Continuing with my new physically
draining job has shifted my downtime into a constant influx of spirit
boosters. No I don't mean booze and coffee, though I've been going
through plenty of that. I mean lighthearted entertainment to serve as
a reminder of the simple pleasures in life....like booze...and
coffee. Yeah.... anyway my point is that Zyuohger has been one of the
best shows for maintaining my sanity and I think it's time to give
you all a round up of what's been happening.
The main plot line has received a nice
dose of depth from this second batch of episodes. Something I find
very exciting is that the main villain has already started to make
his own moves against our heroes rather than relying solely on his
underlings. With that, the threat level has gone through the roof
with the team actually suffering their first defeat by episode 10.
Not to mention the previous episode where the entire world was nearly
destroyed by a giant man-eating plant. After the entirety of
Ninninger where it felt like there wasn't much of a challenge for the
good guys it's great to see them struggling for their victories.
A new character has arrived, the
birdman who helped Yamato when he was just a wee lad. This guy has
the champion symbol that will allow the Zyumen to return to their
world but he won't let them have it since he thinks of Zyuland as
some horrid place that should be locked away. It seems like birdie is
going to be the sixth ranger whose already been showcased in magazine
previews as Zyuworld. He's got a multicolored scheme with the
abilities of at least three different animals. This could be a
sinister development as we found during the two part tale where
Yamato got his Gorilla powers that a Zyuman sharing their abilities
must sacrifice some of their life force. If the new ranger goes
around collecting life from other critters he could prove to be quite
the rival.
Speaking of special abilities, I
neglected to say much about the teams enhanced senses last time as I
wasn't sure if it was an important detail or just some novelty that
would quickly fade away. The series has proved itself to have a brain
and provided pros and cons for each these unique gifts. Sela for
instance has fantastic hearing which has allowed Yamato to contact
her from across town simply by yelling, or let Sela track down
survivors in rubble. On the flip side, while fighting a monster that
brainwashed people with noise, she proved to be weakest to his
attacks. Out of all them, Amu got short changed in this department as
the writers have yet to come up with a good use for her sense of
taste.
The group has continued to develop as
well. There have been hints about Yamato's parents (seems like
they're probably dead), his uncle finally got a moment to showcase
himself as something of an artistic philosopher. We learned of Sela's
devotion to her family who she misses greatly. That was paced out
over a few episodes as well so we're not getting shafted with the
typical one episode emotional arcs anymore.
Possibly the best development for the
team came in episode 11 when Yamato lies to his friends and goes off
to fight the baddies by himself so the others can try to reclaim the
champions symbol from the bird dude. After learning what he'd done,
the four Zyuman gave up on the symbol and made the decision not to
simply defend the human world because they're stuck there but because
they chose save people and help their friend. That's a very
important detail as unwilling heroes soon become tiresome. Having
them all make the decision to work for the common good is something
that sets this apart from the past several series where characters
were driven by selfish desire or a lack of anything better to do.
What good would these spandex clad
warriors be without equally nasty villains? Not much, I'd say.
Thankfully the Deathgaliens are proving to be quite a fine batch of
asshole. So far we have two main generals who make up most of the
evil schemes. One is the freaky cube man with the ability to rebuild
his body. His plans are more straight-forward physical affairs with
large monsters and attack power. The other guy likes deception and
trickery. He came very close to wining in episode 9 with the
aforementioned man-eating plant that tied up the zyuohgers and
tortured them until a mole robot saved their asses. The big boss,
Master Ginis takes a balanced approach to his evil games, mixing
tricks and raw destruction together for good measure. So far the lady
of the group has yet to do much of anything other than providing
light support and giving monsters a coin to reach gianthood.
While the majority of the show is
working out quite nicely, there are still a few hiccups to work out.
One is the aforementioned lady villains doesn't have much to set her
apart other than a pair of metallic boobs. Likewise, Tusk continues
to be the least developed member of the main cast. Also, this years
Kamen Rider crossover was something of a bust as it ended up being
more of a glorified cameo.
This show continues to rekindle my
passion for Sentai. It's actually gotten to the point where it makes
flaws from the past few seasons even more apparent. It's a good time
to be a Sentai fan and since I'm positive I'll be keeping up with
this show, the format for these recaps will probably change soon so I
can mix in a little more detail. For now, I've gotta get back to work
on an article for another website and dread the upcoming work week.
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