#donbro

[kabutoraiger]

[wieniawskis]

something that i’ve been hung up on is taro’s line, “there’s nothing scarier than an ordinary/normal person” because i feel like it represents how he’s truly fearful of ‘ordinary’ people.

‘ordinary’ people are the people who didn't understand taro. it’s the people he grew up around and the people who rallied against him. ordinary people avoided him and found him weird for reasons he couldn’t understand. and most of all, it’s the ordinary people who didn’t come to his birthday celebration when he was a kid.

throughout the series, it becomes evident that taro, despite his cheerful optimism, hasn’t really moved on from his childhood. even though he’s oblivious and doesn’t seem to understand a lot of things (like why lies exist until sonoi explained it to him), he still feels hurt and puts those offhanded comments close to his heart.

you can see this in the episode where shinichi and haruka are asking questions after questions and taro responds that he does what he thinks is right (and that he doesn’t really know what’s going on either). shinichi basically tells him that taro isn’t normal, that he’s different. “unlike you, we’re ordinary people”. while it’s the truth, taro seems visibly affected by his comment, which makes sense. he was isolated and abandoned for not fitting in with the ordinary.

as the series progresses, you see taro go though a pseudo-character arc where he accepts the qualities that makes him different and uses it to protect the members of the donbrother– people he has a “bond” with. from around episode 15-onward, he embraces the fact that he’s different and even says “there’s no one like me. no one can replace me. i’m unique” (not the exact quote but you know what i mean).

throughout donbrothers, taro is searching for a bond, perhaps in the form of a family that offers unconditional support. because he's been abandoned and isolated by 'ordinary' people for the mere fact of being different (not conforming to the norms), he searches and searches for a pseudo-family similar to that the ordinary people have.

a family that taro doesn't have, because he's different.

and i wonder at times if taro has ever tried to 'fit in' and conform to the norms in his childhood. i don't think he would have succeeded because it's sort of implied through his flashbacks that child!taro seems to struggle with the concept of theory of mind.

(theory of mind: the capacity to understand others' mental states and the knowledge that others' mental states may be different from one's own)

taro's form of helping (and maybe even making friends) was (and still is) to bluntly tell what's wrong and correct them by doing it the right way. because in taro's mind, who wouldn't want to do things the right way? he doesn't consider the aspect of pride that people may have, so even if they realize that they were doing something the 'wrong way', they wouldn't appreciate being told such a thing, which is something taro doesn't understand.

i think through continuous isolation and comments of being different made taro realize that he's not like everyone else.

that being said, donbrothers sort of implies that taro exists to help people and that he doesn't exactly have dreams and desires... but that's not exactly the case at all.

he obviously desires for a bond–a family, and maybe even friends. he wished that he and sonoi weren't in the circumstances that they were in ("if you weren't a noto, then we...") and he wished to eat oden with him.

moreover, i feel like there's always a slight expression that can be interpreted as envy and desire whenever taro looks at a family. (ex: when he looked at kijino and miho being happy and when he was pretending to be higashi kouichiro (tomoko's son) and she was attacking the hitotsuki because she wanted to protect her ‘son’)

anyway, taro's comment about jiro becoming 'ordinary' got me thinking a bit because it's said in such a bittersweet way that makes me think that for taro, his companion being 'ordinary' may mean that he's going to be left behind.

and i think the show emphasizes this idea of taro being left behind/being different in various ways, the most interesting ones being that of the noto 123 and miho (juto). even though the noto 123 and miho only resided within the human world for a short period of time, it becomes abundantly clear that they, especially miho, understood humans better than he did/does.

but even though taro felt like he was being left behind (jiro becoming ordinary and the other members of donbrothers having their own lives (symbolized through them leaving in the beginning of 49) ), his companions/family dispelled such thoughts by planning a birthday party for him. haruka and sonoza, who were working on the manga, dropped what they were doing in order to celebrate taro’s ‘birthday’.

it’s a little ironic that taro, who desperately searched for a bond (a family) and was constantly left behind was the one who left everyone in the end. obviously, it was out of his control, but it’s something i think about regardless.

especially because taro finally found a family he’s been searching for such a long time… but the bonds he created were severed and he’s alone all over again, once again searching for a bond.

[i-am-randomtrash00]

Better. LMAO

[boltcreature]

they're each thinking about the burden of being the only normal one on the team. (spoilers its none of them)

[kabutoraiger]

help 💀

[kabutoraiger]

the actual-size kijibro at this donbros exhibit...

[kabutoraiger]

➤ favorite sentai hero per season — donbrothers + kitou haruka

“My manga was able to touch a Cerebran’s heart. Maybe I really am... a genius!”

[kabutoraiger]

shinichi’s resume is such a mood