Recap: Aigaron reveals it was actually he who killed Ian’s friend, causing Ian to go on a roaring rampage of revenge…again.

Aqua‘s thoughts: Not a freewheeling riot like some of the last episodes, but an enjoyable episode nonetheless. After Souji, Amy and Nossan, this week it is Ian’s time to shine. Sadly enough, this means that half of the team has to spend half of the episode after being… uhm, yeah, what exactly? The monster of this week is a treasure chest themed freakshow whose special ability makes Whomps from Super Mario Bros. fall onto his adversaries. You’d think King, Amy and Utchy would be splattered across the quarry after being crushed by one, but apparently that is not how physics work in the Kyoryuger universe. It’s up to the team to rescue them, but Ian gets a bit distracted by Aigaron, who pops up again after three episodes of complete absence.

Does everyone remember that mysterious stone from Ian’s first spotlight episode? It shows up again this time, and Aigaron reveals that it was not the monster from back then, but he himself who murdered Shiro and took the stone. Being the revenge-obsessed brooding charmer he is, Ian initially spends more time on angrily flailing his gun around. Eventually, however, he actually manages to do the thing many vengeance-sworn toku heroes take an entire character arc to do and realizes that revenge will not bring his friend back. Not that that prevents him from kicking Aigaron’s ass anyway, but that would have happened regardless anyways.

I am pretty certain the new sweet powerup will not be exclusive to Ian alone, but it certainly made for some hilarious fight sequences. The Zack Snyder-esque cutaway fight sequence at the end was badass, and a whole series of cool leaps really brought this episode to life. If there is anything I was rather disappointed about, it would be the significant lack of Utsusemimaru. In fact, he only showed up out of costume in the last minute, which lead me to believe his actor was somehow not available for the recording of this episode. Let’s hope that is not a recurring thing, as next week, we’ll meet another new Kyoryuger: KyoryuGrey!

Random Observations

• For a show that is apparently so explicitly marketed at boys it can’t even have more than one girl on the team, those sure are a lot of girls dancing the dinosamba in the credits.
• A Kyoryuger musical is the best idea since… ever.

Dragonzigg‘s Thoughts: We dial back a little on the goofiness this episode since PLOT is happening but it’s not too bad as the story is still pretty entertaining and we get some more good character stuff thrown in too. If I’ve got a complaint it’s that there’s some pretty obvious recycling here – we’ve already had ‘Ian seeks revenge and gets all broody’ once before and they even highlight the fact that another magical powerup saved the day then. What with Candelia going the musical route again it can feel like we’re treading old ground.

What helps keep the episode fresh though is the character work. I’ve mentioned this point before and I’m sure I will again, but it’s important – having good characters means they can effortlessly carry a less-than-stellar plot because it’s fun just seeing them interact with each other. So we share some of Ian’s outrage towards Aigaron, even though we’ve known that twist for ages. And we also get to see how our characters have grown, as with Ian and Souji having overcome their initial dislike of each other, it’s Green who offers Ian his most important voice of support. The removal of Daigo, Amy and Utchy isn’t too much of a big deal here, since Amy and Utchy have had focus episodes recently and Daigo is always in the spotlight. It’s a nice chance to see the remaining team membes play off of each other, including the oft-underused Torin.

The episode is also propped up by great action. Yes, Ian’s new powerup is as dumb as hell but I’m totally in favour of anything that looks like that cheap and allows hilariously terrible drilling special effects. Credit for impressive stuntwork this episode too – Amy’s flying leap and Ian’s tumble off the cliff are big, wide angle stunts we really see in weekly episodes. Overall it was just the right balance – a slight scaling back on the jokey side, some decent character building and the re-introduction of a mysterious plot trinket that’s sure to be important down the line (hint: SWEET POWERUP).

Random Observations

• Absolutely outstanding monster-of-the-week costume. It’s a shame he had to be blown up so fast.
• Torin fighting a baseball bat wielding Luckiero was one of the more memorably bizarre sights this week.
• The cool slow-mo does have the unfortunate side effect of clearly showing off how much Gold’s sword bends when hit.
• This week’s outstandingly adorable dance – the five toddlers with the colour coded wraps.
• Making the Kyoryuger movie a musical instantly turns what’s normally a pretty dull extended episode into potentially the greatest thing of all time.