[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

ZYUDEN SENTAI KYORYUGER VS. GO-BUSTERS: DINOSAUR GREAT BATTLE! FAREWELL, ETERNAL FRIENDS

...

(It’s incredibly funny to me that I came from watching two dozen bug-themed Rider shows, having not cared about bugs ever once in my life, and the last Sentai thing I’m going to watch for the year is a tribute to that franchise’s main aesthetic, which I also don’t care about.)

Dinosaurs are Super Sentai's main aesthetic? Maybe the most consistently successful aesthetic, but if there's any sort of primordial theme Sentai has equivalent to Rider's whole warrior of nature grasshopper deal, it's actually exactly what Go-Busters did, which is a high-tech squad of elite agents. In terms of raw frequency, too, I think more general animal themes have dinosaurs beat? And that's not counting a show like Go-Busters, even, despite the fact that they are, famously, the original Doubutsu Sentai.

Indeed, animal themes go all the way back to the fifth series, Sun Vulcan, whereas when the Zyurangers rocked up to the party 16 shows in, the dinosaur idea was no less fresh and radical than that show's strong fantasy leanings, which contrasted the more sci-fi stylings of the franchise up to that point. One might even argue that Zyuranger was at least as atypical a Sentai in its own time as Go-Busters was in 2012!

I don't know if that person would actually be me or not though. I'm mostly just saying all this because I feel an important part of these sorts of Legend ____ guest spots is to get young whippersnappers like Die more curious about those older shows. Not that it worked too well on him, in this case, of course!

("Doesn't care about dinosaurs" is actually new information to me. Heck, maybe you'd really enjoy Zyuranger then. After all, only 2 out of 5 of them are technically proper dinosaurs!)

Anyway, I would've originally watched this movie after having seen (and quite liked) Kyoryuger, since the home release would've been after ToQger started, but I definitely recall being significantly more interested in getting more Go-Busters action. Much like I had heard so much talk of the show getting a "retool" I'm still not sure ever actually happened beyond a new opening, I was going into the movie dreading the apparent reduced focus of the team I cared most about in favor of more dino guys than I was asking for.

Granted, there's always the possibility it's specifically *because* people set my expectations lower, but I recall being quite satisfied with it as both a Go-Busters thing and as an entertainingly wild dino thing, even if those two things didn't necessarily feel like they needed to be together in the way a crossover ideally works.

That's all based on memory though, because it's been a good while since I properly sat down and watched this one. The thought did occur to me that I did rewatch it like 8 years ago and wrote a thing about it though, so maybe I'll just let past me take this one:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

It definitely leans heavily on the Dinosaurs! side of things, with the plot largely centered around the Kyoryugers, but the really genius thing that makes the whole movie come together for me is that, despite seeming less important on the surface, the Go-Busters do like, ALL the actual work throughout. The best part is that I'm not even exaggerating that much. The film really plays up the fact that the Go-Busters are professionals, using their intel-gathering skills to think up plans and executing missions with tactical precision while the Kyoryugers basically run around like idiots shouting about how "bureibu" they are and violating all known rules of gun safety.

I'm pretty fond of Riku Sanjo's writing, and I think this is a great example of why. Obviously he's not actually making his own team look bad, but even though the Kyoryugers are the center of the plot, the Busters are the ones who actually drive it forward. They're so critical to the story that if you wrote them out, the bad guys would win like ten minutes in, and again, I'm only sort of exaggerating here.

It's in no way an epilogue for Go-Busters (which is fine because the ending it already had was great), but the movie takes how the team are basically total outsiders to this bizarre plot about bad guys trying to steal dino energy for eeeevil and really rolls with it in a way that lets them shine one last time.

Beyond the satisfactory treatment of the Go-Busters, the movie itself is totally nuts in the best way possible. I mean, there's a chunk of it where the Kyoryugers get turned evil, put on all-black clothes for maximum eeeeevil style points, and go back in time to exterminate the dinosaurs by shooting them with handguns. And if that doesn't sell you on the movie right there, how about the explosions? So. Many. Explosions. Can you tell Koichi Sakamoto directed this?

It's all very bombastic, as is Kyoryuger's style, building to a big crazy climax featuring three teams of Sentai (and also the Go-Busters), and even more explosions, just for good measure.

Basically it's pretty dang enjoyable. I don't know if it's the best thing ever, but of the VS movies I've seen, it's one of the more memorable.

You know, it's pretty strange. I like to think I've gotten better at this stuff over the years, but honestly, most of that still seems like exactly what I'd probably write if I rewatched the movie now.