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Avataro Sentai DonBrothers Episode 12- "The Moon Is Lying!" Discussion
A new aspiring idol begins working at that Donbura Cafe while Taro seeks advice from his father.
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It's taken us 12 episodes to get to this point, when most Sentai would only take the premiere, but we've finally arrived at the episode... where I finally talk about something that isn't the writing for any significant amount of time. Or heck, I might be lying about that, actually? So, let's talk about Don Onitaijin for a bit. First of all: the name. Great. I love it. Totally my style, and it's even better than it already would be, because we also get to make jokes about how this robot would have to exterminate its own right leg at some point to live up to that title. But that's really the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what makes Don Onitaijin interesting. For a variety of reasons, it is extraordinarily evident that Bandai in particular has put a lot of their eggs in this basket. Sentai merch sales have become notorious over the past decade or so for underperforming more often than not, and Don Onitaijin feels like the cornerstone of their latest effort to turn that around. The whole philosophy behind the DX toy is a huge departure from the norm, essentially bridging the gap between the typical Sentai robo and an elaborate collector-oriented super robot figure. It's bigger and more expensive than usual, and actively touts articulation as one of its biggest selling points, rather than the novelty of its transformation scheme and/or electronic features. You can really tell their hearts are in this one. If it ends up selling like hotcakes, we may very well be looking at the progenitor of a new standard of Sentai robo toy. I bring all this up because as we all know, the duty of these shows is to make that merchandise look more appealing, and I have to imagine Bandai is watching very, very closely to make sure Don Onitaijin's appearances are as prominent and as impactful as possible. They want this to be a big deal, to the point this very episode is apparently freely available on YouTube for the next month, just to get the word out there as much as possible. Everyone's gotta know about Don Onitaijin. Little kids are gonna be bugging their parents about it! Nerdy collectors are gonna be salivating over those elbows and knees! Everything is going to go according to Bandai's master plan! Now if you'll excuse me for a second, I'd like to talk about Don Zenkai-Oh. I've been weirdly in love with Don Zenkai-Oh since this show premiered, and that's actually the only Zenkai-Oh I can really say that about. I could never peg it down, but something about Zenkaiger's main duo of robots never ~quite~ connected with me. Something about the Don variety though, that really started clicking with me. Was it the unified color scheme? The neat new face? The simple but cool sword and shield? The surprisingly competent use of CG? The way the Sentai Gear moves from the shoulder to the leg is kinda neat, too! But what exactly was it that had me so excited every week I'd get to see some Don Leg Buster action? Why was I so in love with this weird half and half abomination, that belongs to two shows and yet feels at home in neither? ...Why do I still love it more than Don Onitaijin??? Bandai weren't the only ones who set out to accomplish a mission with Don Onitaijin, and it's in Toei's determination that I think I may have found my answer. You see, what they were aiming for, that put things in perspective for me, was something simple -- doing Zenkai-Oh again, but better. The whole appeal of Zenkai-Oh was meant to be that you'd have these two strong personalities coming together, with the idea being to let those interpersonal dynamics still shine through even in the mecha action. And of course, that was the case in Zenkaiger... but there was some random guy's face in the mix. You could have the characters talking to each other after combining, but the viewer would always be seeing the face of a different character entirely called Zenkai-Oh, instead of the faces of the people you were watching for. "That's it!", I thought, reading about all this on Toei's site for the show. Don Zenkai-Oh was clicking with me because it threw all of that aside to simply be a big robot that Don Momotaro pilots, which was a much easier to grasp, less muddled concept. Perhaps subconsciously, it always felt like Zenkai-Oh wasn't taking its own gimmick quite far enough. So Donbrothers solved that issue by just gluing everyone's faces directly onto the robot. It's a simple solution, but it works! To be honest, it's, uh, not that different from what Kiramaizin already did right before either of these shows, but Kiramaizin *is* one of my all-time favorite Sentai robots, and the originality isn't really the point here. (The production blog I linked even makes the inevitable mention of Kamen Rider Den-O.) What matters is that Donbrothers is as great a show as it is because these five weirdoes are always talking to each other, and Don Onitaijin means they never have to stop. They can still talk while they're combining, and while they're combined, and you don't even have to cut to a cockpit to make that happen. It's a neat trick. The more I think about, the more it doesn't actually seem that different from usual in terms of function, but we're dealing with a visual medium, and those five faces are a powerful visual. Everything with Don Onitaijin's debut was a delight to watch, and felt so perfectly true to Donbrothers' style. The team is coming together as one, but with five personalities this strong, it never really feels harmonious. There's a sort of magic to how the design works on-screen that I don't want to understate. Don Onitaijin is building off a lot of ideas that have come before, sure, but it's also using the opportunity to refine them into something potentially even greater. I'll gladly stay in the camp rooting for the eternal underdog that is Don Zenkai-Oh, but there's no denying that Don Onitaijin deserves to be the symbol of the show the way the "first" robot of any Sentai is. Because again, when you look at Don Onitaijin, the first thing you'll see is those five characters so many of us have come to know and love. You see? I was lying after all! All that talk about Don Onitaijin, and in the end, it comes down to me saying it's good because it literally places the characters at the forefront! So what were they up to this week, anyway? Well, I think I'll actually keep this one a bit more concise than usual, since... *gestures to the above wall of text* ...but naturally, Inoue wasn't even remotely interested in writing a story that's about introducing merchandise. I mean, maybe back in the Jetman days, you could get him to do that, but this is post-Faiz Inoue! Hence why Haruka can't get a straight answer from Kaito about anything, and why it's likely she'll either stop bothering to ask, or get distracted yet again the next time. What, you expect these people to properly communicate with one another? Don't say that like human interaction is so easy! And it's especially difficult for Tarou, which is what this episode is truly centered around. A guest character who tells lies proves to be a great opportunity to delve into the mindset of the man who can only tell the truth, and I thought everything they did with that here was fantastic. You have some amazing comedic bits that spring out of it, of course. (Gotta love Haruka flipping out and trying to murder a teammate two weeks in a row!) But it's the drama of the episode I found the most compelling, for both how it explored the nuanced realities of whether or not honesty actually is the best policy, and for how it further humanized Tarou by highlighting, ironically enough, how little he fits in with most humans. The scene with him and Sonoi is just precious. There's that subtle exchange of smiles right before it cuts to them sitting down to talk that really speaks to the friendship the two of them are building. They're two weird dudes, and they have that much in common. It's great to see Sonoi helping Tarou sort out his issues, and it's great to see Tarou in the end, putting in the work to make up for the harm his personality sometimes causes. There's a lot of excellent thematic weight here, and that's what makes the final line from Tarou land so well, as he sees Kilala working to make her lies more than just lies. It's really great how this episode presents Tarou with a character so utterly antithetical to his way of life, and ends with him starting to understand that the world is maybe more complicated than he thought. It's amusing to think this episode is streaming for free. The whole reason they're doing that is clearly because of the giant robot, and of all the hilarious jokes in Donbrothers, the idea that a story this good is merely a bonus is perhaps one of the funniest yet. Sure, this one'll make you want to buy Don Onitaijin, but not as much as it will simply make you want to watch more Donbrothers. |
In hindsight, I really should have known that of course this episode where Don Onitaijin debuts was not actually going to revolve a story about all five members and their unity. Genuinely forgot who the writer of this show was for a moment.
However, the episode itself I thought was a perfectly good Tarou-focused episode! The idea that lying is literally lethal to him is funny and all, but the resolution at the end, after he makes it up to his co-worker and smiles at the wannabe idol's performance, was very sweet. It's been twelve weeks but I'm still surprised by how endearing and 'relatable' I've found this strange man who is perfect at everything. And of course yeah the cool new combining robot is awesome! That combination sequence and the ensuing fight is great. Honestly, my favourite part is at the end when all five of them give that victory chant at the same time. I've been waiting for something like that for a long time! |
it was cool the mecha's debut is super awsome and the wait was over.
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This episode made me somewhat regret not preordering Don Onitaijin.
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Kaito matter-of-factly telling the new girl that the uniform that was too small in the chest in the locker was actually Haruka's was the funniest scene in this episode. This show gets such legitimate laughs out of me!
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This was another fantastic Donbrothers episode, I find myself more and more surprised by how much I love this rag tag of misfits, Momoi not understanding white lies is something that makes sense but him ultimately helping his coworker out shows that just like as a kid, he means well despite how harsh he comes across. Haruka trying to murder her fellow rangers again was also fun, the only thing that bugs me is that I'mnpt too sure what the monster was supposed to be, I want to say Kyuranger but it looked more draconic rather than like a lion
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https://powerrangers.fandom.com/wiki/Uchuki In hindsight I can now see the resemblance to KyurenOh https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/po...20220522010338 |
I thought it was rather obvious, with the dome head being a reference to the Kyutama.
In his monster form, it was even more obvious. |
I personally really curious about Tokumeiki's giant form. I am quite sad when Tokumeiki are didn't grow into giant because Go-Busters is one of my favourite Super Sentai series.
Anyway, this episode 12 is really interesting to watch. Momotaro are can't be lying and if he's trying to be lying, a painful heart attack are ready to make his body pain. Don Onitaijin is awesome. The robot action is fantastic, but I am not a big fan of Don Onitaijin's finishing attack. Don Onitaijin's finishing attack is really similar to some of Gaim Riders's finishing attacks. I personally prefer fruit attacks in Gaim than in DonBrothers. I think the two Don Onitaijin attacks like Oni Kick attacks and Saru Punch attacks is really awesome. |
I'm really enjoying Donbrothers, but I still have the same problem where the actual "Sentai" bit of the show feels very... tacked on. I thought that was maybe changing after the last couple of episodes but, hm. That's our Inoue I guess.
This episode was still really good though! I want to buy DX Don Onitaijin despite not collecting Sentai Mechs, so they did the debut right. I still like the weird Gridman looking scenery in the fights. This show's sense of humour makes me genuinely laugh out loud. Every scene of Haruka wanting to murder someone or trying to murder someone is hilarious. Tarou literally dying trying to tell a lie is hilarious. They're all insane people and they're great. It's also funny that Kiji and/or Inu always seem to get written out of the story so we don't have to see them transform. Quote:
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I've been wondering for a while about why the water in the Morphin' sequence is normal-colored for the companion Donbrothers but gold for Don Momotarou. Now I think Sonoi's moon/sun analogy made me understand that. It's the sunlight reflecting off the water, representing the extremeness of Tarou's compulsive truth telling. It's so dazzlingly bright, it obscures the water's true color. So glad I figured that out!
However, this flaw is beyond Tarou's control, since lying actually kills him for a few seconds. We've known since reading his bio that he's physically incapable of telling a lie and now we know how that works, even if we don't know why yet. But that inability has surely shaped Tarou's philosophy, since he's never been able to experience the value of lies for himself and so believes truth is absolute. Sometimes, a convincing lie is functionally indistinguishable from the truth, as Kilala proves by becoming an idol for real. I'm enjoying Tarou's and Sonoi's chill friendship, being able to understand each other in a way that normal humans can't. It has the same feeling as Takumi's and Kiba's friendship from Faiz, with how Sonoi is willing to listen to Tarou and try and soften him a little. Tarou has often been someone for others to react to, whether it's his colleagues or companions. So it's intriguing to see more of his perspective, how foreign some human concepts are to him and how he sympathizes with the person who shares his frustration with humanity. I think it's something a lot of us outside social convention can relate to. Don Onitaijin's debut was cool! |
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