 This article is about an episode in Avataro Sentai Donbrothers.
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Don 16: Darkness Switch (やみおちスイッチ Yami Ochi Suitchi) is the sixteenth episode of Avataro Sentai Donbrothers. It features the debut of the Tiguardora, Don Doragoku Alter and Jiro's evil side and original self, Dangerous Jiro.
Synopsis[]
Jiro Momotani has officially joined the team! He imitates and follows Taro, a man he respects in an attempt to learn from him, only for Taro to put him in his place and state he is just a companion! He also tries to be liked by everyone by drawing manga for Haruka Kitou, and composing haiku for Shinichi Saruhara, but it seems that this only annoys them.
Jiro believes that he is the one who will "succeed Taro", but when Taro denies it, he changes his mind. This festers an inner darkness to grow in Jiro as his dreams are shattered, causing him to attack the Donbrothers!
Plot[]
After the episode recap, Tsuyoshi is at Cafe Donbura, still apologizing for his actions as a Hitotsuki and is willing to resign from his position as a Donbrother as penance for his wrongdoing. Kaito arrives with some coffee and tells Tsuyoshi that the only way he can quit is by earning enough Kibi-Points to make a wish to leave or by completing his mission. Still feeling he must be punished for harming people, Tsuyoshi begs Taro to at the very least punch him in the face, Taro refuses on the matter of disliking hitting people.
Haruka then tells Tsuyoshi not to dwell on the past and he is making too much of a fuss over something that they resolved, Shinichi also encourages him to cheer up as Taro says everyone makes mistakes and the important thing ordinary people do is learn from them. Haruka is surprised Taro is trying to encourage Tsuyoshi rather than use his bluntness.
Jiro rushes in, apologizing for being late even though he is the newest member, but he isn’t a morning person and usually takes an hour long ice cold shower just to wake up. The room has an awkward silence as his other teammates just stare at him until he apologizes again. Jiro introduces himself properly to the whole team, eager to work for Taro and get along with everyone. Shinichi does point out when Taro thanks Jiro for saving him that most of them contributed. To their surprise, Taro shows sincere and modest gratitude to everyone for bringing him back, even taking off his hat and bowing a little.
Shinichi thinks that this is a rare moment, but Taro is embarrassed and says he only said what was necessary in the moment. Haruka is overjoyed at being praised and asks Taro to repeat what he said, but he refuses as it was only needed to be done once and the moment has passed. He says nothing has changed about his relationship with all of them. Haruka follows Taro around begging to be praised again, which he says no to, while she also sees that he was embarrassed and tries to get him to admit it.
Jiro interrupts, handing out invitations to a party celebrating himself as the team’s “rising star”. Haruka is a bit disgusted by how egotistical Jiro is by making a party boasting about himself.
Taro, Shinichi and Haruka are discussing Jiro as they walk together. Taro does want to put him on the team, but Haruka is not sure as she recalls how Jiro plotted to execute them and thinks something is wrong with him. Taro thinks Jiro is a good man as he didn’t act on those impulses and was willing to risk his life to save someone. Shinichi then confesses that someone else helped them all rescue Taro…
Jiro arrives at Shirokuma Express and decides to follow Taro around, applying for a delivery job and working alongside him, imitating what Taro does to be a hero like him. Taro’s coworkers think Jiro is a bit weird with his obsession. The Owner of Shirokuma brings large bento lunches for everyone as a reward for working so hard. Jiro observes and imitates how Taro eats and drinks, which makes the staff feel uncomfortable and they stop eating.
After Jiro imitates his idol’s method of teeth brushing, Taro asks why he is copying him. Jiro explains his reasoning is out of respect and admiration as well as a learning experience. Taro thinks what he does is nothing special, he just does what needs to be done. When Jiro asks if Taro has anyone he looks up to, Taro says he has no role models. Jiro decides that he will have no role models like Taro and then leaves him and Shirokuma.
Jiro decides to follow Haruka next, dressing up like a stereotypical manga artist and visiting her at Cafe Donbura. Haruka is immediately mistrustful of Jiro given their last interaction with each other, but he tries to appeal to her he only wants to find his place on the team and be helpful. Jiro offers her a manuscript of a hero manga he made called Fire Dragon, which basically is a self-inserted fan fiction of himself with the other Donbrothers being incompetent damsels in distress he rescues. He immediately gets on her bad side when Jiro suggests that Haruka can pass it off as her own work, triggering her anger and personal trauma about plagiarism and she refuses his offer, tossing his manga pages on the floor.
Jiro continues his efforts to help the Donbrothers with Shinichi next, who is relaxing in the park and preparing to write a haiku. Jiro interrupts his solitude and offers to write a haiku for him. Shinichi wonders if he understands the beauty of the wabi-sabi of his poetic structure, Jiro misunderstands and thinks Shinichi is talking about wasabi and says he loves to eat it. Jiro then recites a terrible haiku and Shinichi, offended by how awful it was, rejected Jiro’s offers for any further help.
Jiro tries to aid Tsuyoshi next, bursting in during Tsuyoshi’s attempt at a business arrangement with a client on a reinvestment for a development project to revitalize a town. Jiro loudly proclaims the plan is brilliant and offers to invest…¥10.
Later, Tsuyoshi is fuming at Jiro’s interference as the client thought the development project was a bad investment because Jiro “paid” only ¥10 for his stake in the property for the development project. (In essence making the client think he was being scammed into developing worthless property at a marked up price.)
Jiro tries to apologize, but Tsuyoshi says to permanently stay far away from him. Jiro tries to make it up to him, asking what’s bothering Tsuyoshi so much that it transformed him into a Hitotsuki. Tsuyoshi tries to talk about Miho, but Jiro gets the wrong idea before he can finish and says he should break up with her. This infuriates Tsuyoshi who is triggered by his marital insecurities and uncharacteristically screams how ridiculous that is. Haruka is legitimately terrified of angry Tsuyoshi and hides her face behind her tray.
Elsewhere, a gamer on a Twitch-like livestream struggles to play an action RPG game, desiring to beat the area he is in and win the game. He fails as his character loses all their HP and the viewers bully him in the chat about how bad a player he is. Humiliated and angry, this triggers his transformation into Kyoryuki. As people flee from his rampage, Kyoryuki fires a beam that dissolves several of them as Tsubasa arrives on the scene and changes into Inu Brother. He throws his shuriken and manipulated its movements with the DonBlaster, landing several direct hits.
Kyoryuki flees and Jiro gets in the way when Tsubasa tries to pursue, who is offered a bowl of dog food. Tsubasa cannot control his Ranger form’s animal instincts and eats some, only to snap out of it. Jiro then commands him to shake a paw, which Tsubasa does while barking. He gets angry at the humiliating treatment and compulsion to act like a dog, shouting at Jiro and running to catch up to Kyoryuki.
Don Momotaro tries to engage Kyoryuki, but Sonoi appears to challenge him to a fight. He prepares to rush at Taro, but the latter disengages his transformation and Sonoi stops just as his blade reaches Taro’s neck. Taro says that he wants to talk first. As both stand down and find someplace to speak, Taro says his companions told him Sonoi helped them save him, wondering why he did it given that he killed him before. Sonoi responds that he cannot give him an answer, and Taro seems to get it, saying he is fine with that. Sonoi leaves, thinking that conversation wasn’t much and a waste of time.
Tsuyoshi comes home, still troubled by Jiro’s words about his marriage. He finally seriously confides his insecurities to Miho, who reassured her husband she loves him and will not leave him. Whatever brought this up, she encourages him to believe in himself more by chanting “you can do it” ten thousand times while lovingly embracing Tsuyoshi.
At a Chinese restaurant, Jiro’s party consists of only Taro, who informs him none of the others wanted to come and returns their invitations to Jiro. Taro has heard their complaining about what a pest Jiro is and how hard he made things for them. Taro tries to be a bit more understanding, as he knows Jiro just wants everyone to like him. However, when someone tries to take action to force things to happen, it can come across as selfish to others.
The Birth of Dangerous Jiro
Jiro doesn’t care what the others think, he will work hard to train to be Taro’s successor. Taro is confused by this and says such a thing is impossible, he is unique. There has never been anyone like him before he was born, there is no one like him now and when the time comes and death finally claims him, everything that is him will cease to be and nobody can replace that. Stunned, Jiro questions his own existence, if he is not Taro’s successor, then what purpose does he have? Taro, blunt as ever, says Jiro is just a companion. This causes Jiro to freeze up and have an internal mental breakdown, a spiritual flaming Tiger circles him and his personality changes..
Haruka is walking home when Jiro approaches her, acting strangely and reciting part of the Legend of Momotaro, then changing into Don Doragoku to attack her. Haruka at first thinks Jiro is mad about the party, but when it becomes very clear he intends to hurt her, she becomes Oni Sister and defends herself until he uses an ability to strip away her sunglasses and forcefully depower her. He laughs and then leaves her.
As he finds Shinichi, he recites another part of the Momotaro legend, but it is distorted as he narrates that the peach carried a “filthy child” and the old couple didn’t want the baby but had no choice but to raise him. He transforms and Shinichi is not at all surprised, suspecting Jiro was evil and trying to protect himself as Saru Brother, but his powers are taken before he even landed a punch.
As he beats down Tsubasa, the tale becomes even more disturbing as Jiro states that as Taro grew, he became a violent and selfish man. He takes Tsubasa’s sunglasses and powers.
The next morning, Kyoryuki is attacking the city again and Don Momotaro faces him alone only for the battle to be interrupted by Jiro, whose tale tells of when the elderly couple didn’t know what to do with their arrogant boy, a true hero descended from the heavens named Jiro. Jiro then gave Taro what he deserved, Don Doragoku pouncing in an effort to eliminate Don Momotaro and then clashing weapons with him.
Don Momotaro asks what does he think he is doing, Don Doragoku says he will eliminate Taro to become the hero, he has no need for companions as he alone is enough to become the greatest hero without anyone to compare to.
Haruka and Shinichi arrive and warn Taro that Jiro stole their powers, which Don Doragoku demonstrates by using Tsubasa’s sunglasses to Avatar Change to Inu Brother to blast Taro, then uses Saru Brother’s super strength to overpower him. Taro can’t seem to fight back as the forms remind him of his companions, but Tsuyoshi, driven by Miho’s positivity, assists from the air and evenly matches the Fake Saru Brother’s shooting techniques.
The sunglasses get knocked out of Don Doragoku’s possession by Tsuyoshi’s divebombing and when he tries to use Oni Sister’s powers, Haruka slaps him hard in the face and he loses her sunglasses as well. Jiro de-morphs and is confused, shifting back to his normal self with no memory how he got to where he is now.
Don Doragoku Alter's debut
The sunglasses return to their rightful owners and Kyoryuki attacks again, Jiro thinks the Hitotsuki did something to him to blank his memories. He becomes Don Doragoku, uses his Dragon Alter form and finishes off Kyoryuki with the Lightning Dragon Flash attack. Kyoryuki becomes Kyoryuking and the core Donbrothers become Don Onitaijin. A motivated Tsuyoshi shows confidence in battle and landed several strikes with the Pheasant Swords as the others work in sync. Taro says he is impressed with how everyone is improving, with Shinichi shocked the team was given more praise while Haruka begs to be praised again. Taro refuses as praise should be only given once, Don Onitaijin knocks down Kyoryuking with a kick and is defeated by the Donbros Paradise attack. The purified Zyuranger Avataro Gear falls out and lands in Don Doragoku’s hand, transforming into the Dragon Ranger Avataro Gear upon him touching it. Jiro is excited to have obtained an Avataro Gear of his own.
At Cafe Donbura, the team informed Jiro offscreen of what he did while he was in his evil persona. Jiro is begging for forgiveness as he doesn’t remember what he was doing then. Taro says that Haruka and Shinichi’s earlier comments during their discussion about Jiro were correct, that he is indeed a problematic element to the Donbrothers. Shinichi thinks that they are owed an apology for Taro doubting them and after a bit of hesitation, Taro does give an apology to them both and he was wrong. Haruka is elated that Taro apologized and asks to hear it again. Taro refuses, stating that be it praise, gratitude or mercy, it should only be given once. Haruka comically chases him around asking him to apologize more while poor Jiro is groveling on the floor begging for forgiveness and sobbing, with Tsuyoshi trying to comfort him.
Cast[]
- Taro Momoi (桃井 タロウ Momoi Tarō): Kouhei Higuchi (樋口 幸平 Higuchi Kōhei)
- Shinichi Saruhara (猿原 真一 Saruhara Shin'ichi): Yuuki Beppu (別府 由来 Beppu Yūki)
- Haruka Kitou (鬼頭 はるか Kitō Haruka): Kohaku Shida (志田 こはく Shida Kohaku)
- Tsubasa Inuzuka (犬塚 翼 Inudzuka Tsubasa): Totaro (柊太朗 Tōtarou)
- Tsuyoshi Kijino (雉野 つよし Kijino Tsuyoshi): Hirofumi Suzuki (鈴木 浩文 Suzuki Hirofumi)
- Jiro Momotani (桃谷 ジロウ Momotani Jirō): Raizou Ishikawa (石川 雷蔵 Ishikawa Raizō)
- Kaito Goshikida (五色田 介人 Goshikida Kaito): Kiita Komagine (駒木根 葵汰 Komagine Kiita)
- Jin Momoi (桃井 陣 Momoi Jin): Soko Wada (和田 聰宏 Wada Sōkō)
- Miho Kijino (雉野 みほ Kijino Miho), Natsumi (ナツミ): Momoko Arata (新田 桃子 Arata Momoko)
- Sonoi (ソノイ): Yuya Tominaga (富永 勇也 Tominaga Yūya)
- Ishikawa (石川): Takahito Ueda (植田 敬仁 Ueda Takahito)
- Takenaka (竹中): Akira Takeuchi (竹内 啓 Takeuchi Akira)
Guest Cast[]
- Gamer/Kyoryuki (恐竜鬼 Kyōryūki): Ryuya Minato (湊 竜也 Minato Ryūya)
- Business Owner: Hiroaki Kouno (河野 宏明 Kōno Hiroaki)
- Shirokuma Express Owner: Hiromitsu Shiibashi (椎橋 宏光 Shiibashi Hiromitsu)
Suit Actors[]
- Don Momotaro: Kosuke Asai (浅井 宏輔 Asai Kōsuke)
- Saru Brother: Yasuhiro Takeuchi (竹内 康博 Takeuchi Yasuhiro)
- Oni Sister: Ayumi Shimozono (下園 愛弓 Shimozono Ayumi)
- Inu Brother: Kazuya Okada (岡田 和也 Okada Kazuya)
- Kiji Brother: Masashi Takada (高田 将司 Takada Masashi)
- Don Doragoku: Shigeki Ito (伊藤 茂騎 Itō Shigeki)
- Dai Gattai Don Onitaijin: Yohei Fujita (藤田 洋平 Fujita Yōhei)
- Transformed Sonoi: Hirotsugu Mori (森 博嗣 Mori Hirotsugu)
- Kyoryuki: Kenya Saitou (齊藤 謙也 Saitō Kenya)
- Kyoryuking: Shinsuke Kusano (草野 伸介 Kusano Shinsuke)
Form Changes and Collectibles Used[]
Avataro Gears[]
- Don Momotaro - Don Robotaro, Don Robotaro (Dai Gattai)
- Saru Brother - Saru Brother Robotaro
- Oni Sister - Oni Sister Robotaro
- Inu Brother - Inu Brother Robotaro
- Kiji Brother - Kiji Brother Robotaro
- Don Doragoku - Don Doragoku Alter
Avatar Changes[]
- Don Momotaro - Don Robotaro
- Saru Brother - Saru Brother Robotaro
- Oni Sister - Oni Sister Robotaro
- Inu Brother - Inu Brother Robotaro
- Kiji Brother - Kiji Brother Robotaro
- Don Doragoku - N/A
Errors[]
Notes[]
- Viewership: 4.2%
- As part of Super Hero Time, this episode aired alongside Kamen Rider Revice
episode 40, Family or the World... Brothers Quarrel of the Soul! - Donbrothers sunglasses featured in title card: Gold
- Count at episode end
- Gears in the Donbrothers' possession: Zenkaiger, Ryusoulger, ToQger, Lupinranger, Ohranger, Patranger, Zyuohger, Fiveman, Kiramager, Go-Busters, Gokaiger, Ninninger, Kyuranger, Kyoryuger, Turboranger, Carranger, Zyuranger
- The opening sequence has been updated with Jiro Momotani, Don Doragoku and Don Torabolt.
- The date shown on the calendar in Cafe Donbura when Jiro meets Haruka and then Tsuyoshi is Saturday, June 18th, one day before the episode's airdate.
- This episode features the acquisition of the Zyuranger Avataro Gear, which depicts Dragonranger. This episode aired on the 30th anniversary of Burai's original debut episode.
- When Kyoryuki is streaming, all of his audience's usernames are Zyuranger themed.
episode 40, 
DVD/Blu-ray Releases[]
Avataro Sentai Donbrothers Volume 4 features episodes 13-16: Don 13: Goodbye Taro, Don 14: Substitute Jiro, Don 15: Welcome Back Taro, and Don 16: Darkness Switch.
External links[]
- TV Asahi's official preview for やみおちスイッチ
- Toei TV's official episode guide for やみおちスイッチ
- JAE's official episode guide for やみおちスイッチ
References[]
Footnotes[]