REVIEW: Kyuranger 25
This week’s episode takes full advantage of the 12-person team, with the Kyurangers finding themselves on a planet designed like a clock – and where each of them must face materialized memories of either a person in their heart or someone evil. This is where shit gets weird.
I found the people that some of the Kyurangers encountered questionable: Shou had a sweet scene drinking sake with Big Bear but Hammy was stuck fighting boring former Monster of the Week Gonessy? It was a weird mix of heartwarming fan service (Shou and Big Bear), regular fan service (*cough* Raptor *cough*), and weird arbitrary fights. Oh, and multiple versions of Madako, including a new, adorable otaku version.
Speaking of fan service, one of the more interesting moments of this episode was when Naga found out that he was in Balance’s heart but apparently, no one was in his. Naga’s side story has been his goal to get emotions, though sometimes it’s hard to forget as he has shown genuine anger and most of the time he’s just silly. There’s some inconsistencies in his treatment but I assume that’s because he’d be boring as hell if he truly was entirely emotionless.
The star of the episode was Kotaro, whose person was the ghost of his mother. His growth throughout the series has been the most impressive. The trope of the mom ghost is so common in toku that it’s dull (Zyuogher’s mom ghost episode was a prime example of this having very little emotional impact), but this was an instance where the trope paid off. It was obvious that Kotaro wasn’t going to screw the team over. That didn’t make the impact any less heartfelt. He finally had the chance to not only see her again, but to also make her proud of the hero he’s become. I know, it’s sappy. And I ate it up.
The final fight against Tecchu was another great display of the large team dynamics. My worries about Lucky and Ohtori dominating have not come to fruition, as the Kyutamajin works a lot better with the help of the whole team. Moments when they split up into teams of twos and sixes also solidified the “together we are stronger” theme. This was one of the most creative fight scenes in the series yet and I found myself as excited as Otaku Madako. Tecchu was crushed by the team, and I’m glad that he was killed off so quickly. He was ugly and had no interesting gimmick. He seemed like he was just another, maybe slightly more powerful Malistrate. The next vice shoguns look more promising. It’ll be interesting to see whether their tactics will mainly involve more Monsters of the Week or if they’ll get a bit more personal.
