REVIEW: Zyuohger 18
This week’s episode solidifies my theory about Zyuohger: the show is at its best whenever the Zyuohgers are losing. I’m not totally sure why this is the case, although it is probably because losing reveals their more serious sides. It also raises the stakes, which episodes 17 and 18 certainly do with the debut of Zyuoh TheWorld. I know some viewers find him underwhelming at best and downright silly at worst. And yes, I find his design, his name, and his weapon to be questionable. But he is the player that the Blood Game needs to progress and the kind of rival that Yamato needs to grow.
The episode opens with a little exposition by Naria, explaining how easily Master Ginis created his own Zyuohger and cube animals. The Zyumans are shocked to learn that there were more of their kind on Earth, and I find that this does raise a lot of questions: who were these Zyumans? They were presumably trapped on Earth after the last Champion’s Symbol/King’s Credential went missing, but why were they there and where were they hiding? We will probably never know, but given the ending to this episode, we will likely soon know the identity of the human carrier of the Zyumans’ lifeforces.
The majority of this episode involves the Zyuohgers being blown up over and over by Zyuoh TheWorld or his cube animals. The most exciting development amongst these explosions is the premiere of Tousai Zyuoh. Given TheWorld’s disgraceful design, this may sound unbelievable, but Tousai Zyuoh is currently the best-looking mecha in the series. With a cohesive color scheme and an imposing silhouette, it looks much less ridiculous that Wild Zyuoh King. I say this despite the fact that Tousai Zyuoh has a crocodile hand – that’s how good it looks in comparison.
Tousai Zyuoh is also incredibly powerful – enough so that the Zyuohgers face their own mortality at its (half crocodile) hands, before being saved by the sadistic nature of Master Ginis, who likes to play with his prey as long as possible. We haven’t seen the gang at this level of fear since episode 10, and this time they’re taking their defeat much worse.
The plot currently has TheWorld set up to be the pawn who messes things up when the Zyuohgers are almost finished defeating the Monster of the Week, but I’m not sure how long this pattern will last. Card-themed, overhyped loser Trumpus takes advantage of the gang’s fear of TheWorld, but they still easily defeat him. However, the biggest hint that TheWorld won’t stay in Ginis’ grip for very long happens in the final moments of the episode: the ending of the fight scene between him and Yamato.
Their fight scene is one of the episode’s highlights, with Yamato successfully catching TheWorld off-guard before they battle in the middle of a river. They both take advantage of their surroundings and the fight is more evenly matched than I anticipated. But just like during the earlier scene in which the gang is saved by Ginis’ sadism, Yamato is only saved by a convenient break in Zyuoh TheWorld’s mental state. The episode ends on an interesting note, with a shocked Yamato staring at a shirtless man screaming the middle of the river.
While their fight was great, this episode was also a shining moment for the other four Zyuohgers. In past episodes one or a few of them would fight a Dethgalien but never got very far. But this week Tusk, Amu, Leo, and Sela take down Trumpus without the help of Yamato. They display some great teamwork while doing it, too. In an episode that focuses on the seemingly superior powers of Zyuoh Eagle/Gorilla, the others are shown to be useful as well.
Overall this was a good episode that was more well-balanced than the last one. The Zyuohgers begin by tasting defeat but they all redeem themselves by the end. The final fights and the cliffhanger ending have me excited for next week – mainly because it means that episode 19 won’t be goofy, episodic fare. I hope learning more about TheWorld will satisfy my craving for more (or rather, better) plot development.
