Recap: Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger, Episode 19 – Amanogawa and the Path of Heaven

While on her lunch break, Investigator Shirabe thinks about how much she misses BunBun and can’t wait for the day they can have lunch together. However, she knows she’d get looked down upon at the ISA for being close with an alien. She thinks they mirror the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi whose love is separated by the Milky Way and can only ever meet during Tanabata.

She looks over when a group of kids run over to Sakito and Byundi, telling them how cool they were the other day after seeing them on the news. Shirabe is a bit jealous that people are able to accept their human-alien relationship.

Just then, both Sakito and Byundi’s stomachs growl so Shirabe takes them back to the garage where BunBun serves them some of his curry. Both Sakito and Byundi love it.

Shirabe apologizes for bringing them here, but Taiya says there’s nothing to worry about since they’re also part of the team. BunBun adds that he would never refuse a request from Shirabe.

Sakito thanks Shirabe-san. He never got paid for his job with the Hashiryans, so he wasn’t sure how he and Byundi would be able to eat with no money. Taiya tells them they can come here anytime they need a hand.

Sakito says Taiya is only being nice to butter him up and get him to reveal Hashiryan secrets. Sashiro takes offense to Taiya being thought of in that way.

Sakito says even though Taiya is loaded, he will not allow him to pull his strings. But since he and Byundi like BunBun’s Earth curry, he will let Taiya know if he remembers anything relevant.

Byundi says he is intrigued by the Tanabata custom and the legend behind it. The legend reminds BunBun of their race in the Milky Way Circuit. Byundi has to think about it first and then remembers what happened back then. He is surprised BunBun is still hung up on that and tells him to just forget about it. BunBun says he can never forget about it.

Sakito thanks them for the meal and tells Byundi it’s time for them to leave.

Afterwards, BunBun explains to the others that he had been in the lead during the Milky Way Circuit leg of the BBG. At the biggest and final challenge of the course, there were two options: take a big jump or go down the safe path. BunBun was too afraid to jump, so he took the safe path. Byundi, however, took the dangerous jump (as he was always one to do).

BunBun says they lost because he was too scared. And what’s more, BunBun feels he dragged Byundi down with him even though Byundi did nothing wrong.

Suddenly, Shirabe gets a call of the Hashiryans rampaging downtown. The General3 had keyed in an ATM machine to bring about ATM Guruma. When the Kurumaju shoots Gurumoney at people, they get trapped under the weight of their current net worth. And that in turn releases lots of gassholin.

Sakito arrives first and henshins. Mira, Jou and Genba arrive next and are able to discover the bill attached to the peoples’ foreheads is what weighs them down. They are able to remove the bill and free the peoples from the weight.

Taiya and Shashiro arrive and the five of them henshin. The six of them do a roll call, though some of the Boonbooms are annoyed when Sakito steps into the spotlight during it. Their distraction allows the Kurumaju to shoot at them. Mira gets money slapped onto their forehead.

Shashiro realizes where the weight of the money comes from and suggests Taiya return home lest he gets buried under his massive fortune.

Shashiro then urges everyone to get behind Jou who will be their shield. When Jou gets hit with a lot of bills, he finds they have no weight because he’s just spent his paycheck on new exercise equipment.

As Taiya watches from the garage, the Boonbooms are able to deliver finishers at ATM Guruma and it explodes. After getting enough gassholin to embiggen, the Boonbooms hop into their Cars.

The Boonbooms unfortunately fall for ATM Guruma’s tricks. Up in the air, Byundi ends up getting shot with a bill and falls to the ground under the weight of his savings. He admits that he has secretly been saving up.

BunBun and the others help get Byundi and Sakito to safety. Byundi tells BunBun to use his wings and take the battle to the sky. BunBun, however, doubts himself and can only think about the fear he felt during the Milky Way race.

Byundi says BunBun now has the best team, so he should not be scared to fly anymore.

Taiya calls in and agrees with Byundi’s encouraging words. He says with them, there’s nowhere he can’t go. And flying in the sky for the first time should be very bakuage. The others also express their encouragement.

Moved by their support, BunBun changes his mind and agrees to use Byundi’s wings. This allows BunBun to upgattai to Wing Boonboomger Robo. Byundi is so happy to see the old Bundorio again. BunBun thanks Byundi.

Taiya calls it the Wings of Friendship. And with that, he gets an idea. He joins them in the cockpit and provokes ATM Guruma to shoot at them.

With Taiya’s fortune, they can get weighed down. But they fall right on top of ATM Guruma, finishing off the Kurumaju for good. BunBun and Byundi fist bump for their bakuage teamwork.

Back at the garage, Taiya says he is happy about BunBun overcoming his fears. And now, BunBun can go anywhere. Even the Milky Way is just a flight away

Mira arrives with paper for them to write their wishes on for Tanabata.

Episode Thoughts

A wonderful episode! I like how we were able to learn a lot more about pre-show BunBun and Byundi. It furthers the fact that they were friends and teammates before. But more importantly, it showed who BunBun was before as well. Having him experience insecurities, especially with relation to and in comparison to someone (in this case Byundi), is a good story to tell. Especially when being able to overcome it.

And here, BunBun was able to do so with the support of his friends and teammates. It’s like this episode was your familiar teamwork episode. But it was done in a way that is so specific to Boonboomger and draws upon the season’s solid and strong foundation so far.

As BunBun (and Byundi as well) are major characters and not just some suited comic relief or something, having an episode like this is so welcome. And it was an episode that was done and executed very well.

A relatively simple premise, but with lots of great substance. A look at BunBun’s personality, his relationship with Byundi and the teamwork and bonds that have been formed and continually strengthened by the Boonbooms.

This might be considered more on the filler-y side. But I think it did a lot of character building which is always great. Strong characters and plot foundation will go a long way into determining how successful the season is.

And so far, it has been very exciting and fun! Boonboomger really continues to put their pedal to the metal, no problem!