Kyuranger’s eleventh episode fails to impress while cementing my dislike for Lucky. The only worthwhile turn of events in this episode is the unveiling of a new mecha combination; otherwise, Kyuranger isn’t making a great case for itself.
I actually had a lot of hope for this episode, but it ultimately doesn’t deliver. Exploring Kotaro’s role on the team is a great way to integrate him into the show as a full-fledged Kyuranger, and there’s no better way to do this than with conflict. Stinger and Kotaro have a shared history from Stinger’s early focus episodes, so it only makes sense that they clash in this episode—and it also makes sense from a narrative perspective, as Stinger explains that his issues with his brother are making it difficult for him to accept Kotaro, a young boy, as a fellow soldier in a war. Unfortunately, the show only skims the surface. After being separated from the others by a worm monster, Stinger and Kotaro have a five-minute conversation and apparently their issues are all resolved. If the show can’t even take its own conflicts seriously, then I’m not sure why I’m supposed to care about any of these characters.
The show does care about some of its conflicts, though—and they all center on Lucky. I admit, seeing “unlucky” things happen to the self-proclaimed luckiest man in the universe is satisfyingly entertaining, but the show takes it too far when Lucky refuses to believe he could possibly be unlucky. The drama surrounding himself and Ikagen—who apparently can read people’s fates or something like that—is forced and its premise is ridiculously stupid. Lucky is easily the most annoying character in Kyuranger and I can’t stand it when people who think they’re perfect (easily applicable to Lucky, who thinks he’s immune to bad luck) cannot accept their own flaws. The show turns this into the episode’s central conflict at the expense of the Stinger/Kotaro dilemma, turning it into a joke of an episode. It’s a real shame.
And yes, we get a glimpse of Lucky’s tragic past, implying that there’s a significant reason why he feels the need to consider himself lucky. Unfortunately, I can’t be bothered to care. It’s too little, too late—the show is going to have to really show me something extraordinary if I’m going to suddenly care about Lucky, and they’re also going to have to give him a lobotomy or something in order to change his personality. Maybe he can die and be revived with a new personality like Madako!
While I’m on the complaint train, I’m going to take this moment to admit that I’m sick of the show’s gimmick this year. There are just way too many Kyutamas to keep track of, and if you’re not particularly interested in constellations, you’re not going to get much out of them. I personally am not a fan of the intensely gimmicky toy campaigns associated with newer Sentai shows—give me the simplicity of Jetman over this any day! Yes, Sentai has always been a less-than-subtle toy commercial, but one can clearly sense a trend since the days of around Gaoranger. Collectible gimmicks can do great things for a show, but so far, they’re only limiting Kyuranger. I can’t help but feel extremely disconnected from the many Kyutamas presented by the team and used once or twice before being discarded. Some need to be searched out and obtained, while others are already in the team’s possession—it’s impossible to tell which is which.
The episode wasn’t all terrible, though. Ryutei-Oh is a sick-looking mecha and Kotaro’s Voyager is rather cute. Additionally, Madako returns this week—it’s implied that she’s been revived before, and each time this happens, her personality changes. Her gruff, angry personality from her first few appearances has thankfully been replaced with an eager-to-please mentality that looks up to Ikagen as a superior. If you’re watching Over-Time’s subs, she’s still making jellyfish puns despite being an octopus—I understand why this translation choice was made, but it still fails since she is clearly not a jellyfish. At least she has a more easily digestible personality now.
Sadly, these few decent moments aren’t enough to save the episode from falling into a pit of unfulfilled potential and melodramatic conflicts based on nothing. But hey—we got to see Naga be adorable on the Orion. That counts for something, right?