#yst

It's very interesting to reframe the scene where Gai is shot by Saizo while fighting Ryusei as a flashback moment for Ryusei where he was stabbed with Ramaga's poison dagger. Poor Ryusei. This time he wasn't the target, anyway. But only barely.

AND RYOOOO XD (more on that later) :D And Samurai Heart makes its appearance lol For all the flaws in how Gai is being acclimated to human life by admittedly very young people who have no experience or training in this kind of thing, his relationship with Ryusei continues to be cute.

The OP is so good.

This made me laugh aldjkalj

I am not above saying that after they hit Saizo's shield I said, "Boom" aloud and then "hmm" and then Yamato said this alkdjalj

So now we know there are more youja who can do hypnosis and illusions. But interestingly, whatever Ramaga did didn't make the Troopers' eyes look like Shion's in that flashback:

This might just mean it's a different spell, a different caster, or something about Shion himself made his eyes look like this (e.g., that he has special heritage, either youja or from Kaos). But still, curious. Especially because the eye color is identical to Ryusei being taken over by the poison:

But so far as we know, Shion wasn't infected. So was Ramaga the one who did whatever to Shion, regardless of what it was? Or was Shion just less infected but not enough to be a permanent problem?

Ryusei dispelling the hypnosis reminds me of Seiji fixing Ryo's eyesight with sunlight.

AND WE GET FULL UNCOVERED ADULT RYO!!!

Lookit him. Cutie (though the beard doesn't do him any favors alkdjalj). Looks kind of like Keith from Voltron: Legendary Defender honestly lol But the generic 20th century shounen male lead look is kind of generic for a reason lol I love him :3 And his having a teacherly relationship with Ryusei is sweet. Ryo really trying to help everyone :3 And Ryusei idolizing him T-T Ryo T-T Where's Byakuen????

Also the -presses hard to create symbol- thing is fascinating. They can just... do that to Weapon-Gear/Armor-Gear alkdjlaj What magic is Ryo and later Ryusei doing and how did Shion let it do that alkdjlaj

Ryusei's students trotting quickly to him while Shion slowly walks over alkdjlaj I like the little details.

I admit I don't know Japanese architecture, so this may just be another location they used, but it is quite interesting that they have this vaguely Atlas carrying the world image in the background while talking about what Ryusei is doing on behalf of the world and the other Troopers:

(It actually looks more like Sisyphus with his boulder, and perhaps the double messaging is intended, given what Ryusei is fighting against and ultimately dies to)

Gai and Kaito's relationship continues to be intriguing:

Also highlighting because I wish. They would just. Use 2D. All the time. Instead of the ugly 3D. THIS LOOKS REALLY GOOD! WHY NOT KEEP IT??? It's in so much of the episode too! Along with the bleh 3D. Why T-T

I need to stop shipping characters with death flags. This happened with To Be Hero X, it's HABIT-FORMING alkdjalj

I honestly wasn't planning to ship them in my last fic of these two after Episode 3, but it just happened in that fic and I'm glad the series keeps supplying food for this ship alkdjlaj I think Ryusei is actually talking about how he knows he's dying(?) and he knows Shion is going to be able to stick around/maybe it's meant as a platonic thing but I choose to believe aalkdjalj

The full version of this at last is really adorable lol And the team dynamic continues to be fun:

I know a lot of tokusatsu have a lot of the very anti-climactic posing and stuff (and Yoroiden Samurai Troopers had plenty as well) like "omg you guys... can move????" But this is all very aldkjlaj It's not overly cheesy in a way that's bad, it works, just like YST's generally did.

And oh no, will Shion actually die first and all the promo material with him in the green armor was a scam after all???? alkdjalj

The sword being a fake is neat. Of course a super genius wouldn't just go up to the Youjakai fully half-cocked.

And there it be at last! The Shiroi Kikotei/Armor of the Supreme Emperor!

Still a thing in this story universe (and generally looks the same, plus the cape anyway). And Nasti is very twigged into the fact that Ramaga wants to summon it (and hiding it from Mirei for some reason still). Which begs the question: if Ryo is Ramaga/being controlled by him, and allegedly Ramaga had the other four Troopers, why couldn't Ryo summon the armor like he could before? What stopped him from summoning it to stop himself from getting captured/save everyone else?

Is that where Byakuen went? He escaped with the sword(s) back to the human world?

Presumably if Ryo is just being possessed, and although Ramaga seemingly can use non-demonic abilities maybe through Ryo (or some other person he absorbed/controls, like oh... Kayura maybe), perhaps Ramaga can't channel righteousness like Ryo can and that's why he can't summon the armor. Although this begs the question of what value possessing Gai would have since that would presumably present the same problem. Unless Ryo's body is being used up (as Gai explained) and that's why Ramaga can't summon the armor. And he needs Gai because Gai is a younger meat puppet and so could handle bearing the armor. But how long as Ramaga been unable to use the armor? He wasn't using it in the flashback with Shion and Ryusei's group, though maybe he just didn't need to given how outclassed Shion and Ryusei's group was.

I take back some of the super-cheese comments: Ramaga's reveal, "It was me!" is kind of hilarious alkdjlaj

So this is interesting because we seemingly have an answer to how a human can become "demonic" in this story universe. They get infected with this poison and Ramaga sort of mind controls them into it. And it can be removed without killing the caster, seemingly, assuming Ramaga was the one who did something like this to Gai, as Ramaga was not dead when Saizo removed Gai's demonic powers. Conversely, the Braves were told a false story about how Gai was born/joined them or something. Or, for whatever reason, Saizo was the one who gave Gai his demon powers originally, and so Saizo was the one who could deactivate, I guess? By shooting Gai? Given Ryusei's demon form kind of resembles Gai's, there at least seems to be some connection there.

I still love how much the Troopers love Ryusei. They really do care for him. And we get slightly more than the usual clip show for their memories of him, which is sweet. He really bonded with them in a monthish time. And we do get someone singing Samurai Heart, even if it's not the whole team.

It feels like a callback to Episode 1 when Gai was singing without any backing music, but haunting in a different way.

Having Gai be the one to essentially kill Ryusei is so cruel T-T The plan was nice, though. Gai really does care and can plan things, and all the Troopers got together to help. And Gai was already regretting some of his actions and coming around.

I realized after the fact that I didn't have room in this post to really be sad about Ryusei's death (outside doomed ship stuff and how it affects other characters) but the man's been death-flagged since before the show started, folks T-T We didn't even know Ryusei existed until relatively right before the show started airing: Shion was in all the promotional material as the fifth Trooper prior to and after that, outside the OP. I think we first knew for sure about Ryusei's existence on December 2nd, when his character profile and a preview with him more prominently was shared, and then we had no idea what he was doing other than he appeared briefly in a couple previews, never in armor. You can actually see him in this preview from November 11, 2025:

He's there on the right, out of armor. There are some other shots of episodes that have already released where we (now) know it's Ryusei in the armor, and one where there's someone in green armor on-screen while Shion is standing elsewhere, in a scene from Episode 5 (I use the episode version later in this post). But we didn't know it was the guy in this^ shot in that armor when this preview aired, or even on December 2nd. Even if anyone noticed Shion was not the one in the green armor in that shot before December 2nd, I doubt they made the connection it was "that mysterious brunette with a green t-shirt in one scene of the preview". On December 2nd, we got his character profile and a preview video with him more prominently shown (but still in not much of the video). Even in that preview, he's not in the armor, and Shion transforms with the Weapon-Gear multiple times. And by that point, we'd already seen Shion in a lot of things, in and out of armor. The OP with just Ryusei and no Shion aired at midnight on New Year's Day. And that still had a death flag for Ryusei because, unlike the other five Troopers, he's walking away from the camera with his back to the audience, and his face hidden in the window where his armor is, clearly signalling he's leaving the story and potentially being replaced (as we knew, because Shion is in the vast majority of the promotional material as the one wearing the green armor). There were tons of theories at that point: Was Ryusei evil? Does Shion replace him? Does Ryusei replace Shion? Who knew! And then the ED was premiered before Episode 2 dropped and Ryusei had EVEN MORE DEATH FLAGS alkdjalj Even when I did my very non-academic survey of Japanese fans on twitter after Episode 2, folks were guessing Ryusei might die because by that point we'd all see the ED, if nothing else.

Am I sad, yes (I like Ryusei, he's a great character, it's why I've written 2 and soon to be 3 fics about him). Am I surprised? No. The only "surprise" of any kind was whether or not he'd actually die or just be out of the action in some other way (e.g., too injured, comatose, kidnapped). I even guessed Gai might be the one to "kill" him ages ago, given all the Gai crying previews and the OP (and it makes sense as something typical of the genre to galvanize him on his journey of understanding murdering people is bad). So, given I've assumed Ryusei would potentially die for over a month, I guess my sadness is a bit... less intense because I was preparing for this for over a month.

I will go down with this ship again.

And so the folks who insisted Ryo is Ramaga/his bodysuit were on to something. Though it remains to be seen what precisely is going on. Back during YST, there were a lot of attempts to basically absorb/brainwash/use Ryo in his armor, all of which ultimately failed. Presumably this is not Ryo gone mad with demonic power, potentially after being stuck in the Youjakai for a couple years. The marks on his face and the odd symbols in his eyes likely indicate possession of some kind. So was Ramaga stronger than Arago and the others who tried to take Ryo over? Is this an evolved form of what happened when Badamon tried to overwhelm Ryo for possession? Did Ryo make a deal of some kind to save his fellow Troopers, who are also notably absent, or were they absorbed like Gai did with Nezu?

The alternative theory I still am uncomfortable with is Ramaga was going through all of them until they burned out or something and Ryo was the last one. During YST season 1, Ryo was the last to be absorbed. It'd mirror that. But more likely it's a Gai and Nezu situation, hence where Ramaga got the idea to have Gai absorb the Braves (or at least some of them). My assumption is Ramaga would target Ryo (like Gai later) because he was the Emissary of Fire and thus the one who can wield the Shiroi Kikotei. Which would hopefully mean the other four aren't dead (after all, if the goal is that armor, he still needs the other four to summon it). They're just, you know... sleeping. Or something.

It still leaves open the question of who Gai's father is. Is he actually Ryo's son or Ramaga's son or some other third thing? He still might be some random child that one or both of them got ahold of and took into the Youjakai and indoctrinated. We just don't know. Again, Kayura was kidnapped, too, and Kayura was neither Kaos' child nor Arago's, nor anyone else's.

And what have the Masho and Kayura been up to? Ryo's been running around as either a new dark lord or a meatsuit for one and they're just... busy? With what? Hope this doesn't mean they're dead... Maybe the other Troopers are forming some resistance with them in the Youjakai or something. I kind of feel like this weird poison power is something Ramaga absorbed from Kayura, given how he explains it, and aligning with the Sword of Domination leaves it 50/50 either a Ryo or Kayura thing.

And this also raises the question of if Ramaga targeted Ryusei intentionally because of Ryo's memories of him. Obviously Ryusei was kind of in the way of getting to Shion and they were the only two alive, but we do know Ryo and Ryusei had that connection. Or if it's a demonic Ryo, did he want to kill the last part of him that cared?

I hope this doesn't mean they have to kill Ryo. Obviously death for Troopers is on the table (it was before, even outside Musashi's former team and Ryusei and Shion's former team, as Shutendoji did actually die, much as we dislike remembering it). This is part of why Next Generation stories are so not my bag most of the time. Passing the baton is one thing (which for various reasons can be sad enough), but literally killing off the previous generation is really not great (and we already have Ryusei's "kill me to solve the problem" declaration, don't want Ryo doing that too, or I don't know, dissolving because his body has been through too much once he's freed of Ramaga). Not great at all. We already have 5-8 dead Troopers in this show. I do not want more.

Anywho. ...Episode 6: Restart? Woo? (Which is funny because it's more likely Episode 7 would have a change in OP/ED and more of a restart, but I guess we'll see if that happens alklaj)

Other thoughts:

Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5 (you are here), Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12

Fanfics if you'd like them: Turnabout (set after Episode 1), One Little Did (set after Episode 2), Came this far (set after Episode 3), a Ryusei/Shion Valentine's Day fluff fic, and another Ryusei/Shion university AU inspired by Macross Frontier.

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