[Aoi Kurenai]

Yeah, I personally don't get the hate, but whatever. This show continues to be fantastic and probably my favorite since ToQger. It's refreshing to have a Sentai I actively look forward to after two years of duds.

The Stinger reveal was interesting because, yeah, he's not evil or whatever, but he's clearly still going to have issues with Champ at some point. I look forward to seeing how they reconcile him being a loner with him (possibly) having killed Champ's creator at some point in the past. His actor is also the best of the bunch, so it's great he's given the most meaty role.

I was really scared the series would be grounded on Earth for the rest of its run, but the way Toei have actually branded this as "the first chapter" of the series and given this story arc an actual name gives me a lot of hope that we won't be on Earth for the rest of the show. It's literally called the "Earth Liberation arc", that implies it's only one part of the series. If anything, saving Earth is what will kickstart the team into going back out to space - they show they can defeat so many generals on one planet and that's something they can use to give hope back to people.

But yeah, Kyuranger continues to be a very well done series for me. I absolutely did not enjoy the first episode, it was rushed and Lucky was overbearing as all get out. The show immediately did a 180 and toned Lucky down - he's still a vocal Red, but he seems like a genuine character who cares for his team mates and people he interacts with. So much of the show seems like it's very well thought out and detail is given to aspects I'd never even really focused on before. My favorite part of the episode was actually seeing the crowd finally support the Kyurangers. It wasn't your typical "crowd wildly cheers on the heroes" scene, it was a few people muttering their support. It nails the idea that these people have been so despondent for who knows how long and this is their first real taste of hope, which is something they don't even really know how to react to. It was my favorite moment of the episode.