Recap: Uchu Sentai Kyuranger, Episode 28 – BN Thieves, Breakup…

Kukuruga visits Akyanba who is enjoys watching Naga just absolutely relishing fighting Tsuyoindavers and Indavers, but now with emotion.

The #SaveNaga team hurries downtown when Naga begins rampaging, starting to lay absolute waste to the city. Balance steps forward and asks Naga to come back to them. But Naga just shoots at Balance, who takes the shot, almost in shock.

Naga proclaims their BN combi is over and he morphs. Lucky knocks Balance out of the way of Naga’s attack as the others morph, trying to control Naga. Naga easily knocks them around. Akyanba steps in to keep the four Kyurangers busy while Naga takes on Balance one-on-one.

Aren’t you happy I was able to gain emotions, Naga asks Balance. Balance says of course not. Naga takes that to mean Balance never did want him to do so and slashes at him.

Balance tires to remind Naga of their BN combi, but Naga just thinks Balance is mocking him. Naga stabs Balance in the thigh and proceeds to mercilessly attack him.

Akyanba taunts the others and tells them that the way to get Naga back to normal is to hurt him so much that he forgets everything. Garu has no problem with trying to make that happen, but Balance stops him. He refuses to believe that’s the only way.

Naga again attacks the Kyurangers and they are all forced to demorph. He absolutely loves this power of fighting with emotions. And now that he has no use for the Kyurangers, he wants to finish them off for good.

Suddenly, a female Naga-looking person appears and uses the paralyzing eye on Naga and Akyanba to allow the Kyurangers to escape.

This Naga-looking lady is Echidna and she is tasked with eliminating Naga because having emotions is a threat to their species. Balance protests and asks how could she think that way against one of her own kind.

Echidna replies, “As the one who seduced him and took him away, you are crueler than I.”

Balance says that is what Naga wanted. And they are going to save him. Balance runs off.

Meanwhile, #TeamTimeTravel has reached their destination and touch down on the planet where Tsurugi fought Don Armage. It is the night of that fateful battle.

The Kyurangers watch from a cliff as they watch the moment Quervo sacrificed himself for Tsurugi. Tsurugi then morphed and delivered a Galaxy attack right at Don Armage, slicing him in half. He seems to explode to smithereens.

A white-clothed man takes Tsurugi as the planet prepares to explode. The Kyurangers hop back on the Orion to escape as well.

Having confirmed that Tsurugi apparently did defeat Don Armage, they wonder how he could be alive in the present day. Tsurugi says they must now meet Orion on Earth.

Suddenly, the Orion is under attack. Raptor sets an immediate course for Earth.

Back in the present day, the others find Balance on a swing. He admits that Echidna was telling the truth. He tells him how he had been in the Ophiuchus System on a heist, but was on the verge of getting captured when he met Naga.

Naga told Balance that he wanted emotions. More importantly, peace with emotions. A world where everyone smiles and enjoys being together.

Balance decided he could use Naga to escape the planet so he promised to help him gain emotions.

Balance admits that he only took advantage of Naga’s pure desire for emotions so he is no different from Akyanba. Lucky says that is not true. If Balance hadn’t taken Naga with him, they would have never met him. Lucky asks if Balance wants to laugh and smile and have with Naga just like the rest of them do.

Hammie remembers Naga saying Balance would be so happy if he were able to gain feelings.

Hearing that lifts Balance’s spirits and decides that they should go and save Naga after all. The Kyurangers run to find Naga and Akyanba, not knowing Echidna saw their whole conversation.

Naga continues rampaging when the Kyurangers find him. Naga immediately shoots at them, but Balance says they are here to save him, even if it means hurting him. Naga morphs so he can kill them. The Kyurangers also morph.

Lucky, Hammie, Garu and Kotaro take on Akyanba while Balance faces off against Naga.

Akyanba reminds them that they have to hurt Naga to get him back to normal, maybe even to the point of death. Lucky upmorphs to Taiyo which of course also powers up Balance.

Balance goes full force at Naga and they battle down the steps. Balance tries to remind Naga about his wish to have everyone smile. He is able to pin Naga to the ground and locks in the Ite Kyutama to his Crossbow. He points it at Naga who just laughs. He doesn’t think Balance will shoot. Balance pauses before he shoots into the air, unleashing a swarm of arrows.

Naga tries to escape before they rain down on him, but Naga holds him and turns him towards the sky. The arrows hit and explode all around them.

Balance gets thrown aside as he and Naga are both forced to dehenshin.

A concerned Balance crawls toward a badly injured Naga. But Naga kicks his face. It doesn’t appear Naga is anywhere near to being back to normal.

“What the hell are you talking about everyone smiling together?! That’s complete crap!”

The others are shocked that it didn’t work. Akyanba just cackles and says she lied to them. Once emotions are released, there’s no going back.

Naga says this feeling of pain will turn into anger and he vows to destroy them. Akyanba whisks Naga away, but also leaves two embiggened Tsuyoindavers for the Kyurangers.

Kotaro takes care of Balance while Lucky uses Futago Kyutama to double Hammie and Garu up in order to have enough people to pilot KyuRen-Oh. They make quick work of the two Tsuyoindavers.

The Kyurangers try to come to terms with the idea that the old Naga is lost forever. Echidna says the only way is for Naga to be eliminated so the peace of the Ophiuchus System can be maintained. Lucky will not allow that because Naga is their comrade.

Balance says to let her go ahead and try. But he will continue to protect Naga and save him.

Suddenly, a strange wave comes over the city. They receive a distress signal from the Orion. They hurry over to the location and are completely stunned to find it has not only crashed, but is covered in overgrown vegetation like it’s been here for several millennia.

Lucky fears something must have happened in the past.

And indeed, The Orion has crash landed on Earth with #TeamTimeTravel all sprawled out in front of the wreckage. The white-clothed man stands, watching them.

Episode Thoughts

Oh sh-t! Hold up. No. Wow.

Okay. I see what you did there Kyuranger. Last week’s recap was the advanced breather before the big episode. Because this was certainly a big episode. I absolutely loved it. So many things going on. Emotions running wild! (Pun intended!)

Damn. It was a pretty emotional episode already. Naga beating his former comrades, but especially Balance, down to an emotional pulp. And then the final scene and the realization that Oh sh-t, something happened in the past, they could have died and have now been dead for millions of years. No wonder they specifically pointed out the butterfly effect in Episode 26 when first discussing the plan. It’s going to play out right here, right now. And I am HERE for it. Yessir. It was almost a MaGMCM too.

Let’s first rewind to the beginning. Naga’s attacks on Balance were absolutely brutal. Especially when Balance was basically too stunned to even react to anything or defend himself. Even more when you believe that Balance sincerely sees Naga as a friend and partner. Balance’s happy-go-lucky, wassup yo! personality also makes Naga being completely evil toward him all the more painful to watch.

The first battle with Naga was great. Seeing them all morph in motion was awesome and helped make it very exciting. Then the next confrontation with Naga was especially amazing during the battle with Balance on the steps. That’s a very familiar location for Toei, yet it was used perfectly here. I absolutely loved these shots like this one here:

And they used either a crane or drone for a nice sweep around shot at the beginning of it too. The steps framing Naga and Balance as they battled gave it a great feel.

Akyanba was obviously lying when she told the Kyurangers about needing to hurt Naga. I think maybe they could’ve made it a little less obvious or have the Kyurangers be more hesitant about the validity of the solution. But the payoff with Balance and Naga’s just insane fight before the arrow attack was worth the trouble. Absolutely insane scene, culminating with Balance holding a struggling Naga to allow the attack to hit him. Craziness!

Stinger and Kotaro and Champ got their feature stories. And now this is Naga and Balance’s. I hope the rest of the Kyurangers get the same treatment. With Lucky, I assume, the last one. Doing so will easily take Kyuranger to the 40s. There’s so much potential for some great stories here. And of course, it’s great to delve into their backstories, especially since we don’t know what their lives were like before Jark Matter.

Just like I wish we could visit more planets, I wish we had more space travel. It made me miss Battlestar Galactica. lol Just flying around in space on the Orion. I enjoyed the scenes here especially when they were flying to the planet, away from it and then getting attacked all of a sudden.

The mecha battle was also fun thanks to the Hammie and Garu copies.

Overall, an amazing episode. I absolutely loved it. Very exciting.

Lucky’s Luckys of the Week