I’m just going to come right out and say it: this has been the most entertaining episode of Kyuranger yet.
Raptor is adorable and perfect. She initially struck me as a boring character without a personality, but after this week’s episode, all of the decisions made so far about Raptor suddenly make a whole world of sense. She was supposed to come across this way because she was specifically created to be the Orion’s pilot as well as the team’s secretary—but all this time, she’s been harboring secret fantasies of joining the Kyurangers in combat. Knowing that Raptor’s been keeping this desire hidden adds a welcome depth to her character, and it’s great that the writers decided to feature at least one Kyuranger who joins the team in this manner. Raptor thinks that something is wrong with her, that she’s malfunctioning and going against her original programming. Her struggle of feeling the need to do something unexpected with her existence is definitely relatable.
The show flat-out states that fighting on the team is Raptor’s dream, and while the show misses an opportunity to reference a certain science fiction novel related to dreaming androids, it does directly connect Raptor’s dilemma with the events of the show. In this week’s episode of Kyuranger, the team investigates our very own planet Earth—only to find that it has already been conquered by Jark Matter. Our monster of the week is based on the dream-eating tapir, and he can’t help but notice Raptor’s exceptionally large dream of becoming a Kyuranger. Sentai shows aren’t always good at connecting character arcs with the events of a particular episode, but Kyuranger clearly succeeds this time around as Raptor is squarely placed right in the middle of the action. Speaking of the Earth, I’m surprised that the writers have already decided to feature our planet—I was thinking it would be saved until the end of the show. The state of the planet is also quite surprising to see and it certainly makes the show a heck of a lot more interesting. The Earth apparently holds a “secret” that the Jark Matter empire is determined to hide from the Kyurangers; I wonder what it could be?
Things only get better when Raptor is formally chosen as a Kyuranger and transforms into Washi Pink. Her suit is fantastic and her wings allow for some high-speed aerial sequences that really amp up the action in this episode. Speaking of wings, all of the pink feathers flying around during the mecha battle are an excellent touch. They really make the mecha battle seem special, which I appreciate as someone who really doesn’t watch Sentai for the giant robots.
Unfortunately, this episode wasn’t perfect—though it’s only held back by a few minor things. It seems the Kyurangers will be deployed as teams of five or six, which creates the potential for interesting combinations but also leaves much to be desired when it comes to having nine or more main characters. Xiao Longbao cleverly lampshades this limitation with some breaking of the fourth wall when he cheekily admits that they don’t have the budget to feature more than the standard number of Kyurangers in each episode, so at least we get a nice wink from the producers. Speaking of combinations of different characters: it’s exciting to see that Spada has some insight on Raptor’s fantasies, but I was hoping he would be the one to stick up for Raptor. Instead, Lucky once again takes center stage by teaching Spada and the others a lesson about following one’s dream. Lucky has been a mixed bag for me so far, but in this episode, he definitely steals the spotlight and prevents the team dynamics from being more interesting than they already are.
Next time, the team finally unites! It will be great to finally see all nine Kyurangers assembled. Hopefully it won’t break the budget like Xiao Longbao suggested.
-AquaVersus