BraveReviews

Fighbird Ep. 28: An Icy Summer

0
Summary

Momoko reports on the hot summer weather from Sunny Beach as Katori and Kenta run past her carrying surf boards. Kenta can barely stand upright on his board but Katori masters surfing instantly and tells Kenta that he needs to relax. Elsewhere, Hiroshi asks Yoshiko why she isn’t swimming and the latter replies that she’s more interested in studying Katori’s behavior. Hiroshi brags that Katori’s skill is thanks to the android body that he built, but Haruka reminds him that the android body only worked because Katori possessed it. Nonetheless, Yoshiko is interested to hear about Hiroshi’s analysis of the cosmic life forms. Elsewhere, Shura uses Jango’s latest invention to drastically lower temperatures around the globe, cutting everyone’s summer plans short. Hiroshi and Katori investigate the phenomenon and deduce that it’s not natural. Jango orders Shura to execute phase two and tells Draias that his plan is to use his Super Freezer to freeze half the world. Hiroshi discovers that a man made barrier is blocking the sun and assumes the generator is somewhere above central Asia. Kenta runs in and informs everyone that it’s snowing outside. Hiroshi tells Katori to take off and stops Kenta from going because the outside temperatures would freeze him to death. Shura executes phase three which causes blizzards all over Japan. On the news, Momoko reports that a glacier is headed towards Tokyo.

Kenta accidentally breaks the electric heater but Hiroshi brings out his Miracle Warm Sweater suit and ice melting Miracle Fire Gun, which allows Kenta to take off after Katori with the Baron team. After finding nothing above the clouds, Katori searches the ground and finds the Super Freezer. He’s greeted by a squad of Teshitas riding snowmobiles which he quickly dispatches. Shura surfaces in a giant mechanical dragon and fires upon Katori, who quickly combines into Fighbird. Fighbird uses the Flame Breaster to attack Shura from the sky, but the latter takes advantage of Fighbird’s lack of mobility in the snow and freezes his legs. He then freezes Fighbird completely and prepares to saw his arms off. However, he’s blasted by the arriving Baron team. They barely avoid being frozen and eject Kenta to safety so they can combine into Thunder Baron. Thunder Baron fires upon Shura but his blast gets reflected by the ice. Shura then freezes his Thunder Anchors and manages to trap him in ice. Kenta tries to free the Space Police with the Fire Gun but discovers that he’s out of range. He uses the door of his ejection pod as a snowboard and manages to reach the bottom just in time to melt the ice off of everybody, including Shura. The Space Police destroy Shura’s weapons and force him to try ramming them with the monster’s spinning body. Fighbird pins him down with Full Blast allowing Thunder Baron to destroy the monster with Thunder Crash. With summer back in full swing, Kenta gains more confidence in his ability to surf but still manages to fall off his board.

Commentary

This is another one of those episodes that feel like they’re simply filler, evidenced by Jango and Draias barely getting any lines and practically no explanation for why they want to freeze the Earth. It’s nice to see Kenta playing an instrumental role in getting the Space Police out of a tight spot instead of just being the tag-along sidekick. Thunder Baron also makes his triumphant return with a new but yet unnamed finishing attack. We also get yet another Exkaiser cameo with a brief shot of what looks suspiciously like the Raker brothers in their train forms.

Overall Rating
3/5

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

Comments

Comments are closed.