Recap: Bakuage Yakyu Sentai Boonboomger, Episode 23 – Flaming Baseball Adversity

The Boonbooms are at the garage talking about how nice it is to know Jou is coaching a youth baseball team. But unbeknownst to them, the General3 are nearby and intrigued with the game. Ittasha keys in a baseball glove to bring about Glove Guruma.

The Kurumaju shoots a beam at the kids, causing to raise the pressure on them to succeed and driving them to negative thoughts and deciding to just quit playing baseball.

When the others arrive to take on the Kurumaju, Jou says to wait and suggests they handle this another way. And that is for them to play a game of baseball instead.

Glove Guruma likes the idea and they prepare to play.

Shashiro is at the top of the batting order with him playing third base.

Sakito bats 2nd and will play shortstop.

Jou bats 3rd and will be the pitcher

Taiya is next and will play first base.

Genba bats 5th and will be catcher.

Mira is 6th and will be at second base.

BunBun bats 7th and will be in center field.

Byundi bats 8th and will play left field.

Investigator Shirabe bats last and will play right field, much to her confusion. But BunBun cheering her on perks her up.

For the Hashiryan team, Cannonborg takes over as coach and warns that they will all be remodeled if they lose.

Dekotorade is up to bat first. Jou pitches and Dekotorade ends up hitting a ground ball and makes it to second base. Yaruka steps in to be his pinch runner as a Nejiretta comes up to bat. But Jou tosses to Taiya when Yaruka tries to steal a base.

Taiya tosses the ball to Mira to try and get Yaruka out at second. But Yaruka manages to sneak past and then proceeds to score several runs by doing laps around the diamond. Cannonborg says Hashiryan rules allow a runner to score as many runs as they can for as long as they are not tagged out.

Yaruka manages to score several points before Taiya throws the ball to Genba at home plate. The Nejiretta umpire calls him out, much to the annoyance of Dekotorade and Ittasha. Cannonborg says that Nejiretta will get remodeled later.

Jou pitches to Glove Guruma next. But the Kurumaju hits a fiery ball that hits Jou right in the face. BunBun catches the ball and Glove Guruma is out. But Jou is sent flying into the wall and gets knocked unconscious.

Jou wakes up and is shocked to find it is the 9th inning with the Hashiryans up 118 runs to zero for the Boonboomgers. He thinks this must be a dream as he can’t believe he’s been asleep this whole time.

In the middle of the inning, Jou runs over to the others who are exhausted as they head to the dugout. They are happy to see he is awake. But they explain that the Hashiryans play dirty tricks and make up rules on the spot. So there’s really no chance for them.

Jou apologizes and says none of this would be happening if he hadn’t suggested playing baseball. Investigator Shirabe offers up two options to Jou. Either they quit or keep going.

Taiya asks Jou what he loves about baseball in the first place. Jou does not hesitate to say that when it comes to baseball, it is unpredictable. It can all come down to the bottom of the 9th inning when anything can happen. So that’s why he will never quit!

Hearing that fires up Taiya and the rest of the Boonbooms are revved up as well. It doesn’t matter that the score looks like now, but they agree they will never give up!

They henshin into Bakuage Yakyu Sentai Boonboomger.

The Boonbooms step up to the plate and they each are able to use their Boonboom powers to beat the Hashiryans at their own game.

Shirabe suggests that she may not know much about baseball, but she suggests they slow it down to rev it up.

Jou gets powered up with the encouragement of the rest of the team and he is able to hit the ball to get the bases loaded. It’s Taiya’s turn to bat.

Glove Guruma puts his entire soul into the pitch and Taiya now has two strikes. For the final pitch, Taiya quickly uphenshins to 119 and shoots water at the fiery ball to slow it down. And that allows him to hit the ball high into the sky. The four guys are able to speed around the bases to score dozens of points until the ball returns to earth.

The score is now tied at 118 and Taiya is on his way to home plate. The Nejirettas throw the ball, but the umpire calls Taiya safe.

That means the Boonboomgers score the go-ahead run to win 119 to 118.

A livid Guruma charges toward them. But Taiya shoots a finisher at him to finish him off. Yaruka quickly embiggens Glove Guruma who begins burning the stadium down.

Taiya hopes into Boonboom Leo Rescue and Jou hops into Boonboom Shobosha. They combine into Boonboomger Robo 119 and together are able to finish off Glove Guruma for good.

The General3 stay behind to collect some sand from the field for a keepsake.

The youth baseball team is back to normal. And Taiya has even donated new baseball gloves for them thanks to learning how wonderful the game is from Jou.

Byundi wants to play more baseball since he had so much fun. Jou says he will be everyone’s coach. But Shashiro says he doesn’t need it. He hits an invisible home run in the garage.

Episode Thoughts

Only Boonboomger could make an episode that is 2/3 the heroes and villains playing an outrageous version of baseball be such a fun and enjoyable time. On the surface, anyone (myself included) would think “What in the world is this?” But this episode is so much in line with the season and its vibe that it absolutely works, even as a filler-type episode.

At its core, this is a Jou-focus episode and also a team-focused episode.

Now, they were playing baseball, so of course it’s team-oriented. But what I mean is how we saw how the Boonboomger team really is… a team. I regularly bring up how this season feels very different from the most recent Sentai seasons.

As good as King-Ohger was and as hilarious and fun the Donbros were and even as unique as Zenkaiger was, those teams weren’t your traditional group of heroes with that traditional bond and sense of camaraderie. The Boonbooms so far have been more of that familiar and traditional dynamic. And this episode perfectly encapsulates that.

With the Boonbooms, and that includes BunBun, Byundi and Investigator Shirabe, you can feel that connection and bond already. A friendship. A sense of family. That dynamic has been strongly developed in this relatively short amount of time. And it hasn’t felt forced or contrived. With the personalities of the Boonbooms, it’s not hard to imagine that even with their differences, they are friendly and approachable people. Yes, even our tsundere king Shashiro.

Again, everyone being close friends does not remove the possibility for future stories of conflict or disagreements. So having that exciting dramatic potential while still evoking such positive vibes is a great accomplishment that you don’t often see on either Toei toku series.

Meanwhile, the episode also reinforced what we know about Officer Jou. And that is he’s just a great, pure-hearted good guy. And that positivity from him continues to rub off on the other Boonbooms too. The fact that he can get even Shashiro and Investigator Shirabe interested in baseball says a lot!

Overall, this can be considered a filler episode. But when it is so fun and we get to see our heroes at the best, that doesn’t matter. A great, enjoyable episode!