[Kamen Rider Die]

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 12 - “DO YOU LIKE DISGUISES?”



There’s a bit in the opening sequence of this episode where Nakamura asks the assembled Busters and Buddyroids what Yoko does for fun, and all five of them stare blankly and mumble answers that indicate that they have no idea what, if anything, Yoko does to have fun. While that’s the direction in which the episode would inevitably travel – delving into Yoko’s life outside of and beyond being a Go-Buster – I honestly found it even funnier that I couldn’t tell you what anyone in this cast does outside of a mission, so it’s a little hypocritical for this show to make a big deal out of Yoko’s single-minded dedication to the mission. That’s this whole series!!!

But I’m not here to gripe. (If I were, I’d 100% point out how ridiculous it is for the daughter of a world-famous actress to treat success in the film industry as some impossible dream, rather than the all-too-common birthright of nepo babies; also, come on, you can switch out Angie for Yoko at the press conference, but she HAS to wear the crystal earrings instead of some fakes; also, what exactly was the Megazord even doing there, besides giving us a cute Ace V Ace scene – the entire plan was about infiltrating the press conference, not distracting the Go-Busters with a two-pronged battle.) I’m here to enjoy this episode about Yoko being the socially-damaged byproduct of a childhood spent as a soldier, trained by robots and other soldiers.

It’s nice that the story about Yoko not having a dream doesn’t have her suddenly revealing a hidden talent or passion, like Ryuji’s engineering career. She’s been a Go-Buster since she was three years old, and her entire social circle is the Go-Busters organization; I’m sure they did the best they could with making sure she was cared for and educated (Usada rolls his eyes), but there’s no sense that she was properly socialized. She doesn’t seem to have any hobbies, or friends outside the various soldiers and employees that fill up the background. We’ve never seen her care about anything that didn’t directly impact the mission.

What’s great about this story is it basically just goes Yeah, We Should Work On That. It’s weird that Yoko doesn’t have a life outside of Go-Bustering, but that’s what she needs to do right now for the safety of everyone she cares about. Still, it’s a job with a goal – defeating the Vagras and rescuing the people trapped in hyperspace – but it’s not a dream. There will come a point when Yoko is a young woman that needs to figure out what her future looks like. It’s not today, but now she realizes it’ll eventually happen.

I like that, the small step Yoko has to take into a wider world. There’s no immediate pressure for her to join a band or work in a cafe or start dating or write a book or whatever, but it’s nice for her to start considering a life beyond training and fighting. Tiny little story about the show acknowledging how sheltered and warped Yoko’s vision of her future must be, with the hope that recognizing it can start to change it. Works for me!



IT’S TIME FOR a talk about how much privacy Yoko has in her life!

It’s a funny gag, that Yoko reads over this heartfelt letter from her doppelganger Angie Sue and then reveals that she can’t actually read it because it’s in English (despite Angie Sue being a Hong Kong actress that speaks fluent Japanese I’m not here to gripe), but afterwards I really got worried for Yoko. First, Ryuji’s just reading her mail? How long has that been going on for? But then I continued to get even more worried about Yoko, with this entire episode sketching in a life as a child soldier: she lives at the base, presumably for her entire life; her support system – emotionally, physically, and mentally – are her teammates and superiors, with seemingly no one in her life outside of that; and there is no sense that this girl is prepared for a life outside of a very specific mission to defeat hostile otherworldly forces. This is all incredibly weird and sad! This is like Evangelion, but at least those kids got to go to a regular high school! I feel like Yoko needs the state to step in and put an end to this!