THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE
KENJI ON THE RAILS AGAIN
Laura Beaumont &
Paul Larson
Paul Larson
Directed by
Ian Cherry
Produced by
Tracy Blagdon (Jam Filled)
Ian McCue (HIT/Mattel)
Plot
Air Date
9/07/20 - AUS
I really do like this episode and I think it's because of Hiro having a role after four years, his last appearance was back in S20's 'Letters to Santa', which was just a small role. Just seeing him again brought a big smile to my face as it felt like seeing an old friend again. When I first saw this episode after ABC Australia had aired 'Emily's Best Friend', this episode as well as the others like Cleo for example, were shown on ABC's iview app well before their airing dates. Seeing him going back home to Japan was a bit of a shock as I thought they'd given up on that and just make him a Sodor engine instead because of merchandising. But I was honestly more sad about it than Edward leaving the sheds and I think because while Edward is still on Sodor, just being near his branch line, Hiro is going away to the other side of the world and while it's sad that we have to say goodbye to our friends and family who do the same, we will always be friends near and far no matter what.
As for the episode though, it kinda felt like it was two episodes morphed into one. One half was about Kenji being really useful and the other is about him having the idea of him being alone going home to Japan. I feel that maybe this episode should've been two seperate episodes instead. Maybe have one episode devoted to Kenji wanting to be useful but think being the fastest engine only makes him useful like in Japan but Thomas showed him there are more ways to be useful than being the fastest and then maybe have a second episode devoting to Kenji wanting to go home but was scared of saying goodbye to Thomas and travelling alone. But Kenji soon learnt that while saying goodbye is hard, there might be a day when Thomas would come to Japan, that depends if this hiatus comes to an end soon.
So yeah, while this episode was good perhaps maybe it would've been better to make it this as two seperate episodes. We could've seen more character from Kenji while not bad in this episode I feel he was a bit of a blank slate.
Series Ratings (So far):
A New Arrival - 7/10
World of Tomorrow - 7/10
Thomas and the Royal Engine - 9/10
Emily's Best Friend - 7/10
Thomas' Fuzzy Friend - 8/10
The Great Little Railway Show - 9/10
Thomas and The Forest Engines - 5/10
Emily to the Rescue - 4/10
Shankar's Makeover - 8/10
Nia and The Unfriendly Elephant - 9/10
James the Super Engine - 7/10
Thomas' Not-So-Lucky Day - 7/10
Ace's Brave Jump - 5/10
Sonny's Second Chance - 9/10
Thomas and the Inventor's Workshop - 8/10
The Inventor's Spectacular Bridge - 9/10
Yong Bao and the Tiger - 10/10
Gordon and Rebecca, Coming Through! - 7/10
Kenji On The Rails Again - 7/10
Overall Rating (So far):
142/190
