Zyuohger Episode 4: "ROAR In The Ring!" Discussion
 

The newest challenge in the Blood Game involves abducting people & forcing them to fight each other. When Leo & Sela get captured, things take a turn for the worse!

Decent episode. We get our glimpse at the gorilla. I'm interested to see how that goes down, since even the Zyuman are surprised by this.

As for the episode proper, I'm not sure how to feel. I like the possibility of an imbalanced rivalry between Sela and Leo, and I do hope that it's properly resolved, since I want them to have their proper battle.
Yep mhmm yeah. I did enjoy seeing snippets of their history, as they were apparently big martial artists, but Leo is staunchly against fighting women. Otherwise, it was just kind of eh.
And Tusk being afraid of sniffing Sela's socks. Poor guy, in a lose lose situation there~

Sela wears socks?

Yes, yes she does~

Underneath the leggings or are they ankle socks or something?

They seem to go past the ankle, but they also look quite loose and not very leg hugging.
Though, this is based entirely on Amu holding them, not seeing her wearing them.

Although the story did not really move forward, I appreciated the look at Leo and Sela's relationship. Satisfying to see them whoop ass on the MOTW

Again, Zyuohger been far more effective as pitching its characters as people we should give a shit about than any show since, probably Gokaiger (maybe Kyoryuger when it was hitting its beats).

At this point I think I'm in for the long haul on this show. I'm really enjoying every aspect of it so far. The characters are really fun and I agree with OptionZero that they all feel reasonably fleshed out at this point. Remembering back to my failed attempts to get into Ninninger, I distinctly recall the complete lack of personality the yellow guy had - really not seeing anything like that here.

I'm also starting to get used to the Minecraft Zords. I daresay I'm even beginning to like them.

Possibly my favorite part so far, though, is the villains. I really like how cruel and sadistic they are. The plan this week was mostly an excuse to get Sela and Leo to fight, but the concept behind and the version we see with the musicians were pretty dark.

So yeah, definitely liking the show and have no plans on dropping it at this point. Mind you, I felt the same way about ToQGer at first, and I ended up drifting away from that one about halfway through. Still, for now...

No, those were her leggings. I think Tusk's reluctance to smell them has less to do with the parts that cover her feet and more about the, um... northern regions.

As a side note, I'm deeply amused that Yamato's uncle now thinks Tusk is some kind of weird pervert. :lol

Or the fact that all things considered, Sela's clothes probably smell like fishwrap.

Because anthropomorphic cartilaginous predatory fish girl.

It's funny that most of the posts on this thread have been about an anthropomorphic shark's socks.

It's not a topic brought up often.
We mustn't sully this opportunity~

Sela has a homing attack. She is officially the best Blue Ranger of all time.

Anyway, can we PLEASE get past Nadia having to go down to the field and revive the MOTW? Please? It's like the only shortcoming I can really see in this show right now because of how egregious it is. Heck, even Ninninger got this right!

But then we won't have the
"NARIA! Give him a continue!"
"Right away."
*Teleports down*
"This is infused with Master Genis's cells, I'm sure you'll make good use of it."
*Kisses coin*
*Coin insert*
"THANK YOU NARIA!"
Scene! We can't not have that! It's more vital than the combination sequence, which is already being trimmed down :p

Love the characterization that this show is giving everyone. Leo's motives were, in my opinion, a great lesson for kids watching. It's not necessarily a "women aren't strong enough to take care of themselves", but more of a "a real man wouldn't ever hurt a woman", which the character never backed down from even when you thought he did.

Makes me like Leo a ton more than I have. And Sela is just awesome.

5/5

Great to Sentai focusing on character-driven episodes instead of gimmick-driven ones.

They're basically letting the rangers take turns on character moments, which is just fine. Next week I guess is Zyuoh Eagle getting some new powers, then we can get back to the supporting characters. Really good episode. I hope Zyuohger keeps up this level of quality.

I'm really loving the series so far. This was a great character episode for Leo and Sela after Amu's in Episode 3 and Tusk and Yamato in 1 & 2. The cube animals are starting to grow on me, but still not enough to buy the toys.

Couldn't agree more. Based on my profile name on this site you could probably guess I am a big fan of Leo, and this episode made me like him even more. So far every episode has worked to further the main characters and the relationships between them in a very effective way. I just hope we don't see a bunch of people shipping Leo and Sela. That might get annoying. I am really loving Zyuohger on the whole though, a great season so far.

You don't like the idea of Romance between Sela and Leo? What is your suggestion of the relationship between Leo and Sela? Even Tusk says Leo have a thing for a women which he implied Sela! I smell the romance between Leo and Sela!

These things matter.

All this talk of socks takes me back...

Chivalrous rivalry that Sela is annoyed with because she see's Leo's reluctance to fight at full strength as "You holding back your punches and that makes me feel like you think women are weak fragile flowers and can't take a hit. And I can take a hit. So punch me. Do it. Treat me as a worthy opponent and kick my ass." Which, as Kickback brought up, is bunk because Leo doesn't think he shouldn't hit Sela because she's a weak fragile flower, but because only colossal jerkasses hit women and he isn't a colossal jerkass.

Poor Tusk, he was forced by Yamato to smell Leo's sock. He have a very sensitive nose! How could you do a cruel thing, Yamato? You supposed to care about ANIMALS, Not torture them! You're a Zoologist!

Leo is a comic relief who doesn't want to hit womens and Sela doesn't want to be treated as a weak one because she is a woman!

So much Character-Driven this show than last few Sentai! No wonder why they abandoned Toy Gimmick for more Character-Driven

I think last few Sentai was over reply on Gimmick more than Character-Driven which could be a factor of why Ninninger wasn't a great or not very memorable Sentai.

Yeah I feel like these episodes are especially nessicary when a new show is starting up.

I'm not opposed to it, in fact it's the one potential relationship that actually works given what we've seen so far. In fact, I am kind of for it, I just don't want to see some nasty fan fiction or something like that, you know? I do think it is an interesting dynamic that could play out well in a romantic situation. Maybe for once it could actually be developed over the season unlike the one in Kyoryuger that came in out of nowhere.

Holefully, considering there's no peripheral collectable trinket to collect alongside the mecha that interacts with the changer (Zyudenchi, Ranger Keys, Hiden Disks, Gosei Cards, Shurikens) then we can get a more heavy focus on the characters than a collectable gimmick. Hell, we only have 3 accessory mecha announced unlike all the various Ressha.

Compared to Nininger's pacing which spammed out auxillery mecha back to back...

I just love this show.

Of the characters, Leo is the only one I'm not really feeling right now. He just doesn't seem to pop as much as the others (Despite his garish outfit). Amu is quite clever, but is just more willing to enjoy life rather than constantly worry about something that is out of her hands, Tusk isn't the most creative as a stoic character, but he's willing to go against the will of his team, while Sela isn't as much of a straight (Wo)man as I thought, being silly at times but also takes pride in fighting, pure and simple.
Leo just doesn't have any qualities that go against his general character.

Not to say I dislike him. He's really hard not to like, but he seems a little overshadowed in comparison to his compatriots.

I'm surprised you forgot to mention about Yamato

At least he's not screaming a lot like Takaharu! :rolleyes

Well, he's pretty cool, too. I'm a big fan of him, since he's cool headed, but prone to panic. He's stressed out, but not running around and screaming. He's really enjoyable since his reactions are what I expect. He's not running around screaming burning justice, but he's also not a wet blanket like Takeru from Shinkenger.

What is this Wet Blanket? :confused:

A wet blanket basically means a person who doesn't react to anything or spoils fun by not participating.
Takeru, ShinkenRed, never really did much of anything (Well, from the first quarter of the series that I watched) but stand around spouting random wisdom towards his compatriots.

Pretty good episode. The only hiccup imo is that the fight between the two civilians started a bit quick. It's kind of a small thing, I guess, but I found it kind of dumb that all the one guy needed to start beating up his friend is being tossed in a ring with electrified fences or whatever. Who even does that. If you weren't willing to fight him before you knew the ring was electrified, why be willing to do so afterwards? Just wait it out. Of course we see later that if they refuse to fight the dude just shocks them to force the issue, but that happens later. As it is it just makes the guy look like a weak-willed turdhole, which I don't think was what they were going for (someone who was somewhat weak willed but forced by the circumstances. he wasn't forced).

Again, small, but it bothered me.

Anyway! Again, good episode. Some really neat character moments, the fights are nice, the suits are nice. It's nice. I'm liking this way more than I was Ghost at this point (actually, I think I like it more than I do Ghost right now...) but with the boon that none of the merchandise is really appealing. Woo.

Sela, Be careful of what you wish for. You want Leo to fight you since he didn't hit your face twice

Ask Yoko. She got a brutal beatdown from Ryuji after Ryuji overheated so much. And plus Yoko was so angry at Ryuji that she feel bad of this

What if Leo was brainwashed by one of Deathgalien to give a brutal beatdown on everyone who is boy amd GIRL!!! You will regret this! Someday Leo will hurt you for REAL.

I'm warming you, Sela! :mad: HA HA HA HA!!!

Can I just say that this show would be a lot more enjoyable without the forced Sentai-tropes? I mean, the setup itself was nice, let Leo and Sela fight, let us learn more about why these two don't get along well. But the Deathgaliens or whatever they’re called are so pointless it’s ridiculous.

And the fights themselves are rather boring too. The one in the first episode was the best, after that it’s just "meh". Not bad but not great either.

I’m not saying they should drop the MOTW-format altogether, but the always recurring tropes are so boring. It’s always "Monster shows up, gets some kind of edge over the protagonists, they find out the weakness of the enemy, defeat it, then

Monster grows big, call the cube animals, combine, beat the enemy in a lame ass way".

It’s so boring. I like the characters, I really do, and I think the humor is on point too, but the always recurring Sentai tropes are so bad. Just cut that shit away and do something new for once. And no, I don’t accept the "They need to showcase toys"-aspect, you can think of new ways to use a combining robot in the story.

I think part of my problem is that it’s always done the same way. If you would have cheating Deathgaliens or some who glitch themselves continues so that the whole pointless scene with Naria is gone maybe it would be more enjoyable. Or just don’t give every freaking pawn a continue. If they can’t beat the heroes the first time, why even bother wasting a coin on that guy?

And instead of making the mechs existence solely limited to fighting grown bad guys, create threats only the mecha can deal with without recycling the MOTW. It’s not that hard.

Maybe that’s just me with my dislike for the ever recurring tropes, maybe that’s what Japan wants to see, but I think Sentai needs to do something new with their format. You can even keep all your tropes but please use them better. I won’t even complain about the role calls, that’s a thing I can get behind and it doesn’t eat up much time. But recycling the same basic format for every monster every week? No, that needs to stop.

Other than that I think the show is good, I like it. Characters are nice, feels much more like a group and not just Red & friends, and the setups for the characters are good. I keep watching, but if they keep it up with the same MOTW-bullshit I might drop the show sooner than later.

And yes, I'm very well aware that we are only 4 episodes in and they can make a miraculous turn with the concept, but come on, do you seriously expect it to happen? I don't.

Considering the fight was pretty even until Leo faked out again I'm not sure if Leo is that much stronger. And even if he wins, Sela will be happier with a bloody nose than getting handled the win just because she’s a girl.

This is why I liked what they did with Gobusters so much because at least there the fights had a purpose beyond trying to sell toys to you...the whole time limit thing added a sense of danger and urgency to the situation.

It makes you wonder why they don't just shoot her before she has a chance to make the monsters big...

I completely enjoyed this episode a lot. Sela and Leo are some of my favorite characters in this show right now. I like the rivalry between them especially because she wants to prove herself. I also liked Leo wanted to protect her too. I love that they both protected Amu too. It was really fun though. I am enjoying this season a lot right now.

Same reason you don't take on boss monsters in RPGs without leveling properly....it will probably end with their asses getting kicked

You can... but without the tropes, the show wouldn't be "Sentai." Because more than any franchise I've ever seen, Sentai tropes are the show. And when you remove them, Sentai kinda stops being Sentai.

I, personally, would never want them to go away completely. The strict adherence to a recognizable structure is a major part of why I watch and love these shows. 1) Since every Sentai contains these tropes, it's fun to analyze and compare how their execution varies across different series. As such, they add a new metric by which you can judge the show's quality. 2) The formula forces me to enter a calming, meditative state that I appreciate. 3) The formula also means that shows are very consistent in quality -- they're rarely extremely extremely bad (nor, unfortunately, extremely good).

That said, certain shows implement the tropes in ways I like better than others. For example, Jetman is mostly comprised of very tropey episodes, but the writers shake up when in the episodes the tropes appear, which leads to some interesting variety. In a different way, Carranger is very tropey, but because of the show's satirical tone, the tropes are invigorated with new life.

Every piece of media must be engaged with on its own terms, and Sentai is no exception. If you can't embrace its tropes, which are so deeply ingrained, then I don't think you can watch or judge Sentai on its terms. At that point, you're judging the show based on criteria the creators never attempted to satisfy.