Wait, what? Even more 3D people on my animu blog? Welcome to the beginning of The Glorio Blog’s Super Sentai coverage! As with Kamen Rider before it, tokusatsu veteran Dragonzigg and (now relative) newcomer Aquagaze will be teaming up to cover every episode of the show where simply posing is enough to set off colour coded explosions behind you. Together they’ll navigate a world full of prehistoric beasts, alarmingly attractive actors and more spandex than you’re probably comfortable with! Vamola!

Recap: The Kyoryugers struggle over whether to reveal their secret identities to each other. When a monster attacks though they’re left with no choice but to team up to unlock their giant robot!

Aquagaze‘s Thoughts: Okay, okay, guys. I get it. Dinosaurs are awesome. They really are. Kyoryuger is a joy to watch, with its crazy poses, hyperactive battles, explosions and gleefully wacky cast. Heck, it even has a dancing robot! This episode showed us some more glorious doses of the newest Sentai’s affection for chaotic fighting (Wrestling! Shield to groin! Amy’s unmorphed martial arts!) and complete madness. Especially because it is backed with Kamen Rider Wizard, a show with actors who have severe issues mustering up the enthusiasm required for their roles, Kyoryuger‘s merrymaking is very welcome.

But why would you want to sacrifice some great storytelling ideas in order to churn in more disjointed fun? Establishing him as conceptually one of the most interesting Sentai heroes in recent history, this episode quickly revealed the motive behind Nobuharu’s strange request to not have his secret identity exposed to the other Rangers. He is afraid something will happen to his widowed younger sister Yuko and her little daughter Rika if he does not take up responsibility. The fact that Rika got hurt in the past, and Yuko thinks KyoryuBlue — who was, of course, trying to save her– is the one responsible makes the conflict even more complex. Seeing a working-class Ranger well into his thirties is a very nice, and a very new idea, though sadly enough, his story got resolved in less than two minutes. While there is still the prospect of Nobu’s sister blaming Blue for the danger her daughter was in, I am afraid Kyoryuger will not be too heavy on the plot.

It is almost as if Riku Sanjo’s great character writing was deliberately cut back and distilled to a bare minimum, in order to focus more on his wackiness. With the preview implying a similar structure for next episode, for KyoryuGreen this time. It is a true pity, but we must keep in mind that this is still Kyoryuger‘s opening run. The “secret identities being exposed by means of individual catharsis” concept is a very interesting idea, and maybe these stories serve only as a vanguard of bigger and better things to come. Once the money starts running out and the show settles down a bit, we’ll see if Kyoryuger really decides to stick with compressing 5 episodes worth of character development into two minutes. I hope not.

Random Observations

• Gabutyra seems to be the only mech with an actual animatronic model (Zigg’s note – since when has animatronic meant ‘dude hunched over in a suit?’) All the other ones are strictly CGI. I suppose it is safe to say we will not see much of the individual zords in battle, though their contribution to the visual spectacle is greatly appreciated.
• The villains seem to be holding a friendly competition over who can gather the most of their assigned emotion. I wonder what will happen when one of the meters reaches the top.
• Yuko is portrayed by Ayumi Kinoshita, who also played DekaYellow in Dekaranger. A bunch of other toku alumni are scheduled to make a guest appearance as well, including Nao Nagasawa (HurricaneBlue) and Kenji Ebisawa (Not Dillon Go-OnBlack).
• Looks like this season’s Megazord — if I may call it that — will make heavy use of interchangeable arms, with a bunch of dinobots soon to join the team already having been announced in toy adverts. In a surprising twist, [spoiler – highlight to read] each of them seems to be tied to a Kyoryuger from the past! Will Kyoryuger break Dekaranger‘s record of most Rangers in a single season? [end spoilers] Just remember to stay away from every toku-related news site, blog or Twitter feed if you don’t want to get spoiled.

Dragonzigg’s Thoughts: As Aqua’s already articulated well, the major frustrating thing about this episode is that it raises a bunch of incredibly interesting plot possibilities and then (sweemingly) sweeps them all away in the course of 22 minutes. There’s basically a couple of entire shows to be made with some of the cast offs here. Older bachelor lives with his sister, who loves him but hates his Sentai alter ego? Spoiled rich girl is secretly a kick-ass warrior but has to hide it from her prissy butler? These are ideas that you could tease out and explore, threading them through your entire show run. As it is, they’re pretty much over and done with in the course of this episode, though it’s worth pointing out that although Nobuharu’s niece learns he’s Koryu Blue, it doesn’t appear his sister does.

While the long-term consequences of these moves are a little worrying, that doesn’t really impact how enjoyable this individual episode is though, which is very. The boundless exuberance the first episode possessed has carried over at least one more week – this remains a show crammed full of cool stuff, almost tripping over itself to parade the next cool thing. The feel of a live action cartoon is still very strong.  Having said that, there’s still plenty of time to appreciate some fine performances here. Daigo’s enthusiasm is as infectious as it was last week, while Nobuharu seems to instantly settle into the likable everyman role his older age would suggest, and Amy is just ridiculously adorable and kicks plenty of ass.  Ian and Souji fade into the background somewhat this episode, but the title suggest Souji will be the focus of the next episode and I’d think Ian would not be far behind.

The big deal this episode is of course the first appearance of the team’s mech, Kyoryuzin (though we’ve seen it in toy form, in the opening credits and in basically every promo). Slightly unusually, it’s only made up of three of the team’s individual Zords (I know they’re not called that but look, habit of a lifetime is hard to shake OK?). Judging by what we see from the next week preview, it seems likely Gabutyra will always form the main body and legs but that the other Dinos are interchangeable on the arms, each giving different weapons. It’s a decent spin on the concept, and for those of you who find it a little underwhelming, never fear – I can guarantee you we’ll see all five combine at some point.  The show conspires to make even one of the most basic Sentai tropes slightly more ridiculous with the dumb, incredibly cheap but somehow charming piloting method. Basically consisting of standing around posing and doing sweet kicks, it’s reminiscent of the glory that was G Gundam, a world where piloting a mecha looks as dumb on the inside as it does on the outside.

Kyoryuger doesn’t falter with this second episode, a promising sign for sure, and it manages to decently flesh out some of its characters while at the same time maintaining the breakneck pace that made the first episode so much fun.  The important thing now is to continue laying the foundations of good character development and interesting plot for when that pace falters, as it surely must after a while.  This was another hugely enjoyable romp, and one which promises much for the show’s future.

Random Observations

• Programming notes – Until we find a certain spot for it, post times for Kyoryuger may jump about a little. It’s also not possible or practical for me to photoshop out the timer on the screen, so expect to see it in all ongoing shots.
• I still don’t like the ending theme, but it’s already wedged irreplaceably in my head, which I guess is the point.
• It’s not even a spoiler at this point that a sixth Kyoryuger will show up sometime in the first third of the show . What is a SPOILER however is that there will be a SEVENTH ranger, Kyoryu Cyan. Furthermore, he’ll be played by a Caucasian actor. Pretty intriguing, no?