Thank the stars for this week’s episode of Kyuranger! It’s not the Hammy origin story that I was hoping for, but this episode sheds light on an issue that has been plaguing my mind for weeks now.
It’s no secret that I’m very drawn to Hammy/Chameleon Green as a character. She’s the first full-time female green warrior in Super Sentai history, so I’ve been itching to know more about her. This week, we don’t see her background play out in its entirety—nor do we find out how she was chosen to be a Kyuranger—but we do engage with Hammy as an audience surrogate. To put it bluntly, Hammy isn’t a big fan of Lucky—and neither, I suspect, are the viewers of Kyuranger who aren’t Japanese schoolchildren. Right off the bat in this week’s episode, Hammy makes it clear that she doesn’t support the idea of Lucky being the leader of the Kyurangers. Her feelings on the matter reap disharmony on the battlefield, and she quite literally trips over Garu as they get into their own squabble. She later tells Garu that she put in a lot of work since childhood to become stronger (we even see a recent flashback of her training for the Rebellion with Spada and Champ), and she therefore doesn’t want to defer to someone who relies on luck to get through life.
Of course, Hammy learns for herself that Lucky creates his own luck through positive thinking and following through with his own decisions. I’ll be honest: Hammy echoes my concerns about Lucky in this episode, but as she learns her mistakes, so do I. At the same time, though, this is the first time we see Lucky back up his luck with training and “positive thinking” so I don’t really blame myself for disliking him—and I still think he’s annoying.
I do wish we could’ve gotten a strong character episode for Hammy, but episode six is a team episode. Hammy briefly gets the spotlight, but she tussles with Garu and is pestered by Lucky; meanwhile, Lucky has to learn how to fight with the Pegasus Kyutama, a sentient piece of chest armor that talks and forces him to bounce around even out of combat. Lucky’s erratic movements make it difficult for the team to fight the monster of the week, who controls people by forcing them to perform bizarre and highly coordinated calisthenics. In order to effectively combat this foe, who uses humans as a shield, Xiao Longbao organizes a dance training session for the team.
The concept of using choreography to oppose a coordinated opponent is ridiculous, but this is Sentai we’re talking about—and it’s not that unusual of a concept (it was even done in an episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion). When the team unites and busts out a sweet dance number in the heat of battle, the theme of the episode becomes apparent. The Kyurangers are a nine-person team (as of right now, anyway) and while they have Commander Xiao Longbao calling the shots, they lack a field leader. The monster of the week comments on this and even echoes my own worries on the matter: an uncoordinated team cannot fight as one unit. How is Kyuranger as a show (and the Kyuranger team itself) going to balance all of these characters and create a unified force? Lucky’s solution—that they are all stars shining in the universe and they therefore don’t need a leader—will have to do for now. In any case, showcasing a team that chooses to dance together in opposition to the concept of people being forced to dance together is a truly clever touch on the writers’ part. On a less immersive note, I was glad to see that the dancing in the ending sequence seems to serve a purpose now, and I was likewise happy to see the dance number actually be used in combat. I was worried it would be dropped in favor of a vague “power of friendship” trope, but instead, the show followed through and delivered on its promise.
The only real downside to this week’s episode is the mecha fight. It feels tacked on and unnecessary, but that’s not exactly a problem unique to Kyuranger. I’m also disappointed that we don’t get to see more of the squid and octopus duo that Stinger encounters, but it looks like they’ll be sticking around. Next week is a Balance focus episode and I’m looking forward to it!