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Fighbird Ep. 32: Supreme Fusion

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Summary

At the Amano Peace Labs, everyone watches a new report by Momoko from the NASA lunar base. Kenta thinks that eventually they can visit Katori’s planet. Katori asks why they can’t go in the Fire Shuttle, and Hiroshi replies that the trip would take too long. Momoko interviews Albert who is now working as an engineer and has him explain the function of the base’s new mass driver. An unmanned space shuttle is launched to test the mass driver but it gets destroyed by Draias who arrives at the base with Shura, Zol and Jango. Katori and Kenta quickly take off in the Fire Shuttle and head to the lunar base. Jango releases an army of Teshitas and takes over the base. As the Fire Shuttle exits the atmosphere, Hiroshi informs Katori that he figured out what Draias is up to. The attacks on the space radio stations and the attempts to send Teshitas into space were preparations for Draias to take over the mass driver and use it hurl asteroids at Earth. Zol loads up an asteroid on the mass driver while Jango demands that Momoko make a documentary about him. Shura forces Albert to launch the asteroid. Katori is unable to catch up to it so he orders Thunder Baron and Super Guardion to intercept it. They try to push it back but it forces them to crash into the ocean. Jango announces to Earth that if they don’t surrender to him and Draias he will launch an attack on a major city. Katori and Kenta sneak into the lunar base and take out some Teshitas. When they find and free the trapped crew, they’re told that Albert and Momoko are still held hostage in the control room. Jango has Albert set the next target to Tokyo despite Momoko protesting that the United Nations haven’t given their response yet. Before another asteroid is launched, Katori bursts into the room and starts attacking Teshita. However, Shura forces him to stop by having Momoko held at gunpoint. Albert tries to meekly resist but ends up launching another asteroid.

Katori gets strapped to another asteroid with shock restraints. Shura tells him to beg for his life but Katori tells him that he’ll crush their plans even if his body is destroyed. Back on Earth, Thunder Baron and Super Guardion blast their way from under the first asteroid and quickly fly out to intercept the second one. They manage to destroy with a relentless barrage of fire before it reaches the atmosphere. Kenta sneaks into the control room and manages to take out all the Teshitas. Jango pulls out a gun but Albert knocks him out cold with a wrench. Zol tries to crush Katori with another asteroid, but Albert uses the catapult controls to push Katori out of the way. Katori quickly frees himself and combines into Granbird. Shura joins Zol in the mechanical monster and they aggressively attack Granbird, but the rest of the Space Police arrives and blasts them away. Shura cries out for Draias, who combines into robot mode and joins the fray. The Space Police attack but they’re no match for Draias. Draias corners Granbird while Shura and Zol keep the rest busy. Granbird fires his Gran Cannon but Draias blocks the blast with his shield and continues chasing him. Granbird tries to blocks Draias’ blade strike with the cannon but the latter knocks it away. Just before he can land the finishing blow, Draias is blasted by the arriving Fire Jet. Hiroshi informs Granbird that the Fire Jet is fully repaired now. Granbird gets the idea to unite the two vehicles’ power and, to everyone’s surprise, combines with the Fire Jet into the giant robot Great Fighbird! Great Fighbird pulls out his powerful new Flame Sword and overpowers Draias. However, before he can finish him off, Shura and Zol shake off the rest of the Space Police and take the blow with their mechanical monster. Draias escapes in defeat, and Jango manages to sneak out in the confusion. Kenta says that there can now be peace on Earth, but Great Fighbird tells him that there won’t be peace with Draias still around.

Commentary

This episode is the culmination of the events from the last two, in which we find out that Draias and Jango were planning all along to steal the mass driver and use it to strong arm the Earth into surrendering. Unfortunately, the returning spineless Albert was all too wiling to help with this just to save his own skin, but he redeemed himself somewhat by satisfyingly introducing the business end of a wrench to Jango’s bald head. Thunder Baron and Super Guardion do more heavy lifting in this episode by taking out an asteroid with a never seen before Full Blast-like ability. It does however beg the question of why the Space Police never seem to be able to finish of Jango’s monsters with that kind of attack instead of just stunning them. Of course I’d be remiss to not mention the big surprise of the episode: The debut of the final Brave series tradition Great Fighbird. I still enjoy the surprised look on Hiroshi’s face when Katori transforms his machines through what practically amounts to magic, but it’s a shame the Fire Shuttle only got three episodes in the spotlight before the inevitable ultimate Brave combination happened. Interestingly, the Flame Breaster became the hilt of Great Fighbird’s rather long sword, but you’re probably wondering what happened to the Breaster Jet. Art books show that the Breaster Jet could be used as a shield and the toys actually let you do that, but for some reason that gimmick was never utilized in the show.

Overall Rating
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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