Saturday 8 June 2013

Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger 14 – Of Strict Teachers & Spirit Base


Because Amy is not behaving well, she goes under Gentle's Gentle Day, a program to train the heirs of the Yuzuki family to become civilized individuals. As for Luckyuro, it seems that he is running out of luck because he is not that productive compared to his fellow Deboth officers.


Before talking about the plot of the episode, let's talk about some tiny details that most people might have failed to notice in this episode. First is the expansion of the Kyoryuger back story, on why, from all places, Japan is the setting. As it turns out, the Dinosaur Spirits are attracted to the Golden Land aka Japan during that period! Well that explains why Ramirez called Japan the "Golden Land" in his debut episode! Second is that the proper English name of the enemy faction in this series. In short, starting in this review, I will refer the "Deboss Legion" as the "Deboth Legion".

Back to the episode, it's been a while since the series had an Amy focused episode, and I just love that it has something to do with Gentle the butler. I mean, after he learned that her mistress is a superhero, I am wondering how he will react on that. As it turns out, he is fine with it just as long as she is doing well in her academics and that she still has her manners! Because she sucks in all of those categories, it leads us to the plot of the episode, turning Amy into one fine lady. Her training session with Gentle is fun to watch but there are times that I feel like he is going a bit overboard. But hey, he is doing it for Amy's sake and I am fine with it.


Speaking of which, Luckyuro here also has that same kind of problem except that the MOTW that he created thanks to Chaos noticing that he is not productive is doing quite the opposite. I just love that the MOTW is your traditional corporate punishment loving teacher. He electrocutes Luckyuro every time he makes mistakes and just thinks of it as tough love. I mean seriously, he can show tough love in other ways and not by corporate punishment alone! But even if that is the case, his appearance in this episode gave us a better idea about the Dinosaur Spirits and that destroying the Spirit Base will make things better for them.

That is the second plot of this episode, the destruction of the Spirit Base. Heck, it's also the title of this episode! But the bigger question is how can they enter inside the base and plant the bomb? That's the first thing that came to my mind when I heard that that is the plan of the MOTW. Conveniently, one of the foot soldiers sees the Kyoryugers entering into one of the Spirit Base entrances and tells it to his boss! Convenient in a sense that it feels like the foot soldier was at the right place at the right time. Or that the MOTW send a couple of foot soldiers to look for an entrance and one just happened to stumble on one.


Now that we have an entrance, guess all that remains is the key, in short, the Gaburevolver. Again, lucky for Luckyuro, he lands on Amy's tea ceremony session! But before Amy can transform to fight them, her legs hurt, causing her to lose her balance and drop her gun. Guess luck is now turning into his side. Then we also have this brief analogy that Gentle is like the MOTW when it comes to teaching. It gives Gentle some time to think about his teaching methods. That he is becoming too strict to her mistress. As for how they resolve this, it was really quick that I didn't notice that he had such dilemma.

We also have this cool fight with the giant Zorima featuring the individual Voltasaurs in action. Those individual mecha fights in this episode are really well done and basically served as the giant battle of the week. Also, I can't help but notice the amount of stock footage they use in the fight scenes. Another thing I notice is the inclusion of Ankydon in the group shot of all the Voltasaurs. Well that is one neat addition and if I base it on Gabutyra's movements alone, they used the stock Gabutyra video and added the CGI models in it.


Back to Luckyuro, after he planted the bomb, he continues to be consisted with his character because instead of leaving the place after planting the bomb, he decides to read the latest issue of Shoujo Cosmic... only to be interrupted by the Kyoryugers who returned to the base. Now comes the fun part of this meeting, the team roll call. Instead of having gigantic explosions, we have poof smokes in the back of our heroes! According to Torin, it's just them trying not to show most of their "bravery". Guess that means the larger the explosion, the braver they are in battle then.

As for the fight inside the Spirit Base, there is nothing much to talk about. It's just one pure fun fight scene in Kyoryuger. Back to Amy, Utchy arrives just in time to save her, which leads us to a battle between the MOTW and Utchy. This fight scene is really amazing, aside from the obvious toy commercial about KyoryuGold's arsenal; it fits well to the character's personality of being a monster based on a school teacher. At the end, he defeated the MOTW and saved Amy. Guess all that is left is the bomb.


After Luckyuro left, it is time for them to fix the problem with the bomb. Instead of panicking, Amy has a plan. Since the bomb can't be stop and it keeps on growing, her plan is to throw the bomb in space! The plan is simple and it makes sense. I mean, it's the only place where they can throw something that dangerous without harming anyone! They used Raiden Kyoruzin in this one and the flight sequences are really well done. I think my only problem with it is the wonky CGI in some scenes. But hey, the CGI scene only happened for a couple of seconds, at least they have a proper live action shot at the end. The episode ends and Amy understands Gentle a bit more... and still continues with her non-princess like movements.