Doronjo is back in the 2008 reiteration of Yatterman, with a more revealing outfit and a cursive D standing for “Doronjo” rather than “Dorombo”, with her goal to find the Dokuro Rings and wish for eternal wealth and beauty. As with the rest of the trio, she constantly makes fourth wall jokes which implies that it’s the same Doronjo that appeared 31 years ago (at the time this series debuted) in the original show.
She keeps most of her traits from previous appearances, but goes to more effort to keep her identity a secret, always wearing a mask and wig when pulling a con. She’s also more easily drawn in to anything that fits her interests, (wealth, handsome men, expressions of love) and usually gets pulled out of them the hard way (usually via explosion). Due to changing standards since 1977, her habit of smoking and losing her clothes were toned down, although they are subsituted with creative workarounds.
The romantic tension between Doronjo and Gan-chan is a bit more subtle, but teased every now and then. The most prominent case occurs in 35th episode, Farewell! Dorombo’s Finally Disbandoned, Koron! Doronjo (and the rest of the cast) has a dream where she obtained all the Dokuro Rings and married Yatterman-1/Gan-chan. Upon waking up from said dream, she bonks her head, which leaves her in a lovesick daze for most of the episode.
In the final episode, her wish is revealed to be pining for a lover, specifically Yatterman-1, and that Doronjo’s real age is implied to be around 32 in this continuity. (again coinciding with the time passed since the original Yatterman first aired.)
When the end result turns out fruitless and nearly having their hearts sucked out, Doronjo again disbandons the Dorombo gang and proceeds to part ways. She’s given a time machine from Boyacky to find a time period where she can obtain eternal beauty, but ultimately she can’t stand to be seperated from her friends, and the feeling is mutual. So she and her gang return to their hideout and continue to have fun together as the Dorombo gang for a little longer (or as long as it will take to find 50 Dokuro Rings)
With Yoru no Yatterman / Yatterman Night taking place hundreds of years after either previous show, the real Doronjo doesn’t make an appearance. But in the final episode, she delievers the very last line to her decendant Leopard: “Good night. Sweet dreams.”
Mun-Mun is the president of the Northern Ostendel branch of the Skull Lease and head of the Clean Aku trio. A 26 year old Chinese woman with high ambitions and low self-esteem, she is probably the most refined of the Time Bokan villainessses.
She is the only member of the branch that actually cares about the company, and it’s poor performance has earned her the scrutiny of the presidents of the other branches, especially from Tamashiro Kakure. Her true agenda is to work her way up to the top so she can usurp her boss Con Cordo, take over the Skull Lease, and conquer the world.
Due to the constant pressure, Mun-Mun’s very quick to gloat if things go according to plan and just as quick to blow a gasket if things go awry. And while not as physically abusive on her lackeys and more patient when it comes to doing any sort of activity, she’s very verbal if they go against her wishes.
Mun-Mun spends most of her worktime in her office musing to herself, and she sometimes partakes in oddball activities in there as well, usually as some form of motivational exercise or stress relief. When the trio are out to wreck the plans of the Time Lease crew, she’s usually collaborating with Kosuinen on how to stop them.
Speaking of which, Mun-Mun is often butting heads with Kosuinen, both in regards to work ethic and how to deal with Ippatsuman. She does get along with Kyokanchin pretty well, even though he’ll sometimes side with Kosuinen and she’s also the only one that barely puts up with Min-Min. Aside from the Clean Aku trio, she holds Tamashiro and the Time Lease crew in disdain and cares little for anyone else apart from “Mr. X”….
One day the Clean Aku trio are rushing to get to work when Mun-Mun falls onto the path of a subway train, luckily saved in the nick of time by a mysterious man. Immediately falling in love with him, Mun-Mun expresses a desire to see her “Mr. X” again, whom she identifies as Sokkyu Gou by the 25th episode. During the second half of the series, a string of espionage attempts against the Time Lease furthers her interest in him.
This story arc comes to a conclusion in episode 44, The End of Mun-Mun’s Love. On the behalf of her boss Con Cordo, Mun-Mun invites Gou and the orphans from the orphanage he grew up at to a Snow White themed Christmas party, taking sheer delight at recreating the moment where the prince kisses her to wake her from a spell. Unbeknownst to everyone, even her, it was a trap set up by Tamashiro and Agent 000 to expose Gou as Ippatsuman, killing him if he doesn’t confess.
Furious at being manipulated, she and the rest of the Clean Aku trio attempt to stop them to no avail, fleeing when Ippatsuman seemingly arrives. (who is actually Gou’s colleague Haruka standing in for him) Feeling that any good faith between her and Gou is lost, she hesitantly chooses to give up pursuing him. Later on, she makes one last attempt for Gou when it appears he and Haruka are getting married with no luck, but becomes optimistic when it’s discovered that it was a cover.
Any chance of her making it big are dashed when the entire Skull Lease falls into bankruptcy because of her branch’s ineptitude, with her final payment being an advert for online dating. After the ensuring chaos that shortly followed, she leaves Ostendel City in the hopes of turning her life around for the better, with Kosuinen and Kyokanchin unknowingly on the same train as her.
Doronjo, real name Hiroko Sasagawa, is the beautiful masked leader of the Dorombo gang. A bumbling thief at the age of 24 (or so she claims), she and her equally inept henchmen Boyacky and Tonzura seek out the Dokuro Stone for the mysterious Dokurobei with the promise of a huge amount of wealth.
Doronjo’s “name” is based on the Japanese word “doronko”, meaning “muddy” or “dirty”, something that’s brought up often by various characters. Her reason for starting the Dorombo gang and seeking the Dokuro Stone was to become the richest and most admired woman in the world, although it’s been hinted that what she really wants is to simply settle down and raise a family.
Although she retains previous villain Marjo’s traits of being vain, selfish, and impatient, Doronjo is significantly nicer to her subordinates Boyacky and Tonzura, even though their antics can get on nerves. She’s quick to praise them for achieveing something, and just as quick to scold them (mostly Boyacky) if they blunder. Despite her recklessness, she’s fairly intelligent and quite a smooth talker, which is best seen when she’s pulling a con or trying to get Dokurobei to reveal himself.
Doronjo plans out most of the scams and activities when searching for a Dokuro Stone fragment. During the earlier episodes her face can clearly be seen when in a disguise, although later on she wore a mask When it comes to battling the Yatterman, she has Boyacky and Tonzura do the fighting for her most of the time and at most uses the mecha they were travelling in to pick them up when they lose. Occasionally, the destruction of the Dorombo gang’s mecha will result in her clothes being shredded to revealing levels, although this can happen to all three members.
Her favorite food is french fries and she has a strong dislike of rats, although there is an good reason for the latter. When she was a little girl she came accross a rat that bit down hard on her nose. Because of that trumatic event, she’s absolutely horrified whenever a Yatterman mecha deploys mini-mechas resembling rats or mice.
Towards the end of the series, she begins to have second thoughts about her career as a thief. She develops feelings for Yatterman-1 (Gan-chan) which are obviously unrequited, and at one point imagines the conflict going on to the point where they’re all elderly. When the Dokuro Stone and the truth behind it are revealed and leave the Dorombo gang shocked and with nothing to show for it, Doronjo tearfully disbandons the gang and they go their seperate ways.
Afterwards, Doronjo got married and became the mother of five children, and according to Heisei Time Bokan she also opened up a bar named “Buchikku Dorombo”, decorated with Time Bokan memoribillia. However, she missed the fun she had with the Dorombo gang, and be it the starring role in a OVA, a chance to defeat all the various Time Bokan heroes, or an attempt at a social reform, Doronjo would bring the gang back together for more hijinks during the 90s.
Being the only playable villain in the game, Doronjo is a fighter in both versions Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, with Boyacky and Tonzura assisting her with some of her moves. Notably, this is a rare instance of her directly fighting an opponent rather than relying entirely on her goons. This is prominent after winning a fight where she’s clearly exhausted from having to physically attack someone.
Marjo (also spelt as Majo or Majyo, Lady Margot in Italy, Ratavari in South America, Lucinda Skullduggery in the Time Fighters dub) is the head of a gang composing of herself, Grocky, and Walsa, and she is the main antagonist of the original Time Bokan series. Her name is play on the Japanese word for witch, “majo”, and it also reflects her personality.
A 30 year old woman living in an luxurious mansion, Marjo is obsessed with obtaining Dynamonds for wealth and power, absolutely nothing else will suffice. She planted Grocky with Dr. Kieta and his crew with the intent of using the Time Mechabuton to find the elusive gems. Marjo is not satisfied with the one Grocky obtains from Parrosuke, the parrot that took off in the time machine during Dr. Kieta’s test run of it, so she and her goons attempt to hijack the Time Mechabuton and Parrosuke away from Tanpei, Junko, and Chorobo to no avail.
Shortly afterwards, Marjo and her minions travel around their own time machine, the Gaikottsu, to find the Dynamonds before the Time Bokan crew and possibly eliminate them as well. When traveling around in the Gaikottsu she tends to lounge around in the sofa-like backseat, though she’s usually standing in-between Grocky and Walsa during a battle with one of the Time Bokan mechas.
Although she is quite attractive, her beauty masks a cruel, spoiled, self-absorbed witch. (I know, I know.) Marjo cares for nobody but herself, and relies on theft, deceit, and if given the chance, even murder on her quest for the Dynamonds. She’s also extremely impatient and will get hasty in tense situations, more often than not condemning her gang to failure.
Although she’ll congratulate Grocky and Walsa on a job well done, she thinks lowly of her henchmen and becomes very aggressive towards them when they screw up or things aren’t going her way, even when they try to be supportive of her. She also greatly despises the group that pilot the Time Bokan mechas, especially Tanpei since he tends to directly interfere with her plans.
Marjo can be very manipulative, and she uses her charms to either deceive people and turn them against the Time Bokan crew or gain the favor of a villain or a higher up in a era. These tactics tend to be short lived, as her “allies” either don’t have Dynamonds or were shown the truth by the Time Bokan crew.
In the final episode, Marjo is overjoyed when she finally finds the Dynamonds (all this time in a park in the present) and attempts to take off with as many as possible, much to the protest of Tanpei and crew. But when the Dynamonds begin to turn to stone, she suffers a breakdown and begins to throw an epic tantrum. Absolutely furious, Marjo challenges Tanpei to one final showdown between the Time Dotabattan and the Gaikottsu.
Although the battle is in favor of Marjo’s gang, they lose anyways purely out of dumb luck. Driven insane by these turn of events, she’s last seen prancing around in a childlike state of glee over the “Dynamonds” in the night sky. (Though if one takes Royal Revival, Bokan GoGoGo!, or Kaitou Kiramekiman as followups, she becomes relatively sane again.)
The Daikyojin (King Star in Italy, translated as Great Giant in the Royal Revival OVA and Great Flame of Anger in Nurse Witch Komugi) is Yattodetman’s mecha in times of need, first appearing as a ship before quickly taking a humanoid form. Instead of having several cartoony mechas like in past series, the Daikyojin goes for a more Gundam-esque design and is the only one used by the hero here.
Whenever the villainous Milenjo’s gang would receive a mecha via their Timenagamochi, the heroes would summon the Daikyojin by combining Yattodetaman’s key Koyomi’s heart shaped lock and citing the following chant:
Japanese: “Odoroki, momo no ki, sanshou no ki, buriki ni, tanuki ni, sentakki~! Yattekoi koi Daikyojin!” English translation: “Surprise, peach tree, pepper tree, tinplate, tanuki, washing machine! Come come forth, Daikyojin!”
The Daikyojin’s weapon of choice is primarily a blade, though in certain situations he can also use a javelin or a bow and arrow. Yattodetaman usually pilots him, although how much of the input is Yattodetaman or the Daikyojin himself seems to vary. While the Daikyojin can act independently and offer some guidance to Yattodetaman, his pilot can trigger special functions to help get them out of a bind if need be.
Contrary to most other mechas at the time, he’s got quite a personality and can be very emotional, getting angry or excited, even being able to cry. While he hates Milenjo’s gang with a passion, he is a true defender of justice and does go out of his way to not kill them. Yattodetaman supposedly pilots him, although how much of the input is Yattodetaman or the Daikyojin himself seems to very.
If the Daikyojin’s struggling in a fight, Yattodetaman will call upon the Daitemna (Sagittarius in Italy), a yellow pegasus mecha. The Daikyojin will then combine with with it via a method known as Super Docking and form a centaur body that grants him the ability of flight, enhanced speed, and discs that serve as armor and weapons. The Daitenma can also transform into a tank like form with or without the Daikyojin called the Daibajin Tank.
A running gag is that after Milenjo’s gang was defeated, they would plead with the Daikyojin to leave them be. Any sort of bad mouthing about him, often started by Kokematsu, Komaro, or even Don Fan Fan, would get him riled up and attack the gang and what’s left of their mecha. It got to the point where the gang would put on dramatic performances either praising the Daikyojin or making him pity the gang, but all it took was a slip of the tongue for him to unleash his wrath upon them.
In the Royal Revival OVA Milenjo and Kokematsu summon the Daikyojin, borrowed from the Yattodetaman heroes in exchange for appearing in the next episode if the trio wins, and send him to attack the Clean Aku trio’s Sharekobe Buggy. They retaliate by summoning Ippatsuman’s Gyakuten-Oh to fight back.
Both mechas prove to be evenly matched, and the battle quickly comes to a end when their swords break. Both sides feeling embarrassed, the Daikyojin and Gyakuten-Oh spark a friendship and call a truce. This prompts Milenjo to start insulting the Daikyojin, and it should be pretty obvious what happens next.
The Daikyojin appears as a boss in both Bokan to Ippatsu and Bokandesuyo, with it’s combined form with the Daitenma serving as his second form in the latter. On a related note the Daikyojin was considered as a fighter in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, but was cut either due to two giant characters being enough or replaced by Gold Lightan. It goes to show how prominent the Daikyojin is to the Time Bokan series as a whole.
Today I’m going to be talking about one of the scrapped ideas for a Time Bokan series, Time Bokan Express: Daredaman! Planned as the eighth show after Itadakiman, it was set to return to the style of Yattodetaman and Ippatsuman with a style similar to the western 1930s for the characters and initial setting.
The premise involved a time-travelling train similar to Zenderman’s train motif, although with the ability to transform into a mecha like the Gyakuten-Oh in Ippatsuman. Created by the “Time Express HG” for tourism, a mysterious man known as SondeMonde and three bumbling gangsters attempt to use it to locate an artifact known as the Devil’s Horseshoe. To stop them, the great Daredaman would appear to combat them with the train-turned mecha.
Our main protagonist would have been Aro Ayumu Kunikida, a rich detective youth and presumably Daredaman, although what he would have looked like as the titular hero is unknown. Accompanying him on his adventures are Mayu Koganei, a magazine reporter girl, and Michael, a young boy who always carried a small computer with him.
The evil trio of this series would have been modeled after 1930s gangsters. Pandoll, who would apparently carry a rifle around with her, Herohero, a crafty magician, and Tonnel, a young brute. Under the orders of the mysterious SondeMonde, they would steal treasures throughout time in the hopes of obtaining the Devil’s Horseshoe. Apparently, this trio would be juggling their family lives in addition to their criminal activity.
Itadakiman’s failure stopped this from becoming a reality, and eventually the team lost interest in making another “serious” Time Bokan entry. What do you think about this cancelled concept for the series?
Daigoron (known as Abatar Robot in Italy) is a sumo wrestling robot introduced in Yattodetaman that serves as the bodyguard of Princess Karen. He’s a departure from past robot companions in that he’s a big, intimidating figure that doesn’t serve as a direct sidekick to the heroes. He is based off the real life former sumo wrestler Jesse Kuhaulua, known by his stage name Takamiyama Daigoro.
As suggested, Daigoron is absolutely dedicated to practicing sumo wrestling and protecting Princess Karen no matter what, and very little opinion on anything else. Episode 17 shows him partaking in a training montage set to disco music, where he practices with the hapless Wataru.
However his talents are inefficient in actual combat and he’s often easily defeated by Milenjo’s gang, especially when pitted against Alan Sukando. In fact, Koyomi, Karen, and even Wataru when he’s not Yattodetaman put up more of a fight than he does.
(Spoilers for Yattodetman below)
The last few episodes reveal that he’s actually an agent of the Dalla Hermit, who was sent to monitor the progress of Princess Karen to see if she was worthy of becoming ruler of the Nandara Kingdom, alongside Count Donfanfan who was sent to monitor Milenjo’s gang. After Yattodetaman saves the Nandara Kingdom’s residents from doom in the final episode, he abruptly vanishes with no explanation.
(Spoilers for the 2008 remake of Yatterman are in this post. Ignore it if you don’t want anything spoiled for you!)
The Dokuro Ring Hunters (shortened to Dokuhan in Japanese and the DRH for the sake of this post) are a faction introduced midway into the 2008 Yatterman series. Led by a mysterious boss, as the name suggests they are a group seeking out the Dokuro Rings.
Unlike the Yatterman and the Dorombo gang, almost every encounter with the DRH has a different member, every one different in personality. Each member has a distinct trick or tactic to a shake up a confrontation. Whenever the DRH introduce themselves, they perform a mandatory goofy pose, which most of the members abhor doing.
Thane and Louis de Medachi are a pair of narcissistic brothers, and they’re also a bit overemotional. Thane wields a rapier while Louis uses a whip, and they supposedly have a “Melon Melon Bishonen Beam” that makes them irresistible to girls, although Ai-chan was less than impressed with them.
They show up in Venice where they abduct Ai-chan amidst being chased by the Dorombo gang over a shield suspected to have a Dokuro Ring. While Gan-chan pursues them, Thane attempts to woo Ai-Chan to no avail. After the three groups gather in one spot, the Medachi brothers manage to obtain the shield, but Gan-chan lets them keep it so he can rescue Ai-chan.
Unfortunately for the Medachi brothers, the shield was swiped by the Dorombo gang later on, although it turned out not to be a Dokuro Ring.
Chiruchiru Michiru Michitarinu is a scientist wearing little beyond a labcoat, bikini and short shorts. Unlike the other members, she’s interested in the Dokuro Rings for her own research, and believes to have knowledge of the Yatterman and the Dorombo gang down to a T.
She appeared in Hawaii to seemingly guide the Yatterman to the Dokuro Ring’s location and eliminate them along the way, although due to dumb luck from the oblivious Gan-chan every attempt fails. When both they and the Dorombo gang reach the stone where the ring is buried under, she reveals her affiliation and plans to both parties.
When Michiru sees how dedicated and determined Gan-chan and Ai-chan are, particularly when the former attempts to lift the rock himself, she develops respect for them and breaks the stone in two with a light kick to let them have the ring without a fight. Though of course the Dorombo gang puts up one, and she was hoping that the ring would fall into her hands afterwards. (it was a fake so it doesn’t matter.) She appeared to show some fascination with Gan-chan afterwards, although nothing comes out of that.
Muscle Gatten is a construction worker from America (if his trenchcoat and usage of English is anything to go by). He loves showing off, especially in regards to his muscles, much to the annoyance of everyone (including his own boss)
Popping up in Akusekijima, Gatten competed against Gan-chan and Tonzura to locate the Dokuro Ring, taking the form of a mirror. Although he beats them to the suspected locations each time, none of the objects he finds are mirrors of any sort.
When a solar eclipse reveals the location of the mirror, Muscle Gatten dons a mechanical excavator themed suit to dig down and grab the mirror. In it he’s very strong and durable, and Yatter-Mogura or the Dorombo’s Bull-Dozer mecha are no match for him in this state. Luckily the Yatterman are able to turn the tide when Yatter-Mogura deploys mini-mechas that combine into a lake maiden.
In a parody of the Woodcutter fable, the “maiden” asks if he dropped a gold axe, a silver axe, or the mirror. He answers honestly and gets the mirror and axes, but he notices too late that the axes are sticks of dynamite and he’s blown sky high without the mirror.
Despite that, Gatten takes it from Doronjo after her gang is defeated and since the mirror actually is one of the Dokuro Rings, he’s the only member that actually manages to obtains one of them. His boss won’t have any of his gloating however and kicks him onto the Dorombo gang’s tandem bike, just in time for their punishment via whirlpool.
Barbara is an eccentric, elderly fortune teller who wears a mechanical backpack with a propeller built in to let her fly around. With an incantation and the wave of her finger, she’s able to send anyone who gazes into a trance, including mechas (except Yatter-Jinbei)
The most formidable of the DRH, Barbara formed an alliance with the Dorombo gang at the Strait of Doban to obtain a Dokuro Ring suspected to be part of a wedding veil. To achieve this goal, Barbara hypnotized Ai-chan to try and have her marry Dokubon, the bratty grandson of the Dorombo gang’s boss Dokurobei, and incapacitated Yatter-Jinbei (and by extension all the Yatter-Mechas within him).
With the aid of Yatter-Dragon and Neeton, Dokubon’s jealous robotic pig, Gan-chan was able to get into the chapel and snap Ai-chan out of the trance and bring her back to her senses.
Barbara had planned on double crossing the trio, and attempted to hijack the Dorombo gang’s wedding cake mecha to fight Yatter-Dragon, although the gang themselves manually regain control. She was defeated alongside the Dorombo gang, and likewise was punished by Dokurobei with them when the veil was discovered not to be a Dokuro Ring.
The boss of the DRH attempted to gather all the members to track down the last Dokuro Ring, but only Thane de Medachi was available since the rest of the members had actual jobs to do. I already mentioned what Gatten and Barbara’s careers are, while Michiru is a secretary, and Louis de Medachi works at McDonalds (where the meeting was being held).
However, they had prepared a special surprise beforehand that would greatly help out Thane and the DRH boss.
The ghost of Le-Onarabu Dabenki is a parody of Leonardo Da Vinci, and he happens to look and sound like Boyacky. His name is one big juvenile pun, with the words “onara” (japanese for fart) and “benki” (japanese for toilet) mixed in.
As such, he was summoned by Barbara to assist the DRH in designing a Mona Lisa-esque mecha to deal with the Yatterman, with help from Gatten in building it. Due to Michiru’s research and Dabenki’s design, it singlehandedly defeated all the Yatter-Mechas, even destroying Yatter-Dragon. It took a rather chaotic battle against Yatter-King to finally destroy it, although that happens long after the following events.
The resulting flattery and praise from the DRH boss and Thane allows Dabenki to ascend to heaven. It’s basically a joke regarding a pun on Odate Buta’s saying, becoming “Rei mo odaterya ten ni mo noboru” or “When flattered, even spirits can ascend to heaven.”
It turns out Dokubon was the boss of the DRH, and the reason for it’s existence was essentially another means for Dokubon to get the rings without relying on the Dorombo gang. And with the gang having nine of the Dokuro Rings and Dokubon having the remaining one, he terminated the DRH and sent Thane de Medachi flying.
Ryuko is a dragon girl summoned by Yan-Yan’s Sea Dragon Whistle (which resembles Tatsunoko Pro.’s mascot) who doubles as the fourth or fifth member of the Dirt Cheap Trio and as their mecha.
Going with Itadakiman’s “Journey to the West” motif, she is based off Yulong, a shapeshifting sea dragon that serves as Xuanzang’s horse after the former devoured the latter’s previous horse.
Living at the bottom of Otamaga Pond, she is often summoned by Yan-Yan’s Sea Dragon Whistle to either transport the Dirt Cheap Trio across the world or assist with dealing with Itadakiman. To do this, she transforms into a snail like mecha known as the Den-Den Mecha (mistakenly called the Ryuko Mecha in the Royal Revival OVAs).
In this state the Dirt Cheap Trio can ride inside her as she teleports across the world, and with the press of a button can allow the trio to transform a yokai into a giant remote controlled mecha with a mind controlling antenna. She also has a component for several objects including the Divinity Trio gag robots.
Because this is Ryuko transformed into a mecha, there are organic segments such as ribs protruding from the controls and her breasts manifesting as buttons which she does not like being pressed. Any beating taken by the Den-Den Mecha also applies to Ryuko as well, with her being just as bruised up as the Dirt Cheap Trio sometimes.
Occasionally she’ll tag along with the trio on their search for the Divine Puzzle pieces out of sheer curiosity. Though she always assists them, Ryuko doesn’t mind throwing a bit of snark at them or teasing them. She gets along with Kusaku quite well partially because of their mockery of the trio
Beginning with episode 13 Ryuko appears, decked out in baseball attire, on a bullpen cart carrying a small Relief Mecha which she enlarges with her magical breath, and it becomes the main method of the Dirt Cheap Trio’s counterattack for the remainder of the series. One exception was when the trio were slowly turning into trees and immobile, in which case Ryuko launched a giant needle to turn the yoaki into a mecha much like prior instances.
The mechas are still themed after the yoaki creature that Itadakiman has beaten by that point in the episode, and the puzzle piece it had is taken by the mecha to power it. Ryuko keeps watch on the mecha’s generator while the trio control it from the cockpit (which resembles the Den-Den Mecha’s own cockpit).
The spunky dragon girl gets a bit of focus in the sixteenth episode, Ryuko is a Woman Too. In her home beneath Otamanga Pond, she expresses her loneliness to Kusaku while he casually eats her dango treats. While the Dirt Cheap trio explore Italy for the next puzzle piece, she becomes smitten with a gondolier named Wanita . She then tries to get Yan-Yan to relinquish her Sea Dragon Whistle to be with him, but Yan-Yan is also in love with the gondolier and the two star to butt heads.
Unfortunately for both of them Wanita is actually an alligator yoaki enhanced by a Divine Puzzle piece (wani = alligator), which they find out the hard way when they break his guitar during a feud. After all’s said and done and the Dirt Cheap trio is bested again, Yan-Yan and Ryuko are left heartbroken and lonely once more.
(warning: spoilers for Itadakiman below!)
As it turns out, Ryuko does not have any ulterior motives whatsoever and she just kinda disappears after the Dirt Cheap trio are defeated for the last time.
Oddly enough, though the Den-Den Mecha appears in later Time Bokan spinoffs, it never shows any sentience or any indication that it’s Ryuko herself.
Operation Time Bokan 