Recap and Season Hindsight Review: Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger, Episode 48 (Finale) – Earth is Our Home

Zyuohger 48

Ginis is confident that he can defeat the Zyuohgers because he is able to use the Earth data he took from Cube Whale. The Zyuohgers will not allow that to happen. They attack Ginis, but even Yamato going Gorilla can’t do anything to him.

Zyuohger 48

Ginis forces Yamato to downmorph and sends the Zyuohgers into an alternate dimension where he beats on them some more. Yamato then realizes that everything in this dimension is made of Moebas. Ginis shoots at them and sends them back to reality and demorphed.

A very alive Naria watches as Yamato announces that he has seen Ginis’ true form. Ginis admits that he is just a mass of Moebas, but refuses to accept that this ugly, disgusting, vulgar form is the real him. Instead, he is the most beautiful, the ultimate, greatest life form in all the universe!

Misao says he must have been chosen by Ginis because his self-hate and pain were the same as Ginis’ own. Yamato says Misao is nothing like Ginis. The others agree.

Zyuohger 48

Yamato stands up and says Ginis has no right to play with other people’s lives. Naria flips in and shoots at the Zyuohgers to protect her Ginis-sama. She turns to her Owner, feeling sorry that he must have gone through such a hard time. But she adds that she does not care what his true form is. She will protect him nonetheless.

Naria turns her back to Ginis to face the Zyuohgers who are about to morph, but Ginis shoots right through her heart. But why, Naria asks. Ginis does not like to be pitied.

The King’s Marks are all destroyed. The Zyuohgers absorb more attacks from Ginis who hopes they can be reborn as stronger life forms after he kills them.

But the Zyuohgers won’t give up. They stand up to Ginis and say they will fight even with King’s Marks. Uncle Mario prays for them while Larry, Bado and Yamato’s father hope for the best.

Zyuohger 48

The Zyuohgers charge at Ginis and while doing so, the Earth gives its power to them instead of Ginis. With Earth’s power, their King’s Marks are restored and the Zyuohgers are able to morph for the last time.

No one wants to be underestimated and the final battle begins.

The Zyuohgers unleash their beasts and give it their all against Ginis. The Earth again responds and allows Yamato to super unleash his beasts, combining Gorilla, Whale and Eagle powers together.

Zyuohger 48

Yamato and Ginis take their fight into the air for a little bit before the Zyuohgers get back together, re-unleash their beasts and deliver a Zyuoh Final. That finally gets Ginis blown up.

But Ginis embiggens himself. The Zyuohgers hop into Wild Tousai Dodeka King.

And with a Zyuoh Dodeka Grand Final Finish, the Zyuohgers finally destroy Ginis for good. Yamato hugs Micchan and they all celebrate.

Zyuohger 48

Next day, the Zyuohgers head to the Link Cube. It’s time for the Zyuman4 to return home. Yamato says he wants to go with them, but they say they must talk to the elders first. Misao starts crying, but Amu says they’ll visit often.

Zyuohger 48

After a group hug, it really is time. Yamato inserts the Great King’s Mark while the others insert their regular King’s Marks into the Link Cube which awakens, completely repaired.

But before the Zyumans can hop into the Link Cube, it flies into the air and sends a strange wave across the world. Suddenly, Zyuland cube buildings being sprouting up all across Earth. And along with the cubed buildings, Zyumans!

Humans and Zyumans are all shocked to see each other. It’s utter chaos.

Zyuohger 48

The Zyuohgers can’t believe it. Bado believes the human world has merged with Zyuland. The King’s Marks return to the Zyuohgers.

Larry thinks with all the King’s Marks awakened, the planet wanted the two worlds to become one again. The Zyuman4 say it shouldn’t be a problem. Tusk comments that even if people are racist, this is what they wanted; a connection between the worlds.

The Zyuman4 reunite with their families.

Larry and Misao give a seminar on the two worlds to both humans and Zyumans. Misao sees the three headZyumans waving to him and gains the confidence to proclaim that humans and Zyumans will be able to coexist on this one planet. Uncle Mario also makes some new friends.

Zyuohger 48

Yamato sees a young pig Zyuman alone and crying. He bandages her up and invites her to their picnic.

Zyuohger 48

Episode Thoughts

And that brings Zyuohger to the end. Honestly, I thought this finale was underwhelming, yet shocking at the same time.

First, there was a little Dino Charge in its ending here. And if you haven’t seen Dino Charge‘s finale (SPOILER ALERT)… our main heroes defeating the villain consequentially changed the world forever. So does this mean all future Sentai have Zyumans and cubed buildings? lol

But really, this last arc has been very bland. I’ve said how there has been lots of great potential but little foundation to support the climaxes over the last arc of the season.

Ginis’ infusing Earth with cells to destroy it felt out of nowhere last week, but then I remembered that his cells have been infused into everything all season long. No wonder Naria kept repeating that line over and over, every episode.
Still, him hating his ugly Moeba form and wanting to be some perfect being doesn’t really mesh with his simple bloodlust.

Like, I get that he likes forcing himself into other people and beings. (Ewe!) But what’s that got to do with his desire to be pretty? And what does committing genocide and wiping out entire planets do to help with his plastic surgery?

So I don’t really know what Ginis’ final battle with the Zyuohgers really meant other than it merely being a big fight sequence. It didn’t have much plot foundation to support it.

Elsewhere, the talk of walls (keeping Earth in its own bubble) and racists (humans toward Zyumans) is very timely, wouldn’t you agree? lol But again, the show only ever touched upon the discrimination between humans and Zyumans maybe every 12th episode. And we never got the Zyumans clashing with the human world.

It was great to finally have them update the opening credits to include Misao, even if very late. Ninninger changed its opening narration as soon as Kinji arrived.

But it was also nice to see that little moment with the others reassuring Misao that he is nothing like Ginis (it only took them the entire season) as well as the acknowledgement that he had gone through the trauma of having three Zyumans die because of him. I thought they had popped up alive at the end, but I guess I’m happy they weren’t because it helped show Misao wanting to move forward and not wanting to have those Zyumans die in vain.

Speaking of death, Naria death is what I hoped last week. This is exactly in line with her character, but the show probably shouldn’t have used the same thing as a cliffhanger with Cubaru in that earlier episode.

Sadly though, this final episode overall felt like any other regular episode from the season. There was no emotional climax. There were no climactic revelations or twists. Not even a big, huge action sequence. Yamato’s three animal power-up felt like such an afterthought. And throwing in one last mecha battle kind of shows the lack of legit action this episode.

So I was really underwhelmed this finale, but not as disappointed as I am in the season as a whole…


 

Zyuohger 48

Season Hindsight Review

Zyuohger opened with great promise. The visuals looked completely wacky all over the place, but the story seemed very interesting. The promise of a “fish out of water” story with the Zyumans in the human world opened up lots of possibilities for things they could do during the season, similar to the Goseigers or Gokaigers, but this time with a human, Earthling on the team itself.

On the villain side, Ginis’ deadly Blood Game definitely reminded me very much of the classic English class short story The Most Dangerous Game. It sounded absolutely brutal and demented. Certainly qualities you wouldn’t mind seeing in a Big Bad who is destined to be defeated by our heroes.

But as the season went along, balls (cubes?) were being dropped left and right. Things that made the season actually charming and fun where tossed aside. And it was the introduction of Misao that really signaled that things were starting to go off the rails.

At a time when the season didn’t seem to be progressing its overall plot very much, Misao’s introduction at first helped to add something fresh and new. But his character’s story (loaded with potential) turned into something very regrettable. And it’s my biggest criticism of the season, no question.

Misao was introduced by showing us he was tortured by Ginis and had three Zyuman souls forced into his body. Basically raped, let’s be honest. And as we learn later on, Misao was already a very fragile person. He grew up not just lonely, but alone. He had no friends. And apparently no family either. He was bullied and mocked with zero support system for him. So if that wasn’t enough, he was put through this traumatic experience by a sadistic, bloodthirsty lunatic from outer space.

And so how do his new teammates and “friends” respond? By bullying him and mocking him and basically wanting to box (cube?) him out of their core five group. The Zyuman4 especially saw him as a nuisance, rather than a teammate. And even while they saw the guy struggling with inner problems and issues, they made ZERO effort to help him. This completely erased the fun, happy-go-lucky and Sentai-typical personalities they had before this.

Initially fans blamed it all on Misao, but I can’t imagine anyone today defending how Misao’s character was completely mishandled and so poorly written. It’s an absolute shame.

Misao could’ve had a very deep, meaningful story. A story that would be sorely needed on this season that ended up not having an engaging season-long plot. The show harped on connections and ended the season “connecting” two different worlds of two different species. Yet, the Zyuman4 didn’t even want a connection to Misao most of the season he was present. So much so that the feeling rubbed off onto Yamato for an episode or two.

Speaking of Yamato, I think he might be the most normal Red Ranger we’ve had in a while. He was caring, very nice, smart, charming. He wasn’t over the top or exaggerated one way or another. He was a real leader. The way he cared about his Micchan (minus an episode or two where he seemed to be possessed by bad Zyuman4 spirits) was a great example of how sincere he is. (Not to mention housing and feeding four stubborn strangers for a year.)

So Yamato overall and his scenes with Uncle Mario and Micchan and Ginis’ subtle depravity really were the only good parts of the season. Everything else either fell short or just completely missed the mark.

Yamato’s daddy issues, Cubaru’s revenge and Azarudo’s Earth past were all completely underdeveloped, if at all. Bangurei, probably the only one who could come close to Ginis’ pure evilness, was completely wasted. As was Naria who did nothing but place a coin into the meter every episode. Underdeveloped stories then make the supposed climaxes completely meaningless or without depth. And that was certainly the case here. Mostly unaffecting conclusions to the various threads. And the most underwhelming being Ginis’ last stand. The two worlds combining was just one finale add-on that didn’t have much to stand on, no matter how many cubes you place under it.

So overall, Zyuohger was a disappointment for me. I don’t hate it, but I feel like so much potential was left on the table. From possible stories to a solid cast, Zyuohger just completely missed the mark, dropped the ball and any other analogy you can think of.

0 thoughts on “Recap and Season Hindsight Review: Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger, Episode 48 (Finale) – Earth is Our Home

  1. Would you recommend this series to anyone?

    I know it’s middle-of-the-road, like ToQger, but lots of other people on the Kamen Rider and Super Sentai Reddits are saying that this season is neither good nor bad, and that I should give it a go.

    1. Yeah I agree that it’s neither good nor bad. There are a few positives and it had lots of potential, but also lots of missed opportunities and a few things I just outright hated. I’d give it a go, especially since you can binge on it now.

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