Zone Fighter Episode 14 – Takerikuruuzo! Garoga Shounen Kougekitai

aka 猛り狂うぞ! ガロガ少年攻撃隊 aka Insane With Anger! The Garoga Boy’s Squadaka Rampage! The Garoga Boys Attack Force

1973
Written by Masaru Takesue
Directed by Akiyasu Kikuchi

Zone Fighter has become the ending of The Wild Bunch!

Zone Fighter is a big bully, there is no denying that. So when the Garoga and a bunch of tiny tots get involved in a conspiracy that involves bullying, Zone Fighter is suddenly anti-bullying! Well, sort of, the bullying just resolves itself naturally, but it is a reason why the main child suddenly goes evil. If you like shows with mobs of boy children in short shorts running around like peewee droogs and smashing up everything and everyone they see, then you will be in for a treat! Unfortunately, we got to sit through a lot of junk before that scene, thought at one point a bird goes evil and starts screaming “Garoga! Garoga!”, so that’s pretty cool. Thanks to the weird factor and the minimob montage sequence, Zone Fighter Episode 14 becomes one of the better Zone Fighter episodes. If you need some Zone Fighter infotainment, stop on by the Zone Fighter Splash Page and get your education on!

This is the first episode where the new credits first appear, the synopsis is ditched and we see it happen as the credits roll, but so do a lot of shots of the show itself, including many many images of Godzilla, almost as if they are trying to emphasize Big G is part of the show for ratings. But he doesn’t show up in this episode, so go back to waiting until I get to an episode that he does appear in!

Baron Garoga has made some chemical so evil he’s totally laughing. Considering it looks like pond scum in a Erlenmeyer flask, maybe it is evil…or it at least smells bad. Baron Garoga gives it to some Garoga in white lab coats with big red crosses (complete with skull at the tope) and huge yellow rubber gloves. I dub them Garoga Scientists, because I can. The Garoga Scientists may have specialized lab coats and safety gloves, but where is their eye protection? Come one, Garoga Scientists, do you want to get a fine???

The Garoga Scientist adds more stuff to the potion and it turns light green, then they rocket it to the Earth. Yes, they waste a rocket transporting a small amount of liquid to some guys who are standing by a truck in the middle of a field. It’s an Undercover Truck, despite the Garoga logo that is an evil snarling Garoga face (minus antennas) Way to keep a low profile, dudes!

A boy in tiny tiny shorts named Tsuyoshi is being lectured by a his mom about how he should go to school and not be afraid of everyone being mean to him because he sucks. Then Akira comes and takes Tsuyoshi, walking him to school while holding his hand. No wonder everyone makes fun of Tsuyoshi! Akira is probably the dorkiest friend you could ever have, and when four bully kids appear and lock arms in front of them, they all attack Tsuyoshi instead of Akira. Also, there is waaaaaay more physical contact between friends in Japan, I guess. Tsuyoshi hangs his head in shame after being mocked.


Not only is Tsuyoshi bullied and nothing is done, Tsuyoshi isn’t very smart and gives the wrong answers in class, to which his teach then makes fun of him. To be fair, they were easy math problems, learn to count, Tsuyoshi! The two Garoga truck drivers go to the park and drink their evil green drink and say out loud how good it is and how strong it made them, and one karate chops a bench in half to prove it. Tsuyoshi sees this and suddenly is very very interested in getting some of this wonder drug. They give him several bottles from a suitcase, which isn’t suspicious at all.

Back home, Tsuyoshi takes his first drink of the drug, at which point there are extreme closeups that spin with garish lighting and shadows and loud heartbeats and breathing. Oh, Tsuyoshi, what will happen to you? Nothing good.

The next day, Tsuyoshi’s smart and confident, correctly answering questions in class and then beating up all four of the bullies at once. He then gives them some of his wonder tonic so they can be his goons, and the group runs off to cause trouble, but not before he gives Akira a bottle of the drug as well. Akira is weirded out and takes the drug home to his parents.

The Zone family has a bird all of a sudden… The bird will be the perfect test subject for the mysterious chemical that Akira brought home! Aren’t you glad your parents didn’t test random chemicals on your beloved pet? A few drops of potion, and the bird freaks out, breaking a wall and a fish tank, and starts chanting “Garoga!” (actually, it sounds like gibberish, but we’re told he’s saying “Garoga!”) Dun dun DUN!!!

That night, Baron Garoga commands Tsuyoshi via telepathy, Tsuyoshi wandering around his house like he’s possessed. To further ths supernaturalness, Tsuyoshi is lit in green light like ghosts are in Japanese kaidan films and plays. Tsuyoshi punches and kicks through the front door of the house and storms off into the night, his parents stand bewildered, but do nothing, because they are useless. We’ll never see them again.

Tsuyoshi calls out the four bullies by yelling “GAROGA!” and the five then go stomping through the streets. They form a gang rampaging in a cool montage, first tipping over a car that’s honking at them on the road, then smashing up their school classroom, attacking a bicycling milk man(???), attacking another random guy, knocking down road construction signs, and smashing up Takeru Jou’s model shop. About halfway through they get tired of lighting the kids in green and instead give them all green eyeshadow.

Takeru calls the Sakimoris for help, and Akira answers (in a cloth-covered phone that I think is in his bedroom???) and gets his brother Hikaru, they go to try to stop the kids. But the Garoga Truck drives in front of their car and open fires with a machine gun!

Hikaru just drives slightly to the side of the Garoga Truck, and Hotaru complains about a shot out tire, and they have no urgency to duck from the bullets, nor does the Garoga Truck villains do anything except sit there and let the heroes examine the car! Akira can even leave to go try to stop the kids, while Hikaru does…NOTHING!

Akira and Takeru Jou are beaten and captured by the kids, and are now tied up in the back of the truck. Takeru Jou, are you kidnapped every week??? Hikaru finally changed his tire or something and is following them, so the villains transform the Garoga Truck into…

Garoga Car 3!

Garoga Car 3 is the least-detailed Garoga Car so far, with no cool skull sculpture on the grill, but it does have a cannon on the top and a decorated hood. The two cars fire back and forth at each other, Zone’s car having the power to laser beam down rockets shot at it. Why Zone Fighter is shooting at a car with his little brother in it, I don’t know.

Then the Garoga(?) car opens a portal to a nebulous-like dimension and drives on in, Zone Fighter following in hot pursuit. The two cars fly through the trippy atmosphere as the Zone Fighter theme plays. This is like a weird dream. Zone is then attacked by three Garoga Fighter Jets, who he has a dogfight with, and in these aerial maneuvers, it’s very easy to see the strings on the models.

Dad Zone cooks up a cure for Bird Zone, and then Zone Angel flies in on Smokey to help Zone Fighter. How she got to the weird dimension I don’t know, she just automatically knows how to fly to smokey pocket dimensions, I guess.

The Garoga have made little uniforms for their kids (complete with big red Garoga face on the front) and the kids menace Akira, as Takeru is tied up helpless. The possessed kids transform into Garoga goons and use giant metal clippers to try to clip off Akira’s head! Yes, kill him. KILL HIM!!!

Akira tries to remind Tsuyoshi of his loving mom and dad. Which begins to work, until… Zone Fighter pops in and shoots the Garoga that is Tsuyoshi! It falls to the ground and turns into three kids (???) Zone and Zone Angel fight the other Garoga, Zone Junior helps. Outside, they shoot another Garoga, who turns into the last two kids. A third Garoga and a Red Garoga then transform into Detragon !!!!

Hey, did anyone realize Zone Fighter was using lethal force on Garoga who were innocent children? Because he was, though the episode will just say the kids recovered. But he was shooting them!

We’ve also never had Gargoa turn into the monster before, and this time it takes two Garoga to turn into a giant monster. Detragon isn’t that special, he’s just made up of goons. The heroes evacuate all the kids right before Detragon stomps on the house, and Zone Fighter grows big to fight Detragon.

Detragon looks like an Anubis dog except all Japaned up, and instead of hands just has two turrets jutting out out of each wrist socket. Detragon can fire very slow missiles out of those sockets, and his attack strategy can best be described as awkward hugs. Zone catches some of the missiles and throws them back, eventually he shoots off Detragon’s rocket hands. Detragon proves to be an easy kill, as Zone Fighter just fires his wrist guns until Detragon explodes.

Now all the kids are friends and repeatedly shove each other into the ground and wrestle around and do other things that certainly don’t have a weird subtext. Because children are friends, thanks to the power of turning into a rampaging gang and alien bug monsters because of an energy drink. This episode is sponsored by Monster Energy Drink!

ZONE FIGHTER!!!

Rated 7/10 (rings, fancy phone, point defense cannons, the cure, cured by bullets, rocket hands, spin the monster!)

Please give feedback below!

Email us and tell us how much we suck!