Episode 5

**"Dr. Bell's Counter-Attack! The Roaring Rock Saw"** is the 5th episode of **Chikkun Takkun**. It originally aired on Fuji TV on May 7, 1984.

## Synopsis

While using her telescope one night, Mukko spots a beautiful boy playing the flute on the roof of the Nanda house. The Kyunkyuns begin to wonder if this boy is friend or foe. Meanwhile, Dr. Bell makes a failed romantic attempt on the Kyunkyuns, and decides to take revenge by kidnapping Miko and taking her to the old rock quarry.

## Characters

In order of appearance:

* Mukko
* Niko
* Mukko's brother
* Miko Nanda
* Chikkun Duck
* Mechatan
* Takkun Hat
* Dr. Bell
* Giji-Giji
* Meko
* Moko
* Maki
* Waruchin Encyclopedia

## Plot summary

One night after school, Mukko is using her telescope to finish her astronomy homework. She begins to spy on the surrounding neighborhood and take notes; one thing she sees is Miko's cat Niko congregating with other cats. As Mukko aims her telescope over to the Nanda house, she notices a mysterious boy standing on top of the Menfo. As she tries to focus on the boy, he smiles, sending her into a fit over how cute she finds him. Mukko runs to call Miko, while Mukko inadvertently makes her brother spill laundry all over the floor.

Elsewhere, Chikkun wakes up, seeing Miko, Mechatan, and Takkun checking the roof for the pretty boy. They can't find any trace of him; Miko tells them all to go back in the house while Chikkun seems especially rattled.

The next morning, Giji-Giji is brushing Dr. Bell's teeth for him. Giji-Giji remarks on Dr. Bell's good mood, and Bell explains it's all because of a dream he had the previous night. He describes sleeping in a fancy room, waking up to the Kyunkyuns calling for him, so much so that he has to jump out of the way of their grasp. But the girls in this dream only want to declare friendship with him, which infuriates Bell quite passionately when retelling it. He decides he must change his attitude around the Kyunkyuns, vowing to become a new romantic. In between clonking Giji-Giji in the head, Dr. Bell declares himself the coolest, baddest, gentlest, and "most all-seeing, supreme lover" in the world, in that order.

The Kyunkyuns and Chikkun's crew meet at a local playground. Mukko describes the pretty boy on the full moon, insisting he was real. Maki is the first to suggest the boy could possibly be an alien from Star R, perhaps even an ally of Dr. Bell. Chikkun ponders if the boy is actually a contract killer, but regrets saying so after the suggestion scares Moko. Mukko describes how pretty the boy was, while Maki decides the group should start guarding Miko.

At a flower shop near the same park, Dr. Bell is buying a bouquet of kerrias to give to the Kyunkyuns. While walking out, Giji-Giji realizes the girls are nearby, and they take shelter to observe. Chikkun is very seriously pondering the mysterious pretty boy, and the girls tease him for looking so serious. Seeing Chikkun get attention from the girls is too much for Bell to handle. He bursts out of his hiding spot, screaming "All I want is for you to give me that love!!". With the Kyunkyuns and Chikkun's crew now staring at him, Bell becomes bashful; Maki is infuriated, having just discussed Dr. Bell's possible involvement with the pretty boy. Maki gets on her bicycle, hits a jump, and slams her front tire directly into Bell's face. The group takes chase, while Giji-Giji jumps away, carrying a confused and distraught Dr. Bell.

Back at the Nazumar, Dr. Bell tearfully begs the heavens for an answer to his girl problems, but gets Giji-Giji instead: "'Cause you're obnoxious!" Dr. Bell suplexes Giji-Giji into the floor, but quietly thanks him for his honesty. Bell admits it's his nature and personality that truly keeps him from actually winning the Kyunkyuns' hearts. Giji-Giji offers him the Waruchin, and reluctantly, Bell asks it for something that could "pull away" the girls from Chikkun.

The girls are getting ice cream at a local restaurant when something sends Miko into a trance. She walks away from the group, begins levitating, and is soon picked up by the Nazumar's tractor beam. Takkun throws a tracking beacon onto the Nazumar while Dr. Bell throws a smoke bomb at the group. Bell knows about the tracking beacon, and encourages Giji-Giji to leave it on the ship; by the time the Menfo crew finds the Nazumar, they'll arrive right in the middle of Dr. Bell's trap. In the meantime, Miko is asleep in a trance, and Bell puts on a special mask designed to block out cuteness so he can keep his focus.

The Menfo soon arrives at the old rock quarry. The Kyunkyuns begin searching for Miko when enormous robot sharks emerge, with jaws strong enough to bite through wood and rock. One shark knocks Chikkun over the edge of a hill and down a crevasse, knocking him unconscious. The Kyunkyuns try running after Dr. Bell, but are chased away by more sharks, one of which rips a hole in Meko's shorts. Something about this causes Bell's safety mask to crack, and vengeful, Bell corners the girls with his sharks. Everything grinds to a halt as flute music sweeps over the quarry; standing before the full moon is the pretty boy, having just saved Miko, now playing a flute.

The boy jumps down from the cliff, punches the lights out of Giji-Giji and Dr. Bell, and throws the remote control for the sharks into the ocean. This causes them all to short-circuit and explode. The boy checks on Miko, but notices the moon is just about covered by clouds. Miko begs the boy for his name, calling him "Zangetsu-sama", or "Full Moon", but he runs away - falling down the same crevasse Chikkun fell in. Takkun finally finds Chikkun and pulls him to safety.

The girls watch Dr. Bell hastily flee in the Nazumar, and rightfully mock him from afar. Chikkun and Miko are reunited, and she tells him all about how he missed their encounter with "someone strong". Chikkun agrees, and the Kyunkyuns seem confused by his reaction.

## The pretty boy's identity

This is the only episode Zangetsu appears in. Unfortunately, his origin and the circumstances around his connection to the moon are never explained in the rest of the series. One likely possibility is that he was set to be explained in a future episode, had the series run for an average span of 26 episodes or more.

It is strongly implied that Zangetsu is some sort of projection from Chikkun. They are both voiced by Masako Sugaya, and Zangetsu's outfit looks similar to Chikkun's markings. Zangetsu only appears when Chikkun is unconscious, and when the moon is full and completely unobscured. Chikkun does not transform *into* Zangetsu, as Chikkun remains in one place while Zangetsu is active, but Zangetsu stays near Chikkun when he is about to disappear. It is possible that Zangetsu is a tulpa projected from Chikkun's dreams. When Miko first tells him about seeing a pretty boy, Chikkun seems startled and confused; it is also possible that he was dreaming *about* being Zangetsu in realtime.

The full moon seems to have a strange effect on Star R citizens. The events of this episode take place around nights where the moon is full, and the moon plays a large part during Dr. Bell's dream. The plot of Episode 11 also occurs around a full moon, possibly explaining Dr. Bell's absurd scheme therein.

## Allusions

Dr. Bell's safety mask resembles the famous mask of Darth Vader from the Star Wars franchise. As well, the control console Bell uses for the robot sharks resembles Shotaro Kaneda's control box from Tetsujin 28.