Recap: Avataro Sentai Donbrothers, Episode 5 – Holed Up Dog

Haruka, annoyed that Tarou attacked them again for no apparent reason, heads to Shirokuma hoping to speak with him and give him a piece of her mind.

Meanwhile, Tsubasa is being chased by police officers while telling us that he has been wrongly accused of criminality and he will continue to run because he is innocent. He manages to slip into a parking garage where he puts his glasses on to try and find a possible virtual door, but no luck.

When the police officers enter the garage, he quickly runs, but unknowingly drops his glasses.

Haruka arrives at Shirokuma and sees it is still closed. As she wonders about the other two Donbros she has not met yet, Tsubasa comes running up and tries to get into the closed delivery office. He hides at the door and the cops go running in the other direction.

Tsubasa asks Haruka to help him and he gets her to accompany him inside after he breaks a window. When Haruka turns the lights on, he touches her hand to turn them back off. They seem to share a moment and Haruka is shocked when he says it was love at first sight. He says she took his breath away the moment he first saw her.

Haruka thinks this is the perfect opportunity to gain some life experience she needs to write a better manga that won’t be accused of plagiarism. She decides to go along with this potential love connection.

Tsubasa, meanwhile, is merely trying to take Haruka hostage.

Haruka makes them some fresh hot tea and says this must be one of those fateful meetings. Tsubasa is unsure how Haruka could be so cool with this idea and wonders how he can get out of it.

Someone suddenly knocks at the door. Tsubasa tells Haruka to shoo the person away. But it is actually Tsuyoshi and he quickly runs in and straight to the toilet. He explains later that he came here to thank Momoi Tarou for some things and just ended up needing to use the bathroom.

Tsubasa decides it’s time for him to leave this place and digs through his jacket for his glasses that he now realizes are missing. Tsuyoshi suddenly recognizes Tsubasa as a wanted criminal. After asking Haruka, she says she and Tsubasa are together. Tsuyoshi sneaks Haruka away from Tsubasa so he can tell her about him being a fugitive. Haruka searches the internet to confirm that he is indeed wanted. But she thinks this is even better for her manga inspiration.

Haruka doesn’t want them to call the police and instead says they should wait and observe first. Tsuyoshi decides to use the landline, but Haruka unplugs it so they can stay here a bit longer.

Tsuyoshi considers henshining so he can take Tsubasa into custody. But he is afraid he would frighten Haruka. Plus, he himself is a bit afraid.

Tsubasa takes a loaf of bread from a package and the three of them have a bite. Tsuyoshi runs to the door and tries to yell for help, but Tsubasa grabs him back inside and maintains that he is innocent.

Tsubasa apologizes for keeping them here and decides to say they are free to go. But Haruka locks the door and says he hasn’t properly used her as a hostage yet. Tsuyoshi thinks she’s crazy, but then recognizes her as the plagiarizing mangaka. She maintains her innocence and Tsubasa compares their tough situations of being falsely accused.

Just then, Tarou comes into the office and is not only not surprised to see them here, is happy that this is another example of their close bond. He’s just here to prepare for their reopening tomorrow.

Tarou notices an open package and Tsubasa admits he was hungry and took the bread inside the box meant for delivery. Tsuyoshi says Tsubasa is a wanted criminal and they must turn him into the police. Haruka continues to insist they not do that.

Tsubasa punches Tarou in the stomach, but Tarou does not even flinch. Tarou instead drags Tsubasa to the home of the recipient of the bread he ate so they can apologize. Tarou asks what they can do to make up for it and Tsubasa ends up cleaning the toilet.

Meanwhile, Shinichi runs into a police-themed Hitotsuki and henshins to try and take care of it. Nearby, Detective Sayama is leading his officers’ search for Tsubasa. The officers’ comment amongst themselves that Sayama is about to retire, yet has not really advanced in his career which is why he is so worked up about this case.

They spot Tarou dragging Tsubasa back to Shirokuma and they surround the building.

Shinichi arrives at the scene, having lost the Hitotsuki. But he decides to jump in and use his skills to try and convince the supposed criminal to surrender. An annoyed Haruka, still wanting this inspiration for her manga, steps out to tell them all to shut up. She demands a getaway vehicle and when she runs back inside, Shinichi slips inside as well.

Tarou says they all really have a strong bond.

As Shinichi explains the haiku he was reciting outside, Tsuyoshi wonders if Miho is worrying about him at this moment.

Tsubasa again maintains his innocence, but refuses to explain what he is being accused of. He says that he agreed to keep it a secret and avoid capture for a year so that they would let her go.

“Her” is Natsumi, the girl he loves.

Tarou says Tsubasa must be telling the truth since when opening the package, he had left the shipping label intact. Most likely because he wanted to repay the customer later. That is not something a criminal would do.

Tarou then says Shinichi wasn’t doing a very good job of persuading the subject and was instead drunk on his own words. He turns to the others to say that everyone else is the same; thinking only of themselves.

Shinichi asks what about Tarou then. Tarou says he does not know what happiness is and hopes that by making other people happy, he can learn what it means.

Tsubasa says he too has forgotten what happiness is. He just remembers that today, April 3rd, is actually his birthday. In the past, Natsumi would celebrate it with him.

Tarou silently remembers one of his birthdays as a child when he was excited about all his friends coming over to celebrate. But when the entire day passes with no one coming, Papa Jin tries to comfort him and make it a happy birthday for him anyway.

Tarou begins singing Happy Birthday and Tsuyoshi remembers he had brought some cake to give him as a thank you for their work the other day.

Tarou continues to sing Happy Birthday as he sits Tsubasa down at the table to serve him a slice. The others sit around the table with their own slices and join in the song while giving Tsubasa their strawberry toppings.

Tsubasa starts to cry as the others wish him well.

Suddenly, an enraged Detective Sayama storms into the building. He calls all of this nonsense and turns into the Hitotsuki from earlier. He declares all of them under arrest.

The detective slams Tsuyoshi into a rack of packages and he loses consciousness. Tsubasa tells the others to stay back as he lures the monster into chasing him outside.

Shinichi tells Haruka that he doesn’t think Tsubasa is a bad guy after all. They check on Tsuyoshi, but also notice that Tarou has disappeared.

Anonis pop up and join the Hitotsuki as they corner Tsubasa. The Hitotsuki shoots at Tsubasa, but his glasses come flying onto his face, allowing him to escape the explosion.

Tsubasa henshins and takes on the Anonis. Haruka and Shinichi arrive to help out as does Tsuyoshi, all of them already henshined. Shinichi, Tsuyoshi and Tsubasa all uphenshin to Ryusoulger. Haruka laments not being able to use the Ryusoulger Gear.

Tarou arrives with his fanfare and grabs Tsubasa’s arm in order to borrow the Ryusoulger Gear. With it, Tarou delivers a Kishiryu-powered Avataro Slash at the Hitotsuki.

The Hitotsuki embiggens and Tarou hops into Don Zenkai-Oh to finish it off for good.

At the café, Kaito receives the purified Patranger Gear. Haruka serves the detective, now no longer affected by the Hitotsuki. Seeing the detective in a happier, more positive mood, she remembers Tarou’s words earlier about happiness and feels she understands him a bit more now.

Meanwhile, the Noto3 are in some kind of virtual art gallery. “It’s those five again,” Sononi says, referring to five paintings: Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps, Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People and Frederick Sandys’ Love’s Shadow.

Sonoza says they can’t let this continue happening. Sonoi asks “What’s next?” and snaps his fingers. The Mona Lisa suddenly freezes and shatters.

Episode Thoughts

Definitely my favorite episode so far! It was such an interesting episode since I think it really focused on the characters more than the action.

The Happy Birthday scene definitely got me tearing up for some reason. I was surprised, but also happy to have a MaGMCM so early in the season. But it happened!

It was a strangely poignant moment. And it says a lot about the show that that was the case.

First, we got a bit more about Tarou’s childhood. It’s certainly sad, but really makes his character so interesting seeing where he is coming from and comparing that to who he seems to be today.

It’s refreshingly different and fun to have the entire team gathered like this for the first time unhenshined and still unaware that they’re in each other’s presence as fellow Donbros. And it worked because we have been able to meet all five of them in a strong enough way over four episodes that we already care about seeing them in the same room together. The show has done a solid job in introducing each of them enough so that we know who they are as characters, even this early in the game.

Amidst all the fun and hijinks and strange CGI figures, this was a wonderful and emotional character moment for all five of our Donbros. And it also established quite well that our five new friends are the good guys. Maybe there will be conflicts between them later on. But having them understand each other, without knowing who they actually are yet, really adds a different dimension to the story. And again, helps make everything feel fresh and exciting.

Very interesting twist about Miho and Natsumi. If there is one. Though I’ve noticed that Miho did seem kind of suspicious with Tsuyoshi. Like, you don’t want to doubt she’s really in love with him. But something about it feels off. As if she’s trying a bit too hard to show her “love” for him. So we’ll see if there’s something there, whether they’re the same person. Or twins. Or something else.

The paintings are also interesting. Wonder what part they will be playing and what kind of significance there is, if any, as to which paintings they will be featuring. The Noto are all about eliminating greedy humans. So that art gallery scene was random, but certainly intriguing. As we’ve learned a lot about our Donbros, we relatively know nothing about the Sono3. So that will also be another interesting mystery to look out for.

Overall, a really great character-driven episode. It was fun and intriguing. And it was something different from the norm as well.

Non-CGI Donbro of the Week

I’m going to be spotting uses of the physical, non-CGI Inu Brother and Kiji Brother suits in every episode from now on lol Like, look at this:

It looks like a physical suit. But even if it isn’t, it looks awesome instead of the mini-dog version. Like come on now. lol