Recap: Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger, Episode 18 – I Don’t Like the Fixer

Shashiro tells the others that it turns out Sakito might have abandoned the planet of his own volition. The others wonder why he would do such a thing and then return after all these years. Taiya thinks of his earlier convo with Sakito.

Shashiro adds that Sakito lost both his parents at a young age. Since there were no adults there for him, it was always just him alone.

Meanwhile, Sakito and Byundi head over to meet with Cannonborg who would like to avail of his services to clean up the Boonboomgers once and for all. Sakito says he is not cheap and the discount sale is over. But Ittasha whips out Sakito’s trading card she had swiped from him. Turns out she is the universe’s fastest pickpocket.

They taunt Sakito with the card which angers him. Byundi tries to calm him down and Sakito has no choice but to accept the job in exchange for his card back.

Cannonborg offers up the legendary sword for Ittasha to key in and revive Sword Guruma.

On the other side of town, Taiya finds Kakeru Osada. He is Sakito’s old friend and was the only one who ever cared about Sakito’s disappearance. As Taiya watches Kakeru with his family, BunBun calls to alert him about a Boonboom signal fast approaching.

Taiya knows it is Sakito and sure enough, he quickly appears in front of him. BunBun calls the others to hurry over.

Taiya says he would like to talk to Sakito, but Sakito henshins and begins shooting at him as per his job order from the Hashiryans. Taiya henshins and they battle for a bit before they come to a deadlock.

Taiya asks why Sakito left Earth and he responds that it is none of his business. Taiya believes Sakito abandoning Earth are just the screams of his younger self. Sakito says that’s a nice way to put it.

Sakito flashes back to the day strange aliens arrived on Earth. That’s when he met Byundi whom he asked to take him to space.

Sakito says perhaps his screams reached the fixers who cleanup what’s been scattered across the universe. It’s the busiest business of the galaxy. And it is the fixers who gave him a home. Because Earth definitely was not it.

Taiya mentions Sakito’s one friend. Sakito flashes back to his childhood and he and Kakeru collecting racecar driver trading cards. Sakito is shocked how Taiya was able to find out. But it doesn’t matter since another kid couldn’t do anything anyway at that time.

Taiya says that’s true. But that’s even more reason he cannot ignore Sakito’s screams now. Taiya is resolved to come running fast to anyone who needs a smile. That’s what Boonboomgers do.

Taiya dehenshins as does Sakito. Sakito says nobody on Earth heard his screams. But Taiya says he is here now because he does.

Sakito again says he hates virtuous guys like Taiya. He shoots the air in frustration. If only he had an adult like Taiya back then, Sakito says.

Just then, the General3 have taken hostages which includes Kakeru and his wife and son. Sakito recognizes Kakeru and watches as the Sword Guruma collects gassholin from the hostages.

The General3 tell Sakito to hurry and finish his job. But he points his Controller at them and demands they leave humans alone.

Sword Guruma shoots at the people and Sakito quickly calls Byundi to protect them. Unfortunately, Byundi doesn’t have time to make it. That’s when the Boonbooms arrive and are able to whisk the hostages to safety.

Sakito asks how they did it. Taiya thanks the others before explaining that he knew Sakito was hired by the Hashiryans. So they had been keeping track of Hashiryan movement the entire time. Byundi admits that he wouldn’t have been able to save so many people on his own.

In the meantime, Genba is able to swipe Sakito’s trading card back from the General3. He returns it to Sakito.

The General3 start calling Sakito a thief. But Sakito steps forward and says they have made him so angry he quits their job. The General3 hide behind Sword Guruma.

Sakito says he was not happy about this job from the start. The Hashiryans have no right to act so big. Cannonborg suddenly appears and shoots at Sakito from a nearby stairwell, but Sakito deflects it.

Cannonborg taunts Sakito about protecting Earth. But Sakito says all he wants is to protect his only friend and his family. And cleaning up the Hashiryans so they can never hurt anyone ever again will allow that happen.

Taiya loves this Bakuage and offers to hire Sakito who agrees to it.

Taiya and Sakito both henshin and join the others in their first roll call together as six. BunBun excitedly watches this Bakuage scene.

Cannonborg leaves and the Boonbooms battle Nejirettas while Taiya and Sakito focus on Sword Guruma. They team up and deliver finishers at the Kurumaju.

Yaruka hops on the highway to help guide Sword Guruma transform into Boonboom Killer Classic. With Yaruka, Ittasha and Dekotorade are able to summon and combine into Boonboom Killer Robo Nitroyu.

The Boonbooms hop into Boonboomger Robo Knight and battle the General3. But they are in a bit of trouble. That is, until Sakito and Byundi arrive and transform into Byunbyun Mach Robo. BunBun apologizes for needing help, but Byundi says to consider this repaying him for the flat tire change.

Sakito and Byundi take over the mecha battle and they fly around the city chasing after the Robo. They are able to eventually deliver a finisher.

Later, BunBun and Byundi reunite for the first time. Byundi commends BunBun on having a pretty nice team. BunBun says they do have a lot of Bakuage.

Sakito meets Kakeru and gives him the rare card. Kakeru says he had been looking everywhere all this time. Sakito apologizes that the card probably got mixed with his collection. But Kakeru says he was talking about Sakito himself. Kakeru adds that it makes sense he couldn’t find him since Sakito had been in space.

Sakito apologizes, but Kakeru shakes his head that is no problem. He invites them to have tea. Byundi approaches them and says he would like to taste this Earth tea.

Sakito looks back at the Boonbooms and smiles.

Meanwhile at the garage, Investigator Shirabe calls her bosses to report on the new Boonboomger Sakito. She says they should be able to make good use of all the knowledge Sakito has of the Hashiryans.

Episode Thoughts

Not gonna lie. I was expecting an episode something like Shashiro’s. Something really emotional and dramatic. I don’t know that this episode was anything like that. It actually felt quite rushed overall. Especially when thinking about Sakito and how he joins the team.

I feel like the show could’ve done a lot more with Sakito separate from the team first. Maybe keep him and the team at odds for a few more episodes. That way, we build up to both him joining the team as well as reveal what is a big a part of his backstory.

That said, the episode itself was fine. And Sakito’s story on its own, very good.

The idea that Sakito lost both his parents and was left alone in this world. Namely, Earth. So he ends up joining an alien to run away to space. It’s that idea where he had been “screaming” and calling out for someone to be there for him that I think could have been more powerful and emotional with a bit more development and build up.

Sakito’s friendship with Kakeru is great. But I think it would’ve been better to have at least held on to the mystery of it all for an episode or two more. Again, it felt really rushed through. Though with the reveal of BunBun and Byundi’s true relationship last week, I suppose it makes sense to quickly do the same for Sakito’s past.

Still, there’s certainly remaining questions about Sakito’s past. What happened to Sakito once he joined Byundi and left Earth? What happened to his parents? Did the Hashiryans kill them?

At the same time, it’s entirely possible that Sakito’s past ends here. That is, all there is to know about it was already revealed in this episode. On one hand, it can be refreshing that not everything has to be big picture and be something so grand. Similar to the reveal that BunBun and Byundi were just teammates and rivals rather than involve something more dramatic or serious.

Though of course, we get the final scene with Shirabe talking to her bosses about Sakito. And that could hint at something more about who he could be. So who knows what’s ahead.

I enjoyed Taiya and Sakito’s convo a lot. It really showed a lot about who Taiya is and how he sincerely wanted to help Sakito. But I kinda hoped Sakito’s situation would have mirrored Taiya’s a bit with regards to lonely childhoods and the like. (Potentially caused by nefarious actors like the Hashiryans perhaps.) I didn’t get that from their convo. So I guess that added a bit to my disappointment.

I just really do enjoy big, grand stories. Emotional stories that help to tie characters together in a way that propels the greater arc of the season forward. But I dunno. There’s definitely merit in the simplicity of what we’ve learned about Sakito and Byundi. Though I expected a bit more in its execution and maybe craved a grander treatment of their stories as well. Especially when Sakito has been such a great character so far. And BunBun too.

Meanwhile, after seeing more translations and trying to figure out a better term for Sakito and Byundi’s “work,” I think I’ll settle on “fixer”. I accepted “cleaner” since it still made sense and I guess I specifically kept thinking about the Fox drama series The Cleaning Lady and “Mr. Kaplan” on NBC’s The Blacklist who was Reddington’s “cleaner”. I mentioned after Episode 16 how I didn’t think Sakito cleaned up murder scenes lol But reasoned that he accepted jobs to clean up people’s messes or take care of problems, things like that. For example, the Hashiryans trying to “clean up” the Boonboomgers.

I guess “fixer” is the more general term and probably flows better than “cleaner.” Or I could just use the Romanization of “始末屋”=Shimatsu-ya. lol

Elsewhere, the mecha battle was exciting. Great use of CGI. And some great choreography and directing with the Nejiretta battle and Taiya & Sakito finishing off Sword Guruma too.

Overall, I mostly liked the substance of this episode. I just kinda wished it was executed better and felt “bigger” than it seemed. Sakito and Byundi, I think, deserved more. But it’s only Episode 18 and the season has just scratched the surface of its story potential. So no need for me to feel too bad.

With how strong Boonboomger has been so far, I guess my expectations are very high. But nonetheless, I have grown to love these Boonbooms already. And 18 episodes in, Boonboomger has already earned enough KibiMangoez Points and goodwill that I can overlook something I might personally be disappointed or underwhelmed by.