REVIEW: Kyuranger 26
Betrayal! Emotions! Bad costume design! The latest episode of Kyuranger has it all. This episode begins the Evil Naga/Hebitsukai Metal Arc and to say that I am excited about it would be an understatement.
I love Naga, even though his claims to not have emotions can sometimes be questionable – to the point that even the commandeer points out in this episode that his intense frustration is in itself a legitimate and serious emotion. But I acknowledge that this treatment is sensible for the plot- if Naga truly had zero emotions, would he honestly ever care about acquiring them?
Whatever. Anyway, Naga’s desired for emotions is exploited by the new Vice Shogun, Akyanba, who is the ugliest villain we’ve seen yet. Even if she’s already stronger than Tecchu, her nasty teeth and talon boobs are gross and distracting. But it makes since that since she is hideous, so is Naga’s evil persona. Hebitsukai Metal is sad, to say the least. Also, the costume designers seem to really like scarves this season. He looks like a bootleg version of himself, just intentionally different enough to get away with to be sold by a 3rd party toy manufacturer as “Nega” or “Nago.” What I’m trying to get at is that his look sucks and he deserves better, especially since Evil Naga is turning out to be a crazy SOB and mad powerful.
There were a lot of interesting moves and developments in this episode other than Naga’s defection. For one, the episode opens with a mech fight but does not end with one. This works well as it leaves adequate time to outline the upcoming story arc. The crew has once again split up, with half of them are go back in time to investigate Don Armage while the other half stay behind to save Naga. I find both story lines promising, though I'm curious to see how they are separated and how much time is devoted to each.
Another enjoyable element of this episode was the character development. Balance and Naga already get quite a bit of screen time, which makes sense because they’re a great comic relief duo. But this episode expands on Naga’s race as well as the BN Thieves’ relationship in some great ways. Hammy (who is given her best-used screen time in months) calls out Naga for being too dependent on Balance. While she ends up regretting that statement, she made a valid point. I’m not a slash shipper by any means, but if any two characters on this show have any sort of chemistry or attachment, its them. I’m looking forward to seeing how the two deal with this separation – and what will ultimately bring Naga back to the good side.
