Recap: Avataro Sentai Donbrothers, Episode 40 – Dangerous Love Ride

While Sonoza is training with Murasame, he decides he’s learned all he can from the Noto so he flies off. Mother suggests they look for a worthy opponent.

Meanwhile, Haruka is struggling through driving school. She has already injured a few instructors’ necks thanks to her erratic driving. Haruka is with her latest instructor, Mutoh, who has excitedly accepted the challenge of taming this wild demon driver. Haruka wants to give up, but Instructor Mutoh won’t give up on her.

On the other side of town, Tsubasa tries to understand how he was able to get into the Noto Forest in order to save Natsumi. But Murasame comes flying in and Mother encourages him to fight Tsubasa.

Tsubasa henshins, but one move with his sword and Murasame sends him flying off the rooftop. Sononi finds Tsubasa lying unconscious on the ground and determines that he’s as good as dead if Murasame is after him. She decides to finish him off and put him out of his misery. But she stops herself before stabbing his neck, thinking about Tsubasa’s words of love for Natsumi

When Tsubasa wakes up, he finds that his vision is blurry and thinks Sononi is Natsumi. With Murasame nearby, Sononi decides to play along so she can whisk Tsubasa away to safety.

In the safety of a warehouse, Tsubasa wonders if the woman he’s with is the Juto Natsumi. But he believes she would never approach him after he found out her true identity. So this must be the real Natsumi.

Sononi continues to play along and the more she does, the more Tsubasa believes her.

Murasame jumps in and Sononi directs Tsubasa to dodge the attacks. Sononi transforms so she can drive Murasame back enough that she can whisk Tsubasa to safety again.

Murasame asks Mother why a Noto would attack him and she calls Sononi a traitor and enemy.

As they are walking, Tsubasa asks “Natsumi” if she remembers how they first met. He admits that at first, he was no good with her. He was a bit on and off about her. But the more he watched her on stage, the brighter she shone in his eyes. He would stumble as he took small steps trying to get closer to her. Sononi says that’s just like he is doing now.

They share a sweet laugh together. But Murasame finds them and they have to run again.

Sononi takes Tsubasa to a nice restaurant, thinking that they’ll be safe here because Murasame was created by the Don Clan and he would never do anything to hurt humans.

“Natsumi” asks Tsubasa why he loves her. Tsubasa says he doesn’t have an exact reason. If it were because of her kindness or beauty, he’d still love her even if those qualities were to fade away.

Sononi can feel Tsubasa’s raw emotions from his words and thinks she is finally understanding the power of love.

Just then, Murasame swims into the restaurant and stabs Sononi. JutoSayama storms in and charges toward Tsubasa, but Sononi shields him and gets scratched on her arm. Murasame tries fighting JutoSayama and that gives Sononi an opportunity to help Tsubasa to safety.

On the other side of town, Tsuyoshi wants Miho-chan to stay home with him from now on. At least for a while. Miho is reluctant, but some begging from Tsuyoshi convinces her.

Tsubasa stumbles as rain comes pouring down. He tells “Natsumi” to just leave without him. But Sononi says she will protect him.

Tsubasa takes Sononi into his arms. But he somehow realizes that she is not Natsumi. His vision becomes clearer and he is shocked to see it is Sononi. He wants nothing to do with her. But she calls after him as she stumbles into the mud.

Tsubasa sees her wounds and wonders if she really had been protecting him.

Murasame arrives. Sononi tells Tsubasa to leave without her, but he instead helps to whisk her away. He asks why she pretended to be Natsumi. Sononi apologizes. But before she can explain more, they run into Murasame.

Meanwhile, the slick roads are already a challenge for Haruka. But she starts going crazy as she speeds down the road… and hits Murasame.

Tsubasa and Sononi again run as the rain subsides. Haruka henshins and Mother tells Murasame to fight her. Haruka uses her new driving skills to battle Murasame and she is able to drive him away. Instructor Mutoh turns into a Hitotsuki and the other Donbros pop in to deal with him.

Murasame turns back into a sword and tries to fly, but JutoSayama grabs him. Tsubasa and Sononi run into JutoSayama, now armed with Murasame. Tsubasa henshins and he battles JutoSayama, hoping to jump in him and through to the forest. But it doesn’t work. Tsubasa is forced to dehenshin.

JutoSayama tries to slash at Tsubasa, but Sononi shoots an arrow and knocks Murasame out of JutoSayama’s hands. Tsubasa instinctively grabs Murasame and slashes at the Juto, killing it.

After the others finish off the Hitotsuki, Tsubasa is summoned so the Donbros can form Don Onitaijin and Toradragonjin. They combine into ToraDoraOnitaijin Kiwami to finish off the Hitotsuking for good.

Later, Murasame says he will now be Tsubasa’s after he helped save him from the Juto. But Mother refuses since Tsubasa is Murasame’s enemy.

Sononi tells Tsubasa that only Murasame can defeat the Juto. She suggests he defeat the JutoNatsumi so the real Natsumi can return.

Elsewhere, newly-licensed Haruka invites the boys to hop in for a ride. But seeing her Toyota Prius is all banged up, they run away in horror. She hops in the car and chases after them in reverse.

Episode Thoughts

Omgyes! If there were an episode that perfectly encapsulates Donbrothers‘ fun package of exciting drama and hilarious comedy, this one is definitely it!

I’ve loved Donbrothers‘ soapy drama and K-drama-style slice of life shenanigans. And this episode had that and then some. The way they were able to somehow connect Haruka’s outrageous driving to the Tsubanoni and Murasame story of the episode was hilariously awesome.

Haruka’s car battle with Murasame was madness. And kickass! The show was very creative with that scene. And probably one of the more exhilarating action sequences I’ve seen on either Sentai or Kamen Rider in a while. So much fun. Seeing Haruka’s crazy moments is always a sure laugh.

But of course, the main focus of this episode was Tsubasa and Sononi. I think they did a great job with it. This was an episode for them that was months in the making. Effectively establishing Tsubasa’s relationship and sincere feelings for Natsumi alongside the revelations about Natsumiho and the Juto and then Sononi’s season-long search for the meaning of love; it all came together in this wonderful character-driven episode.

I’ll even say that Tsubasa and Sononi was done better than the climactic episodes of the Tarou-Sonoi bromance!

I think this was even more of a Sononi-focus. It was certainly a complicated and multi-faceted week for her character. We saw her dealing with her unfamiliar feelings about Tsubasa and then acting on those feelings. Both with protecting him and then with her selfish lie to him about defeating the Juto. That ending was as sudsy as soaps can get!

I do wonder if it actually is the truth that killing the Juto also kills the human. That would mean Tsubasa effectively killed Detective Sayama. But it was in self-defense, so it’s okay. Lol. The Juto are ultimately responsible for the death of the humans they copied!

Anyway, every one of Tsubasa and Sononi’s scenes were so well executed. I think Totaro and Amisa Miyazaki really did a great job bringing those scenes to life. Again, very soap opera-like/K-drama-like. And they absolutely sold those scenes with their performances. They have great chemistry. It helps too that the characters are well-written. So the scenes here had a good foundation to them, especially for their own respective character’s stories.

As much as I would love to see a Tsubasa-Sononi endgame, it just feels like we’re headed toward a tragic ending. Perhaps for Sononi specifically. Natsumi, the real one, seems like a genuinely nice person. And Tsubasa definitely loves her. Of course, there’s a whole soapy triangle story they could do with them. But with about nine episodes left, there’s no time for that! Lol Especially with Tsuyoshi still in the mix too. But who knows? Donbrothers may still have some big surprises in store.

My goodness though. Nine episodes at most left in the season. Yet, so many loose ends still to deal with. And next episode is a Christmas episode. So maybe even less time to deal with everything that needs to be dealt with. But we’ll just have to wait and see.

Elsewhere in the episode, having just watched OOO 10th, it was fun seeing Hiroyuki Matsumoto guest star here as the instructor. Again, all the Haruka driving scenes were hilariously outrageous. And he helped with that for sure.

Overall, I think this was an excellent episode. Maybe one of my favorites of the season. I’ve had fun most of the time this year with the Donbros. But I especially enjoyed this one so much. The very best parts of Donbrothers was on full display here. Hilarious comedy. Exciting drama. Good clean fun. Let’s finish this season strong!

Non-CGI Donbros of the Week