Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger: S37E10 - Zander! Gold Revives.

KyoryuGold!

When I was a kid growing up with Power Rangers, the Quantum Ranger changed everything for me. He was this bad ass, lone wolf, one man Ranger team and my love for him hasn't died until this day. He was the single reason why I went from a casual viewer of Power Rangers as a kid to the die hard fan now I am an adult. As such, I have always held the sixth rangers appearance, their story and dynamic with the team under the most amount of criticism because they became my favourite aspect of the show and as such the most important. And although I am a firm campaigner that Power Rangers and Super Sentai are two very different shows, this is still an aspect of both shows. And I'm sad to report that KyoryuGold really didn't impress me in the same way that Cyan did with his epic Spirit Hammer and hilariously bad acting.

I mean don't misunderstand me, lightning/thunder has always been my favourite element and his suit design is cool as hell. But much like the equally disappointing ShinkenGold, Utsusemimaru just kind of...appears. Sure there is the suggested legacy with a flashback connecting Utsusemimaru to a possible ancestor of King but considering DoGold has had Utsusemimaru trapped in his armour for hundreds of years, blink and you'll miss when Utsusemimaru is freed and is wandering into the sunset as KyoryuGold. Without any real build up, without time to let the tension set in and esculate , there isn't really any thrill or excitement either. This felt more like a novelty than a woven in aspect of the narrative and his little flashy fight sequence felt more tacked on, than the epic first appearance of the Gold Kyoryuger. Who knows, maybe his tale will get more interesting in the proceeding episodes. Or maybe I'm just too old for this shit.

Another thing I really dislike about this show is its sense of humour. I don't mind comedy sentai series but this has a sense of humour in a very similar fashion to a Freidberg and Seltzer Spoof. And if I'm too old to be wowed by Sixth Rangers, then I'm definitely too old to laugh at fart jokes, a girl using a remote control with her feet or someone blowing up like Violet Beauregarde. It's frankly even more annoying because Kyoryuger knows how to have great setup and it can capitalise on these setups with wonderful action sequences but for every great fight which is also established masterfully, is a fight that ends with a pathetic attempt at a gag before the fight has barely gotten started.

Thankfully most of the awful jokes are relegated to the first half of the episode meaning the actual important action scenes are allowed to be as epic as they establish themselves. Honestly you can basically just skip the first half of the episode and just watch the second half, you'll probably come away feeling better about it that way. This week all of the Deboss Commanders, minus Chaos (although two of his super foot soldiers are there in his place), end up confronting the Kyoryuger while Gabutyra and Pteragordon fight in the background. I may not like Souji as a character but he got to be especially bad ass this week. Plus a reappearance of Ramires!

So far what has really stood out for me in the series is how strong each member feels individually. As much as other series have tried, usually the 'support' members of the team vanished behind the Red and Sixth rangers unless it was an episode focused entirely on a specific Ranger other than Red or Sixth. Here, minus maybe Amy thanks to your usual sexism, each Kyoryuger does their own thing and while doing their own thing they manage to hold their own against generals, without any of them being obviously stronger than each other or obviously weaker than Red.

However. And as if I need any more complaints with Gold, I do have one other problem. Just after a really fantastic action sequence which showed off the strengths of Ian, Nossan and Souji, Utsusemimaru morphs and takes out all of the villains in one hit each. I know it is nothing new for sixth rangers to be incredibly strong and much stronger than everyone else when they first appear but I really thought this series was trying to balance it out better and give everyone personal value. So his ridiculously overpowered attacks seemed to undermine everything the series had been trying to establish thus far and that really pissed me off.

Zander! Gold Revives had some wonderful action sequences but between the shows horrible sense of humour and a rushed and underwhelming introduction for Gold, not nearly enough hit the mark to really mark this episode as anything close to enjoyable.

Pros;

• Even a brief appearance from Ramires is a good appearance.
• There is some great action in the second half of the series. 
• The show does a good job of establishing the worth of each member of the team...until the last few moments of the episode at least.

Cons;

• I'm not really impressed with Gold's introduction.
• Or his ridiculous amounts of power.
• Honestly I basically thought the whole first half of the episode kinda sucked.
• Kyoryuger has an awful sense of humour.

Think About It!

-Locke

What would you rate, 'Zander! Gold Revives'?