7 Thoughts on Uchuu Sentai Kyuuranger Episode 24: "I'll Become a Fighting Shield!"

I debated whether or not to bring this back since I got so far behind.  What made the decision for me in the end though?  Kamen Rider Build.  I just couldn't pass up the possibility of doing "Super Hero Time" and enjoying it.  So having said that...let's go ahead and start catching up!  By tonight I'll have us at least on episode 25.

1.)  Is this the first time in history that a Rebellion has had official licenses?  It feels like that goes against the whole concept.  You're technically a guerilla warfare group, striking at your enemy when necessary or during ideal situations.  What's the point of the licenses?  Maybe they're thinking positively and assuming they'll win, and this is for after that?  After all, we've established that there aren't any cops in this universe--and there will definitely need to be some kind of way to establish order when Jark Matter's finally taken down.

....That, or I'm overthinking this and this is an in-show advertisement for a Kyuuranger fan club.

 2.) With there being over three dozen Sentai series now, sometimes I forget if a power's been used before or not.  But this still feels pretty novel.  Heroes have definitely been trapped inside of a monster of the week's body before, but I don't know that they've ever been actively digested!  This really gave this week's episode a sense of urgency--they weren't just lost inside a maze of the monsters body or trapped in an alternate dimension, the very life force was being sucked from them and it really felt like they would be consumed if the other members of the team didn't break them out in time.

3.) Kyu Globe Update:  The Tate/Scotum Kyu Globe, which creates a massive shield to protect the heroes.  The Sentai wikia keeps track of all these, but I wonder if they'll ever actually make it to using all 88 before the end of the series?

4.) Tsurugi's past is kind of a bummer, but it balances out the whole busted Mary Sue/Gary Stu vibe he's had going on.  It feels like this episode is covering a lot of the plot points we've learned since his awakening, only in greater detail.   Going back to look at the war during Tsurugi's time, it looks like I surmised before: the team just used the individual skill globes without every transforming themselves.  Meanwhile Tsurugi did all the heavy lifting, as Jark Matter killed his comrades one by one.

So his arrogance isn't an act, it's how he's protecting himself after having lost all of his friends.  We also witness first hand how he used his immortality to off Don Armage and how it had zero effect.  It looks pretty plainly like Tsurugi wasn't any match for the Don at all, immortality or no--even the Don points out that Tsurugi's no longer immortal and thus not the threat he once was.   This isn't even the mystery getting deeper--now it just feels like Tsurugi was in denial about how the last fight actually went.

5.)  I knew we would get there eventually, but...ugh.  This thing is not pretty.  Kyutamajin draws on the powers of all 12 Change Globes, but really it's just a bunch of balls stacked on top of each other.   Looks like if you blew on this thing it'd fall over and break into pieces again.  I was giving Plex props for getting its design game back up, but this is where they've been tripping up for years--the giant "toss 'em all together" robot.  They really should just bring back Carrier Zords and be done with it.

6.) Early in the episode, Tsurugi sent Spada and Raptor on a secret mission.  By the end, we learn what that mission was: finding the Horologium Kyu Globe, a globe with the power to rewind time.  With it, Tsurugi plans to see exactly what happened in the past and how Don Armage managed to survive their final fight.

I'm also hoping that it doesn't allow them to "change" the past, as Tsurugi seemed to ignore the very idea of that when it was brought up. 

 7.) Next Episode: Uh-oh!  The power of the Horologium Kyu Globe has brought Kotaro's mother back!  Is it a trick by the globe, or is it really her?  And if they use its power, will she vanish for good?  Whatever the answer, this is going to be a pretty sad episode for Kotaro!