Saturday, 27 April 2013

Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger 10 – The Thundering Gold Samurai

The other gold samurai who doesn't serve gold sushi.

Utsusemimaru is still trapped inside the Dogold armor, to make matters worse, Dogold can use Utsusemimaru's moves and that includes his trademark finisher! With that in mind, can our heroes free him out of the armor?


I said in my review of the show's 9th episode that Utsusemimaru's debut feels a bit rushed. Even if his official debut is seriously brilliant, I am still disappointed with the fact that there is no proper build up leading us to this debut. Most sixth hero debuts that featured a former bad guy becoming good has at least 2 or 3 episodes worth of buildup leading to his epic debut. Look at Gaoranger's Tsukamaro aka GaoSilver's debut, when he was first introduced as Rouki; he stayed in the show for the show as a bad guy. They did some build up in between those times in the form of flashbacks. This then lead us to his full back story, which is later followed by his debut as GaoSilver.

To find this build up, I decided to think what happened in the previous episodes. All I can remember is what this guy did is to be angry, like he is just that angry guy in the team of villains. Look at Aigaron for example; at least he has some secret that keeps us wondering. The only build up they did leading to this episode is more on Pteragordon and that Dogold can use it... that's about it. Before anyone can cry foul or something, I just assumed that Dogold can control it because he can emit electricity in his body, and since these Voltasaurs are powered by batteries, it makes sense for Dogold can charge some of it into a Voltasaur.


Now that I am done ranting why I feel not "rewarded" with KyoryuGold's debut, it's time to talk about this episode. We learned in this episode that Torin that he can't use his power in its fullest or else it will kill him. After they escaped from Dogold and his subordinate, we learned why he is stuck in this state. As it turns out, it is the result of his fight with Deboss of the Dark centuries ago. Hopefully this bit of Torin's history will be relevant in later episodes. Anyway, Daigo seems to figure out how they can defeat Dogold. As for Ian and Nossan, their job is to figure out how they can stop Pteragordon.

After weeks of not seeing him, Souji's father is the one who helped Daigo figure out how to defeat Dogold. It is also during that time that we learned that Souji's father is aware about their job as superheroes. Speaking of Souji, during the time they are inside the cage, we learned more about Torin and how he cares for his friends thanks to Utsusemimaru who can now at least control his body from time to time. This is the buildup I am looking for Toei! Why you didn't do it?! Because Utsusemimaru has limited control of his body, this only lasted for a few minutes before Dogold takes over.


Dogold leaves and it is time for them to figure out a way to escape. This is when we learned that Amy's feet can do amazing feats. By amazing feats, she can use the remote control with it. So yeah, Amy's feet are the one who untied Souji's ropes, which then lead up to their escape. Now that they are out in the cage, it is time to assemble the team. Speaking of assembling teams, the Deboss Legion's commanders are also assembled to face our heroes! Even if they didn't do any proper character build up leading to this episode, at least they made an effort to make KyoryuGold's debut as flashy and as epic as possible.

To prevent any interruptions, Daigo used the Beast Battery suggested by Ian to pin Pteragordon from attacking them. Pinning him to the ground is one great decision, especially if our heroes are busy fighting bad guys in the ground. As for the fights in the ground, it's really well done. Souji stood up in this episode. Aside from the fact that he was able to use Amy's Dricera Lance into good use, his fights in this episode are simply fantastic. Oh, and that he is the first one who used the Shield Lance Slasher weapon.


Now that we are done with Souji, it is time to talk about Daigo vs. Dogold. It's really great and I am quite amazed that they were able to use the stock footage background well, giving more impact to his finisher. Now that Dogold is weakened, it is time for Torin to purify his soul by becoming a Spirit and enter an empty Beast Battery. Daigo's job is to "Brave In" the said battery and shoot it on Dogold. But it is not only Torin who is here to purify Dogold; Ramirez arrived just in time to help Torin with this feat. This explained why Amy left during the fight; she is the one who called Ramirez out!

As for the result, even though it looked like it didn't work at first, it inside Pteraidenoh's cockpit that we saw its results. Now that Utsusemimaru is free from the Dogold armor, it is time for Utsusemimaru to show us his Kyoryu Change and become KyoryuGold! Just like Daigo's first transformation, his transformation doesn't feature any stock footage. Guess I should expect the stock footage in the next episode then. As for his dance, it feels like something that came straight from a Kabuki performance and it fits well since he is a golden samurai.


As for his moves, I just love that his Gaburi Changer also doubles as a slingshot. What's more, to add up with the Pterodactyl theme, he also has the ability to fly, which kinda looks more like gliding to me. His weapon, the Zandar Thunder's gimmick makes sense. It is powered by loading Beast Batteries and depending on the number of batteries will give the weapon a different battery. Aside that it is like they are shoving it in our faces that this toy will not work without any batteries, it puts more emphasis with KyoryuGold's thundering hero gimmick.

As for each power, the first mode that only has a single battery can shoot a jolt of lightning to his opponents. The second mode that has two batteries can charge up the sword, creating a sword imbued with electricity. The third mode that has three batteries is used for KyoryuGold's finisher. As for the said finisher, it is really cool, so cool that I have no words to express about it. Did I mention that he doesn't need to "Brave In" the batteries? More reasons to really like this weapon!


Because he doesn't need to "Brave In" his batteries, obviously it is still fully charged when it is time for him to fight the giant monsters revived by Luckiero. Pteragordon's transformation into Pteraidenoh looks really great, especially the helmet opening sequence. As for his official first fight now that he is now with the good guys, it is really great. Even if the good version of Pteraidenoh looks really amazing, I miss his evil cape. As for its finisher, it is not flashy compared to Kyoryuzin's finisher and I am okay with it considering that I find Kyoryuzin's finisher a bit lame.

At the end, our heroes officially meet their new teammate. Utsusemimaru decides not to join them because he thinks that Daigo is not yet worthy to give Daigo his loyalty or even shake his hand. It doesn't make sense for our heroes but it has something to do with his past with his lord. Speaking of this lord, he kinda looks like Daigo except that he has a beard and a deeper voice. Guess this means that we will have episodes that has something to do with this lord and how he can be related to Daigo.