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Dagwon Ep. 2: Airborne City Maneuvers

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Summary

A security guard on patrol discovers something odd in a building: a massive alien power generator. After discovering the generator, the guard is attacked by man-sized ants called Zargoss. The next day, Kai stops two punks in the hall at school and asks to see what’s in their pockets. They both attack him, but he dispatches both of them with his shinai and discovers a pack of cigarettes. En approaches Kai and asks him what he wants to do about Dagwon. Kai tells En not to speak of Dagwon so loudly, and he also expresses that a student’s job isn’t to fight evil. En asks an old man for directions to the Judo club, and upon reaching the Judo club, he finds that Shin is teaching at the tennis club. He asks Shin about Dagwon, but Shin says he’d rather spend his youth with pretty girls. En then finds Yoku in a lab examining bits leftover from the Sandoll. Yoku says that although he wants to study aliens, he doesn’t want to fight them. Elsewhere, Ryu sits in a tree looking at birds. En searches the forest for him, but Maria finds him and drags him away to her paranormal activities club. She explains that she wants to hypnotize him so that he can regain his lost memory from when he and the others vanished. En asks if hypnosis really works, and Maria tells him it worked on a dog. She then goes over to her computer to read her daily update on UFO activity. She finds a report about an incident at Kitamachi, so En takes off. He jumps over the wall to run away from school, and the old man advises him which way to go to avoid the principal. En drives to Kitamachi to explore the abandoned building from Maria’s report. He runs into Gaku, who wants to get Dag-Fire‘s autograph. Suddenly, the ground begins to shake as the alien power generator causes an entire section of the city to break away from the ground and float into the air.

En and Gaku explore the building and discover that the alien power generator is an anti-gravity field emitter. They are surrounded by several Zargoss, who say that they want to make the floating section of the city theirs. En grabs onto Gaku and runs away. In school, Kai, Shin and Yoku think about En and all decide to leave class. En and Gaku reach a rooftop and are followed by the Zargoss. They fall off the side, so En uses his wrist morpher to become Fire En. He then takes Gaku to safety, who asks him for his autograph. Hordes of Zargoss appear on the street, and En begins to take them on alone. On the street, Kai, Yoku and Shin find their vehicles waiting for them. En becomes overwhelmed by the number of attacking Zargoss, but the three and help him fight off the Zargoss. En explains to them that the anti-gravity field emitter is inside the building. A flying saucer appears overhead, and En tells everyone he will take care of it while they destroy the emitter. He combines with his care to become Dag-Fire and attacks the flying saucer. The flying saucer transforms into a giant humanoid form much bigger than Dag-Fire and begins to pound it. Dag-Fire is knocked to the ground, and the saucer creature blasts it through the flying city. As Dag-Fire falls, Ryu flies by in his jet and deploys Guard Hawk to help Dag-Fire. Dag-Fire lands on the ground and is joined soon after by the saucer alien. Meanwhile, Kai tries to reprogram the emitter to make the city stop floating. Dag-Fire summons more vehicles and fuses with Fire Jumbo, Fire Rescue and Fire Ladder to become the super robot Fire Dagwon. Fire Dagwon uses a variety of fire attacks to finally destroy the saucer creature. At the same time, Kai reprograms the emitter and allows the city to safely land on the ground. Later, everyone returns to the school and finds the old main waiting for them, dressed in a suit. Everyone is shocked by En addressing him so informally, and they explain that he is Principal Asahiya. Asahiya tells En that studying is important and gives him an extra week of assignments.

Commentary

After the initial encounter with an alien from Sargasso, it seems most of the Dagwon team do not want to fight aliens. Of course, as the enthusiastic hero, En has to have the will to fight them. Also, the team must gradually realize that they need to answer the call and fight as they are destined too. This time it’s against a bunch of giant space ants, and a can of Raid would have certainly come in handy. Luckily, En saves the day by becoming the giant robot Fire Dagwon. This is still pretty standard super robot fare, but it’s still entertaining.

Overall Rating
3/5

Dagwon Info

Director:
Tomomi Mochizuki

Writer(s):
Kenichi Araki
Go Sakamoto
Hiroaki Kitajima
Mutsumi Nakano
Toshifumi Kawase
Yasunori Yamada
Yooshiyuki Suga

Mechanical Designer:
Kunio Okawara

Character Designer:
Akira Oguro

Musical Composer:
Edison

Format:
48 episodes

Airdates:
Japan 02.03.1996 – 01.25.1997

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