Doubutsu Sentai Jyuuouger first impressions

    I will admit I am going into this sentai similar to how I approached ToQger and Kyouryuuger. I’m not in love with the design choices but there are some that I don’t necessarily hate. It doesn’t help that I just marathoned the last 10 or so episodes of Ninninger and my feelings for that season can be summed up as such; At firt I laughed, then I was slightly intrigued but then…. meh. I will post a full review later but needless to say I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece from Jyuuouger, though I was admittedly hoping for writing on par with ToQger or Go-busters. Fortunately, I see a lot of good potential from the first episode.
    Right off the bat I must say I like the theme song. While not among my favorites it is catchy and has a slight triumphant feel to it. Right after the intro the series takes its first steps correctly. No time is wasted to establish our main characters and paint the rough picture of the world they are in. Our main protagonist is Yamato Kazakiri, a zoologist who is working as a field guide for some tourists. Right away we see that above all else, Yamato loves animals and nature, and unlike most other characters built with this personality, he loves humans just as much because, as he puts it, humans are animals too.
   

   Upon losing an important charm, a crystalline, cube, down a hill he chases after it and stumbles upon another, larger cube with a convenient slot to fit his own cube. Yamato’s curiosity gets the best of him as he inserts his charm into the key slot and is suddenly transported to another world where there are animals that walk on two legs and talk like humans. Imagine a furry convention in ancient ruins just with a lot more cubes. The citizens there, who refer to themselves as jyumans, are confused and stunned by the sudden human appearance. 4 jyumans reveal themselves as guardians of their land and the jyuman treasures; a lion man named Leo, an elephant man named Tusk, a tiger woman named Amu and a shark woman named Sela. The jyumans track down the cube he used to enter this world and accuse Yamato of being a theif for steeling one of 6 jyuman treasures, showing that they each have their own.
    Upon cutting to space we see an oddly shaped space ship carrying really odd looking villains has its eyes on earth. These “Deathgaliens” see earth as their 100th “battle ground” for some sick game they play. I will admit it seems they simply wish to destroy the earth but the intentions are far from clear. I suppose I like that the villain’s intent is somewhat vague in the beginning but they did it in a way that’s kind of confusing. They send a monster down to start this “game” and wreak havoc. Back in the jyuman world, the cube that brought Yamato here starts going crazy, being understandably freaked out and concerned for his home, he takes back the cube and heads back home, taking the four jyuman guardians with him.
    Upon seeing a clear threat of the deathgaliens, the jyuman guardians stand up to fight and the treasure cubes in each of their possession turns into their morpher, a rubix cube phone. The quicker you accept that is a thing, the better. Yamato sees this and wants the power to fight as well so he can protect his home and the forest around him. The guardians tell him it’s impossible for a human to use jyuman powers but are quickly surprised when he is able to morph into the red eagle. The 5 of them fight, defeat the foot soldiers and eventually the monster
    The method in which the monsters grow is odd. The head villain Genis (heh, genes – species, get it? It’s a bad joke) takes a part of him and offers it to the fallen monster as an “extra life” which he inserts into the monster via coin slot. Fortunately, the cubes that allow the jyuuougers to morph also is able to summon their zords; giant blocks that form into animals. I’m not going to go into great detail about them since I wish to save that for the full review but so far I don’t hate them. Cube lion is best cube. Anyway, the jyuuougers defeat the monster but are unable to go home since the cube that brought them there was damaged and they are missing one of the 6 treasures. Yamato offers to take them in but we end the episode as Tusk tries to refuse his offer

    It is clear that there is going to be an environmentally heavy message in this sentai but I pray that they don’t focus on pollution like Go-onger did or focus on human ignorance and evil like gaoranger. I believe sticking to a “humans are animals too” niche while not instilling any awkward guilt trips is the way to go. Oddly another prevailing theme that may cover the more serious stuff is racism of all things. I was honestly surprised but there is a lot of talk about “what only jyumans” can do. I can’t say for certain yet until the next episode is aired but it seems like prejudice between humans and non-humans may be just as prevalent as the environment-based stuff.
    The designs are all around weird. I haven’t seen anything bad but I haven’t seen anything really good either. I just see many weird design choices in this sentai that leave me curious about what other monsters, and the 6th jyuuouger is going to look like. I am going to call it now. Red eagle gets an upgraded form that is armor that folds out from a cube. I will be legitimately shocked if a cube isn’t incorporated into the powered up modes for these guys, even more so if they don’t have any upgraded form at all. All in all I am looking forward to watching this sentai.