Kyoryuger Episode 1 Review: King!

Well with Go-busters over it's time for a new series to try to make a come back for the franchise. Will the new series rise to new heights or will it make the franchise fall further? The story of this Sentai is that an ancient evil has come back from their frozen seal. The one in charge starts the invasion on the planet, but what he doesn't know is that there are five warriors ready to fight back. To begin the review I was worried of the upbeat feeling cause I thought it was just going to copy series like Carranger and Go-onger. Did it do that? No, the series gives a completely different feel I was expecting so it made me really happy to see what the show did. To be exact the show has a huge 90's vibe to it. First the dino motif did start with Zyuranger which was in 1992. How things are done though really remind me of the 90 era Sentai series. I will bring this up in a lot more points.

The first big thing that reminded me of the older Sentai were the villains. First it's a huge group as there are five main villains to start off. Recently it was only like one, two, or three so seeing more villains are nice. They are even waiting for their leader to awaken as this makes me think of the other series that used a big leader character which was more of the 80's. So far I like the theme they carry of different emotions. The one in charge doesn't have one, but since he's in charge that makes sense. There is one for sorrow, joy, smiles, and anger then. I was surprised that there is joy and smiles since they are kinda the same thing, but I guess they will be the duo villains. Sorrow is of course water based as he cries tears, but anger is lightning I was expecting fire. Then the first monster they sent was the one who made the Ice Age. So right now they are very basic villains, but they give off a good vibe as I hope they can be something more later on. For a first episode their introduction is fine.

The next thing that gave off the 90's vibe was the action. This series goes back to more practical effects for the mechs now they do mix in special effects, but there is more practical. I do like practical effects more, but I don't hate special effects. They had a really nice blend of effects as I love when the Gabutyra had moments when they switched it around at very good points in the scenes. So that was some very good planning and directing as I can't wait to see how further the mechs can do. Along with that the suit fighting reminds me of the older series with the biggest one being when Pink does a double sideways kick to hit two foes on her sides. Green has some very sick swordplay methods, Black fights like he's relaxed, and then Blue is surprisingly strong for being a goof. The action really caught me off guard as well since I know how upbeat is being defined, it's just fast paced. Not crazy with humor, it's just going at a fast pace, but this episode didn't feel rushed at all.

Now this episode did pull a trend that happens in recent Sentai series and that's the red focus. In a first episode for Sentai, the Red warrior gets the spotlight and it doesn't really set the mood for a team motif series. Now a good way this was done was in Zyuranger's first episode. Geki was still sealed away and then came to save the day and it was great to see how much the team did better than with him. With this, it was just Daigo becoming a Kyoryuger. Now though Daigo is a pretty cool character so far. He is straight to the point and gets the job done. He also calls himself King since people usually call him that. He's carefree and the last time there was a red like him was Sousuke (Go-on Red). Having this episode focus on Daigo just made it not feel like a team series and more of a single hero series which was like episode 1 of Go-busters with Hiromu, now we did get some scenes of character interaction which I will get to.

There were two scenes where the team actually are fully together and no I am not counting the action scene since anyways they fought more separately anyways. Now this is one thing I cannot like. This bird like guy called Torin gathered up these warriors and for some reason they don't know each other. I know they soon will start knowing each other, but the team doesn't want to know each other! They want their identities to be a secret because I guess they don't want to get too attached. Daigo doesn't care though as he reveals himself to the team which is what I liked. So Torin assembles a team and doesn't have them know who they are, I'm sorry that just dumb. They're a team they need to know each other so that they can work better together. Heck, Daigo had a month before he became a red as the others already got their powers so why didn't Torin get those four together since he has teleporters! The team can get around the whole world since in the beginning scene we see the five heroes in completely different areas. I will say that I like the idea of a mentor like Doggie Krugger, but I just can't get any idea why he never had them know each other in a the time of a month!

Overall it's a pretty good first episode. It's like Megaforce in someways as the series shows many signs of high potential. Is it average though, no I would give a B+ since the whole red focus and team not knowing each other do bug me, but other factors made me like it a whole lot. There were great fight scenes and each hero as their own style which I can't wait to see how that works with teamwork. Then Daigo is a really fun character and then there is nothing that gives off bad vibes. Finally, I do know the team will get to know each other, but I want some type of reason for why they don't want to know each other by the second episode. Also starting tomorrow will be Sentai Month since I ignored this franchise during the Go-buster's run time.

Next Time: Teamwork!!!!