Recap: Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger, Episode 38 – Temple of the Sky

Pricious gives Gachireus one last chance to defeat the Ryusoulgers so he can get his heart back.

Meanwhile, Koh, Melto, Asuna and Canalo have found the Temple of the Beginning which turns out to be a floating temple in the sky. Koh and Canalo are engulfed in a bright light and zoomed up to the temple where they are separately met by Yuno who says they must overcome several challenges in order to obtain the great power sealed here.

Both Koh and Canalo face familiar-looking Kishiryu, personifications of the power here, who challenge them to defeat them.

Back on the ground, a Minosaur birthed by Gachireus rampages as it sucks up all the water in the area. Melto and Asuna decide to go help Towa and Bamba fight them. But the Minosaur’s power is too strong for them and they are forced to dehenshin. Gachireus takes the Minosaur and they leave for now.

The Ryusoulgers head back home to try and figure out how to stop the Minosaur from sucking up the water which it transforms into energy. Before heading back out, Papa Naohisa brings them some onigiri and soy milk which ends up being a delicious combi.

And thanks to the onigiri, Melto has figured out a plan to stop the Minosaur. They head back into the city and finish off some Drunns before henshining and focusing on the Minosaur.

They work together and Melto is able to confirm that the Minosaur can only store a limited amount of water before it runs out of power. So all they have to do is stop it from sucking up any more.

But Gachireus makes Kureon drive him to despair by insulting him. That gives the Minosaur enough life energy to embiggen. Melto, Asuna, Towa and Bamba hop into Kishiryu-Oh Five Knights Blue.

Back in the sky, Koh and Canalo are able to proceed to the next challenge. This time, Koh meets notDimeVolcano who asks him to choose between his comrades or his mission. Koh takes a while to decide, but he eventually chooses his comrades. notDimeVolcano says Koh must defend his choice and prove it is right in the next task.

Koh finds Canalo has already arrived at the next room where a Ryusoul Ken is stuck in a rock. Neither of them is able to pull it out. Yuno appears again and says since both of them chose a different answer in the previous task (Canalo chose mission), they must battle each other to see which answer is the greater soul. Then they will be able to obtain the Ryusoul Calibur, which can harness the great power of the Kishiryu.

Koh and Canalo battle for a while before they smile at each other and stop. They face Yuno and say while they both chose different things to defend, their souls are still always one.

The Ryusoul Calibur begins to shine and Yuno says they’ve made a great decision. That one Soul is worthy of obtaining the Calibur.

Koh and Canalo are able to pull the Calibur out of the stone together. But Yuno warns them of even tougher trails in the future.

Koh and Canalo hurry out of the crumbling Temple. Yuno believes Koh will…

As the others are struggling with the Minosaur, Koh and Canalo arrive. Koh first uses Calibur to uphenshin.

With the great power, Koh is able to counter the Minosaur’s attacks. He then takes care of the Drunns Gachireus has summoned before tossing the Calibur over to Canalo for him to use.

Canalo faces off against Gachireus and sends him flying before he teams back up with Koh who goes Max. They deliver a joint finisher at the Minosaur to finish it off for good.

Gachireus vows to destroy the Ryusoulgers even if it means he risks his life to do it.

Over in the forest, Pricious is taking a stroll and happily soaks in his genius plan.

Episode Thoughts

This was a solid episode with a cool power-up. But I’ll definitely rant a little. The temple challenge Koh and Canalo went through just felt repetitive since they had just all gone through the Cliff of Trials a few weeks ago.

I think the show should’ve merged the Cliff of Trials and the First Temple into one big arc instead. I almost feel like they only had Koh and Canalo do the First Temple of the Beginning challenges just to have a really cool fight scene with them going at each other for a while.

But I think a more exciting, meaningful and epic story arc would’ve been all six Ryusoulgers going through “trials” and still getting this same result as we have here. That is, have all six of them face some kind of personal challenge like in the Cliff of Trials and then all face the “friends/comrades or mission” question.

At that point, we could have a team of Koh/Asuna/Towa choosing comrades with Melto, Bamba and Canalo choosing mission. Then all six of them facing off in a cool, kick-ass battle before then all realizing they are a team. That together, they can overcome any enemy or accomplish any mission. Essentially, a teamwork plot that of course is a Sentai staple. Then they get the big power-up(s).

While it was cool to see how Koh and Canalo shared Calibur and both used it here on its debut episode, I would have loved to have seen all six share it somehow. Perhaps (and not knowing how each Druidon general will be defeated), have the six of them taking turns using Calibur to defeat any one of Gachireus, Waizuru or Pricious. Most likely Pricious as I would assume Gachireus and Waizuru outlive him only because they were introduced earlier and are a bigger part of the overall season.

Still, watching the episode, I was expecting the result to be Koh’s decision to choose friends lead to him saying that indeed, together as a team they can always figure out a way to complete the mission. It ended up being a similar result, but I am kind of sad the show seemed to miss out on a potentially awesome arc instead.

I think both the Cliff of Trials and the First Temple of the Beginning, on their own, were a little underwhelming. So merging them together instead into one big arc would’ve been my choice.

Also, I’m always kind of annoyed when things from the movies, which I obviously wouldn’t have seen yet, pop up in-series. I had to look up who Yuno was and sure enough she was from the summer movie. Lol.

Anyway, it was a solid episode. But I feel the show could’ve done much more with the material the last couple of weeks. Should’ve been just as big a blockbuster arc as Nada’s, honestly.