Zi-O 36
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Still it was a pretty subpar tribute episode.
I agree, this was a clumsy one. It barely had any connection to
Kiva -- the most tenuous tribute we've had since the
Wizard one, probably. No story links or references beyond Jiro's throwaway mention of being Kiva's servant; nothing beyond a few familiar costumes and effects and stylistic trappings. It's surprising, given that most of the recent tributes have improved on the early ones and tied more directly into their source storylines and characters. It was worth it for how gorgeous Yuuko was and how lovely her musical themes were, but other than that, it felt pointless.
And what was with that bizarre manhole-cover theme Yuuko had going? As characters' favorite/trademark weapons go, that's a pretty random one.
They bring back Yuri's actress but she played someone else
She did? Wow. Come to think of it, I guess she had to, since Yuri had died by 2008. It was nice to see her again, though, even briefly. The actress doesn't seem to have aged a day.
So were we supposed to conclude that Yuuko wasn't "Sailor-san" after all and pretending to be was just one more of her lies? That it was really Not-Yuri after all?
The Ginga stuff felt almost superfluous if not for the fact that it's Woz's new form
Yes. That's incredibly cursory, contrived plotting. They wanted to give Woz a new power so they just invented a random Rider with no personality or motivation for him to fight and defeat. It's as lazy as when DC invented the mindless Doomsday to kill Superman.
Since next week starts the
Kabuto tribute, involving alien invaders that come in meteorites from space, I hope they at least make some connection between that and Ginga's arrival here, so it doesn't feel quite so random.
Ryuusoulger episode 10
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This show is surprisingly mature underneath all the wackiness.
True of a lot of the best Sentai/KR seasons.
Rather than have “people die when druidons steal their life energy” be a simple way to raise stakes, it goes out of its way to look into the motivations, reactions, and emotions that surround death.
Yeah -- as you've mentioned before, it's taking a common pattern from
Kamen Rider and applying it to SS.
Turning the city set into a large-scale Rube Goldberg machine was a clever sight gag that you don't see very often in Sentai.
Yeah, that was terrific physical comedy -- and it looked like they did much of it practically, which suggests they've learned something from their overuse of garish, cluttered CGI last season.
I'm really starting to like Asuna. The actress is impressive when she's given something to work with, and she got to show various sides of Asuna's character, including quirks like her uncanny luck and her love of meat. Although for a moment there, I thought they'd forgotten that she was freakishly strong.
