What’s Going on With Kaito In Donbrothers?

One of the biggest questions regarding Avataro Sentai Donbrothers as it nears it’s conclusion is Kiita Komagine’s role as Kaito Goshikida in the series.

Avataro Sentai Donbrothers in my perspective has had little to no hiccups since it’s debut in March of 2022. The entire cast is fun, the story lines each character goes through keeps the attention of the audience (yes, even Tsuyoshi’s over obsession with Miho, my gripes with that story line is an endeavor for another time). That is to say however the series is not without its blemishes. Multiple plot lines are still left unfulfilled and with so few episodes left, it’s a wonder how they will manage to cover all of them in such a short time period. Not even Don Momotaro’s charismatic AH HA HA HA HA as he waves his fan around can save face for some of these. Today, I’d like to rant about a specific one, and that’s Kiita Komagine’s character Kaito Goshikida.

Seriously, why is Kaito in the Donbrothers world? Assuming that Donbrothers follows the same multiverse formula Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger has, at some point Kaito must have hopped worlds once again for whatever reason, and picked up residency as the owner of Cafe Donbrua. Kaito also has dropped his main Sentai attire (Sentaire? Senttire?) to take on the form of Zenkaiger Black when he transforms.

With this new suit, and his personality taking a huge 180 compared to how Kaito acted in Zenkaiger, you can’t help but to wonder what happened to the Kaito Goshikida we knew in the prior series.

Considering this shift in the character, if they do decide on answering what has happened, more needs to be addressed as well. If Kaito is in the Donbrothers universe, where is the rest of the Zenkaiger team? Why was Zyuran the only one to follow along with Kaito? Granted Zyuran has a non speaking role in this series as the second half of Don Momotaro’s mecha the DonZenkaiOh. But Zyuran is the ONLY member of Zenkaiger to follow Kaito to the Donbrothers world.

Could the two have gotten separated from the rest of the Zenkaigers at some point and are now stuck in the Donbrothers world? Taro is able to summon Zyuran at will, so is there more that he knows that he’s not telling the rest of the team? There’s still plenty to be left up to explanation and the writers sure are taking their time to cover these story beats. Avid watchers from the beginning of the series would remember that Kaito is collecting Sentai Gears that were used in Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger. There is clearly a reason why Kaito is collecting them, but has yet to be concluded or explained to the audience.

Avataro Sentai Donbrothers is in a very difficult position taking as much time as they have been to follow up on this and many other story lines. As much fun as I have been watching Donbrothers, it does make me concerned that with what still needs to be addressed, the endgame story line could very well be rushed to finish or left to an unsatisfied ending.

In episode 47, we see a meeting between the trio of Sonoi, Sononi, and Sonoza, and the Donbrothers to form an alliance. Kaito hosts this meeting at Cafe Donbura. As the meeting starts, Sonoza is the one to break the ice and ask who Kaito is. This peaks both sides interests, when Kaito refers to himself as simply “something special.” Later on, Jin Momoi appears, refers to Kaito as “True Hero” once he realized he’s the owner of Cafe Donbrua. E V E R Y O N E is flabbergasted at the “True Hero” title Jin gives Kaito. How did Kaito get this title? What is his connection to Jin, and possibly to that extent, the Don Clan?

My hopes is that we see an eventual crossover between Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger and Avataro Sentai Donbrothers. Crossover movies with recent Sentai teams have been following an interesting release schedule over the past few years, with the majority of them seeing a VCinext rather then a dedicated slot for the Winter/Summer movies. Given the time remaining left in the series, VCinext seems like the most logical path to go where we can get all the lore about why Kaito is in the Donbrothers world and cover what’s going on with the rest of the Zenkaiger team. At the time of writing this, there’s still yet to be an announcement for any sort of crossover between Donbrothers and Zenkaigers, but for the majority of Super Sentai series, one eventually shows up in due time, so for now, it’s just a waiting game.

The first Super Sentai series I was invested in was Uchū Sentai Kyuranger (it was just the one airing at the time) but I’ve watched every one following since. From what I have noticed, most recent Super Sentai series follows a simple (but effective) formula of “fun first, plot later.” There’s no issue with that formula and in fact, I think it’s one they’ve really excelled at. But the issue comes with buckling down for the plot. Super Sentai takes a long time to conclude story lines, and while it’s never something to lose sleep over, it does get me a little nettled to see story lines just dropped because Super Sentai is a franchise that updates annually with a new series. If we approach Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger without concluding the story line for Kaito, or there being no signs of it, it will be disappointing to say the least.

For now, the most anyone can do is trust the process, and see how the writers decide to finish Donbrothers. Are there elephants in the room regarding the plot of Avataro Sentai Donbrothers? Absolutely. But this doesn’t mitigate the fact that it has been a very enjoyable watch since episode one, and I am very interested to see how it will all wrap up in the end. Let’s just hope that whatever is in store for the Donbrothers and Kaito, it answers some questions along the way.