good before he turns around and gives Mirrorman a kiss. You know, when you think about it, Pile was really kissing the image of himself in the mirror, so it's kind of funny how narcissistic this looks in hindsight.

Finally, in the epilogue, Pile and Mirrorman get married (with Kiko's mother as the celebrant before they and Luke leave on their mission, with the Rangers standing in front of the rebuilt New City School, looking at a statue of Principal Pile, Mirrorman and Luke. During these scenes, there is a speech basically talking about how love can conquer everything...

"Because thanks to love, we are heroes. We are humans. We are equals."

So in the end, what was the connection between Lisa and Luke? Why were they getting those dreams of the old Combo Rangers? What did Mirrorman see in Luke to make him think that he was different? What exactly was Luke's relationship with Deck and Satan Boss? How did Luke become the White Combo Ranger after Pile turned him into an Evol soldier? What was the war that Peacemaker mentioned in the first graphic novel? Who were the "heroes of the past" that the Mighty Combo mentioned? Why didn't Sara Moon make another appearance after the first graphic novel?

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Oh, shut your inanimate face!

Reflection

This comic is good, but it kind of sucks. The third graphic novel has a net of 16 less pages compared to the last two, which is 16 less pages that could have been used to elaborate on Luke's backstory, show some scenes with Tati and Kiko's families, or expand the relationship between Pile and Mirrorman. Yeah, this is another thing I want to point out; the interactions between Pile and Mirrorman leading to them getting married are okay enough for their relationship to not be too contrived, but it still feels a bit contrived and out-of-nowhere. The flashback with Pile does well to highlight his homosexuality, the bigotry he suffered and how he had to conceal his identity because of it, but there isn't really much for Mirrorman on that front, particularly because how he "[doesn't] have another side anymore" isn't explained.

Overall, the Combo Rangers graphic novel reboot is good. Although the first graphic novel may have been a bit cheesy, the second and third graphic novels really go to develop the story and the characters even though some important plot points aren't elaborated on. This series relies on not explaining anything to readers and just getting on with the story, making it feel more like a tokusatsu series headed by Shinichiro Shirakura and written by Shoji Yonemura or Toshiki Inoue (or even Kento Shimoyama). There's a decent amount of homages to Changeman, Flashman, Gokaiger and other tokusatsu series; this combined with other elements makes this series a nostalgia trip for Combo Rangers fans who followed the series back in the late-90's and early-2000's, however people who are unfamiliar with the series will still find it enjoyable. Although Yabu claims that the graphic novel series is not a reboot of the original series, I still believe that it is a reboot because it clearly is one.

The dreams and visions of the older Combo Rangers' designs that harks back to the previous phases are a nice touch, but I think it feels like nostalgia baiting because I don't think much was done with them. If there was a fourth volume to this series, I would have liked to see a multiverse crossover between the ball, Zero/Revolution and Universe phases. However, if my review of the fourth Sea Princesses main series book is anything to go by, it'll end up falling flat compared to the first three entries and I'll probably just end up calling it more nostalgia baiting.

Admittedly, there might have been some things that I didn't entirely understand even though I try my best to, but then again I wasn't an 80's or 90's kid who grew up in Brazil with tokusatsu and Combo Rangers; I'm a late-90's kid who might as well be a 2000's Gen Z kid that grew up on Chinese and Australian television and my favourite TV shows and video games include mostly obscure or niche works such as Sea Princesses. I didn't even get into tokusatsu until 2013-14, for goodness sake.

This was my review of the Combo Rangers graphic novel reboot. Fabio Yabu failed to get the series translated into English past the first one and I wasn't interested in translating the other two until storylines necessitated me putting in the effort to translate them myself. Although Yabu made the graphic novel PDFs available for free during the 2020 lockdown in Brazil, he eventually stopped publishing links for them after they expired. However, I remembered that some person put them up on his Google Drive and after a while, I eventually managed to find them. As such, my thanks go to gabrielrcamp on Twitter for continuing to make the graphic novels available for free. They have been backed up to my Google Drive along with the English version of the first graphic novel and the extras ZIP file.

Like with Sea Princesses, Fabio Yabu has apparently moved on from the Combo Rangers. The comic book series was cancelled by Panini in 2003 due to financial difficulties and the graphic novel series was created to drum up interest and nostalgia after ten years on hiatus. The initial 2013 campaign on Catarse (the Brazilian Kickstarter) exceeded its R$40,000 goal by 68%, allowing two graphic novels to be funded. The follow-up campaign in 2017 for the third graphic novel missed its R$50,000 goal by 22% (due to the timing of publicity according to Yabu), however this was a flexible campaign unlike the first one so it was still funded to commemorate the 20 year anniversary of Combo Rangers. By the way, the 16-page reduction in the third graphic novel can't be attributed to the Catarse campaign because from what can be seen, the novel was already completed and JBC would be paying for the publishing and distribution; the crowdfunding was to pay for the artists, rewards, shipping and taxes.

Out of interest (and totally not foreshadowing for my upcoming story), Yabu created a third campaign in 2019 for Perfect Slime, a slime manga co-created with his daughter, Luna. It failed after two months with only 18% funding to the goal of R$30,000.

Considering what Yabu told me during my correspondence with him in 2020 when I was translating the Princesas do Mar books, I feel like the reason why Yabu can't afford to milk old projects is because being an artist in Brazil isn't easy (compared to the US, for one) and he has to work on various projects and appeal to various audiences. For someone as obscure as Yabu, I think it can be hard to try and maintain a specific audience for a long time, though I would say that it's even harder to try to appeal to different audiences, particularly when your appeal is centralised in a specific sector and you've gone all over the place throughout your whole career. It's easy to just say "the right people will get this" and just share the things you like in the hope that the right people will find them, but this is easier said than done when this is what you do for a living.

Yabu stated in the Catarse for this graphic novel that Combo Rangers is a passion project, is not financially viable for himself or the publisher, and that he would happily lose money on it as he believes that the values the characters bring to the stories far outweigh any financial gain. His attitude for this is kind of like my attitude for translating the Princesas do Mar books; I'm aware that Sea Princesses is a niche franchise and I did what I did out of my love and appreciation for it, and as such I was prepared to put my money into the project with no expectation of financial gain or high fan reaction. I think Yabu might have known the nicheness of Combo Rangers as well at some point.

Anyway, I'm waffling again so I'll quickly conclude this before continuing to expand this post with the final part of the storyline skit. I would like to thank everyone who funded and worked on these graphic novels, in particular Fabio Yabu and Michel Borges for writing and illustrating them, and also Tomas Buteler for translating the first graphic novel and giving me a basis to translate the other two along with the extra material.

This graphic novel series began with a crowdfunding campaign in 2013 to celebrate their 15th anniversary after 10 years on hiatus. The third and final novel was released in 2017 just before the series' 20th anniversary and in 2023, I am here writing these reviews for the 25th anniversary of Combo Rangers, 20 years since the hiatus and 10 years since the release of this reboot series. We keep going full circle as I keep celebrating anniversaries and it's becoming an unhealthy habit for me.

To everyone else reading this post and following the saga on my Tumblr, this concludes my reviews of the Combo Rangers reboot graphic novels, aka the Universe phase. I hope you enjoyed this saga, thank you for your support, feel free to check out the other content I have to offer, and may the power protect you.

Storyline skit: The Interdimensional Café Part 2B

With this, Azuma had finished his review of Volume 3. He went outside his studio to check on the situation, but the three Kamen Riders were already gone and so were the bodies of the Polvina clones. The scene looked like basically nothing had happened at all. Azuma checked his phone and saw a message from Hiroki:

"Hey, done cleaning up outside. We'll be at the interdimensional café when you're done."

Seeing this, Azuma went up to the Voidstation to meet with Polvina, Sougo and Hiroki, who were having the afternoon tea specials at the interdimensional café. Polvina was eating a pineapple bun (which doesn't contain pineapple at all, by the way) because that was one of the items on the menu that didn't have meat (whether Salacians in general eat meat is debatable), Sougo was eating a pork chop with a bowl of udon noodle soup, and Hiroki was eating dry instant noodles with beef brisket cooked in a curry sauce, which was a bit spicier than he initially imagined, though he could still manage it. For drinks, everyone had a cool refreshing glass of lemon tea, where they had to poke the lemon slices for the optimal flavour.

Hiroki looked and saw Azuma standing at the entrance. "Hey hey, look who it is! Azuma, we're over here!" Azuma saw them and joined them at their table. "Glad to see you saw my message. I almost thought you wouldn't be coming!"

"Haha, I was wondering where you guys got to!" Azuma sat down and Hiroki helped him place his order on his phone. He ordered a seaweed, cuttlefish and fish ball noodle soup with a lemon tea...

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't you realise who's sitting at the table with us?" reacted Hiroki, taken aback by Azuma's meal choice given that fish balls were made up of ground-up fish.

Polvina, who knew that Hiroki was referring to her, actually had no judgements because for whatever dietary requirements or food preferences she had, she knew not to judge people for their meal choices. "It's okay, Hiroki. Let him have his noodles," she chided.

Azuma's noodles and lemon tea came a little while later. As everyone was eating, Azuma was curious to know about what happened earlier that day. "So, guys, what was the deal with all those Polvina clones? Where did they come from and how did you guys manage to find them so quickly?"

Between bites, Hiroki answered, "The Polvina clones came from another universe, different to mine, Sougo's, or Parker from Yabuverse PM10's. In that universe, the princes and princesses of Salacia died after an incident with the Drylanders, but their parents, the kings and queens, decided to make clones of them so it would be like nothing happened. Then they got into full-on war with the Drylanders and some idiot thought it'd be a good idea to make decoys- I mean more clones so they could use them in battle and replace them with more clones when they died. Naturally, they used Polvina as a test clone subject for the clones, but they didn't manage to clone anyone else. Then some of the clones became sentient and made more clones, then as those clones became sentient, they got lazier in making their clones and that's why there were clones like that zombie Polvina clone earlier."

Cheekily, Polvina said, "Say 'clone' again."

"Fuck you."

"So, how did those Polvina clones end up in my universe?" asked Azuma.

Sougo replied, "We were passing-by that universe and Hiroki decided to destroy it once he saw how dystopian it was. Like, I swear, it was something out of a creepypasta. However, he didn't know that the clones managed to escape into another universe, so we had to spend five days tracking down where they went."

A shocked Hiroki scolded, "Sougo! Don't tell him about my fuck-up!"

Polvina pointed out, "To be honest, it kind of was. I found the clone lab and I swam back to tell you about it, but when I finally got to you, you were too busy getting ready to destroy that universe to even listen to me."

"Alright, whatever, it was my fault. Man, things were so much easier with Kayley and Firerose. I hope they're having fun with Queen Fifi in some other universe."

Things at the table got back to a more relaxed phase. Eventually, Hiroki, Sougo, Polvina and Azuma finished their meals and were enjoying the remaining portions of their lemon teas.

Azuma asked Hiroki, "So, what's been happening with Parker from Yabuverse PM10? How's he doing these past couple of months?"

Hiroki replied, "Well, we've been trying to enter his universe to see if we can provide our help to bring peace between the Drylanders and the Salacians, but we haven't been able to because something's preventing us from entering it."

"Maybe Parker doesn't want interdimensional interference from other universes in his universe's conflicts," Sougo retorted, bringing a little SJW wokeism into his attitude.

"Don't be retarded," Hiroki retorted back.

Although there was minimal chance of this turning into a political discussion because nobody at the table was stupid enough to bring the topic into the discussion, Azuma changed the subject. "So, what do we do now? Wait and see what happens in Parker's universe and see what stories he has to tell about it?"

"It seems so. We'll just have to find ways to pass the time until we get news from Parker." Hiroki took his drink in his hand as he proposed a toast. "But for now, let's have a toast, to Parker, and everyone fighting in his universe, Drylander or Salacian."

"Oh, and a toast to Fabio Yabu, for bringing our old friends, the Sea Princesses, and possibly our new friends, the Combo Rangers, to the multiverse!" Azuma added, going meta.

"Cheers!" Everyone clinked their cups at each other's before they took a sip.

Not long after, a familiar voice said, "Who's been stealing my review name and format?"

"Oh, shit," said Azuma, realising that the voice was that of the true host of Atop the Fourth Wall, Linkara.

THE END