Part Two
Original release date: February 25th, 1990
The episode begins in the downstairs video shop, where R Tanaka is renting the first half of Assemble Insert.
As he's about to go home, a guy asks him if the video is any good. R Tanaka suddenly appears off his bicycle, and as the bike
rolls off into traffic, R promises it to be "really good".
Meanwhile, in the Special Operations office, the guys are just fidgeting around with no air conditioning or lights. The
Demon Seed have been inactive for three months, so the office has had its budget and air conditioning cut off. Desparate to
make his team look good again, as well as push Maron back into the spotlight, Chief Hattori sets forth the The Maron Entertainment
World Debut Project, which will go on for three months until the TPO Music Awards. In order to promote Maron's record, she
is given an appearance on a music TV show, where she is supposed to sing "Love & Power". Maron gets so nervous that
she can't sing, ang wanders off set and onto Kagiri Sonoba's photoshoot set. Maron gets embarrassed and breaks her microphone,
then apologizing wildly, she accidentally walks backwards into the brace holding up Kagiri's set, which is a golden dragon.
The dragon and Kagiri come falling down, but on live television, Maron casually catches the entire dragon with one hand.
Soon, Maron becomes a huge idol, and gets three #1 singles, along with a number of commericals and photoshoots. The Music
Awards are a week away, and Kagiri & Maron are in direct competition for the Newcomer's Award, not that Maron ever
notices their "rivalry". Meanwhile, Professor Demon realizes that the Demon Seed can't do a thing anymore, with their mecha
power suits horribly destroyed and with no money left. Luckily for them, Dr. Shimokobe is furious that Maron's robotic
suit is only being used as an idol costume, and claims that Maron is "a heroine of justice", not a pop star. He dresses
as Santa Claus and brings the Demon Seed four pre-assembled mecha suits (the same design he'd made before he knew the idol
contest winner was a girl). Back on track, the Demon Seed sabotages an office building's lights to spell a forewarning
that they will raid the Ministry of Financing's money printing bureau the next night...but they will cancel if it rains. Their
heist will occur on the same night as the TPO Music Awards, so unless it rains, Maron will have to decide between going
to the awards or going to fight.
At six o'clock the next night, it's raining heavily. Chief Hattori has sent several helicopters to patrol and warn
if the rain stops. Maron goes to the music awards as planned, and soon, the Newcomer's Award segment is up. Kagiri broods
offstage, as Maron practices in her dressing room. Meanwhile, The Demon Seed is sitting outside in the park, watching the
rain. Suddenly, Shimokobe is dressed like Santa again, and he speeds up one of the streets in Tokyo, in a moose-drawn sleigh.
Several minutes later, the rain stops completely, and Professor Demon excitedly calls the Demon Seed's next attack.
Maron is just about to go onstage when she hears of the rain stopping. The Special Operations guys tell her that
everything is okay, hoping that Maron will go onstage and win the award to fufill her dreams. As she goes onstage, the Special
Operations guys take to the road, hoping to stop the Demon Seed themselves. As the Newcomer's Award winner is about to be
announced, Maron jumps off stage, preparing to go fight. Kagiri stops her, asking if she's "running away", but Maron proudly
claims that her one true power is her strength, and she can only be her best if she does what she's best at. With that, she
leaves, running super-fast through the streets of Tokyo. At the same time, Chief Hattori and the riot police are hopelessly
trying to keep the Demon Seed back, to no prevail.
When the Special Operations guys arrive, they find the front yard of the printing bureau empty, except for some rubble
and Chief Hattori, whom is standing nearby. The guys watch as Maron crashes through a window and destroys the last Demon power
suit. As the fight ends, Hattori and the Special Operations guys are surrounded by angry police officers, and Maron is
surrounded by reporters.
As the ending song and credits go, we see clips of what happened to everyone.
1) Maron has visited the Special Operation guys after school (the Special Operations office seems to have been turned
into a police box) and they're playing Uno.
2) Kagiri is in a car, reading an idol magazine about the Music Awards, and Maron's retirement. Kagiri won the Newcomer's
Award anyway, but she seems to miss Maron a little.
3) The Demon Seed are having a "comeback party" in the noodle bar that Professor Demon kept accidentally calling.
After the credits, there's a scene where Maron has graduated from 8th grade, and the Special Operations guys and Hattori
are taking a group picture. Just as the picture snaps, Dr. Shimokobe jumps into frame and waves some fans, ruining the picture.
As the guys get mad at him, Shimokobe encourages Maron to "aim for the National Awards".
Linear Notes:
- The character renting a tape of Assemble Insert: Part One is R Tanaka from Kyukyoku Choujin R. As seen
during his cameo, one of his trademarks from his series would be to easily get off a bike while it cascades into a tree or
wall.
- J-Pop idols, unless they reach a certain level of fame, generally disappear after 3-5 months.
- The gold dragon from Kagiri's set is possibly a reference to Mashin Eiyuden Wataru, in which the characters Wataru
and Himiko are seen riding dragons in the same way that Kagiri is during her photoshoot.
- Yuuki (the guy with no mouth) is mentioned by name once during this episode. He is actually a charicature of Masami
Yuuki, the series' creator.
- R Tanaka appears one more time as a photographer at the TPO Music Awards.
- Maron's suit is revealed to actually do something, this being, it enables her to have enhanced speed and jumping.
- Dr. Shimokobe's final line is directly taken from one of Ichiro Nagai's more famous roles from Yawara! A Fashionable
Judo Girl, where he played the title character's grandfather.
|