Choudenshi Bioman 14 – Brain & Hikaru

This episode in a nutshell.

In this episode, Doctor Man has created the world's most powerful computer, New Neural Brain, a computer so powerful that it has its own emotions. With that in mind, the Biomen put it to their advantage, only to end up having Hikaru wanting to befriend the machine.

The plot of the series is starting to take its proper shape as it starts to introduce some elements that I think that I find might be relevant in later episodes. The relationship between man and machine is starting to evolve. From the machines that feel like cold and evil, Brain showed us that some machines evolved to include emotions. With that in mind, it also showed us that Doctor Man is an imperfect being. I mean, he created the perfect computer, only for it to not obey him during the time the said machine is aggravated by the Biomen. This shows us that he has flaws as a scientist and tries his best to hide it by claiming that the one who is imperfect is Brain, not him. I wonder how this will pan out later in the series.

As for Brain, for a perfect computer, his voice has quite the range. I imagined most perfect machines sounding monotonous, and Brain broke that mold for me. His overall design by the way is kinda creepy. For starters, Brain is a floating brain inside a capsule with single eye for vision! Because of his anger for the Biomen, he ended up leaving his cockpit just to face the Biomen. The Biomen use this to their advantage by shooting Brain and landing in the sea.

Because of his "betrayal" to Doctor Man, he sends Farrah and Aquaiger to destroy Brain! But that's the opposite of what Hikaru aka Pink Five did. She decides to befriend Brain because of his emotions. Her desire to befriend a machine is quite admirable, and it gave me a better impression on her as a character. She is the one who puts her emotions first before everything else. Heck, she even protected Brain from the attack coming from Farrah and Aquaiger! Thus, she and Brain ended up getting separated from the rest, which leads us to a scene between the two interacting with each other.

The scene is basically the main highlight of the episode; it's kinda brief and showed us Hikaru's sincerity of wanting to befriend a machine. But what really got me is Hikaru's message about how the face paced progression of technology is turning the world cold. Her message is still applicable today. With today's modern technology, it is like all of us are always in front of our gadgets and we start to interact less with regular people. Her desire of wishing that more machines to be like Brain is something that I find interesting since for a show created during the 80's, this concept is something that I find kinda absurd.

Brain's reply to this one is still to be determined because of the attack coming from Aquaiger! Thankfully, the other Biomen just arrived in time to fight Aquaiger. If there is one thing that I find interesting is that they used a stock footage roll call scene because the episode is shot in the beach. You see, the episode was shot in the beach and spinning on top of a beach rock formation might cause accidents. As for the fight in this scene, it's really great and the new Bio Electron finisher is too plain for my taste. I mean, small lasers coming out from their heads? That's it?

Because Aquaiger is defeated, he heads back to their base and for the first time, we see a Beastnoid being ignored by Doctor Man. This scene also showed us that these guys are actually repaired after they are defeated by the Biomen. This made me wonder one thing, if Doctor Man is fixing them after they are defeated, then he might have the opportunity to give them upgrades. But considering the performance of the Beastnoids in the previous episodes and their move sets, it seems that he is not giving them any significant upgrades.

With his disappointment with his machines, Doctor Man has no choice but to put matters in his own hands as he takes control over the Anchor Kans via remote control in his control panel. The mecha fight in this episode is probably, the longest mecha fight that I saw in a Super Sentai series coming from the 80's. To those who are not aware, most mecha fights during this era and during the early 90's often last for about 2-3 minutes not counting the mecha formation sequence. In the case of this episode, the fight actually lasted for about 4-5 minutes, including Brain's realization and his reply to Hikaru's intent to befriend him.

Brain's actions in the giant fight are admirable. If he didn't enter Anchor Kans' head, the Biomen are already defeated by Doctor Man. He is one of those machines who know the value of self-sacrifice for someone you care about. I like where this episode is going. After witnessing the Bio Robo's new finisher, Brain's cockpit explodes, causing him to leave the cockpit and receive some damage.

At the end, Brain realized something and for once, desired something for himself. He wants to have a heart that is as pure as Hikaru's heart. The final scene between the two is well done. You can feel the emotion coming from the machine, causing me to sympathize to a machine. Finally, he leaves and because of the damage he took thanks to Bio Robo's attack on Anchor Kans, his body can't take it and died. If there is one thing this episode showed us is that Bioman is one of those shows that are a bit ahead of its time. It explores the possibility of befriending a machine that resembles a human being in any form and they did a great job in delivering that kind of message.