Kyuranger 14: Urashima Taro In Space

It's time for a wacky episode. The episode was written by Kento Shimoyama and I'm personally more impressed with him now. I can't forget how Ninninger can be boring but some people don't succeed the first time. My feeling towards Shimoyama is like how I feel towards the Super Hero Taisen series. First movie was really a disaster but succeeding movies manage to fix what's broken. Let's get down to business shall we? 

Garu feels he's so unlucky. I guess it's only normal that your fellow teammate can feel down. I enjoyed how it comes to full circle. It's Garu who snapped Lucky out of his pessimism. Now it's Lucky's turn to return the favor. 

The plan is to invade Space Ryugu Castle. This isn't the first time Urashima Taro got featured in Super Sentai. Do you remember the 17th episode in Bioman where Monster and Juuoh were tasked to find the descendant of Urashima Taro? There was also the 18th episode in Gavan when Hunter Killer planned to get the treasure of Ryugu Castle. As far as I've heard Blue SWAT's 26th episode featured Urashima Taro but I haven't seen it. Winspector made a reference to Urashima Taro in episode 33 but not to Ryugu Castle. Did I miss any more Toku series by Toei where Ryugu was mentioned? 

Sidenote: The story of Urashima Taro, that is the underwater palace where the main character spent time with the princess. The ending is pretty sad since Urashima Taro realize that time froze around him and everything he knew was gone. The ending also made a reference to the box that would make you grow old. In some versions of the tale, the main hero dies as no human could live up to 400 years. 

The plan is to rescue people who are arrested for using luxury. So what's it really with Imperial Daikan Yuterujan arrested them and decided to put all luxury in Space Ryugu Castle. I don't know what the ship is for. I guess residents of the Galactic Empire ahem Space Shogunate spend their time there during their leaves. I just have a hunch that Darth Sidious ahem Don Armage may not be so happy to see Space Ryugu Castle destroyed.

The episode is also full of cartoony humor. Garu's obvious disguise as a lady fools Yuterujan. The Kyurangers' obvious disguise fools everyone. Come on, they already all look too obvious to be the Kyurangers. I guess we really can't do without typical cartoon humor these days. On the other hand, I wished that Hammy played a bigger role than rescuing civilians. She could have killed Yuterujan after taking advantage of his weakness but I guess they wanted something funnier.

Next week, we're going to the Planet Vera. We've been stuck in Earth for too long. I'm wondering will most of the events still be on post-invasion Earth or will we get more planets? What if we might stay in Planet Vera where the sea is polluted. Hammy takes the spotlight for next week. Zyuohger and Gaoranger taught children about respect for nature and wildlife. Go-onger taught children how to care for the environment for an entire season. Hirohisa Soda wrote a lot about misused science and care for the environment (and can't forget that episode in Turboranger where Peropero Bouma created nightmarish trash zombies). I guess Kyuranger is going to do the same for next week's episode.