It absolutely looks like they're about to go play paintball.

To be fair, the middle version of the gag -- when the four of them are back at base -- was sort of funny. All four Busters trying to cram themselves into the launch tubes is a good gag, especially after the previous beat of them resolving to help Yoko no matter what. It's a standard heroic moment, instantly undercut by them bumbling around the control room. That one was okay!

The two things that stick in my brain with this one are that it was a nice episode for developing Yoko, and also--

-- yeah that

It is a really solid bit of character development though! One of those plots that can only happen so smoothly thanks to Jin being here, too, further proving what a team player he is on a meta level. There's all different ways the big extra hero(es) in a Sentai show can be handled, and looking back, I definitely get the feeling Kobayashi was always consciously trying to make sure Beet Buster is here more to prop up the existing trio than he is to shine on his own. Which is appreciated, since, again, I was irrationally worried about him potentially hogging the limelight when he first showed up. Besides, him and J are the kinda dudes who can steal the show without having to actually steal the show anyway, so it all works out!

Yeah, it's nice that this story is about The Idea Of Yoko's Mom, approached from two different angles. Jin is mourning a woman he knew and cared about, while Yoko is finally learning more about a mother she never really knew. Between the two of them, they're still just telling one story about Yoko, though -- how this all affects her outlook and solidifies her character is the entire point of this Jin/Yoko story.

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS THE MOVIE: PROTECT TOKYO ENETOWER!

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I don’t really know what I was expecting for a Sentai movie. Rider movies are pretty standard by this point – the Winter Crossover film, that pays homage to the last series while teasing future developments for the current one; and the Summer Spotlight film, that hits the highlights of the year, while adding wrinkles or an alternate ending to the overall plot via a slightly-AU take on things. I knew the crossover movie for Go-Busters wouldn’t be until the next series for some reason, so I sort of figured this one would be more of an exploration of the backstory of the characters, something that filled in some of the blanks of the main plot while seeding ideas for upcoming stories.

Ha ha, nope! Just a great big Go-Busters episode. But in a good way!

There’re a few new things here, but really nothing I’d even call a “concept”: Frog, a new Buster Machine that’s useful in an action sequence and a new Go-Buster Oh configuration; Enetan, the Buddyroid pilot of Frog; and a new Epsilon-type Megazord that Enter can pilot. That’s it, beyond the requisite new Metaroid. (Who is great!) And the Frog/Enetan combo… there’s really not much there? They’re introduced as a prototype Buster Machine from way back, later confirmed to be designed by Jin, and that’s really all we get. They might has well have dropped out of hyperspace, for all the relevance they might have to expanding the narrative of the main series. Enetan’s a sharp-tongued Buddyroid, but she’s just here for a couple scenes. She’s not really a character, in terms of progressing the story?

But, y’know, who really cares? This isn’t story about about expanding the world of the Go-Busters – it’s a story about explaining the world of the Go-Busters. This is an open house, built to take skeptical viewers and give them the most high-octane, cinematic version of the Go-Busters experience. This movie is like a checklist of everything you know and love about Go-Busters, presented with a precision and energy that never makes it feel rote or generic. It’s as concise and thrilling a version of the Go-Busters episodic template as you could ever want. We get not only the highs of constant action (An army of Bugglars! FIVE Megazords!), but we get the lows of everyone’s weak points going off at once. We get a multi-stage plan that goes off the rails immediately. We get the Buddyroids choking down the danger to be there for their partners when they’re needed. We get to see the Go-Busters as an organization square off against the Vagras as an organization, which is maybe as crucial to me as a fan than all of the previous stuff. We get everything you’d want from the Go-Busters, plussed up to Motion Picture levels.

It’s not a story I think was especially heartfelt or moving, but again – not what this one was trying to do! This was a movie that’s precision-tooled to get you to do the YES! jump-out-of-your-seat move that Commander does at the end, and it’s a roaring success at that. Terrific film, and a great example of a full steam ahead (sorry) superhero special.

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IT’S TIME FOR Foam Buster!

The Hiromu foam dummy makes a reappearance here, which is such an important thing to include if you want to convert casual viewers into deep fans. Yoko’s weak point always feels a little random, and Ryuji’s weak point is a little terrifying, but Hiromu getting stunned rigid and turned into a weapon for Yoko by an inconvenient movie poster for a rooster-themed superhero is exactly the kind of absurdity that helps make Go-Busters so memorable and adorable.

So basically, the reason Sentai summer movies are half an hour, while Rider’s are an hour are so Toei can market them as a 90 minute feature. And yeah, Sentai’s are basically just a slightly more epic in scope episode, with a more elaborate monster suit, a celebrity VA playing the villain, and a retooled mecha toy.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=8iWZdO_4...mLi73AeSC0knyS

As for what I remember… I have to wonder who in their right mind would convert Tokyo’s most recognisable landmark into essentially an electric pylon. Even if there wasn’t a bad guy trying to steal that type of electricity every week, it’s like turning the Statue of Liberty into a memorial for Captain America. It seems culturally disrespectful.

Interesting! Thanks for the clarification!

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 24 - “A TRES BIEN SUMMER FESTIVAL”

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The main thing I liked about this episode is the reveal that the Hiromu we’ve been dealing with over the previous 23 episodes – the tactless, boastful, occasionally thoughtless show-off – is the improved version of Hiromu, after a kind middle schooler teacher helped an even-worse version of our favorite Red Buster learn… well, maybe not the value of teamwork and friendship yet, but definitely the concepts of teamwork and friendship. Yes, this is a story about Ryuji and Yoko learning that they could’ve had it so much worse with Hiromu, the end.

No, not really, although I gotta be honest and say that was about all I got out of this one. While the idea of Hiromu trying to repay a formative kindness by exhibiting his understanding of the lessons he was taught is interesting, I just don’t feel like this one delivered on that, in a number of ways.

For one thing, the teamwork aspect of this one – beyond the basic aesthetic and creative framework of, y’know, Sentai – is basically that Ryuji and Yoko are willing to take on a little extra work so Hiromu can be there for his favorite teacher. That… seems like it’s Ryuji and Yoko’s teamwork, not really Hiromu’s. (You can argue that Ryuji and Yoko are willing to sacrifice a bit for Hiromu because he’s been such a great friend and teammate, but it really says more about the generosity of the other two Busters.) It’s not really an episode where Hiromu exhibits his belief in teamwork or friendship in a way any different than any previous episode, except now this one lady is here for it.

And that lady… I mean, it’s a little weird that there’s so much chemistry between them? I’m not imagining that, right? There is a difference between I Want To Honor A Mentor That Helped Me As A Kid and I Want To Honor A Lady I Had A Crush On Since Middle School, and I feel like the casting here sort of tipped this one a little too far into the latter bucket. It’s all weird romantic tension, in every time period, and it made it hard for me to see the more platonic story of Hiromu learning to take part in a team. (Also… what is this group? Street performance? That seems less like a team and more a bunch of solo acts performing in sequence. That feels counter to the overall moral!) If there’d been more of an age gap, or if the two actors came at it in less of a yearning way, I think I could get on this thing’s wavelength. As it is, I feel like there’re some boundaries being crossed somewhere, and it weirded me out some.

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IT’S TIME FOR Boundaries!

Speaking of! I sort of can’t believe this story kicked off with Hiromu and Nick taking a day off, and then Ryuji and Yoko showing up to the summer festival unannounced and in uniform, just randomly intruding on whatever Hiromu happened to be doing. It’s completely rude to do all that, and it’s like it never occurred to either one of them. I mean, I know they have other clothes! They just wore them at the end of the movie! And, man, why in the world would they just crash Hiromu’s day off to begin with? That’s psychotic! Leave him alone! You’re both being very weird, right at the start of what would be a very weird episode!

The huge fun crazy action beat I always remember the most from this is Ryuuji deliberately overheating to take on a big army of mooks, and it's been long enough since I've seen the movie that I'm not even sure that's any more of a highlight than some of the other bombastic stuff in it. Like you say, it's pretty darn successful as big theatrically-scaled version of the show, that'll wow casual viewers who showed up for Fourze, but at the same time, admittedly, it's never really been one of my favorite Go-Busters things precisely because I usually am coming to this series for stories that are more heartfelt and tender.

...Which is why it's hopefully not too surprising for me to come in and say this random episode that didn't gel with you is actually another one that sticks with me fairly well. For one, I always got the feeling like this whole plot literally just started from Mouri picking up the idea of "Hiromu dressed like a clown" from back when he wrote 12 and for some reason deciding to make a whole story out of that, which is a thought that's always amused me. Regardless of how the brainstorming session for this one went, though, I thought the end result did a real solid job fleshing out Hiromu by showing a different side to him, with an emotional investment outside of his family, and a goal beyond Bustering, as he strives to protect a special day and all that.

The episode itself, I remember clicking for me fine too, of course, but I think the larger reason it stays with me is that all the stuff you learn about Hiromu here is stuff that actually informed my overall view of his character to a surprisingly significant extent, which I think is another sign how good Mouri is this sub-writer stuff? The whole point of the story -- revealing something out of left field about Hiromu -- is also the big risk of it too, where it could just feel like it doesn't fit, but it totally does fit, because he grounds it all in the stuff we already know about Hiromu's personality.

Yeah, the detail that Hiromu used to be even more standoffish and insanely focused on being a Buster is one that I think helps temper the modern-day version of Hiromu quite a bit. When you see what we could've had without a certain middle school teacher's intervention, it makes you appreciate the charmingly grumpy, accidentally rude version that we get nowadays.

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 25 - “UNRAVEL THE AVATARS’ SECRETS!”

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I’ve never been crazy about Asking Questions stories, and this show’s decision to tell one that could be easily solved by one of the cast members doesn’t make it any better for me.

It’s a long way to go in this one to land on Maybe Something Happened To The People In Hyperspace, mostly/entirely due to Jin deflecting every single time the question gets close to being raised anywhere in his vicinity. While there’s some dramatic potential in how strongly he doesn’t want to divulge details – specifically when put up against the inquisitive and empathetic nature of his student Ryuji – it mostly just means that we are circling theories without ever resolving them. There was a frustration to this episode, for me, that a quick and effective superhero story couldn’t really counteract.

The threat of hyperspace is a good and spooky one, appropriately for this episode – the disappeared people are like ghosts, haunting the characters, and a source of constant pain in their lives for their absence. A lack of details plays into the fear and tension of that concept, so I was previously okay with the show eliding any explanations for the time being. But to then base an episode on those questions, without really bothering to confirm what’s going when Jin ABSOLUTELY could at least give the team a heads-up… not fun! Not a fun idea for a story!

Even the Ryuji story didn’t quite work for me. The crux of his moral is that asking questions may not be the most effective way to fight, but it’s his way to fight, and it’s worth doing. The problem, for me, is that the thing Ryuji’s pushing against in his heroic declaration is Jin refusing to tell him what’s going on. Ryuji isn’t hopelessly distracted by an inquisitive mind; Jin is just avoiding telling him the truth. It’s a weird false equivalency that show kind of doesn’t do anything with, and it’s yet another thing that could’ve easily been avoided by coming at this concept in a different way, or not at all.

Beyond that, I thought the action was strong (that Blue Buster/Escape fight!!!) and the little bits of spookiness were fine. I was probably never going to like an episode where Jin flippantly stonewalls the plot for Reasons, and I guess some solid superhero action couldn’t overcome that personal resistance. Sorry!

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IT’S TIME FOR Ghost Stories!

If you have to kick off a story that’s all about Jin distracting people from getting at the truth, why not do it with him terrifying Yoko, Nakamura, and three Buddyroids with a ghost story? It’s cute!

Sure you do. You already watched Phoenix Swordsman and the Book of Ruin! :p

A Buddyroid without a partner kind of goes against what Gobusters is about, but I guess I can appreciate how Enertan's un-buddy-like behavior is used as contrast to highlight the qualities of the main 4 and how their bond with their partners makes them stronger. She doesn't progress the story, but I think she does learn something about what it really means to be a Buddyroid.

A joke so good they had to do it twice. :lol

We all have some embarrassment about the way we behaved in school, right? It's easy for kids to think their way is the only way, until experience shows how they can develop in to more balanced adults. Even a serious guy like Hiromu had to have a new experience like that so he could truly understand the value of the world he was preparing to fight for. He needed something to get serious about, which means making new connections and fun memories with friends.

Yeah, I think the problem here is that Suzuki Katsuhiro looks a little too old to be a middle schooler, while the teacher doesn't look much older than him. This kind of thing seems to be a recurring problem for flashbacks, as Kurorin looks the same now as he did 13 years ago, but nobody brings that up like they did for Jin.

How ironic that Hiromu gets to call out his friends for being insensitive. I guess he's right though, as it's good for personal space to have separate social circles for different settings so I'd also be annoyed if people started interfering in my hobbies that I don't want them involved in. Ryuji is too friendly to get that, but I'd at least expect Yoko to be more considerate of Hiromu's need for privacy.

Fun fact about the summer movie.

Ene-tan the frog Buster Machine was voiced by Nozomi Tsuji, former member of Morning Musume, an all-female idop group that was huge from the late 90s to around the early 2000s until AKB48 was a thing. She went on to marry Taiyo Sugiura, who played Musashi Haruno/Ultraman Cosmos in the 2001 tokusatsu show Ultraman Cosmos and continues to be active on tv and does youtube stuff too these days.
Steamloid was voiced by Taiten Kusunoki who has voiced four versions of Optimus Prime in the Japanese dubs of RID 2001/Car Robot, Armada/Micron Legend, Cybertron/Galaxy Force, and RID 2015/Adventure. He was also Jazz in the first Michael Bay Transformers movie.

It's just super weird that they find out that Hiromu took a rare day off, and their first thought is WE HAVE TO SHOW UP THERE UNANNOUNCED AND EMBARRASS HIM. It's... I can't believe the show didn't even try to contrive a Vagras attack at Hiromu's festival first, to create a reason for Yoko and Ryuji to show up. They're just crashing Hiromu's day off?

That was a fun fact, thank you!

No update today? Not complaining, just curious.

I did one Saturday at 2pm, and I'll probably be dropping one tonight very late. Still on schedule!

Just saw it. It got skipped over in the “most recent posts” thing due to everyone responding to the movie and or episode 24.

Kind of appropriate, since episode 25 is one I’ve forgotten completely. All I remember is the candelabra Metaloid, and that’s solely by process of elimination because he isn’t in any other episode.

He was a good one! I enjoyed all of his "light" puns!

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 26 - “TINY BUT DEADLY! THE COMMAND CENTER’S S.O.S.!”

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Perfect episode!

This one’s a riot from start to finish, with a terrific focus on how Hiromu is an absolutely terrible coworker – maybe my favorite recurring Go-Busters subplot. (As seen in the exceptionally good Mission 7!) Getting to see the terminally-shy Nakamura have to assert herself in the workplace against the perpetually-testy Hiromu… that’s going to be a winner, just on a conceptual level.

The thing that makes this episode truly great, though, is that it never treats this conflict as more than just Workplace Hijinks. Hiromu doesn’t have a mid-battle pep talk where he apologizes for his actions, and Nakamura doesn’t have a crisis of confidence that causes her to let down the team; the story is just Sometimes You Need To Yell At Jerks, and that’s the scope of it. The whole thing gets to be fun, because it always understands how low the stakes really are.

I love it for that? I love that we get this sweet little story of Nakamura being intimated by Hiromu’s… by Hiromu, and then get to go on this little journey with her where she not only yells at him for being a jerk, but she’s the crucial component of the Go-Busters victory over the Vagras. Adorable, and completely minor.

Which is not to say this thing is a slouch in the superhero department, because it’s actually one of the best, most complex problems the Go-Busters have ever needed to solve. Understand that I generally merely tolerate the Buster Machine action on this show, and I thought that its Buster Machine-Scale Only fight scenes were some of the most tense and thrilling sequences to date. The inability to form Go-Buster Oh forces the team to strategize differently, leading to a more rousing Buster Machine sequence than we’ve had in a while. And a whole new configuration, too!

I really thought this one was a front-to-back winner. Every member of the support staff gets a little moment to shine – not just Nakamura, although she shines the brightest – and the Go-Busters have to work as a complete unit in order to overcome not just a cunning Metaroid and a colossal Megazord, but Hiromu’s abrasive personality and intimidating demeanor. Take a guess which of those was the hardest to defeat!

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IT’S TIME FOR Eraseroid!

This little guy was, ironically, a big part of this episode’s success. I liked how his basic story paralleled Nakamura’s – a need for respect in the workplace – while also being completely unhinged and consistently hysterical. He just wants Enter to love him! And he defeats Commander and Morishita single-handedly! Terrific concept, perfectly executed.

This is probably my favourite from the first half of the series. Which shouldn’t be that big a surprise, it is a Shimoyama episode.

And continuing his theme for this series, the episode focuses on Nakamura, and it helped me remember her name. When you can do a mostly silly episode focused on the help (if it was completely silly, KeshigomeZord would've used his eraser to remove an Enertron tower from existence with a horde of Buglars holding buckets/bowls to scoop up the inside contents) that introduces what is ultimately a one-shot new combo manages to get me more invested than the plot of the show so far, you’ve done something right..

And I note that I’ve alluded to a big shakeup in the second half of the show, and the winds of change start to blow here with the narration for the next time trailer being provided by the Buddyroids arguing rather than the faux-English narrator. And that’s just a small change.

While Hiromu has his rivalry with Enter, now Ryuji has started his rivalry with Escape. I enjoyed how the scene used lighting and props in a confined area to sell the destructive power of Berserk Bluebuster and Escape. Even if I don't remember the exact details of how Ryuji's speech ties in to the plot, I'm pretty sure he sounded cool while saying it and I totally get why Escape finds him the most fun to fight after he showed the strength of his determination.

What about that giant chicken though!

A good reminder that even polite people can get ticked off, similar to Ryuji scolding Gorisaki. Every week, Nakamura does her best to track the Megazord signals and keep the team abreast of new information from the moment she receives it, since her first day on the job in the first episode. She totally deserves respect for that, especially when she manages to do it while also fighting off a Metaloid. MVP of the episode!

It's a little surprising, after you previously compared Nakamura to a useless monk apprentice. Glad you enjoyed it though.

We even got to see Commander leap into action with a mop! It was a cool episode for all of the base crew!

It's a very cool speech -- it's a riff on the standard I Have To Fight My Way speech that toku heroes give once a series -- but I just wish that there'd more motivating it than Jin gaslighting every other cast member for an entire episode. Ryuji can definitely get distracted by mysteries, but that wasn't really what was happening this time out?

This is another episode where, more than anything I could say off the top of my head about the story, it's actually just some particular visuals that are lodged in my head for whatever reasons. One is the big Blue Buster/Escape fight, for taking place in another really unusual location and working that into the fight itself well.

The other is the fight scene at the start, for the exact opposite reason that it takes place in a *very* usual location for Rider and Sentai, "under that one bridge." I mostly think of it as the place Kamen Rider Bravo made his debut in Gaim. What makes Go-Busters' use of it particularly amusing though is the idea that the team have a special one of those secret hatches specifically for quickly getting to under this bridge, which makes me imagine that every common filming location Toei uses for fight scenes has a secret Go-Busters hatch somewhere around the place, as if the people who set up that network in-universe knew the kind of show they were in. :lol

This one is definitely a standout. First of all, it has a rare appearance from Go-Buster Ace Stag Custom, which is low-key probably my favorite mecha combination in the show? I think it only makes like one more appearance somewhere down the line, which is admittedly probably the right amount of appearances for what it is, but still, it means I've gotta savor every frame of screen-time it got.

Even without that bonus, however, I'd be savoring this episode anyway. In retrospect -- and even though I'm saying this without having rewatched it in a good while -- it's probably like a proto-Ninninger episode in a lot of ways? What made me fall in love with that show was how Shimoyama could just bust out these amazing scripts that were uproariously silly throughout, even by Sentai standards, yet also frequently quite clever, and with thoughtful character writing. The out-there concept of a tiny eraser monster still somehow being a genuine threat that also makes natural room to focus a ton on characters who otherwise don't lend themselves to the spotlight definitely hits all three of those bullet points quite handily.

This was great, and I love how cheaply they achieved this shot. There's an establishing of the usual Enetron Hatch poster, but since there's no way to actual get a workable tunnel out of a concrete support, they flip the camera around -- putting the top edge of the poster diagonal to the frame, so it's "open" -- and just have the three Busters run away from the camera. It's cheap but ingenious, which is the level I prefer that toku work at.

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 27 - “THE UNCONTROLLABLE DUO ESCAPE THE LABYRINTH!”

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Cute episode, but, like, super duper minor.

And I don’t just mean this episode’s 17-year-old guest-star! It’s a mismatched comedy episode for a good middle section, where the well-meaning Ryuji has to wrangle the bratty Misaki during a Vagras trap, and it all feels like it’s going to be more meaningful or entertaining than it ended up being. Once you get past the surprise introduction of the Cageroid’s hostage being a flighty, self-involved teenage girl – and how that character type steamrolls the polite and earnest Ryuji – there’s kind of not a second move on this one? Ryuji eventually blows up at her when she casually mentions how little interest her workaholic scientist father seems to have in her, and it’s an utterly predictable beat that never really clicks with me in toku. Ryuji spent about 14 seconds with her dad, and now he’s yelling at her that all parents care about the wellbeing of their children, and HOW DARE SHE trivialize that. Ryuji doesn’t know either of these two! He’s way out of line! I don’t know that her dad trying to protect her from Enter makes up for him not being around day-to-day when she needs him!

(It’s… I loathe the trope where someone in toku is doing Very Important Work, and it’s everyone else’s job to suck it up and make do without them while also endlessly respecting them for their service -slash- inattention to their loved ones. I have never, ever liked it, and I feel like there’s a story in that vein in just about every series I watch.)

But, again, it’s whatever. It’s where this story was always headed, and I liked the rest of it pretty well. I like the basic problem-solving of the escape (not Escape, she skipped this one) from the maze, and I liked the sequence of Yellow, Stag, and Red slashing through infinite cages to detonate the Cageroid. The rest of the team exists to be in peril while Ryuji and Misaki have their buddy comedy, and said buddy comedy was enjoyably mismatched, right up until Ryuji told the kids at home to stop complaining when their parents don’t come home from work often enough. But before that! Pretty cute!

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IT’S TIME FOR Directions!

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I remember this mostly for the gag where we’re led to believe the professor’s little girl is a child, but… nope! Gyaru.

Anyway, this is a Mouri episode, and there’s plenty of foreshadowing, with the anti-magnetic paintball gear being repurposed as a survival suit for the subdimension. And Messiah almost gets a physical body, but fails utterly…

And all of that foreshadowing won’t be paying off, since like I said last time, the show got retooled after the next episode for a number of reasons. Low toy sales, declining ratings, the fact that a new Kamen Rider was starting next week. So this is a bit of a last dance for the show’s original vision. It’s a shame, since this episode’s plot is… fairly trite.

It's especially a weird plot because they gave the Your Parents Will Do Anything To Protect You speech to Ryuji, who is the one Buster in the main trio who didn't have his parents sacrifice themselves to save him from the Vagras. Like, why not have Yoko or Hiromu be the one to partner with Misaki, since they could speak more personally to the idea of a kid shrugging off the sacrifices their scientist parent is making to keep them safe from the Vagras? Seems like it'd make more sense!

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS VS BEET BUSTER VS J

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I don’t want to keep calling these installments of Go-Busters “cute”; it’s lazy, and slightly dismissive. But they are! They’re cute! And that’s about it!

This DVD pack-in story is made on a budget of about 700 yen – the entire command crew is gone for Reasons, the only Buster costumes we get for the heroes are Red and Beet, J’s the only Buddyroid, and a big chunk of the first five minutes is archival footage – and it’s a pretty quick story of an Enter scheme to steal Beet Buster’s power. (There isn’t even a Megazord!) I feel like we’re lucky to even get Jin to show up, instead of having J tell us that he’s stuck in hyperspace or something. Once we get past the background info on the Energy Management Center, which is interesting without quite being entertaining, the remainder of the video is as solid as a one-act Go-Busters story can be, with virtually everyone gone.

It’s maybe one of the better Enter plots? I generally dislike Enter plots that are more about hurting the heroes than stealing Enetron – I like this show best when both the heroes and villains feel like cogs in adversarial machines, and everyone’s just sort of doing their jobs – but I thought this one had some nice moves on it. Enter’s got an established rivalry with Jin, so stealing Beet Buster is a solid scheme for Enter to pursue. Having a multi-part problem that requires subduing J, dodging Enter’s attacks, and then defeating J’s virus in his mindscape… that’s more than I’d normally expect for a 7-minute narrative, which is a pleasant surprise.

I don’t know how much more I can really say about a 13-minute magazine pack-in DVD that spends a third of its time telling you what the switches inside the Buster Machines do. There ain’t a lot of new content here, but I really enjoyed what was here. It was cute!

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IT’S TIME FOR Space Sheriff Gavan!

Ha ha, but I did not enjoy this part! I’m glad the file I watched included a commercial at the end for a different pack-in DVD that’s all about the then-upcoming Gavan film, because I could not FOR THE LIFE OF ME figure out why a silent Gavan swooped in to save Jin and then left without a word. Completely inexplicable when viewed from 2024, and I thought I was watching the wrong video for a second. God bless Toei’s obligatory guest appearances of the early 2010s!

I remember this was around the time they had the Gavan 30th anniversary so probably why it was in it, to make good use of the sleeker Type-G Gavan suit while they can before they no longer have use for it and have to shelve the suit away in the warehouse of Toei's props department.

So the key difference between Sentai’s Super Battle DVDs and Rider’s Hyoer Battle Videos (besides the names) is that the former has more of a method to the madness. There’s always going to be focus primarily on Red and Six (wih a few exceptions), a kitbashed monster suit, any new variant Sentai suits made on the cheap and a minimum of new SFX. I have to say my favourite in this regard is Shinkenger, where the monster is just a grunt suit with the Rangers’ super mode vest added.

As for the video itself… Not much to say, it’s alright. Can’t complain about it, but can’t praise it to high heaven either.

I'm glad to know that Sentai can still churn out a fun video while being even more frugal than usual!

In fairness, Toei committed to the new Gavan stuff a lot longer than I think anyone expected them to.

It's gotta real deflating for Nick to have it rubbed in his face that his sense of direction is *so* cosmically awful that even when doing the opposite of what he recommends means running headfirst into a wall, that's still the correct choice. But then, I suppose Nick is far from the only character in this show with some glaring flaws. I mean, you could probably do pretty much the same thing by asking Hiromu how to be polite in a social situation and then doing the exact opposite of whatever he says. :p

Also, I skimmed back around this episode a bit because it's not one I remember particularly well, and I had completely forgotten there was literally a scene in this show where Ryuuji gets upset at a child for calling him ojisan.

So, if it hasn't become apparent yet, I'm not actually as intimately familiar with every last facet of Go-Busters as I'd like to be, and this little spin-off is pretty emblematic of that. I barely knew it existed and didn't even see it until years after originally watching the show, and even now that I have watched it, I don't remember much about it.

Completely forgot that Gavan popped up, for example! Although I guess, in retrospect, it's fair if Gavan gets to make a gratuitous cameo in a Go-Busters thing, since the Go-Busters actually made their sneak-preview debut with a gratuitous cameo in Gokaiger VS Gavan. (Sentai teams were doing this for a while in the crossover movies in a similar fashion to new Kamen Riders in their summer films) So I guess, in that sense, there's a sort of poetic full-circle nature to all this transparent marketing synergy? If I were to try and make it sound more grand than it is?

There's a burst of light that stops Beet Enter from murdering Jin, and my first thought was Oh Yoko And Ryuji Finally Showed Up. Y'know, blasting away with their camera guns or whatever. If you had given me a hundred guesses, I don't think I'd've landed on Gavan showing up for the save. Heroes usually act with shock and surprise when another hero pops out of a floorboard for a last-minute rescue, but this is the first time where I thought an actor underplayed the stupefaction that the moment warranted. I don't think it would have been more inexplicable to me watching it in 2024 than if 2012 Kamen Rider Die had saved Jin from being executed.

That is true. It may not have been around in recent years but it made a lot of appearances during the 2010s.

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 28 – “WARNING: LIKELIHOOD OF CHICKENS!”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters28a.png

There are episodes of this show that are difficult to talk about because they’re mostly just a single problem for the team to solve. They aren’t illustrative of much more than a previous character attribute – in this case, how Nick looks after Hiromu – and the character dynamics aren’t really tested in a serious way; we’re repeating, not evolving. (Well, Messiah...) It makes for an enjoyable episode that it’s hard to talk about in deeper ways, because there really isn’t much depth to it. It’s wacky action and puzzling obstacles and explosions and that’s sort of it. It’s a superhero problem that the characters face, not a human problem.

That’s not the end of the world, for sure; lots of shows barely even manage to reach this episode’s bar of Fun Superhero Problem With Inventive Climax. But it’s just… what am I even supposed to talk about here? The closest we come to a genuine emotional moment in this episode is Nick telling everyone that Hiromu’s weak point comes from a formative childhood trauma that’s also played as low-key ridiculous, so that’s great. (It also doesn’t make a ton of sense in relation to Yoko and Ryuji’s weak points, that are a biological consequence of their powers. Hiromu’s is just a phobia?) Hiromu never has to overcome his initial trauma, and Nick never really learns anything as his partner. It’s just the two of them getting a spotlight to show off their teamwork, but that isn’t a revelation or anything, you know? I want to see something surprising or learn something new, and this episode kept all of that for the last couple minutes of Shocking Plot Developments.

Which, naturally, I didn’t give a shit about. The Gog/Magog revelation points to Messiah having a connection to Hiromu and Rika’s parents, but there’s no explanation forthcoming; ditto Jin’s alarming declaration that the Vagras have stolen all his hyperspace Enetron, details to come next episode. It’s all stuff that I can react to when it’s inevitably revealed, but I never expend much energy on in the Theory stage of things. It’s a two-minute sequence that might as well be the Next Episode trailer, and I don’t watch those to begin with. No thanks!

And yet. And yet! This was still a fun superhero adventure, with multiple characters playing multiple other characters, and a clever Metaroid who almost found a way to kill the Red Buster. On that level, this thing was a success. In every other way – theme, character development, moral, etc. – it was just a blank for me. Not gonna be the most memorable one in the series for me, sadly.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters28b.png

IT’S TIME FOR a new opening sequence!

Diiiiiiidn’t love it. The new theme song lacks the spark of the original, even if it never counts four numbers out of sequence, and I sort of hate how the previous emphasis on the entire organization (especially the original three Buddyroids and the support staff!) is jettisoned in favor of a Five Superheroes Only theme song. I dislike the change!

So like I said, we’re in retool territory. And the first obvious sign is Enter saying “you know the evil scheme that failed last week? Turns out it actually worked and I read the thing wrong”

The second is that we have a new, more energetic opening, which I genuinely think works better for this show (I think a fast paced action show should have a more energetic and electric score than Go-Busters’ rather monotonous and overdone brass instrumentals), and the first song didn’t really fir that niche for me. It’s a crime that I’ve never had an opportunity to subtitle it, since the VS movies were in that period where opening songs weren’t included except too briefly to count as it playing, or as instrumentals. Which I’m gonna rectify now.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=I2A11smn...HqpQXoR91EBS24

If we make the most out of our abilities then I’d like to be tested constantly.
3+2 members, that’s the combination!
We chose to fight because we all embrace the same wish
Yes! Comrades are always on the same page. We always face the challenge!

This five’s collaboration will last forever
Let’s Morphin’! Keep movin’! Believe! Bustership!
Now let’s give a dazzling finale
Red, Blue, Yellow, Beet and Stag Buster
When faced with imminent trouble!
We’ll work on our original style!

No matter how fired up we get,

We make decisions with a clear head

Because we all have our sights

Set on the image of imminent victory!
Ever since that day, our buddies have always been here to protect us!
Yes! No matter what comes at us, we’ll deal with it together!

This five’s collaboration is the best
Let’s Morphin’! Keep movin’! Believe! Bustership!
Some of your powers are still dormant
Red, Blue, Yellow, Beet and Stag Buster
With comrades, our powers are multiplied!
We’re looking for the peerless style!

None of us are alone, no matter what barriers are in our way!
With our arms linked together, we’ll make our jump start!

(Busters Ready Go!)

This five’s collaboration will last forever
Let’s Morphin’! Keep movin’! Believe! Bustership!
Now let’s give a dazzling finale
Red, Blue, Yellow, Beet and Stag Buster
When faced with imminent trouble!
We’ll work on our original style!

There’s also some changes to the ending visuals, replacing the rather dull and moody imagery with new scenes of all 4 duos doing their own unique dance moves, which made me warm up to the song a bit more. (Probably because I felt the new visuals were more appropriate than a indecisive “is it a fun dancing credits/is it a moody piece highlighting the intended tone” visual language, on account of committing to one).

As for the episode… it’s a rough transition between the old and the new. I’ll have more to say about the next one.

Hiromu's weakpoint is freezing, which is a genuine side effect of the Gobuster program. His alektorophobia is only the trigger, the same way that Ryuji's is triggered by intense heat, Yoko's by low sugar and Jin's by getting blown up. Without the program, Hiromu would simply run away from chickens like how normal people react to their phobias.

Counting four numbers out of sequence is part of the appeal though! Like, when you hear Scramble, you expected the numbers to be scrambled, right? But yeah, while Busters Ready Go is in my top 10 Heisei Sentai OPs, Morphin' Movin' Bustership is pretty far down on that ranking, but certainly not last. You'll be glad to know that the original OP will continue to be used as an insert for the most climactic fight scenes!

You know, I completely forgot that Go-Busters changed up its theme song. Weird how tokusatsu keeps doing that when a show gets reworked, all the way back to Ultraman Leo.

Yeah, but they also got rid of all the workers and techs and janitorial services dancing in the hangar, and that's a miss for me. The Go-Busters are more than just the superheroes, or the command crew -- it's everyone at the base that we usually don't see. Getting rid of all of that flattens the premise, and it feels like a mistake to me.

I... do not! I mostly expect the operatives to scramble into action! And then countdown to action!

It's a very weird acknowledgement.

Continuing my trend of open hostility towards anything that threatened the status quo of my precious Go-Busters, I hated the new opening theme for a good while. Busters Ready Go! is real deep in my heart, and from the outset I thought it was an ideal song to represent the show. There's a bit more of a sense of a sort of solemn duty it gives to the heroes' standing against evil than usual for a Sentai theme, especially with the typically great Fujibayashi lyrics, while still being very grand and exciting, which was also very consistent with the show's likewise excellently tailored background music. (Between this and Go-Onger I've always wanted to see Megumi Oohashi tackle another Sentai someday.)

For me at the time, at least, Morphin'! Movin'! Bustersship! was maybe a little too energetic and fun for its own good? I've long since learned to understand the appeal of it as a song -- and even as an opening for Go-Busters -- but even now, I don't think it really digs down into the soul of the show on quite the same level.

To be more fair, it's probably important to acknowledge that the odds were also stacked against it, since when I was originally watching the show, I was playing catch up towards the end of its run, having already learned this new song was likely a harbinger of a dreaded "retool" of some kind or another. And like, if I could barely handle the completely normal thing of a shiny new protagonist with Jin, you can imagine how nervous that idea had me! Honestly, to this day, especially never having seen any primary source outright confirm anything, I'm still not sure what retooling exactly happened, versus how much of it is simply the usual twists and turns of development on these shows being perceived that way? It's not like a Hibiki situation where there were obvious major staff shakeups, at the very least.

But uh, I'm probably getting a bit ahead of Die at this point! I don't really have any epic argument off the top of my head about the hidden depths of this episode's narrative or anything though, so without going back to it, the most I can say is that I also enjoyed my time with it. I mean, it's got Red Buster in the spotlight, and Rika even shows up, so it'd be hard to disappoint me. I guess I could point out that since the Go-Busters' Weak Points are all based on common computer problems, it makes perfect sense the intense fight-or-flight response of a strong phobia would be overwhelming enough to cause Hiromu to freeze up, much like a program using up too much memory?