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Avataro Sentai DonBrothers Episode 14- "Substitute Jiro" Discussion
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06-05-2022, 03:05 PM
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Fish Sandwich
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
I mentioned back when this show started how excited I was about the idea of Don Momotaro as a typical modern Red being written by a writer who was absolutely not going to make him typical. With Tarou, Inoue has taken the basics of a Sentai tradition that was cemented after his previous turn as main writer, and shaken those rules up to an extent that... that... well I mean, does Donbrothers even
have
rules?
At any rate, my point is that I'm already way the heck on board for whatever it is this show has in store for its take on the new hero routine. Even just going into the episode, things are already so promising, right? There's a wonderful audacity to introducing Jirou in the context of the star of the show abruptly kicking the bucket only a quarter into the run. It is incredible in the most traditional sense of the word, because nobody is going to buy that for a second. The Donbrothers don't know or care who this guy is, and viewers aren't liable to accept the discount version of a character we've grown to know and (I assume) love over these past few months.
Essentially, by playing Jirou up to be such a big deal, the show accomplishes the opposite, turning him into an underdog, and that kind of madness is exactly why I fell for Donbrothers so hard.
Because the reality of it is that Jirou, as he's presented in the episode proper, is nothing more than yet another delusional crazy person, who is also a huge dork. There is not a single person we see who takes his goals seriously, and there's not a single reason they should, because his big debut outing as a hero is utterly pathetic. The man's weapon of choice was a bucket of rocks. Jirou is straight up
lame
, and I'm kind of in love with him too already? It's just the quality of this show, I guess. It only takes those first couple minutes exploring his humble country bumpkin origins for me to be totally sucked into his whole journey, and I'm really curious how exactly he'll start earning the hero status he's convinced is his destiny. Which, you know, he's not even wrong about, exactly.
So yeah, Jirou's introduction is a pretty big win for this show. Donbrothers has built such a particular and consistently fantastic chemistry between its core cast of five that I figured this would be one of those Sentai where I'm frosty on a new guy showing up to alter that dynamic, but this episode has got me feeling pretty optimistic about how well another hero can fit in.
And of course, as ever, that's only really one side to the episode. We've also got... man, *so* much. Moving forward the plot with Tsubasa, as well as bringing up Tsuyoshi's concerning behavior again, both a lot earlier than I expected. Kaito being dragged into the story more and more, always reacting with just enough concern to show he's clearly one of the good guys while still feeling like a total question mark, even ignoring the issue of why Zenkaiser is in this show.
And speaking of reacting to Tarou's sudden disappearance, that gets explored pretty thoroughly through both Sonoi and Haruka in particular. You've got Sonoi struggling with dissatisfaction after having defeated an enemy in such a cowardly (if efficient) manner, which may or may not also be the regret he didn't show more respect for a friend, but obviously Sonoi is not even close to the point where he can sort out those feelings yet. Meanwhile, Haruka is pretty clearly taking the loss of Tarou a bit harder than everyone else, which is super consistent with one of the things that makes me like her character so much. When she isn't flying into an uncontrollable rage, at least, she's always been the hero in this show who gets the most upset the most often about people losing their lives, so I thought it was pretty great that she's the one who gets the bits like telling Jirou off for having the nerve to talk like Tarou.
I also thought it was pretty great that Tarou shows back up just to leave again, which really doubled the sense of hopelessness. Because again, as viewers, we know he'll be back eventually, but now that they've pulled this trick, it's like suddenly this could be the status quo for a while, if the show felt like it. I mean, they can still promote Don Onitaijin this way, can't they? The situation somehow feels more grave now because we did see Tarou than it would if we simply didn't at all. I don't think I'm explaining this point very well, but I just liked that narrative beat a ton. It was sort of necessary simply to demonstrate that the Kibi Points aren't the answer to everything, of course, but it really does highlight perfectly how beyond the team's reach Tarou is at the moment. (Although honestly, I was more excited to see Don Momotaro's entourage again than Don Momotaro himself. I
really
hope Donbrothers never completely drops that routine, because it kind of defines everything about Don Momotaro in a way.)
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