[Kamen Rider Die]

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 4 - “OF RESOLVE AND THE MISSION”



Hey, let’s talk about Zords for a minute.

(This episode mostly didn’t work for me narratively – it’s this weird melange of Red’s reckless dedication to rescuing the people trapped in hyperspace, Blue and Yellow flipping from That’s Not Good to He Was Right All Along a little too quickly for my tastes, and some ambivalent upper management stuff. It… I really didn’t feel like rooting for anyone at the end? It’s a tough one for me.)

I greatly prefer human-scale conflict in tokusatsu. I like to see stunt performs flipping around, dodging explosions, and generally looking like insanely cool superpeople. The farther a Kamen Rider show would get away from that – generally with neighborhood-sized CG monstrosities – the more I’d tune out. I can’t count the number of shocking climaxes I’ve forgotten thanks to everything switching to muddled, rubbery CG at the end. It’s just not my thing, and I think I’m okay saying that after watching a couple dozen different Kamen Rider series that’ve used it in varying amounts.

But Zords! Zords are a different thing.

I can’t really think of a Kamen Rider show that used a Zord regularly. (And, look: I’m just gonna call them Zords. If there’s a more technical Sentai term for them, I don’t know it, and you already know what I mean when I say “Zord”. Don’t act like this is confusing!) King Arthur from Saber? Maybe? I don’t remember if that was a suit or an effect; either way, it barely shows up. Zords are a Sentai thing, like riding motorcycles – it’d just be tacky if Kamen Rider ripped them off.

The Zords here aren’t completely new to me, as a storytelling tool. I never watched Power Rangers, beyond the last live-action movie, but I’ve seen some random Sentai episodes, so I get the Final Act Big Robot Fight template. I don’t know that I’ve ever enjoyed it in a Sentai show before, but I respect it as part of the process. Like, I don’t let it bother me, is the nicest thing I can say about it.

Now that I’m actually watching a whole series, though, I’m trying to really engage with that element of the story, the Zord Battle. I thought this one was a pretty good one, mostly for how it prioritized the physical combat of CB-01 and the Megazord, along with a slightly tactical approach to things, rather than just brute forcing things in a short sequence. It has some of the same moves that the Blue/Yellow/Cutteroid battle has, but with a slightly slower, more methodical pace.

The biggest change for me, though, is how the Zord battle… like, it’s all about passion, you know? The human-scaled fights can be overcome by flashy tricks and outflanking and power-ups, but each one of the Zord battles so far is all about the conviction of Red triumphing over the obstacle in front of him. He just has to want it more than his opponent, and he’s got a chance at victory.

Which, you know, I can see why this is the episode with the most integral Zord fight! This one’s all about the power of conviction, and how what can look foolhardy or reckless is really just dedication and resolve and OH GOD DAMN IT now I like this episode. Stupid Go-Busters!



IT’S TIME FOR Commander!

The whole support crew really shone in this one, but Commander went above and beyond. I like how contentious things are with him at the end of this episode, even though they’re all pulling in the same direction. He’s not there to be their surrogate dad or hapless patsy or goofy exposition dispenser – he’s there to execute the mission, and the Busters are just a weapon in his arsenal. He will give them all the support necessary to win, but those victories are only in service of his objectives. There’s a nice parallel between him and Red in this one, even if I ended things wondering what exactly Ryuji’s problem was. (Is Ryuji not clear on chain of command? He’s the one who always seemed to get that there was a military hierarchy at play!)