Kyoryuger Episode 11 Review: Lacking Backbone

For this episode of Kyoryuger we find out why Ustsu acts all tough and superior as he opens up towards Amy. The villains are already onto another plan though as they used idol love?

Now going on with the idea of an idol, it's a very smart plan. I liked how they use the metaphor of lacking a backbone as the monster can literally take a part of a man's backbone and then cause them to be slaves for Candy. If you know Japan you know how much idols work for that country as it's a huge market, heck even Kamen Rider has an idol group. Now personally I'm not a huge fan of that style of music, but I'm not a music critic. Still how they portray this idea makes it feel like social commentary to how the people take their love for idols a little too far. Also the most important part is that it does make the men happy. I am tending to like the happy emotion plans more cause they are more peaceful and this time the monster doesn't change emotions all of a sudden. Still a plan is useless if the one leading the cause can't do much and luckily Candy does more this time.

She poses as an idol which is actually her voice actress which is nice to see who does the voice in the show. Going on though she did a lot more compared to how much she did in the last episode. First her monster didn't go out of control so that's a plus. Also her monster had is a pretty basic idea of a bone motif, but it does look really good though. It reminds me of bone monster from Dairanger, but without the animal theme. As I said before he can pick people's backbones out and make them fall for Candy as she would use them as slaves and they will constantly be happy because they don't have any backbone to say anything about it. I will say though there were some "really" moments with this creature. He didn't pick out Amy's bone because he wasn't good with women and he couldn't get Ustsu because he is spineless. Overall though the plan was good and she even gets the other male Kyoryugers so that's a plus.

Continuing on with the idol part of the show as I said before the male heroes except for Ustsu got their backbones removed. I will say that it was a little funny to see the characters completely act like obsessed fans as their reason for attacking Amy was because pink is Candy's color. Still one thing is that Nossan was the first one to be captured because he was being too happy from being hit on by an idol, but he just saw that was Candy in the same day? I guess she must be a real idol, but still I think Nossan lacked some common sense right there. Then the four just stood out for most of the episode which is sad because I would have loved to see the four fight the other two heroes. At least there was still funny moments with seeing the four guys dressed up for Candy support.

Now onto Ustsu or should I say Utchi now. Amy gives her a shorter name since it helps me a lot with his name now and it's also easier to remember. Well going on Utchi got a whole lot better for me now. It seems he was acting tough this whole time because of his past. He still follows his master's words from all of this time, but he still struggles with this. He wants to be himself, but he doesn't want to be too emotional since that is a weakness. One time during a battle he left himself open because a Debos creature disguised himself as a kid, his lord who looks like Daigo a lot saved him, but was killed in the process. A nice simple and short back story that explains on Utchi's character some more which is nice. Going on I really liked how he was worrying about the things he said showing he has a very kind side to himself. In the last episodes we just knew he got mad easily so I'm happy to see that he is actually a very cheerful person.

Going on with him he bonds with Amy very quickly thanks to her being ticked off by him in the beginning. She followed him and sees him worrying about what he said to the team. He then acts all noble around Amy so she won't tell anyone else. He bows to her a whole lot and is not going through any issues so far with the current time. As I said before he is a cheerful person and it seems he likes the modern world as it doesn't worry him that much. After the back story of his it touches Amy because she is a person like Utchi as she would be worried about others as well. Now the two work together as she helps Utchi give off a strong samurai image to the rest of the team. It's a nice character arc for both of these two as it creating a bond between the two and seeing him opening up was great. Utchi I doubted you, but you got better and it's all thanks to Amy.

Now with Amy I really like how she is helping Utchi keep a strong samurai image. This actually helped the team in the end as they see that there was no excuse for them becoming slaves and will get them to work harder. Amy also did a lot since she was on her own for a while thanks to the men becoming slaves. She had some good fight moments except for the time she went on a unicycle..... yea you heard me right. This really came out of nowhere as it's just Amy on a unicycle. She does have the Dino Chaser, she couldn't just use that like the other two times she did in this episode? Oh well it came and went, but still that was an odd scene. Overall Amy is even getting better as she is helping our samurai warrior become give himself a stronger image.

Now onto the action portion of the show. First I will bring this up again since there was a good fight moment that could have happened. The four men were controlled and were wearing silly outfits, it would have been great to see that on the Sentai suits. Also Amy would have to defend herself against her comrades then how great would have that been. Then with how the guys were acting it would have made a good comedic fight on top of that. Finally what would make it better was Utchi coming to save the day and completely shocking the four men before giving back their bones. Maybe if that unicycle scene was cut out we could at least have that comedic fight then.

Onto the real action though, the first fight was fun because this is the first time that the Kyoryugers had to defend themselves from actual citizens. This causes Daigo, Nossan, and Amy to use a battery to calm them down. Daigo used a new one that we haven't seen that causes people to get dizzy, Nossan used the tickle one again and used his lame puns to save the day, and Amy used the love battery to make Candy fans fall over for her. What made this great was how the three heroes reacted when using them. Daigo was spinning his finger along with the attack, Nossan was well himself, and Amy was being flirtatious. Then the fight goes to more suit action as they fight the bone monster. He was actually pretty strong and proved to be stronger than the Chaos monster from the last two episodes as he smacked them around by himself. Then Gold comes and saves the day and pretends to be a strict samurai. Now this actually added some suspense which the last episode didn't have and that suspense continued with the other fight, well sort of.

It was more like the issue before the fight was the suspense. This is because Amy was by herself she didn't have her allies at all as they even fired at her. Still the fight was good though thanks to Gold still being awesome in fighting. It is similar to his reveal fight, but thanks to some great additions with the special effects it really made the fight seem different. I mean there was a lot to look at thanks to the lightning animations. Also Amy used the Dino Chaser again when she could have used it for another fight.... Then the two combined powers as Amy got to use one of Utchi's batteries. At first Gold had this drill like thing which made me think of Faiz a whole lot. Then the two blast him with lightning powers! I will say it again the effects for his attacks are some of the best in the series still and combine that with the nice finishers from the Kyoryuger gun is great.

The mecha fight was even a good one since this was the first time that Kyoryujin and Pteraidenoh fought along side each other. The team use the sword for Kyoryujin as well so we got two sword mechs going at the monster. It was a short one, but there were still some great memorable things about it. First the action was faster than usual thanks to some nice camera work and editing. Also Ptrea comes flying around a lot which is always fun to see. Gold even had it go into the Gordon form for some lightning blasts. Then we get a dual finisher with Kyoryujin's sword attack and some lightning from Ptrea. The best part though was the little backup Gold gave the team as they are already working well together in the mech department.

This is a better episode compared to the last two as it gives some nice improvements. First is Utchi's character as he is becoming more likeable thanks to how he is actually a kind person who worries a lot. Amy was very enjoyable because of how she was helping Utchi. The villains were doing some good with their plan for this episode. Sadly there were was a wasted moment, an odd scene, and a good amount of momentsof where I said "really." This episode gets a B.

Next Time: Combined Mechs!