Hello again my lovelies. As you can
probably guess from the updates schedule so far, we're firmly within
the early year slow period. Truthfully it's not something I should
feel bad about given that unlike so much of the internet I don't take
a break during the holidays. Anyhow, after the far too busy transfer
period between years, I'm finally back to an almost normal schedule
and you better believe I'm catching up on everything and having a
pretty fine time doing it. So far, 2017 hasn't been too bad but there
is a big piece of leftover business from 2016. No, this isn't about
anything political, it's about Zyuohger. We've entered the final
stretch for this series, and things are definitely heating up. Let's
see what's been going on.
First we've got a couple mostly stand
alone affairs, the first of which is focused on Sela. Her episode is
actually something of a special case offering some legit development
for the most underused member of the team. She's won over by a ladies
man who is actually a duplicate that Kubar made, utilizing the hand
he stole from Bangley. That's the only real development to the larger
plot but it was nice to see a story that allowed Sela to show off her
more loving and naive characteristics.
Bangley's hand factored into another
tale focused on Leo training a kid in the art of being a man. This
one really wasn't important, not to mention it was a bit
underwhelming considering it was about my favorite team member. There
were a few nice moments but this was a pretty forgettable entry in
the show's history.
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| It wouldn't be a proper recap without a creepy bondage situation. |
Of course those stories were just base
level experiments for Kubar as he got used to using his new hand so
he could finally take his vengeance on master Genis. This involved a
convoluted plot of kidnapping Naria in order to make a copy of Genis
to kidnap Misao, forcing the Zyuohgers to enter combat alongside a
small army of copied monsters against the actual Genis. Bit over the
top ain't it? Bitch of it is, the plan didn't work. Way back during
the story arc about cube whale, Naria had gathered a disc of data on
the creature which makes it so Genis can absorb the power of Earth
and kick everybody's ass.
Now let's pose a question. Suppose you
are a cunning evil alien who sets out on a conspiracy to avenge your
planet only to find yourself woefully outmatched. Do you
A. Sit in a bar and wait for death.
B. Team up with other powered beings in
a continued attempt at bring down a collective foe.
C. Go buck wild and destroy everything
in sight to regain your evil organizations good graces.
Yeah, the big headed freak got a
little out of hand and tried to destroy the Earth to get back in with
his boss. Who could have the power to stop such crazed destruction,
why that emotional cripple Misao of course. During his earlier
captivity the poor guy was injured, leading to a brief stay at a
hospital until he realized the danger his friends faced and totally
manned up. I think this makes the character a fine role model for the
kids who watch this show. He may be an absolute screw-up in nearly
every regard but he's grown considerably over the series into a
respectable hero.
Oh and during that hospital stay, you
wouldn't believe who the team bumped into. Yamato's father is a
practicing physician at said hospital and boy howdy do the two of
them not get along. Right here is where the potentially biggest
dramatic theme of the series pops up. Mario tends this house full of
orphans. In the case of the Zyuman, they're cut off from their home,
but Yamato is unwilling to mend bridges with his family. After
Kubar's defeat, our red ranger comments that Misao may actually be
more mature than him. Harsh, dude.
Things brighten up for the holidays
during an adventure where the team attempts to get Mario a Christmas
present. During the weekly monster fight, the old man actually
witnesses their transformation. That leads us to episode 44 we got
the cardinal sin of television tropes with yet another clip show.
These have always been a blight on the Sentai franchise, and I can't
figure out why recent series have doubled down on the practice. At
least I can say Zyuohger has done as good a job as one can expect
from a clip show. This one even went so far as to mildly progress the
main story line while driving home the point that Mario is the
defender of these kids spirit, providing a happy home for them.
A sub-plot through this stream of
episodes involved Bard, getting into a fight with Azald, which
provided an interesting discovery. During his usual body reshaping
process, Azald absorbed several animal cubes rather than the cubes of
his own body. Likewise the big guy has no memory of his existence
before serving under Genis. Larri the gorilla notes that he had
suspicions of genis's ability to transfer Zyuman power when altering
Misao, as if he had access to it in some form or fashion. The
conclusion to this mystery has already been revealed through
magazines, Azald is actually the original monster we witnessed that
whale guy fighting way back during the Gokaiger team-up. Gotta hand
it to this show, it hasn't faltered so far with seeding plot twists
long in advance. Now to see if it adds up to anything worthwhile.
As it stands we're just a few weeks
away from the conclusion of this series. Which means there will most
likely be just one more post on the topic before I reformat this
feature for the upcoming Kyuuranger. As usual I'm excited for the new
show to begin, but more than with previous series I'm sad to see this
crew go. During the past year, Zyuohger has been something of an old
standby. It's not usually the most exciting or innovative thing to
watch but there's a level of enthusiasm and clarity of vision that
has kept it entertaining. Currently it still has a chance of making
the jump from good to great if it's willing to go the extra mile with
the ending. We'll find out in just a few weeks. For now I've got so
many other items to discuss with you all. Stay tuned.
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