Recap: Avataro Sentai Donbrothers, Episode 12 – The Lying Moon

Aspiring idol Kira Kirara has applied for a job at the café. Master Kaito won’t answer any of Haruka’s questions about how he can henshin. But he does want her to train Kirara as her new co-worker.

Haruka is already a bit annoyed with her after Kirara makes a bit of a shady remark about Haruka’s uniform being a bit too tight in the chest area for her. Also for the fact that Kirara is almost the complete opposite of her.

Meanwhile over at Shirokuma, Tarou’s co-worker Kiriyama says his mother will soon be in Tokyo for the day and hoped to buy her lunch and drop her off at the bus station. Kiriyama sees their boss has put out some of his mother’s favorite melon-flavored cookies so he takes them all since they’re hardly ever on sale.

When their boss comes in and notices the empty basket, he asks them who took the cookies. Tarou, as always, tells the truth and points his finger at Kiriyama. The boss punishes him by making him clean the office every day for a week.

Tarou’s co-workers chide him for being a bad friend and tattling on Kiriyama. Tarou says he merely told the truth, but the others say Kiriyama won’t be able to see his mother anymore. They tell Tarou not to come to work tomorrow or they will quit.

Later that evening, Haruka asks Tarou to cover for her at Donbura if he’s not too busy. And she’s made some of her special beef stroganoff to help convince him. He scores Haruka’s signature dish a 25. But he agrees to work at the café for her.

Next day, Tarou walks into Donbura to see Kirara performing her original song on a table for her new fanboys who are now café regulars. They are also excited after hearing Kirara is the sister of popular idol Karin from Black Sugar. She says they were scouted in Harajuku together, but Karin was able to debut before her.

Master Kaito introduces Tarou to Kirara. Tarou immediately calls her out for not wearing the official Donbura uniform. She mentions Haruka’s old uniform that’s available for her is tight in the chest. So Tarou tells her to just take the pads in her bra out. Kirara is very annoyed.

Later, Haruka, Tsuyoshi and Shinichi are at the café waiting for Tsubasa who would like to thank them for nursing him back to health last time. Tsubasa is about to walk in when a detective and Detective Sayama come looking for him. Tsubasa runs and leaps over the fence.

The detective asks them if they know where Tsubasa is and Tarou immediately points them in the direction Tsubasa ran toward. The Juto’d Sayama glares at them before leaving as well. Tarou senses something off with him.

Anyway, the others criticize Tarou for ratting out Tsubasa who they’ve already decided is innocent. Shinichi says he’s noticed how Tarou is incapable of lying. Tarou says he does not see any reason to lie and that truth should be all that matters in the world.

Haruka says there’s such a thing as little white lies. In fact, she hasn’t been able to make beef stroganoff since his low score. “That’s a good thing!’ Tarou says. Tsuyoshi stops Haruka from smashing a plate over Tarou’s head.

Shinichi wants Tarou to try practicing how to lie. First, he asks Tarou to say “I am a woman.” Tarou gives it a shot, but as he tries, he struggles so mightily that he collapses and appears to fall unconscious.

Haruka checks and does not find his pulse. But after a while, Tarou pops back up. Shinichi wonders if lying could actually kill Tarou.

On the other side of the café, Kirara has just finished another performance for her fanboys. She tasks Tarou for a score and he gives her a 25.

That evening, Sonoi comes across Detective Sayama. Sensing the Juto-ness, he slashes at Sayama who immediately leaps out of the way after transforming into his Juto form. Seeing as how Sayama was not at all hurt by his slash, Sonoi believes the Juto really are invincible.

Tarou suddenly appears and admits he hoped to run into him. They sit by the water and Tarou tells Sonoi about his lying problem. Tarou says he has never been able to lie and realizes that has hurt people from time to time. Sonoi says he likes that about Tarou.

Sonoi adds that even beautiful lies exist in this world. He points out the moon lies about shining bright since it merely reflects the light from the sun. But the moon is more trustworthy because you can always keep an eye on it.

Tarou appreciates Sonoi’s words of wisdom.

Meanwhile, Kirara is on the very same swing she used to play on with her grandfather when she was a kid. She had promised that she’d become an idol when she grew up, especially as he said it would make him so happy and proud. She calls him now and tells him that her debut will be delayed a bit longer.

Next day, Kirara is delivering another performance for her fanboys when idol Karin comes into the café. She is friends with Master Kaito as she used to work here before she became an idol. The fanboys assume she’s visited today for her little sister Kirara. But Karin calls her an imposter.

Karin tells Kirara it’s not good to lie. The fanboys throw all their Kirara goods on the table, upset that she would do that.

Kirara runs out of the café. But she suddenly screams. Tarou and Haruka run out to find her laying on the ground. She says a monster attacked her and Haruka shows Tarou a news article about a Hitotsuki kidnapping idols.

Next day, Kirara comes into the café with crutches and a broken foot saying she was attacked again. Shinichi grabs one of her crutches, but she can walk perfectly fine. She’s just been lying about being attacked.

Tarou scolds her and says he does not understand why she would lie about this. Kirara tells them that her grandfather has taken care of her since she was little and she wants to become an idol to make him happy and proud. Tarou says she can lie all she wants, but that won’t make any of what she says true.

Kirara says she is sure to find a way for that to happen and tells them to leave her alone. She runs out of the café.

They again hear her scream and think she’s just lying. But Tarou runs out and sees the Hitotsuki take her into his body. The four of them henshin just as Anonis pop in. Tsubasa arrives and the five Donbros go Robotaro. Together, they are able to destroy the Anonis before working together to knock the Hitotsuki out.

Just then, more Anonis appear and Tarou says it’s time to gattai. He locks in a new Gear and the Donbros transform into body parts. Haruka and Tsubasa become Tarou’s legs while Shinichi becomes the arms and Tsuyoshi becomes a shoulder, chest plate and blades. Together, they are Don Onitaijin.

The four Donbros have no idea what the hell is going on. But their combination is very powerful and the Anonis and Hitotsuki are defeated with one slash.

When the Hitotsuki embiggens, Tarou spins a Gear to have them embiggen as well. They battle in the virtual world and finish off the Hitotsuki for good with a Donbro Paradise Robotarozan.

The idol otaku from whom the Hitotsuki emerged from is returned to normal as are all the idols he ate.

Over at Shirokuma, Tarou decides to make it up to Kiriyama. He takes him onto his back and tells him to close his eyes. Tarou henshins and uses a virtual door to quickly bring him to the bus station where Kiriyama’s mother is about to board her bus.

Mama Kiriyama is happy to see her son. Tarou tosses a new bag of melon cookies to Kiriyama and he gives it to her mother as a gift from his friend. Mama Kiriyama is happy her son has such nice friends.

Kirara, meanwhile, has managed to officially debut as an idol. Tarou, thinking about Kirara and her grandfather, watches her music video being played on a big screen.

Tarou acknowledges that truth and lies are pretty complicated things.

Episode Thoughts

A bit of a half-filler/half-character development type episode. Though Kirara’s story definitely helped to bring out the idea around Tarou’s inability to lie. It’s an interesting concept and I guess it will continue to play a big part in his character as well as the story. Especially as we saw the story also being used to further Tarou’s interesting relationship with Sonoi.

Kirara’s story was short, but a nice story about wanting to make her grandfather smile. I was actually very amused and surprised even by Tarou pointing out she was wearing pads in her bra. This is Sunday morning TV right? lols

The discussion about little white lies though is also very interesting. Like, what would be considered a little white lie? Who decides when it is a good time for one. And what does this all have to do with Tarou and the grander scheme of things for the season. Is it just some quirk like being afraid of chickens or something? We’ll see I guess.

Elsewhere, what happened to boss Sanae and why did we get this overacting new boss instead? It was a bit jarring and annoying, to be honest.

Also, is Totaro a really busy guy? He has had the least amount of screentime so far and I feel like he’s just really popular outside of Donbros and isn’t as available as the others. I dunno. I guess it fits Tsubasa’s fugitive story, but it’s just a bit noticeable. Doesn’t take away from the show. But of course, I’m looking forward to seeing all five of the Donbros be together more often and regularly.

Especially with the debut of Don Onitaijin. It’s a fun and funny gimmick. Of course, it sort of continues the way the Zenkaigers combined as well. So there’s that. The combining of the team’s actual bodies into one thing has always brought about hilariously awkward moments. But it’s fine. And it’s a refreshing twist to have them be able to be normal sized and embiggened as well.

Overall, an alright episode. Maybe a little underwhelming considering the last two weeks of excellent episodes. But still fun and enjoyable nonetheless.