[Kamen Rider Die]

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 13 - “A SURPRISING DAY OFF”



Our first two-parter! What a pleasant surprise!

The welcome trade-off of not really having a complete villain story to talk about (the Tubaroid and Tubaroid Ver 2 are up to something that involves tagging all three Busters, but we don’t know why yet) is that we get so much more interaction between our main cast, in ways both comedic and dramatic.

Mainly comedic for this part, which is fine with me. Yoko’s decision to create a Buddyroid Day Out is a delightful way to encounter our main six cast members in a completely different light – literally, because they’re all outside for a change! (Gorisaki even wears a cute little scarf, to keep from getting sunburned.) We only get two of the four surprise locations in this one – saving Nick’s and the conclusion for next time – but it’s a blast to see the gang at both a zoo and a theme park. There’s a real sweet domesticity to it all, and it’s a pleasant reminder of how much of a family this whole group is, and how badly Yoko needs the connection with all of them. She clearly wants this to be a meaningful and emotional day, despite the Hiromu of it all (he’s such a petulant baby!), and it’s nice to have a goal within a story that isn’t contingent on defeating a Vagras threat. We’re outside the usual bounds of a Go-Busters story, in almost every way.

Beyond the new environment, we get a fun series of vignettes for each Buster/Buddyroid pairing, to see how the dynamics differ: Ryuji needs Gorisaki to help track down the Tubaroid, but Gorisaki prioritizes keeping Ryuji hydrated instead; Nick wants to split from Hiromu so they can cover more ground in the search, and then immediately gets so lost that he’s outside the theme park; Yoko sticks Usada on theme park rides he clearly hates, while smugly acting like she’s reading his mind by delivering exactly what he wants. Most of it isn’t in service to much yet, but you can already see how it’ll start to impact things next episode.

Oh, and Commander is doing something weird and secretive in hyperspace?!?!



IT’S TIME FOR Enter!

A+ episode for everyone’s favorite flamboyantly French flunky. He visibly tenses up at Messiah’s quick omission of what’s really going on with the new Megazord construction, adding a nice new wrinkle to his sycophancy. BUT! The real excellence in this episode comes from Enter deciding that the best way to take out two tuba players was to put on a bear mascot costume, and then immediately take it off. There’s no reason for him to be in a disguise, because the Vagras goons instantly swarm the tuba players, and it’s not like he’s infiltrating anything – he seriously seems to put on a bear costume just to wear a bear costume for a few minutes. It’s inexplicable, and hilarious, and I loved it.