[Tokumonkey]

I'm not voting yet since I've only seen the raw (I'll wait for TVN for the sub; do NOT translate any part of the series name, UGH), but so far, it's feeling like a 5. Observations:

- I suspect that we were introduced first to Hami, Spada, and Champ as a brief nod to the "team after the anniversary starts with three members" tradition.

- "Yossha, lucky!" is already grating, and I'm not sold on that performance. I'm a little worried we've got another Takaharu on our hands. His voice *sounds* like Daigo, but he's kinda got Takaharu's dead eyes. (And in fairness, it's hard to match the charisma of Daigo's actor.)

- I did not notice an "Uchuu Sentai... KYURANGER! *explosions*" group pose in this episode. That's kind of unprecedented, isn't it?

- I'm already enjoying the performances on the part of Hami and Spada's performers. Oh, SNACK, the actress who plays Hami reminds me of Luka from Gokaiger, which is funny, since as I understand it, she's playing the voice of Raptor 283.

- They mostly successfully pulled off the battle locations not feeling entirely familiar, and the completely new mecha battle set is very atmospheric. This series may yet actually pull off feeling different.

- We've had series in which the red hero joins an established team last (Kyoryuger and Gekiranger), but this episode makes the red hero *next* to last, which may have been another deliberate attempt to break a pattern.

- I did NOT expect that KyurenOh would be functional with no legs: that's great, and it opens up some (effects-heavy) new possibilities. The Kyutama cockpits are seriously cool. This is a great-looking series on a lot of levels.

- But oh, honey, we need to talk about that closing sequence. Maybe... it'll grow on me? I'm sort of aching for the kind of low-key, atmospheric, NON-DANCING closing sequence from Shinkenger. I kinda liked the "jumping on the planet" visual, but not enough to get past how much I don't like the fish-eye lens. Not a fan, yet.

- I was hoping we wouldn't meet all nine Kyurangers in the first episode, and I was partially rewarded. It's not quite as slow as build as I'd have liked - we've got 5-6 in the first episode, depending on whether you want to count un-transformed Raptor 283. Stinger didn't appear at all, and Balance and Naga Rey appear only momentarily. Looks like we may not meet Stinger next week, either, which'd be swell, but my money's on him getting teased in the last 30 seconds like these two.

- I wonder just how modular the opening and closing sequences are. They seem to be deliberately holding back the four heroes we haven't met/seen transformed yet, but they're present in other shots.

I'm greatly looking forward to having words added, but the plot was intelligible without it. I'm amused by how much of the Japanese I can kinda follow given that I still haven't taken an actual class.