My Favorite Kyuranger Is Tsurugi Ootori

Maybe, maybe not you know this by now that my favorite Kyuranger is actually Tsurugi Ootori. I guess it has to do with the fact that actor Keisuke Minami is a J-Drama regular who has decided to take on a Toku role -- perhaps it's to understand the generation gap he shares with its regular cast considering he's an 80s baby and almost everyone he worked with are born in the 90s. Hmmm it's quite nearly the same scenario with actor Shiro Izumi who returned in 1992 to play as Burai in Zyuranger in his 30s. But I guess that's not entirely the reason why I feel like Tsurugi is my favorite Kyuranger -- aside from the obvious fact that my favorite Changeman is Hiryu Tsurugi!

I did remember how often I joked a lot during Kyuranger and how Lucky kept getting me critical (at times) of what direction the show would get. Lucky is well kinda happy-go-lucky and not everyone can easily appeal to his screaming "Yosha Lucky!" for almost every episode. If there was a need to balance the show or to add some seriousness -- it's actually Tsurugi who came from what I'd assume was the 2017 A.D. and would later awaken in 2317 A.D. to try and restore the Universe back to its normal shape. He took every risk to make sure everyone knew the vile historical revisions that Jark Matter did to the Universe and restore said peace to the Universe.

So what made me like him that much? He was pretty much the balancing factor that Lucky (who ended up becoming my second favorite Kyuranger later on) needed in order to develop as a character. It's not just because he was the original Rebellion founder, the first man to unify the Universe in peace (and the president of said federation) or that he's the Luke Skywalker of the show (except he has no missing twin sister or evil father to save since said role went to Lone Starr errr Lucky instead). It was also because he actually became the very important character that would develop Lucky. Lucky sure had his friends but he needed someone to play as the catfish to the codfish. If Lucky was that codfish then Tsurugi served as that catfish. It was him who actually served as the very character drive that actually brought the best out of Lucky.

Perhaps my favorite part of Tsurugi is how he bridges three centuries across said show. In the past, he organized said Rebellion and even put himself at risk to supposedly defeat Don Armage. He gets shocked to realize that said ancient foe is back. He hesitantly works with the others but realizes that to defeat said foe -- he needs all the help that he could get. I also like how he sooner or later had no choice but to face the fact that the Cuervo he once knew had long died. He also had his dilemma which he could die soon which thankfully didn't happen at the end. He was even willing to put himself at risk when Don Armage took his body as the second to the last host -- he valued his life above everyone else!