Koh plays table tennis with Nada, Melto has many ladies fawning over him, Asuna gets all the food she wants, Towa has a chance to travel the world, Canalo is about to get married and Bamba trains with Master Black. But Bamba senses something is wrong.
That is, they’re all dreaming. Kureon is able to wake them up and the Ryusoulgers are shocked to see people sprawled out all over the place, sleeping.
Kureon explains that Eras’ blinding light caused them all to slip off into their own dream lands.
Just then, King Kishiryu-Oh is trying to take on an embiggened Eras, but failing.
Gunjoji approaches the Ryusoulgers as they henshin. But the sleeping humans suddenly fly up into the air and Eras wipes the entire Earth clean, leveling all cities. King Kishiryu-Oh shields the Ryusoulgers from the attack.
Eras uses a tentacle to grab Asuna, Melto and Kureon into her body. The humans around the world are sprouting into trees.
Koh, Towa, Bamba and Canalo take shelter in a cave as Tyramigo goes to check on the other Kishiryu. They try to figure out what the hell is going on.
Waizuru appears and explains that Eras is going to use the energy of living things, including humans, to remake the world. He thinks that is absolutely absurd.
Canalo asks them what kind of dream they had while asleep. Koh says it was a dream of happiness. That gives Canalo something to think about.
Meanwhile inside Eras, Melto, Asuna and Kureon are trapped inside of the sprout pods.
Both Melto and Asuna are growing weak and sleepy. Melto tells Kureon to drip slime into his mouth so he can birth a Minosaur.
Kureon says he’s not responsible for what ends up happening. But Melto’s huge Minosaur bursts through the pod and explodes them out of Eras’ body.
Eras immediately defeats Melto’s Minosaur, allowing Melto to quickly wake up.
Koh goes to hug both Melto and Asuna. But Melto says he knows of a way they can actually defeat Eras. Eras was originally a part of the Earth, so they could not defeat her. But now that she has fused with Pricious, she is now a solo entity.
That gives all of them (except a reluctant Canalo) a renewed hope. They henshin, but Eras immediately grabs them and slams them into the temple before engulfing them in explosions and slamming them into the ground.
Koh, Melto, Asuna, Towa and Bamba struggle to get themselves back on their feet, ready to take on Eras again. But Canalo asks why can’t they just let the people be.
The others don’t understand. Canalo bluntly asks if there’s even any point in fighting any longer. Fighting will cause more destruction which the awakened humans will have to face. Will they be happy with such a world?
Canalo says he is happy Melto and Asuna were able to come back. But he admits he was happier in his dream. If people are having dreams of happiness, why not let them remain asleep.
Eras says she lets the people have dreams without failure or despair that will let them live in joy forever. The only way to save the world, according to Eras, is for the Ryusoul Tribe, humans and Druidons to all fall asleep and dream of happiness.
Koh can’t believe the others could possibly be agreeing with this.
But Asuna speaks up and smashes the ground. She thinks that is all bullshit. She says they all have their own hopes and desires. But in dreams, for example, no matter how much you eat, you will never be full. A dream of happiness is just one’s desires and memories.
Asuna says she has been able to meet new people and do so many amazing things with them. But she saw none of that in the dream Eras programmed for her. The same can be said for the other dreams from the Ryusoulgers.
A crying Asuna takes Koh and Melto’s hands and says she wouldn’t be able to feel them in her dream. She wants to be able to continuing laughing with them instead.
Melto holds Asuna in a hug and says while he once dreamed of a perfect world as well, he is different now. He says they have all saved him and he is also growing stronger in the end.
Bamba says everyone makes mistakes, but running away from those mistakes and not facing them is the worst. That’s why, Koh says, they will find a way to overcome their history and continue living.
Canalo changes his mind and is all-in with his friends.
The Ryusoulgers henshin together.
Episode Thoughts
I have a dilemma after watching this episode. On its own, I absolutely loved it. It was a raw, emotional and powerful character episode and unlike any penultimate episode I’ve seen before. There were some pretty interesting action sequences including a stunning and very epic apocalypse sequence and the Ryusoulgers getting slammed into the ground, unhenshined.
But really, the focus was on the Ryusoulgers themselves. Their troubles. Their worries. Their hopelessness. Their revival. Their encouragement. Their bond.
This penultimate episode was the ultimate set-up for the decisive final battle.
But here’s where the dilemma is. Like I mentioned last week, this all feels like the finale to a completely different series.
I’m not sure if they meant this final arc to be a shocking twist or something like that. But the best twists have seeds planted throughout the season. You might not see it coming, but when you go back and look, the seeds are there.
With Ryusoulger, I feel like this was either a poorly executed twist or they just pulled all this out of nowhere once they began writing for the 40s.
The one part where I think they sort of attempted to tie everything together was the idea of Eras giving humans dream-worlds that contained no despair and minus feelings. That is of course in contrary to the real world that is full of despair, minus and negative feelings, sorrow, war, etc.
But, in a roundabout way, the Ryusoulgers explained that it is those kinds of feelings that allowed them to grow and form bonds.
That’s all a great premise. But it certainly wasn’t articulated in the best way over the season. I mean, looking back at the road getting to this point, it feels like all the road signs pointed to one place and when we got to that place, it was a completely different from what the signs had said.
Now again, twists and turns are always welcome. But I think Ryusoulger definitely missed an opportunity here for a fully realized and complete story.
And that’s a shame considering I really, truly loved this episode. Canalo unleashing his flood of insecurities. Melto finally being acknowledged for his intelligence. Asuna’s incredible impassioned speech. Amazing moments in an affecting episode that deserved a better lead-up.