Goodbye Taro
Summary
Inoue's brand of Tragic Bromance, now commence!
Aside from Inu Brother whose identity is still unknown to them, the other Donbrothers decide to get together to devise strategies for the coming battles, with Taro suggesting to defeat the leader of the Nōto first. Meanwhile, Sonoi and the Nōto learn from the Council that Don Momotaro and his band of comrades are actually linked to them. Not realizing they are each others' enemies in battle, Taro and Sonoi meet again, deepening their friendship...Tropes
- Aesop Amnesia: Played for Laughs, with Tarou not only failing to learn that he needs to respect his companions, but he actually starts treating them worse.
- Break the Haughty: Shinichi, Haruka and Tsuyoshi try invoking this by boycotting combat with Taro when their attempts to get through to him don't work.
- Broken Pedestal: After running into each other again, Sonoi admits to Taro that he greatly admires the latter for his pure-heartedness. All that changes when he learns that he is the true identity of Don Momotaro.
- Brutal Honesty: Taro calling the other Donbrothers out on their flaws so bluntly inspires them to boycott fighting with him.
- Downer Ending: Just when it seems like everything is going well, Sonoi descends from the sky and seemingly kills Taro, citing that Taro's existence is his despair. The team can only watch in utter horror as Taro's body disappears into a bunch of cubes. It's so much of a downer ending that the ending theme doesn't play over it.
- Foreshadowing: Taro refers to the group as "fools" rather than his usual "companions" when the battle starts which they find curious and seems to refer to them ditching him earlier but with the ending revealing he just told his weakness to his greatest enemy he obviously considers himself as part of that.
- His Story Repeats Itself: Taro's backstory involves his hometown boycotting (and later abandoning) him due to believing him a Smug Super. Three of his allies are once again boycotting him here in the modern day for similar reasons. This time however, Taro is more aware of the issue but seems physically incapable of fixing it.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: After the Internal Reveal below, before leaving Sonoi asks Taro for his Achilles' Heel. Unable to lie, Taro outright admits that after using Don Onitaijin there will be one moment where he is exhausted, which Sonoi later on uses to kill him.
- I Resemble That Remark!: After Tarou calls Shinichi a narcissist, the latter is the first to react to being told his flaws.
- Internal Reveal: Taro and Sonoi find out that they are each other's enemy, utterly shocked at the development.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Despite Taro calling out his ego, Shinichi accurately pegs Taro's complete inability to give positive reinforcement as a symptom (if not the root cause) of the Donbrothers' inability to unite.
- Land, Sea, Sky: The animals that the Council uses to talk to their Nōto operatives are a pigeon (sky), a clownfish (sea), and a dog (land).
- Likes Clark Kent, Hates Superman: Played in full with both Taro and Sonoi coming to like each other as civilians, but are unaware they each others' main targets in battle, especially after the Council gives the Nōto a directive to kill Don Momotaro.
- Missed Him by That Much: Tsubasa barely misses running into Miho as he exits the hair salon and heads in the opposite direction she is coming in from.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The Nōto are generally content to treat their opposition to the Donbrothers as little more than a game. The moment they realize who Taro truly is, Sononi and Sonoza ignore the local Hitotsu-Ki outright to brutally and aggressively dog-pile Taro; their voices dripping with hatred and venom. Sonoi meanwhile eschews his usual grace to act on Taro's confession and bisect the latter after his battle as Don Onitaijin.
- Offhand Backhand:
- How Sononi gets rid a guy hitting on her in a restaurant.
- How Sonoi knocks out a thief.
- Our Hero Is Dead: Momoi is slain by Sonoi at the very end of the episode, ending on his body disappearing.
- Refusal of the Call: Invoked. Per Shinichi's boycott, he and the other two Donbrothers utter "Change Denied" when their blasters try to summon them into combat and remain out of the ensuing battle. The moment the others see how deep in it Taro's following battle really is, they abandon the idea and join in.
- The Reveal: Taro is the last heir to the Don Clan,the former leaders of Ideon that were deposed by the Nōto over peaceful co-existence with humans. They lost and were slaughtered to the man...Or so the Nōto thought.
