500 Plus Screen Captures of Uchu Sentai Kyuranger Episode 04

Raptor is distracted by dreams while the Jark Matter attack another planet. Can she pull together & help out the team?

Did the ship talk?!

I think we have a record for least YOSHAAAA LUCKY's ever. Also, Unlucky. NAISU.

Raptor was awesome.

Kinda love how most of this episode's "Yossha Lucky" are predictable, so not super annoying. There are only 4 of them, to boot.

I really really like the puns on next episode's title though.
Kyunin no Kyukyoku no Kyuseishu
(Kyunin=9, Kyukyoku=Ultimate, Kyuseishu=Savior)

I am loving this series so far.

Something about Raptor wanting to fight and sort of reach beyond her station is very endearing to me. Her wanting to be a member of the team feels very natural and I can only imagine would have felt like great payoff if this episode had happened a little later on in the series. Either way, I enjoyed this episode a ton. Raptor's such a fun character, she hasn't totally found her own voice yet and this is where someone like Lucky actually makes for a good member of the team.

I'm hoping focus episodes going forward are more like this one. While it was clearly Raptor's episode, we were still able to explore Spada a little more. This one also did a lot for me as far as liking Lucky - him likening Spada's insistence to make Raptor head back to the Orion with the monster stealing dreams sort of clues you in on Lucky's personality. I think he sees certain things at a very shallow level, but the way he thinks is totally based on the idea that people should be free to chase their dreams. He would make for a fantastic main character if not for his overbearing qualities. Now I'm just waiting for full on Spada and Hammy focus episodes. I think those two have the potential to be my absolute favorites.

But yeah, other than that, absolutely loving this show. I'm actively looking forward to Sentai week after week for the first time in years, that anticipation is a feeling I've sorely missed. It's promising that a series with a 9 member time doesn't actually have anyone I outright dislike. There's a weak link as far as character goes (Lucky) but, for the most part, I love the rest of the characters and think their odd mishmash of personalities exemplifies the idea of Sentai - different personalities coming together to get something done.

I haven't watch this episode yet but HOLY SHIT TAKATORA'S ACTOR IN THE NEXT EPISODE?!

So wait, if I'm assuming this to be correct, they've arrived to Earth, and it has multiple Daikaan on it? Does this mean that we're going to be on Earth for the rest of the series?

DAMN IT TOEI YOU JUST HAD TO FIND A WAY TO ANCHOR THEM TO EARTH DIDN'T YOU

Hopefully this one was good enough for everyone?

I mean, I'm not even sure what there'd be to complain about, this episode was really strong. Definitely the best one yet. That being said:

- Oh man, I mean, Earth is a cool place and all, and it's great that you guys wanna save it, on account of I'm from there, but can you maybe... just kinda... not save it right now? Hopefully they'll at least make occasional trips elsewhere. It's not really a complaint with the episode itself but when they were like "Also this planet has a ton of MotW on it!" it sort of crushed my heart.

- Also the Kyulette. On the upside, it means tighter focus for the stories, on the downside, much like the whole "they're a Space Sentai that hangs out on Earth" thing, this is exactly the sort of thing I was worried would happen before the series aired, especially once we found out there's five humans (i.e. proper actors) and four dudes in suits for the members. At least the suit guys are treated as equals, I guess. And presumably they'll all get together for all the bigger scenes. Like next week. I'm a lot less bummed about this than them staying on Earth, basically.

On to the episode proper though, and it's all good. The focus on Raptor here was really strong, and Kyuranger is once again being very smart about its writing by both using Lucky very properly, showing his heroic side and having him only say よっしゃラッキー！ a few times, AND topping it all off (does that count as a food pun?) by fleshing out Spada fairly nicely, all without taking the attention away from Raptor herself. Really well done stuff.

As for next week, I'm slightly bummed they're not playing out Stinger's whole bit a little longer but I also kinda knew in the back of my head it wasn't going to last, so I'm not too bothered.

EDIT: Oh, also I forgot to point out that Raptor did the narration for both last week's preview and the intro this week, further taking Lucky out of the spotlight. That was actually one of the coolest things about this episode to me.

Dammit. Earth. I was terrified of this.
Oh boy, Earth holds tons of different things that are normally exclusive to one planet, as well as having some kind of secret. My favorite.
Here's hoping they can depart from Earth by episode 10.

*Sigh*
Well, at least they're making it look like a shithole. I hope they keep the dreary look and feel to at least have something.

Anyway.
Episode was okay. I'm glad to see more of Raptor and Spada getting something. I feel the payoff would've been a lot greater if Raptor got her powers a little later. Turning her into the team's "6th" (I use that term extremely loosely) would've given her a bit more of an arc and would've been a lot more satisfying to both 1) Not see coming and 2) Give more breathing room for the others.
Can't always win, though. For what it was, it was enjoyable. Spada really felt like a protective older brother here. Was that his character? It seems every episode someone has a new interpretation of what Spada's character is supposed to be, so I don't know.
Whatever.
I liked seeing Raptor's dreaming to help fight, and I also liked Spada being the sensible one in saying that wanting to fight and being able to actually fight aren't the same thing. Lucky however, disagrees.

Time for my weekly bitchfest about Lucky!
I really thought he came off as dumber than usual here. The parents of the children are choosing the lesser of two evils, and are called out by Lucky because they chose the option that would let their children live. Then Lucky brings Raptor into a combat zone without regard for ability to protect herself solely because of Raptor's dream to fight.
Lucky would probably kick a kid out of a plane if he found out the kid's dream was to skydive...
He wasn't throwing out Yuusha Lucky at every opportunity, but he was just kind of an inconsiderate asshole.

Aside from that, the episode was okay. Sucks seeing Cancer is just an attack, but I kind of anticipated that. Seeing Raptor fight was also pretty cool, but I don't know if they can afford to have her pull off stuff like that again.
Still, it was all cool. Raptor's little story in the episode was also rather nice, though I wish it was it had a little more time to it.

Not a fan of Xiao. He had his moments, but he's also stepping the line from funny to annoying.