While giving the old brain a Captain Crunch branded sugar boost
before sitting down to tackle this recap I had an odd realization
about Ryusoulger when contrasted with what I would consider
better Sentai series. For this comparison let's use Kakuranger
which was one of my first experiences with the franchise and
still a favorite to this day. That group of heroes lived out of a
food truck as they traveled around Japan which meant most of their
nights were spent sleeping in tents with the four guys sharing one or
perhaps crashing outdoors while the only lady, Tsuruhime, had her own
tent. Given how they lived a bohemian lifestyle notions like hygiene
were sometimes and issue. Now consider this current team of heroes.
We know the original trio live with the Tatsui family yet we only
ever see the main work area of the home. There's no kitchen, no
bathroom, and especially no bedrooms or even bunks for that matter.
Furthermore we have zero clue where Bomba and Towa live as the pair
either stop by to visit the others or are found wandering the
streets. I'd say they must live on the streets like vagrants except
they are exceptionally clean all the time. What's throwing me off
here is that Ryusoulger, despite being a kids show, has no
problems tackling emotional issues like suicide and depression yet
can't be bothered with convincing me these characters are actually
alive and not some sort of reverse Toy Story beings that only
come to life when we're viewing them. That's part of why I find my
mind wandering during the show sometimes and why, even with it's
deeper qualities, I'm still not completely sold on it. At the moment
let's catch up with what's been going on.
Story:
The story of late has been making a transition from
the batch of straight-up character pieces to larger plot points. In
fact our last traditional hero focused tale was all about Asuna who
really needed the boost. Question is whether episode nine was enough
to help her out, and the answer was... yes... mostly. She's still
suffers from having a pretty flat personality in the following
outings but we did get a nice self-contained adventure that showcased
deeper levels of caring, emotional stability, and courage.
The following two episodes concerned themselves with the
introduction of another dinoknight, one with a hobby for riddles.
Initially both the heroes and villains fail to sway this giant beast
to their side until it is discovered that the dinoknight has formed a
friendship with a young boy awaiting eye surgery. The baddies kidnap
him while our team earns the dino's trust by properly answering a
riddle with a simple honest response. This becomes sort of a loose
two-parter because the main conflict is resolved but the minosaur
carries on and offers some challenges by projecting illusions onto
smoke/steam. Neither of these installments are bad so much as basic.
There's a few decent lines, the occasional spiffy action beat, and a
few odd plot-threads. Besides the new dino we discover that Mr.
Tatsui may be receiving psychic projections or is maybe just far more
eccentric than previously thought. Also the Druidions are being aided
by Gaisorg who we'll talk about later.
Episodes fourteen was really quite nice and a far better example of
what I'd like to see from this series. There's a monster who can make
people tell the uncensored truth, revealing strained relationships
among the heroes while the beast can also flawlessly predict attacks.
The host for this particular Minosaur is the Prime Minister, a
Ryusoul tribe woman who left the confines of their hidden life
long-ago and has lived among regular humans for centuries while
slowly being tormented by watching loved ones age and day as she
continues to live long afterward. She encourages Bomba and Towa to
let the Minosaur live long enough so that she might finally die in
exchange for information regarding their missing master. Towa is
deeply tempted by this offer but it holds no sway over Bomba who
belives the PM to be a fool who refuses to deal with the hand she's
been dealt. It's also revealed that she also has contact with Gaisorg
before she takes off and leaves her responsibilities behind. Perhaps
we will see her again.
Heroes:
The major benefactors from this set of episodes are Asuna and
Bamba. She gets to showcase the more caring side of her personality
and also develop her connection to Melto by both chewing him out and
offering encouragement in apology. Bamba on the other hand still
walks the weird path of being possibly the least-developed character
who still feels the most three-dimensional. The guy has such a cool
manner and strong sense of honor that makes him very easy to cheer
on. What he needs now is to be paired off with someone who challenges
him more than his brother or Kou.
On the matter of the new dinoknight something stands out as odd. Of
the six of these robots only two are shown to have personalities
while the other four are often ignored. I can barely recall the last
time Towa's robot even appeared. I wouldn't even complain about it
normally if it didn't seem so odd. Each of these is a toy to sell to
the kiddies and collectors so how is it decided which ones actually
get to have dialogue and storylines?
Villains:
Let's start with the bad news; Gaisorg is back. Yes that
motivationless hunk of living armor from the Strongest Battle
mini-series has made his return. Right now he's taking up the role of
freelance villain so lord knows what the plan is for him. Seeing as
he's been with us longer than this show it better be for one damn
good pay off. Other than him things are continuing as they were
before with Wyzul being a far more entertaining foil than his
predecessor.
Action:
While many of the fight scenes aren't quite up to the level
of recent series there are some definite improvements made during
this batch of episodes. I was especially pleased to see the return of
tracking drone photography since it's such a unique way to film fight
scenes and helps to set the franchise apart.
The robot fights are still some of the best in Sentai history
though, as noted previously, a good number of bots are being kept on
the sidelines for some reason. This effects the otherwise interesting
approach to the cockpit as well. I'd been pleased to see a set-up
that allows the characters to move around or get tossed about instead
of just sitting in chairs but with less robots comes less people.
Instead several heroes will wait on the ground and watch the fight
which may be different but lacks a certain urgency as they feel
removed from danger.
Overall:
As
I noted at the start of this article, Ryusoulger
still hasn't quite won me over yet I feel sort of cruel to say such
things. There's still a great deal of items this show is getting
right but at the same time it lapses on world-building details and
the threat level of the villains is all over the map. At one point we
had a poisonous wolf-monster that nearly killed the entire team. On
another occasion the monster unleashed devastating counter-attacks
against any strike. Another week the team will get through a fight
without a scratch, practically sitting down with a bag of popcorn
once the robots are called out.
Things
are about to change however as the sixth member is about to arrive. I
will admit to finding it irritating to have yet another guy in what
is already a sausage-fest of a show though I am pleasantly surprised
that Gaisorg doesn't seem to be playing into his original, at least
for now anyway. Hopefully the newbie can usher in a little urgency to
the show and renew my quickly fading interest.
That's
all for today though I'd like to give a shutout to you faithful
Sentai recap readers. I've been going through the site history for an
anniversary feature and it showcased just how much traffic I get
thanks to these posts. So while I may not always be the most timely
and can sometimes get bored with individual series I am more than
glad to keep bring you all this content, be it for modern shows or
classic ones which I'd like to work in somewhere.
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