Recap: Deboss has been defeated but the remnants of his army still pose a threat to the world. Yayoi is handed the mantle of Kyoryu Violet but struggles to come to terms with her new responsibility.

Zigg’s Thoughts: This episode was weird because while it wasn’t really a third part so to speak, it’s so closely tied to the previous two episodes it definitely felt like the conclusion of a trilogy. At the same time though, given the big kill happened last episode this sort of feels a little bit like a comedown by comparison. I can’t help but feel it would have been better to build Yayoi’s struggle into the ongoing battle against Deboss, so you had the double climax of her assuming her new role then everyone kicking the monster’s ass.

What we’re given instead is a somewhat mixed bag. All of the stuff with the villains is pretty great – Candelia and Luckiero continue to be a decent comic duo and angry Aigaron is surprisingly effective, though his ultimate demise manages to be both shocking and sort of underwhelming at the same time. It’d be more of a big deal if he weren’t obviously returning in short order. Debo Iceage is an odd fit for the part of bad guy too. He’s painfully obviously fodder, even more so than a regular monster of the week, and while his ‘freeze the world’s tears!’ plot is a great image in practice it’s just silly and an obvious plot contrivance.

The main crux of this episode is of course Yayoi’s emotional conflict, and I think that its a little hamfisted too. The major problem here is probably Marie Itoyo as Yayoi – she pouts and does the light comedy bits well enough, but I don’t really buy her big emotional momens. The script is a little hackneyed too but they still feel slightly forced in a way that the best Sentai speeches, as cheesy as they invariably are, don’t. The story is a solid one that has been used many times before, it’s just relatively flatly executed.

The episode is pretty much saved though by the excellent action at the end. It’s always a shot of adrenaline when you get new team members in and the big joint transformation and pose sequence was great to look at, and the subsequent fight definitely gets the blood flowing. I dug Violet’s pistol-bayonet maneouvers and the fight choreography is excellent as ever.

To be honest, i was surprised when the episode ended with the two Violets departing. So much effort had been put into establishing them as characters and giving Yayoi an arc to join the team that I sort of automatically assumed they’d come on full time. I’m disappointed they didn’t as well, since the team needs another girl and the Doc probably would have made for a good second mentor, but I do think we’ll see them again sooner rather than later. With Deboss having apparently survived the final attack last week, it seems big changes are in store for the Kyoryuger team.

Random Observations

• I get the low budget charm is part of it but really, there’s no excuse for using a paper cutout of Amy
• The use of exit squibs on the Paramonster that Yayoi shoots at point blank range is a really cool effect.
• Red Ranger privilege I know, but Daigo steals Yayoi’s mecha in her debut episode!
• Dancing heroes of the week – it’s gotta be the ‘blustery ninja’, who are in fact the three main members of the 2002/03 series Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger, currently shooting a 10th anniversary special. They even end with their own transformation pose.