Recap: Avataro Sentai Donbrothers, Episode 39 – Unexpected Push of a Button

It is morning in Tokyo and Haruka, Shinichi, Tsuyoshi and Jirou decide to give Donbura a good cleaning as a thanks to Master Kaito always coming to help them when they need it. He’s out preparing for his third photobook. Jirou says he will take this opportunity to head home to celebrate his adoptive father Terasaki’s birthday.

Just then, Haruka finds a safe and takes it out. She, Shinichi and Tsuyoshi enter their birthdates as the password and it works! Inside the safe is a strange button marked with “Danger,” but also says “押すな”. It’s Jirou’s turn to participate so he excitedly pushes it. “Attack” appears on the device and an alarm sounds.

Master Kaito arrives and cannot believe they’ve actually pushed it.

The Earth begins to rumble across the city. But just as Tarou is making a delivery, a mysterious green-colored person comes crashing down from the sky. And it looks exactly like him.

greenTarou shoots from his mouth. And though Tarou henshins, greenTarou stops Tarou’s blade with his fingers and sends him flying up through a virtual door.

Tarou makes his way to Donbura. Master Kaito explains this greenTarou is DonKiller, an android created by the Don family to exterminate the Donbrothers if they ever lost sight of their mission. And as their supervisor, Master Kaito had the ability to summon it. Which is what the others did when they pushed the button.

On the other side of town, Sononi has met a new man who turns out to have a girlfriend. The girlfriend chases him away.

Tsubasa pops up and warns Sononi that if she keeps playing guys like this, she’s bound to get burned. She scoffs at the idea, especially against a human. Tsubasa says it will be impossible for her to understand love then. She snaps back that Natsumi is in the Forest of Sleep so he can’t have love either.

Tsubasa says it doesn’t matter how far apart he and Natsumi are, they will always be together as he has never given up on her. Sononi really does not understand how Tsubasa would go that far for his feelings.

Just then, the girlfriend is engulfed by a Hitotsuki and Tsubasa quickly henshins with the other Donbros popping in right after. Before Sononi can join in the battle, DonKiller once again comes crashing down and begins attacking the Donbros. His attacks cause huge damage to the area around them and the Donbros are forced to retreat.

Tsubasa, of course, gets separated from the others. But DonKiller finds him, grabs his legs and repeatedly slams him into the ground.

The others are hiding in a tunnel, trying to figure out what to do next. Haruka wonders why DonKiller looks like Tarou. Tarou says it’s because he’s very handsome.

Tarou is sure DonKiller will find them eventually and suggests they live out the rest of their lives to the fullest so they won’t have any regrets when they die.

Tarou returns to his delivery route with Sonoi waiting for him at his van. Sonoi says the Noto must not help, but he has a suggestion. Tarou does not want to hear it and says it is none of Sonoi’s concern. As Tarou drives away, Sonoi is resolved to be the one who eventually defeats Tarou with his own hands.

At Donbura, Master Kaito wonders how the Donbros got the password in one go. DonKiller pops in to the café and orders a banana parfait. DonKiller seems to enjoy the treat, but Master Kaito had secretly squeezed a lot of karashi into the parfait.

Afterwards, DonKiller begins to malfunction as he’s walking down the street thanks to the mustard. His system detects the contamination.

The Noto3 pop out of the bushes to try and attack him, thinking that DonKiller would not be able to retaliate. But they were wrong and DonKiller sends the Noto3 into retreat. DonKiller’s system is also able to eject the contaminant and is back to normal.

Papa Jin calls Master Kaito “True Hero” and “Forever Hero” when he visits him in prison. Kaito tells him about DonKiller being activated and says the Donbrothers are as good as dead. He asks if there’s anything they can do and Papa Jin asks if he knows of DonKillerKiller.

Back in the city, an emotional Tsuyoshi hugs Miho-chan from behind and thanks her for being by his side. He declares his forever-love for her and runs out to write a goodbye letter to her. Before he can finish, DonKiller arrives and attacks. He is able to grab Tsuyoshi’s legs and repeatedly slams him on the ground.

Tsuyoshi is brought to the hospital and wheels himself into a room where Tsubasa is also a patient. Both have broken legs.

Shinichi is on the beach writing his final haiku when DonKiller crashes in. Shinichi henshins, but DonKiller grabs him by the arms and repeatedly slams him on the ground. Now it’s Tsubasa, Tsuyoshi and Shinichi in the hospital.

Meanwhile, Jirou arrives in his hometown and looks for Terasaki-san at the police station. With his father out, Jirou decides to begin decorating for the birthday surprise. While waiting, Jirou finds a button switch exactly like the one he pressed at Donbura. So he decides to press this one as well.

Haruka is by a waterfall drawing her final, best manga ever. Tarou arrives and checks it out, but says it’s boring and rejects it.

DonKiller comes crashing in and Tarou and Haruka henshin. They try to go up against DonKiller, but they are overpowered. Kaito arrives, henshined and shoots at DonKiller. But again, it doesn’t even leave a scratch.

DonKiller pops a missile out of his mouth and shoots it at them. They go running. But something comes crashing down from the sky.

It is DonKillerKiller. And it looks exactly like Shinichi. Papa Jin had explained to Tarou that DonKillerKiller was a rumored system prepared for when DonKiller went out of control.

DonKiller and DonKillerKiller begin to go at it. They are evenly matched in this explosive battle.

The Hitotsuki comes stumbling onto the scene. The Ryuko no Geki appears in front of Jirou while the Donblasters appear in front of the hospitalized Donbros, also healing their broken bones. They are quickly sent to the mountains.

Tsuyoshi points Shinichi to his doppelganger and wonders why they look alike. Shinichi says it’s probably because he’s so handsome.

After Tarou and Jirou finish off the Hitotsuki, the Donbros form Goldon Onitaijin and Toradragonjin before combining into Toradora Onitaijin Kiwami to finish off the Hitotsuking for good.

Back at the mountains, the Donbros watch as DonKiller and DonKillerKiller continue fighting all the way into space. Master Kaito believes they will continue to fight endlessly forever and all times.

Later that afternoon, Jirou returns to his hometown and begins singing Kagome Kagome with little pieces of origami paper scattered around the room. His father finally arrives and he goes running to meet him. But Jirou mysteriously leaves a penguin origami on the table.

Episode Thoughts

I loved it! Again, it was one of the nonsensical episodes that you can’t help but sit and enjoy. I was definitely expecting something else when coming into the episode. At first, I was thinking how the plot of the episode with the Donbros facing death and such would be more fitting for the Christmas episode. But no, it was just a random episode that got resolved quite neatly at the end without anyone dying. In fact, the guys even got their broken bones immediately healed as well at the end. Lol

This episode is one of those that again shows how Donbrothers can somehow do hilarious and dramatic at the same time. Being able to inject some slapstick humor into even the most dramatic moments without it feeling annoying or offensive to our intelligence is quite a feat. And Donbrothers has done that quite a bit this season.

Obviously, this episode wasn’t going to be the end of the Donbros as the cold open suggested. But instead of DonKiller (and DonKiller squared) be a legit plot point in the grand scheme of things, it seems to have just been a one-off deal. And more so a chance for Kouhei Higuchi and Yuuki Beppu to dress up and put on lipstick. So once I accepted that, I enjoyed the episode even more.

Funny how DonKiller bombarded the Donbros with attacks, but none of them were forced to dehenshin. All to protect Tsubasa’s identity of course. Lol. If ever there were a situation that called for a forced dehenshin, it would’ve been this moment. And it was funny how Tsubasa had conveniently wheeled himself out of the hospital room to get water when the Donblasters appeared lol

Also, I really thought DonKillerKiller would be a Jirou clone. And the way they were hinting at perhaps visiting Jirou’s past and origin with his father, I thought the whole Killer part of the story would help with that. And it still could of course. But it really would have made perfect sense to have them be in the images of Tarou and Jirou. Though again, not everything is going to make sense on Donbrothers. And that’s exactly their intention lol

The final scene of Jirou was definitely creepy. We’ll wait and see what’s up with that. But I definitely hope we get some movement with explaining Jirou (and Tarou’s) origins. I know, like I said earlier, Donbrothers is a season of randomness and that’s part of its charm. But a little good, legitimate story is very welcome. Lol

I enjoyed seeing Kaito have a bigger part in actual story though. So the whole DonKiller aspect isn’t all that random I guess. Papa Jin calling him a “true hero” is also very interesting. And I’m sure Kaito will have a major role to play in the season’s endgame. Especially if they will somehow more directly connect the season, story-wise, to Zenkaiger.

Elsewhere, I like how the place where Tsuyoshi was writing his goodbye letter was the courtyard where the DGP players were trying to escape from last week lol

And next week Tsubasa and Sononi run away together and get married and live happily ever after! Woohoo!

Lol not really. Or, we don’t know yet. But I’m definitely looking forward to it.

Overall, this episode was another fun, enjoyable, exciting bit of randomness from the Donbros. With a few possible touches on future story.

Non-CGI Donbros of the Week