DonBrothers 02 discussion thread

[Aeikozz]

me looking at "again" like it isn't two sylabals

i gotta say i do like the monster theme
After all this one was about Toqger and they were just kids pretending to be adults.
so the fact that this was an adult wanting to be youngers was kinda neat for a monster of the day.

Onisister is just great. i love her reactions to everything.

Red entering with his possy is just hilarious. Reminds of Shinkenger before he would change.

i really do wish Toei would give up on the Cgi though in fights with people. It's so bad. The background and the Kaiju fights are cool and look pretty dope though which is weird. why they suck so bad at animating people?

I NEED THE CORSAIR RGB FINISHER SWORD.


it's funny there was little rat rice shape in the lunch box.

i'm super excited for this show, it just feels good to have actual humans back on the show. It's nice to watch everyone bounce of each other.

Maybe that's why they gave Kaito a second role in this show as pennance for having to do Zenkaiger.

[takenoko]

Based Kiji Brother

Whoa, is this why people keep saying "based" as slang?
https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/based/

[ViRGE]

Second episode in, and yeah, it's still weird.

I would call this a Red focus episode, but I'm not really sure that's the case. Certainly Red got the most screen time, but it was also a Pink focus episode. And it introduced Blue and Black. So it's something of a smorgasbord right now.

Meanwhile, I guess every MOTW is going to be themed after a different Sentai? Last episode had the knight (Ryusoulger), and this episode has the train (ToQger). With 45 past series, there's a whole season's worth of MOTWs right there. Unfortunately, it's also very derivative of KR Zi-O.

Oh, and does anyone know how literal the translation was on that haiku? I'm going to wager the actual Japanese words aren't 5-7-5 syllables when translated to English.

Why did a sign exploding on the two commanders cause them to open a door? Is the implication they got exploded and respawned?

That's a good question. At first I thought it signified them leaving, but you may be right...

I guess the handy part of the vr world is the giant fight scene can just be a cgi cartoon. Kinda makes me sad but what can you do

Drink heavily, reminiscing of the days of yore?

Still no end sequence.

Given that they put the dance into the OP like Zenkaiger, I don't think we're going to get an end sequence this year either.

Aight i rewatched it multiple times. When Black uses the medal for the first time it turns from a Zenkaiger Medal into a DonBro Medal. Still so fucking weird though. Cause last episode when the Kaijou dies he receives it as a Zenkaiger Medal. This time when the Kaijou dies he receives it as a DonBro Medal. I still feel like i'm chalk this up to the fact that maybe their medals weren't ready when filming. Which is a possibility with how things have been lately.

The whole matter is quite odd. They took the time to show (and animate) the medal changing forms. But even if there's some significance to that, it doesn't really explain why the first medal that dropped was a Zenkai medal, and the second to drop was DonBro medal.

[Lunagel]

Oh, and does anyone know how literal the translation was on that haiku? I'm going to wager the actual Japanese words aren't 5-7-5 syllables when translated to English.

春風や、亡きあの人と、すれ違う
Haru kaze ya, naki ano hito to, sure chigau

The spring wind / that (dead/gone) person / I pass by

Literal translation would be "I pass by the (dear?) person long gone in the spring wind.

It's a little tricky to do haiku in English because we actually pack more meaning in per syllable than Japanese, so you gotta use big words, making it end up a bit floral, which, honestly, not horrible for a poem.

Idk what you watched so I can't say as to the accuracy

[takenoko]

>Unfortunately, it's also very derivative of KR Zi-O.

I kind of like it though. I think it's a cool theme to steal at least

>Oh, and does anyone know how literal the translation was on that haiku? I'm going to wager the actual Japanese words aren't 5-7-5 syllables when translated to English.

What luna said. Unfortunately there's always going to be liberties taken when the song or poem has to follow a certain structure

Why did a sign exploding on the two commanders cause them to open a door? Is the implication they got exploded and respawned?

That's a good question. At first I thought it signified them leaving, but you may be right...

I think it's bad visual communication. Like what is the viewer supposed to infer happened between the previous scene and that scene?

I guess the handy part of the vr world is the giant fight scene can just be a cgi cartoon. Kinda makes me sad but what can you do

Drink heavily, reminiscing of the days of yore?

Oh yeah!

[ViRGE]

Oh, and does anyone know how literal the translation was on that haiku? I'm going to wager the actual Japanese words aren't 5-7-5 syllables when translated to English.

春風や、亡きあの人と、すれ違う
Haru kaze ya, naki ano hito to, sure chigau

The spring wind / that (dead/gone) person / I pass by

Literal translation would be "I pass by the (dear?) person long gone in the spring wind.

It's a little tricky to do haiku in English because we actually pack more meaning in per syllable than Japanese, so you gotta use big words, making it end up a bit floral, which, honestly, not horrible for a poem.

Idk what you watched so I can't say as to the accuracy

Thanks as always, Luna!

FWIW, it was the Anon subs. So I once again meet / the one long gone from this world / in the sweet spring breeze. Which I thought was a pretty good haiku. Especially since rewriting a poem like that just to do subs is itself a pretty impressive thing.

[Lunagel]

Especially since rewriting a poem like that just to do subs is itself a pretty impressive thing.

Poetry is one of the few aspects of translation where it's generally agreed that the feeling/intention of the poem is more important than the actual literal translation. With haiku, there are two schools of thought: rendering the same 5/7/5 syllable structure in the target language, or simply ignoring that and going for what works for you.

It's pretty fascinating, and you can see just how many ways there are to interpret just one haiku. I haven't counted but I'd say over half ignore trying to make 5/7/5 in English:
http://www.bopsecrets.org/gateway/passa ... o-frog.htm

[takenoko]

Yeah, I'm just lamenting how hard it is to translate. Like people who are bilingual who do a song in two languages always impress me

Also we can just do away with the 5/7/5 format? Why didn't someone tell me sooner lol

[Lunagel]

If I was doing it academically I'd probably not do 5/7/5 but I think with media meant for the layperson it's better to stick to the format so it's immediately clear what it is

[ViRGE]

I for one appreciate sticking to 5/7/5 like a proper haiku.

[Ashki]

Can we all just stop for a moment and appreciate the fact that these guys don't know how to fight? I mean, sure, they can punch and kick, but in this episode, we get to see Pink learn how to use his gears from Black, and last episode Yellow was just thrust into things (she transformed only because the gun did it for her). It's obvious Red's been at this the longest, followed by Black.

I also really love that the main narration was still Haruka, but they had an entire segment narrated by Tsuyoshi. It's so refreshing and again I find myself comparing these episodes to Giga. Could this have been what the Giga shows were capable of had they been full-length episodes? Also, I'm still enjoying the fact that we're back to meeting one to two members at a time (Red and Pink were introduced last episode but we learned little of Pink while we had a short scene with Red that said a lot (and asked a lot more). In this episode, we get more of Red, learn about Pink, and Black shows up without much introduction. So at this rate, I think we'll get a segment explaining Black's backstory next episode as well as Blue, while Red is busy mostly higing in plain sight.

I have to agree about the slide thing. It'll be sad when it's over, but this is basically the whole accidental shooting gag of last season, which means it'll be over within the next two episodes.

And speaking of last season, I really do love how this is taking place in one of the parallel worlds and they're making things far more apparent. Having Haruka ue one of Kaito's lines only to get a blank stare in return really helps set things up. However, the fact that Kaito seems to be half-oblivious to his surroundings and also has possession of gears, I jhave to wonder if he's really the Kami. If so, then everyone's misfortunes could be tied to the other worlds (such as Haruka's supposed perjury being due to a manga from Mangatopia).


So far, there are things I love and a f4ew things I hate. I absolutely love the storytelling style, and the way they're doing the MotW (as someone else pointed out, the ToQger story theme was kids pretending to be adults and this episode reversed that). It makes me wonder how they'll be reversing other series. Maybe Battle Fever J's victim will hate dancing or Sun Vulcan's victim will have some phobia or obsession with animals.

Unfortunately, the bad part is still the MegaRanger connection. There's a reason they stopped having the ranger battles inside a video game after five episodes, but we probably won't be so lucky here. I can tolerate Pink to a point, and Blue is fine, but Black and the little mecha Momo are pretty terrible. And thoe kaiju battles make my eyes want to bleed. I'd much rather they just got rid of the mech battles (they weren't always a thing, after all). Seeing the upcoming toys, though, I know it's only going to get worse.


But hey, horrid CGI aside, I really love the way this episode went. I also love that the woman was likely 68 years old and that's why the answer was always the same no matter how young her physical appearance. So despite some poor choices by the effects department, I had to give this one a 5/5.

Based Kiji Brother

Whoa, is this why people keep saying "based" as slang?
https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/based/

Whomever did that dictionary entry was obviously doing some smoking of their own. "Based" has nothing to do with the alt-right. The phrase is used as well by both the left and us centrists. I don't know of anyone who uses it in the manner described by that article, and I know people across the US, in Canada, and well over a dozen countries around the world.

When someone says that something (or someone) is based, it means that it's grounded, real (as in honest), and factual. You can have a "based review" where the reviewer is keeping his own opinion out of the review and focusing purely on the facts at hand (a good example of this is LEGO reviewer Jang, who at one point renamed his main channel to JANG's Based Lego Reviews).

A "based person" is someone who's down-to-earth and thinks before he speaks/acts. That's not to say that person can't start a fight, but what they say or do is based in facts and figures rather than opinion or political motivation. For example, Douglas Adams was incredibly based, and you can live your entire life on the philosophies in his books (not to mention the endless wisdom of his many non-fiction articles on conservation and technology, down to his story-length guide on how to make a proper cup of tea). Some might say Nietzsche was based because of how well he predicted the consequences modern day nihilism and how to fix it. Mr. Rogers could also have been considered to be based because he always kept it real for kids, even though his teaching methods included things like puppetry (in one episode, he even explained how they made Land of Make Believe come to life and in another he went of-set to show how the series was filmed, all without losing the magic).


That said, I think both InuiBrother and Kiji Brother are based with what few interactions we've had thus far. Unlike the others, InuiBrother's very calm in his bizarre fate to become SD, choosing to ride with it rather than fight or question it like the others have been doing. He sees a problem and he tackles it without complaint. I'm sure his personality will show some cracks as we get to know him better, though. But in the meantime, he's perhaps the most well-grounded character in the show.

Meanwhile it's pretty obvious that KijiBrother was respected in a major corporation, but the "DonCurse" (for lack of a better term) has him in all sorts of trouble. He's already gained a lot of confidence in his form, and while suddenly having a skirt surprised him, he simply accepted it and went on with the battle (I chuckled when he said he liked how it feels). He also was able to make a split-second decision which saved his wife without revealing his new powers. That alone is pretty much a perfect example of what it means to be based.

[resop2]

When I first saw "based" I thought it was "biased" misspelled. Now I am convinced that the meaning is closer to Public Enemy's "Night of the Living Base-heads".

[Thenosa Yechette]

Another good episode. Although, I wish they gave a bit more focus on Tsubasa than just 2 brief scenes.

Awww... I feel pity for Haruka now... Poor girl.
Why did the master refuse her request? It's not like she wants to slack off or something...

Where did the master even get a copy? I thought they stopped publishing her manga... He couldn't have bought it before the news of the plagiarism spread. Then how?

The master is talking and acting like the god from Zenkaiger.... Suspicious....

Nosy Taro.... But that's pretty good.

What does slot machine pop-up and those 4 eyes have to do with the Donbrothers?

Tsuyoshi resisted quite a lot against those glasses, unlike Haruka.... But those glasses are very persistent..... Tsuyoshi's reactions to the events were more appropriate than Haruka... A lot more believable.

And I love Tsuyoshi already!!! What a sweet guy....

So no one ever taught Tarou how to play rock-paper-scissors.... Poor guy with less omelette...

Tarou's guess is very specific....

Who writes notes on that side of their hand? It's totally visible to everyone...

Shin hasn't even started reciting his Haiku and he's already crying? Wow..... Sasuga unemployed overdramatic man... I'm surprised he can still live at people's mercy.... And random kind gestures... Are his advices that helpful?

Again, does she necessarily have to kneel? They sure love the kneel-silde thing for OniSister.... Lol.

Sanae-san knows that Tarou can't say anything but the truth, then why is she obsessed with hearing him say how old she looks? The answer isn't gonna change the millionth time....  Also, it's intriguing how Tarou can recognize Sanae-san even if she looks younger? Can he see people's true forms without the glasses? Very interesting...

Nice police chase between Tsubasa and the police... I wonder what crime he committed, though...

Aww.... Tarou actually loves to link to people... Look at that sad face he's making after not being able to link with Tsubasa....

I'm guessing Tsubasa got selected as a Ranger so that he can prove his innocence...

Haruka missed Tarou only for 1 second.... Dang....  Don't just keep looking at the clock, dummy!

So the blue guys(Shinichi and Sonoi) are the people with refined taste here....

Tsukasa's dialogues are very interesting... And how bossy... People have to keep apologizing to him....

Wait, so Sentai gears can turn into Avatarou gears, and vice versa? Hmm.... Oh, wait. That happened in Zenkaiger episode 48.... I almost forgot... But how do they explain this transformation.... Most importantly, how did the Donbrothers get the gears, when Zenkaizer black collects and holds onto them?

So Pink will be stuck with skirts for the rest of the series.... Lmao....

Tarou was right there, and they just happened to not see him, even though he should've been visible from there....

How can Haruka not get it? 'DonMomotarou'- it's right there in his name! 'Momo-i' and 'Tarou'....

So instead of DonMomotaru transforming into his Altern form, his soul just transfers into the alter form's object... Cool.

Tsuyoshi saying Tarou is 'overworked'... LMAO....

Shouldn't Tsuyoshi take Tarou already, instead of just saying "Maybe I should have carried him"? Poor Haruka....

The fight scenes with DonMomotaru are pretty cool. Although it doesn't feel like a Sentai mech fight without all of the team members participating....

This time, an Avataro gear comes out of the Hitotsuking..... Hmm....

Next time, looks like Haruka will be directly interacting with Tarou.... If she still doesn't see the name tag and get who he is, then.....

Loved this episode as well. They have taken the focus off of Red significantly... I love it! Also, why is Haruka's casting order 3rd? Shouldn't she be 2nd with the amount of focus they've given her so far? And am I the only one who thinks the acting of Haruka's actress has had significant improvement since the first episode? It already looks so much better...

Oh, a married sentai member? Wait, this is an Inoue story. I have a bad feeling about this...

Huh? Why, what happens to married characters in Inoue stories? Is it a bad idea for me to want to finish Donbrothers before I watch all the other series written by Inoue?

Why did a sign exploding on the two commanders cause them to open a door? Is the implication they got exploded and respawned?

I thought they escaped through a door before the explosion happened. Because that's what happens for everyone in this series, everyone just uses virtual dors to escape danger and stuff. Was that not what it meant? Otherwise, does that mean these generals are like the avatars from Go-Busters?

Oh no, baby Yoda is here.

Who is baby Yoda?

Still no end sequence.

This season won't have an ending sequence. The ending song plays during the last scenes and during the preview for the next episode...

And even if he's honest to a fault, he has enough emotional intelligence to phrase things smartly.

That's true. But I wish he said it nicely the first time instead of the last... Although, I guess that won't be any fun.

Maybe the last two can be swapped, wasn't sure if meeting Tarou was in this episode or part of t he flashback

I thought that a wasn't part of the flashback.... And that the scene of Tsuyoshi and his wife was probably after their marriage and not before, because they were both wearing their wedding rings in that scene. It was a part of his regular life right now, as much as I understood.

I also really love that the main narration was still Haruka, but they had an entire segment narrated by Tsuyoshi.

And from the next episode's preview, it seems Blue will get his turn to narrate as well. So it makes me think Black and Red will also have turns to narrate their own stories at some point.

[takenoko]

>Awww... I feel pity for Haruka now... Poor girl.
Why did the master refuse her request? It's not like she wants to slack off or something...

Because you can't run away from your problems

>Where did the master even get a copy? I thought they stopped publishing her manga... He couldn't have bought it before the news of the plagiarism spread. Then how?

Why not? He's clearly keeping an eye on the DonBros

>The master is talking and acting like the god from Zenkaiger.... Suspicious....

Oh yeah. I guess that makes sense

>What does slot machine pop-up and those 4 eyes have to do with the Donbrothers?

Good question

>So no one ever taught Tarou how to play rock-paper-scissors.... Poor guy with less omelette...

Urrr, the problem isn't that Tarou doesn't understand the rules of rock-paper-scissors

>Sanae-san knows that Tarou can't say anything but the truth, then why is she obsessed with hearing him say how old she looks?

Because she wants him to give a different answer because if he says it, it'll be true

>Nice police chase between Tsubasa and the police... I wonder what crime he committed, though...

Being ethnic. Just kidding, probably because he knows the truth so the establishment are trying to discredit him like they are with Haruka

>Huh? Why, what happens to married characters in Inoue stories? Is it a bad idea for me to want to finish Donbrothers before I watch all the other series written by Inoue?

Like Luna said in another thread, women in Inoue stories tend to get fridged
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Refrigerators

>ho is baby Yoda?

Inu Brother

[Ashki]

So no one ever taught Tarou how to play rock-paper-scissors.... Poor guy with less omelette...

He knows the rules, but because he can't lie, his opponents are taking advantage of this. He just needs to learn that he doesnae HAVE to answer when people ask him questions.

Tarou's guess is very specific....

She's his coworker, so it stands to reason he knows her age from staff birthday parties.

Who writes notes on that side of their hand? It's totally visible to everyone...

This was a very common practice up through the early 1990s became cell phones became efficient and cheap enough for everyday use. It happened a lot in schools when kids needed to note something quickly, for example (and it was usually the same sort of things she noted or phone numbers, etc.). It was also a common practice with waitresses in diners because they'd be ripping off the pocket notebook pages to pin up for the cook, which meant she could lose those notes if she 3wrote them down on paper.

So Pink will be stuck with skirts for the rest of the series.... Lmao....

Having a legit transvestite as a regular in Gaim proved so successful that most crossovers now involve that character, but this may be the first instance of a transvestit4e in SS if they run with it. Or he could become a crossdresser depending on the context of his comment about it feeling good, but that's rather inappropriate for a kid's show (despite Western politics glorifying it, Japan is still very set on age-appropriateness when it comes to kids). Personally, I kind of hope they do go a bit more towards the TV route, especially if it becomes a running gag for the baddies to keep mistaking his sex for female. But as long as he's married, this likely won't be a thing in his daily life. I COULD see it happen as a mental reaction to an Inoue Dark Turn event, though.

Oh, a married sentai member? Wait, this is an Inoue story. I have a bad feeling about this...

Huh? Why, what happens to married characters in Inoue stories? Is it a bad idea for me to want to finish Donbrothers before I watch all the other series written by Inoue?

All writers/directors have their own sort of pattern. This leads to up getting to know their formula. For Inoue-san, that formula tends to start off seemingly light and full of comedic notes, but as the story progresses, it gets hit with waves of what we call "Inoue Dark Turns" that basically turn the lad and chief supporting charactrers' lives into a living hell. Expect major characters to die, mental breakdowns, dark pasts coming to light, broken friendships, misunderstandings that lead to switching loyalties, etc.

I would actually strongly suggest going and binge-watching Agito while waiting for new eps of DonBrothers, as that's perhaps my favourite Inoue work and remains my favourite KR series. Try to watch the movies and specials in their proper spots in the series. Not only does the show feature one of my favourite KR actresses (they really did her wrong in Den-O, though), but it's a br8illiant mystery with all sorts of plot twists and was the first show to feature all three categories of Rider (Cyborg, Mutant, and Mystical) and you don't have to watch Kuuga (which happens in the same world five years prior) to enjoy it. Just know, when you watch Inoue's work, you're bound to have a brilliant but dark storyline (with plenty of psychological horror) with plenty of twists and turns done right. I know a lot of people didn't like Goraigan (which he co-wrote), but I have yet to see one of his shows I didn't absolutely love.

Oh no, baby Yoda is here.

Who is baby Yoda?

Grogu from The Mandalorian. Black has a lot of similarities in terms of size and intended cuteness (although he ends up just looking terrible).

And even if he's honest to a fault, he has enough emotional intelligence to phrase things smartly.

That's true. But I wish he said it nicely the first time instead of the last... Although, I guess that won't be any fun.

I thought there was a direct reason he only sait it last. She was fishing for compliments and was obviously depressed about getting old, but in th4e end, she learned to accept herself and that's why he finally commented that she looked lively - because she finally FELT young on the inside.

I also really love that the main narration was still Haruka, but they had an entire segment narrated by Tsuyoshi.

And from the next episode's preview, it seems Blue will get his turn to narrate as well. So it makes me think Black and Red will also have turns to narrate their own stories at some point.
[/quote]

I know, and I'm very excited for this. The only place I've every seen it done successfully was in the Animprphs books (each book was told by one of the characters and two characters narrated in alternativng chapters for the Megamorphs novels). It's a really great narrative, and one of my favourite parts of Goraigan, especially since TOEI usually does their girl dirty when it comes to character depth or abilities. And having segments narrated from a different perspective thabn the overall episode really helps you get more personally involved with the cast. Inoue is well-known for having depth to his villains, so I hope we have segments where they narrate so we get to see their motivations a bit better. In Agito, you really began to feel right alongside one of the main villains, although the "final boss" was kept intentionally vague...


Wait a minute... Does anyone else see a certain character in DonBrothers having a very close parallel to a certain character from Agito? I only just realised and now I'm even more excited to see what happens! Oh, the Inoue thematic possibilities...