REVIEW: Zyuohger 1
It’s that time of year: time for a new Super Sentai series! Animal Sentai Zyuohger is the 40th entry of the series, and the motif seems to be furries, cubes, and blood sports.
The episode opens with our future leader, Yamato Kazakiri, on a field trip in the woods with a bunch of children. The opening two minutes do a good job at quickly introducing him – in fact, the whole episode crams in a bunch of information in a way that is not overwhelming, which I found impressive. Yamato is a zoologist who seems sweet and goofy…and also easily flustered by the weirdo dressed as a deer in the woods, who happens to be his uncle, Mario Mori. Yamato then shows his heroic side by rescuing an egg that has fallen from its nest in a tree. While climbing down from the tree, a weird cube that he calls a good luck charm falls from his backpack and down a hill. He runs (and rolls) after it, finds a bigger cube, puts his cube inside that cube, freaky things start happening and suddenly our story begins.
After a cube-themed acid trip, Yamato finds himself in a strange new world called Zyuland, with strange new creatures looking at him. These furries – I mean, Zyumans – find him as fascinating as he finds them. We are introduced to Sela the shark, Leo the lion, Tusk the elephant, and Amu the tiger. Their faces are a bit creepy, although Amu straddles the line between creepy and kawaii. I laughed when I noticed that almost every other Zyuman in the scene is wearing those silly horse masks I always see on the internet. These horses also all seem to be scientists, because yes.
While Yamato is taking in his new surroundings, this season’s baddies, the Deathgaliens, are approaching Earth. These guys seem to really enjoy playing games, including The Most Dangerous Game. Boss villain Master Ginis has chosen Earth as the destination for their 100th Blood Game, in which I am assuming the single rule is “Kill as many people as possible.” They seem like bad guys who are evil for the sake of being evil, and because it’s fun.
Back on Zyuland, Amu explains to Yamato that their world and his world are connected via a portal called the Link Cube, but a piece of the cube (I’ve seen these pieces translated as both Champion’s Symbol and King’s Credential. I’m using Champion’s Symbol here.) was stolen so they cannot use it. We also learn that Amu, Leo, Tusk, and Sela are the Guardians of the Link Cube. Yamato’s lucky charm is the stolen piece, which we learn in a quick flashback was given to him in rather unusual, mysterious circumstances. It looks like this isn't the first time Yamato has encountered a Zyuman! Anthropomorphic elephant Tusk then inexplicably rides in on a non-anthropomorphic elephant and accuses Yamato of being a thief, which is probably the best scene in the episode.
Our first monster of the week, Jagd, lands in the woods on Earth with his foot soldiers, the Moeba, and start wreaking havoc. The Link cube starts acting oddly, baffling Zyuland’s greatest Horse Scientists and throwing Yamato and the guardians to Earth, right into the middle of chaos. After a moment of surprise, Yamato quickly displays his heroism, running directly into the line of fire to save a child from Jagd’s arm cannon. He saves the child, but the Link Cube is damaged from the blast.
The Zyumans are enraged, and their handy dandy Champion’s Symbols activate and turn into multi-functional Rubik’s cubes called Zyuoh Changers. Their instincts are awakened, transforming them for the first time into Zyuohgers. The transformations and their color combo (I always like when there’s a female Blue) are cool but the outfits are disappointing, with giant literal depictions of the animals across their chests. Yes, I realize that I’m saying this about a Super Sentai series, but their outfits are gaudy and it doesn’t help that their own animal features are overemphasized, like Tusk having giant elephant feet.
The Zyumans hold their own for a bit, but soon they need Yamato’s help. His bravery is reckless but with pure intention: to protect Earth’s creatures. He is a zoologist, after all. Once he becomes Zyuoh Eagle, he immediately begins to fly around and kick ass without much thought or learning curve. His weapon is the EagRiser, a sword that turns into a whip, and it is absolutely awesome. I never really see a whip-style weapon used by good guys in a Sentai series, which is surprising because the EagRiser results in some cool fighting moves.
Jagd is defeated, and Master Ginis sends his henchlady Naria to Earth to put a Continue Coin into a slot on Jagd’s body to turn him into a giant. The Deathgaliens certainly have the coin/arcade/game theme going on.
The Zyuoghers summon the Zyuoh Cubes and then their mecha, which look like Lego toys. This scene shows that the group already has pretty good teamwork and can coordinate their fighting while they are learning to fight. I kind of wish that they had struggled a bit more, as it is the first episode and Jagd is supposed to be a “Team Leader,” which I’m assuming is pretty close to a General ranking. But the pacing is good otherwise. Our first giant robot formation of the series is Zyuoh King 1-2-3, a combo of Cube Eagle, Cube Shark, and Cube Lion. It has a nice primary color scheme, it is very, uh, cube-y, and the King Sword’s Zyuoh slash has a cool, samurai-style finishing move.
Following the fight, the Zyumans now find themselves stuck on Earth due to the damaged Link Cube, but they now have the convenient ability to change into human forms. Thank God – I don’t think I’d be able to watch anymore if they were in their furry forms all the time. Yamato agrees to take them in to live with him and his weird uncle. The thankful Leo, Amu, and Sela finally formally introduce themselves but Tusk wants nothing to do with Yamato and this happy fun time. Tusk is definitely the rebel of the group this season. The episode ends with a cliffhanger: Oh man, where will Tusk go? Will he learn the power of teamwork and accept Yamato’s friendship? Will he ride away on another elephant?
This latest Super Sentai entry shares the same goofiness as the past few series, but I see potential in it. Yamato is brave and a well-meaning leader but I hope that he develops and struggles a bit more. I don’t want this show to turn into him just babysitting the Zyumans between easily-won battles. Time will tell, and I am willing to give Zyuohger a chance.
