[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS - SERIES WRAP-UP

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Let’s talk about Kamen Rider Gavv.

I have been! Every week! In part because this thread gave the me the push to start posting around here again, no less! Rest assured your hamfisted and cursory examination of Go-Busters has at least brought that much forth already. Speaking of which!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The most hilarious possible outcome for me would be that my hamfisted and cursory examination of Go-Busters brought forth a definitive Fish Sandwich treatise on the series. I'd love it!

This statement makes it a lot to easier to get at some more of the difference between my connection to Go-Busters and my love of so many other shows.

When I decided to make that Kuuga thread, a significant part of the motivation was the idea of how other people felt about the series. The thought of a world where newer fans of Rider might go back to older shows and end up perceiving Kuuga as only being interesting because of its immense historical importance made me want to do my part to make sure the record on that stays straight. To whatever extent I could, I wanted to make it clear that Kamen Rider Kuuga only has historical importance because it's so immensely interesting.

My personal feelings on Kuuga matter to that desire, of course. If I didn't love the show a lot, I'd never care about how it's perceived. I often have similar feelings regarding shows I see merit in that were already disregarded and undervalued in their own time. I probably couldn't have written about Kuuga if I hadn't written about Ninninger and Ghost first.

But then, on the other hand, I love Go-Busters so much, it's basically irrelevant to me what other people think about it.

It's hard to say for sure, since it's never occupied either extreme of fandom gospel, but I think my feelings about this show sort of leap over all that stuff. I see tons of merit in the way it's crafted, of course. But like, I have rewatched this show in full already, after I made a habit out of writing about stuff on here, and I chose not to try writing about it. More recently, I rewatched Kamen Rider Fourze, and chose not to try writing about it. When I got done with the latter, one of the few things I did have to say was a sentiment that applies just as much to Go-Busters:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

This isn't just a show I like a lot; it's something etched into my very soul

When I think back fondly on Go-Busters (or Fourze!), I often find myself starting to think less about the more detached objective quality of how well an episode came together, how cool an action scene was, or how much I liked a certain character, and instead thinking more and more about stuff like where I was in my life when I first watched it, and how much, looking back, things the show got me thinking about have influenced where I am in my life now.

Like, when you guys see me not sweating the binary good/bad of a toku show on here, or when I'm actively defending some creative choice everyone else agrees is misguided at best -- a move I know Die is quite fond of! -- *that's* where you're seeing how much I love Go-Busters, far more clearly than you're likely to see it in what I can manage to say about the show directly. This is a series that taught me to see beauty in flaws, and to find value in the reality in front of me, and probably other things I still don't consciously realize even after a decade.

As best as my current self can get at it, that's the difference. It's personal to a level I don't want to share, and yet I also share it constantly without even trying.

All that being said, I mean, obviously I *would* totally love to write some big epic novel about how cool all those episodes and action scenes and characters are, at some point. Naturally, Go-Busters got quite a few words out of me when I got to it on the Zenkai Tour, when I was watching and writing about every Sentai premiere in celebration of Zenkaiger's anniversary antics. I'm as proud of those posts as anything I've ever written. Even once they started getting long, I was a lot more careful than usual about keeping the information as concise and dense as I could get it, so I think most of that stuff turned out pretty okay. That Go-Busters one, though, has always been the one I'm least satisfied with. Felt like I said a bunch of words without saying anything at all -- kinda like how I feel about this post at the moment. Reading it back, I think I'm maybe just hard on myself because it never feels like I'm doing a good enough job talking about Go-Busters. Which is maybe the real reason I've never seriously considered making some big thread about it.

Of course, you never know. He liked the show well enough, but if Die finds an excuse somewhere in the couple of movies he has left to throw shade at Jack Kirby or something, I might suddenly start feeling more motivated.