Kyoudaikido Soldier Chromacorps

Hey everyone! I’m back! After a great two weeks of Free Comic Book Day and then my girlfriend’s graduation, I’m able to get back on my reviews of Power Rangers: Samurai! So next week shouldn’t be as late. However, we aren’t here to talk about my life, we’re here for some Power Rangers! And man, we’ve got a good one today, so let’s get into it!

We open on a scene of kids playing basketball. They try to shoot a basket, and the ball rolls away. One of the two kids can’t find the ball, but does find a gooey liquid where it used to be. They start to notice this substance on the bench as well, and we cut to our rangers.

They unveil the Clawzord, one that was locked away by Jii. Antonio was able to free it on Jii’s request by using electronic symbols through texting, but Kevin is not pleased, and runs off. Later that day, Emily, Mike, and Mia go to talk to him. Antonio doesn’t think that Kevin will ever accept him, but the others tell him that he could by showing him that he’s truly serious about being a samurai.

We return to the Sanzu River, where Xandred is looking for Octaroo. Octaroo however, is out working on a plan to escape the Sanzu River. The plan is that they will steal toys from kids (seriously? no candy from a baby?) and then the children’s tears will cause the Sanzu to overflow through a well. Dayu comes across Deker’s body, still alive but barely, and aludes to their past. While this is going on, Antonio sneaks around and sets up cameras to keep an eye on Kevin, so that he can learn to be exactly like him. He watches through a tablet device, and sees how organized and structured Kevin’s day is. We get a scene with Bulk and Spike sleeping, as the monster tries to steal something from them. However, the monster trips over Bulk, lands on Spike, and almost wakes them up.

The next morning, Kevin wakes up right on schedule, and Antonio goes to follow him on his training. Bulk and Spike also wake up to notice that their toy has been stolen as well. I want to believe it’s their mascot. Back to the Stalking show starring Antonio, Kevin hears some cackling in the distance. Without turning around, he asks Antonio if he heard it as well. Antonio pops out from the bushes, also saying that he heard it, but quickly wonders how and when Kevin found out about his spying. Kevin has known since the night before, but doesn’t have time to talk about that, and they both run to find where the noise is coming from. Kevin gets angry at Antonio on the way, telling him that he doesn’t understand what being a samurai means. They come across the monsters, who plan to throw 30 toys in to the well. Finely chopped up with an ax made from bedrock under the Sanzu river. This is starting to sound like a terrible recipe for brownies. Adding on Antonio’s comment, it really does sound like a pathetic plan. Even the way he said it, it seemed like he wasn’t too impressed with it. Kevin tries to call the others, but the signal was blocked off by the Nighlocks. Octaroo introduces himself, and says that he’s going to be the one to destroy them. He then sends off Antberry, the slimy monster from before. Alright Octaroo, looks like you WON’T be the one to destroy them. Antberry has an ability to spit his slime at the rangers, causing their weapons to slip right out of their hands. Without their weapons, they attack Antberry hand to hand. However, they find that he’s slippery too, and can’t get a good hit. Octaroo blasts them away, and sends his Moogers to finish them.

Dayu and Xandred talk on the river, and Xandred can tell that something is up. Dayu says that she isn’t hiding anything, but in a flashback we see that she helped Deker up, and they talked about his need to duel the Red Ranger. Dayu wonders if there’s anything in the world that’s important to him, and if he remembers anything from the past. Deker tells her that he doesn’t, and walks off. Dayu, back in the present time, gets angry and tells Xandred that it was nothing.

The team, back at the dojo, wonder where Kevin is. Yeah, who cares about Antonio. Speaking of Antonio, he seems to have injured his arm in the last battle. With the Moogers closing in, Kevin goes off to fight them, telling Antonio to stay put. Kevin takes out a few of them, even stealing a sword off one and cutting down a few more, but is outnumbered. Antonio comes in to help, and gives Kevin a lecture about how a samurai always helps others in need, and how they’re warriors and shouldn’t run and hide from battle. Kevin realizes that Antonio knows what being a real samurai is all about, and also states that he can actually fight, too. Kevin is counting on the others getting there, as he hasn’t come back for practice, which of course they do, with Jayden getting ready to start looking for them. Kevin and Antonio try to sneak around, and Kevin lends a hand to Antonio so they can get up a cliff. Antonio comes up with a plan to tie cloth around their sword and hand, so that it won’t slip out of their hands the next time they get slimed. Ok, Nick, you could TOTALLY do something with this. A stage show where the Samurai get attacked by Nickelodeon slime and have to do the same thing! The two rangers rush into battle, fighting off the Moogers. Getting to Antberry, they destroy the ax, sending it down the well. Antberry tries to slime them again, but this time they’re prepared. However, their weapons don’t guarantee a hit on the slippery monster, and they are back to square one. The other rangers show up, and send the monsters back a bit. The rangers take him out with a few well placed hits, and the monster grows. They call upon their zords, and combine to form the OctoSpear Megazord. Antberry attacks them with his slime once again, which causes the Octozord to seperate from the combination. Antonio fights off Antberry in the Octozord, and combines with the Megazord again. Using all of the attacks, they take out Antberry quickly. The heroes return all of the toys, somehow knowing where they all go. I think they wanted to return them anonymously so that Mia could stay far away from Spike.

This episode was really well done, and definitely shows an improvement in De-Tiege’s acting. He’s grown on me as a strong character and looking back at other episodes, the difference is very surprising. At first I thought I wouldn’t like him at all, but it’s becoming very clear that they had picked well. Now, I want to see the same improvement in the girls, who are still quite stiff. It’s really not as bad as before, but with Kevin, Mike, and Antonio all giving strong performances, it shows a bit more. Even the characters who had small roles, like Deker and Jii, did fine in this episode. This episode was a strong 8/10. The only issues were that once again, the Bulk and Spike part was unnecessary, and the pacing was just a tad fast. But these are minor things in the episode. I think we’re building up a very hot series, and I’m hoping that with the improvements and the big marketing push, Power Rangers might come back to what it was in the early 90s. Toys are flying off shelves, the Facebook and Nick.com are very active, and kids are talking about the show and really getting into it.