[Fish Sandwich]

I'm pretty sure that, much like Haruka, I've still yet to understand Tarou. Even after this episode that explains so much more about him, any conclusions I could attempt to draw about his character would only truly be mere speculation -- the same sort of guessing that Shinichi does about why Don Momotaro is flipping out and fighting his own friends.

So while I might be reading everything that's happened so far wrong, for all I know, I did really enjoy what I believed this episode to be "about", when it comes to Tarou. It demonstrates the fundamental disconnect between him and the world around him. The ways his flawlessly upstanding character and effortless competence at everything he does are themselves flaws creating an inherent distance in Tarou's relationships with people, that will no doubt require great effort on his part to fix. (Which is a bit of deep irony that suits Inoue's writing.) One of the strong points of how Tarou has been written since day one is how much it's emphasized that other people find his exaggerated toku hero personality off-putting, but while that's mostly been played for comedy up until now, here, we really see for the first time the very dramatic consequences of Tarou being himself. He's someone who doesn't bend under pressure, but that same inflexibility risks pushing people away, because being honest and well-meaning isn't always enough by itself.

The flipside of that is Tsuyoshi, who provides an excellent foil for Tarou's unknowable perfection here. Really, just like any character in this show, he's utterly delightful to watch for his own unique reasons. Tsuyoshi is very human, and very easy to understand. He's maybe the most down-to-earth member of the entire cast, even. A fairly unremarkable person who's just trying his best to get along in life, as he deals with countless little setbacks and cherishes the bright spots that make all of that worth it. He gets how people feel more directly than Tarou does, because Tsuyoshi is a person who feels those things. It's a fantastic beat for the episode when those two employees get set on the right track because they see Tsuyoshi putting in the same effort that's being asked of them. It's all down to pure heart, essentially. Tsuyoshi gets through to those kids by being emotionally open with them and putting himself on their level, and for all his talk about the importance of bonds, that's still a world Tarou can't quite step into. Much like the difference between someone who's always had onigiri made for them, and someone who's always made it for someone, perhaps that's the gap between someone who's always worked to help others with their inadequacies, and someone who's always worked to overcome their own.

So yeah, the central plot in this one was great, I thought. Lots to read into just there, but part of the fun of Donbrothers is that it can do that every week while also having those somewhat disconnected bonus scenes that are also fun to think about. I mean, even without him not actually doing that much yet, I'm pretty excited to finally get to know more about Tsubasa next week, you know?

The scenes with Haruka and Shinichi are more of a proper B-plot, advancing the overarching story, and I think it's great how quickly both of them agree the solution to their problems is to beat up Don Momotaro before he beats them up again, which is hilarious, especially because of how overconfident they were to think that would work. More seriously, I appreciate that the thing that makes the two of them aware of each other's identities is that they both saved some people? Like, it's the simplest thing, but I place a lot of value on superhero stories that actually show the heroes directly helping people, rather than only ever fighting villains, and Donbrothers has had a lot of that so far, which has been nice. And scenes like that are in addition to the fact that the monster of the week formula for this show means they're also trying to save the antagonists each week, too. For a bunch of deeply flawed weirdoes, these Avataro guys are honestly really pleasant people, all things considered!