[Kamen Rider Die]

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS - FINAL LIVE 2013



I feel like Go-Busters was especially well-suited for the stage show format? Unlike the Rider shows that eventually get stage shows, Go-Busters sort of didn’t have the non-superhero elements as prominently featured in its DNA (as noted yesterday!), so a stage show that’s all action in a mission to save the world from the Vagras… that’s just an episode of Go-Busters? More or less?

Obviously, this one also pulls on the two main levers of the live format to create an experience that provides a different energy than watching an episode of the show: crowd work, and Surprise Returns.

The crowd work is always my favorite part of these things, and the coinciding Surprise Return of Enter allowed for him to do some pretty charming villain stuff with audience, alongside some slightly-OOC riffing on Osaka. The same sequence allowed the Go-Buster actors to goof around in the crowd as local children, and it was delightful. The stunt show aspects are always neat, but the little moments when the cast leverages the live format to create something unique and original, that’s the best part.

I thought this one was in the upper tier of live shows, mostly for how little it needed to alter the formula of a standard Go-Busters adventure to fit the limitations of a stage show. The villain scheme was in line with the show’s reality, the action scenes were enjoyable, and the character work was warm and joyous. (Jin came back! Kuroki had a cameo! Enter and Escape both showed up because they are the best villains on the show!) It’s a great Go-Busters installment, with no qualifiers.



IT’S TIME FOR Human-Sized Megazords!

The thing I was most curious about for the stage show was how they’d deal with things like the Buster Machines and Megazords. Would they do a filmed segment? Or maybe a tiny cityscape on stage for the Zord and Buster Machine suits to stomp around in? Instead, they just… had the Go-Busters fight the Megazord suits as human-sized Metaroids. Nice to see the Megazord suits again, but kind of funny that they never really address the inaccuracy.