Recap: Uchu Sentai Kyuranger, Episode 44 – Don Armage’s Identity

Kyuranger 44

Minaty calls the Kyurangers to report that all of Jark Matter was shocked to learn of Don Armage’s plans to blow up the galaxy. All are ready to leave Jark Matter. Minaty says he will be going around to encourage The Resistance.

Meanwhile, Don Armage checks in with Doctor Anton who says his tests will be done after blowing up a few more planets. Don Armage has just the planet for him.

Kyuranger 44

Spada comes in to the bridge with some nine-herb rice porridge. The others were hoping for a more filling lunch, but the Pegasus Kyutama suddenly pops up. Pega-san attaches himself to Spada and encourages everyone to eat the porridge to be in top shape.

The Kyurangers fill Pega-san in on a couple of events that’ve happened since he left.

Suddenly, the alarm sounds and Raptor sees that planets are exploding in the Corvus System. They believe it must be Don Armage so they hurry over at warp.

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While on the way, they continue the mini-season recap, including learning of Don Armage’s true plan. Tsurugi, however, doesn’t reveal all he learned from his meeting with Don Armage.

The Kyurangers arrive at Planet Vorona in the Corvus System. They find a strange black Moraimarz. Raptor begins to analyze it and Commander Ronpo asks the others to evacuate the people of the planet. Champ, Balance and Garu take care of that, leaving the others to deal with the Moraimarz.

Tsurugi reveals this was once a prison for civilians who resisted Jark Matter. This is where he met Cuervo and together, they were able to free all the prisoners. That was thanks in large part to Cuervo’s excellent escape plan.

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From that moment on, Tsurugi and Cuervo were the ultimate partners. “Did Cuervo feel that way too?” Pega-san asks. Of course, Tsurugi answers, “I’m sure of it!”

Commander Ronpo and Raptor call in and say the Black Moraimarzes are causing the explosions. The Moraimarz is changing the planet’s Planesium into an explosive.

Doctor Anton and ProtoChamp appear and the doc explains he is making Dark Planesium. By rearranging Planesium molecules, he only needs a little bit to create a Planesium bomb.

Suddenly, a Death Worm pops out of the ground. But Doctor Anton explains that this is an upgraded version, a Boss Worm!

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The Kyurangers morph and try to fight it. Tsurugi feels a pain in his chest and the Boss Worm is able to attack him, forcing him to demorph.

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With the Kyurangers struggling, Pega-san says he wants to see how they’ve all really grown since they last saw each other. They decide to use all their power ups. Lucky goes Orion, Stinger uses an Ikakujyu arm, Naga goes Hebitsukai Metal, Hammie goes Taiyou, Spada is with Pega-san and Kotaro embiggens.

Hammie gets mature as she goes Suki Mode to wear the Boss Worm down. After knocking ProtoChamp, Doctor Anton and the Boss Worm around, they delivers an All Star finisher at the Boss Worm while Doctor Anton and ProtoChamp escape.

Champ, Garu and Balance return after getting the planet’s inhabitants to safety. They take care of Tsurugi who is still in pain as the others hop into Super KyuRen-Oh.

An embiggened Boss Worm appears and the Kyurangers take care of it first, finishing it off with a Super Galaxy Pegasus Break. They turn their attention to the Moraimarz, but they suddenly get attacked from above.

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Super KyuRen-Oh comes apart and the Kyurangers are ejected and forced to demorph.

Don Armage appears before them, in the flesh. He asks Tsurugi if he has revealed his identity to the others as instructed.

Tsurugi finally admits he saw Don Armage’s true form while on Southern Cross, but he didn’t want to believe it. “In other words… the current Don Armage… is someone I know.”

Don Armage removes his cloak and reveals he is…

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Cuervo!

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Everyone is shocked. Cuervo says he did die shielding Tsurugi, but he has evolved into a different form.

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Tsurugi explains that Don Armage had entered Cuervo’s dead corpse.

More explosions as the planet is about to blow. Don Armaervo says they will surely meet again somewhere that is dear to them and he flies into the air. Tsurugi says he knows Cuervo is only being possessed and he vows to save him from Don Armage.

But Cuervo says no, “I am Don Armage.” He flies off and the Kyurangers hurry and escape the exploding planet.

Back on the Orion II, Commander Ronpo commends the Kyurangers for saving the people of the planet without any casualties. He also thanks Pega-san for all his help. No problem, Pega-san says and he retreats back into the Kyutama.

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The Kyurangers try to come to terms with the revelation of Don Armage’s identity, but start thinking about what his next move could be. They quickly realize Don Armage must be targeting Earth. Being the largest Planesium producer, converting all of Earth’s Planesium to Dark Planesium would be enough for an explosion capable of wiping out the entire galaxy.

Minaty calls in and shows them a Super Mega Moraimarz planting itself in Tokyo. Raptor sets course immediately for Earth.

Episode Thoughts

Now this was an interesting episode. I really thought this was going to be a recap episode. I thought they were going to spend the whole episode recapping the season to Pega-san. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. It was a quick recap after the New Year break. And they quickly got to business. Which was great.

Now after Tsurugi met with Don Armage, I wasn’t sure what to expect from whatever shocking revelation he discovered from that meeting. But any non-Yasuko Kobayashi Sentai most likely isn’t going to be one for subtlety. So it was pretty obvious early on once they did that little flashback in the prison that Don Armage’s identity would be revealed as Cuervo.

The revelation of his identity or at least body that is being possessed at this moment is just one part of the story I guess. Now that’s the thing. Cuervo actually did die in that battle. So Don Armage and his actual soul I guess took over the corpse. I don’t expect that this is actually Cuervo turned evil or something. But it would be very interesting if it was Don Armage somehow manipulating Cuervo’s mind and his maybe timid and intelligent nature (based on what we’ve seen from Tsurugi’s flashbacks) to turn him evil.

I’m going to go more for Don Armage just using an empty dead corpse. But I guess this will also give Tsurugi a similar story to what Stinger and Lucky went through this season in which they struggle with defeating the enemy only because they have a personal connection. Whether real or not.

So definitely still have high expectations about this.

To the rest of this episode, I definitely enjoyed seeing all the power ups. Convenient having Champ, Balance and Garu disappear to allow only enough people to actually have power ups. lol.

I definitely enjoyed Hammie getting Hikari Kyutama. It was amusing and funny and cute at the same time. And the mature Hammie was a nice contrast to that glimpse at teenage fangirl Hammie we got at the beginning with Minaty’s return.

I must say though that Tetsuji Sakakibara was great with Pegasus on his chest. Must have been a lot of fun. But he definitely made it work and very believable. Also the suit actor as well did great when morphed.

I think there’s always a criticism on a Sento or Power Rangers where the Red Ranger always gets all the power ups and others get nothing. Or even when the Rangers are able to share a power up like in Ninninger for example, not everyone gets to use it. So in a way this episode addresses that. Not enough, but good enough I guess. I just hope in the future we get to see more sharing maybe like Shinkenger did.

It was great getting to see another planet again but we’re heading back to Earth for the finale. It’s very interesting that they pointed out that none of the planets that Doctor Anton blew up in his experiments had any people on it. Because I was about to say they were just blowing up planets and killing millions of people at random. Now talk about grimdark!

This episode used the soundtrack very well. Especially with the theme song. It was very effective in those final battles. But as always, I’m looking forward to when the theme song kicks in during the finale.

Overall I enjoyed this episode. Especially since it started off one way and just went another about a third of the way through. It was a good preparation for the final episodes. And we got a lot of fun action.

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