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.
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