[Kamen Rider Die]

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 47 - “RESETS AND BACKUPS”



I don’t generally love the series-long villain schemes of toku shows. It’s not the parts of these shows I find the most joy in. Themes, character arcs, comedic subplots, melancholy beats… that’s what I love to talk about, and think about, and remember. The overarching schemes of would-be despots and genocidal tyrants, they aren’t so much my thing.

So imagine my surprise when I loved everything about the Enter scenes in this episode.

A lot of it is in the performance. Enter’s been a bright spot for this whole series, mostly in how the actor navigates his role as emissary for a screaming digital interdimensional skull god. There was always a playfulness to go along with the obsequiousness and malice, giving you the sense that Enter was aware of how ludicrous his master was, while just sort of shrugging with an It’s A Living smirk. Since his return as Papa Enter/New Messiah, there’s been a chilling serenity to his performance – the register has turned down from Flamboyant to Regal, befitting his new role. It makes the opening sequence of exposition – detailing what Enter’s been up to since Mission 33, and what he’s planning to do now – into something more captivating than a connecting-the-dots speech would normally be. He’s revealing his masterstroke to the Busters not out of a sense of gloating, but because they’ve all been involved in this process for months, so it’s only right that they should know what they’ve helped build.

And then, added to that around the edges, we get that old Messiah insanity creeping in – the uncontrollable anger, the frustration with Escape’s devotion, the way the Go-Busters can suddenly get under his skin by dismissing his power. The contrast of the Messiah madness with the Enter equanimity creates a captivating tension to what would otherwise just be the setup for the series final finale. It’s so fun to watch, and it made me care about a part of this show that I was not expecting to enjoy.



IT’S TIME FOR Chicken!

But there’s also the plot of this particular episode, and I also thought that was a blast. Pivoting directly from Enter Is All-Powerful And Has Neutralized Hiromu right into Hiromu getting traumatized through chicken training is a pretty, pretty good switch-up. Using that as the jumping off point to create a second episode in a row about the massive character growth these kids have achieved over the past year in recognizing and managing their flaws through their teamwork and friendship was a delightful choice. (If Mission 48 has a middle section where Hiromu and Ryuji open up a candy shop for Yoko, I will not be shocked.) The idea that Hiromu’s trauma is partially about his inability to ask other people for help is brilliant, and the solution of everyone kicking the crap out of him is inspired. Used as a mirror to Enter’s self-proclaimed evolution, it’s a nice little story to tell as we ramp up for the final finale.