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Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Kyoryuger Episode 40 Review: Lights! Cameras! Romance!

For this episode of Kyoryuger we get a Nossan episode, now the previous one wasn't as good, but this one really shines and becomes my favorite of the Nossan episode.
I talked about so many times in previous episode reviews about many flaws of the series, but this one episode uses those elements and actually does them right. I will go through my usual complaints from the previous reviews and how this episode actually does them right. First is the idea of the actual focus episode. This is a Nossan episode and who gets most of the focus both in drama and action, Nossan! No other character really took the screen time away from him. This was his episode and yet it can still share some great moments for the other characters at the same time. Kyoryuger has been missing this idea so many times as the actual developmental point for a character is very small and unimportant like the previous two Souji episodes and in the end King ended up taking the crowing glory. There was even that one episode with summoning Bragigas back from the dead as the overall focus is King and King only. In this episode we get a huge development not only for Nossan, but also one of the villains of the series.
Another aspect in the series that misses the mark sometimes is how the villains are portrayed, most of the times they just remain the same with barely any changes. Now there are exceptions like Aigarion and Dogold, but how long has it been since those two had their changes? However this episode goes into Canderrilla's character who was mostly just the joyous villain. Really there are so many times I barely remember her until I see her on the screen. I have to say this episode made her a lot more likable. The episode goes into Candy's good side and this easily reminds me of how Torin is a Debos, but yet he works for the side of good. Nossan starts to see an overall good person in her and tries to convince her to save the humans she trapped and actually make humans happy. Candy ends up helping Nossan in the end by saving his life and telling him where the men were being stored. There was a huge love development here and I wasn't expecting this at all going into this episode. Also it's not forced because the reason why Candy starts to fall for Nossan is that she started to see her good side and it was thanks to Nossan. Finally, I accept this little love connection because it was well done and works on the motif of being good that I thought the series wouldn't use again.
Another aspect of Candy that I liked was that we got to see more of her actress doing some more work. For the majority of this episode she is in her human form and the series did show her a little moments, but here is the first time we get a whole episode around her. I really like her actress, most of the time she is doing just a voice that is always gleaming with happiness and it does go a little over exaggerated at times, but she's shows the emotion of happiness so it makes sense. The actress, Haruka Tomatsu easily shows that aspect of her character in her human form. At times her expressions go a little over the next step, mostly with her happiness. Then this is really the first time she was also showing some different emotions and she did those fine. All I can say is that I am going to have a more closer eye for this actress. There was even a little moment when Lucky's voice actor was seen which was nice. Overall, I was really enjoying Candy in this episode and not only because the character got a really big expansion, but her actress did a very good job. Finally it's quite funny to think the only one who finds Nossan's gags funny is a monster.
Now reminding me of humor this episode actually does comedy right. I have laughed to Kyoryuger a couple of times before, but there were so many useless gags like the whole King love triangle that I just find annoying. Also for the comedy it goes over the top which is something the series misses as well like with the sports episode. Well a little plot detail here, the MOTW is a movie director and uses Candy to trap humans when their love is so strong their hearts come out. The monster uses his ability to set a mood and he does this in the action portion of the episode. Then this brings up a great running gag for the episode where Amy has been watching too many movies and because she got those stuck in her head it creates a setting for the movie world. We get into a detective and school drama settings because of her and I love how the team reacts to all of this. Like with Ucchi saying Amy's name in disappointment because she caused the setting of the movie world.
I'm not done with this aspect as well since it's been a long time I have laughed along with the series like this. First is the detective setting which was amazing to watch since the team was fighting out of suit in cop outfits and yet still working with what they had. The best is easily Ucchi with a shotgun, Shotgun Samurai, I can actually see that being a comedy action movie. Even King has a funny moment where he fights a foot soldier yet he still gets a bite out of his sandwich. Now the best part is when the team transform they are still in the cop outfits except for King who was in Carnival Mode. Then the team continue to fight with the cop items like Souji with the night stick and Ucchi with the shotgun! Then to top it all off the monsters are even dressed as criminals and it even gets better.
The next setting was a school drama where the heroes and villains were dressed up as the high school delinquent character. King pulls of a Gentaro cosplay here while Souji has the same uniform he has on and I love how he tries to change his appearance just a little. So the heroes are dressed up like idiots and they the whole roll call with it. This was just a funny touch since the characters had to fight no matter what so might as well deal with what they got. Also the actors just had so much fun with this aspect of the episode. The monsters also had this hilarious wigs on and one was dressed as a school girl. Then most of times with these movie moments it's mostly the actual actors doing their own stunts and I always love seeing that. With all of the movie settings there is a nice touch of a smaller screen thanks to the two black bars and a filter. It's just a nice touch to make one think of watching a movie at the theater. There is one more movie setting though and it was a quicker one, but it actually works with the gag at the same time.
Now with each movie setting it was mostly caused by Amy and even though she has involvement with the last one it was actually Torin's fault as well. Torin watched a Kaiju movie and then the mech fight plays out like a trailer for the movie. First I have to say this was a great way to keep the running gag fresh for the third time as things still play out the same, but the idea of Torin watching a movie and explaining himself at the same time he summons Bragigas in battle. The mech fight is a rather short one, but again as I said before it works here. Every time the mech gets an attack on the monsters, big text appears and the narrator says the word. This is exactly like the old Kaiju film trailers as they easily do this and again for the third time the movie setting gag was fresh because of a new way of doing it. I can't believe I am talking so much about the comedy for once, it's like it's a comedy series.
Another good aspect this episode was the use of Yuuko in this episode. She had a huge involvement with the episode because she gets Nossan in a marriage interview which is how Nossan and Candy meet up. See this is another thing I complained about with Tessai's episode. The heroes' and villains' part of the story tie with together and end up making a funny little situation. The villains' plan was working out well and now Kyoryu Blue comes out of nowhere and can completely ruin the plan. Yuuko even finds out that Candy is a monster and tries to bash her head with a broom. What ends up happening though is that with Nossan's help she gets Yuuko to calm down and actually accept Candy as more of a person and not a monster. There was also Ramirez in the episode who had a little funny cosplay joke and he was mostly around for comedic moments, but they work. The best part is when Ramirez tires to get Yuuko away from the monsters, but she freaks out and uses Ramirez has her weapon and throws him away on accident. Also they threw in a Dekaranger reference which got a little giggle out of me. Also this episode holds a lot of references in them, mostly with the movie aspect. The DVD covers had characters from other series like the monster movie one where it shows two monsters from Gingaman and Gekiranger and those two remind me of Godzilla and King Ghidora. So they even threw in reference humor as well, good job Kyoryuger, good job!
Also seeing Ramirez like that killed me.
The action was very well done for this episode as it ties in closely with the comedy of this episode and again seeing the team fight in their situations was great. The camera work was good and I could tell most of the actors were doing their own stunts. Then for the final on land fight, Nossan had the finishing blow! The team give him the Kentrospiker to use and he does so by himself. First of all, when was the last time we saw that item get used? Now the first fight didn't have Nossan in it, but the episode saves itself thanks to the second fight. Nossan had shining moments in the fight with his drop kick and using the Kentrospiker and yet the rest of the team still had their moments in the fights as well. Now for most of the drama it was Nossan and Candy, but King had his part with trusting Nossan and Yuuko and Ramirez were thrown in as well. Also even if the teammates didn't get the drama aspects they at least had something memorable from the comedy moments.
Overall, I had a complete blast with this episode. To be honest I did this review later than I wanted to. I accidentally had a nap and was dead tired when I woke up. I was dreading do this review since Kyoryuger hasn't been that much fun and this episode woke me up thanks to the comedy. I was really surprised as it reminds me of episode thirteen as everyone had something in the episode. If it was drama and development with Nossan and Candy to straight up humor from the other members. This episode clearly got things right about comedy in a Sentai series and it was done so well while going over the top. The final thing is that I can take something from this episode since Nossan and Candy really stepped up as characters and I can remember this and hope the series brings this back up which they properly will since the whole Nossan and Candy love connection was hinted at before with episode twenty. I easily give this episode an A+ has it works with elements that the series didn't do as well before and perfected them here.
Next Time: The five mechs team up!

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