Recap: Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger, Episode 5 – King of the Jungle

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The Zyuohgers are handing out flyers again downtown when a huge fleet of Triangulars descend upon Earth. Azarudo’s player Gaburio is in one of them and is ready to play.

The Zyuohgers hop into their Zyuoh Cubes (“Aren’t you guys a little too early?!”) and easily take care of the triangle fighter jets. But Gaburio manages to eject himself and ends up falling into the forest, his head stuck in the ground.

The Zyuohgers go look for him and instead of seeing his bright pink feet sticking up out of the ground, they chase down… a gorilla?

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A Zyuman!

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“Amigos!”

Azarudo decides to go down to Earth himself to find his player.

Meanwhile, the Zyuohgers get to know this gorilla Zyuman, Larry, at his home in the forest. They show him the King’s Marks and think he can use it to turn human too. But nothing happens. Maybe not everyone can use them.

Tusk asks what Larry is doing here on Earth. He explains that he is a scientist who first came here to study humans. But since the King’s Mark was taken from the Link Cube, he has been unable to return to Zyuland.

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Anyway, Larry is happy he is able to see fellow Zyumans again. So to celebrate, they should have some Wild Tea. Seeing Sela and Amu are excited, Yamato ask if Wild Tea is very special. Larry jokes that Yamato must not be a real Zyuman.

Yamato says he’s actually human. Larry suddenly jumps up and screams. He tells Yamato to stay away and runs off. Leo and Sela run after him.

Larry explains to Leo and Sela that he had tried to befriend humans while he was doing his research. But humans did not take too kindly to seeing him. They all ran away from him screaming until one day, a police officer shot at him, hitting his arm. Since then, he no longer wants anything to do with humans and is afraid of them.

Leo says Yamato would never hurt him, but Larry is firm in his decision.

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Later that night at the treehouse, they tell Yamato and they also realize things might have been bad for them too under different circumstances. Tusk says he understands how humans must have felt since they too felt wary of Yamato when he first arrived in Zyuland.

Yamato feels bad about what Larry must be feeling. But Amu has an idea.

Next day, the Zyuman4 are very friendly to Larry, helping him out with chores and stealthily slipping Yamato in to help as well. But Larry does not appreciate any of this and ends up knocking Yamato into a tree after they tried helping him fetch some water.

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Sela and Amu run over to make sure he’s okay. Leo says Larry has gone too far. But Larry says they also have gone too far with forcing the human on him.

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Yamato dries himself off. Larry hears him and finds Yamato talking friendly to a deer. The deer runs off when it hears Larry stepping on twigs.

Larry asks Yamato if he likes animals. Yamato says yes, that’s why he became a zoologist. Didn’t Larry become an anthropologist because he liked humans? So it must be painful for something you once loved to become something you now hate.

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Yamato says he is not afraid of Larry and that he will not hurt him. Yamato takes his hand.

Suddenly, Larry gets that tail feeling. The Zyuman4 find Azarudo as he looks for Gaburio. Azarudo says they should take it easy while he finds his player. But the Zyuohgers are definitely not going to just wait because he tells them to.

They henshin and fight Azarudo, but he appears much more powerful than any Deathgalien they’ve faced so far.

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Yamato arrives and Azarudo introduces himself as a Blood Game team leader. Yamato henshins as Larry watches them from nearby. He is amazed that a human can use Zyuman Power. Perhaps the King’s Mark can transfer Zyuman Power to humans?

The Zyuohgers unleash their beasts, but Azarudo has no problem deflecting their attacks. He first forces the Zyuman4 to dehenshin. Yamato attacks from the air, but he too is forced to dehenshin. Azarudo then delivers a huge final blow and sends Yamato flying.

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Larry finds Yamato unconscious by the creek. He remembers Yamato taking his hand earlier.

Larry jumps down, takes the King’s Mark and says he will save Yamato. The others watch as Larry tells the King’s Mark to lend Yamato his Zyuman Power.

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Yamato awakens and says he felt a warm power flowing into him. He knows Larry saved him. Larry says of course since they’re amigos.

Azarudo pops in and attacks. Yamato quickly henshins and he suddenly feels a new power, allowing him to push Azarudo away.

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Yamato flips his helmet up and he uphenshins to ZyuohGorilla.

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He is now able to take on Azarudo, no problem. Larry cheers him on, but then walks away.

Yamato manages to deliver a finisher at Azarudo who compliments that such a lower life form was able to fight this way. Azarudo laughs before he blows up.

Naria prepares to head down with a Continue, but Ginis says that is not necessary.

Yamato reunites with the others. But they wonder where Larry could’ve gone.

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Episode Thoughts

Very interesting episode. I definitely liked this episode much more than last week’s.

Larry’s introduction was pretty good. They touched on discrimination in a simple, yet effective way. Of course a clothed talking gorilla would be frightening for humans, but at the same time Larry wasn’t at all threatening when he approached the humans wanting to befriend them. And the cop just shoots at him even though he was just standing there. (The Sentai writers must have watched American cable news last year lol) So it was a nice little lesson to not be quick to judge people who are different or judge a book by its cover and all that.

As for ZyuohGorilla, I thought the buffed suit looked ridiculous in the pictures and drawings when first revealed, but it actually looked fine in-show. There’s definitely been stranger things on Sentai and Power Rangers before lol I really like the helmet though. Very creative.

The battle with Azarudo was great. I hope he’s not really dead. I mean, we’re killing off Ginis’ generals this early? There’s certainly more to what’s going on with Ginis, so that will be interesting.

I want to see more stories of the Zyuman4 adapting to the Earth though. Not just Mario wanting Leo to go chop wood or throwaway lines of them doing laundry. In a way, they already touched on the humans’ reactions to Zyumans by showing what happened to Larry. But I hope we get at least a couple of episodes of the Zyumans experiencing normal human things which would be foreign to them. Especially for maybe the light, filler episodes.

Overall, a good episode that I definitely enjoyed. Looking forward to seeing what’s up with Larry in the next ep.

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