REVIEW: Zyuohger 13
This weekend I made either the great choice or the grave mistake to marathon the first 24 episodes of Choujin Sentai Jetman. I’ve always wanted to watch it because it is a notoriously dark entry in the Super Sentai franchise, but I fear that it may have ruined my enjoyment of this week’s episode of Zyuohger. Why would Jetman ruin Zyuohger? Two words: romantic subplot.
For those of you unfamiliar with Jetman (probably many of you, as it is 25 years old), it places a lot of emphasis on melodrama and romance, featuring a love triangle-turned-hexagon. It knows that it is a soap opera series, and it does this well. Zyuohger, on the other hand, does not always seem to know what it is supposed to be.
While a little more serious than the last Super Sentai installment (Ninninger), Zyuohger frequently straddles the line between silly and dark, more often than not tipping over to the silly side. While last week’s Tusk-centric episode did invoke some mood whiplash compared to the darker episodes before it, this episode was the one to crush my hopes by failing to develop deeper relationships between the characters. I have trouble understanding and empathizing with Yamato primarily because I know nothing about him besides that he is friendly and courageous. The argument can be made, “But this is a kids’ show…” but most good kids’ shows allow the main character to have friends, to have a life, and to fall in or out of love.
This episode had the chance to show some real rivalry between Leo and Yamato, as well as a potential romance. It failed. Leo’s obsession with the new girl feels incredibly forced, while Yamato seems ambivalent to everything non-Dethgalien. But beyond this terrible subplot, the actual action in the story is great and introduces another sweet weapon.
I will also say this: Thank God those stupid posters are working. The episode begins with Yuri responding to one of their flyers, claiming that she saw the Bird Man while she was hiking. Leo, who has been energetically chasing after human women all day, immediately falls in love with her. But he thinks that she has feelings for Yamato, and half-hearted drama ensues until they find out that she doesn’t like either of them. Well, kinda. She likes Yamato because he looks like her pet parakeet.
I get frustrated because no one – not even Sela – points out to Leo that he is acting too aggressively. He clearly makes every human girl, especially Yuri, uncomfortable and frequently touches them and yells in their faces without permission. Okay, so he’s a lion person from another planet. But other characters (namely Amu) have been called out for not acting appropriately, why isn’t Leo? Is it because his childishness aggressiveness is meant to be funny?
Looking at the overarching plot, this was a good episode in three ways: it included a nature-themed evil plot, it gave us a glimpse at what Bird Furry may be up to, and it introduced Cube Bear. This season has an environmental theme, and because of this they tend to do nature episodes well. It would have been better if this episode focused more on Azald and his Monster of the Week, but we do at least see increasing tension between the Team Leaders and we also witness an exciting final fight.
Cube Bear is actually battle axe, and a cool one at that. Wild Zyuoh King is quickly stocking up an impressive arsenal. But not only that – the Bird Man’s presence at the site where Cube Bear is hidden implies that he knew about it…and this raises some good questions about what he is doing and when he will reunite (happily or not) with the Zyuoghers.
Maybe I’m being a little too hard on Zyuohger for not being like Jetman. The more “important” aspects of this episode (the fight and the introduction of Cube Bear) were good, but I’m growing less and less satisfied with the character development. There doesn’t need to be romance in a Super Sentai series, but there has to be some dynamic relationships of some sort. If Yamato isn’t shown to have a deeper connection with anybody at some point in this series, I am going to be incredibly disappointed. Hopefully the next few episodes will develop his relationship with the Bird Zyuman, or perhaps introduce his family past that he and his uncle are so hesitant to discuss. I can only hope this will be sooner rather than later.
