[Androzani84]

So here we are, at the end of the show’s first chapter. And some scattershot thoughts on aspects of this episode.

Messiah: In all honesty, he’s probably among the worst Sentai main villains I’ve seen. Pretty much the only reason he doesn’t take the top spot is that there are others who have quirks, acting issues or story elements that make them annoying. Messiah doenst have any of that. He just felt really pointless as an element of the story. He didn’t trap the parents in Hyperspace (the scientists did that themselves), he didn’t come up with any plans or create any Metaloids (that was all Enter) and the most he did was creating Enter and Escape. We don’t even know where he came from, or what his ultimate goal was. The fact his final fate is to be rendered unable to do anything while the Busters shoot him to death is very fitting. I doubt many people will disagree with this rant, since pretty much every talk about the series never mentions him, which underlines my point in a way. I don’t even think he’s been mentioned in the double digits in this thread.

The parents being dead all along? The episode frames the fact the heroes learn this as an idealistic moment of closure, but given the whole point Hiromu and Yoko became Go-Busters was to save their parents, it essentially renders their life’s purpose all for nothing and feels like one of the most cynical conclusions to a plot-line I’ve ever seen. If they’d still been alive, but only so long as Messiah existed, I might’ve been a bit more forgiving, but it feels like they got us invested purely for the purpose of pulling the rug.

The return of Epsilon? Not that surprising. While Rider barely acknowledges the Summer movies after they happen (Den-O, W, Gaim, Ghost, Zi-O and Gotchard being the exceptions), Sentai is the opposite, with call backs to the summer movie either in-show or in the V-Cinemas being very common (Gaoranger, Gekiranger to an extent, Gokaiger surprisingly enough, Kyuranger and Zenkaiger are the exceptions), mostly in the form of the exclusive mecha returning. What’s surprising is that they’re doing it now. Pretty much every other instance happens when the movie is out on DVD/Blu-ray, rather than the month after the movie came out (which adds a bit of fuel to my “this was intended as the finale” theory, but that’s neither here not there).

So anyway, for bookends, I’ll mention this is the end of the first chapter. The next will take us through the last 18 episodes, and no, that’s not a typo. As for my thoughts on said first chapter? Put simply, if I recommend Go-Busters, it’s because of the second chapter, since the first was really lacking.