The Runaway and Division
- Original Airdate: April 21, 2024
Written by: Atsuhiro Tomioka
Directed by: Shojiro Nakazawa
Summary
Tropes
- Armor-Piercing Question: Mira's What the Hell, Hero? towards Taiya is comprised of these.Mira: Why? Why did you do something so crazy? How could throw away your life so easily?! And ours too?!
- Broken Pedestal: Mira and Jou are understandably upset that Taiya withheld the real reason for the creation of the Boonboomger team from them as well as the fact that he formed it for a less-than-altruistic purpose.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Taiya collapsing from his injuries.
- Cross Counter: How the fight between Boonboomger Robo Puncher and Giant!MadRex ends, with them hitting each other in the face.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Boonboomgers are on the receiving end of this when they fight a giant MadRex. None of the Boonboomger Robo's combination leave even a dent on him, and it takes the usage of the new Boonboom Off-Road Ghost car to shrink him down to his regular size, but not destroy him.
- Delayed Reaction: It takes a while for the generals to realize not only did they trap the Boonboomgers, they're also trapped with them.
- Didn't Think This Through: In order to help out MadRex lure out Taiya, Decotorarde and Itarsha decide to disguise themselves as high schoolers to trap the other four Boonboomgers. What they failed to notice is that they ended trapping themselves as well.
- Emergency Weapon: Taiya and Boondorio form an impromptu formation of Boonboomger Robo after most of the Boonboomger Cars are knocked out of commission and Boonboom Off-Road's blade gets sliced off by MadRex. Using Boonboom Off-Road Ghost, they create a formation with the two cars serving as gauntlets, which Boondorio dubs Boonboomger Robo Puncher.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Both Decotorarde and Itarsha are appalled when MadRex squeezes out the Gyaughsoline out of Yaiyai Yalcar and throws them away afterwards.
- Internal Reveal: Mad Rex unwittingly spills to Taiya that there's still someone above him in the Hashirien hierarchy. Something that would be useful to know if Taiya really was out to shut them down.
- Mood Whiplash: The dramatic cliffhanger with Taiya collapsing from his injuries sustained from the battle is sharply contrasted with the jaunty Ending Theme.
- Poor Communication Kills: Genba lets slip that the Boonboomgers were actually formed for Taiya's dream of organizing the BBG (Big Bang Grand Prix), and was surprised that none of this was communicated to Mira, Jou and Shirabe. Having learnt of this, Mira and Jou become extremely appalled that the team was formed for a less noble purpose than to defend Earth from the Hashiriens.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Taiya manages to defeat MadRex and causes him to flee, but not without heavy damage sustained by Boondorio and the Boonboomger Cars as well as Taiya getting badly injured himself. Plus there's still the conflict that's arisen between the team as the result of his dream being revealed and the actions he took during the battle.
- The Reveal: Taiya's dream is to hold the "Big Bang Grand Prix", a race held across the universe to see who has the best car. This is the reason why he created the Boonboomgers and the Boonboom Cars in the first place. Understandably, Mira and Jou are upset that the Boonboomgers were formed for a less-than-altruistic purpose.
- Rule of Symbolism: The final shots of the episode show Genba and Ishiro helping Taiya up while Mira and Jou don’t, a clear representation of who supports Taiya’s dream and who doesn’t.
- Skewed Priorities: Taiya's devotion to his dream to hold the BBG comes off as this, especially to Mira and Jou. This is made especially apparent when Taiya and MadRex's duel, ignoring his teammates to instead focus on defeating MadRex to protect his dream, resulting in Mira and Jou losing the trust in him.
- Transformation Is a Free Action: Averted when Giant!MadRex knocks Boonboom Wagon out before it can help form Boonboomger Robo, slicing off Boonboom Off-Road's screwdriver blade in the process.
- We Can Rule Together: MadRex asks Taiya to join him and his boss rather than fight alongside the Boonboomgers. Taiya obviously refuses.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Mira rebukes Taiya for pushing himself too far against the mecha fight with MadRex, indirectly blaming his devotion to his dream for pushing the others aside.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Decotorarde and Itarsha disguise themselves as injured civilians in order to lure the Boonboomgers into a trap. They successfully trap all of them minus Taiya, but get themselves trapped as well.
