The Wasshoi Bird
Summary
Dangerous Jiro: Sonoi returned after receiving a power-up.
And after their battle, the one to fall this time...
...was Taro Momoi.
And after their battle, the one to fall this time...
...was Taro Momoi.
Shinichi and the rest of the Donbrothers begin to worry for Taro's safety, when they find he has not returned from his showdown. Meanwhile, the revived Sonoi — who now resembles Taro in personality — treats Sononi and Sonoza as his "companions". He also appears before the Donbrothers to boast about his victory over Taro.
As Jiro spirits Taro away after the latter's defeat, he is confronted by Murasame, who is under orders from "Mother" to kill Taro.
Tropes
- Breather Episode: Despite what the circumstances of this episode have you believe and this being the debut of GolDon Momotaro, a majority of this episode is devoted to the Noto and the remaining Donbrothers (sans Tsubasa) having a competition while Kaito tries to resurrect Taro. Hilarity Ensues.
- Call-Back:
- Don Momotaro's ability to freeze a MotW in place dates back to his very first appearance in Zenkaiger.
- Sonoi being able to turn humans into Hitotsu-Ki was something he showed back in #1, which wasn't revisited until this episode.
- The fact that someone can become a host for multiple Hitotsu-Ki like with Minoru Ohno comes back into play, when Tsuyoshi becomes Taiyou-Ki.
- The fact that someone can control their own desires and cancel the Hitotsu-Ki transformation comes back when Shinichi and Haruka manage to halt their transformation into Taiyou-Ki.
- Sonoi smacking Sononi and Sonoza about harkens back to Taro doing the same to his friends after their first few battles.
- Came Back Strong: Taro awakens GolDon Momotaro after Kaito performs life-saving surgery on him, as well as giving him the essences of the Donbrothers (save Tsubasa) and the Nōto.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Parodied. Sonoi wants to recruit the Donbrothers into the Noto and is willing to play various Parlor Games with the team to make it happen. Shinichi manages to win the peanut-catching game, but the rest of the games go nowhere. After they lose, each Donbrother gets "Noto" written on their foreheads. Cue Taro returning from his surgery Just in Time before the others are actually drafted.
- General Failure:
- Under Sonoi's leadership, Shinichi, Haruka and Tsuyoshi all turn into the same Hitotsu-ki. As in, the very creatures he should be trying to quell.
- Sonoi, despite the power up and actually defeating Taro in battle is not quite the impossibly skilled and perfect being Taro is. Not only does he choke on a Kibi Dango (while Taro could eat 1,000 in barely a minute) he actually loses one of the games to Shinichi and has to answer a question while the other Donbrothers are always defeated by Taro when they try to challenge him at anything.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: The A-plot of the episode is about the Nōto trying to integrate the Donbrothers into their ranks by playing various parlor games with them.
- History Repeats: Much like episode 15, Tsuyoshi is transformed into a Hitotsu-ki and, once again, is defeated by a revived Taro.
- Like #29, Sonoi's energy (alongside everyone else's) is extracted via duplicitous means and is used to revive Taro, whose new form debut also comes with it a spontaneous personality change...though nowhere near to the extent of Sonoi's.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While his Hidden Depths have been hinted at previously, this episode emphasizes Dangerous Jiro's abrasive-yet-kind side.
- Sonoi attempts to recruit the Donbrothers into the Noto instead of attack them.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: During his debut as GolDonMomotaro, Taro's otherwise upbeat speech dips into threatening stoicism - a counter to Sonoi's increase in expressiveness.
- Locked Out of the Loop:
- The episode shows that the Noto are unaware of Kaito. Sonoi is confused as to why Haruka defers to a seemingly normal human who "Doesn't know anything" (when she and the audience know Kaito knows quite a lot) and Kaito goes out of his way to keep the Noto from seeing him transform into Zenkaizer Black.
- Likewise, while Tsubasa is given the invitation to attend Sonoi's dinner, he refuses due to his personal pursuit of Miho/Natsumi, once more locking him out of the general loop of the Donbrothers.
- Mirror Character: Discussed. While established last episode, both the Donbrothers and the Noto actively talk about Sonoi's newfound Taro-esque personality during the first four minutes. Sonoi also beats up his fellow Generals in the same way Taro attacked his friends early on. Unlike with Taro however, it wasn't horseplay and he makes them bow to him.
- Happens in reverse as well. Not only are Taro's new powers created via an offshoot of the energy-extraction procedure that upgraded Sonoi, but GolDonMomotaro spends his debut fight in a state reminiscent of Sonoi's cold stoicism (much like Sonoi's abrupt personality-flip in the last episode) and doesn't really sound like he's having any fun...until Taiyou-Ki is defeated, whereupon he lets out his signature laugh.
- Mundane Utility: Kaito uses his Zenkaizer Black powers to, of all things, perform surgery on Taro, even having his own custom surgery tools that look more like kids' toys.
- Not Himself: After the opening, Sononi and Sonoza confront Sonoi about his new Taro-esque personality. They're really bugged out when he calls them "companions" and are forced to capitulate when Sonoi beats them into submission in the same vein Taro did to his friends at show's start.
- Parlor Games: The Donbrothers use these to get information out of the Noto (while avoiding being drafted). Other than Shinichi's fluke win at the start however, it's a bust.
- Pet the Dog:
- Dangerous Jiro tries to help a weakened Taro out and even defends him from Don Murasame, even if it's only because he wants to be the one to truly defeat Taro.
- Sonoza actually gives Haruka helpful advice with regards to her manga slump.
- The Donbrothers have impressed the Noto just enough that they want to recruit them.
- Superhuman Transfusion: Kaito secretly extracts the life-energy from all parties present and pours said energy down Taro's gullet with a funnel. Their combined energies bring him back to life, with the added perk of a new form.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Dangerous Jiro's reasoning for defending a weakened Taro from Don Murasame.Dangerous Jiro: Stop. I'm the one who's gonna beat him. But after he's healed.
- The Reveal: The Donbrothers' power was created by the Don Clan to allow humans to fight the Noto on equal footing, and set to activate around the time Taro reached maturity, presumably so Taro could have human allies to help him since the Noto cast the Don Clan out.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: The two main plots deal with the fallout of Sonoi's defeat of Taro in the previous episode. The A-plot is about Sonoi and the Nōto attempting to integrate the Donbrothers into their ranks by playing parlor games with them, the B-plot is about Kaito performing life-saving surgery on Taro while attending to the Donbrothers' and Nōto's needs at Donbura, and the C-plot is about Tsubasa finally getting a haircut from Miho, setting up the events of the next episode.
- Waxing Lyrical: After defeating Taiyou-Ki, Don Momotaro utters "I'm the only one" (ore koso only one), the title of the show's theme song.
- Weak-Willed: Once again Tsuyoshi's obsession with his wife proves to be a serious mental weakness and turns him into a Hitotsu-ki. While he, Haruka and Shinichi all turn into Hitotsu-ki when Sonoi tests their obsessions, Haruka and Shinichi are able to quickly throw it off while Tsuyoshi completely turns and has to be defeated the regular way.
- We Can Rule Together: The Donbrothers "have power," which impresses the Noto enough to try and recruit them as a "reserve force."
