 This article is about an episode in Avataro Sentai Donbrothers.
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Don 18: A Jawesome Strike (ジョーズないっぽん Jōzuna Ippon) is the eighteenth episode of Avataro Sentai Donbrothers. It features the full debut of Don Murasame.[1]
Synopsis[]
The other Donbrothers are not happy that Jiro is now officially part of the team. Jiro, who is not satisfied that he is just a mere companion, tells Taro about it and challenges him that if Jiro is able to hit him once, Taro will acknowledge him as his equal. The others heard about this and decided to participate. Meanwhile, Don Murasame is awakened by the voice of a mysterious Mother and appears in front of the Donbrothers.
Plot[]
During the episode recap, Jiro complains that no one in the Donbrothers team recognizes his talents, especially Taro.
Immediately following the last moments of the previous episode, Mother awakens Don Murasame, who transforms into a sword and breaks out of the stasis tube. As Murasame flies up, the Noto generals noticed something flying by as Mother guides the sentient blade to evade security turrets and is instructed to head for the human world. Murasame breaches the barrier between worlds and crash lands in an alley somewhere in Tokyo, still a sword and embedded in the pavement, but also exhausted from the journey. Mother praises his efforts and encourages Murasame to rest for now.
At Cafe Donbura, Taro has been called to a meeting with Haruka, Tsuyoshi and Shinichi, who voice their disapproval of Jiro being part of the team given the previous incident where they were attacked by him and had their powers stolen. Tsubasa is represented by the dog plushie, who Haruka believes would agree with the three of them. Taro understands their concerns, but points out that Jiro can be a good person and able to be “reasoned with” by recalling how Haruka’s slap to Jiro’s face reverted him back to his normal personality. In any case, Taro states companions have no authority to make such a decision and his decision as leader is final, Jiro stays on the team.
Later in the evening, Taro is called to the Cafe by Jiro, who wants to discuss his position on the team. Jiro is not satisfied being “just a companion” and wishes to fulfill his destiny as a true hero. He gets carried away with his tangent and then humbly says if he cannot be Taro’s equal, he wishes to be something close enough to an equal.
Surprisingly, Taro is interested in seeing if Jiro is capable of such a feat, he challenges him to hit him just once. He explains that Miyamoto Musashi once tried to strike at Tsukahara Bokuden while the latter was eating his meal, but Musashi failed because Tsukahara shielded himself with the lid of his pot. That is how the game will be played, with Jiro free to attack whenever or wherever to attempt to hit him. If Jiro wins, Taro will consider him an equal.
Jiro immediately makes an attempt by doing the “look over there!” trick, but only Kaito falls for it. Taro doesn’t since that is so cliché and predictable and hits Jiro on the head with a spoon, ordering 100 push-ups as a penalty for failure and every failed attempt will have a penalty as Taro perceives that is how games are played. Jiro eagerly does the push-ups, but Kaito asks that he do them outside the cafe since he is blocking his path to cleaning the tables.
At Shirokuma Express the next day, Taro prepares his van for deliveries while Jiro plots to strike him when he is driving. Tsuyoshi is walking by and, completely misunderstanding the situation, believes Jiro is in his evil persona trying to kill Taro and screams out a warning. Mimicking Tsukahara’s strategy, Taro blocks Jiro’s sword with an envelope and then kicks Jiro to the ground. His punishment for failure is to jump rope 1,000 times. Tsuyoshi wonders what in the world is going on.
Taro explains the game he is playing with Jiro to Tsuyoshi and the others, with him mentioning that any means can be used for the game and the winner would earn his respect as the reward making them desire to participate in the game as well. Taro is fine with it and heads off with his deliveries. The three Donbrothers scheme a plan to hit Taro, with Shinichi confident that they can win as Taro must have a vulnerable moment during a single day. All of them are eager to give Taro a humiliating defeat and can’t wait to see his facial expression when he loses. Jiro completes his 1,000 jumps and nearly passes out from exhaustion but then gets up and meets with everyone.
Somewhere in the city, Tsubasa is napping on a park bench when Sononi startles him awake. She has come to “pay up” on their bet from a few days ago, having proven that love is good by saving Makoto. She offers to grant whatever he desires, but Tsubasa thinks neither of them won as love resolved the issue on its own. Sononi knows he is just playing tough and offers Natsumi as his prize, seemingly knowing where she was taken and offers to escort him to her. Tsubasa refuses, certain that Natsumi is out there somewhere and he will find her on his own. Sonoi says such a path will lead to hell for him, but Tsubasa simply says living without Natsumi is already like being there and walks away. Sonoi smiles, thinking Tsubasa is an interesting person.
Taro goes to a restaurant on his lunch break, unaware Tsuyoshi is tailing him. The latter is seeing an opportunity to attack as Taro is busy with his meal, though he plans on swiping a bean sprout in the miso soup from underneath him. He daydreams a fantasy where he succeeded and now is friends with Taro, but reality sets in as Tsuyoshi fails when Taro catches his chopsticks and is punished by doing 200 elevated step exercises in the restaurant and being utterly humiliated.
Later, Shinichi plots to use a paintball “sniper rifle” to attack Taro from a distance on a rooftop. He recites a haiku about his projectile flying true like a shooting star and fires. Taro once again uses Tsukahara’s technique, but this time with a steel pot lid to block the paintball from reaching him. He then flings the pot lid like a frisbee and comically stuns Shinichi with a blow to the head. As a penalty, Shinichi has to do 10 running reps up and down the stairs of the very building he is on.
Haruka is next, who vows to avenge her comrades with a devious trap for Taro. She has a novelty gag cookie box with a pop-out boxing glove powerful enough to knock out Taro. She plans on pretending to be nice and gifting the “cookies” to him, then letting Taro open the box to trigger the trap to achieve victory. Taro seems flattered by her gift, as no girl has ever given him a homemade gift before. Taro’s kind words cause Haruka to feel guilty and she accidentally triggers the trap on herself when she tries to take it back. Jiro pops out of a cardboard box and tries to strike Taro with a kendo sword, but Taro blocks it with his hands and tosses Jiro to the floor. Their penalty is 100 sit-ups each.
While making a delivery, Taro is stopped by Sonoi, who wants to settle their rivalry today. Taro accepts his challenge, with Sonoi offering a contest on who can assist the most people. However, upon seeing that Taro is still on the clock for work, Sonoi offers to help speed Taro’s work day along so that they can properly compete.
The two visit the customer, a young mother and her son, dropping off the package. The young boy drops his glass of juice and Sonoi swiftly catches it, returning the glass to the boy and patting his head. Sonoi considers this act of helping his first point in their competition. The two then continue to compete as well as make deliveries, with Taro helping a lady with her spilled groceries while Sonoi retrieves a woman’s hat stuck in a tree. Later on Taro carries an elderly woman across the street while Sonoi helps a student who tripped up and fixes the bicycles that he knocked over. Once the two are out of packages, they return to Shirokuma Express, where the other Donbrothers are planning an ambush on Taro.
Jiro jumps down from a window with his wooden sword, but his shouting gives him away and he hurts his knuckles hitting the pavement when Taro simply moves out of the way. Haruka tries to whack him with a toy mallet, only to accidentally hit Sonoi, who intimidates her with his sword. She wonders why he is here as she fears for her life. Tsuyoshi and Shinichi try to rush Taro with laundry poles that they borrowed from a woman nearby, but Taro ducks and Sonoi slashes the poles out of their hands and knocks them back. Taro declares that they all failed and must do 500 squats each. Sonoi is perplexed as to what happened, with Taro explaining he is already competing with his teammates. Sonoi understands and decides to resume their competition tomorrow.
Later in the evening, Mother urges Murasame to awaken, as it is time for battle. The sword dislodges from its resting place and flies up to suck electricity from power transmission lines, causing a small blackout before it flies off.
The Donbrothers consult with Jin, with Jiro meeting Taro’s foster father for the first time. The group seek to use a weakness that only Jin knows to win the game. Jin suggests telling Taro exactly that “Gii, the rhinoceros beetle, has returned”. The group is confused as to how that is supposed to help.
The next day, Sonoi resumes his rivalry competition by helping a woman fix the high heel of her shoe. Taro sees this, but then sees his teammates looking around the waterfront for something while carrying bug nets. He asks what they are doing, and the group do exactly what Jin instrcuted and say that Gii has returned. This causes Taro to frantically search the bushes for Gii. A flashback reveals that Jin explained that since Taro had no friends as a child, he would treat his pet beetle as if he was a treasured friend. One summer day, Taro took Gii out of his container to feed him a watermelon, but the window was left open and Gii flew away. Upset, Taro kept asking Jin if Gii would come back and started to cry. Jin says that the sadness for his beloved pet lingered and he is certain that probably haunts Taro to this very day, who still waits for Gii to return.
Taro in the present is still searching in the bushes for Gii, while the other Donbrothers are ready to strike. All of them leap into the air, ready to win the game by hitting Taro with their nets, but they stop themselves upon realizing they hurt Taro emotionally by tricking him and that isn’t fair. Also they realize that they don’t want Taro to lose. They admit defeat and confess that they lied and Haruka says that Gii would probably be long dead by now given how many years it has been. Tsuyoshi hushes her for being so insensitive but Taro, while very sad his pet is gone forever, accepts that.
Sonoi finishes cobbling the woman’s shoe, seeing the Donbrothers bow in apology to Taro, only to witness a flying sword in the sky swoop towards them. Sonoi is in disbelief, recognizing the sword. Taro tells them all to duck, which they do and then everyone Avatar Changes to protect themselves from the flying blade but get knocked aside. The sword then goes straight for Don Momotaro, who blocks it with his ZanglaSword, though he admits the enemy blade is very strong. The Avataro Gear on the blade spins four times and Don Murasame emerges out from the sword. Sonoi is shocked, immediately recognizing the Ranger and knowing its name. Mother issues a mental link command to combat the Donbrothers, which Don Murasame executes. Tsubasa teleports in during the fight, trying and failing to hit Don Murasame with his DonBlaster. Don Momotaro tries to get his new foe to talk whilst dueling, asking if it is a Noto or allies with them, but Don Murasame is silent.
While initial teamwork by the Donbrothers briefly manages to damage their new opponent, it demonstrates the ability to dive into the earth as if it were water and swim through it. Using this ability along with fast surprise attacks, Don Murasame easily takes out each Donbrother and starts to overwhelm even Don Momotaro with his strength. Jiro double teams the ninja warrior with Taro and manage to hit him. Mother mentally commands Don Murasame to activate his Alter Mode, changing into a miniature shark humanoid with an alternate beast mode and both Jiro and Taro change into their Alter modes to match their foe and eventually damage it enough that Mother commands Don Murasame to retreat. Don Murasame goes back into his sword and flies off despite Don Momotaro trying to shoot it with the DonBlaster.
Jiro wonders what the ninja was attacking them for, Taro doesn’t know but admits he was a fearsome foe. Sonoi wonders why Murasame is here now, concerned, he calls out to Don Momotaro that they will put their rivalry competition on hold for now.
The episode ends on a karmic and comedic note, as Taro tries helping an elderly woman with her heavy bag, with the latter protesting his assistance until she manages to do what his teammates could not and lands a hit by whacking Taro on the head with her cane.
Cast[]
- Taro Momoi (桃井 タロウ Momoi Tarō): Kouhei Higuchi (樋口 幸平 Higuchi Kōhei)
- Shinichi Saruhara (猿原 真一 Saruhara Shin'ichi): Yuuki Beppu (別府 由来 Beppu Yūki)
- Haruka Kitou (鬼頭 はるか Kitō Haruka): Kohaku Shida (志田 こはく Shida Kohaku)
- Tsubasa Inuzuka (犬塚 翼 Inudzuka Tsubasa): Totaro (柊太朗 Tōtarou)
- Tsuyoshi Kijino (雉野 つよし Kijino Tsuyoshi): Hirofumi Suzuki (鈴木 浩文 Suzuki Hirofumi)
- Jiro Momotani (桃谷 ジロウ Momotani Jirō): Raizou Ishikawa (石川 雷蔵 Ishikawa Raizō)
- Kaito Goshikida (五色田 介人 Goshikida Kaito): Kiita Komagine (駒木根 葵汰 Komagine Kiita)
- Jin Momoi (桃井 陣 Momoi Jin): Soko Wada (和田 聰宏 Wada Sōkō)
- Yuriko Kitou (鬼頭 ゆり子 Kitō Yuriko): Hitomi Miwa (三輪 ひとみ Miwa Hitomi)
- Sonoi (ソノ��): Yuya Tominaga (富永 勇也 Tominaga Yūya)
- Sononi (ソノニ): Amisa Miyazaki (宮崎 あみさ Miyazaki Amisa)
- Don Murasame (ドンムラサメ DonMurasame, Voice): Ayumu Murase (村瀬 歩 Murase Ayumu)[2]
- Mother (マザー Mazā, Voice): Mamiko Noto (能登 麻美子 Noto Mamiko)
- Ishikawa (石川): Takahito Ueda (植田 敬仁 Ueda Takahito)
- Takenaka (竹中): Akira Takeuchi (竹内 啓 Takeuchi Akira)
- Kiriyama (桐山): Ryosuke Yusa (遊佐 亮介 Yusa Ryōsuke)
Guest Cast[]
- Ichiko Ono (大野 一子 Ōno Ichiko, Credited as Old Woman (老婆 Rōba)): Chiharu Mizuno (水野 千春 Mizuno Chiharu)
- Taro Momoi (Child): Kira Miura (三浦 綺羅 Miura Kira)
Suit Actors[]
- Don Momotaro: Kosuke Asai (浅井 宏輔 Asai Kōsuke)
- Saru Brother: Yasuhiro Takeuchi (竹内 康博 Takeuchi Yasuhiro)
- Oni Sister: Ayumi Shimozono (下園 愛弓 Shimozono Ayumi)
- Inu Brother: Kazuya Okada (岡田 和也 Okada Kazuya)
- Kiji Brother: Masashi Takada (高田 将司 Takada Masashi)
- Don Doragoku: Shigeki Ito (伊藤 茂騎 Itō Shigeki)
- Don Murasame: Takahiro Yoneoka (米岡 孝弘 Yoneoka Takahiro)
Form Changes and Collectibles Used[]
Avataro Gears[]
- Don Momotaro - Don Momotaro Alter
- Saru Brother - N/A
- Oni Sister - N/A
- Inu Brother - N/A
- Kiji Brother - N/A
- Don Doragoku - Don Doragoku Alter
Errors[]
- to be added
Notes[]
- Viewership: 3.8%
- As part of Super Hero Time, this episode aired alongside Kamen Rider Revice
episode 42, Fierce Battle! Crimson Vail and Destream. - Donbrothers sunglasses featured in title card: Red
- Count at episode end
- Gears in the Donbrothers' possession: Zenkaiger, Ryusoulger, ToQger, Lupinranger, Ohranger, Patranger, Zyuohger, Fiveman, Kiramager, Go-Busters, Gokaiger, Ninninger, Kyuranger, Kyoryuger, Turboranger, Carranger, Zyuranger, Jetman
- The date shown on the calendar in Café Donbura when Taro meets the three Donbrothers that he has met and later Jiro is Friday, July 1, two day before the episode's airdate.
- This is the first episode of the show to not feature an appearance from a Hitotsuki. This is also the first episode which is not a tribute episode.
- Due to how the previous episode’s teaser was edited, viewers were intentionally misled into believing that Don Murasame’s real name was Gii, when in fact Taro was speaking about his pet beetle in the actual episode.
episode 42, DVD/Blu-ray Releases[]
Avataro Sentai Donbrothers Volume 5 features episodes 17-20: Don 17: Light and Tsubasa, Don 18: A Jawsome Strike, Don 19: Hello Ghost, and Don 20: High Nose Elegy.
External Links[]
- TV Asahi's official preview for ジョーズないっぽん
- Toei TV's official episode guide for ジョーズないっぽん
- JAE's official episode guide for ジョーズないっぽん
References[]
Footnotes[]