Episode twelve of Kyuranger is the most offensive episode the show has put out so far.
My review last week wasn’t exactly dripping with praise. I was sharply critical of what I was seeing on the screen and I kind of felt bad about it. Even now, I still want to like Kyuranger. I want to be excited for every single episode just as I was excited about it before the show even aired. Unfortunately, things aren’t going that way.
Guys, this episode could have been the show’s saving grace. We had an instance that required all eleven Kyurangers to fight as one team, even though it seemed a bit too convenient. Xiao Longbao discerns that Ikagen’s ability to “see the future” is really just him having a set of ten eyes that allows him to perceive up to ten different attacks. Fortunately, there are now eleven Kyurangers and attacking all at once would apparently allow for victory. At first, I felt a bit let down by this concept—it’s too simplistic and too convenient, and it seems to only exist because of the show’s ridiculously high number of heroes—but as the episode continued, I relaxed on the subject. This could have been an amazing chance to really unite the team and allow for some strong cohesion, maybe for a deep character-building episode for the links between some of the lesser developed Kyurangers and their relationships (for example, developing Hammy and Naga together since she’s always laughing and he is still learning emotions, or maybe Raptor and Champ to contrast the two different robots).
Instead, it is revealed that Ikagen has an insane number of eyes—far more than ten—and the only option is for Lucky to use the Gemini Kyutama to create an army of Lucky clones attacking at once.
Seriously?
The show takes its one opportunity to develop the entire team at once and instead gives it to Lucky. Yes, the red warrior always gets the most development and attention in Super Sentai, but is this really necessary? How long is the show going to keep sacrificing its characters for Lucky? I’m not even going to get into Lucky’s behavior during this episode. The whole thing just blows my mind. The one positive element we can take away from Lucky’s self-pity parade is the fact that Garu is the one who literally beats some sense into him. This action recalls the premiere episode and we finally touch on Garu’s manly friendship with Lucky. It’s admittedly nice to see callbacks like this, even though it primarily serves Lucky and doesn’t do much for Garu himself. (And no, I wasn’t moved by Lucky’s background story since we weren’t given many details.)
Thankfully, the action somewhat makes up for the overall disappointing story beats. We do end up seeing all of the Kyurangers fighting together and the choreography delivers an exciting and innovative viewing experience. Even when the Kyurangers take on Ikagen and Madako earlier in the episode, the fight scene captivates the audience with all of the unique and interesting action choices being made. I also appreciate that the mecha battle briefly takes place in the rain; we get very few mecha battles that are either set at night or during rainy weather, so this is a welcome surprise. At the same time, the combined form of Ryutei-Oh and Kyuren-Oh is bulky and ugly—but unlike the awful story decisions made in today’s episode, I was able to ignore the gross combined mecha. Kyuranger as a show isn’t doing much to hold my attention, but even in its worst episodes, there is always a silver lining that keeps me coming back for more.
Just as the show is moving into a new story arc, I too hope to move on and put this all behind me. It appears that Stinger’s brother will be making an appearance as the Scorpio Menaster and the story will soon be returning to the Champ/Stinger drama. I welcome this change with open arms.