Recap: Avataro Sentai Donbrothers, Episode 23 – Inu Becomes a Dog

Tsuyoshi and Miho come across a little boy who is setting up a shrine for his dog who was killed in an accident at this crosswalk. He places his dog’s favorite soccer ball on top of his collar with a glass of water and a bouquet of flowers. Tsuyoshi joins Miho as she prays alongside the little boy.

Tsuyoshi and Miho unknowingly walk past Tsubasa on a park bench who has just awakened from a dream in which he remembers Natsumi teaching him how to swim.

On the other side of town, a student trying to study for the bar exam is engulfed by a Hitotsuki who is annoyed by every little noise around him. The Donbrothers are summoned and the Hitotsuki is even more annoyed by Tarou’s loud fanfare.

When Tsubasa takes a shot at the Hitotsuki, it shoots at him and sends him flying clear across the city and right onto the little boy’s shrine to his best bud. Tsubasa, still henshined, brushes himself off and tries to dehenshin, but nothing happens.

A pair of schoolgirls approach Tsubasa thinking he’s a cute pup. But Tsubasa’s attitude turns them off and they throw rocks at him. He runs away and visits Papa Jin who tells him that he’s being haunted and cursed by a dog.

Tsubasa heads back to the city, not believing this could be happening. When he gets hungry, he sneaks into someone’s home to eat the food that’s been set on the table. He gets chased away by the housewife before then getting chased by dog catchers.

Meanwhile, Jirou is in his hometown of Hanaka to visit his old friends. They share a good lunch together as Jirou tells them about being able to henshin now, but still encountering some interpersonal struggles with his teammates. Jirou excuses himself to the restroom and leaves them with a photo of his suit.

Jirou’s friends commend him for continuing to pursue his dreams when the rest of them had given up easily. When Jirou returns, they tell him how much they will continue to root for him.

That evening, before Jirou leaves, he asks Rumi to make him a bento when he becomes a real superhero one day. It’s always been his dream to come home to a home-cooked meal after a day of hero-ing. Rumi promises and in return, Jirou shows her his henshin before heading back to the Tokyo.

Next day, Tsubasa is still henshined when he runs into Miho. Miho approaches Tsubasa who can now only bark instead of talk out loud. Miho picks him up and hugs him. Tsubasa enjoys being able to feel Natsumi’s warmth again after such a long time.

Just then, the Hitotsuki appears and shoots at them. Tsubasa tells Natsumiho to run to safety as he drives the Hitotsuki away.

Tsubasa sniffs out Natsumi’s scent and finds her unconscious in an alley. He suddenly feels much weaker and decides he can go to Tsuyoshi for help. But no one answers the door when he knocks on the Kijinos’ door.

Tsubasa tries to speak to Tarou. But the other deliverymen take Tsubasa outside Shirokuma before he can see Tarou. Tsubasa hurries back to the alley where a thunderstorm suddenly arrives.

Detective Sayama pops up and chases after Tsubasa who crashes into a pile of trash and falls unconscious. Natsumiho regains consciousness and hurries over to Tsubasa. But the sight of Detective Sayama triggers something inside her.

They face off before charging at each other. Natsumiho zooms across the wall and slashes at Detective Sayama who momentarily reverts to his Juto form upon impact.

Detective Sayama leaps into the sky and leaves.

The thunderstorm disappears and Tsubasa regains consciousness. But his memory seems quite fuzzy as he has no idea who Natsumiho is or what even his own identity is.

Tsubasa stumbles away and turns into a full-on dog.

Nearby, the other Donbros encircle the Hitotsuki as they henshin and Avatar Change to Dairanger.

Jirou arrives and says he’s been refreshed after visiting his friends. But abunaiJirou suddenly pops out of his body.

abunaiJirou says Jirou will never surpass Tarou because he idolizes him too much. Jirou says he can feel how much abunaiJirou hates Tarou, but acknowledges that he needs him.

Both Jirou and abunaiJirou henshin to Doragoku and Torabolt, respectively. Together, they take on the Hitotsuki themselves while going Robotaro; Robogoku and Robobolt, respectively. Their teamwork is a bit off, but their powers together are enough to finish off the Hitotsuki’s first life.

Jirou and abunaiJirou combine into Toradragonjin when the Hitotsuki embiggens. It is a hard-fought battle, but the Jirous are able to defeat the Hitotsuking with a Tiger Dragon finisher.

A few days later, Miho and Tsuyoshi come across the ruined shrine and decide to fix it up. The dog’s soul is back at peace.

Meanwhile, dogTsubasa has been taken home by a little girl to be her pet. But with the dog now at peace, Tsubasa is no longer cursed. He turns back into a human just as he is enjoying his dog food.

Episode Thoughts

Exciting episode! Definitely a lot happening. But as much as I enjoyed the Tsubasa and Jirou sections of the episode, my favorite part was definitely the Juto face off.

As soon as the two Juto’d people came face to face at the alley, I moved to the edge of my seat. I was ready for a big fight. And though it was just a fleeting moment, seeing Natsumiho fly up that wall to slash at Detective Sayama was AMAZING! I loved it. It was like a quick taste of things to come and I am ready to see it! I hope we get to see more of that in the future. Especially since it seems it can be Juto vs. Juto or Juto vs Noto or Juto vs Donbro. Plenty of opportunity for more electric moments like this.

Maybe more importantly, it added a bit more intrigue to whatever or whoever Natsumiho is. Which in turn adds more to both Tsubasa and Tsuyoshi’s stories as well.

Tsubasa’s adventures as a dog were fun, especially since it meant we got to see the full physical Inu Brother suit for a prolonged period of time. It was wonderful. But I still hope for normal-sized Inu and Kiji Brother suits in the future too. Totaro is definitely a trooper for having to act out all the dog moments lol

Very interesting development with Jirou and abunaiJirou. A little bit of inner demon action perhaps? I’m not surprised Donbros is doing Revice’s plot better than Revice itself. Lololol

I do hope there’s more to Jirou/abunaiJirou though and an explanation as to why their unique situation exists.

Finally, the mecha battle was so good! Getting away from the mini cityscape like Donbros has been doing definitely opens up some great potential. I was expecting though a full-on CGI battle. But I was in awe when I realized it was mostly the physical suits on a physical set! Green screen background of course, but still, human suit actors battling in a well-choreographed action sequence. Having suits that aren’t too bulky and allow the actors to move a bit more freely is always a good thing. And that was definitely the case here.

Even better, the camerawork was a bit different too. Some creative angles and direction that really helped this particular mecha battle stand out. I hope they can continue to find new, creative ways to freshen up the mecha battles which admittedly have become quite routine.

Overall, another great episode of the treat that is Donbrothers

Non-CGI Donbro of the Week

Not only did we get full-body Inu Brother, we also got a great shot of Kiji Brother too!