TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 9 - “USADA RESCUE OPERATION!”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters09a.png

Ha ha, just after spending a day talking about the Buddyroids and how Usada is a hilariously literal and figurative helicopter parent to Yoko, here’s this story that kicks off with Usada feuding with Yoko over her inability to excel at schoolwork. The Go-Busters production team is reading this thread, you guys!

I thought this was a super charming episode, if maybe not as deep as a different Buster/Buddyroid pairing might be. Yoko and Usada have a comedically toxic relationship where they are pretty consistently getting on each others’ nerves, but the core metaphor is such a basic Helicopter Parent thing that it doesn’t feel like we’re seeing an additional layer to their relationship. Yoko obviously cares about Usada while being frustrated by his overprotectiveness and harsh expectations, while Usada obviously cares about Yoko while being frustrated by her snottiness and lazy attitude about schoolwork. They clearly care about one another, and they’re just in the middle of a stupid fight, so there’s not a ton they can reveal that we hadn’t already seen or intuited. It’s a cute story, but not a complex one.

Luckily, the execution is layered and ridiculous, and that makes up for thinness of the emotional conflict. Hinging this story on No Metaroids means we get a more tense story where Enter is fully featured, and there isn’t a goofy robot suit to muddy the stakes. It’s just the Go-Busters trying to outwit a kidnapper, and that turns out to be plenty. (I could not have cared less about the destruction of the two random Alpha Megazords at the end, and I think the show felt the same.) Yoko gets to prove her chops by helping devise a multi-staged ploy to trick Enter, which is exactly the sort of intricate plotting that makes me care about these fast-paced superhero narratives. Bonus points – it includes Morishita and Glasses Lady as duplicate Busters and solo work for Nick and Gorisaki, which is such a crucial part of this Every Go-Buster Matters Even The Annoying Rabbit Dad story, and I love it. This whole thing is half a complete goof, and half a sweet story of the bond between an overbearing parent and a bratty teen. It’s great. It’s dumb, and it’s great.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters09b.png

IT’S TIME FOR Usada!

He’s such a little shit in this one, and that makes him the perfect foil for Yoko, who is crowing with delight when she learns that he got kidnapped. They are both insufferable, and they are also they only people who can stand each other. I love their toxic parent/child bond, and I agree with Glasses Lady that the two of them screaming at each other back at base just feels normal.

Now this I remember. Mostly for the lack of a real monster, since unlike Rider doing it once the budget for new monster suits runs out, in Sentai normally those episodes either have slightly higher stakes, or it’s the last arc of the show. But this is just… If someone asked which episodes weren’t all that relevant to the plot so they could skip them, I’d put this one there.

As for why there’s still a giant robot battle… they’re mandated to feature at least one scene dedicated to the Mech per episode (though sometimes, they’ll use the loophole of padding out one fight, or making the scene just a short shot)

I think it's more of a Kobayashi thing. Tatsuya, Takeru and Hiromu are a little more cool-tempered than your average "Screaming Red" type. Feels like her Riders Shinji, Momotaros and Eiji are more like typical Red Rangers than her actual Red Rangers. Even among the examples you mentioned, Marvelous switches to nekketsu whenever he's hungry and Akashi often gets fired up about the thrill of the adventure.

The Usada Heist seems too dumb to work at first but then it actually becomes impressive how it depends on Enter being perceptive enough to see through all the obvious stunt doubles and chain of amateur errors until eventually he's left watching with the viewer in disbelief at their incompetence, while the actual trick is happening right under his nose. Shows that overestimating your enemy can be just as dangerous as underestimating them. It's the kind of ridiculous heist that only someone as dense as Yoko can pull off.

As someone who hated homework and would procrastinate doing it until the last moment, I can relate to the conflict between Yoko and Usada. Their relationship is the most turbulent one but I have to disagree about it being less complex than the others. I think it's necessary to show that even though child and parent can fight sometimes, they still care about each other. Rather, if they didn't care, they wouldn't fight at all, which is why it feels right to Nakamura (glasses lady) at the end. This plot just wouldn't work the same with Hiromu and Nick or Ryuji and Gorisaki, as they're either too chill or too introverted to fight as hard as Yoko and Usada do.

Tatsuya felt more like a mild-mannered red ranger who played it cool than being the actual cool guy, which was Ayase's role in that team. Takeru, while aloof, was not too cool for school and felt more reserved and distanced given his status (and real intentions which are revealed later in the show) in his team I think compared to Hiromu. I think Hiromu's initial portrayal as a more aloof and self-centered red ranger than his predecessors was what was also part of the series trying something new. As for being a Kobayashi thing, let's not forget Ginga Red and ToQ 1, also Kobayashi's babies. Hell, Ryoma's the oldest. :lolol

Sure, it's maybe not relevant to the plot of the show (although Enter completely losing his cool in this one feels like a shift in his adversarial relationship with the Go-Busters), but it's a super fun episode that helps to explain the Usada/Yoko relationship a little better, so I don't know that I'd consider it missable.

I guess? The Usada/Yoko relationship to me still feels less dramatically interesting than Gorisaki/Ryuji and Nick/Hiromu, in that this one is a lot more surface level and boisterous. The other two groups seem to have more going on under the surface, but I get that that appraisal is a little subjective.

KAMEN RIDER X SUPER SENTAI: SUPER HERO TAISEN

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...rs/taisen0.png

So, I know this is on the schedule for tonight, but I’m calling an audible. For one thing, I already wrote up this movie a couple years ago, and you can read it here. For another, I really disliked that movie. (A lot!) Finally, and maybe most importantly – the Go-Busters part is incredibly minor. I tried rewatching it to see if the Go-Busters part somehow had more significance or intrigue than I remembered, but it absolutely doesn’t. Their appearance is immediately upstaged by Decade and bunch of monster suits, and their reappearance late in the film basically becomes a Fourze promotional segment. They aren’t really a part of this movie in any way that matters.

But!

When I was digging through folders to find Super Hero Taisen, I noticed a folder that I’d never looked in before, containing a toku project I never watched before – even better, it’s a project that features significantly more Go-Busters content, with as much impact on their TV series as whatever minimal screentime they got in Super Hero Taisen. So let’s talk about that instead!

—

KAMEN RIDER X SUPER SENTAI: SUPER HERO TAIHEN - “WHO’S THE CULPRIT?!”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...rs/taihen1.png

I only ended up watching the parts of this Net Movies series that included any of the Go-Busters: “Super Sentai Murder Mystery! You’re The Great Detective!”, and “Tokumei Sentai Buddy Go!” They’re each Net Movies, which means they are both absolutely non-canonical, and incredibly funny.

Of the two, I think I liked the Murder Mystery two-parter better. The solution is completely deranged – the Net Movie’s director, played by Maki from OOO! – and the clues are utterly irrelevant and misleading, but the absolute certainty that Hiromu has at every incorrect guess is completely in keeping with his appearances so far in Go-Busters. Similarly, Ryuji’s continual intimation of love gone wrong as a possible motivation is exactly the sort of mature insight I’d expect from the oldest Buster. It’s all very dumb, but somehow still in the range of Go-Buster characterization.

The other three shorts are fun, but rely a little too heavily on wordplay that never quite translates well for foreign audiences. I love seeing the Principal from Fourze reveal in an utterly non-canonical way that his character is an amnesiac Garren from Blade (before getting detonated alongside Yellow Buster and Usada by the Kamen Rider Club to avoid embarrassment), but the mysteries themselves were a little too region-specific for me to find much entertainment. Favorite Go-Busters touch, though, was seeing Yoko instantly not care about solving a Rider mystery because she’s Sentai. I love the inherent rivalry between the two brands in Fourze Net Movies, and it’s the best gag throughout these dumb movies.

Dumb movies that are still somehow worth more to Go-Buster fans than Super Hero Taisen, though!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...rs/taihen2.png

Yeah, the net movies that served as sort of a promotion for the Super Hero Taisen are far more enjoyable than the actual movie. That plus they also featured a far better dynamic between the characters of both Super Sentai and Kamen Rider.

Oh, thank goodness. I felt so bad for you when I saw this on the schedule.

Taihen was such a happy accident, because the alternative as me lying about watching Taisen again. That movie is... I mean, I like fan service and everything, but that movie's premise is nearly criminal. I wish the Taihen specials had arrested Yonemura instead of the Net Movie director!

Net movies, informative yet insane at the same time. Those were the days. :lolol
They helped clarify that Decade ain't pink but MAGENTA and that both Faiz and Kiva's helmets also incorporate motifs from sharks and jack-o'-lanterns respectively. Then we get that one track and field race where Kamen Rider Black just walks like a boss recreating his own ending theme scene. :lolol

Those were the days, but Reiwa ain't been so bad. For Gotchard alone this past year, we've gotten a dozen Hades Sisters episodes, that Class 3-G short, a few Gotchanimes... we still get a bunch of incredibly weird crap!

Worth mentioning that while he’s portrayed by an actor here, director Hiroyuki Kato is a real person, who did direct some episode of Go-Busters proper. (His episodes are… mostly ok. He doesn’t really have a style of his own, beyond basically aping whoever the main director for the current series is)

As for things that aren’t on the watch list… I realised I forgot the Final Live Tour when giving it to you. It’s a stageshow that’s sort of similar to Rider’s Final Stages, which you can find at the usual place.

I will try to track it down! Thanks!

Yeah, like asking the hard questions in life. Do Chemies take dumps? :lolol

And don't forget "What alcoholic beverage does Hopper1 prefer?"

I assume beer. :lolol

I agree, this movie kind of sucks. Yoko is one of the protagonists of Super Hero War Z though, so maybe you'll get more enjoyment from rewatching that, presumably during your Wizard thread.

EDIT: Nevermind, I see it's on your list for this show as well.

Well yeah, I know that Ayase's still the actual cool guy of the team, but I'm referring to cool temperaments in general. Takeru introduced himself to his team while looking down on them from his literal high horse, so if he's not the cool guy then I don't know who is. I'd say that Takeru, Hiromu and Kairi are probably the most cool-tempered Reds in the 21st Century.

Honestly, I still haven't watched Gingaman yet, so I'll have to take your word for Ryouma. I know his big bro is portrayed by Ogawa Teruaki though, so I guess nekketsu is a hereditary trait. :p However, Gingaman was Kobayashi's first, so this seems like an outlier. I wish I could forget about ToQ 1, but watching Boonboomger is going to make that difficult.

Can't brew beer without hops, after all.

I remember back when Kamen Rider Saber was airing, that to hype up Super Hero Senki (written by Mouri), one of the production blog thingies specifically brought up the huge variety of shows he's been a sub-writer for, and how he always displays an ability to grasp the kind of show the main writer is making and all that. It got me thinking like "now that you mention it...", and ever since then, I've taken his work even more seriously than I already did. So yeah, honestly, I might not argue with this assessment.

Funnily enough, I vaguely recall when I originally watched the show that I remembered Nakamura's name right away but didn't commit Morishita to memory until way later. :lol

Anyway, yeah, very cute episode for Yoko and Usada. I feel like he's sort of inherently the funniest Buddyroid on account of being an R2-D2-esque trash can with legs, so between that and Yoko's oftentimes childish disposition, it's maybe only right that this one is more fun than it is complex. Like, if the characters the story is focusing on can be dictating the overall tone in this fashion, that's probably just another sign how fully-realized this show's world is, you know?

And bold of you to assume the show didn't care about those Megazords at the end! Between the cool entrance for the Busters, all the Machines teaming up in Animal Mode, and the insert theme playing, they did everything they could to spice that scene up! ...which is probably something they'd feel the need to do if they also felt the scene wasn't particularly interesting simply on a narrative level. Hm.


Oh man no you're really going through with thi--

--Oh, okay then. Glad to see you're making the much healthier choice here, Die!

I kid, I kid. Er, I mean, I kinda do, anyway? Obviously Net Movies are already frequently more enjoyable than even the well-regarded films they're sometimes promoting, but yeah, in Super Hero Taisen's case, admittedly, it's probably all the more true. I'd kind of love to have some incredible contrarian defense at the ready for that movie, but seeing as I've never enjoyed it that much myself, the best I've got is that it's *probably* not specifically Yonemura's fault.

Now I wanna see Hopper-1 with a pint and full Oktoberfest gear. :lolol

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 10 - “A REASON TO FIGHT”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters10a.png

It finally hit me with this episode what the main difference between Sentai and Rider is, based on my gigantic sample size of ten episodes from one (1) Sentai season, versus 26 Kamen Rider seasons: there’s no subplots here?

I mean, there’s definitely background stuff happening around the edges, character development stuff mostly – Hiromu learning a lesson, or Yoko confronting Ryuji’s dark side, or whatever the moral of the episode is – or the slowly developing plot of Enter’s Zord-building scheme, but there isn’t, like, a B-plot for an episode. We’re in one story about 1-9 characters each episode, with two or three acts per episode, and that’s it. There aren't really cutaways to completely separate plots that bubble up in the background, or act as a release valve for tension occurring elsewhere, or just provide an isolated spotlight for a different cast dynamic. Like the title says, there’s a Mission, and that’s what you’re going to get for 20-odd minutes.

I think that’s proven fairly successful as the framework for an action-adventure serial featuring three main characters, but it sort of handicapped this otherwise excellent installment devoted to the relationship between Hiromu, Rika, and Nick. Namely, we haven’t seen Rika since Mission 1, I don’t think anyone’s mentioned her in a serious way since then, and I don’t think she ever shared a scene with Nick before. (I may be overlooking a flashback or something here!) In an episode that already has to take us from Rika and Hiromu on the outs because of his decision in Mission 1, all the way to her understanding his, uh, Reason To Fight by the end of the episode, it doesn’t help things to have so much of the family’s backstory consigned to an exposition-heavy scene on a bridge between Nick and Rika. Like, it would have been nice for pieces of this story to have been dropped in a few episodes back? Or maybe Nick could’ve shared a scene with Rika, even once? It’s a lot of information that show didn’t have time for previously, and it made a few of the emotional beats not really land for me super well.

(It sort of also doesn’t help, for me, that this is a story about Hiromu and Rika that Hiromu is strenuously excluding himself from. I get that it’s true to his character, and I get that a lot of the point of this episode is how Nick is the glue binding the family together instead of the thing breaking it apart, but it still means that there’s no real cathartic moment between Hiromu and Rika at the end.)

But, y’know, I still think this one worked okay for me. There’s a lot of sweetness in Nick’s desperation to patch things up between Hiromu and Rika, as well as some stunning visuals throughout that sell the significance of the weight that Hiromu and the rest of the team have been carrying for the last 13 years. (That shot when Nick is consoling a scared Rika while Ryuji fights the Megazord in the background!!!) It’s a tense, exciting episode of Go-Busters that manages to sketch in some fun new layers to the relationship between Nick and Hiromu. Sadly, the relationship between Hiromu and his sister wasn’t my favorite part of the episode, but I guess it’s hard to deliver that sort of density when you’ve only got the one plotline per episode. I will try to get used to the difference!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters10b.png

IT’S TIME FOR Special Buster!

Man, that fight between Hiromu and the Metaroid… so good! The idea of doing a close quarters, one-on-one duel is exciting enough, but that finish was gorgeous and clever. I am really digging the action on this show!

(NOTE: Sorry to anyone who posted earlier today that I didn't respond to! I didn't see the new posts until I got on here just now, and it's very late, and I need to get to bed, but I appreciate everyone who posted today!)

Yeah, Sentai has a bit more of a set formula to it’s episodes than Rider: Begin plot, introduce monster, fight, continue/conclude plot, second fight, giant battle, conclude plot if it wasn’t before, otherwise epilogue. Kobayashi has stated that she prefers writing for Sentai for the reason she has guidelines to the script.

And I mentioned two episodes ago that Drilloid was one of two Metaloids to get an action figure when the series was brought over to the US. Well this episode features the second one, named only in the credits as “Danganloid” (dangan = machine gun). In his case, it’s because all the one-shot monster costumes were deteriorating after 6 years (the regular monster suits are the ones they make to last), so the production team needed Toei to remake the costumes for them to use, but Toei would only do so if they were definitely going to make new footage with the suits. So they promoted Danganloid into a recurring villain named Vargoyle (which is easier than you think, for reasons I am not at liberty to give out) and expanded his powers from super speed to having the same powers as the main 3.

And I think that's totally fair! I don't think this show is weaker for having a stricter cadence to its storytelling at the episode level, but it does make some attempts at leveraging backstory a little less effective, in my mind.

In a fun bit of trivia, Rika's picture here was drawn by Mitsuru Karahashi, who Sentai fans will probably most know for being a particularly cool antagonist in Shinkenger, and who Die definitely most knows for playing Kaidou in Kamen Rider Faiz. (Like, he probably still hears that name the way Yuuji says it every time he reads it) When he's not in front of the camera, though, it turns out he's actually a pretty dang talented illustrator with a particular kind of delicate style that Toei occasionally makes use of for situations like this.

As for the episode at hand, it's probably not too surprising that it's a favorite of mine, in part because I'm a sucker for Red Buster, but also because it made Rika into a character I've always found really interesting. There's a sort of realism to her fears, the way she just wants to completely shut out anything that brings to mind the tragedy 13 years ago, and how she dislikes Nick mostly because of that association and all that... it's the kind of story where, especially depending on the kind of viewer you are, there's that risk of it coming off like some buzzkill showing up to tell the hero to stop doing cool hero things, but Go-Busters being Go-Busters, the writing has the necessary nuance to avoid that trap. Really, I think the episode gets more interesting the more you think about it from her perspective.

In the sense that I believe she has a lot to add to the series' narrative, I agree with Die that it'd be even better if Rika had more of a consistent presence prior to this episode, but on the other hand, I love how complete this one is just on its own merits, while also touching on so much of what makes Go-Busters the show it is.

Adding to this, I think Karahashi was behind the drawings in the Kabuto opening clip. He also worked under a pseudonym, which he also uses for doing artwork for a Bandai subsidary, for a children's book called Namidaroid (ナミダロイド).

Yeah, of the complaints I might've had about Mission 10, Rika's argument isn't one of them. I genuinely appreciated that her concerns were based less in the constant danger of being a Go-Buster -- since she's basically shut herself out from knowing any of that stuff, for her own mental health -- and more that the Go-Busters organization which already vanished her parents to another dimension has now also spent 13 years trying to indoctrinate her brother into a government military squad. She sees them as taking advantage of an emotionally-damaged young man, not a heroic group of agents that are trying to make sure no one else suffers the way she did. It's a good story for her!

KAIDO

(Also! Sorry to say, but I won't be able to post anything about Mission 11 tonight. Work was insane today; not only was I working non-stop on twice as much stuff as usual, but I also ended up needing to stay an hour and a half late to finish everything up. I'm beat! But I'll make sure to watch and post Mission 11 tomorrow, so we don't end up falling behind. Thanks for understanding!)

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 11 - “TARGETING THE WEAK POINT”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters11a.png

It is incredibly this show for Gorisaki to look at the relationship that Nick and Usada have with their Busters and wonder if his own relationship with Ryuji is too mature and emotionally responsible.

It’s a funny jumping off point for a very sweet episode that sort of also feels a little random in its placement in the series order and general instigating motivation. Enter’s scheme to leverage Ryuji’s weak point in order to bump him off doesn’t feel tethered at all to the slow burn construction of a new Buster Machine in hyperspace; it’s sort of just a random supervillain plan to kill a superhero? I don’t hate the episode that came from it (far from it!), but Enter’s usually the guy counseling Messiah to think bigger than just executing the Go-Busters, in favor of executing a plan that could free their faction from hyperspace. To have Enter just solo-run a plan to kill one-third of the Go-Busters and that’s sort of the scope of it… I don’t know, it felt a little out of character, despite the panache and ingenuity with which he approached it?

Setting that aside, though, it was a fun episode that hinged on a pleasingly goofy character dynamic – namely, that Ryuji and Gorisaki get along so well that Gorisaki feels like Ryuji doesn’t believe their bond could survive a little friction. What seems to most observers as the clear advantage the Blue team has over Red’s catastrophic people skills and Yellow’s non-stop bickering, Gorisaki instead sees as a way that Ryuji keeps a polite distant between them due to a lack of affection and/or trust. The people we love are sometimes the ones we get the most aggravated by, and Ryuji’s continuous breezy dismissal of Gorisaki’s clinginess just tells Gorisaki that Ryuji doesn’t care enough.

So of course Gorisaki risks his life to give Ryuji the chance to defeat the Fanroid, causing a worried Ryuji to lose his cool (Non-Homicidal Version) and berate Gorisaki for almost getting killed, the air has been cleared, go defeat the Megazord, finish with a joke. It’s not a story with a lot of moves on it, but the relationship between Gorisaki and Ryuji is so sweetly unique and fun that I kind of didn’t care that you can see the beats coming on this one a mile away. The actors sell every moment in this thing, from the sheepish embarrassment of Gorisaki in the beginning, to Ryuji’s heated anger at the end, and everything in-between. It’s a terrific episode for exploring the seemingly perfect partnership and finding its hidden weak point. Just like in the title!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters11b.png

IT’S TIME FOR Yellow Buster!

I just love the constant mutual antagonism of Usada and Yoko, and this episode lets it act as the hilariously toxic flipside of Gorisaki and Ryuji. (Nick and Hiromu… it’s a little more just Nick being the perennial apologist for the horrible thing that Hiromu said and walked away from. Different premise!) Yoko’s ability to go full blast on her helicopter dad at a moment’s notice really helped sell the insanity of Gorisaki wishing that Ryuji could open up like that to him. I don’t know that any parent should want a relationship with their kid that was like Yoko and Usada’s! And I think Yoko is the best!

So I mentioned we had another writer with his own style of doing episodes, and here he is, the only one on the staff with any prior Sentai experience*, Kento Shimoyama. Basically, his episodes of Go-Busters have a habit of absolutely refusing to focus on the Busters themselves, which starts here with the episode focusing on Gorisaki being the embarrassing mother from hell.

He also has a knack for totally avoiding the LRR (lather, rinse, repeat) plot of stealing energy, with Fanloid’s goal being the more unique one of pissing Ryuuji off via overheating him, which is totally the type of a plot a hyper-competent henchman like Enter would get up to in a more traditional Sentai show (that is, prioritising destroying the Rangers as much as/above the main goal).

*Kobayashi has admitted she remembers nothing about working on any of the shows she’s penned, which kind of makes it hard to have any experience.

I completely respect and understand her position!

As promised, I'll point out that Dangan Zord was the specific Gamma type I was referring to before. I mean, it's just Megazord Gamma with a gun, but that's a simple way to make a cool design even cooler, like Onjuuken Suzune.

Don't forget about the sequel: Namida Zord

Gorisaki could've felt like Ryuji doesn't need him emotionally, since Ryuji's situation is different to the personal trauma of Hiromu and Yoko who lost their families and he was old enough 13 years ago to function independently with little need for parental influence, already pursuing a career in engineering. Gorisaki is a skilled mechanic, so he knows a spare part when he sees one and I can see why he would take Ryuji's polite tolerance of his frequent mistakes as a refusal to treat him as more than a colleague. I think it's intriguing how Hiromu and Ryuji both attempt to carry their burdens alone, but in opposite ways. While Hiromu vents his frustration externally with blunt honesty, Ryuji internalizes it to keep everybody happy, which is much worse for him. Anger is a necessary release and it's important to be honest about it to the people you care about. I like how Ryuji's and Gorisaki's relationship develops here with Ryuji finally getting angry at Gorisaki's recklessness, showing that Ryuji really does care about his partner.

After Snacks, Usada and even Gobuster Oh, it's good to see you finally gave Yoko the highlight!

Kobayashi has been abusing those Zeronos cards for real!

This episode does a good job of not making either Gorisaki or Ryuji wrong: Gorisaki feels like Ryuji isn't willing to hurt his feelings by being honest, and Ryuji thinks he's being a good friend by not making Gorisaki feel bad. Each of them is doing their best to be there for the other person, but without the ability to open up, there's only so much they can help. It's a neat moral!

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 12 - “DO YOU LIKE DISGUISES?”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters12a.png

There’s a bit in the opening sequence of this episode where Nakamura asks the assembled Busters and Buddyroids what Yoko does for fun, and all five of them stare blankly and mumble answers that indicate that they have no idea what, if anything, Yoko does to have fun. While that’s the direction in which the episode would inevitably travel – delving into Yoko’s life outside of and beyond being a Go-Buster – I honestly found it even funnier that I couldn’t tell you what anyone in this cast does outside of a mission, so it’s a little hypocritical for this show to make a big deal out of Yoko’s single-minded dedication to the mission. That’s this whole series!!!

But I’m not here to gripe. (If I were, I’d 100% point out how ridiculous it is for the daughter of a world-famous actress to treat success in the film industry as some impossible dream, rather than the all-too-common birthright of nepo babies; also, come on, you can switch out Angie for Yoko at the press conference, but she HAS to wear the crystal earrings instead of some fakes; also, what exactly was the Megazord even doing there, besides giving us a cute Ace V Ace scene – the entire plan was about infiltrating the press conference, not distracting the Go-Busters with a two-pronged battle.) I’m here to enjoy this episode about Yoko being the socially-damaged byproduct of a childhood spent as a soldier, trained by robots and other soldiers.

It’s nice that the story about Yoko not having a dream doesn’t have her suddenly revealing a hidden talent or passion, like Ryuji’s engineering career. She’s been a Go-Buster since she was three years old, and her entire social circle is the Go-Busters organization; I’m sure they did the best they could with making sure she was cared for and educated (Usada rolls his eyes), but there’s no sense that she was properly socialized. She doesn’t seem to have any hobbies, or friends outside the various soldiers and employees that fill up the background. We’ve never seen her care about anything that didn’t directly impact the mission.

What’s great about this story is it basically just goes Yeah, We Should Work On That. It’s weird that Yoko doesn’t have a life outside of Go-Bustering, but that’s what she needs to do right now for the safety of everyone she cares about. Still, it’s a job with a goal – defeating the Vagras and rescuing the people trapped in hyperspace – but it’s not a dream. There will come a point when Yoko is a young woman that needs to figure out what her future looks like. It’s not today, but now she realizes it’ll eventually happen.

I like that, the small step Yoko has to take into a wider world. There’s no immediate pressure for her to join a band or work in a cafe or start dating or write a book or whatever, but it’s nice for her to start considering a life beyond training and fighting. Tiny little story about the show acknowledging how sheltered and warped Yoko’s vision of her future must be, with the hope that recognizing it can start to change it. Works for me!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters12b.png

IT’S TIME FOR a talk about how much privacy Yoko has in her life!

It’s a funny gag, that Yoko reads over this heartfelt letter from her doppelganger Angie Sue and then reveals that she can’t actually read it because it’s in English (despite Angie Sue being a Hong Kong actress that speaks fluent Japanese I’m not here to gripe), but afterwards I really got worried for Yoko. First, Ryuji’s just reading her mail? How long has that been going on for? But then I continued to get even more worried about Yoko, with this entire episode sketching in a life as a child soldier: she lives at the base, presumably for her entire life; her support system – emotionally, physically, and mentally – are her teammates and superiors, with seemingly no one in her life outside of that; and there is no sense that this girl is prepared for a life outside of a very specific mission to defeat hostile otherworldly forces. This is all incredibly weird and sad! This is like Evangelion, but at least those kids got to go to a regular high school! I feel like Yoko needs the state to step in and put an end to this!

If I had a nickel for every Kobayashi-penned Sentai series where there was an episode involving the sole girl having a doppelg?nger who’s a famous actress, I’d have two nickels.

And in both cases, neither was actually written by Kobayashi, with this episode being Mouri’s second contribution. Which made me realise that his episodes for this series tend to focus on the Busters… through the lens of their relationship with a one-shot character.

Aside from that, I’ve not got much to say about this one. The Gingaman episode with this plotline was more memorable.

I don't think this one is going to make my Top 10 for the series, no!

The surprising part is that Yoko seems like a typical genki girl on the surface, the type that has many friends and hobbies. Nakamura, being the newest member, is the only one normal enough to even question life outside of Gobusters and I like how the show didn't forget that after the first episode. The mission is their whole life until they complete it, which is pretty sad to think about, especially for Yoko who signed up for this as young as 3 years old. For a show that's so grounded in a tragic event that occurred in the distant past, it's cool to see gradually how everybody starts to feel about the future beyond the mission, whether with ambivalence, anticipation or apprehension.

Even though Angie is fluent in Japanese (like every HK girl in Japanese media for some reason), she may find it easier to type in English. Only Japanese keyboards have kana after all, while Greco-Roman characters are ubiquitous. Furthermore, it's pretty reasonable for Angie to assume that someone in the espionage business would have basic English reading comprehension. But poor Yoko didn't have much time for school, so she can only say "Let's Morphin'!"

It was really funny watching this episode so soon after the Rika/Hiromu one, since Mission 10 briefly entertains the idea that the Go-Busters have coerced and manipulated a young person into signing up for a deadly conflict that they were far too young to effectively consider the implications of. Rika was right, but she was missing the bigger victim: Yoko. You're telling me a 3-year-old has the ability to judge the danger inherent in becoming a Go-Buster?!

I love the Buddyroids to begin with, so this episode is a pretty easy sell for me as soon as you've got Gorisaki jumping into the fray for a big hero moment on top of the usual charming banter and solid character-building. It's also a pretty relevant thing for this show to have a plot where a character basically yearns to have a life that's seemingly less ideal than the way their own (also seemingly) appears, so I think Shimoyama did a proper job demonstrating his grasp on the show in his first outing as well. Plus, the ending scene where Ryuuji immediately regrets telling Gorisaki to be more open with him is pretty classic. Or at least, it's always been the thing I most remember from this one.

I don't know much about Kobayashi's personality, but I get the feeling she would just say that to get out of doing interviews. :p

There's a lot to unpack in this paragraph, so, roughly in order:

- I like the sort of continuity of Yoko having trouble with foreign languages between this and Enter
- I don't think it's that inexplicable for that letter to have been in English for a number of reasons, some of which Sh Ranger just mentioned
- The mail itself was actually sent to the Go-Busters as a whole, so my snarky question is actually if there's like some official address to send them fan-mail or something?
- All the child soldier stuff, on the other hand, that's probably a pretty rational assessment of Yoko's life. Bummer! :lol

The episode is still a fun one though, and typically character-building, despite the, uh, unflattering way you can look at it all.

Oh, totally. I can get pretty animated talking about what a horrifying indictment Yoko's upbringing is on the humanitarian aspect of the Go-Busters organization (a toddler cannot sign up for military service!!!), but it's mostly just fun to do in proximity to this particular story. I don't really care about the verisimilitude of Yoko's backstory or whatever, and it certainly didn't detract from the episode's effectiveness as either an action story (good combat!) or an examination of Yoko's character. It was a good episode, despite the intensely problematic indoctrination of a teenager!

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 13 - “A SURPRISING DAY OFF”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters13a.png

Our first two-parter! What a pleasant surprise!

The welcome trade-off of not really having a complete villain story to talk about (the Tubaroid and Tubaroid Ver 2 are up to something that involves tagging all three Busters, but we don’t know why yet) is that we get so much more interaction between our main cast, in ways both comedic and dramatic.

Mainly comedic for this part, which is fine with me. Yoko’s decision to create a Buddyroid Day Out is a delightful way to encounter our main six cast members in a completely different light – literally, because they’re all outside for a change! (Gorisaki even wears a cute little scarf, to keep from getting sunburned.) We only get two of the four surprise locations in this one – saving Nick’s and the conclusion for next time – but it’s a blast to see the gang at both a zoo and a theme park. There’s a real sweet domesticity to it all, and it’s a pleasant reminder of how much of a family this whole group is, and how badly Yoko needs the connection with all of them. She clearly wants this to be a meaningful and emotional day, despite the Hiromu of it all (he’s such a petulant baby!), and it’s nice to have a goal within a story that isn’t contingent on defeating a Vagras threat. We’re outside the usual bounds of a Go-Busters story, in almost every way.

Beyond the new environment, we get a fun series of vignettes for each Buster/Buddyroid pairing, to see how the dynamics differ: Ryuji needs Gorisaki to help track down the Tubaroid, but Gorisaki prioritizes keeping Ryuji hydrated instead; Nick wants to split from Hiromu so they can cover more ground in the search, and then immediately gets so lost that he’s outside the theme park; Yoko sticks Usada on theme park rides he clearly hates, while smugly acting like she’s reading his mind by delivering exactly what he wants. Most of it isn’t in service to much yet, but you can already see how it’ll start to impact things next episode.

Oh, and Commander is doing something weird and secretive in hyperspace?!?!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters13b.png

IT’S TIME FOR Enter!

A+ episode for everyone’s favorite flamboyantly French flunky. He visibly tenses up at Messiah’s quick omission of what’s really going on with the new Megazord construction, adding a nice new wrinkle to his sycophancy. BUT! The real excellence in this episode comes from Enter deciding that the best way to take out two tuba players was to put on a bear mascot costume, and then immediately take it off. There’s no reason for him to be in a disguise, because the Vagras goons instantly swarm the tuba players, and it’s not like he’s infiltrating anything – he seriously seems to put on a bear costume just to wear a bear costume for a few minutes. It’s inexplicable, and hilarious, and I loved it.

In her defense, though, she also pens anime episodes when not writing adventures for good-looking Japanese superheroes who wear tights and ride giant robots. So I wouldn't be surprised if she can't remember them all. It's work, after all.

I don't have a lot to say about this one off the top of my head beyond "yes yes, that that" to how fun the entire premise is, so I'll just take this opportunity to mention that I always want to pepper my speech with classy French when talking about Go-Busters in tribute to Enter, but have always been held back by the fact that I know close to nothing about French. Actually, I still vividly remember -- even though this years ago at this point -- Die using the word "ennui" once to describe an episode of Kuuga and having to go look that up.

I'm not sure exactly what my point is here, but I guess what I'm saying is that even though I consider Hiromu the guy in this show I relate the most to, I might actually be more like Yoko. :p

Oh, I'm sure she doesn't have an encyclopedic memory of these things with how much she's done and how long she's been at it; it's just amusing to me to imagine her trolling people asking about her work by feigning complete and total ignorance of even the most basic facts. :lol