Recap: Avataro Sentai Donbrothers, Episode 13 – Goodbye Tarou

Haruka, Shinichi and Tsuyoshi invite Tarou to the café for a team meeting since they now know each other’s identity. Haruka asks Master Kaito to join them since he seems to be a superhero as well. But Master Kaito says that the identity of the fifth Donbrother is more important to figure out right now.

Haruka suggests the fifth Donbro might actually be a talking dog.

Anyway, Shinichi goes over what we all know so far. The Noto come from a higher plane of existence in which human wavelengths are necessary for their world to function. Human greed disrupts those wavelengths, which is why the Noto are so hostile towards such people.

Tarou believes the leader of the Noto needs to be the first one defeated.

Suddenly, a customer in the café accuses them of giving her a scalding hot towel that’s burned her hand. Kaito nods at Haruka who goes over to apologize and offer her a free drink. The woman, Ms. Fusako, takes offense to the idea that the hands her late husband had praised so much are equal only to a cup of coffee.

Master Kaito comes over and kisses her hand which makes Fusako change her tune and be much more flattered. She asks Master Kaito for a glass of Dom Perignon.

Later, Tarou says before anything else, the others must fix their problems. For Haruka it is her lack of focus, for Tsuyoshi it is his lack of confidence and for Shinichi it is his arrogance and narcissism.

The three of them bring up Tarou’s inability for praise. He asks if they will improve if he praises them, so he gives it a shot. But once again, the prospect of lying causes Tarou to collapse. Tsuyoshi checks his pulse and Tarou does not have one.

Meanwhile on a rooftop, Sonoi is trying to draw a picture of Mt. Fuji. But he is unable and acknowledges that art is unique to humans who use it to cover up their imperfections. That’s why it is irrelevant to the Noto who are complete beings.

Suddenly, green-eyed animals including a pigeon, an aquarium fish and a dog deliver a message to the Noto3 wherever they are in the city. The Council has found the identity of their enemy.

And that enemy is Don Momotaro, the leader of the Donbrothers and a member of the Don Clan, the deposed royal family. The Don Clan had sent Tarou to the human realm before their fall.

The Noto3 reconvene at the art gallery to discuss this major development. They had thought all of the Don Clan had been executed. The family were in favor of peaceful coexistence between the Noto and humans and that almost brought ruin to their world.

Sonoi says if there is a survivor, then they must kill him.

Back in the city, Tsubasa is at the salon getting his haircut when he wakes up from a sweet dream of back when Natsumi had cut his hair as well. Fusako, also getting her hair done, teases Tsubasa about being a horned up young man having dreams of a girl in public. Tsubasa leaves when Fusako begins insinuating the girl he is dreaming about isn’t even all that.

Later, Fusako gets into a scuffle with other housewives at the store when she tries to snatch their clothing finds at the sale racks. The group of housewives call her a nuisance and drive her out of the store.

Fusako sits by herself outside, admitting that she has been lonely ever since her husband died and her son abandoned her. No one pays her any mind, that’s why… a Hitotsuki begins to emerge from her.

Elsewhere, Sonoi catches a man who snatches a woman’s purse and tells him to change his ways. The man leaves the bag and runs off.

Sonoi spots Tarou nearby. They catch each other’s eye an Sonoi immediately smiles.

Tarou and Sonoi head up to a rooftop to talk. Sonoi notices that something is bothering Tarou and asks what’s wrong. He wonders if it has to do with his inability to lie. Tarou flashes back to earlier this morning when Shinichi proposed that he, Tsuyoshi and Haruka boycott the next battle until Tarou learns how to be grateful for them.

Tarou tells Sonoi that he is having trouble with Sonoi’s idea of beautiful lies. He just can’t understand it. Sonoi says he likes Tarou the way he is and that he brings him hope.

Tarou says that’s weird. But Sonoi says he’d be more at ease if there were more people like Tarou.

Sonoi asks Tarou if there is an enemy he wants to defeat. Tarou says his instincts tell him he does. Sonoi feels the same way.

Tarou says he hopes that when they both defeat their enemies, they can have a meal of oden together. Sonoi has no idea what oden is. But Tarou says he will teach him about it then.

Tarou and Sonoi go their separate ways, hoping to meet each other again.

Meanwhile, Fusako has been fully consumed by the Hitotsuki and is rampaging, looking for people to pay attention to her. Tarou quickly heads over. But Haruka, Shinichi and Tsuyoshi reject the henshin when their Donblasters appear in front of them.

Sonoi, already transformed, pops in to take on and hope to kill Tarou. Neither know each other’s identity as they face off. That is until they deliver a decisive slash at each other, forcing the both of them to dehenshin.

Tarou and Sonoi are shocked to learn of each other’s identity. They both acknowledge that their oden date will not happen anymore. Tarou asks for Sonoi’s name and says it’s a shame that is has turned out this way. Sonoi also feels bad about how unfortunate this is.

Sonoi has one question to ask before Tarou leaves.

Afterwards, Tarou returns to battling the Hitotsuki. Tsubasa arrives, already henshined and wonders where the other three are. Tarou tells him about the boycott.

Sononi and Sonoza also arrive to help Sonoi take on Tarou. Haruka, Shinichi and Tsuyoshi watch from around the corner. Tsubasa is struggling against the Hitotsuki and Tarou against the Noto. So Haruka, Shinichi and Tsuyoshi end up henshining after all.

Tarou delivers a peach powered Avatarozan at Sononi and Sonoza and drives them away.

Tarou laughs at his fellow Donbros and says they’re fine as long as they don’t get in his way. The five of them go Robotaro to defeat the Hitotsuki’s first life before it embiggens.

The Donbros combine into Don Onitaijin to finish off the Hitotsuki for good. Ms. Fusako is back to her normal self, unsure of what’s just happened.

Just then, Tarou feels a bit weak. And just as suddenly, Sonoi comes in and slashes right at Tarou.

Earlier, Sonoi had asked Tarou what his weakness was. Tarou, of course unable to lie, tells him that after dehenshining from Don Onitaijin, he is weakened for a moment. So that gave Sonoi the opening he needed.

Tarou is forced to dehenshin and disappears. The others cannot believe it.

Episode Thoughts

An interesting episode. Definitely the most movement we’ve gotten in terms of plot I think. Of course Tarou is not dead. But it should be interesting to see what’s ahead in the coming weeks.

Donbrothers has definitely played around with hidden identities. So I was expecting and kinda hoping they would draw out this Tarou-Sonoi relationship a bit longer. It was a fascinating dynamic. And through their weird and unexpected connection, we learned a bit more about the Noto3, especially Sonoi himself.

It’s very interesting to see the Noto3 not necessarily be the traditional main villain group. But sort of a gray area kind of thing at the moment. The three of them trying to understand human emotions and things like that came into a bit more focus with the moment this episode where Sonoi talks about the Noto’s inability to use art. And talking about how art is used by humans. It’s like the Noto are aliens, basically, observing and learning about humans. But are also connected to humans in a unique (and, at the moment, still unclear) way.

So I was a bit disappointed they didn’t drag out the Tarou-Sonoi stuff a bit longer because I think they could’ve done a lot of things with them in that dynamic. Similar to how the show has used that mystery dynamic so well with the Donbros.

Speaking of, we got a lot of exposition. Mainly regarding Tarou’s origins. They really just dumped that pretty major information just like that. We don’t know who the Dons exactly are yet. But even just saying Tarou is a member of the Don royal family who was sent in a peach to the human world is a big revelation. But it just came across like a throwaway line.

The show will still have to give us all the details in the future of course. But I feel like the detail given by way of green-eyed animals this episode was too underwhelming for such an important bit of information. I like big shocking revelations, you know?

As much as I enjoyed the episode, I think they actually tried doing too much. So each piece didn’t get a chance to breathe. Whether it was the Tarou-Sonoi stuff or the tidbit about Tarou’s origins or the short-lived boycott or Tsubasa still being the odd man out or the MOTW and Fusako’s interesting “greed” relating to her loneliness. I think each part could easily be their own episode. But oh well.

Overall, an interesting and enjoyable episode nonetheless. We’ll see what our new friend brings to the table next week.

Non-CGI Donbro of the Week

Two weeks in a row with no Non-CGI Donbro! huhu