Episode 43

**The Hero of Justice: Praying Mantis Joe**正義のヒーロー カマキリジョー, *Seigi no Hīrō Kamakiri Jō*) is the 43rd episode of the Konjiki no Gash Bell!! Anime. This episode first aired in Japan on February 8, 2004.

## Overview

Gash wants to attend the live action Praying Mantis Joe show at the Mochinoki Department Store but needs someone to accompany him. Although Kiyomaro refuses to go with him, Gash tries to seek help from Umagon but realize they still need a real guardian figure to be with them. Luckily, they ran into Suzume and the homeroom teacher's wife who both had plans that afternoon to go to the same store to shop for items that were on sale for a bargain.

## Plot

Gash spends his morning watching the Praying Mantis Joe show on TV before eventually going to ask Kiyomaro to take him to the live action show that will take place at the Mochinoki Department Store. Kiyomaro refuses and insists Gash go by himself but Gash tells him he needs a guardian with him in order to attend the show. He tries to convince Kiyomaro by showing off an advertisement about the show but unexpectedly for him, Kiyomaro ends up drawing over it for his own amusement. With things going nowhere with him, Gash decides to go to the show anyways but with Umagon accompanying him. On the way there, Gash talks to Umagon all about Praying Mantis Joe and his abilities as a superhero. As he finishes, he realizes they still don't have someone that can come with them as their guardian for the show. Umagon tries to come up with a clever disguise to help Gash but it proved to not be as convincing as he thought it was.

Luckily for them, they end up running into Suzume who mentions she was on her way to the department store too. Gash tells her about his situation and Suzume gladly offers to watch the show with them. When asked about why she's going to the store that day too, she tells them all about a special pear themed doll she was interested in that's for sale at an extremely low price that day. Just as she was expressing her excitement for getting the doll at a great value, she ends up running into her homeroom teacher's spouse, Wife. After Wife gets acquainted with everyone, she mentions she was on her way to the department store just like everyone else and Suzume asks about what she was planning on getting there. Wife then shows off a flyer showing an all-purpose kitchen knife that was also on sale for a great bargain and begins to talk about everything it was capable of doing. She then goes on to ask everyone else what their plans were at the store and everyone answers aside from Umagon who had no real reason to be there other than originally trying to help Gash watch the show there. Wife and even Suzume comment on his limited ability to help Gash which causes him to become a bit sad. Wanting to cheer him up, Wife offers to buy Umagon some carrots from the store but she as well as the others end up learning that Umagon had never had carrots despite being a horse. They then tell him all about how much he'll love it which instantly changes his mood around. With all of them having something to look forward to, they all head to the store together while singing and dancing.

Once at the store, they each go their separate ways to get their shopping done before meeting up for the show on the rooftop later. However, as each of them go about their day with high expectations for what they came for, they each end up becoming severely disappointed with the reality of things. For Gash, he ends up witnessing the man inside the Praying Mantis Joe costume remove his mask and see him being harassed by another costumed coworker. Suzume receives a different doll than what she had wanted and the knife Wife had bought turned out to be both small and useless as it immediately breaks upon use. Finally, Umagon learns he actually hates carrots after trying one bite. Although greatly distraught over seeing how weak Joe appeared to be, Gash overhears that the live action show will be starting soon and he and various other kids go up to see the performance.

Gash finds himself in much brighter spirits watching the show and seeing Joe effortlessly take down the villains he was up against. Gash gets distracted however when he overhears Umagon, Suzume, and Wife behind him who aren't as happy as him and he learns about what had happened to each of them. Looking around the crowd of kids, Gash also notices how sad they all appear to be too because they all received a fake doll much like Suzume. Upset this had happened to everyone, Gash decided he would confront Praying Mantis Joe and ask him for his help with this situation. When they talk to him backstage, he reluctantly tells everyone that he cannot help them which causes everyone to become more upset as they believed he was the real Praying Mantis Joe. Gash would soon lead everyone to go confront the manager of the store and as he walks off, the man inside the Joe costume, Yabuki, reflects on the fact that he's not the real Joe but thinks about how he used to have a strong heart much like Gash when he had first taken the job.

Gash, his group, and the other children confront the store manager in the storage area demanding him to exchange all of the fake merchandise that was sold to them for the real one. The manager however informs them that there will be no refunds or exchanges made and feels no remorse for his actions. He then has his bodyguard step in front of him to intimidate anyone that tries to attack him. This tactic succeeds until Praying Mantis Joe appears to challenge the bodyguard and save the day. The fight would end up taking place on the rooftop and although he felt confident in his fighting abilities, he ended up being easily overwhelmed by the bodyguard's attacks and taken down very effortlessly. Despite having appeared to have been defeated, Gash and everyone else continue to root for him. As he gets back on his feet, his resolve to fight remains strong as he remembers that he still believes in super heroes and that he is the real Praying Mantis Joe in his heart. As the bodyguard charges at him again, Suzume tries to help by tossing him a mop to use as a weapon but he ends up dropping it due to his praying mantis arms. Wife tries to help too by tossing a pumpkin only to end up knocking him down instead. The children would soon swarm the stage and while that happens, Wife gets the idea to toss Praying Mantis Joe at the bodyguard which manages to take him down. With the bodyguard defeated, Gash declares Praying Mantis Joe the winner and everyone would confront the manager one more time to make him refund their money and give them the real merchandise they wanted.

Outside the store, Suzume and Wife are seen happy that they have gotten what they came for and Yabuki, without his mask on, thanks Gash for helping him feel better about things. As Yabuki wishes him farewell, Gash thinks to himself that he was right thinking that Praying Mantis Joe was strong after all. At home, Gash and Umagon are seen watching the Praying Mantis Joe show on TV while Kiyomaro is at his desk annoyed by the commotion they're making. In an attempt to tease him, Kiyomaro tries to tell Gash that Praying Mantis Joe isn't real and that the person playing him is actually an ordinary person. Despite knowing that reality, Gash disregards this and reaffirms his belief to him that it doesn't matter because he had learned that day that what's really important is that the person has a heart for justice.

## Features

### Characters by Appearance

* Praying Mantis Joe
* Gash Bell
* Hana Takamine
* Kiyomaro Takamine
* Umagon
* Suzume Mizuno
* Wife
* Hidetoshi Nakata
* Parco Folgore

### Locations

* Mochinoki City
	+ Takamine Residence
		- Kiyomaro's Room

## Manga & Anime Differences

* In the manga, the fight between Praying Mantis Joe and the bodyguard takes place originally in the storage room. In the anime, the fight takes place on the rooftop of the store where the stage is.
* In the anime, Wife takes down the bodyguard by throwing Praying Mantis Joe's body at him. In the manga, she hurls a pumpkin towards the bodyguard to knock him out.

## Censorship & Other Localization Differences

* In the VIZ localization, there are numerous instances where Wife was edited to remain still while she speaks.
* Various awkward edits were made during scenes where Gash, Umagon, Suzume, and Wife were singing and dancing to one of Folgore's songs. This primarily consisted of replacing all scenes that were originally closeups of Wife's breasts with recycled scenes of Folgore dancing in episode 11.
* In the original Japanese airing of the episode, there are numerous advertisements in the background in the department store showing Folgore holding a woman's breast in his hand. In the VIZ localization, these were censored by having Folgore's arm edited out entirely.
* Various awkward edits and recycling of previous scenes were made when Gash was witnessing Yabuki being attacked by his coworker and some scenes of this were removed altogether.
* Umagon's vomit on the floor after eating a carrot was removed in the VIZ localization.
* A scene that originally shows Praying Mantis Joe being punched directly in the face by the bodyguard was censored over with a bright flashing screen.

## Trivia

* Makoto Raiku can be seen in the background of a scene showing Gash amongst a crowd of children.