Choudenshi Bioman 15 – Hikaru & the Devil Fungus

Sexual ladies in action!

Doctor Man is developing a Devil Fungus that will cause the destruction of mankind. But because Hikaru failed to stop the Mecha Human that is studying the first version of the Devil Fungus, the situation becomes worse and the disease that can only be cured if they have the plant from Planet Bio.

This episode is once again, a Hikaru focused episode but this time around, they are building up her relationship with Jun. Her relationship with Jun is something that they only brought up just now even though she made her debut at least 4 episodes ago. The only clear relation these two have is that they are teammates, and that's about it. The same kind of relationship Hikaru had with Mika prior to her death, these two are just teammates. This is what I like about this episode; they are trying to establish the difference between Jun and Mika with Hikaru as the center of it all.

In the scenes focused on these two, you can clearly see that aside from weapons, what makes Jun different from Mika is that she is a badass in her own right. She can be cold-hearted if the situation calls for it and a caring teammate as well. I mean, she left the Bio Robo just to help Hikaru fight some Mecha Clones! Aside from being a caring teammate, even though she is the newest member of the team, she acts more of a veteran compared to Hikaru. I mean, she's more calm and composed compared to Hikaru after the female Mecha Human got her data to create a much stronger Devil Fungus.

Speaking of Hikaru, this episode kinda served as a perfect balance to the Brain episode. In that episode, we see her as someone who has faith on machines and her compassionate side, in this episode we see her determination and that she is quite a badass. To add up the badassery, when she makes her return after finding the plant that resembles the ones from Planet Bio, she entered the battlefield while playing her flute and does one epic slow walk. That short walking scene basically summed up what Hikaru did the entire episode, redeemed her blunder in the episode's earlier minutes and spends the rest of the entire episode showing us why she is one badass Pink hero.

While Hikaru is busy finding the plant in state that she is infected with the Devil Fungus, her teammates are busy fighting Frog Kans. The way they balance the mecha fight and Hikaru's search is well done and gives you the proper impression that this fight is happening while Hikaru is busy searching. Even though this episode doesn't display a sort of timer, just seeing Hikaru struggle while at the same time see the Bio Robo fight Frog Kans gives you this impression that they only have a few minutes left to save everyone. If Hikaru dies before she can find the plant, it's all over.

Her determination to never give up looking for a similar plant from Planet Bio lead her to chirping birds in an area affected by the Devil Fungus. Though she got infected in the process, she managed to get the plant, give it to Peebo and formulate the cure then do her badass entrance. After transforming, Jun helps Hikaru and together, they fight the bad guys. The fight scene is absolutely fantastic. I was at the edge of my seat watching the fights in this episode and it didn't help that the background music added up to the coolness of the scene. Though I have some minor nitpicks when it comes to editing but hey, it's the 80's, you should expect that kind of editing. Did I mention that Pink Five is using her flute as a weapon?

More on the fight scenes, there are a couple of things that I can't help but notice, I can't help but notice that Yellow Four's arms and torso are quite large and more muscular compared to Pink Five when they did the finisher. Guess that means Yellow Four's suit actor is a dude. Another thing I notice is why the heck they should start spreading the Dark Fungus in one specific area only then will spread it on other areas later and they didn't explain it at the end. At the end of the episode, they beat Frog Kans and Hikaru and Jun are more than just teammates, they are now friends.