Recap: Right when the Kyoryugers think the Deboss army has been defeated for good, Luckyero strikes them where they cannot fight back.

Aqua‘s thoughts: After last week’s bizarre coda to an arc that felt a bit forced because Kyoryuger needed to have at least some kind of plot, the dinosaur Sentai returns to breezy filler antics this week — and rather surprisingly, is better off all the more. As expected, Kyoryuger slams its fist down on the reset button pretty hard, with the Deboss army back in full force and still trying to resurrect their cuddly namesake, only properly this time. With Yayoi gone, Deboss’s Liquid Ocelot-esque fusion with Priest Chaos’ hand is the sole remnant of the previous arc even happening at all. Nevertheless, the introduction of a new lieutenant promises to up the ante at least somewhat. Endolf, the Knight of Hatred, applies for the position of obligatory backstabber within the first five minutes of his appearance, so it is interesting what he will contribute to the overall package.

This admittedly very small plot thread shows that Kyoryuger needs surprisingly little to remain engaging. It is far from dependent on its plot, in stead relying on its characters and shenanigans. This week’s episode was almost deviously simplistic in its idiocy, but for this show, that kind of stuff just works. Seeing Souji’s adorable friend Rin again was a pleasant surprise, and his dense anime protagonist antics remain quite hilarious. None of this can beat the simultaneously horrifying and amazing sight of Luckyero in a skirt, though. Or Luckyero with a mustache. Or Luckyero as KyoryuRed. Or Luckyero in general, really. His little plan was a bit one-key, but it was enough to provide some laughs for 22 minutes. The real purpose of this episode was to get the status quo back in order, but with Yayoi returning next week to take on Endolf, it looks like the filler is not going to stay around for much longer.

Random observations

• For those interested, Endolf is voiced by Masaya Matsukaze, former MegaBlue and voice of Kyoya in Ouran High School Host Club.
• Luckyero appearing as a random woman in everyone’s dreams but Amy’s and Utchi’s makes me question his/her/its gender even more.
• I am still having trouble getting used to Amy having a crush on Daigo being a thing now.
• Dancing heroes of the week – The cast of Kamen Rider Wizard dancing along in the opening credits, including Shunya Shiraishi actually looking like he’s having fun for the first time in ever.

Zigg‘s Thoughts: As time goes by it’s increasingly obvious that I enjoy the filler episodes of Kyoryuger more than the actual ‘plot’ episodes. That’s not to say those are bad, it’s just in these in-between bits the writers and show-runners can really uncork their crazed imaginations and pull of some of the silly stuff that’s why I’m here in the first place.

It also means we get to have episodes that focus on characters who aren’t Daigo, and this is a pretty great little follow-up to Souji’s previous spotlight episode. One thing that I’m digging is that compared to the past couple of teams the Kyoryugers are once again ‘normal’ people, which means we get to see their lives and relationships outside of the team as well as inside it, leading to some cute little slice of life bits. It’s cool that the team bought back Souji’s not-girlfriend Rin and his association with the kendo team – by connecting back to previous events we get a much stronger impression that the character has a life beyond just what we see on-screen. Of course there’s also the opportunity for more adorable ship-teasing, which I’m also down with.

This episode is also great because it lets Luckyero, by far and away the most entertaining of the Deboss, run rampant with an utterly stupid plot. I am completely 100% OK with a story that requires Luckyero to dress up as a bunch of girls and do weird dream sequences, and this was overall a very, very funny episode. It’s not just the monsters either, as there was some pretty great slapstick from the cast too, especially the hyper-accelerated fight sequence at the end.

Of course, the big deal here is supposedly the ‘surprise’ return of Chaos and all the Deboss generals, which everyone with half a brain in their head could have seen coming a mile off. I’m really sort of baffled by this – they were barely even gone for an episode, so what was the point of ‘killing’ them in the first place? Deboss is now in some sort of freaky symbiosis with Chaos (which will inevitably lead to a body takeover near the end, because that’s how these things go) so bigging up his initial comeback and defeat seems sort of inconsequential now. At least the appearance of Endolf (who will be The Starscream, because the ones introduced midway through always are) looks ready to pep things up. As it was though, this episode was fine, funny entertainment and that’s what matters.

Random Observations

• Rin is adorable and Souji is clearly a complete and utter idiot.
• I absolutely love how incredibly cheap looking the monster this week is.
• Will we ever settle on a spelling for Luckyero?
• New favourite screenshot ever.