[Kamen Rider Die]

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 18 - “A JOINT OPERATION AT 3000 METERS”



If the last three episodes were about Jin (and, to a lesser extent, J) testing the Busters to figure out if they could be of use in the battle against the Vagras, this episode is about the Busters trying to decide if Jin (and, to a lesser extent, J) is going to be able to work with them to defeat the Vagras. We’re out of the Can We Trust Jin (And, To A Lesser Extent, J) woods, and the attendant questions of identity and history and motivation, and onto the brass tacks of whether or not the efficient, militarized Go-Busters can work alongside a golden asshole and a silver dick to get literally anything done.

I think you can call this one a success, both in-universe and out? The Drillroid and Alpha Megazord are dispatched, and it’s down entirely to the cooperation of all five Busters. It kicks off in a way that seems guaranteed for failure, and utterly predictable – Jin shows up with his I’ll Take It From Here energy, kidnapping Hiromu (hilarious), browbeating Ryuji (effective), and leaving J behind to team with Yoko to take down the Metaroid (delightful). But then it slowly but surely pivots into a story that exposes Jin as willing to go along on someone else’s ride, and J as willing to think of someone outside of himself.

Let’s start with Jin first! While it’s funny to start off with Jin once again just doing his own plan, it’s already starting to wear thin, and I think the show gets that. We don’t want to be in a series where cool guy Jin shows up to take over every scene, while Kurorin blusters impotently back at base. There needs to be a sense of equality here, which is what the three Busters managed previously. So the story slowly layers in Jin’s trust in Ryuji to keep them all safe, since it’s what Ryuji’s best at, and lets Hiromu tweak Jin’s plan when the facts on the ground start to change. As soon as Hiromu says he has a plan, Jin’s all in on it, no questions asked. It’s a spirit of teamwork that feels like a natural outgrowth of the shit Jin put everyone through over the last three episodes, and it makes it seem like he needs the team to believe in him, as much as he needs to know if the team’s worth believing in.

On the other side of the episode, we have a terrific outing for J and Yoko. It’s mostly just Yoko playing the straight woman to J’s baffling lack of clarification and constant indifference to anything happening outside of his own head, which is fantastic, but it resolves itself into a nice lesson of letting people be weird and not judging them. If it never quite reaches the same level of character-driven success as the Jin story, well… I mean, J isn’t as deep a character, and I think “poignant comic relief” is maybe all we should really ask for from a Super Buddyroid.

Really strong episode for moving us out of the New Character Smell of Beet Buster and Stag Buster, and into a series that feels like all five Busters are operating at the same level of investment from the production team.



IT’S TIME FOR Drillroid!

Again, I love a monster that is just trying to do its job, and can’t understand why it’s getting hassled by Sentai heroes. Drillroid’s sheepish apologies and I’m Just A Simple Drill catchphrase made me honestly feel a little bad for him, as the Busters just start whupping on him as he’s wandering confused around a power plant. Hard to evoke sympathy as a drill-covered Metaroid, but this guy managed it!