[Kamen Rider Die]

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 7- “ACE NEEDS REPAIRING?!”



Oh, I liked this one a lot. It’s a great, Go-Busters specific superhero story with nicely defined stakes, a couple thrilling action sequences, and some morals that you couldn’t do without this show’s premise and aesthetics.

This whole episode’s about the difference between a team and an organization, and I love that. It’s not just Koyama learning a lesson about how the real way to make up for a mistake is to stick around and fix it, rather than quitting as a failure. It’s not just Hiromu learning a lesson about not taking non-Busters for granted. It’s an episode with both of those things happening under the umbrella of the characters learning that the Go-Busters organization needs both of them – and dozens of other people, including maybe candymakers and packaging designers – in order to successfully combat the Vagras.

It’s that last part that really made this one sing for me. It’s clear pretty early on that Hiromu is kind of treating Koyama like shit, despite Hiromu not being nearly as flawless as he thinks. (Like: last episode!!! He screwed everything up 20 times in a row last episode!!!) And, you know, Koyama seems like the kind of hero-worshiping mechanic who would beg to be fired after making a crucial mistake on his idol’s Buster Machine. But the bigger story here is how all of that comes from both guys thinking there’s a rigid hierarchy between costumed heroes and jumpsuits extras, but this isn’t that kind of show; it doesn’t want to be that kind of show. Sure, the Busters are the tip of the spear when it comes to combatting the Vagras, but there are dozens of hands pointing that spear back at the base. Hiromu taking everything on his shoulders last time is like the prelude to this episode’s story of him forgetting that no one is dispensable.

My favorite thing about this show is how it’s so much bigger than the heroes. Those shots in the end credits where it’s all of the various workers dancing alongside the Busters, you know? The Busters are the ones out in the field because they are specially empowered to do it, but they’re no more special than anyone else for that. Hiromu’s job and Koyama’s job are just two of many jobs within the Go-Busters organization, and they’re all important. I love how this one keeps hammering that point home, where even the cross-cut climax is between the two operational Buster Machines fighting Megazords, and Koyama finishing his repairs. Every worker matters.

And then after that exceptional message that no one’s too exceptional to not respect another worker, we get cute little stories about how to deal with our failures. It’s very funny to me that Hiromu’s nearly-weekly paralyzing episodes are completely forgotten by him so he can continue to live in a smug cloud of non-stop winning, and his inevitable comeuppance is way more heartwarming than I’d’ve thought. (It’s genuinely great!) Meanwhile, Koyama gets to see that failing is the first step to redemption, but quitting robs you of that journey. Plus, failing hurts the team, but helping someone recover from failure helps the team, so we’re back into these two stories acting in narrative symbiosis. It’s all very sweet.

Again, I really liked this one a lot. It’s a cute little story about people learning to value their co-workers, no matter what their titles might be. Plus, some very cool action, at a variety of scales! Hard to complain about any of that.



IT’S TIME FOR Go-Buster Oh!

I think I liked this guy a bit better this time? There’s a symmetry to the design that I think maybe overcomes some of the Boxes On Boxes of it all, and I think its golden mustache is a fun look. I don’t know, it’s hard for me to say exactly why this time out I warmed to it – the colors all flow together nicely question mark? – but I think a lot of it was just how much I enjoyed the episode leading up the repaired Ace arriving on the scene for the combination. A good episode makes this suit more appealing to me, I guess.