BraveReviews

Da-Garn Ep. 16: Who do You Suspect?!

0
Summary

Butcho is enraged to find out that Ohboss personally sent Seven Changer to Earth. Seven Changer thinks Ohboss doesn’t have much faith in Butcho, and the latter retorts that he doesn’t need help to defeat the Brave Fighters. Seven Changer tells Butcho to show him what he can do and the latter ends the transmission. Butcho’s computer says that accepting Seven Changer’s help would make their job easier, but Butcho threatens to destroy the computer for doubting him. Butcho decides to investigate the local humans again since he knows the Brave Fighters are hiding nearby. At school, Seiji thinks about Seven Changer and why nearly all the recent monster attacks were happening locally. During classroom cleaning, he tells Hikaru that something is suspicious about the Mystery Circus because all the monster attacks happened after it moved into town. Hikaru brushes off his concerns and says that natural food lovers like Magical Pinky and the ringmaster can’t be bad people. Hikaru shoos Seiji out of the room to finish cleaning just as one of her classmates accidentally causes a book to fall out of Pink’s desk. They pick up the book; which turns to be about Earth’s geology; and wonder why Pink is ready such a difficult book. Butcho listens in on human conversations through his spy beasts but is unable to get any leads. Da-Garn informs Seiji that the Sabers are searching for Seven Changer but haven’t found anything yet. Da-Garn suggests that Seiji investigates the Mystery Circus but the latter doesn’t know how. Just then Tadashin walks up to Seiji and asks what he’s doing, so the latter quickly pretends to be looking for a dropped ten yen coin. Tadashin starts looking for the coin as well, and Butcho orders his spy beast to not bother with Seiji. Seiji tells Tadashin that the coin isn’t that important and runs off to the Mystery Circus. He finds the circus closed for the day and sneaks inside the tent. Butcho gets tired from spying on humans’ endless chatter and tells his computer to stand watch while he takes a break. Seiji discovers a covered cage and peaks inside to discover a large reptile-like creature. He jumps back in surprise and bumps into Butcho just after the latter finished changing into the ringmaster. The ringmaster mistakenly thinks that Seiji saw his true form, but Pinky appears and diffuses the situation. Seiji points to the creature and the ringmaster explains that it’s a chame-lion animal hybrid called Audrey that he bought from a trader. The ringmaster is still convinced that Seiji saw him transform and excuses himself. Seiji takes Pinky aside and asks her about the ringmaster. Pinky says that the ringmaster is simply a good man with bad taste. Butcho quickly sends out a spy beast to listen to Seiji. Seiji tells Pinky his suspicions about the circus and its connections to the recent monster attacks. Pinky asks if Seiji suspects her as well and the latter replies that he wouldn’t be telling her if he was. Butcho now strongly suspects that Seiji is the Brave Fighters’ commander and decides to search his room despite his computer stating that the probability is low. Hikaru arrives at Pink’s house and discovers that it’s an oddly shaped mansion. Seiji and Pinky arrive and the latter asks what Hikaru is doing at her house. Hikaru says that she came to return the book that Pink left at school and Pinky reveals that Pink is her little sister. Pinky invites Seiji and Hikaru inside for some tea.

Pinky seats Hikaru and Seiji in the living room and goes inside to call Pink, who comes out and greets her guests. Hikaru gives back the book and asks Pink if she likes geology. Pink says that learning about the Earth is sexy and just thinking about it gets her hot and bothered. The ringmaster goes to Seiji’s house and uses his stretching limbs to climb through the window. However, Tsukushi spots him and thinks he’s a burglar. She fetches Haruo and they arm themselves with a ladle and a bat. They go to inform Tadashin but they don’t find him because he’s still searching for the coin under Da-Garn, so they decide to go on their own. Butcho doesn’t find anything in Seiji’s room but notices that one of the desk drawers is locked. He decides that the drawer must contain something important and grabs the whole desk just as the Kosakas find him. Butcho jumps out the window and over Tadashin, who is forced to chase after him in Da-Garn. Pink serves tea and apologizes for not mentioning that Pinky was her sister. Hikaru asks where Pinky went and Pink says that she’s probably taking a shower. The Director beeps and Seiji excuses himself to go to the bathroom. In the hallway, Da-Garn informs Seiji that Butcho is back but before Seiji can respond Hikaru walks up to him suspecting that he’s trying to peak on Pinky in the shower. Tadashin calls Butcho fat and the latter responds by stopping and growing to an enormous size, forcing Tadashin to drive away. Pink screams when she spots Butcho rampaging through town, and Seiji uses the distraction to leave the mansion. He tells Da-Garn to quickly transform and attack Butcho but Da-Garn is unable to because he’s stuck in traffic with Tadashin who is herding civilians to safety. Tadashin abandons Da-Garn when he spots Butcho approaching and the latter chases after him. Da-Garn quickly uses the chance to transform and kick Butcho away. Butcho summons Audrey from the circus tent and the now fully grown creature pins Da-Garn down. Butcho uses the distraction to shrink down and smash Seiji’s desk. He changes into the ringmaster and grabs the papers he finds, thinking that they are secret documents. Da-Garn flips Audrey off of him and fires at it but the latter swiftly avoids his magnum shots. The ringmaster runs into Seiji, who grabs and accuses him of willingly buying Audrey knowing that it’s a monster. The ringmaster claims that he was tricked by the trader and mentally signals to Audrey to grab him with its tongue. With Da-Garn unable to attack, Audrey tackles him and starts clawing at his chest. Audrey swallows the ringmaster to Seiji’s shock and continues to attack Da-Garn. Seiji summons the Earth Liner and has it ram into Audrey so Da-Garn can combine into Da-Garn X. Butcho gets into Audrey’s cockpit and declares that he now has Seiji’s secrets. However, the papers he stole end up being school tests that Seiji failed. Da-Garn X and Audrey clash, with the latter gaining the upper hand with its sharp claws. Da-Garn X however breaks off Audrey’s horn and turns the tables on the armored beast before destroying it with Earth Cannon. The ringmaster is flung from the explosion and lands in front of Seiji. The ringmaster apologizes for not knowing about Audrey and Seiji apologizes for doubting him. Seiji then panics when he realizes his test papers have been blown all over town.

Commentary

Another close call for Seiji as well as Butcho this time as they both comically manage to avoid exposing their hidden identities to each other. Butcho however is clearly getting desperate because Seven Changer’s presence under Ohboss’ orders is pressuring him into getting results faster, hence his return to spying on menial conversations. It was however pretty hilarious when he used that knowledge to tell off gossiping house wives and negligent workers while he was rampaging through the city. Also, at first I thought the worker getting berated for skipping work was Exkizer‘s Osamu Tokuda making his second series-hopping cameo, but the character had a completely different voice. The reveal that Pink and Pinky are sisters shouldn’t be too much of a surprise considering that they both have the word pink in their names, but the fact that Pinky has yet to be seen together with her sister raises a lot of red flags given Pinky’s involvement with the ringmaster and the Mystery Circus.

Overall Rating
4/5

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

Comments

Comments are closed.