[Fish Sandwich]

Wow, I'm shocked to see so many people still so *meh* at best on this show. This was one of the most stellar (does that count as a pun?) episodes of Sentai I've seen in a long while. A lot of people have had some valid concerns about Kyuranger's pacing and it indeed seems like when they just do actual two-parters things flow way better.

I seriously have like no complaints here and I'm actually a little shocked by just how much I did enjoy this. I've been giving Kyuranger a lot of credit so far and this whole episode felt like the show confirming that is actually IS as clever as I've been saying.

I felt like everything came together super smoothly. Lucky mopes around like a jerk and gives up on fighting, but everyone else gets his butt back in gear. It shows that the other members of the team are important, gives some actual dimension to Lucky, and given the implication he hasn't had to deal with setbacks in a long while his angst seems sensible for the character, and deliberately irrational. Garu isn't the bad guy because he punches him in the face twice. He's the hero!

I love how the guy primarily responsible for getting Lucky back on his feet is the one who was explicitly established in the very first episode as not only having the most respect for Lucky out of anyone, but also having faced way more serious disillusionment. It added a ton of weight to the scene that wouldn't have been there if it were just like, Spada or somebody telling him to get over himself, and was even nicer since Garu has been pretty out of focus since said premiere.

This really felt like a deliberate attempt to fix Lucky's character and I felt it worked extremely well. From little niggles like him not knowing about Jark Matter with the implications of his whole upbringing, to the really big things like adding weight to his stupid catchphrases by turning them into deliberate acts of defiance in the face of an oppressive evil trying to crush all happiness in the universe, which is something I really adore since it fits the whole theme of optimism the show has. He even uses his brain to come up with a plan to defeat the bad guy rather than some cop-out power up or something.

It's just... If Lucky goes right back to square one for the rest of the series I'll buy the hatred, but it feels like some of you are being excessively negative towards him and Kyuranger in general sometimes. I hope that doesn't come off sounding too spiteful or anything, you probably don't need me to tell you your opinions are as valid as mine, but I genuinely feel there's a lot more to like in this show than there is to hate.