Recap: Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger, Episode 25 – Dancing Kureon

Ui is trying to film Koh, Melto and Asuna dancing to the ending theme so she can upload it to her channel. But Melto keeps messing up. He says he’s reached his limit. Koh tells him not to give up. Asuna tries to show Melto what he’s doing wrong.

Papa Naohisa comes in and Ui explains that she knows this video will make a lot of people happy.

Ui reminds Melto to smile this next take. But Melto’s had enough. He says it’s Ui’s channel, so Ui should be the one dancing herself. He leaves.

Koh grabs Asuna so they can go after Melto.

“Why does it always end up this way?” Ui asks with a sigh.

Papa Naohisa tries to cheer her up and offers to dance for the video instead. But Ui says there’s no point in him doing it.

Ui goes online and sees there’s a video going viral. She watches it and it is of Kureon performing his character song with backup Drunn dancers.

On the other side of town, Oto tells Canalo he should find the perfect bride soon so the dress she bought for the wedding won’t go to waste. Canalo says sure. But he then asks her when she will be returning to the ocean. She takes offense and says she’s here on land because she is worried about him. She runs off.

Meanwhile, Towa and Bamba come across frozen people staring at their phones. That’s when they spot the Minosaur encouraging the people to keep watching something. Towa and Bamba henshin.

Towa and Bamba take on the Minosaur and are able to seemingly finish it off quite easily. But the frozen people are still not moving. They go to look at what they’ve been watching on their phones and see Kureon on the thumbnail.

Canalo, carrying an unconscious Oto on his back, comes running and tells them not to watch the video. Doing so will allow the Minosaur to steal your soul.

Canalo says he also defeated the Minosaur just now, but everyone is still this way.

Over at the park, Melto is confiding in Tyramigo who says it was Melto’s fault after all. Melto admits he could’ve been a little more tactful with Ui, but adds that they don’t have to help her. If Ui wants her videos to be popular, she should work harder herself.

Asuna scrolls through her phone and stumbles upon Kureon’s video. She, Koh and Tyramigo start watching it. Asuna says Kureon and friends are much better dancers than Melto.

“Well excuse me for living!” Melto says.

Just then, Bamba calls Melto to warn them about Kureon’s video. But it’s too late. The Minosaur pops out of the phone with Koh, Asuna and Tyramigo’s souls dangling above their heads.

Melto quickly whips out NobiSoul. But the Minosaur is able to cut the connection between Tyramigo and his soul before it jumps back into the phone.

Koh and Asuna’s souls return to their bodies.

But Melto realizes Tyramigo is unresponsive. They head back to Chez Tatsui to regroup.

Bamba, Towa and Canalo decide to go out and try to track down the Minosaur as it collects more souls.

Papa Naohisa tries to get Ui to snap out of her current state. Koh says she’s alright for now.

Papa Naohisa talks to Koh, Melto and Asuna about Ui. He says she’s always worked too hard and is sometimes too intense. Thus, it was hard for her to make friends. But ever since she met them all, she’s been enjoying every day like she’s never done before

“I hope you can continue to be her friend.” Papa Naohisa bows his head.

Asuna makes Papa Naohisa stand up and says of course they will. And they will save her and bring her smile back. Papa Naohisa thanks them and they hurry out.

Waizuru and Kureon watch as the souls keep flying into his pot. Kureon asks what Waizuru’s plan is and he says it is to prove to that he is the world’s best entertainer.

Kureon says under his breath that it’s his video that’s getting all the attention though. He also feels uneasy about the video he’s worked so hard on being used in this way.

Waizuru asks what Kureon is mumbling about. Kureon says he’s going to out for a bit.

On the other side of town, Towa, Bamba and Canalo have managed to place a glowing tracker on the Minosaur and they follow it.

The Minosaur leads them to an apartment where Kureon is having some tea with a friend, Anikin. Kureon is shocked to see them at the door and he runs off. Bamba and Canalo chase after him.

Towa fills Koh, Melto and Asuna in before going after Kureon as well.

Anikin asks if Kureon-san has done something wrong. He says he and Kureon became friends after they first met to collab on a dance video together.

Asuna asks if Kureon ever made Anikin drink a strange green liquid. Anikin thinks back to one moment when they were celebrating finishing the video. They were toasting to their accomplishment when a drop of Kureon’s bodily fluid slime squirts out and lands in Anikin’s drink.

Before Kureon could stop him, Anikin had already taken a sip.

Anikin remembers Kureon having been sort of panicked at that moment. Koh says Anikin accidentally birthed a Minosaur. But Melto points out that there’s no Minus Energy emanating from Anikin,

Anikin says he has no Minus Energy now, especially since the video he’s worked so hard on is trending.

Koh, Asuna and Melto realize Anikin only has Plus Energy, so the Minosaur can’t grow.

Just then, they see Anikin’s old laptop is glowing with the tracker Canalo put on the Minosaur. They take the laptop outside and Koh uses MieSoul to see into the computer. Melto reasons that the Minosaur was able to escape into the phones because it turned itself into data. That is also how it can make copies of itself.

Asuna says they just have to destroy the laptop. But Melto says the Minosaur isn’t on the computer itself, but on the internet. Breaking the laptop will only let the Minosaur escape. Koh says CosmoRaptor can help him get into the internet to defeat the Minosaur.

But Koh won’t be able to do all that without Tyramigo.

Towa, Bamba and Canalo call the others to tell them they’ve found Waizuru and the souls. Canalo wants to charge at Waizuru and Kureon, but Bamba has a plan.

Waizuru grabs Kureon’s tablet and says humans are fools for allowing themselves to be sucked in by such a dumb video.

Koh, Melto and Asuna arrive and henshin. Waizuru says he will show them this stupid video as well.

“It’s not stupid,” Kureon says.

Koh, Melto and Asuna cover their eyes as Waizuru approaches them with the tablet. But Bamba sneaks up and shoots the tablet out of Waizuru’s hands. Canalo then releases Tyramigo’s soul out of the pot and Towa tosses it back to Tyramigo.

Koh can now summon Tyramigo and CosmoRaptor. Koh hops into Kishiryu-Oh CosmoRaptor and they jump into the internet.

The remaining Ryusoulgers take on Drunns. But Koh reports that he cannot defeat the Minosaur as it keeps copying itself. Melto says it can probably be defeated once all the copies return to that main body.

The Ryusoulgers realize the copies are with all the people who have seen the video around the world.

After running off, Kureon is back. Waizuru grabs his tablet and presses play on the video. But it is gone. It’s just been deleted. But why?!

Kureon says he’s stopped streaming it since it was a stupid video. He’ll try to make a better one next time.

Now that no one is watching the video, the copies return to the main body. That allows Koh to uphenshin to Cosmo Armor and deliver a Kishiryu-Oh Cosmic Breaker at the Minosaur to finish it off for good.

The others take on Waizuru to break the pot and release all the souls, returning them to their bodies.

Waizuru is sad that more people won’t be able to watch the video. Kureon takes him away.

The Ryusoulgers hurry back home as Ui and Oto are back to normal.

Ui remembers what happened earlier about her video. She apologizes and bows. But Melto says it’s time they start recording again. And this time, he won’t mess up.

Ui says she’ll join in the video this time too.

Koh, Melto, Asuna and Towa are in position. They wait for Bamba who reluctantly, but not, joins as well.

Episode Thoughts

I thought this was a really good episode that had potential to be one of the season’s best. The main focus of the episode I wish they kind of executed better and in a stronger way was “friendship.” And it goes for both Ui’s friendship with Koh, Melto and Asuna and Kureon’s friendship with Anikin.

Obviously, we know about Ui’s childhood and growing up with not many friends. Recently we learned she grew up after losing her mother very young as well. So I wish this episode had spent more time focusing on that and why Melto’s words really could have hurt her.

We saw Ui’s reaction after Melto very bluntly told her to make the video herself. It was very sad and Papa Naohisa’s reaction to her being disappointed, but not surprised was very telling. We can assume Ui has gone through that same moment many times before. That she wants to be friendly and make friends, but others may think she’s too much or annoying and they just drop her at the snap of a finger.

It was nice of Papa Naohisa telling the others (basically spelling it out) that Ui has struggled growing up, but their arrival has been very positive for her and she is much happier now. That’s a very meaningful point that, coupled with all the other times the show has dropped the ball with Ui’s emotions and mental health, leaves me feeling disappointed that they didn’t do more with it.

We’ve seen Melto himself be the target of, essentially, bullying. It could be seen as simple teasing from Koh, Asuna and yes, Tyramigo. But for others, even that much can be hurtful and harmful. Melto takes it in stride most of the time. But in this episode, you could see it seemed to be getting to him a little more than usual.

I’m not sure how I could have made this episode better. But focusing on both Ui and Melto’s personalities and kind of weaving it together in a way to show that they are learning from each other and improving themselves while also helping each other grow would’ve been nice.

The Oto-Canalo stuff felt too tacked on. Especially when there was Kureon’s part in the plot.

We’ve seen Kureon feel increasingly annoyed and frustrated at how Waizuru treats him. In this episode, we see he has made a genuine friend. And that friendship proved a stark contrast to his relationship with Waizuru. Even Tankjo.

We’ve seen this a few times before on both Sentai and Kamen Rider. Giving a bit of humanity to the villains and/or MOTW by using a sincere friendship with a human.

So that theme of friendship should’ve been the main focus and “teaching” of the episode. I feel like if executed better, this could’ve really been an excellent and meaningful episode. But as it was, it was still very good.

And awesome seeing the entire main cast dancing together for a few seconds in the end too.