[Kamen Rider Lucha]

After giving up the LWW of Magiranger, I find myself with free time and a desire to watch a more modern Sentai. So I decided to pick up Go-Busters starting after the retool. I'd previously gotten just beyond the introduction of Beet and Stag Buster before losing interest. It just became too repetitive.

But holy shit, does this show turn itself around or what? Episodes 28-35 (minus the Gavan crossover, which I skipped cause he was so shit in Gokaiger) are solid gold. It's like the show suddenly becomes a modern take on an 80s Sentai team while still managing to preserve the grounded and "realistic" tone that was always part of its mission statement.

After the events surrounding the Messiah shut down, the characters have gone from naive rookies to hardened professionals -- like the militarized Sentai of yore. The action is more exciting, the giant sized battles are actually integral to the plot, Enter is as awesome as ever, and the tone is straightforward and serious without coming off as grimdark. The show also appears to have found a new sense of adventure. Gone are the endless tower defense battles -- in their place we have some battles with more scope and variety.

In summation: Mane Li-Oh and his theme song... These are glorious things.