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Fighbird Ep. 22 Guard Wing: A Close Call

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Summary

Ace Baron tries to contact Guard Wing, but the latter, who’s hiding in a Hawaiian airport, refuses to reveal his location. He muses to himself that he likes it here on Earth. Momoko is also enjoying the ocean view from the airport as her film crew tells her that they’re here on business. Just then, Shura lands a large plane on the runway, destroying several passenger jets while the airport is overrun by Teshitas. Zol takes over the control tower while Shura attaches missiles to the passenger jets and sends them flying off. At the Amano Peace labs, Kenta, Haruka and Katori discuss Guard Wing just as Hiroshi runs up to them and reveals his latest invention: The Anti-Teshita gun. They spot a passenger jet flying suspiciously low and Katori uses his cybernetics to detect the missile attached to it. Katori and Kenta quickly take off in the Fire Jet along with the Baron team to give chase. They attach a magnetic grapple to the jet to bring it under control just as Hiroshi calls in with more bad news. Missile-laden passenger jets are loose all over the world. Katori tells the Baron team to handle the missiles while he tracks down their source, which can only be Draias. Back at the airport, Guard Wing tries to stop the automated loading mechanism that brings up the passenger jets to Shura but the latter quickly catches on to him. Guard Wing transforms into robot mode and blows Shura out of the hangar with his Wing Hurricane and Wing Detonator. His gloating is cut short by the arrival of Draias, who combines into robot mode and knocks Guard Wing away. Guard Wing tries to escape but Draias shoots him down with his Devil Fork and tells Shura to get back to work.

Katori and Kenta arrive at the airport and split up to destroy the stockroom and find the hostages. Kenta finds the hostages in the control tower along with Zol. He contacts the Baron team but gets caught by Zol and thrown with the rest of the hostages. He tries to reach for his Anti-Teshita gun but Momoko recognizes him and blows his cover. Katori discovers Shura torturing Guard Wing and attaching a missile to him. He tries to contact Kenta but Momoko makes such a loud ruckus trying to talk to him that Zol finds out who Kenta is. He tells Katori to come out if he wants Kenta to live. Katori demands that they free the hostages in exchange for himself but Zol just beats on him mercilessly. Guard Wing finally has enough and breaks out of his restraints. He rams into Zol while Kenta uses Wrister to free himself from Shura. Katori pays Zol back for the beating in kind and tells Kenta to free the hostages. Kenta fires the Anti-Teshita gun, but it has no effect. Shura informs him that these are improved Teshitas and orders them to recapture Kenta and Momoko. Momoko fights back violently while Guard Wing blasts the Teshitas. Shura activates the missile on Guard Wing’s back but Thunder Baron arrives just in time to remove the missile and stop him from taking off. Shura runs to his mechanical monster and attacks Katori, who summons the Fire Jet and combines into Fighbird. Fighbird dodges Shura’s missiles but they hit the airport building and endanger the escaping hostages. Thunder Baron quickly separates back into the Baron team who start putting out the fires and rescuing anyone in danger. Fighbird destroys Shura’s weapons but the latter knocks him away and tries to escape with Zol. However, Guard Wing intercepts them and destroys the monster’s wing, sending it diving back to the airport where Fighbird destroys it. Rescue planes arrive to evacuate the hostages but Momoko refuses to leave until Fighbird personally rescues her. Guard Wing thanks Ace Baron for saving him twice and flies off without another word.

Commentary

Despite suffering a major setback after losing his Devil’s Tower in the last episode, Draias quickly gets back on the ball with one of his most destructive plots yet. Predictably, Guard Wing doesn’t fare very well against him in a head-on fight and gets a nice piece of humble pie for his troubles. The Anti-Teshita gun would have been a nice way to elevate Kenta beyond semi-useless sidekick status but that dream was quickly squashed by Jango learning from his mistakes. Of course the real hero of this episode was the Baron team. Between singlehandedly stopping several suicide bombing jumbo jets, putting out fires, rescuing hostages and saving Guard Wing from his own recklessness, they were pretty much all over the place, which is a nice bit of characterization. Too bad I can’t say the same about Momoko, who aside from providing some comedy by violently manhandling the Teshitas was rather annoyingly dense in this episode.

Overall Rating
4/5

Fighbird Info

Director:
Katsuyoshi Yatabe

Writer:
Yasushi Hirano

Mechanical Designer:
Kunio Okawara

Character Designer:
Hitoshi Ueda

Musical Composer:
Toshiyuki Watanabe

Format:
48 episodes

Airdates:
Japan 02.02.1991 – 02.01.1992

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