That's vaguely how I feel about Powered Morphin' as well. Like, Beetbuster and Stagbuster already have this Gattai gimmick by default and J can actually replicate his parts when he doesn't need to morph. The core 3 copying their gimmick isn't particularly original. On the other hand, the Buddyroids are such an important part of the show, so expressing that symbolically, what else can you even do? Turn them in to weapons like New Den-O's Imagins, perhaps?

In principle, yeah, I think it's better when a Sentai grow stronger equally to reinforce the concept of teamwork. Sometimes though, the Red-exclusive power-up is cool as hell! I mean, check out what Hiromu's PR counterpart got:

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/46/cb/1d/4...8887e728ac.jpg

Neat! He looks like the Beet Buster version of Red Buster!

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 34 - “BEET BUSTER IS THE ENEMY?!”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters34a.png

An entire episode about providing a tragic context to Jin’s pathological inability to have a genuine human moment with anyone, ever, that starts with him at his most annoying and distracting? That’s… a choice!

I don’t really dislike the idea of doing a Tears Of A Clown thing for Jin, in theory, but this is an episode that I don’t think earns its big emotional fight scene. (It came close for me, without exactly making the previous scenes feel worthwhile.) Jin’s just relentlessly annoying in this one, at a completely different level than his normal smirking jackass thing. He’s a manic ball of Getting In The Way, which is saying something when J still exists. Jin’s extra amount of annoyance is eventually revealed to be a coping mechanism for the deaths of all of his coworkers/friends/maybe-girlfriends back when Messiah was detonated, and I just didn’t care a whole lot?

I don’t mind that all of this info was given to us by J, because Jin would never say any of this out loud. I don’t mind that Hiromu’s the one to confront Jin instead of Ryuji or Commander, because the guy you want to knock some sense into a relentlessly annoying clown who is taking too much guilt onto his shoulders is Hiromu, a tactless martyr who could not care less about protecting someone’s feelings. All of that… it’s good. It’s good story decisions. But it’s all in service of something that the show sort of hadn’t built to in any consistent way, beyond flipping a switch on Jin at the beginning of the episode. (Like, deflecting through gaslighting? Yes! 100%! But not bouncing around like a cocaine-fueled improv student!) Jin’s attitude in the beginning of this one feels at about the same level of characterization as when the Puppetroid is making him dance around or run an obstacle course, and that made it incredibly difficult for me to connect with the third act reveal that Jin’s secretly in a lot of pain since he trained Hiromu to kill Messiah.

The problem here is the same one in the Morishita episode: If you have to ramp up a negative attribute of a character into a cartoonish place just to work them back to normal, I am probably not going to feel like this was a story worth telling. If Jin was comedically shrugging off the ramifications of destroying Messiah in an earlier episode and then it was revealed that he was covering with humor, I’d be a lot more into this one. But instead we got a rampagingly buffoonish Jin suddenly having tremendous guilt, and I don’t feel like the show did the work to get there. Too fast, too extreme. Much like Jin in this episode!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters34b.png

IT’S TIME FOR Getting Into Knives!

As much as I wasn’t crazy about the feelings behind the Red/Beet sword fight, I can’t deny that it was exceptionally fun to watch. The stunt performers were tremendous throughout the episode – specifically in Beet’s many Puppetroid-influenced fighting styles – but the duel between Red and Beet was worth a contrived setup to see onscreen. Wish it hit harder emotionally, but it was still a blast to watch.

I find this funny knowing that Jin's actor would've likely said this line as his character Tsubasa/Magi Yellow in Magiranger circa 2005, but here we are seven years later he's playing a character who is told this. :lolol

I hope the actor was having fun!

This episode made me come around on Jin, who beforehand I saw as a cut rate Yuto Sakurai, with none of the things that made him work. Devoting an episode to the guilt he feels as a result of being the sole survivor of an accident over people who had more to live for definitely did a lot of character heavy lifting, and made him and J less of a dividual.

Also, we introduce a new robot, based off a lion to deal with both the Megazord we forgot last episode and a new one that shows up to accompany Puppetloid’s mission of “what can the human body withstand before it gives out”. But is it friend or foe (on one hand, it attacked the Go-Busters with the same ferocity as the two Megazords, on the other, Bandai put up listings for “LT-06 Tategami Lioh” on their website.)

The drama with Jin here definitely landed a lot better with me than it did with Die, but honestly, if I was going to pick one thing I liked from this episode to mention right now, it's gotta just be that I really like Puppetroid as a design concept? It's such a wonderfully silly bit of visual variety to have a monster that doesn't even have a normal face and instead speaks and emotes through closeups of two goofy hand puppets the entire episode.

I'm gonna say Friend, based on that additional information!

Puppetroid was a lot of fun. The episode somehow gave each of the hand puppets their own personalities and objectives, which is sort of insane to type out?

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 35 - “LET MANE LI-OH ROAR!”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters35a.png

Weird episode, mostly for how that late line from Mika kind of perfectly articulated what about this episode was its fatal flaw.

On one level, this is a super straightforward episode about showing off a new toy that manages to craft a thematic framework that serves its characters well. Hiromu has to prove himself to Li-Oh in order to win his help, and the Go-Busters have to prove themselves to Mika in order to earn her forgiveness and respect. The actors make it all work, and the action throughout is solid. (I didn’t love all the CG Zord stuff, but that’s a Me problem, not a show problem.) It leverages established character relationships both dramatic – Jin and Ryuji – and hilarious – Yellow Buster and Stag Buster – to notch a good episode of superhero action with a little bit of heart to it.

But all of the Professor Hazuki stuff makes virtually no sense. The whole point of Mika’s story is that she was told by some random researcher that her dad quit because of a fight with the higher-ups at the EMC (why?), and so she resented the EMC forever because of it. But then we find out at the end that he quit the EMC because he wanted to follow his principles (according to Jin) and that he never really hated the EMC, as evidenced by the fact that he designed a toy add-on for Ace. I just… why? Why any of this? Why was he forced out, when he’s just building the same giant robot that the EMC was already producing? What principles was he adhering to, when nothing he’s doing is beyond the boundaries of the EMC’s mission and policies? (It’s not like Li-Oh was some affront to God and Man or anything.) The reveal in this episode was that a wacky guy quit his office job to work at home, and his daughter carried a grudge about it for no apparent reason. This is all weird and dumb!

Other than that, though, I thought this one worked pretty well. (Again, aside from the ridiculous motivation that hamstrung the emotional climax of the episode.) Hiromu having to tame a robot lion in order to win its power in battle is some big time hero junk, and it works on basic tokusatsu level. It’s a plot you can’t screw up, which is why it’s sort of amazing that the other plot was such a failure – it’s a secondary plot! You didn’t have to do anything to explain why Hiromu battles a lion robot, and the explanation ended up being irritating!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters35b.png

IT’S TIME FOR Yellow Buster!

Really great episode for Yoko: She’s a fun foil to an aggressively dismissive Mika; she gets completely ratted out by Usada after she pretends that she understood Hiromu’s strategy; she’s the only Buster to go Super Mode this time out; and she gets to team up with J for yet another ridiculous sequence of her brattiness bouncing off of his obliviousness. She’s the most fun Buster in this episode, even though it’s nowhere near what I’d consider a Yoko spotlight. She’s just that fun!

I always recall this one as feeling like truly standard Sentai storytelling in a lot of ways it seemed to me Go-Busters used to consciously avoid? It's sort of difficult to really qualify that, and there are plenty of episodes of this show you could also argue fit the same bill (including earlier ones, I'm sure!), so I think the reason this one gets singled out by my mind is mostly... I might mean it as a criticism, in this case?

I feel like that might be connected to why the attempts the episode makes to ground the narrative in the show's established world ended up falling so flat for Die? It's not like I'm saying an episode where the heroes have to tame some awesome new animalistic robot and earn its trust is ever gonna be *not* exciting, but when you try and do that in a show like Go-Busters instead of Gaoranger or even Shinkenger or something, you need to explain why someone would build some weird lion robot that doesn't work the way all the other robots in the show do, and I kinda feel for Shimoyama's dilemma there. The episode makes the effort to give Tategami Li-Oh's existence a suitably dramatic context that you can get some story out of, but for slightly different reasons, I've also always been a little mixed on the execution.

All that being said, *as* a standard Sentai plot, it's got all sorts of fundamental qualities built into it, and being a Go-Busters episode, it's not like it's without its redeeming qualities. I just spent all those words dunking on it, but it's also hard to care too much about the potential nuanced differences in the writing style when all the characters still feel like the characters I love, and I get to see that red robot I adore riding a sick giant lion robot that turns into a tricycle.

So it’s ya boy Shimoyama, at it again not focusing on any one of the Busters. (Though Hiromu gets the bulk of the screen time, for the 3rd episode in a row) Instead, we’re focusing on the daughter of our new character, legendary singer and actor Ichiro Mizuki, providing his usual mannerisms and flamboyance as a mad scientist who somehow eclipses Jin in the ego department.

But he did build a robot that in addition to replacing the “plug in head” gimmick of the other Buster Machines in favour of adding some foreshadowing to Kyoryuger’s mecha toyline, also takes the basic combination joints Ace had and improves upon them. The legs are slimmer, so they don’t stick out, the plugs for combined mode arms are on the lower arms rather than the shoulders and the hands can actually be tucked away rather than sticking out.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=nvOXX065...bKN1Z3xFeoTcO_

And in the last scene, Hiromu is (just barely) seen holding a briefcase as Hazuki gives his final message. Lest you think his ghost returned, I’ll explain it was projected by the briefcase, the Lioh Attache. It’s basically the control panel for Lioh removed and stored as a briefcase. But there may be other functions to it than that.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=w2-3jVdy...7ub5vnjEi7Lrnk

And for a personal highlight, Enter gets his first actual battle (as opposed to shooting CGI cables or piloting Epsilon), and he manages to hold his own against two of the 5, only retreating after one powered up member mildly injures him (contrast with the Messianic Metaloids, which are constantly outmatched the minute Powered Custom gets pulled out). As one person pointed out, the implication here is that if he put his mind to it, he could probably wipe out all the Go-Busters at once.

Prof. Hazuki was portrayed by the late great Ichiro Mizuki, the GOAT of anime theme songs, founding member of anime theme song super group JAM Project, and the voice for the Powered Custom stuff in this show as well as Tategami Lioh stuff. Before he passed away in 2022, he sang anime and tokusatsu songs since the 70s, even earning the nickname "Aniki" or big brother in mainstream Japanese media.
He's no stranger to tokusatsu as well, having sang many themes and insert songs and even acted in some, his most notable appearances other than this show being the Metal Hero show known as Jikuu Senshi Spielban (which he sang the theme song for) as the titular hero's father, Ben, and Voicelugger Gold in the voice actor-centric tokusatsu show Voicelugger from the 90s.

Jikuu Senshi Spielban
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntCrBC6oKaI

Voicelugger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFlCfZhMKHw

Yeah, all of the Hazuki Family stuff not working feels like such a bummer because I'm just going to go ahead and say Hiromu Has To Tame A Lion BuddyZord is maybe the most Hiromu plot I can imagine. I don't know if it's a good Go-Busters plot, but it's a great Hiromu plot.

I feel like there's an attempt to do a Jin/Ryuji story in this episode, but I can't say it was especially poignant or compelling. It's mostly just the two of them using their engineering skills to help the investigation, but Professor Hazuki is such a baffling presence in the narrative that it never quite connects with the modern day characters.

I assume he also did the song that plays over Li-Oh's climactic battle against Epsilon? It sure didn't sound like the normal Go-Busters music!

Haha, this was the episode where I started to wonder when the Sixth Ranger was going to show up, not knowing that they were already there. :lol They typically debut in Q2, but rarely in Q1 or Q3 as well. Tategami Lioh certainly looks the part anyway. The way they become a bike for Gobuster Ace is a good way to emphasize the Buddy part of this Buddyzord, as they're doing the same thing that Nick does for Redbuster, except at giant size. I love it when a mecha gets a cool mount, which is why I enjoy Dekabike Robo and Bison King.

For the Hazuki part, there was some added emotional weight to rewatching this, now that his actor Mizuki is also deceased. He was a talented man.

The legs are a major improvement for sure. Shame that Hasbro never made their own version, as I would've liked to see their take on it. Besides, lions clearly sell, considering how often they appear alongside tyrannosauruses in Sentai. Imagine how many kids must've wanted to own this, only to find out that the DX merchandise doesn't exist.

I think I liked the lion-riding more than the bike-riding? Riding a giant robot lion into battle just feels more mythic than a big blue motorcycle.

In response to the insert song question, yes. Mizuki did song it. Though it’s funny you say it doesn’t sound like a Go-Busters song, since it has the usual lyricist and the main composer. (I’m sharing the wiki link because I can’t find any good videos online. https://powerrangers.fandom.com/wiki...zan!_Champion!!

True, but I think the bike form is a good way to represent how Lioh has been tamed as a Buddyzord. A lion is independent and wild, but a bike exists to be driven by a partner.

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 36 - “SHOOM! GO-BUSTER LI-OH!”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters36a.png

Ha ha, even the name of the episode where the Buddyroids resent how much of the spotlight is on Li-Oh ends up completely putting the spotlight on Li-Oh!

A relentlessly funny episode about how to accept new people, and also an episode that unfortunately demonizes the concept of unionizing. (Like, the whole point of going on a strike is that it should hurt the people you’re striking against, so they realize how they’ve been mistreating you as a worker! That’s when you don’t cave!) But since the Buddyroids are more family members than employees, and the Busters aren’t even management anyway, I’m okay overlooking some disappointing views on labor relations.

Because we aren’t in an episode about the demands of workers, we’re in an episode about welcoming a new friend, and how tricky that can feel for kids. Li-Oh is Cool and Awesome and New and Currently On Sale, and it’s making the Buddyroids feel overlooked and disregarded. While it’s the Busters fault, it’s easy for the Buddyroids to hold it against Li-Oh as well, even though he’s just sitting in a garage for most of the episode. Li-Oh is replacing them minute by minute, and they resent him for being so cool. (Even Nakamura and Morishita have less to offer because of Li-Oh! This episode is really insane for how Li-Oh is basically a pair of shorts and two jumpsuits away from just replacing all three Busters!)

But then we find out from Nick that Li-Oh isn’t trying to replace them, he’s just trying to fit in and make friends. Li-Oh’s been in a cave for god knows how long, and the guy who made him is dead. The Buddyroids have had the Busters in their lives since they were created, but Li-Oh doesn’t really have anyone as a partner. So, they decide to be those partners for Li-Oh. It’s sweet, the conclusion of that story. It’s two aggrieved Buddyroids (plus the chaotic J and mortified Nick) putting aside their own misgivings and reaching out to a new friend. It’s very, very sweet.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters36b.png

IT’S TIME FOR Buddyroids!

And the rest of the episode is hilarious, which helps! While the eventual resolution is warm and welcoming, the path to get there was killing me. The Buddyroids unionize!!! Their demands are, sadly, basic recognition and maybe the occasional trip to a theme park! (The Busters, and Yoko in particular, treat the Buddyroids' demands as ridiculous and insulting, meaning they clearly forgot about the Mission 13/14 two-parter already.) As much as the episode eventually had to include both a series of battles and a heartfelt moral, I was completely okay with the rapidly escalating friction between the Buddyroids and Busters. They made Nick the secretary!!!

My takeaway from the strike subplot: Why the heck did Nick think J would be reliable? Guy has most of the letters of “trouble” in his full name (Kuwagata Jueki Kabuto is just missing t, r and l).

So anyway, the rest of the episode is Lioh’s briefcase form showing off how much it can make everyone’s lives easier. It can detect the Messiah Cards activating and when Metaloids are created, and the toy has sounds for detecting the weak points of the main three (including the utterly hilarious “Sakurada Hiromu Chicken Reaction: CATCH!). It also doubles up as a tradition for Sentai dating back to 198w overall, 1987 as an overall thing: the ultimate weapon, a new role play toy introduced partway through a season (can be introduced anywhere starting from the late teens to the last 5 episodes of the show) to be the strongest weapon in the Rangers’ Arsenal. The term is one I’m using in lieu of anything better, since I don’t think there is a catch all term. The closest Bandai came to acknowledging them as a thing was having Donbrothers’ ultimate weapon, the GolDonblaster, contain standby sounds from the previous 11 examples (Gokaiger’s Gokai Galleon Buster, Lioh, Minityra from Kyoryuger, the Revolving Cannon from ToQger, the Ichibanshoubutou from Ninninger, Zyuohger’s Whale Change Gun, the Saiko Kyutama from Kyuranger, LupinPat’s Lupin Magnum and Siren Striker, Ryusoulger’s Max Ryusoul Changer, Kiramager’s Kiraful Go Arrow and Zenkaiger’s Zenryoku Zenkai Cannon).

And in the inverse of this power up talk, in an episode which shows off the necessity for Powered Custom slightly better than its debut by having Dozeroid wallop the base form Busters, Escape proves the inverse of Enter’s sudden level in badass by losing in one hit to Powered Ryuuji. Someone clearly forgot to level grind.

To be fair, the thing Nick was counting on was that J would be so difficult to deal with that Usada would give up and go back to Yoko. I think that's a good gamble!

Considering my aforementioned record of being hesitant to accept any sort of new regular presence in this show, I'd imagine having a plot that plays out that exact sort of jealousy through three of those characters who have been around from the start was a nicely relatable way to ease me into accepting Tategami Li-Oh in a similar fashion.

I have to imagine it, though, because it's not like I remember thinking of the episode consciously on that level or anything. With an elevator pitch like "the Buddyroids go on strike; hijinks ensue", it's an episode that's so fun I doubt I even spent a second worrying about Li-Oh to begin with. It's another one where the base ideas are so strong it's almost like it'd take more effort to mess it up? It inherently reinforces the continued importance of the existing cast while also doing its job of shilling the hot new thing, and you even get that classic power-up form tension of taking away Powered Custom until a suitably dramatic moment, emphasizing the slightly older new toys in the process.

And really, with how funny the raw visual of the Buddyroids with all their sashes and banners is by itself, all of the rest almost feels like a bonus.

Yeah, it's... I think it's an episode that I'm enjoying more as I remember it? The turn in the story where Nick's like Li-Oh Needs Friends, I was sort of bristling against the shift away from the hilarious hijinks and boorish Busters in favor of, uh, paying more attention to the new toy. But I like that Li-Oh is the sort of third point in this story's triangle, and the tug of war over him is something that Nick nicely keys in on. (Nick is always the more empathetic and team-oriented Buddyroid!) It wasn't my favorite thing yesterday, but I think I like it better now.

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 37 - “BRIDE IN WHITE, BLIGHT IN BLACK”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters37a.png

So, I’m watching this episode, and I thought I sort of got what they’re doing with the two stories. They’re contrasting Escape’s devotion to her father, Messiah, with Yoko’s crush on her old teacher. (Not old old; much like Hiromu’s old teacher, this guy looks maybe five years older than her.) But then I discount that, because there’s no way they’re going to try and draw a parallel between the devotion a child has to a parent, with the romantic love that a woman might have for a man.

Except, uh, that’s exactly what they land on?

It’s one of my least favorite toku tropes, having a bunch of male characters suddenly try to Protect The Virtue of a younger female character, but I can sort of roll with it as long as the episode makes the joke more on the overprotective dudes than on the young girl. Which this episode manages for most of the run! …Right up until the end of the episode, which seems to draw a direct connection between One True Love and a daughter’s love for her papa. It’s gross? I can sort of see what they’re trying to say – love is infuriating and bottomless and it’s more than just thinking someone’s neat – but a) Yoko already understood that, because she always seem to view her old crush with the proper distance and perspective, and b) it’s incredibly weird to have Yoko conflate Escape’s devotion to Messiah with the romantic love that she has yet to feel in her young life. That’s super duper weird!

I genuinely don’t know why the production team thought it would be cool to conflate the love of a daughter with romantic love just in general. (I feel like this is all a lot cleaner if the Metaroid goes after families instead?) It’s such a strange unforced error, where multiple other possibilities for this episode could feel less gross. And I was so proud of this episode for so long! Yoko is never embarrassed by her old crush, because she sees it for the childish infatuation that it was! We didn’t have to watch her be a cartoonish flirt with a grown man! She’s good! And then the show is like These Two Types Of Love Are Similar In That They’re Both Love, and I wanted to scream at them about apples and oranges! These are two different metaphors and you cannot give them an equivalent value at the end without making me insane!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters37b.png

IT’S TIME FOR Dads!

Speaking of insane! As much as I was grossed out by the end of this episode, I genuinely loved Commander, Ryuji and Usada doing a My Three Dads thing and treating Hasegawa like a predator. I love these three suddenly going OUR LITTLE GIRL at Yoko throughout the episode, mostly because it’s always 100% clear that they’re all being ridiculous. (Hiromu has no time for Ryuji for pretty much the whole episode.) It’s a great gag, even as it sadly makes the end of the episode even creepier.

In case anyone missed it, Mr. Hasegawa was portrayed by Mr. Utopia Dopant himself, Teyu Gong.

And there is indeed a significant age gap between him and the actress playing Yoko. 12 years in fact. Though given what I?ve seen about Japanese values regarding relationships (specifically, age gaps between consenting people of legal age are actually encouraged, since an older partner is better able to protect their spouse), I?d argue the guys? reaction to the teacher is less protectiveness and more jealousy (Ryuji?s been with Yoko all her life, and it has been established that Hiromu and Jin knew her as a toddler) mixed wih fear of the baby of their bunch growing up.

As for the rest of the episode, we finally get some of the evolution the Messiah Cards were advertising, with the Metaloid of the week being the first female (at least, until she turns into Messiah) and Escape is able to use it to transform into a robot monster form, presumably done irl because they realised there was only so much the human actress could pull off, training or no, before suspension of disbelief got stretched too far. Plus it gives her a more elaborate fight than the one from last episode.

I skimmed back through this one a little bit, and noticed something that, as a well-established Kuuga fan, I can't help but call out, which is that this episode is directed by Katsuya Watanabe, and has a scene where Enter and Escape are framed on either side of sparks pouring down from the ceiling to highlight the intensity of the confrontation, which is pretty much directly out of episode 37 of Kuuga, also directed by Watanabe, which pulled much the same trick for a confrontation between Ichijou and Baruba at its end.

I mean, man, I loved Go-Busters already, so imagine how happy it makes me to now think there's a sly Kuuga homage in there on top of everything else. :p

I knew he looked familiar, but I didn't know from where, so thanks! It was only six months ago I was watching this guy in W, and I've already forgotten him. Sheesh!

Oh god, I hope you're wrong! I would much rather it just be them acting like her dad!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kuuga/faceoff1.png

Ha ha, I was thinking about this scene as well during Mission 37 (iconic), but I didn't know it was the same director. Thanks so much for the info!

Now that I think about it, Jin joking about Ryuji's weakpoint killing him in Episode 21 might've been this, since he later revealed to Yoko that his own weakpoint is actually killing the real Jin. That joke was the catalyst for the whole Ryuji plot, so it's not like Jin's foreshadowing goofiness hasn't caused problems before. It's easier to joke about dark topics when you're not the subject of the joke, after all.

I can see a case for both of these arguments. Japanese culture does leave some nuance to relationships. Even though I also see Ryuji as a caring big bro to Yoko, adoptive/non-blood siblings can sometimes develop romantic feelings, like Kusaka did for Mari. Personally, I'd prefer Ryuji to stay as Yoko's big bro, Usada as her father, J as her uncle and Kurorin.... Wait, didn't he say Gobusters were just weapons to him in Episode 4? What's up with this guy getting all sentimental now?

For me, it was the Go-Onger nostalgia of seeing the place where they fought Shoukyaku Banki in the first episode!

Oh, and speaking of connections to Kamen Rider shows, I also find this episode's plot really amusing in retrospect, given that Ryuuji later ended up getting the last laugh when he became a Humagear and set Yoko up with her ideal spouse in Zero-One. :p

I mean, I'd assume that it's harder for him to keep Yoko at the same distance as Hiromu or Ryuji, mostly because he was helping to raise her? He indicates in this episode that he was a point of contact with her school -- meaning she actually got socialized outside of Usada and EMC technicians, phew -- which is a real guardian/parent role. I guess he feels a kind of protectiveness for his weapons? It's not unheard of!

I feel like I'll have to rewatch bits of Zi-O and Zero-One after this show's done for me. Thanks for the reminder!

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 38 - “ACE DEATH MATCH LIVE!”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters38a.png

I feel like this is going to end up being my favorite Go-Busters episode when it’s all said and done. It isn’t the deepest episode, or the most intricate, or features some character aspect that’s brand new, or anything like that. It doesn’t leverage metaphor or symbolism to any great degree. But it’s the episode that changes the language of Megazord/Buster Machine combat into 20-odd minutes of pro-wrestling action, and that’s going to make this one unbeatable in my mind.

This one harkened back to the sweet spot of the first dozen episodes, where we were confronted with a Vagras plot that the Go-Busters need to neutralize, and that’s about it. There was a precision to some of those stories that I really loved, and this one had that energy to it. There’s a mysterious Metaroid, Hiromu’s been separated from the group inside a stadium, go. Everything after that is just Hiromu trying to stay alive while the outside team works to puzzle out his capture, and I kind of love how straightforward it all is. (Very much like the movie, which also eschewed a lot of plot development or introspection for wall-to-wall action.) I don’t have a problem with an episode that wants to dig into a character in a new way, but it’s nice to be reminded how solid this show is at the basics.

Even the Hiromu moral… it’s just him saying that an hour of getting pummeled is nothing compared to thirteen years of training for hyperspace, so why in the world would Enter think that he'd lose trust in the team now? It’s a great big heroic declaration of trust and resourcefulness, and it’s perfect for this episode. It’s a Big Emotion about resolve, about gaining strength from the support of others… just like in pro-wrestling! The other Go-Busters are the crowd cheering Hiromu on, and that’s enough for him to mount the comeback that fends off Enter’s plans. Perfect. It’s perfect!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/sen...busters38b.png

IT’S TIME FOR BAH GAWD HE BROKE HIM IN HALF!!!

I have to confess that at least half of my love for this episode is that whoever subbed it had the Metaroid call the match just like Good Ol’ JR, Jim Ross. There are so many specific JR quotes in this one from the Metaroid, and every one had me grinning like an idiot. (“Business is about to pick up”, though… chef’s kiss.) And then there’s even random stuff like Yoko calling the Bugglars “jobbers”, and… man! Such a great job subbing this episode, whoever at Over-Time did this one!

It's funny you should say that, because this is also the episode where Over-Time's efforts to give everyone very natural sounding localizations where possible backfired on them in a way I remember seeing people roast them for a bit back in the day. You see, they'd been calling Go-Buster Oh by the translated Go-Buster King this entire time, since of course, they probably didn't expect 40-some weeks later for the show to introduce a combination that was called Go-Buster King... which they then just translated backwards as Go-Buster Oh, because, I mean, 38 episodes in is a little late to back down on the choices you've already made.

As much as I'd like to continue on the subject of fansubbing anecdotes, though, I've gotta say this episode is also a big favorite of mine, for the opposite simple reason that it changes the language of pro-wrestling into 20-odd minutes of sheer, unadulterated Megazord/Buster Machine combat. Like, man, my boy Ace hanging tough in an endurance bout against like every bad guy robot type in the show all by itself? I don't need anything else in an episode at that point. This story is already a winner, simply for grasping the deep truth that these sorts of hero shows are kinda *always* pro-wrestling, and just leaning right the heck into being that, but with giant robots.

Hiromu pulling an I Can Do This All Day to Enter as Ace is coming apart at the seams... pretty good! Pretty good toku moment!

Reminds me of Gekiranger. They had a kung fu practitioner who became a fly and did fight commentary during the giant mecha battles.

Not much to say here. It’s an interesting premise (an already giant monster who spawns 4 Megazords), and we get our second ultimate formation (I’d make the obvious joke, but there’s one other Sentai with multiple ultimate formations) in Go-Buster King. But that’s about all I remember.

Oh, that sounds neat!

It's a very fun episode! Definitely worth watching again.

I can tell that this episode has more appeal to wrestling fans, but like many sports-themed stories, it's a pretty good way to test the endurance of the focus character to the limit, both physically and mentally. I do pick up some terminology though, like "Babyface" from Gotchard, which I guess would apply to Redbuster and Nick here.

Other than the main plot, I recall this is the one where poor Bluebuster almost breaks his hand by punching glass? :lol

I'd say this is Toei's fault for not giving this Gattai a better name. I think King Buster Oh could've worked, as Over-Time could translate that to King Buster King.

Bae's mecha fight commentary was entertaining enough that even Jungle Fury had to adapt it!

He does! The whole first half of the episode is the rest of the team trying to break into the dome, to no effect, and the funniest one is Ryuji maybe actually hurting himself in the attempt.

The crazy part for me was that Bae was voiced by Akira freakin' Ishida. :lolol

By the way, since this is the episode where all the recurring ones are treated like super-star pro-wrestlers, this seems like a great spot to mention how much I love the Megazords in general? Their basic designs are generally quite cool, all come with pretty distinct silhouettes, the show lays out their unique traits super clearly so they don't feel interchangeable, and then on top of that, you get the whole shtick where instead of a bigger version of the monster of the week, they're simply big robots loaded up with custom equipment themed after the monster, allowing for the same variety in the action while also helping the show to save some money making wholly new suits. (Which also makes them feel like a precursor to what seems to be the Reiwa standard for monster design in both Sentai and Rider now, where monsters generally share a base suit design.)

There's just kinda a lot going on with them, and even though I'm quicker to call out how much I love the Buster Machines, it'd be a shame if I let this whole thread go by without making it clear that the reasons I think the mecha action is such a highlight in this series have just as much to do with the antagonists' side of things as they do the heroes'.