Butcho orders his computer to analyze all the data they have on the Brave Fighters’ human commander in order to determine his identity, but the computer can only estimate his height and weight. Butcho then patches in to the wiretaps placed on all the phones in the city, but all he gets is useless conversations. Butcho then examines his latest armored beast and names the rabbit-like creature Elizabeth. He plans to spread Elizabeth all over the city in order to use its surveillance abilities to locate the Brave Fighters and their commander. At school, a flock of crows are causing a disturbance outside the classrooms. Everyone thinks they’re annoying except Pink who finds them cute. Hotaru stares suspiciously at Pink then states that she feels ill. Pink finds Hotaru weird for getting sick at the sight of crows and Seiji agrees. Hotaru excuses herself to goes home, and Hikaru berates Seiji for hurting Hotaru’s feelings. On the way home, Hotaru spots Elizabeth and chases after it while Butcho watches through another beast’s eyes. Hotaru follows Elizabeth into a narrow alley and asks what evil it plans to do in the city. Elizabeth runs off and Butcho is convinced that Hotaru is the Brave Fighters’ commander despite his computer’s inability to confirm his hunch. After school, Seiji tells Hikaru he has something to take care off and runs off. He arrives at Hotaru’s house and is surprised to find that it’s a large rundown traditional mansion. When he doesn’t find a doorbell to ring, he walks through the gate and bangs a drum at the mansion entrance. An old woman greets him and asks who he is. Seiji identifies himself as Hotaru’s classmate and the old woman invites him in. She serves Seiji tea and asks him to wait. Suddenly all the shojis in front of Seiji open into the backyard where the old woman beckons him. Hotaru asks what Seiji wants to talk about and the latter apologizes for hurting her feelings. Hotaru says that Seiji has a kind heart and that she wasn’t offended. As Seiji laughs nervously, the pair is watched by Elizabeth.
Hotaru tells Seiji to be careful because she thinks something will happen to the town. She describes the creature she saw to Seiji and the latter thinks she might be seeing things due to stress. Seiji then offers to take her to the circus to unwind, but she turns down his invitation and he goes with Hikaru instead. The ringmaster announces Magical Pinky’s trapeze act, which includes flying through a paper-lined hoop while blindfolded without a safety net. Hotaru receives a phone call from Pink who asks to meet her at the beach. Pink apologizes for offending Hotaru and the latter insists she wasn’t offended just as a pack of Elizabeths surrounds them. Butcho orders the Elizabeths to attack in the hopes that Hotaru would expose herself as the Brave Fighters’ commander. Hotaru and Pink run away but they both stumble on the sand and the Elizabeths start tearing at their clothes with their claws. Tadashin passes by driving Da-Garn and spots the pair being attacked. He quickly runs towards them and Butcho thinks he might be the commander instead of Hotaru. When Tadashin notices that the creatures aren’t normal cats, he beats them all back with his club and tells the girls to run. Da-Garn contacts Seiji and shows him the girls being chased by the Elizabeths. Seiji orders Da-Garn to save the girls and suits up to meet him at the beach. Tadashin continues to beat back the Elizabeths but eventually knocks himself out with his own club. This distracts Butcho long enough to not notice Da-Garn transforming to robot mode. Da-Garn swats away the Elizabeths and picks up the girls. Butcho orders the Elizabeths to combine and they all form a giant three headed armored beast. Da-Garn tells the girls to get as far as they can and attacks Elizabeth with Da-Garn Bomber and Da-Garn Napalm. However both attacks have no effect on Elizabeth and the latter pounces on Da-Garn and wraps him with its triple tails. Seiji arrives by bicycle and Butcho quickly orders Elizabeth to tear off his costume and reveal his identity. Elizabeth detaches one of its component creatures which snatches the Director from Seiji’s hands before he can order Da-Garn to combine. The smaller Elizabeth easily outruns Seiji but Tadashin manages to regain consciousness long enough to shoot it with his pistol. Seiji quickly summons the Earth Fighter and Earth Liner which distract Elizabeth long enough for Da-Garn to escape its hold and combine into Da-Garn X. Da-Garn X quickly fires upon Elizabeth with Earth Vulcan. He then wails into Elizabeth with his fists before chopping off two of its heads and destroying it with Da-Garn Blade. Later, Seiji runs into Tsukushi and asks for dinner. Hikaru tells him to keep his voice down because they have customers: the circus ringmaster and Magical Pinky. The ringmaster says that he loves natural food and Pinky says that she hopes they can become friends. Seiji tries to join them but Hikaru pulls him by the ear and says his seat as at the counter.
Butcho smartly decides that he needs to track down the Brave Fighters’ leader and this episode focuses on his attempt to do that through surveillance. We also get more insight into Hotaru as we discover that she lives in a mansion with no one to keep her company except an old woman. Annoyingly, this is the second episode in a row to not feature the other Brave Fighters, but it gave Tadashin a chance to shine. It’s fairly rare for a comic relief character to be able to hold his own against the monster of the week, and landing that gunshot on the escaping Elizabeth was icing on the beat down cake. The circus is once again featured and it looks like we’ll be seeing the ringmaster and Pinky much more frequently now that they plan to be regulars at Tsukushi. On a lighter note, this episode was also peppered with a few humorous moments like Butcho trying to listen in on random phone calls and Tadashin channeling Kamen Rider before fighting the Elizabeths.
Da-Garn Info
Director(s):
Katsuyoshi Yatabe
Shinji Takamatsu
Writer(s):
Fuyunori Gobu
Yasushi Hirano
Mechanical Designer:
Kunio Okawara
Character Designer:
Masayuki Hiraoka
Musical Composer:
Yasunori Iwasaki
Format:
46 episodes
Airdates:
Japan 02.08.1992 – 01.23.1993
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