REVIEW: Kyuranger 6
This week’s episode emphasized the powers of dance and positive thinking. We learned that Lucky’s power is basically like the book The Secret: by thinking positive thoughts, Lucky attracts the positive vibes of the universe. It also apparently explains why, after a horribly botched mission, Xiao still proclaimed that Lucky was the best fighter and therefore the team’s chosen leader.
This episode was silly in many good ways and in one bad way. Starting with the bad, let's discuss Mr. Pega. He is bizarre at best, eye-rolling and headache-inducing at worst. I’m not a huge fan of talking weapons, and for an incredibly strong power-up, Pega is played nearly solely for comic relief. He also takes the form of an obnoxiously giant and unwieldy chest piece. I only find him slightly more tolerable than Xiao; I can understand why the two get along so well.
The rest of the cast was mostly charming, though. Naga’s fourth-wall breaking and questioning of everything that Xiao says was hilarious, and I still find Raptor’s daydreams endearing. The dancing scenes – both uncoordinated and coordinated – were cute and ultimately resulted in a cool fight scene near the end. At one point Xiao says to Hammy that maybe the first dancing practice was pointless, but I would disagree. It takes a page from Neon Genesis Evangelion’s play book by emphasizing the importance of coordinated execution. It was also fun as hell.
I was happy to see Hammy receive more character development this week. Initially her combativeness came off as annoying and forced. With the perspective of how hard she’s worked, though, her actions feel much more understandable. I mean, I would be annoyed too if I trained constantly and then some inexperienced weirdo suddenly appears and takes over the show. She softened a bit at the end, something that I hope continues. She can be a strong character without being rude all the time. Kyuranger needs to take a hard look at its female characters and realize that there’s a difference between ambitious/strong and being a jerk.
The Zord fight scene was nothing to write home about. I’m sick of the same old mechanical Consumarz enemies. Stinger’s separate mission was more interesting, as was his fight against two new squid-like characters who will probably prove challenging to the gang. It's about time that Kyuranger introduced some (hopefully) long-term antagonists: it is hard to connect to the Malistrates that end up dying almost every week. This episode did leave me feeling a bit more optimistic about the pacing. Even including episodes of hip-thrusting dances and forced rivalries, this story still has the potential to be huge.
