[Fish Sandwich]

S*** is it time for Buster!?

I had a feeling you weren't going to make your first Sentai thread Jetman or Donbrothers, Die, but I also didn't really expect you to follow up on the foreshadowing way back in like, probably the Ryuki thread(?) where you mentioned Go-Busters was probably going to be your first Sentai.

I'm glad you picked this one though!

Speaking from experience, I definitely think this is a great Sentai for Rider fans who aren't that interested in Sentai, because, believe it or not, that's more or less where I was at back when I first watched it.

I wasn't as apathetic as Die, but I had spent a whole year watching Gokaiger and having it not click that much for me, so the next show coming along and having that instant surface-level appeal of being basically The Cooler Sentai, with its sick tactical leather suits, radical real-robot style mecha action with tight cockpits full of instrument panels and switches, that smaller, more approachable cast, a Red who rides around on a bike like those bugmen guys I already like...

The show was definitely calling out to me to a pretty huge degree. I fell off it after a few episodes when it was new anyway, but when I finally got around to it in full around the time it was ending, it ended up being the show that, to this day -- even in a post-Saber world -- I still consider my favorite toku show period. Not only did it do a ton to entertain me with all those simple pleasures I just mentioned, but the stories it told and the characters it had have really stuck with me over the years. It's one of those shows like Kuuga where on top of simply having fun watching it, it's also something that's genuinely influenced my life in a positive way, and it's kind of hard to top that level of attachment, you know?

But of course, I'll have plenty more time to reminisce in the next two-ish months. For now, I'm just happy to see you already having your fun with those first two episodes, Die. I was actually half-prepared to make an argument about how the premiere is one of those ones you appreciate more in retrospect, but uh, turns out you already figured that out without me saying it! The way I see it is basically Kobayashi wanted to give you a broader, rounded look at the show in that first week and then dive more into the individual elements as she goes along, rather than building it all up slowly, which has the opposite risk of not hooking a viewer who might not realize there are going to be important elements in the show they might like that haven't shown up yet.

I'm kind of thinking out loud here though, so I'm not sure how much sense I'm making. It's just that after watching and writing about 45 different Sentai premieres, I've kind of come to appreciate what a tough balancing act those things can be. Even just the question of whether or not to have the robot in there right away has huge implications. You'll get more time for plot and character without the second fight scene, but in Go-Busters case, for example, you can't demonstrate what makes it Go-Busters without showing the fairly unique idea of having the mecha action happening alongside the ground-level stuff, as opposed to the typical Sentai formula where the robot is basically the encore performance after the main fight scene.