[Suzu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sentai

And that's putting it mildly. But to be fair it didn't tank because of the story. That was part of it, certainly. But mostly Go-Busters failed because it didn't have a gimmick. Goseiger had cards, Gokaiger had keys, Kyoryuger had Batteries, even ToQger had trains. Go-Busters didn't have any of that.

I think the spy theme could work again. Just need a gimmick.

The story was also a problem, but more thanks to the timing. Only one year after the disaster that was the Tohoku Earthquake, the children also had major problems with the show because of how real it felt. Think about it: If you (as a child) had lost your parents only one year before, you also would have problems enjoying a show where the heroes deal with the loss of their parents.
It's the same with Ohranger and the Tokyo subway sarin attack, but Ohranger luckily had better toy sales.

I believe that at that point, Japanese children were still to traumatized to deal with the seriousness of Go-Busters (also with the fight around an alternative energy, which was also very real at that time).
And I think that's why Toei postponed military themes for a while- same with Ohranger, which was followed by Vehicles (Carranger), Video Games/Electronics (Megaranger) and classic Fantasy (Gingaman)- GoGo V took a step back towards the more "serious topics" with the rescue theme, but I think the real "serious" stuff didn't start again until Timeranger (anyone who has seen GoGo V might correct me here).
And considering how much of a disaster Go-Busters was, compared to even Ohranger... I guess it might take even longer this time.