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Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Kyoryuger Episode 35 Review: Gigantic Comeback (Spoiler Alert!)

For this episode of Kyoryujin, Debos has gotten what they need to attack. Whatever is this item in their possession and can the Kyoryugers make a comeback?
I will first talk about the plan that Chaos had thought up as he aimed for this little item since the previous episode. It did feel like he knew that Bargigas would be revived (probably losing hope for his group, I don't blame him) and had to think of a way to counter it. There was a monster who stood in the giant Voltasaur and that was Gadoma. Even though he has been defeated in the previous war, he left something behind which was a curse. With Chaos being able to use that curse he was able to strike at Kyoryugers' powers. The curse starts to affect the melodies that the Kyoryugers use and even though they can transform and fight with their mechs, they are not at full power. I do like how Chaos thought of this and it does seems that he had to wait for Bargigas to come back since he knows the team would be using him like they did in the past, which was being the spirit base. Chaos probably knew of this and thought he could strike at a point when the heroes think they are winning, good plan I have to say.
To add onto Chaos' plan, thanks to the curse he could move around and even enter in the spirit base. He does this to provoke Torin and basically tell him to give up since things will play out like they did before. Chaos taunts Torin by telling him that even being Bargigas' partner cannot help since he is a Debos. Unlike the humans I guess the Debos cannot have the Brave energy as told by Chaos. Soon he delivers a final blow to Torin (or so he thought) as Torin lies on the ground. I have to say it feels odd seeing Torin in this near death situation again since it happened only six episodes ago and pretty much the previous big arc for the series. Still what I do like with this is that Chaos is being threatening which the rest of Debos can barely show so it's nice that I can still like the leader.
In the previous review I mentioned how a two arc style would have helped the last episode and it applies here too. The beginning of the episode really plays off like the beginning of a two episode arc. The heroes are in danger and are being thrown into a corner as they cannot be at full strength. Now seeing this episode I think I know how Bargigas' reveal should have been. It easily should have been this style of an episode. The team easily could have found Bargigas, but still in his fossilized form, but they start to use him since they need to recharge him with the stones and the batteries. Chaos easily could have used the same item since Bargigas is heavily affected by it and the same thing could have happened, but just a little longer. It would have been nice to see the Kyoryugers get tossed around for once for a whole episode to make things suspenseful like show the enemy commanders completely winning against the heroes. Have Gadoma destroy the city and show that Debos is really taking a big step forward with their fight on humanity. Then for the comeback have the team find their true melodies once more like they did before and then Bargigas fully revives and have that be the big reveal fight in the second part. This would have just felt more climatic since Bargigas is supposed to be a big achievement for the team, but he doesn't feel like that at all here.
Reminding me of climatic moments this episode did try to do that and I am happy to see Kyoryuger use this trope, but it wasn't as strong as previous moments. Some characters returned to help the heroes out like Yuuko, Rika, Gentle, Yuuji, and some random kid from a previous episode. I do like this since the minor characters that have been watching the heroes and helping them is great. I was actually surprised seeing Yuuji for Ucchi since it really made me remember a pretty old episode. The same can be applied to Gentle as he hasn't been seen in forever. Personally I think Souji should have gotten help from the girl who has a crush on him, but oh well. The people helped out the heroes this time and it's a very basic trope, but I'm happy it's here since it makes it feel like a Sentai. Certain characters meeting each other and focusing on different parts of their characters. This is what a Sentai is, it's about the team and the people they help and this episode got that right. I even love how the citizens start to chant the little songs for the mechs. It's just a small touch, but it applies a fun dynamic to the episode.
Now I will say the heroes barely had any development here which probably would have been improved by doing the two episode style, but I do rather like the change on the citizens. It plays with how this battle is different than the last battle from the last war. There are more people and they are backing up each other so that they can win. This really applies since Chaos is recreating history by using Gadoma and the mechs fight out most of the time makes me think of how the Voltasaurs were fighting him before. Again it's a small dynamic and it's only there because of one flashback scene, but I still approve of this. An episode like this should have more dynamics and it did have them here and there. I was even fine with how the cluster mecha got it's reveal here since it shows how different the present is from the past.
I will say I did like how much mech action there was here and seeing the heroes being defeated with them is a nice sight. There was some practical effects being used like the mechs falling on the ground and causing damage to the city. There was also Bargigas who appeared and they made a set showing the giant mech walk around even if it just zoomed onto the feet. There was even a old shooting style with the team being forced out of their mechs and even though there was a really bad explosion effect just thrown in there. The team come back with Kyoryujin and Pteraiden-oh and I liked seeing how not flashy it was here. It was a basic fight with the heroes losing and the only special effects were little lasers and gun flares. Also showing the actual mechs hold back the monster with the actual suits. The same happens when Gigant Bargai-oh got shown it was a suit on suit fight. This episode easily shown some old aspects of Sentai here and it made me happy to see them since Kyoryuger didn't have this Sentai feel for many times in the series.
Now here is something that kills the whole practical uses being built up in this episode. Giant Kyoryujin got it's reveal in this episode and I am happy how it got revealed since the citizens were with the team the whole time during this big fight. In the end though it's an ugly cluster mecha and it was just a lazy fight and finish. First of all Kyorujin doesn't get an overall change, I was hoping there would be more silver around it since Bargigas is pure silver coloring and seeing that with Kyoryujin's red armor probably would have worked nicely. There was more additions of yellow and just an overall bulk to Kyoryujin and then just slapped on things. It just doesn't look like a cluster mech this way, the past cluster mecha at least had every part be a part of the design. The best example is G12 as I actually like that mech mostly because it shown each mech that made it and having that makes it seem powerful. Here it's just a bulky Kyorujin which I was expecting, but at least add a little more changes to the color aspects. As for it's fight, pretty boring and that's sad since having the citizens chant out the name did build up my excitement. The finisher was just a bunch of giant lasers so yea pretty boring to look at.
The final thing to mention in this episode is that there is a second Torin and he's evil. Tessai and Ramirez were shown in this episode to just be shown that they got beaten up by the evil Torin. Yayoi was around, but pretty much did nothing. Also it seems they are building up to Torin doing something more since he got a special gun from Yayoi. It is easily going to go to the next episode and I'm happy they didn't try to jam this in since it would have been episode thirty-four's problem. I do like how the evil Torin does come at the end since I can bet this is Chaos' doing and I am loving how he is having a backup plan right after a backup plan. It easily got the Kyoryugers off their guard once more so good job Chaos!
Overall I did enjoy some aspects of this episode, but they easily could have been expanded on. Again having this be a two episode arc would have helped to show some more action since this episode did show some good action pieces here and there. There was a sense of struggle which I felt should have been for a whole episode and then have the comeback to make things more climatic. Also it did use the citizen trope which I did love seeing this be around, but it did feel like they used some random characters, some I liked, others I didn't. I can say my favorite part is Chaos as he is doing a very good job with his plans. So I would give this episode a C+
Next Time: Kyoryu Silver!

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