Recap/Review: Avataro Sentai Donbrothers The Movie – Shin Hatsukoi Hero

As Haruka receives her Best New Actress award, she recounts how she even got to this point. Producer Saegusa had recruited Sonoi and Sononi to star in a film adaptation of Shin Hatsukoi Hero, the manga by Shiina Naoki that Haruka is accused of plagiarizing.

When the director is unhappy with Sonoi and Sononi’s performance, she goes looking for replacements and stumbles upon the Donbros as they are fighting off a Hitotsuki. She tells them to just leave the hero-ing to the Kamen Riders and instead come star in their movie.

At Donbura, the Donbros minus Tsubasa discuss whether they should accept the offer. Haruka believes this is her opportunity to uncover Shiina Naoki’s true identity. Tarou, meanwhile, just wants to help out since Producer Saegusa asked so nicely.

Tsuyoshi asks what the plot of Shin Hatsukoi Hero is anyway and Haruka gives him the rundown as she and Tarou get started with filming

Heroine Doumyouji Hanako goes to school and meets transfer student Ichimonji Hiro and end up in the same class. Hanako initially thinks Hiro is a jerk, but soon sees he has a softer side to him.

While Producer Saegusa thinks they are horrible actors, especially considering their over-exaggerated performances, the director is very excited by their work so far and thinks they are very realistic.

Sonoi and Sononi have been demoted to just supporting characters, so they decide to make the most of their roles as Hanako’s bullies.

The next scene has Sononi as the bully leading a group of other students ready to attack Hanaka. But Hiro comes to her rescue and takes the attack… of tickles instead of Hanaka.

Hiro ends up unleashing a zombie (played by Sonoza) from a coffin in the school and he goes on to infect all the bullies. Hiro tries to whisk Hanaka to safety, but when they’re cornered, Tarou ends up whipping out his Donblaster to actually henshin.

Producer Saegusa says this will help them save money on CGI. The director is very happy.

Haruka as Hanaka leaps from the rooftop into Tarou as Hiro’s arms. Hiro is supposed to confess his love for Hanaka, but Tarou, unable to lie, dies instead.

Because of this, Hanaka runs into the second hero: a white horse man played by Tsubasa. Haruka complains that this was not in the original manga, but the director says this is the way he is adapting the source material.

The next scenes see Tsuyoshi, Shinichi and Tsubasa each taking turns becoming Hanaka’s new hero. The director likes what he sees, especially when Sonoi and Master Kaito also join in for more madness.

Producer Saegusa has no idea what the hell is going on. But the director spends the evening editing the footage he’s filmed today. Turns out he is the Hitotsuki.

Next day, Haruka visits Tarou and helps him with his deliveries and a nice woman gives them some of the fresh corn she’s received in her package. Haruka is happy to see the woman’s smile and Tarou says that’s the kind of smile he sees all the time as a deliveryman.

Meanwhile, Jirou is battling the Hitotsuki and the others get summoned to the quarry. The Hitotsuki unleashes the extras he sucked up the last few days, turning them into zombies. Anonis film the scene as the Donbros carefully fend them off, knowing they are still human.

Tarou is heralded in, but the director says they should instead do a roll call. The Donbros oblige and through it, they are able to take the director Hitotsuki by surprise.

The Donbros finish off the Anoni production crew before focusing on the Hitotsuki. They go Robotaro and finish off the Hitotsuki for good. The director and the zombie extras are back to normal.

It turns out, Haruka accepting a Best New Actress award was just a dream. In fact, the movie hasn’t been released yet. The Donbros are at the theater for a test screening. Jirou is sad that they didn’t invite him to star in the movie too.

Shiina Naoki arrives just as the film begins. And after it is finished, the theater is in utter shock by how horrible it is. The Donbros take a bow and Shiina Naoki applauds. But the audience tosses food at the cast and the movie’s release is officially canceled.

Movie Thoughts

Okay, so when the movie was first announced, I was excited because I was expecting something like seeing the Donbros and Noto3 actually acting out Shin Hatsukoi Hero. Like, actually filming the movie and like, not knowing they were going up against a Hitotsuki or something. You know what I mean? Kind of like the episode earlier in the season when the guys came to speak to Haruka’s class.

I was expecting the Donbros in a spoof of a high school coming of age story or something. I definitely was not expecting what this movie actually ended up being. Lol

So yeah, I’m a little disappointed and underwhelmed. I had much too high expectations for it. Without those expectations, I might have enjoyed the movie a lot more. It’s basically a regular episode of the show. One of the random nonsense-type of episodes.

I know when Toei calls a Sentai movie a “movie,” it’s not really a “movie” per se. But still, I was hoping for something more fun than this.

Sure, the overacting was amusing. But it wasn’t really the spoof-kind of thing that I was excited to see. Considering how the season likes to poke fun at a lot of Sentai conventions by drawing upon other genres and formats, I was actually a bit surprised that this movie didn’t do much of that dynamic.

It was kind of a rushed, mish-mash of things. And if it were a regular series episode, it would probably be one of the more forgetful ones. I’m sad to say.

Overall, it’s par for the course for Donbrothers. I can’t hate it. But I don’t love it either. I take it for what it is. And again, it’s a good thing Donbrothers has earned a lot of KibiMangoez Points that they can regularly cash in in order to keep me on their side and come to its defense all year. lol