Recap: Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger, Episode 20 – Supreme Artist

Melto observes Koh, Asuna and Towa as they spar against each other in training.

Melto points out that the three of them fight too much on instinct, especially Towa who relies only on his speed. Towa doesn’t appreciate Melto’s critique. Melto decides to show him what he means. They both henshin and fight.

Melto is able to back an unwitting Towa into a corner. He says Towa should use his head more instead of only relying on his speed.

Meanwhile, Kureon has birthed a sketchbook Minosaur from an artist by the river. Waizuru is excited about the sketchbook’s power.

Back at the park, Towa and Bamba run into the artist’s little brother who is looking for his Oniichan. Bamba sees the sketchbook is splattered with Kureon’s slime. Bamba uses KunKunSoul to sniff out the Minosaur. Towa promises the little boy that they will find his Oniichan Shotaro.

Towa and Bamba find the warehouse, but are immediately met by Drunns. Bamba says he will take care of the Drunns while Towa speeds his way inside. He sees Shotaro, but a cage suddenly appears out of nowhere and traps Shotaro before disappearing.

On the way home from the grocery store, Asuna also gets trapped by a cage.

Towa heads over to Chez Tatsui where Ui and Papa Naohisa are preparing for their takoyaki party. But the others are nowhere to be found because Koh, Melto, Asuna and Bamba, along with Shotaro, have all been trapped in mini cages by Waizuru.

Towa tries using MieSoul to search the city, but Waizuru finds him first and tries trapping him in a cage as well, using the sketchbook to draw what he wants to appear.

When Towa is able to evade capture, Waizuru decides to deal with him later. Towa thinks Waizuru will target Canalo next.

Towa finds Canalo flirting with a street artist, Natsumi. But Waizuru has followed Towa here.

Towa warns Canalo about the cages. Waizuru explains that the sketchbook is the Minosaur and demos how it works. He draws a cage to try and trap Natsumi. But Canalo runs over to try and save her and gets trapped instead.

Waizuru says Towa is the only one left to capture. But Towa speeds away, whisking Natsumi to safety. Natsumi thanks Towa and leaves him as he struggles to think about how he can take on the Minosaur on his own.

Suddenly, Gaisorg appears. Towa has no idea who he is. Gaisorg wonders how Bamba hasn’t told Towa anything about him yet. But Gaisorg knows all about the brothers.

Towa henshins as Gaisorg charges toward him. They fight a little. But Gaisorg has some advice for Towa. Don’t be dependent on your strengths, but be able to put your strengths to good use.

Gaisorg leaves. Towa is surprised. Those are the exact words of their Master, according to Bamba.

Meanwhile, Shotaro’s life energy has allowed the sketchbook to embiggen. Waizuru paints himself in the sketchbook, resulting in an embiggened Waizuru copy to appear.

Towa feels hopeless over the situation. But he sees Shotaro’s little brother still running around looking for his oniichan. Towa tries to think of any kind of lead as to how to defeat the Minosaur. And he does. He hurries over to where Waizuru is.

Towa uses his speed to get himself over to the embiggened sketchbook where he draws something before getting swatted back to the rooftop. Towa says he is surrendering. Waizuru traps him and sends him over to join the others.

The others are shocked to see Towa. But they are even more surprised to see keys pop out of nowhere. Turns out Towa had drawn keys on the sketchbook so they could appear here and allow them to unlock the cages.

They are able to free themselves and they head outside to find Waizuru on the rooftop.

The Ryusoulgers morph together for the first time. They first take on Drunns before hopping into KishiryuOh Five Knights and Kishiryu Neptune to take care of the embiggned Waizuru copy and the Minosaur sketchbook.

Back at Chez Tatsui, Koh, Melto, Asuna, Ui and Papa Naohisa begin their takoyaki party. Ui says one of the takoyaki is super spicy and they’ll have to find out who’s gotten it. Koh, Melto, Asuna and Papa Naohisa each eat one.

Turns out Melto’s got the spicy one.

Outside, Towa asks Bamba about Gaisorg. But Bamba remains silent.

Episode Thoughts

This was another great episode. Not as amazing as last week, but definitely one of the best episodes of the season. It was exciting, fun and even dramatic. Especially at the end.

The biggest development of course relates to Gaisorg. It’s a little confusing though since we know Towa and Bamba battled Gaisorg in Saikyo Battle. So if Towa doesn’t know who Gaisorg is, does that make Saikyo Battle not canon? How does that work?

And I thought it was established that Gaisorg is a sentient suit of armor who possesses the strongest warriors of the galaxy. I honestly don’t even remember what happened when he popped up a couple of episodes ago.

But the show is making it seem like Gaisorg is Towa and Bamba’s Master. I kind of hope it’s not that obvious. But there’s definitely some plot holes here if we’re to take in all we know of Gaisorg, in and out of Ryusoulger. (Apparently he also appears in the summer movie, but I obviously won’t be able to watch it for a long time yet.)

Anyway, the most important part of the episode relating to Gaisorg was Towa’s anger at the end.

The end of the episode was unexpectedly very dramatic. I actually very much enjoyed that moment between Bamba and Towa. It shows a little bit of friction between the brothers, but also introduces more of the mystery surrounding them and their backstory. We’ll see where this pans out.

The MOTW story was fine, but we didn’t even get to see Shotaro and his little brother reunite. It was odd since it seemed like the show was also trying to draw a parallel between Shotaro & brother and Bamba & Towa. But the end battle felt very rushed and we never checked back in on the artist brothers.

The whole plot point regarding Towa using his skills more than his mind in battle and Melto having pointed that out was okay as well. Instead of Towa just relying on his strengths (his speed?), he used it to solve the problem. That is, he came up with a solution (drawing keys to unlock the cages) and used his strength (his speed) to follow through and successfully enact that plan.

The thing I got out of that whole setup also was more about Towa actually interacting and spending time with Koh, Asuna and Melto. Meanwhile, Bamba was off somewhere else doing who knows what. It continues the idea that while the team works well together, they’re still not the closest. Or at least, the brothers are not interested in hanging out at Chez Tatsui and enjoying takoyaki.

Not to mention Canalo continuing to find pretty ladies to flirt with. I must admit though, of all the courting Canalo has done so far, this was most fun and amusing scenario.

I enjoyed the short training Koh, Asuna and Towa had at the beginning since it was basically an unmorphed fight with the actors themselves doing the choreography. It is always fun to have the actors doing their own action scenes.

Overall, this was a pretty great and fun episode. Some nice momentum as we head toward the midpoint of the season.