[Fish Sandwich]

Man, Bamba's got more edge than his own sword. Someone really needs to explain to this guy that he's in a show for small children.

I'm not gonna lie, he's by far my favorite character.

This was by far my favorite episode so far, too. Despite the continued issues with characterization and the like, the plot here was genuinely engaging, and simple, heroic stuff like seeing Koh and Melto fighting a monster to cure their poisoned friends, while they themselves are being hurt by poison, is great. It's almost everything I could want in a Sentai episode. Major props for the memorable way Tankjoh went out, too. That was a cool finishing move.

But now that this show started the process of ironing out its flaws, I want to elaborate on why I feel this first arc was so sloppy. I keep seeing everyone mentioning how overly fast the pacing is, but in my opinion, the amount of episodes they did this in is absolutely NOT the problem. Or at least, wording it that way implies to me that they simply did things too fast, which belies the real problem that they straight up forgot to put in a ton of connective tissue to make these plot points work.

It's not a matter of not having enough space, it's how inefficiently they're using it. Think about stuff like the Masters getting bumped off in the premiere. That seems like the obvious way to start the show to me, but I think why it felt so wrong to people was because they didn't use the screentime they got to properly establish the bond between them and the main characters in a way where we would care when they died. Have Koh and Master Red doing some father/son style bonding over something (like they showed in the flashback this episode!). Instead we got scenes like the Masters walking through the woods, telling us about their faith in the new Ryusoulgers in a blandly expository way when they could've been showing it.

Imagine if Towa's lady friend was introduced BEFORE he was already partway through his arc. Imagine the added significance this plot would've had. She doesn't need to be the focus of a whole episode or anything. Just a quick scene or two is all that's needed to establish this stuff. But instead we waste time with quick scenes establishing stuff like that guy with the mask existing, which hasn't even been followed up on yet.

That the crux of the issue for me. Nothing is properly explored, and it absolutely could've been in the same amount of time with tighter writing. Maybe Koh's desire for revenge against Tankjoh would've felt less limp if it were tied into other aspects of the plot. Maybe if you gave Tyramigo a motivation for running away, even a simple one, it would've been a chance to develop the characters more as they have to convince him to come back or something.

I'm aware I'm being an armchair writer here and maybe I'm making it sound more simple than it is, but I'm also thinking these ideas up quickly and on the fly compared to an entire staff of people with way more time, including a writer who doesn't quite seem to know what to do with this show yet.

That being said, it is, without a doubt, definitely getting better. These episodes impressed me quite a bit, and so as long as Ryusoulger keeps up this momentum, I won't be complaining anywhere near as much as I have, and with all of the above off my chest, I'm willing to give Ryusoulger a fresh start.