[Kamen Rider Die]

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 19 - “MY COMBINATION! BUSTER HERCULES”



I don’t want to make a big deal about this episode’s title, because I don’t think it’s some massive problem, but it’s alarming and frustrating that anyone in the production team could look at this stellar, emotional episode about Nick and Hiromu and go The Whole Episode Is About The New Buster Machine Combination In The Final 90 Seconds Actually. I get that these shows exist by the grace of toy companies, but it honestly feels a little insulting to treat a strongly-written episode like this as merely the runway that allows for some new toy design to be promoted to a nation’s children. I don’t like it!

I did like this episode, though; quite a bit. It’s not the most complicated story of all time – Nick feels like he isn’t special enough to be Hiromu’s partner, mostly in light of the new Super Buddyroid that everyone’s losing their minds over – but it’s so evocatively told, and leverages so much of the weird relationship between Hiromu and Nick, that I am okay with a simple story that hits the bullseye.

This was a nice compliment to the recent Jin Is So Cool quartet, focusing instead on how J’s combat abilities and heroic demeanor can make the other Non-Super Buddyroids feel diminished by comparison. While Usada and Gorisaki have clearly defined roles on the team outside of their integration with Buster Machines (although Usada’s designation as a sorter of data feels a little invented on the spot), Nick’s just… the Bike Guy. He’s a partner for Hiromu, but not in the close way that Gorisaki and Usada are with their Busters. Nick’s just, like, how Hiromu gets to work. He’s not a teammate, he’s a chauffeur.

Nick’s crisis gives us an absolutely unforgettable montage of him trying out different specialties – chef, painter, model? – before accidentally landing on the thing he’s always been good at: raising kids. Usada’s still in the middle of helping Yoko become an adult, and Gorisaki was way too late to be more than a butler to Ryuji, but Nick’s been a formative influence in Hiromu’s life since he was 7. While Nick looks at himself as surplus to requirements, the only reason the Go-Busters are as effective as they are is because Nick showed Hiromu how to pursue a goal and see it through. Nick’s value is, and always has been, his ability to get people to believe in themselves. (Arguably something he’s too good at, considering how Hiromu turned out!)

We get a pretty fantastic pep-talk from Hiromu to wrap things up, which is always a treat, considering how perennially ill-suited Hiromu is at making anyone feel better through dialogue. His point here is a good one, which is that it’s hard for Hiromu to believe in himself if Nick – the one he learned resolve and strength from – can’t believe in himself, so get it together and be that source of strength that everyone depends on. It’s a fun way of honoring the bond between Hiromu and Nick, re-establishing Nick’s spot in the Buddyroid hierarchy, and reminding the audience that helping other people become their best selves is maybe cooler than jumping into battle as a silver superhero. (I… am not sure about that last one, but this episode has me in a good mood, so I’ll let the show have it.)



IT’S TIME FOR Red Buster!

You cannot have a successful Nick spotlight episode without Hiromu being his most abrasive and difficult, and boy did this episode not disappoint on that front. He instantly finds Nick’s quest for meaning to be less interesting than the coffee he just grabbed from the kitchenette. He meets Nick’s self-doubt with a stone-faced scolding. His climactic pep-talk basically amounts to I Can’t Be As Awesome As Usual Without You Getting Your Shit Together. And then he calls back the Bike Guy thing at the end just to needle Nick! I love it! I love how much of a dick Hiromu is to everyone he cares about!