In what feels like record time we've
arrived at the halfway mark of Zyuohger. It's hard to imagine this
show has gotten this far already, then again this whole year has been
passing at hyperspeed. Still, this is a big moment for the series
which has marked the occasion not only with the appearance of a new
villain but by adding some major emotional content to the story.
We're talking dead-parents, murder, self-loathing, heady stuff for a
show about people in animal print tights who battle space aliens.
It all kicks off with the arrival of
Bangley, yet another ill-tempered space alien causing trouble across
the galaxy for his own amusement. What separates him from the other
villains is his distaste for a structured environment or teamwork.
This guy wants fun all for himself tough he does give Bloodgame a try
before going back to his old ways. His brief time with the other
villains kick starts a rivalry with Kubar after Bangley reads his
mind. Apparently Kubar is the last of his kind, his home planet
having been destroyed possibly in an earlier Bloodgame. It stands to
reason he may have some hidden intent towards Master Genis and the
others that he doesn't wish revealed just yet.
Episode 23 was primary an introduction
for Bangley, and an action heavy one at that. As you might expect
he's a strong dude which makes the team into easy pickings.
Eventually, Yamato faces him in solo combats armed with platitudes
about all life being connected and what not. This sort of happy
horseshit doesn't settle very well with Earth's newest visitor so he
makes it his mission to crush the red rangers spirit. How does he
plan to go about? I'm glad you asked.
Fairly early we're introduced to
Bangley's ability to read minds and recreate things from memories.
Most frequently he uses this skill to revive old monsters but on his
second outing he begins making copies of peoples lost loved ones,
chief among them Yamato's mother who died from an undisclosed
sickness when he was a child. He let's the kid reunite with his mommy
for a little bit before striking her down again in what is absolutely
one of the biggest dick move ever. The plan backfires with our
little eagle scout reassured of the power of interpersonal
connections.
Imagine that if you will, on a
television show primarily aimed at children, we not only saw
flashbacks to the main character losing his mother, we then saw her
temporally revived before being murdered by a space goon. I mean damn
is that ever cold.
Shifting focus to a different feud for
episode 25, another story of Mondo attempting to bond with a
teammate, in this instance Leo. Mondo picks up a camera said to
bestow happiness to anyone whose picture is taken with it. Guy wants
to use it in order to cheer up Yamato after the whole dead mother
incident. Of course the camera is a scheme on the part of this weeks
monster who captures most of the team in photographs. This leaves
Mondo and Leo to work together and save the day.
The absolute highlight for me is the
scene where both guys confront each other about their general disdain
for one another. Leo hates Mondo's whiny, overemotional, soft spoken
nonsense while Mondo hates Leo not only because he's an overbearing
blowhard but because Mondo can never be that kind of person and hates
himself. We're talking about a character whose role is to spawn more
toys for the producers to sell and not only is he a total social
basketcase but he admits to the audience that he hates himself for
it. Brilliant!
By episode's end the pair learns to
work together with a sort of friendly hatred. This is also very
different for this kind of show. Usually the worst relationships
within the team are rivalry,but here we have two people admitting
they hate each other while still working towards a common goal.
This emotional roller coaster ain't
over yet. In another attempt to break the red ranger, Bangley targets
Yamato's old friend from college on the guys wedding day. Yeah,
that's his plan for the episode, straight up murder some newlyweds.
It may not be imaginative but Christ is it ever effective. Naturally
his scheme doesn't work out. In fact it only boosts Yamato even more,
to the point of becoming a true match in a fight.
The final piece of business is the oh
so dreaded clip show. Boy do I ever wish this franchise would just
give up on these things. This one isn't even that bad, but why waste
one of maybe 50 episodes on clips?
Anyway, Bangley decides to make copies
of Sela and Tusk, then straps bombs onto both pairs. The team has 30
minutes to figure out which pair are copies and kill them before all
four blow up in spectacular fashion.
The episode isn't completely without
merit. There are some nice jokes and the ending is pretty decent.
Once the team figures out which pair is real, they try to find a way
to save the duplicates since even a copy of a friend is still a
friend. The copies are so touched by this display they chose to
willingly fade away to save the originals. Having seen themselves
essentially die, Sela and Tusk agree with everyone else that Bangley
has got to go.
With all the neat stuff going on, I
totally forgot to mention the Bird guy is back again, and he's bumped
into Lahri the gorilla. Both characters had slipped my mind of late
so it'll be interesting to see what they'll bring to the series with
their return. Speaking of returns, the old Gokaiger team will be
showing up for an anniversary team-up over the next few weeks. It's
gonna be a while before we talk about any of that stuff cause the
Halloween features are starting soon. See ya then.
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