7 Thoughts on Kyuuranger Space 30: "All Right! The Miraculous Kyu Globe!"

Our heroes go up against the head of Jark Matter himself, Don Armage.  Let's see how they do!

1.)  We don't know for sure if Tsurugi ever faced this form or not, but I'm leaning more towards "no" than anything.  We actually saw the climactic final showdown between Tsurugi and Armage, and he was in his usual creepy shadow coat.  That means not only didn't Tsurugi take him out, seemingly he never had a shot in the first place, since Armage pops up and immediately wrecks not only him, but the other five members of the team with relative ease.   ....Oh.  And nearly kills Lucky.  Which reminds me...

 2.) So when I think about it, shouldn't the power of the Phoenix Kyu Globe be a different kind of immortality than what Tsurugi's been talking about all this time?   They assumed ageless (and possibly Full Immortality), but that's never been the power of a phoenix.

After Lucky catches a Critical Hit from Don Armage, Tsurugi reveals that the power of the Phoenix Kyu Globe revived him when he was about to die.  He intends to use the Globe to do the same for Lucky, only he's not sure if it won't kill him doing so.  Only...why would it?  The point of a Phoenix is to revive again and again.  I'm glad we finally got some clarification on how his powers work, though.

3.) With Lucky down and the Orion damaged, the Kyuuranger have their back against the wall when they choose to battle Don Armage once more even after getting wrecked by him once already. But fortunately for them, Tsurugi's up to the task of extending his life, and their patience in their leader is rewarded as he returns to help them in battle. It's a little overly "Red's The Only Character That Matters", but it still gives Stinger the best line of the episode: "Don Armage, this is the miracle that you denied!" 

4.)  I have two major problems with this episode.  One is that the Orion power-up doesn't quite feel earned.  The group has their back against the wall and things DO seem hopeless, but Lucky just kinda arrives on the scene and a quick conversation with Orion is all it takes before he's given the Kyu Globe that turns things around.   While I love seeing a villain get owned, I do think this time it would've helped if Lucky had been in a desperate situation against Don Armage instead of Orion simply saying, "You're my descendant, so have a power-up!"

The other problem is...the final fight sucked.  It's supposed to be a one-sided owning, but instead it feels like two characters afraid to actually fight each other.  Either Don Armage's suit is too weighty and impossible to fight in, or they didn't want to get Leo Red Orion's suit all dirty since it's probably the most pristine white I've ever seen.  Whatever the reason, it stole the gravitas when they weren't actually throwing down.  Sentai fights are rarely gritty, tooth-and-nail affairs, but they have (and can continue to be) much, much better than this.

5.) Because Orion blocks for the team more in this episode than a whole defensive line, he winds up taking a little too much damage and doesn't get a chance to make it back to his wife and kid.  As a result, there's no one remaining to pass on the legend of the Kyuuranger--which means no one knows the legend and our heroes can't seek it out.   Basically, they get McFly'd.  (Shoutout to Gwenpool.)

In order to keep that from happening, Xiao and Champ decide to stay behind to share the legend.  I could have a lot of issues with this, but honestly I'm just glad we finally got to see where an ancient legend came from for once.  Usually they just mention it and you wonder who on Earth passed it down.

6.) With our heroes having finished off Don Armage, they return to the present, excited to see what their world looks like without Don Armage.  Except...yeah. Despite seeing him die twice, the guy's still around!

Now to be fair, all of this was a massive time paradox to begin with, but at the moment I'm more concerned with Tsurugi.  He's killed this guy twice--seen it happen three times and STILL he's not dead?   There's no way he's not wondering what has to be done to be rid of this jerk once and for all.

7.) Next Episode: Naga might not be a jerk!  The group vows to pull him away from his evil self, but from the looks of things they travel "inside" Naga to rescue his true self?   Could it be that he's really possessed and thus not a horrible person?