7 Thoughts About Kyuuranger Episode 14: "Dancing in the Space Ryugu Palace!"

This one isn't really plot focused at all, so I'll keep this post short.

1.) And it's right about here that I realize that even though they tried to call him a wolf, Garu is really an anthropomorphic version of a puppy.  After losing his fight to Lucky in the first episode, he's been the biggest believer in the guy ever since.  Even when Lucky had lost all hope in himself, Garu still pushed him to "make his own luck".

This episode, Garu's feeling rather unlucky himself since he hasn't been summoned out into the field in several missions, and it's Lucky that has to convince Garu that good or bad luck is a thing you create, not something you innately have.  This works because it shows the two characters providing support to one another, but also because the Red and Blue often have unique relationships that they may not have with other members of the team.  Like ShinkenBlue being the second to ShinkenRed, or DekaRed and DekaBlue's rivalry.  Here it's the way these two support one another and push the other to greater heights.  Very cool.

2.) This week's monster of the week despises the idea of anyone else experiencing luxury.  And so over the course of just the opener, he shuts down: a guy on a romantic date with his girlfriend, a dude who just got a swaggy outfit (there are some closet jokes to be made here but I'm above that), and some poor salaryman who was going to splurge on himself and get a nice meal for once.   Much like the Birthday monster from near the beginning of the series, this is both hilarious and dickish all at once, so you can't wait to see the guy go down.

3.) This week introduces Kyuuranger's idea of a pleasure planet in the Space Ryugu Palace: a unique, flying palace that travels around the universe and caters to every need of any visitor who reaches it.  It's owned by Jark Matter and is a place where they apparently place lower-ranking members as staff if they're not actively being used to occupy/invade another planet, and is run by the King of Space Pop, MagiYellow.   I have to say, I was expecting him to have a much larger role than the one we got so either this got cut for time or he's going to make another appearance later in the series?



4.) And now, our Kyu Globe update.  This episode another three globes were added to the Kyuuranger arsenal:

- The Pisces Kyu Globe, which creates a giant fish.
- The Columba Kyu Globe, which creates doves and sprays confetti everywhere.
- The Virgo Kyu Globe, which...puts guys in dresses? 

...Okay, so they have 88 potential Kyu Globes, I guess all of them can't be winners, alright??

5.) The first time the Commander did something incredibly goofy during "serious" moments I was kinda pissed.  I'm not sure if I'm numb to it now, or if I'm just entertained at the fact that Raptor is as exacerbated with Xiao's silliness as I am, except she exists in the series and can actually do stuff about it.   Either way, their interactions this episode felt natural and not out of place at all--potentially because the mission and the way it was being handled was completely silly, but still.  They nailed being funny.

6.)  So Balance, who's still far and away my favorite character, especially when I realized he's basically the superhero version of Dancing Dan in that he's constantly dancing and stealing shit--spends the whole episode excited about the potential of visiting the Space Ryugu Palace because he felt like there would be a lot of "treasure".

Let's make this clear: they informed the team that the villain this week was at the Palace and they needed to get to him because he'd kidnapped a ton of people, and Balance's response was: "Hey, that place looks fancy.  I bet there's a LOT of cool shit to steal there!"  Perfect.   Then after Garu manages to distract the bad guy long enough to get his remote to open the gate where he's locked up all the people he's kidnapped, we switch to a battle scene where Balance mysteriously has something around his neck that no one asks about.

Finally at the end of the episode, Balance unwraps his "treasure", which is revealed to be a Tamatebako, a box that's said to rapidly increase your aging.  He opens the box, and...nothing happens at first.  Then, smoke drenches the area around him while the rest of the team hides away until it dissipates.  It seems as if nothing's happened, until Balance suddenly reveals he feels four hundred years old, which to his race is probably not terribly long at all.  Balance was 200 before and claimed he was one of the youngest in his machine species.  The device totally works, and Balance asks for congratulations while excitedly high-fiving people as he's suddenly had "200 birthdays at once".   In an episode full of laughs this was probably my favorite: anyone else would've had to learn a lesson from the fact that they're still such a blatant thief, but for Balance he just gets 200 birthdays.  Never change, Balance.

7.)  Next Week: I can't say we're getting back to the plot with episode 15, but I can say we're doing something I didn't think they would: we're leaving Earth!  It's only temporary of course, but I love that they're going to at least try to develop other worlds and cultures, starting with them visiting a planet still stuck in that tribal phase--worst yet, they seem to be worshipping a member of Jark Matter!  Uh-oh.