Ryusoulger Episodes 34-39 Review

Much as I'd have liked this update to come much sooner I've played host to a rather unexpected house-guest. Last week we discovered a young Siamese kitty hiding from the cold inside our garage. Days were then spent nursing her malnourished, bony butt back to health alongside fleabaths and the like. While the lil critter has a very nice demeanor about her there is the unfortunate aspect of some weird bathroom behaviors that we don't have time to observe and correct along with our other responsibilities. And though she seems fine around the other pets, the two main kitties would obviously be happier with her removal. Right now we're setting her up with a woman who has plenty of experience and connections when it comes to finding proper homes for kitties so the lil creature should soon have a proper place to live quite soon. During this year-opening good deed I've had the occasional chance to continue catching up on Ryusoulger so that we might finally have these recaps back on track. Without further ado let's dive in.

Story:

It's gonna be a challenge to keep everything straight with this recap as we're essentially talking about three separate clumps of storytelling. The initial plot-line concerns the appearance of the newest Druidon general, Pricious. She's a right piece of work who deals in manipulation and subterfuge more often than direct combat. Don't take that as a sign of weakness however as her skills in battle are nothing to scuff at. Not long after her arrival she steals the hearts of both Wyzul and Gachireus in order to bind them to her will. Then she ushers in a strike from a space dragon and tops it all off by kicking the Ryusoulgers to the curb due largely in part to her theft of one of their best maneuvers.

During this first assault the team is also faced with the option of training at a scared mountain. The place crafts a specific training program to counteract each heroes weakness such as forcing Bamba to be more graceful and cautious whereas Asuna was made to work on concentrated speed. The person who struggled the most with this was Koh who is still shaken after the loss of Nada and has begun to view strength in more binary terms. Unfortunately we don't get anything close to the level of drama from the Nada arc but this two-parter sets up a new threat quite nicely. Also of note is the return of the tribe elder who has opened a cafe and hired Oto as his primary waitress.

Next up things move toward more episodic territory with a focus on Towa. The young man has found himself tricked into serving as a bodyguard for a young lady who's actually a notable race car driver trying to run away from the stress of her life. The two bond due to Towa's old-fashioned ya gotta do your duty mentality but the experience forces the team to think of what their future could be like should they defeat the Druidons.

After that comes an episode focused on Tyramigo which, per the usual for a mascot episode, is better than it should be while still feeling a bit redundant. There's some solid action, a decent lesson about not putting too much pressure on kids, and Koh learns how easy one can shift from working alongside someone to controlling them. The biggest development for this installment is how much Wyzul hates being under the thumb of Pricious. He's lashing out rather violently now that he's unable to indulge in his normal thrill-seeking behavior.

Episode 38 serves as an introduction to the teams newest toy while building a conflict that carries on to further installments. The group learns of an ancient temple housing a great power. Both Koh and Canalo are sucked inside and forced to undergo challenges as representatives of their respective tribes. Meanwhile the others must confront a new form of Minusaur spawned from Gachireus himself, leading to the first instance of a host aiding their Minusaur in battle. Back at the temple we find Koh and Canalo are force to fight one-another in order to claim the Ryusoul-calibur sword. This is due each choosing a different answer when weighing duty and comrades. Discovering they can still serve a common goal despite different outlooks allows them to flee with the new dodad and a warning that a greater challenges is coming. Of course they then use the new toy to save the day.

Lastly we have the newest Christmas episode which proved to be a wild and fun bit of entertainment with a nice development for the plot moving forward. Feeling that nobody like Santa should outshine him, Wyzul begins to kidnap people dressed like old saint Nick and creates a Minusaur that steals Christmas items. This brings down the wrath of three heroes with a major investment in the holiday. Bamba, we find out, brings yearly gifts to children (unsure if they were expressly stated as orphans but let's go with that) mostly due to him having the hots for their caregiver. Asuna has an obsession for Christmas cake, and then there's Tyramigo who just learned about the holiday. There's a ton of great humor and character interactions in this one, making for one of the most outright fun episodes of the whole series. The biggest gift of all comes at the end when the team finally destroys Gachireus for good. Now that's a holiday miracle.

Heroes:

The primary crew isn't given any massive developments during this round of episodes. Each of them is instead provided with further cementing of their core strengths while the actors are given different material to play with. The overall rankings of each character is about the same with Bamba, Melto, and Asuna largely leading the pack. Koh and Towa are still hanging out near the bottom mostly due to being a bit underwritten. There are cute touches such as Towa being too naive to recognize his brothers obvious attraction to a certain woman (played by a former Sailor Venus who's still very cute) but those bits aren't enough to make him anything more than the young cocky fighter.

One person who is moving up a few spots is Canalo. After being stuck with an underwhelming rivalry against Gachireus it was beginning to seem like this guy had nothing left to offer the show. First off they slowed the weird fights between these two way down plus the removal of said villain completely eliminates the issue. Then the actor himself has gotten much better at portraying the character as something more than a girl-hungry nitwit. The biggest aspect helping his rise through the rankings is that the writing staff seem to be hinting at a larger conflict for the character, maybe a rift with his comrades or a choice to be made. It almost feels like they still don't know what to do with him but know that they should be doing something with him. We'll just have to wait and see if anything comes from these pensive looks.

A pair that hasn't fared so well regarding development are the girl sidekicks Ui and Oto. The former in particular still has a strange habit of simply not appearing in some episodes without any explanation. which is extra bizarre when you consider how much of the show takes place inside her house. It's been established that her mom is dead, she has no friends outside of the Ryusoul tribesmen, and there's been zero mention of work or school, so where the hell does she disappear too? She's even absent at Christmas for god's sake. For her part, Oto at least has an excuse to vanish as she not only has a home under the sea but works at the elders cafe. She just has a convenient method of appearing whenever Ui goes missing.

Villains:

The audience was given quite a gift with the exit of Gachireus. I'd almost say it's sad to see him go as he finally started to show some personality in these last few appearances. Likely his best scene involve ordering Kreon to verbally abuse him in order to fuel his Minusaur. Still; Gachy never become much more than a generic strong evil guy and his removal takes care of the weirdly forced rivalry with Canalo which could very much help the gold ranger down the line. If you have something handy let us pour one out for this underdeveloped baddie who tried his best.

As for the new girl, Pricius, she also lacks motivation grander than simply being evil though her more cunning and domineering nature make her a more interesting piece of the puzzle than Gachy ever was. Part of that lies in how her relationships with the other villains. She asserts her dominance over the likes of Gauchy and Wyzul by stealing their hearts and holding their lives in her hands, When it comes to Kreon however she has no such option which results in her treating him a more fairly, even offering him a second in command post. For his part Kreon still seems to prefer Wyzul's company.

As for the future I know there are at least two more Druidon generals arriving in the coming weeks along with some hint as to who they answer too. The series has been wise to not taunt us with that mystery which has kept it comfortably in the background but it'll be interesting to see if they provide an answer that adds more depth to the conflict or simply provide a monsterous being to toss our heroes around.

Action:

The action on this series still manages to surprise me. I mean this is a Sunday-morning show for kids and they come up with more elaborate battles each week than some of our streaming shows do in a whole season. I believe we may have a first for the franchise as well with the Christmas episode utilizing drone photography during a CG-enhanced giant-robot fight scene. Should I point out again how all this effort is being put into a kids show?

Overall:

And so we're about to reach the forties and, presumably, the final stretch of the show. From all currently available info I'm guessing the show will end somewhere around episode 47-48 as it seems like the next series is likely primed to launch in early March. As it stands the 30s offered some very compelling material from the outstanding drama of the Nada arc to the wild hi-jinks of the Christmas show. It will soon be time to discover if Ryusoulger goes down as a great Sentai series but I'd say it's already done more than enough to rank as a solid one. In celebration of that the goal is to base the next few recaps on fewer episodes in order to go into greater detail and enjoy what remaining time we have with this story.

That's it for today my friends. Got class and homework aplenty tonight which means I'm gonna need my beauty sleep. Updates should be back on schedule for a while so keep your eyes out for more recaps and what is sure to be the first of many pieces about new snack food. Peace out.