Episode. 01: Fireball Newcomer

This article is about an episode in Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger.

Fireball Newcomer
Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, Episode 1
Air Date(s)	February 15, 2004
Production Information
Written by	Naruhisa Arakawa
Directed by	Katsuya Watanabe
Episode Guide
Previous	Ep. 50: Only the Abare'd Number
Next	Episode. 02: Robo Impact

Fireball Newcomer (ファイヤーボール・ニューカマ, Faiyābōru Nyūkamā) is the first episode of Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger.

Synopsis

Banban Akaza, a newly-trained member of the the Special Police Dekaranger (S.P.D.), is given an assignment to Earth where he is placed in the leadership of a five-man crew under Anubian Chief Doggie Kruger, completely turning the team upside down on his first mission.

Plot

On Planet Chanbeena in Galaxy System 28, a rookie DekaRed is in pursuit of a criminal in his Patrol Striker against the orders of his superior, Porupo. The crime: murdering a fellow SPD officer and hitting a young child in his pursuit vehicle. Although the officer appears to kill the criminal due to his approval for "deletion", he does so in the midst of massive property damage and endangering lives, including the destruction of a local church. Porupo thinks the rookie, Banban Akaza, doesn't deserve an assignment after his stunts for capturing the criminal, but can't defy the orders that the new DekaRed has been given an assignment to Earth, the young man's homeworld.

Back on Earth, the local police are having problems of their own: a strange alien, Lovelian Balance, has taken a bus hostage for a peculiar reason. The local Dekaranger are called in for the assignment: Houji "Hoji" Tomasu (DekaBlue), Sen'ichi "Sen-chan" Enari (DekaGreen), Marika "Jasmine" Reimon (DekaYellow) and Koume "Umeko" Kodou (DekaPink), who in a surprising twist of fate was on the bus and captured with the rest of the hostages. Although attempting to negotiate with "Tenbin-kun" (a nickname Marika gives to the alien), the team ultimately capture it while Umeko keeps the hostages calm during the crisis.

The team returns to DekaBase for debriefing with their boss, Anubian Doggie Kruger (even though Umeko tries to sneak a bath in beforehand). During the investigation, the Dekaranger are informed that Balance was forced into coming to Earth and causing havoc due to being a carrier of a strange artifact within his body, made of an unknown metal which was not supposed to be available on this planet. That evening, a mysterious man is caught by the Earth police stealing something, but is hit by a car before he can cause any problems and is taken to a local morgue.

The next day, the four Dekaranger investigate any information that they can involving the mysterious metal and the invader within the local alien population which has blended in with the humans unknowingly. Hoji and Jasmine discover from an antique dealer that the metal was connected to a "Kaijuuki", but is killed before he can reveal any more information my a man in a cloak. The four Dekaranger regroup and follow the man to a local warehouse. However, when he appears to be cornered, the "man" reveals himself to be a mecha-human, a being who appears like a man but is in actuality a machine. When the mecha-human sends out gray-faced mecha-human minions, the four suit up and begin their battle with the minions in an orderly manner in order to secure the information from the target.

Unfortunately, it is at this moment which the new DekaRed Banban arrives at the scene, making a showy entrance by announcing his arrival throwing off the teamwork of the quartet. After suiting up, he immediately takes on the entire mecha-human army on his own completely preventing any plans of the other Dekaranger from going as planned. When only the blue-headed mecha-human remains, the team tries to restrain him but DekaRed blasts the machine with his Hybrid Magnum gun, destroying it. With the threat seemingly stopped, Hoji immediately yells at the new Earth Dekaranger for ruining their plan and preventing them from doing their job, even while Ban tries to prove what he was doing was right.

At that very moment, the mysterious man in the morgue "awakens" to begin his plan. As he does, several breaches open within the net protecting Earth set up by SPD and three massive objects plummet and crash into the Tokyo area.

Notes

• Opening Clip: Lovelian Balance
  • During the opening of every Dekaranger episode, a brief clip from the episode about to air appears after the scene with the Dekaranger fighting the Anaroids; this scene usually reveals a threat, whether an Alienizer or another threat, that the Dekaranger will face in this episode.
• Pre-Credits Scene: An introduction to Dekabase
  • In the ending of every Dekaranger episode, a short clip, usually informitive but occasionally concluding, is shown just as the ending begins. During the "Midnight Dekaranger" ending, the scene is during a drumroll at the start.
• The song Umeko sings in this episode is the same one that Remi Hoshikawa (FiveYellow) taught her pupils in the first episode of Fiveman. Mika Kikuchi, Umeko's actress, was 20-21 during Dekaranger and 6-7 during Fiveman. If Umeko is around the same age as her actress she could have been a student of Remi's in the vs. continuity of Super Sentai.

  

  Actual screengrab from episode.

• When the mysterious man is hit by a truck, the scene transitions to Swan-san scanning the Robo for repairs. If you look closely you can see it quickly flashes the phrase "DEKA-SODOMY."

DVD releases

Dekaranger Volume 1, DVD cover

Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger Volume 1 features episodes 1-4: Episode. 01: Fireball Newcomer, Episode. 02: Robo Impact, Episode. 03: Perfect Blue and Episode. 04: Cyber Dive.