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Fighbird Ep. 23: Super Guardion Arrives!

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Summary

A passenger plane gets abducted when flying over the foggy Tengu mountain area. Kenta, Haruka and Katori hear about it on the news the next day and the latter asks Hiroshi what a tengu is. Momoko flies to Tengu mountain in a news helicopter for a live report about the streak of disappearances and gets abducted as well. Katori and Kenta quickly head off to investigate while Hiroshi suspects that Draias is behind this. At the foot of the mountain, Satsuda leads a rescue party to search for the missing people despite suffering from a cold. Katori tries to contact Guard Star and Guard Rescue but communications are jammed by an unusual magnetic storm. Kenta thinks that there might actually be a tengu here and explains that it’s some kind of demon, but Katori believes that it might be their friend. In a secret base inside the mountain, Shura chastises Zol for blowing their cover and the latter retorts that he just added more workers. He suggests killing everyone but Shura reminds him that that’ll expose them to the Space Police. Katori and Kenta land in the forest and the latter senses an unknown energy force. He spots a Teshita and chases after it. He manages to knock it down but another one attacks Kenta. Lightning strikes it and knocks Kenta off a cliff without his helmet. Satsuda wonders why they can’t find the missing plane yet and an officer thinks this might actually be the work of a tengu. Satsuda dismisses the notion just as Yoshiko arrives and demands that he get in the ambulance to get treated for his fever. At that moment, a mud-stained Kenta stumbles upon the search party. As Yoshiko cleans him up, Satsuda demands to know what he’s doing here and suspects that the money Hiroshi supposedly stole is hidden in the mountain. The interrogation gets cut short, however, when the ambulance gets stuck in a pothole. When the paramedics get out to investigate, Kenta talks to the Guard Rescue and explains that he got separated from Katori. They spot a bunch of Teshitas and Guard Rescue quickly speeds after them with Yoshiko and Satsuda still inside. They manage to chase them into a hidden gate in the mountain just before it closes. Yoshiko and Satsuda are surprised to hear Guard Rescue talk but Kenta distracts them by revealing that they’re inside Draias’ secret base.

Inside the base, the missing people are being put to work carrying heavy materials. Guard Rescue and Kenta can’t contact Katori due to the jamming, so the former tries to locate the source and destroy it. Satsuda and Yoshiko demand to know who Kenta is talking to but he shrugs it off and claims it might be a tengu. Guard Rescue spots a hangar full of round walker mechs and tells Kenta that they’ll use those. Outside, Katori meets up with the rest of the Guard team. Guard Wing suggests they attack the mountain head on but Katori reminds him that rescuing the hostages is their top priority. Kenta heads off with one of the mechs to destroy the jamming device while Satsuda and Guard Rescue create a distraction. Shura intercepts Kenta with a bazooka but Wrister messes with his aim and causes him to hit the jamming device instead. With communications restored, Kenta quickly brings Katori up to speed on the situation. Satsuda and Yoshiko lead the hostages outside but Zol blocks their path in one of the mechs. Kenta guides everyone away while Guard Rescue ejects Yoshiko and transforms to robot mode to tackle Zol. Shura corners the hostages but Katori and the Guard team bust through the ceiling just in time. Zol summons a giant mechanical fish while Shura combines all the walker mechs into a giant mechanical centipede. Katori summons the Fire Jet and combines into Fighbird while the Guard team gets the hostages to safety. Zol bursts out of the mountain with Guard Rescue trapped in the monster’s mouth, but Guard Wing frees him so the rest can combine into Guardion. Zol however sucks Guardion into the monster’s mouth. Guard Wing suggests that they use their secret weapon and combines with Guardion to form Super Guardion! Fighbird uses his Full Blast attack to pin down Shura and Zol, allowing Super Guardion to destroy them both with his Guard Flash. The remains of the monsters fall back into the secret base and destroy it. After Katori leaves Guard Rescue with Yoshiko and the still feverish Satsuda, the latter thinks that he overheard someone talking again but Yoshiko says that it’s probably just a tengu.

Commentary

As much as I like tense hostage situations in mecha shows, having three of them back to back is stretching the gimmick a bit thin. In addition, we never find out what the purpose of the secret base was, and Momoko really needs to give the Fighbird infatuation a rest. Guard Rescue is coming pretty close to blowing the Space Police’s cover. While Yoshiko probably caught on by now, she luckily kept the secret from Satsuda, who brought up the case of the stolen money for the first time in a long while. The main attraction of course is the introduction of Super Guardion. While he’s a nice looking upgrade for the most part, it’s hard to look past the fact that he’s basically standing on two blocks for extra height. This is a combination gimmick inherited from Transformers Victory and will unfortunately make its way into the subsequent five Brave shows.

Overall Rating
3.5/5

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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