DonBrothers 45 discussion thread

[takenoko]

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Last week's ratings: 4.25 of 5 stars (8 votes)


LOL. Haruka isn't really following the plot. Not that I can blame her

Jirou literally doesn't care about anything but the food

Looks like the Nouto trio are buddies again

Sononi's earrings are so pretty

Man Japanese fridges are small

Tarou's such a dick

Yes. Kijino needs to become a Hitotsuki again

Okay so they're all imaginary

Kind of a cool monster design this time

That robot was cool looking. But what's the explanation?

Hmmm, well it did feel like Inoue did buckle in and stick to the main story this time. Even so, we get Sonogo and ?Sonoroku who are like in t he episode for 5 seconds

I don't feel like Inoue's done enough backstory/explanation to earn credit for sticking to the main story. Like why did Tarou eat the penguin origami? I don't totally understand the stakes, and it doesn't feel like they've been properly explained to the audience. It just comes off as a shocking and random decision, which is like 90% of the motivation of Inoue's characters

So Jirou's not crazy, but maybe penguin man is manipulating him. But then what happened during Rumi's visit? Again, if it was all manipulation, why do we have scenes of his country friends talking about Jirou when he's not around. It feels like Inoue's bending the rules of narrative in kind of a lazy and unfair way just to have his big twist

Glad we're getting some Tsubasa and Tarou interactions, just took (looks) 45 episodes. Enjoyed Kijino being the most unhinged again. Pretty enjoyable episode as we near the end of the series

Edit:
https://wiki.tvnihon.com/wiki/Category: ... hers_Gears
Just Battle Fever, Changeman, and Hurricaneger Gears left. Weird, you'd think Haruka would have got a gear to use in DonBros VS Hurri...

[HowlingSnail]

So is it safe to say they've completely forgotten about Don Zenkai-Oh now? You know, the mecha they used 3 or 4 times and then literally never mentioned again. Even Geki Touja got more respect than that.

Who'd have expected Kijino to end up being a recurring villain? Honestly I appreciate them making a ranger who's so awful as a person. Like, he's not an evil ranger, he's just someone who's basically a manchild who has no concept of how to interact with people, or interact with his wife.

Where were the Nouto going in that lift? Because given their discussion about being failures, it's hard not to assume they were about to throw themselves off a building.

[takenoko]

You can't force Inoue to respect mecha if he doesn't want to

As bizarre as Kijino is, it's pretty canny for his terrible behavior to actually have some cost to it. You can't be this much of a raging psychopath without turning into a monster, literal or metaphorical

Inoue on the elevator scene "I've got an idea for a gag where the Nouto are smushed in an elevator. I know, I'll have them have some conversation in it. Done"

[takenoko]

A double post to note something I saw on the wiki. I don't know how long it's been the case, but Jirou's friends are basically named after the characters in Saiyuki/Journey to the West. They're Sanzou (Priest), Hakkai (Piggy), and Sago (Sandy)

And Dragoku is named after Son Goku/The Monkey King. So yeah, we've got a Chinese fairy tale in parallel with the Momotarou one. Knowing now that it's an illusion from Terasaki, maybe he fed this lie to Jirou to make him think he's also a Don family member like Tarou?

[Yaiba]

I'm actually tired of Kijino turning into a Hikotuski for the same reason over and over again. It's getting repetitive.

Miho saying "The moon isn't only in the sky" and then they're taking a bus to Moon Valley.

Rumi was seen talking to her mum when deciding not going to Tokyo. When Rumi visited Jorou she made a vegi dish for Jirou, Jirou even let Tarou tried some. The cop made the same dish here. If it's all an illusion was the cop the one visiting Jirou or something? It's all very inconsistant.

And we have a new plot device introduced, which just so happens to also be in the Jyuto forest.

Did Don Blaster fired something into the portal when Tarou was sucked in?

Why put Don Onitaiji's face on the King ohger mecha?

Edit:
https://wiki.tvnihon.com/wiki/Category: ... hers_Gears
Just Battle Fever, Changeman, and Hurricaneger Gears left. Weird, you'd think Haruka would have got a gear to use in DonBros VS Hurri...

Hurricanger was used in the movie. Kaito was bagging the Hurricanger gear before the credit rolls

[takenoko]

>Rumi was seen talking to her mum when deciding not going to Tokyo. When Rumi visited Jorou she made a vegi dish for Jirou, Jirou even let Tarou tried some. The cop made the same dish here. If it's all an illusion was the cop the one visiting Jirou or something? It's all very inconsistant.

Ooh, that's a good point. Also yeah, that's probably the cop in disguise. Must make the kissing awkward

>And we have a new plot device introduced, which just so happens to also be in the Jyuto forest.

Inoue is a good writer, but even he can be lazy sometimes

>Did Don Blaster fired something into the portal when Tarou was sucked in?

It was so chaotic that I don't even know what hapepned

>Why put Don Onitaiji's face on the King ohger mecha?

I guess to sell the Don OniTaijin extra part when the toy comes out

>Hurricanger was used in the movie. Kaito was bagging the Hurricanger gear before the credit rolls

I thought I remembered that! Well TV-Asahi needs to update their page

[HowlingSnail]

TV Asahi's website only ever includes TV show stuff. Which makes sense I guess. They only care about the stuff they air.

[ViRGE]

After last week's setup, we're finally getting into some meaty material with the series' major plot threads. Suffice it to say, it's about damned time!

I really was expecting more of a big deal that the team is finally all together. Instead, the plot immediately splits off half the gang for their own side quest. Everyone already knows InuBrother and Tsubasa, so I suppose there's not a ton of new ground to cover here, but at least a little more would have been nice.

Though with Kijino being crazy, the team is going to be a bit fractured regardless. I will say this much: he's an entertaining mad man. Becoming the MOTW three times risks becoming a bit much, but as we're nearing the end of the series, I think it's fairly safe to assume that this is the last time it's happening. If only because he's dead in that void that the Nouto send people to.

Speaking of which, the Nouto story is reaching its inevitable climax. Given that the Trio quickly stopped being true antagonists early on as they worked to understand humans, some kind of becoming more human has long been the obvious outcome for their arc. Which is a fine arc, but I do feel like we've speed-run it a little bit; everyone just suddenly has human emotions. Sonoza in particular is the biggest leap here. It could have used a bit more setup, but with 9 regular cast members (not counting Miho), it's a lot of characters to juggle.

And now we're up to 12 with the Nouto replacement trio. It's probably a good thing that I don't know what to really expect here. But whatever it is, it will be brief - the show doesn't have time to develop additional characters. It'll have big repercussions, I'm sure, but to a degree it's hard to care since these final bosses are coming in so late.

Finally, I enjoyed that even in an imagine spot, Jirou gets left out of the lineup. At least Inoue is consistent in neglecting the dragon. Haruka also got a good moment in as well, immediately going out to beat up MOTW-Kijino without hesitation.

Tarou's such a dick

Hey now, he rephrased his order in the form of a question! That's technically not giving out a command.

I don't feel like Inoue's done enough backstory/explanation to earn credit for sticking to the main story. Like why did Tarou eat the penguin origami? I don't totally understand the stakes, and it doesn't feel like they've been properly explained to the audience. It just comes off as a shocking and random decision, which is like 90% of the motivation of Inoue's characters

I'm right there with you. I get it; the current guardian is a Jyuto. So it makes some degree of sense for his successor to become one as well. But we don't get the explanation as to why it's necessary. Other than buying more time, why does the guardian need to be a Jyuto?

Also, is Jirou his biological son? Finding out that the cop is a Don family member answers some questions (why did he have the anti-anti remote?), but it raises some others. Mostly Jirou's actual lineage, since it calls into question the flashback we saw about him being found as a baby. Which, as an aside, I take minor issue with: audiences are trained to treat flashbacks as being accurate. We didn't get the necessary setup here to indicate that this was coming from an unreliable narrator.

So Jirou's not crazy, but maybe penguin man is manipulating him. But then what happened during Rumi's visit? Again, if it was all manipulation, why do we have scenes of his country friends talking about Jirou when he's not around. It feels like Inoue's bending the rules of narrative in kind of a lazy and unfair way just to have his big twist

And this is my bigger issue with the episode as well. If we truly never saw Jirou's friends in a scene away from him, then I'd happily buy the idea that they're an illusion that only he can see. But since we did see them away from Jirou (and thus not through Jirou's eyes), it makes no damned sense; that couldn't have happened. It reeks of plot holes, if not retconning things to reach a different outcome.

I do appreciate that this means that Jirou isn't outright crazy, though. Well, other than the psychopathic tiger personalty residing in him. That still needs explained...

So is it safe to say they've completely forgotten about Don Zenkai-Oh now? You know, the mecha they used 3 or 4 times and then literally never mentioned again. Even Geki Touja got more respect than that.

Oh yeah, Don Zenkai-Oh has long been left in the dust. The fact that they didn't fab a complete suit (just a leg) is pretty telling. One of these days I'd love to hear about the production decision behind that one. I can only assume this is because Bandai somehow ended up in trouble and needed to move some leftover Jyuran mecha. But even that doesn't make complete sense. Though we're dealing with a production where the head writer clearly doesn't care much for the mecha aspect to begin with, so it's not like he's providing any help for the viewers or for Bandai.

Who'd have expected Kijino to end up being a recurring villain? Honestly I appreciate them making a ranger who's so awful as a person. Like, he's not an evil ranger, he's just someone who's basically a manchild who has no concept of how to interact with people, or interact with his wife.

I think I'm going to go up to bat for Kijino here. He is not an awful person. He is an immature person who overreacts and is overly fixated on a single aspect of his life. But he's not an awful person and he is certainly not a villain.

He cares deeply about his wife; he wants her to be happy and successful (and alive, no thanks to Tsubasa!). He goes about this the wrong ways, but the intention is pure. With a true villain, it would be out of malice. He also has shown a good deal of concern about his teammates as well, so he's not solely focused on Miho. He is a hero, albeit a deeply flawed one.

Why put Don Onitaiji's face on the King ohger mecha?

Nothing about that makes any damned sense. I can only surmise that Toei demanded that episode 45 include an appearance of the King-Ohger mecha, so Inoue was forced to comply. But in his traditional malicious compliance fashion, he did the bare minimum. Something something, Don Blaster shooting an inter-dimensional portal kind of thing.

[takenoko]

lol, I was calling Tarou a dick for continually slam Tsubasa's hand in the fridge door. Like that's not necessary, Tarou

[Thenosa Yechette]

lol, I was calling Tarou a dick for continually slam Tsubasa's hand in the fridge door. Like that's not necessary, Tarou

No wonder he has no friends. I would definitely not count his "companions" as his friends. Other than Haruka, no one is sticking around because they want to, but because they have to.

[resop2]

Well, there was a plot, I think?

I still am unsure about the invisible friends thing. Especially since one of them tried to feed Jirou a penguin origami. Is the dad guy secretly Yumi and the other three projections? Are all four "real" to some extent but are invisible? And if they are invisible are they some fourth type of Jyuto who work as servants for the penguins?

So, Nouto 3 meet their final bosses, the jerk Nouto 3?

Will the final episode have the director be fired and the sentai from the next season show up and straighten things out? Or, is this world not real, but an artificial world created by Alt-Haruka's manga (aka Doki Doki Love Love Super Mangaka)? Or, will we get the Zi-O ending where most of the cast either go to or teach at Haruka's high school? Maybe Sonoi will be the head of a popular but bullying girl clique and Haruka and Rumi will be her henchmen? Natsumi will be the drama teacher, Sonoi, Jirou, Tsubasa, and Shinichi will be the Flower 4 style rich boy clique, Sonoza will be the picked on kid, and Kaito will actually be Kaito?

[HowlingSnail]

I think I'm going to go up to bat for Kijino here. He is not an awful person. He is an immature person who overreacts and is overly fixated on a single aspect of his life. But he's not an awful person and he is certainly not a villain.

He cares deeply about his wife; he wants her to be happy and successful (and alive, no thanks to Tsubasa!). He goes about this the wrong ways, but the intention is pure. With a true villain, it would be out of malice. He also has shown a good deal of concern about his teammates as well, so he's not solely focused on Miho. He is a hero, albeit a deeply flawed one.

I might be tempted to agree, but it's hard to look past the fact he basically harrassed a woman into marrying him, and basically locked her up at home and told her she wasn't allowed to go to work. He's also very trigger happy, having no qualms with trying (or succeeding) to kill someone for so much as looking at her funny.

[Phoenix512]

Did Don Blaster fired something into the portal when Tarou was sucked in?

I'm pretty sure that it was transforming Tarou into Don Monotarou.

[ViRGE]

Did Don Blaster fired something into the portal when Tarou was sucked in?

I'm pretty sure that it was transforming Tarou into Don Monotarou.

Or at least tried to. Since we see Tarou tied up, it doesn't seem it quite succeeded.

[Mxylv]

Guess I’ll start with the bad this time: it looks like Natsumi/Miho/Crane Jyuto aren’t multiple personalities, but just the latter pretending. It makes sense, but at the same time it feels… a little disappointing? Kind of like reading a mystery novel and having the twist be that there was no mystery in the first place, or watching anything by J.J. Abrams. Similarly, the Inu-vs-Tarou fight just doesn’t work for me so soon after the Inu-Kiji one, especially with almost none of the foreshadowing, stakes, or emotional impact of the earlier fight.

On the bright side, Jirou has the most development we’ve had in a while. He’s always been sort of a quirky fellow with a generic Shonen backstory who sometimes feels like he jumped in from a different story, and I love its explanation here: his life story was indeed a story, “written” by a utilitarian Jyuto—and he’s jumped from there to the Donbrothers, a fundamentally different story built on truth rather than lies (citation: Momoi; disclaimer: anything Master’s still holding back). The episode doesn’t spend a lot of time on how horrifying the level of deception is (he probably wasn’t even born from a peach—did the Jyuto kidnap a kid? Yikes!), but it doesn’t really need to either.

lol, I was calling Tarou a dick for continually slam Tsubasa's hand in the fridge door. Like that's not necessary, Tarou

Funny enough, outside that moment I actually like the small bits of character development they’re giving Tarou this episode; he no longer seems to be saying everything on his mind regardless of social expectation (certainly not to the extent of earlier episodes), and when push comes to shove he’ll swap himself out for a teammate’s freedom if he sees it as his responsibility, which I don’t think he’s ever done.