Recap: Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger, Episode 37 – Two Spies

On his way to go grocery shopping, BunBun runs into Sakito and Byundi who have been hired to literally clean up the local park. Hearing Taiya will be paying for everything, Sakito asks if they can come with.

Meanwhile, Taiya meets with Mr. Naito to warn him about Director Tokoyari. Mr. Naito says if his technology can help keep Earth safe, then Tokoyari can use it however he pleases.

Taiya flashes back to Shashiro telling him about Tokoyari planning to use BunBun as a part of the negotiations with Spindor. Taiya says he would never allow that. But Shashiro warns Tokoyari has friends in many high places around the world. He believes Tokoyari is developing a system to counter Spindo. And one of those influential people is Mr. Naito himself.

Seeing Taiya deep in thought, Mr. Naito brings up how Taiya must still be traumatized from the screams he would hear when he was a child. Taiya also flashes back to those moments.

Elsewhere downtown, a mysterious woman keys in a camera to bring about a Kurumaju. Yaruka immediately senses the Kurumaju somewhere so he, Ittasha and Dekotorade go look for it.

As he is walking down the street, Shashiro senses someone is following him. He is able to outsmart the mysterious woman and catches her. “You’re still alive,” Shashiro says. This woman’s name is Sutea and they had been on missions together in the past.

As Shashiro asks her what she wants, Camera Guruma appears with Nejiretta. But suddenly, Sutea drugs Shashiro, saying he was never good at watching his back. Shashiro loses consciousness and wakes up to find himself chained up in a warehouse.

Camera Guruma takes a photo and is able to create a copy of him.

At the Garage, Jou is leaning how to control the system that works on the Cars. Mira is eager to try too and says it is her turn. FakeShashiro arrives, pointing out how lively it is in the Garage today. He immediately asks where Bundorio is.

As BunBun is still with Sakito and Byundi downtown, the Boonboomgers get the alert about the Kurumaju beginning to rampage. FakeShashiro tells Taiya that he will stay behind to man the controls with BunBun out.

The Kurumaju is intentionally taking bad photos of people, including the RT3, generating lots of gassholin. Mira, Jou and Genba arrive and help usher people to safety. They take care of the Nejirettas before turning their attention to the Kurumaju. But Camera Guruma takes a photo of them and brings about their copies.

Mira, Jou and Genba battle their fake selves. Sakito arrives and is excited by the chaos. He henshins and joins in.

Back at the Garage, fakeShashiro is at the computer when suddenly, the whole place is put under lockdown. Taiya arrives and says he knew this was a fake Shashiro from the very beginning.

Taiya explains that he knows what Shashiro is thinking just by looking into his eyes. And as soon as this fakeShashiro appeared, Taiya felt nothing behind his eyes.

FakeShashiro asking where BunBun was also a mistake. Shashiro being the team’s information expert, he should know where his teammates are at all times. FakeShashiro says Taiya is very perceptive as he charges toward him.

FakeShashiro says he’s installed a logic bomb in the system, preventing Taiya from henshining or having control over the Cars. But Taiya is able to fight back and gains the upper hand against the FakeShashiro.

Taiya says the counter program has been activated on the system. Shashiro had been planning for this sort of situation all along.

Meanwhile, Sutea tells Shashiro that their missions together, whether as allies or enemies, were fun. But it has been disappointing to see Shashiro leave to go play hero instead.

With Sutea’s back turned, Shashiro is able to free himself from the chains. This time it is he who remarks that Sutea has grown worse in being able to watch their back.

Shashiro and Sutea battle.

As Shashiro is able to gain the upper hand against Sutea, both he and Taiya express how they believe each other and know they will always survive and return to each other in the end.

Shashiro handcuffs Sutea to the pole. She asks why he’s joined up with the Boonboomgers when their foe is so dangerous. Shashiro says that’s why it is worth it to race together as a team.

Shashiro leaves her and joins the others.

Taiya also arrives and he and Shashiro tell the others to leave this to them. They henshin and Shashiro activates Champion for them. After Shashiro takes care of the fake Mira, Jou and Genba, he joins Taiya as they take on the Kurumaju.

Taiya and the others power up Shashiro who delivers a Champion Drive finisher at Camera Guruma. Yaruka embiggens the Kurumaju and the Boonbooms hop into Robo Champion

After battling in the city, the Boonbooms deliver a Champion Road finisher to take care of the Kurumaju for good.

Sutea, who has freed herself, watches the scene and Shashiro from a rooftop. But someone is also watching her and reports to Director Tokoyari that she has been a failure. “You know what’s next,” Tokoyari says.

Meanwhile, Shashiro picks up remnants of a transmitter Sutea had used. Sakito says she left it behind on purpose and Genba says the enemy is always watching them. It is a message that everyone is being monitored.

Mira stomps toward Shashiro and pinches his cheeks, wondering if he is the real one. Shashiro is annoyed and reminds her his name is “Ishiro”. Mira smiles and says it is confirmed that this is really their Shashiro.

The others happily laugh as well.

As the others leave back to the Garage, Taiya approaches Shashiro.

“I made no mistake when you won me over,” Taiya says.
“Bakuage, right?” Shashiro replies.
“You’re a sly one, Shashiro.”

They share a smile and join their friends.

Episode Thoughts

Ahhhh! This episode just makes me wish Toei will actually film a live action version of the Formation Lap manga. I need more of Taiya and Shashiro looking into each other’s eyes and understanding each other without saying a single word. Lolol

Seriously though, this was a great episode. Aside from all the wonderful character moments between Taiya and Shashiro and their relationship, we got some amazing action all episode long!

Let’s start there first. Because wowow! I loved all the action sequences this episode! Shashiro and Sutea in that warehouse was amazing. The gun certainly took things up a notch. But the choreography was so good. Kudos to the stunt actors as well as Yuki Hayama and Konomi Naito as well. Having them jumping around all over was exciting.

I need this action sequence from Boonboomger 37 on my Twitter profile forever! A perfect example of how Toei can deliver such exciting and dynamic scenes big budget productions can only hope for. Haruhi Iuchi and Yuki Hayama were excellent + amazing direction and choreography too pic.twitter.com/Z39jJFM5wG

— DryedMangoez (@dryedmangoez) November 19, 2024

But how about Taiya and fakeShashiro! It’s always fun when you get big battles in the heroes’ homebase. And the Garage was definitely the perfect setting here. As well as seeing our heroes, mind-controlled or fake or not, going at each other is always fun. They set the mood with the dim lockdown lighting. The choreography was excellent. The direction was creative. The stunt actors were on point as always. But Yuki Hayama and Haruhi Iuchi definitely made this sequence. Their back and forth was so good. Such awesome performances from them. And the writing was very tight, especially with the way they were able to weave in those details about each respective character and giving us tidbits about their relationship and bond.

“I know he’ll come back safely to me.” “I made the right choice when you won me over.”

I know my BL-influenced mind likes to joke about Taiya and Shashiro. But Taiya just knowing it was a fake Shashiro by merely looking at his eyes. And then those grins during their trade off of lines at the end. They really made me eager to read the manga and learn about how they first met and eventually decided to work together. (And become friends, or more!, of course. lolol)

I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to read the manga. (Hmph) But the episode made me want to read it even more, nonetheless lol

The other Boonbooms also had great action. And the episode certainly didn’t forget about them, which is great. That moment at the end where they laugh at Mira confirming they have their old Shashiro back was cute.

Also, I wish we got more about Taiya’s childhood. I suppose it will be a big part of the endgame. The Final Lap poster seems to imply that. So I’m looking forward to that! But I expect it will be very, very emotional as well.

I think this episode basically confirms Shashiro is a badass secret agent spy fella. Genba was right when he said they should hope Shashiro never ends up as their enemy! So awesome!

Also badass was Sutea. A great character. And if anything, Sutea and Shashiro’s mission should’ve been a manga and Shashiro and Taiya’s story should be a TTFC miniseries. (Please Toei! Lolol)

I loved the mecha battle. Very cool how they superimposed the mecha into actual video of the Tokyo skyline in addition to using their regular mini-set. It really made the whole sequence even more exciting and feel very fresh.

I’m also glad I never skip the Boonboomger opening credits because they always add new touches and different cuts each week. Lots of fun!

And again, Boonboomger is always fun. And always enjoyable. And exciting. And all of the above. I loved this episode! And I can’t wait for another great one next week!

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