Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger: S37E08 - Where Am I? Get Through the Maze.

Sorry this is so late. Student Loans came in, alcohol was purchased, hangover was the result.


This weeks ranger focus was on Nossan both as character, his backstory but also the characters that surround him and the grief that binds them. As far as comic relief characters go, I actually quite like Nossan. He stands up as a fully fleshed person outside of his jokes and isn't annoying to follow around through an episode. Even in action scenes he has a lot of personality and stands out even more so than the others in some ways because he feels much more natural. Other members of the team may be cool or badass or whatever else but most of the time it feels sadly quite trite and forced, I mean don't get me wrong, I like the team as a whole but the show does try a little too hard in places.

This week's villain is Debo Whereameye who manipulates people's grief to lure you into a labyrinth. I was honestly really surprised by this, although it never gets as dark or as twisted as similar premises do in horror films, what it does do is take a very muted, emotion led direction for the monsters power. I mean don't worry there is still lots of big, explosive action sequences but grief is obviously something I understand very well and I was just surprised how respectful this exploration of it was. It allowed the drama and the emotions to stand on their own and not have every dramatic moment become an action moment. I'm honestly not sure how much this ultimately ended up working in a Sentai episode but I enjoyed this half of the episode all the same.

And yes, before someone cries 'consistency' at me, yes the villain was once again defeated by a gag but this was the first time the gag actually worked for me. Nossan is a comic relief character, so of course he is a poster boy for the power of laughter and happiness. The bad-pun superhero, I love that. If I was going to have any complaints about the fact that he defeated the villain by tickling him I guess I'd complain about how cheesy that was but ultimately the message was such a nice, respectful one I ultimately didn't really mind. It was satisfying in many ways as well because this concept just has so much heart and was refreshing after such a sad episode.

However, and a big however, I'm still not ultimately sure it worked as an episode of Super Sentai overall. Although I loved the concept, the treatment of the concept and the ultimate resolution of it all, whenever it did shift to action the action felt awkwardly tacked on and rushed. I mean the action wasn't bad so much, it just didn't feel all that purposeful, it felt like they resorted to action because they had a contractual obligation to. That felt especially true of the wrap up fight with Pteragordon and the giant Whereameye which just felt like a clip from another episode stuck on at the end so they could kill off the villain once and for all.

This weeks episode didn't feel quite like any episode of Super Sentai I've ever seen before this and although I'm not sure the experiment worked exactly, the choice to focus on emotional drama rather than telling the story completely through fight scenes did make for, in places, some extremely enjoyable viewing and overall I actually quited liked the episode, especially considering what we've been given these last few weeks.

Pros;

• Nossan.
•  Debo Whereameye.
• A surprisingly serious and respectful exploration of grief.
• It let the emotional drama play out and didn't just use it as an excuse for action.
• Even the gag worked this week.
• It had a nice message.

Cons;

• It did get quite cheesy and melodramatic in places. 
• The action almost felt out of place and that is a problem in an episode of super sentai.

Think About It!

-Locke

What would you rate, 'Where Am I? Get Through the Maze'?