[Fish Sandwich]

It's a good thing this show's direction is so spectacular, because the writing is still doing next to nothing for me. The plot here did little besides establish where the Ryusoulgers are going to be crashing for the rest of the series. No character development, no real expansion of any of the stuff we learned about the setting last episode beyond some factoids about how the monsters are going to work this season. It's just aggressively thin, and while I'm not upset about this per se, I do feel like a Sentai show clearly trying to reinvigorate the franchise the way Ryusoulger is should've been able to come out of the gate stronger than this. It especially frustrated me that the debut of Kishiryuoh, which was obviously meant to be a big moment, is horribly undercut by the fact we just saw him last week.

Going by the name of the episode, I'm pretty sure Koh realizing he can fight alongside Tyramigo is meant to be the high point of the drama here, but when we've already seen him in the driver's seat before, I just... it reminded me of the early episodes of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers where they kept pretending we didn't already see all the Rangers' gear in the first episode, but Day of the Dumpster had the excuse of being a pilot meant to get the show greenlit. Here they just shot themselves in the foot for no reason.

Mind you, I'm being a real whiner here. Just because it could've been a lot more doesn't change the fact that this is a perfectly servicable episode of Sentai. It entertained me the whole way through, and certain moments like the reveal of where Tyramigo is were great. I have no doubt this will be a show that gets better as it goes along. I imagine next week is going to be where Ryusoulger actually starts to find its footing.

But before I get too off-brand with all this negativity, that direction!



It's not even just the money shots like this one that make it great (although, come on, check out that flawless composition), the attention to detail extends to the "boring" scenes as well, and consequently makes them significantly more engaging. Granted, it's not anything too crazy, but the restraint Ryusoulger has to not go overboard making every shot super dynamic is only another point in its favor.