[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 40 - “J STANDS IN FRONT OF THE MESSIAHROID”

There's a lot about J that makes him an extremely charming character, obviously. Literally just the way his arms are always in that power stance is more iconic than some entire characters, and as this episode shows, he's as good a Buddy as anyone in spite of his (hilarious) ego and (entertaining) lack of sense.

For me, though, I think the thing that ended up most making me like J was the whole aspect to him where he's also -- of all things -- a lover of nature? It actually makes perfect sense given his background of being created in some hellish alternate dimension, which is a nice bit of logic, but even without that, I'm always going to find it cute to see a robot going around excitedly looking at bugs with a magnifying glass, and that feels all the more special when so many way more obvious facets of daily life seem to completely escape J's attention so regularly.

This is a very strong episode in terms of moving the big-picture Plot forward, thanks to how it pushes ahead with Jin's storyline and gives Enter at least two new tricks in the process, but maybe the smartest thing it's doing is simply deciding to be about Jin by being about J instead, because while the former has always gotten the greater story focus, the latter's comedic antics, on top of just being so funny, are also rooted in stuff that gels perfectly with a lot of the themes this show is always exploring, so to get an episode after so long that treats J with so much dramatic weight -- while still having him be kind of insane -- is very much appreciated.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 41 - “PINK BUSTER, THIEF FATALE!”

...

Nothing that really happens is a surprise if you’ve ever seen a single Lupin-indebted toku story, but it’s a standard nowadays for a reason – they’re just fun to watch?

This is an episode that doesn't really feel like a typical episode of Go-Busters at all, that I've also always been quite fond of because the ways in which it's atypical for this series are what make it so fun to watch.

Like Die says, there's a tried-and-true charm to the genre stuff it dips into, and specific to Go-Busters, it lets the show goof around and create situations it wouldn't otherwise get to explore. Mouri being Mouri, he also keeps it from feeling too out-there by making sure a character we know being thrown out of their comfort zone is the whole point of the story, and naturally, it doesn't take much to sell me on the idea of Hiromu's usual prideful professionalism clashing with the unusual mission this one faces him with. Even just the joke of the title is great? Where it almost sounds for a second like some late-series new hero is joining the team if you don't know better? This is actually the last episode of the show Mouri wrote, and I like that he got to do something so knowingly weird and silly for this series before the inevitable dramatic escalation of the final stretch.