Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger Series Review

Whoops I meant Daigo Sentai Kingenger.

Last week I finished Kyoryuger with the pretty bad finale that barely has any redeeming factors and in some ways it does represent the whole series. Now I'm going to try the same method that I had with my Ghostbusters review since I was planning for this review to be the first one in a new format. My main reason is that I think pros and cons wouldn't work well anymore. So let’s begin with the third dinosaur Super Sentai series.

The story of Kyoryuger starts out with showing us the rebirth of Debos many months before the team is fully formed. Debos was around since the age of the dinosaurs and they were even the cause of their existence and surprisingly enough the first move Chaos makes is a full out attack on the whole world! Here we see all of our heroes fighting the armies in different countries and then there is Daigo. He hasn't been selected yet and during the invasion he helps out the village people as he is on an island. While fighting a red Tyrannosaurs Rex appears before him and he has to fight it! Torin appears who acts like the mentor of the series as he is gathering up the members of the team. The only way Daigo can prove himself is that he defeats the dinosaur and he does this, now it takes months, but he took down a dinosaur! I will not lie I did like that beginning sequence because seeing and knowing our heroes fought dinosaurs to get their powers is amazing. When Daigo's fought started, Torin gave him a tan gun and now since he won the battle his gun changes colors as he can fully use it now. Torin now sends Daigo to Japan to meet up with the others and so he does in the middle of his first fight as Kyoryu Red. For some reason though, the team members don't want to know who each other are. Daigo now has to get his teammates to open up with each other and actually form a team while Torin just watches... All I have to say about this summary before the actual review parts (for those who don't read the full post) is that I tried so hard to not mention Daigo, but it's unavoidable and saying that describes the series biggest flaw.

I have to get this out of the way first for this review since Daigo couldn't have been ignored. The series focuses on him too much and how the series did it is possibly the most Red focus ever. Along with that the use of Daigo is even the worst example of how to do a Red focused series. I have seen Red focus before with Maskman and Shinkenger and yet those series did it very well. With Shinkenger it's understandable because of the idea of the lord and his retainers and it's an actual theme of the series. Shinkenger even still gives the other teammates notable moments and Kyoryuger does this as well, but to a lesser extent. Looking back at the series I keep remembering what King did and what happened to him and the many shots he was in. At points I was fine with the guy like in the beginning of the series as he was helping his teammates finally be a part of the team and getting to know each other. Then came the rest of the series, King just jumps the gun all the time and easily put more people at risk at times and why does everything have to revolve around him? There are many key points and the side parts where King has a big role if it's interacting by talking or just fighting. The worst part is that his actor, Ryo Ryusei can only do comedy. Whenever there are serious moments with King he cannot act as well compared to him just flailing around. He's not the worst actor on the series as that goes to Amy's actress, Ayuri Konno. It's a massive flaw to the overall series and the ending doesn't help this whatsoever as now I call King a God since he survived the impossible.

Onto the other characters now, the second in lead of the team is Ian as he's a playboy gun expertise. Notable things about Ian are his story of revenge as his friend Shiro was killed by one of the commanders of Debos. Ian goes through struggles and has to learn that fighting for revenge is not the hero's way, even though before the ending of this story arc the last time this had any focus in the series was episode twenty-six and I'm not lying. I will say that episode did show that Ian could be leader, but the series never followed that up... Next is Nobuharu who is known as Nossan because he is the eldest member of the team at the age of thirty-two and his is "punny." I'm not the biggest fans of puns, but what I love about his puns is that he's so proud of what he says. Along with that there are good follow up jokes to this as there is only one other person who liked his puns as everyone else hated them so much they ended up ignoring him whenever he delivered a pun. The notable part other than the puns for Nossan is looking back at his whole life and the last episode to do that was episode thirty-one. At least they followed up with a new aspect for him, but man it should have come much earlier in the series. Along with one other character who I will get to, they are my favorite members of the team. Ian and Nossan had good moments, but their parts of the story get ignored or dropped and with Nossan something new comes up too late.

Souji is the next male member of the team as he is the youngest of the team. He's a young boy who trained with his father, but Souji started to pick up his own sword technique. Really that is the notable part about Souji, his sword style. Other than that he's a bland character with the bland actor and the series did try to focus on him starting to be more emotional and starting to open up with others. Sadly it's one of the other aspects of the series that gets dropped. The last focus episode for him all of a sudden goes back to his family issues which was his problem in the beginning with his father. Then there is Amy and she is the most ignored of the whole series even though she becomes the love interest for King. Amy barely had anything important in the series as her whole character arc of being herself barely had any focus. Now she does help Yayoi at one point in the series, but the rest of her character is just working with the most forced romance in a Sentai. So yea Souji and Amy were just ignored and that made them boring characters as even their quirks got dropped as I barely remember that Amy had the whole "Wow" gag.

The sixth member of the team came much earlier in the series compared to other series in the franchise. At first I hated Ucchi when he got his reveal he was such a blatant rip off of Gao Silver as I was worried about that. Luckily his character expanded out as the stern samurai was just an act he was playing. Ucchi is actually a kind man who was told to hide his emotions and become a true samurai. Ucchi learns how to be himself around the team just like the others as he even got to learn about a great part of being a samurai, accepting rivals. Dogold and Ucchi have a rivalry and it does get mentioned in the series a good amount of the time, but most of the time it's just them fighting and the actual jump for their development comes near the end of the series. Torin is the mentor and he actually had a good back story as he has is heavily connected with the villains. Sadly in the beginning I thought Torin was an idiot because I don't get why he didn’t just have the Kyoryugers meet each and not just hide in the shadows for the beginning of the series. Now Torin did evolve from that and it did set a theme for the series and it did come at a good point in the series around the halfway point. I will say his bigger reveal should have been earlier. Overall most of the big flaws for the series is not focusing on the different stories of each member of the team and just putting more focus on King and his part of the story and what he does.

For the villains they follow an older standard of the franchise with the group of villains and being separated in different categories. The villains have the theme of emotions and it works along with a Wizard of Oz them, again I'm not joking. The designs for the monsters were pretty good with the main villains being the stronger designs. There are three main emotions, happiness, sorrow, and anger then the series introduced a fourth emotion and a new commander, resentment. For happiness the two villains are Candy and Lucky and these two aren't that good at fighting compared to everyone else. Candy does do a good job of being a supporter of Debos though and helps with the plans in her own way. Lucky was just a comic relief and I didn't care that much for the little kid. I will say Candy got a good developmental point near the end of the series and again it should have come earlier. For sadness there is Aigarion the sad tin man who keeps shedding tears. Personally he is my favorite villain of the series and it's mostly because he had the potential to be a bigger villain. The tin man is the killer Ian was looking for and this guy did mess with Ian about this and he soon goes through a change of emotions at one point in the series. The bad part is most of that happens at the halfway point and then he is treated as a comic relief until the end of the series. Dogold represents anger and I didn't care for him until it got near the end of the series. He was just fighting the whole time and that was pretty much it. Then when there was someone else in his way he would pull off some smart plans to get rid of them as he wants to be on top. His rivalry with Ucchi was great at the end, but too bad the overall focus was weak. The leader is Chaos as he was actually a smart villain and sadly he doesn't do all that much compared to the others, but whenever he does something it leaves an impact. There was even Endolf who was the new emotion, but he is gone for a chunk of the series so I don't even want to talk about him. That's another problem with the series; whenever a big change could have happened for the series it just takes the safe route.

I remember when I really got mad with the series and that was because the series played things out way too safely. Until the end of the series not much changes or happens. Notable things that happen are new heroes joining the team, new giant robots, and a power-up form for Kyoryu Red. Now when there are new things entering the series they should be some losses as well and yet the series doesn't do this. It feels like that the writer of the show had good ideas for the beginnings and the ends of the story arcs and just couldn't think of how to do things in between. This leaves many elements just sitting around on the park bench while the new kids on the block get to have fun with King. The sad part is that the writer is Riku Sanjo the same man who did most of the writing for my overall favorite Toku show ever, Kamen Rider Double. Personally, I think he got burned out with this series has he wrote the whole series by himself. Or what could have happened is that the producers or director wanted to keep things safe so that kids would stay happy while watching. Another aspect that was too safe was the humor of the series as people say it's over the top, but the comedy doesn't go out there. Now there are three Sentai shows that went crazy with the humor, Carranger, Go-onger, and Akibaranger. Those series were unexpected with their humor and Kyoryuger did have some unexpected moments like episodes thirteen and forty. I didn't get many laughs from the series though and that is because it doesn't play with the actual gag and just expect it to be funny. Again this is the same writer who did Kamen Rider Double, he knows drama, how to write characters, how to use them, and even knows how to write comedy and yet Kyoryuger doesn't have that.

For the action of the series, it got good when it was with the teammates fighting on ground, but the giant robots fights were just terrible most of the times. The robot fights disappointed me because it went back to use more piratical effects most of the time and then when the series continued on it betrayed that aspect and started to use more CGI. Even when they were using more of the suits it ends up being so fast and forgettable which is the opposite of Double as that series did have fast fights, but that series knew what to show in that amount of time. The other fights that don't involve robots are pretty good as there are different fighting styles for the members and at least that can make the characters more memorable. Sadly even the special effects start to become overwhelming in those fights thanks to Carnival Mode. I have to say this first the design for it is ugly, but I did love the physical style it had. Sadly, they barely focused on that aspect and just threw effects everywhere and I think that's the reason why most of the robots fights were terrible, it felt like the budget was wasted on Carnival. The final thing to say about the action is that is barely mixes with the comedy aspects and for a series that tries to be over the top that would have helped.

This series was a battle for me as every element of the show has positives and negatives. There are good character points, but some are ignored, dropped, have too much focus, or come too late. The comedy is very mixed as I can laugh here and there thanks to Nossan or when the series actually had comedy with episode thirteen and forty. Even the action gets mixed around thanks to blasting the budget on useless effects and sometimes cutting away from it and making things anti-climatic. Even the music choices are mixed up as the series use the main theme song for about a whole three-fourths of the series and they had other music to use. The episode reviews I did for this series were a lot of fun for me because I got to see the many problems and yet see the potential for it as well. I will say there are slightly more negatives thanks to the worst Red focus in the franchise, as I give Kyoryuger a C-. This is my second least favorite Sentai series and this came right after Go-busters. That is a sign things got better at least as I do hope the new series will actually be a good series and not a wreck.

Kyoryuger Episode 48 Review: Carnival Finale! (Major Spoiler Alert!!!)

I'm going to be done with Kyoryuger today. I will say even though this wasn't my favorite series, I did love to review it. The series threw me some curve balls I didn't see coming and I feel like I have gotten a lot more thinking towards criticizing thanks to Kyoryuger. So this is the ending to Kyoryuger, what a letdown.

I can't even believe for the finale of the series, Kyoryuger ends up doing what it has been doing to me for a long time. Kyoryuger for me was a battle, it went back and forth with good and bad and this episode shows this perfectly. The beginning of this episode was pretty strong because it focused on the action and it was out of suit action as well. Ian and Souji were pulling off special moves without their suits, Nossan was getting bruised up, and we even see Yayoi taking her grandfather's place in the giant fight. I can also see when that drops and it comes pretty quickly and that is when Daigo and Amy get attacked by Debos. Oh whoops I meant to say God and Amy. Amy tries to protect the batteries and then Debos almost attacks her, but Daigo takes the blow and the two then fall into a pit. This is literally the falling point as the direction was way off, too much slow motion and funny faces. These two actors cannot do serious moments and it gets worse.

After everyone else finished their fights, Ian and Souji find Nossan as he is destroyed. Nossan found Ucchi's body as he is dead. I will say that took me off guard at that moment because I was thinking Ucchi would just jump into the action at a certain point, he doesn't along with everyone else because it's the King I mean God show. What's worse is that the series then gives Ucchi life support when the team started singing and made a powerful melody that revives him. Personally if Ucchi died in that battle it would have been fitting because he technically lived for a very long time along with his rival. The two giving each other the final blow would show that the two accept each other as warriors and they fought to the end, the series can kill off the spirits though with no problems though. The two previous episodes did great with portraying death with Arigarion, Dolgold, and Ucchi still counts, but my goodness what happened here?

Torin and the spirit rangers get into trouble when Chaos takes himself to Hell, literally his fight with Dantetsu was very anti-climatic that of course he was aiming to stop Torin and the others. Also if he did stop them he would probably just escape from Hell as well. Something very confusing happened during the final fight with Chaos. Candy and Lucky appeared in Hell thanks to Lucky having a special lantern and Candy joins the three heroes in the final blow on Chaos. This was actually really awesome because two of the people who kill Chaos were people he thought were the completely useless, Torin and Candy. Chaos had a fitting end and it's great to see the heart impact around him during his death. What happens though is confusing, if people can enter the hell, they can escape as shown with it opening up. Candy and Lucky are the only two who escape.... WHAT?! The death of Torin and the spirit rangers just feels off too because we see the explosion swallowing them up during the theme song. I will say Torin at least felt like he had an ending, but for the two spirit rangers, it felt like they just waved goodbye and then BOOM!

Does this remind you of anything? I got it Star Trek!

Along with the beginning of the series it felt like a team series because we see everyone doing everything they can to fight. Actually Amy had nothing in this episode all she got out of this was getting God as her boyfriend. What ends up happening though is that the rest of the team are just standing around as God is the only one who fights Debos, NO! For a team series it should be the freaking team to finish off the big villain, who has been built up till this very point! Now five of the heroes sing and give God the power to transform into Carnival and fight, but we then get a different version of the theme song and wow was this song terrible. I'm not much of the musical critic, but I can tell why this song is terrible. The voices sounded warped and the very slow tone does not help and it doesn't even feel like an action song then. So everyone just becomes a cheerleader during the final fight of the series, this is not what to do for a team series.

I will say there was at least one more fight for the three guys as the trumpet monster somehow gets into the spirit base. Does his trumpet work like the heroes' guns? This finale couldn't even keep one of the most simplistic continuities in check. So the monster goes destroying the base like Ivan Ooze in the MMPR movie, I rather watch that right now. Then thanks to the spirit base's energy it gives their transformation batteries life. I will say before that it was cool to see the heroes battle the monster like they did. Mostly to Nossan who almost could have broke the monster's leg. Then they even pull off a new combination with their armed on weapons and slash the monster down with that. Everyone may not have been there, but that fight shows more teamwork than the final fight!

Another pet peeve of mine during this episode was how the two new heroes were treated. Dantestsu just tells them to leave and protect the city and we barely see them again... what was the point of giving these two a good introduction if they don’t do much later on? You know what would have been great, a battle of the ten warriors taking down Debos, or at least a big blow on the guy. Which would lead Debos to retreat into the Frozen Castle and making it fly into space as God chases him down with Plzueon. What actually happens is that when Yayoi and the Doctor come to save both God and Amy, God just shoves her out because he wanted her safe. If you couldn't tell they really forced the romance in this finale and to top it off both the actor and the actress can't pull off most of their scenes. God is giving silly faces and Amy is barely using her expressions.

Now I already crossed the line a while ago with this episode, but it even got worse. God takes down Debos and the castle is in space, the Zyudenryu end up taking down the castle with them, and King doesn't escape. It's implied that God died, but it's God he cannot die. Alright I'm stepping out of this joke for a while for this point. Oh the hell does the King survive that?! First there is the explosion that would easily kill him and the fact it was in space! This just proves that King is not even human, he is godlike, and he’s the God of this series. Also he comes at the very end of the series where everyone is happy to see him alive. I will say I was not expecting the first person to hug him was going to be Ian, a little funny. King has one thing to do though and that was to get that strawberry desert with Amy, gag me with a spoon, a wooden one, and make sure it can give me splinters.

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but this is a worst finale than both Goseiger and Go-busters. At least those finales actually had the teams fight together. With Goseiger their major villain was Brajira and he did just keep coming back in the series, but he does represent the final villain. He was an obstacle for the heroes many times and was actually competent as a villain. Go-busters ending actually had a fitting death for Jin and even though I hated how Enter changed, it's still Enter. He became the villain even though Messiah should have become the big bad. In many ways Debos is close to Messiah because he is saved until a certain point and in a way I still find episode thirty of Go-busters to be the original ending with major changes. Kyoryuger doesn't do anything of these factors right and yet it had good build up for it. The series just wasted that potential though and made a very rushed finale as they left way too many things in the finale.

Now just because of this terrible finale doesn't make Kyoryuger my least favorite Sentai, it makes it as number two though. I wasn't expecting this bad of a finale as everything that was being built towards was wasted and it even ruined Ucchi's grand moment. The acting for the two characters that had the most focus was bad and their forced romance is awful. Many fights felt anti-climatic at times except for Chaos and the trumpet monster's end. To top it all off, the series just put their King into godlike territory. Again Kyoryuger was an interesting series to review and I easily give this episode a D- has there are barely any saving points to this episode except for the beginning and how Candy and Lucky are going to be good now. Kyoryuger was the first Sentai series I fully reviewed and I don't regret it. I at least had a good time reviewing it even if I'm a little mad right now.

Next Time: All aboard the Imagination Train!

Kyoryuger Episode 47 Review: Everlasting Thunder (Major Spoiler Alert!!!)

One more episode after this as the Kyoryugers are ready to plunge in deeper into the battle with new allies and a plan to take down Debos!

The first thing I want to talk about is with the new Cyan and Grey. Why couldn't have this happened earlier? This should have been brought up when Ramirez and Tessai were having troubles with their spirit energy. It would cause some changing for some episodes, but having two new humans become Kyoryugers would have been big moments for the series even if they occur in filler-like episodes. Then they can still pull off the destroying Hell part of the plan since Tessai and Ramirez would come in later after a full rest. For one instance Grey gets replaced by the same actor, but different character so I'm really surprised they did this now. Having Shinya being the new Grey makes sense, but this character only had one episode! They could have had the butler be the new Grey and I would slightly care a little bit then because he's in more episodes. For the new Cyan its Yuuko and this is a choice I really love, but again it should have come sooner. A great episode then would be Yuuko with Cyan's powers fighting Candy during episode forty. Also having Nossan find out that everyone except him was hiding the truth was great. It's a good idea to have new people become Sentai members, but with it being the second to last episode I could barely care as I want the finale of the series and not more additions.

So why have new members for the Kyoryugers now? Well Ramirez and Tessai are going to help Torin destroy Hell. Is the series actually going to have more on the death toll now? I still have my doubts, but the heroes are treating this as a suicide mission. I can easily see how they can escape, mostly because Torin has wings and we do see that Debos monsters are escaping to the earth, so it's only reasonable that he can do the same. Now having death in a series can be a strong point or the weak point of the series. It all matters with how it's delivered and with this it's okay? I mean possibly losing three heroes does mean something, but in someways it doesn't matter as well. There is Ramirez and Tessai who are already dead to begin with and since they finally found replacements they can probably rest in peace now. Torin already had near death situations has I mentioned before many times ago. The three characters also didn't get the best development and that brings it to more of a bad territory. Again I should wait and see if the series actually pulls it off to see how I truly feel.

 An odd moment with the series is how many people knew of this plan? There is Dantestsu and the two spirit rangers, Torin, the two new Kyoryugers, and it seems both of the Violets knew as well. It's amazing how they kept that a secret to the original team because they sure did have a lot of people working on it. Also the original Violet himself is in the fight in Pluze-oh which was a great and funny moment at the same time. I have to wonder though how there are two Violets. Did the Doctor make two batteries somehow? I only bring this up because if there can be two Violets, why can't there be two Cyans and Greys? It would make more sense with the spirit rangers since they can pull off some spiritual spells and not explain it. I mean it's the same thing with having two Violets. Also they now just use the Doctor, series I wanted to see him fight since his reveal! Alright back to the topic of the plan. Yayoi takes the Victory and Maximum batteries to give them a full charge so they can have the power to destroy Debos. The four newest members will take on Chaos and his grunts while the original team head off to the Frozen Castle. The plan is just invade and destroy Debos, but how they got there was the real plan anyways.

Now onto the action before another part of the series I fully enjoyed, but again it's the same problem that I had with the previous episode. So with the action of the series, I did like seeing how the new Cyan and Grey fight. I'm more of a fan with how Shinya fights since he knows what to use like his hard head (don't take that out context). Shinya doesn't even know much about martial arts so he is improvising in many ways. With Yuuko she is pretty much using her strength because it runs in the family, remember that from a good chunk of episodes? Yayoi was using her swift moments like usual and Dantetsu was using his fist and everyone is doing a roll call. Personally I would have loved to see more of a focus for this fight since it would be nice to have more screen time for the new members, but the series didn't care much for the first Cyan and Grey though so they just move away from that. We don't even get to see the Doctor fighting with Plezu-oh again! Well except a little look into the background, I don't count that though.

A big part of the action goes to out of suit fights and the series can't mess this up. The out of suit fights has become a trope in the franchise along with the suit-less roll call since it was termed in Dairanger. Kyoryuger has worked with this before as the most recent example I can think of was episode forty. The original team gets hit by Debos' darkness and they lose the suits because of the dark melody, but they can still use other batteries as Ucchi using his for the blade. Four members had out of suit fights as for King and Amy it will happen in the finale. First thing I have to mention is the team keep splitting up as the only two who reach the caste is Amy and King.... I wonder what they are hinting at. Still it was cool to see Nossan do his usual thing, but it was better with the other three. Ian gets two guns and Souji uses the Feather Edge along with the default sword. There was also motorcycle action, but it was just generic with the stunt actors wearing helmets. Ucchi had to fight both Dogold and Endolf by himself as this was easily a struggling fight, but Dogold pulls off something that was unexpected.

Dogold tricks Endolf to make him that he will finish off Ucchi. Endolf gets distracted by holding down Ucchi with his resentment and then Dogold takes his chance. Dogold stabs Endolf and destroys the green device on his arm which frees him from his control and both Ucchi and Dogold fight Endolf. Dogold even becomes Ucchi's armor as the two do a combination attack to finish off Endolf. After the fight, Dogold took too many blows and wants to finish the duel between him and Ucchi. The two take one final blow to each other as Dogold did learn of what pride of being a warrior is and he couldn't bear Endolf taking that from him. He worked with his rival to take down the true villain here and he finishes what he wanted to do. It's the same problem has last time; I really loved what happened there. The bond between two rivals accepting each other and the two treat each other as more than hero and villain, but prideful warriors. It was very well done here and having Dogold becoming Ucchi's armor was an amazing sight as this plays with how Dogold and Ucchi started out. The writer easily knew how to do the beginning and the ending of character arcs, but he just didn't know what to do in between.

I am ticked off with how Endolf is quickly written out of the series again and he did get a great battle for this write off, but the whole Endolf using Dogold could have been used earlier. Personally I think it should have happened when Dogold tried to get Endolf's body. Then there would have been moments when Dogold does actually try to rebel against him and then soon giving up until Ucchi tells him about a warrior's pride. With what actually happens though, Endolf doesn't feel all that important to the series as he had a great introduction and it just seems wasted now. It is very similar to how I felt about Airgarion's end, but this time Dogold's story ended up taking down a possibly great villain. Sadly Endolf is just wasted and I will say this does make me like Dogold more now. In the end, it seems that Ucchi died from the battle, but high chance it's not going to happen and the actor could have done a better job with that scene. Overall, it's exactly how I feel about the previous episode, but this time it takes a villain who could have done more. The development for these two characters needed more episodes and I will say this again, a Dairanger style of storytelling would have helped this series a lot.

Episode forty-seven is slightly worse than episode forty-six in my opinion because they tried throwing in new things still and I just don't care. This is the finale arc, just keep moving on and the episode does do this in ways, but also doesn't at the same time. I was also a little peeved with how much they were showing and it ended up not that important to the episode. Again though there was a perfect ending for a villain in this episode and it just gets pulled down because of lackluster development. So with that the episode gets a B-

Next Time: The King show comes to an end.

Kyoryuger Episode 46 Review: A Knight's Tears (Major Spoiler Alert!!!)

For this episode of Kyoryuger, Daigo is ready to fight his father and to find what the real reason behind Torin's death meant to Dantetsu and the Earth. Meanwhile the three rejects of Debos are being chased down by Icerondo.

The first thing to mention is Daigo taking a stand against his father. This wasn't the main focus of the episode which surprised me and it's something I can like out of Daigo. He heard some of the Earth's melody, but it's still unclear of what the Earth truly wanted so the only way he can find out is to fight his father. I will say the build for the fight was absolutely bad. It plays out with the usual cliche that the team doesn't want Daigo to do this because his father to them is a killer. There is even the moment where one of the teammates tries to hold him down, which was Souji. Ian starts to believe in his idea though and Ucchi gives back his batteries. It was okay, but it just played out like one would expect. The massive dump though was with Amy. She gives Daigo an advertisement for a strawberry parfait as Daigo promises that the two would have some when this is all over. I mean wow, how unsubtle could the series have gotten with this forced romance. The last time I can really think that the King and Amy love issues was brought up was the movie episode, but that had more of a focus of Yayoi being crazy. They even have the tenacity to show a little clip show during that scene, just no. You can have the clip show with the whole team and not just between two characters that have a forced romance.

Continuing on, Daigo ends up fighting his father as he got permission to take him down thanks to Debos. I actually like their little brawl since that how it played out; it was just a pure physical fight. Daigo even says no to the use of Carnival mode as he was just fighting his father with his fists. The guy even had a smart idea in this episode as he knew about his father's special move using the Earth's melody. Daigo ends up trying to use the same move and doing this caused the melodies to harmonize as Daigo knew how to translate this somehow. I won't go on about that since that would be major nitpicking, but also because I don't want to be mad about Daigo being smart for a change. Pretty much it was a nice fist to fist fight between father and son as the son wasn't looking to beat up his father, but to find out what exactly is happening.

During the two Kings' fight there was a scene with the other members. Souji finally remembers that he had Torin's sword and in the sword was a last message from Torin. Is the series trying to convince me that Torin is dead for good? Well keep trying series because I know what you are exactly doing. Again Torin already had near death situations and with how safe the series plays things out I'm not expecting a big death. Even though this episode does have a death, I know Torin is going to do something and probably come back. Getting back on the topic though is that the message basically says that Torin was expecting this it seems. Torin lived for a long time and he has no regrets as he leaves the future to the Kyoryugers. So he was expecting this, again series you already revealed yourself! Whenever someone expects a death coming, mostly with themselves there is a reason and high chance it leads to their comeback. Then guess what? There is a comeback for Torin which I will get to later.

For the villains their plan consists of killing their own kind and end up backstabbing Dantetsu. Since Torin is gone there is no need for human being alongside of Debos. Also there is no need for the three rejects of Debos so their deaths are heavily wanted. With betraying Dantetsu, Debos actually had the clock moving still and the clock will open up the Debos Hell and release the past monsters. So they wanted to kill Torin like a Debos monster so that means he is in that Hell right now. Wouldn't opening that hell be good and bad thing? I mean really what was the point of Torin's death to the Debos. They are literally opening up a passage way for him to return! I know the other monsters are important to the whole plan, but you just sent an enemy to a very important part of the plan. It even backfires, what a surprise!

Now with the stupid parts aside, Dantestsu's plan isn't bad. He got on Debos' side even though they would betray him anyways, but all of this ended up distracting them for his true intentions. Dantetsu killed Torin so that his righteousness could live on in Hell. This way Torin could take on all the past Debos monsters and prevent them from getting to the Earth. First, give credit to Torin for this part of the plan. In a literal sense he does actually die unlike the time he just turned into a statue. Still I won't really call it a true death if he was stuck there. Since Debos monsters can exit that means Torin can as well. At first I thought the Mad Torin would just revert to the normal Torin and then Torin just laughs at Debos. The Earth didn't want any evil in it so Dantetsu got Torin into a deeper part of Earth to clean it out. I mean he had to fight all the previous Debos monsters including his evil counterpart, that's pretty cool. Overall there was a huge predictable outcome in the end and this made the villains look idiotic, but it does give some good contrast to two of the heroes.

Now for something I really like in this episode, but the overall evaluation of the premise still fails in the end. This is regarding how Aigarion and Ian were treated in the series. Both have great moments and the story of revenge is a simple to do. Sadly, the series heavily ignored it and only brought it up in small portions. The most focus of Ian's revenge was his introduction episode, episode thirteen, and when Ian had to become the leader of the team. There are really only three episodes in the series that actually focuses on that excluding this episode. That's not enough to develop the issue and thanks to heavy amount of filler and Daigo focus it ends up getting washed away. Aigarion's part of the story was heavily washed out as he wasn't even mentioned in many episodes and we even get an explanation of why Aigarion had those black eyes, but its so last minute. I can like the villain as his idea is strong and again the ending is excellent regarding both Ian and Aigarion. The series should have focused on this more and many other character arcs. All I can say is that the series should have taken a page of Dairanger's story telling because I can see that style working for the series.

So what ends up happening to the tin man? Since the time he exploded with anger he actually was dead. His armor kept intact though and hence kept his spirit in it. Chaos gave him dark energy to make him a zombie basically. Aigarion was already dead, but was forced to live on and even when he learned of this he still did what he wanted to do. His love for Candy was obvious in the early episodes and there was soon a filler episode that looked at that for a little while. Again the series should have put more focus on this to make it more developed. The series pretty much wants us to think that it's fully developed as the dynamics of this knight protecting his love is well done in this episode. There is tension and suspense for this villain, but when you look back to it, it's so last minute. Even Ian's part of this is strong, but again it just wasn't fully focused on.

When Ian and the others shown up, Aigarion was asking them to protect both Candy and Lucky. He is fine with himself dying since he knows the crimes he has done. Aigarion is fine with dying as long as the two innocent ones can stay alive. Again this is real bravery and it fits with the theme that was brought up with Torin being a Debos. Good can come from evil as the three rejects to do show this. The more I keep saying three rejects I think of Dairanger. Ian is completely ticked off at first because out of the people to be saying this it's Aigarion and he doesn't even want to help at first. When Ian hears of his fate though and seeing him continue to defend Candy, Ian takes helps him out. Ian attacks him when he is done and breaks his armor so that his soul can finally escape and rest in peace. Ian was even crying when he did this because even though Aigarion killed his friend, he still weeps for the foe. This is because Ian saw the good in him at the end and it hurts him to do this. This was perfectly executed in this episode, I won't lie I felt for these two. The idea that is presented is a strong one and this ending shows why. The sad part though is that there wasn't enough focus for this and that softens the whole blow of the impact.

The fight that comes after this is another part of this arc that is well done. Ian is full of anger for Aigarion's fate and will take down Icerondo. He uses the best weapon in the series which is the double armed on weapon. The other members even use their attacks to help Ian out. Souji uses the Trinity Straizer with Torin's sword and all five of them do their combination attack. Even though Icerondo still stands, Ian comes to deliver the final blow with Aigarion's ax. Ian's character song did come at that point, but it should have played for the whole fight. There was some nice imagery to go alongside this mostly with the tears representing the overall sadness of this event. Ian crying for Aigarion and then his having Icerondo's blood represents Agarion's last tear was great. They even put in some Candy and Nossan as he comes to comfort her and there Ian tells both her and Lucky to live on like Torin. Again the only flaw here is the lack of focus that the series had. With this episode though, it's my favorite moment for many reasons even with the lack of focus. I still feel the impact and can see how this could have been done better and I would easily have a similar moment like this episode had. Overall, this episode had a change of tone for the best in these last episodes and I have a feeling I'm going to have a similar feeling continuing on with the final episodes.

In the end the heroes have their moment to fight back Debos and the rest of the villains thanks to Dantestsu's plan. So what would I give this episode? I am saying it's a B as there was something really strong in this episode and looking at this episode alone it does it perfectly. I am easily referring to Aigarion's death as that whole scene was perfect and the only thing I would change about it would be having more focus on it. Daigo was even smart for a change of things and Dantetsu's plan was smart. What ruins the episode is the forced romance and the overall predictability of Torin's fate.

Next Time: New Kyoryugers?

Kyoryuger Episode 45 Review: Earth's Betrayal? (Major Spoiler Alert!!!)

The heroes quickly go back into battle and try to take down the Frozen Castle before Debos reawakens, but are they sure that everyone is on the side of good? Also I just realized that next week I'm going to be done with the series, expect Gaim reviews soon.

One thing I did like with this episode is that it went straight into the action as it's a nice follow up method since the previous episode shown us the team is ready for an assault. Also an episode that is actually going to have action for once is nice as well. Kyoryuger and the action is surprisingly not the best so having episodes like these are great to have because having fights in an action series is needed. All I am that saying is that Kyoryuger can have a lack of focus for the fights, but luckily the action started the episode and the episode ends with drama, but still an impact of some kind. We even had some interesting looks on the robot fights which the series can do really poorly with so again its good when there are good examples of action. This episode did spice up their usual methods or used methods from previous episodes that haven't been seen before.

I know it's odd for me to talk about the action in the beginning of the episode, but that is how this episode played out. The first fight to focus on is with the heroes on the ground facing, Chaos, Endolf, and the two new commanders. Even though there wasn't anything heavily flashy or anything it still had some nice quick moments. First, is that the fight had more stunts to pull off than usual and this continues on later in the episode as well. Amy and Souji took on the conductor as he was blocking Souji's sword with a baton as Amy tries to get him even when she was down. Ian's gun skills didn't stand against the trumpet player that entirely well and Nossan's wrestling moves didn't help as well. Now the bad example was with King and Ucchi fighting Endolf, this one felt lazier than anything. It just had a slow pace compared to the other parts of the fight and the worst part is that at the end the stunt actors barely make contact and yes I know Endolf was doding, but the scene made it look like King wasn't even close. Then there was Torin who had more of a robot fight with Bragigas on his side trying to finish Debos before the revival, but sadly he failed. At least Torin went for the finisher quicker than last time he had to fight the giant Debos.

Debos has been revived and he has taken on a new form because he took human emotions so now he had acquired a humanoid form. I do have to wonder though if Debos always had a conscious though. It would be a cool idea if he got smarter thanks to Chaos using human emotions as the barbaric giant beast turns into a genius. I also think this because Debos' last form was based on the dinosaurs and that would explain why he was just a giant monster because dinosaurs weren't the smartest of beings. Either way I do love the idea of Debos getting a new form, but I wonder why it's has a butterfly motif. I guess there is some cultural view on butterflies in Japan? Still his design is lovely to look at since it's awesome that he keeps old parts from his last form along with some new things. Then his first fight was pretty enjoyable since he starts off with a surprise attack from behind and each attack he had made the team fly! Then they actually did a little stunt moment with that suit even though they went with the lazy way of slowing down King and speeding up Debos' footage, but it does show that he is above them in speed as well.

Debos' strength is also unimaginable as they easily show that off by having him catch Bragi-oh's axe! Another thing to fear about him is that he can grow big freely like how Endolf and the two new commanders did in the previous episode. Debos does this with his scarf as when he takes it off it causes him to grow and the scarf is a nice addition with his design, a new color to add in his layout of green, black, and pink. His power is also shown on how easy he shoves the giant robot back so easily. All he was using was his staff, he didn't have to grab or punch the robot at all. His finisher is another visual treat from the series as a giant energy butterfly is made as it flies towards the robot and when it explodes tiny butterflies appear and explode as well. In the end we get to see Debos being smart as when fighting Torin he has someone kill him since he doesn't want Torin to return. So the only way is to use a human and that human is no other than Dantestu.

All I have to say, what a shock! Oh wait no it isn't. The previous episode really ruined this twist and there are also many other things that don't help as well. Other than the unsubtle way of showing us the twist with Dantetsu clearly being seen in the last episode, but the beginning of the episode doesn't help either. Torin gives Souji his sword. Souji even says this is bad luck! Also having Torin being so called killed is not that big of a shock before. We had this before and he came back last time so I have a feeling he is going to come back again. I may not know how he is coming back, but the series already teased us with death many times before so I'm not expecting it to actually be delivered. Also when Torin got stabbed, the scene cuts to the team's face which should be full of shock, but some of their faces don't even have expressions until they see Torin turn to sand. Even the title of this episode ruins it as it clearly says "Silver's End."

Now what is Dantetsu's reason for doing this? Well it's quite simple and something that has already been done before in Sentai. Dantetsu is fighting for the Earth as all he wants is to end the destruction of it. He meets Endolf so that he can get into the Frozen Castle and make a deal with Debos. Dantetsu will kill Torin and that will stop the Clock of Destruction he doesn't even care for the rest of humanity, all he wants is the Earth to live on. He even continues to fight as he picks up Torin's gun and transforms into Kyoryu Silver. Dantetsu being Silver is actually pretty cool, even though he is pretty much a villain now. Dantetsu is a fist fighter and seeing that being incorporated is awesome. I love his finisher as he uses his wind punch to force the team down on the ground and making them blast off. So what's the familiar part you ask, this is just Gosei Knight all over again. Now I did really enjoy Gosei Knight and for the man who hears Earth's melody it makes sense, but it's just way too similar. Dantetsu's reason for killing Torin was the twist and not the reveal itself.

Another thing that is fixed here is how King's focus is being used. Now I would still like more reactions from the team themselves, but we did get that near the end of the episode. It makes sense why King would be getting the focus here because his own father has become a villain. On top of that, Dantetsu gives his son a good beat down. Again there is an actual feel of suspense here since the team was put in a corner and was still getting kicked into it. Dantetsu was the team's final hope and he gave the final blow to the team's hope. There were some actors who could pull this off like Ucchi who wasn't crying, but couldn't find the words to comfort Amy. Nossan was a total mess as he was limping around and had red eyes. Ian got rid of his brave front and had two quick tears and a quick yell. Souji who was keeping calm about the situation, but easily still feels sad. Amy and King were the ones who I didn't feel did as well. Amy sounded like she was using her comedic voice at her final line and King still sounded arrogant like always even if he had his voice lowered. While King was on the ground then he hears the Earth since he was bathed in the light as well. I do like how the series didn't forget about that since I was wondering how King couldn't hear Earth's melody, but now he can.

The final thing to mention is about how the villains are going to do somethings like killing off their own kind. Chaos worries that Candy is going to be like Torin as Debos gives out the order to kill her. They are going to ignore Lucky since he is just a child still. Aigarion over hears the conversation and even he is going to be killed anyways since Chaos had two replacements for Happiness and Sadness. The new commanders finally show their new forms as I'm not a big fan of Killbolero since his design looks like a mess mostly with his head having random balls and flowers. I do like Icerond's designs though as it's easy to look at and it shows it's theme very well. So now Aigarion is on the run to save Candy and the way he escaped was doing the "What's over there" technique... WHAT?! 

Episode forty-five had some really strong points for the series. There was actually more action this time and it mixes nicely with the suspense. Debos' reveal was well done since he got to show off how strong he was and what abilities he has. Dantetsu's reveal as a villain was ruined from the last episode, but it's still a good idea as his reasoning does support this even though that idea was used before. Having Dantetsu being Kyoryu Silver is great and seeing his fist moves with the suit is amazing as well. On top of that is some okay drama from the actors and showing some issues with the villains themselves. I would give the episode a B+ mostly since the direction for this episode was off at times and it did ruin the mood sometimes.

Next Time: King VS King: Round Two!