Go-Busters, the lowest rated Sentai of all time - Just how bad is it?
 

I fell out of love with this show around Episode 03. Or sorry, Mission 03. Ratings show that it's the lowest rated Sentai in the history of Sentai, its last 5 episodes having the lowest average mark in Sentai since OhRanger (Zeo), which held the lowest record up until this past weekend.

So just how bad is Go-Busters? Forreal. Our traffic for Go-Busters is nothing compared to Fourze and Wizard on the Kamen Rider side, and Power Rangers still blows both out of the water.

Personally, I'm enjoying Gobusters, a bit more then I did Gokaiger. I don't really think ratings indicate just how enjoyable a show may or may not be.

I'm enjoying the show so far.

It's just so bland and average and nothing. I posted my thoughts in "Show so far" thread but i'll echo them here. The characters are bland with almost no development. Ryuji, Jin, and Beet J Stag being shining exceptions. The overall plot of the show barely exists against the backdrop of dead filler episodes. I think I've seen maybe 3 or 4 episodes with any real plot at all to them. It's sad considering how excited I was for this show. It being directly after an amazing anniversary series I just assumed Toei would go all out and do some really innovative stuff. They just really haven't, and the things that they have done new haven't been good.

I'm not watching. Not because I don't want to, just because I'm sick of trying to figure out torrents.

i love rabbit buddyroid in all gobusters eps

Go-Busters is still way cool...

Need help with watching episodes, eh? Well I can hook you up... ;)

I stopped watching about after Beet and Stag Buster were introduced. I'll probably get back to it sometime. It's really not that it's a bad show. I love the characters, they're better developed than most Rangers I've seen. The characters feel authentic and their interactions believable. You know it's good when they can make Buddyroids believable.

Yet, somehow, I had no real incentive to follow it. I can't place my finger on why, exactly. I think the best explanation I got is that it took itself too seriously. There was a lack of over-the-top awesomeness that is usually part of the Super Sentai tradition. The realism in the fights was really cool at first, but I started to find it very limiting and repetitive. There was nothing outlandishly cool like some of the crazy stuff the Gokaigers or any other Sentai team pulled during their runs. It becomes pretty obvious when Beet and Stag Buster were introduced. While I was awed at the cool stunts pulled by the Go-on Wings, the impressive backhand style of Shinken Gold, or even Gokai Silver's rather loud debut, the Beet and Stag Busters felt rather boring to watch. The coolest part of their suited scenes at that time was the henshin and that's not a really good sign. I guess the most interesting things about the Go-busters fights were the strategies they devised to defeat the enemy, but other, more mature shows do them better, and it's sad when Super Sentai forgoes its crazy action to imitate more realistic shows.

There's also the problem of Go-busters feeling eerily empty. Super Sentai usually never has a large a cast as Kamen Rider, and they have to work to disguise the limited number of sets and extras. Usually the illusion works, the scenes felt alive despite only focusing on the Rangers and a few costumed monsters. On the other hand, in Go-busters, it seems really obvious that there's no one around except the Go-busters and their monsters. A lack of people screaming, a lack of extras around needing help, a distinct lack of chaos and disorder. There's a bit of that in the earlier episodes with them helping out civilians in realistic ways such as evacuation, but they seemed to have abandoned that later on.

Continuing this empty feeling, the cast seems positively tiny. Despite showing us shots of many workers, I can't get past the feeling that the Energy Management Center is just the Go-busters and three other guys. It really breaks the illusion. The villains too, at least up to where I watched, were just Enter and Messiah, and Messiah does not make for a proper character per se. The Gokaigers' Zangyack were pathetic and consisted only of four somewhat significant characters at first, but whether it's because of the footsoldiers running around, or the shots of the enemy fleet, you always felt that they were at least a large force, not just two guys like the Vagrass were.

In summary, I think two points summarize why I lacked the initiative to watch Go-busters continuously. First, the show is not over-the-top in the way Super Sentai should be, and loses a lot of fun along the way. Second, the world is empty and unconvincing, there's no illusion of a living, breathing city to rescue. I have no doubt it will improve later on, Super Sentai usually do much better in their respective second halves. I look forward to seeing what will happen later.

Could you? Cause I wanna watch. I just hate torrents.

Obligatory pasting of my ratings sheet.

http://i.imgur.com/zXDDj.png

Sentai and SHT ratings have been dropping for awhile they need a very Japanese show like Shinkenger again to help boost ratings and DVD sales in my opinion.

Gekiranger to low ratings? D:
That series was awesome!

Anyway, I dropped Gobusters after episode 1. I usually give shows 3 episodes before dropping them, but nah. I didn't like the characters, I didn't like the Engrish, I didn't like the monsters' designs, I didn't like Buster Red's chicken thing, and I didn't like how Buster Blue and Yellow couldn't do jack shit to a monster until Red showed up.

Ratings aren't a good indicator of quality...

In the instance of Gobuster I think they are though.

Fair point.
But better ratings would've meant more Geki! :D

Also DAYUM. Gaoranger was a ratings giant! No wonder they wanted to do a direct adaptation!

I stopped watching after the 3rd episode as well. I've scanned a few eps afterwards, mainly just for the new zords combining and Beet/Stag Buster. I'll check again when they introduce the power ups or whatever. So far, to me anyways, the only good thing about the show is Escape....

http://krdl.info/

I think Go-Busters is okay. I'm not really invested in it, but I like it enough to keep watching. I like Masato, J, and Ryuuji a lot, plus it has some of the best mech work I've ever seen in a Sentai or Power Rangers. The show's biggest problem is that it doesn't feel like there's any kind of story; the heroes just wait for monsters to show up, kill them, and then go back to waiting. There's no real goal for the characters and it makes every episode feel like filler. Even cool moments like manually docking Gobuster-Oh or Ryuuji intentionally heating himself up to fight Escape (which was seriously badass - go watch episode 25) can't fully make up for the lack of plot.

From what I understand Gekiranger wasn't well received. the old fans liked the villains and their development but the younger audience didn't.

that and the toys didn't sell very well from memory

Especially if you are on a channel with the words FOX in it. :D

Anyway, I still don't understand how ratings work. I mean, to me, 4% of Japan watching something on tv the moment it airs seems pretty damn good to me, especially when that does not account for people who are DVRing it and watching it later.

That's because kids are used to recent villains being dumb ass costumes with no backstory to follow them as they are just there to lose while those who have watched older Sentai series are used to villains being developed. That is one of the reasons I felt the Zangyack Empire went through the show with little to no development, because kids only want to watch the toys in action, adults want to watch the story. I mean, come on, in the 90s we had Shadam who was the father to KibaRanger, and his brother was also a villain, we had NinjaWhite's father acting as a servant to Daimaou, Zylpheeza's love for his siblings and his disobedience to just kill them at their mother's whim, RedHawk discovering the love he thought died was mindwiped, evil seductress fall in love with the red ranger, while most of the series in the 00s were just, "We're hear to take over the world? Why? Uh... well... just because."

Anyway, Gobusters has become the biggest disappointment since the crucifiction. Okay, it isn't that bad, but it showed great promise because it had all of this new life to it, and then they just pissed it all away for gimmicks and filler. I mean, I was reading the episode descriptions posted today for liek 28-30, and they are events that should have happened 10 episodes ago. Nevertheless, the show is a giant mess with rangers that do nothing, villains that are not the least bit threatening or even put up a fight, a giant head that just whines even when he is given great advice by his servant (Enter's plan to just send an army of Megazords at one time), and a commander that looks bored out of his mind. Oh, and useless robot pals, especially Usada.

What has she done to warrant her as a high point? Enter did more in his first episode than she did in 3. Escape is just there for fanservice to try to get people watching it since watching it for Yoko is one step away from pedophilia.

its such a dissapointing show, i struggle to keep up with it because i can't find the motivation to watch it, its just so bland

at savcon someone actually told me they did not like akibaranger and loved gobuster. I wanted to murder them and their entire family right then and there :lol i'm like, "really? are you just that boring?"

masato, j, and ryuji are the only reason i even keep watching.

Its average. Like I've said before there's a lot to like about Go-Busters, it just lacks the heart to make it a really good show. I've seen worse Sentai series for sure.

I think Gobuster did the biggest no-no by combining realism (suits, fights) with total unrealistic things (robobuddies, roleplay toys with no actual gimmick to them, etc.).

Kamen Rider Fourze isn't a highly rated Kamen Rider (lowest this era actually) but the toy sales are among the highest ever. That in itself makes it "profitable" and "successful" to TOEI and Bandai. At the end of the day the show is intended to sell a product (was not intended to be that way in conception but since then it is). Gobusters isn't selling as much as Gokaiger did, meaning Gobuster is a lower rated and lower selling Sentai. I predict next year will see a change back to "normalcy" because that formula works, where as this new formula does not.

I'm not following this series as it just doesn't interest me at all. Fourze isn't the typical brooding Rider but at the end of the day his show is much better than this lukewarm attempt at spy shows.

The thing with Fourze is, the freaking Foodroids have been far more useful than the god damned Buddyroids in Gobusters. That is sad when the Buddyroids have their own personalities, and yet, they have done little to nothing to help the show.

Aside from Nick becoming a motorcycle, and them all become an intricate part of the Mech's. You know. Aside from that.

Thanks to KR Meteor I've been watching Go-Busters, along with Goseiger again because it's awesome, and I don't see why it's failing. I like it. Everytime their braces call out It's Morphin Time! I can't help but smile. I think it's because of Gokaiger. Everyone was so in love with it, for some reason, that whatever came next was bound to do worse. Same thing with Wizard. You watch, it'll do worse than Fourze.

Or I just have a weakness for things hardly no one else likes.
Goseiger
Go-Busters
Decade
Coke when they changed the formula.

Looks like kids are the ones that really don't like it in Japan.

http://risingsuntokusatsu.com/2012/0...ke-go-busters/

Demographic Ratings – KIDS
Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters – 6.9%
Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger – 11.8%
Tensou Sentai Goseiger – 11.3%
Samurai Sentai Shinkenger – 11.4%
Engine Sentai Go-Onger – 10.9%
Juuken Sentai Gekiranger – 14.2
GoGo Sentai Boukenger – 14.4%
Mahou Sentai Magiranger – 18.2%
Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger – 17.4%
Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger – 18.4%

Sadly, I am not surprised Gobusters is bad though. Look at Toei's track record in the last several years (bad does not mean downright terrible, but also not good, just like good does not have to mean amazing, just good enough):

GaoRanger - Good
Hurricanger - Bad
AbaRanger - Good
DekaRanger - Bad
MagiRanger - Good
Boukenger - Bad
GekiRanger - Good
Go-Onger - Bad
Shinkenger - Good
Goseiger - Bad
Gokaiger - Good
Gobuster - Bad

I was really hoping Gobuster would break this curse similar to how Kamen Rider W/OOO/Fourze broke the curse of every other rider series being bad.

Or it could just be that its a really boring series? The characters have cardboard cutout personalities, the buddyroids are mostly superfluous aside from Nick and Beet J Stag, the plot has barely advanced over 25 weeks and the combined mecha look like crap. Its got nothing to do with it following Gokaiger or the fact it has "It's Morphin' Time" as a henshin call, because half the people here saying its disappointing were saying it was great when its first five episodes aired.