[Destroyman]

Well Boys & Girls its Destroyman back from the grave with a brand new discussion thread.

So since we've hit the half-way point by now, I thought it'd be a great time to talk about how the shows been going, where it might go & if its changed much since it first started.

So without further ado, DISCUSS!

[Den-O]

I think it's probably better to talk about where this show hasn't gone

I was really pumped at the beginning but I knew that whatever came after Gokaiger wouldn't be nearly as good by comparison. I lowered my expectations appropriately. But even that wasn't enough.

This show has/had promise. Ryuuji is a great Blue. He's animated, fun, great in suit voice, best buddyroid. All around great dude. Yoko is cute and from time to time interesting. But Hiromu is like the Heero Yui of Gobuster. Boring, emotionless, and utterly without passion. Nick is a damn transforming robot motorcycle that some how is still boring and Usada is the most useless highly advanced robot ever!

Jin and J are nice additions. Although I still can't stand that Magi Yellow is Jins' actor. The kid is on the way wrong end of the snaggletooth spectrum to play someone as badass as Jin. J is brilliant. Easily the best standalone character of the series. A smart ass 'imperfect' robot that can also henshin. What more could I ask for?

To be honest all of the support characters are so bland and cookie cutter it's painful. Enter is an interesting villain but Escape is just awful. And the mecha, dear god the mecha. Individually is where all of the Gobuster mechs shine. Literally every combined form I've seen is just an atrocious mess in both show suit and DX toy form. The concept is there, the design is mostly there, the execution is painfully lacking.

Overall I feel like this show had tons of promise with a relatively creative/new plot. The mech battles are filmed fantastically and made to feel very real. The characters can be interesting when taken as a group but taken individually very few of them shine. The biggest problem is that nearly every episode feels like filler with fluffed plot in between to keep us interested.

I may sound harsh on this show but it just had so much promise and really hasn't delivered. I'm hoping that whatever revelations lead to the use of the Super Modes and the new mech Tategami-RaiOh will be good. Those 2 things look like the turnaround point of this show. As we stand right now, at the halfway point, I don't think I could convince myself to ever watch this show all the way through again.

[FieryRed]

^ I think you're way too harsh on the series, Den-O.

As for me, I have wanted a show that distinguishes itself from Gokaiger, and Go-busters definitely delivers. Real time henshin sequence? Check. Wrist morphing device? Check. An overall serious tone? Check. MOTW that actually do things differently (by separating Metaroid from Megazord)? Check, check, and check. I like all the characters, and I feel that while they aren't as razzle-dazzle as the Gokaiger cast, they feel more real and not just caricature or archetypes. Maybe it is because the head writer is Kobayashi, who also wrote Timeranger, Shinkenger, and OOO, but I think she got the characterization mostly right. The mechs are great with or without combination, and the miniature battles are the best I've seen in recent sentai series. I think the show got a bit slow after episode 15 or so, but recently it definitely picked up the paces, and we're getting more info on not just hyperspace, but also avatars.

There seems to be some disappointments toward the show, and given that it follows the wildly popular Gokaiger, I can sort of understand, but I don't think it deserves all the criticisms leveled toward it. Hopefully eventually it will convince even the naysayers and convert them into fans of the series.

[Switchblade]

I partially agree with Den-O. I love Masato as he is and am finding Escape to be pretty fun so far. I'm also willing to forgive the clustery combined mech because of how great the solo mech stuff is.

Where I'm with him, though, is in the plot. It really doesn't feel like there's any kind of over-arcing storyline here. Monsters show up, Go-Busters beat them, repeat. There's no attempt to infiltrate Hyperspace for a rescue mission, no attempt to shut down Messiah, it's just an unending string of defensive battles. I like that they show is doing some different stuff, but without a solid story behind it all I'm finding that I have little impetus to keep up with it (I am, but new episodes can sit for days or even weeks before I get around to watching them).

[PkmnMstr]

I've really enjoyed it thus far. A lot of fight scenes seem kind of redundant from episode to episode. But Super Sentai has always been like that. I guess it just seems different now because Go-Busters are not nearly as flashy as Gokaiger, it's immediate predecessor.
I feel that the redundant elements make the unique story elements stand out more. I like the characters. Familiar, but different. As for the mecha, I think they look great. Combined or not. A lot of this show I would say rides on how they answer all the questions it brings up.

[ZeoRangerV]

I want to love Go-Busters more than I do. Its got great suit designs, a fantastic villain in Enter and individual mecha fights that put pretty much every other Super Sentai to shame.

But that being said, there's so much dullness about it too. Ryuji is the only interesting character out of the main three, and even he only really grabs my attention when he's in overheated badass mode (such as last week's episode). Even though I was critical about them in their debut, I've grown to really like J and Masato and now their appearances are the only things really holding the team together for me. Then there's the combined mecha, who couldn't be less exciting if they tried. And this is coming from someone who doesn't mind clusterf**k mecha on the whole.

But if there's anything I say this show lacked, I'd say its heart. Its not something I can describe as easily as "the characters are dull" or "the mecha are rubbish" but even though there's so many radical differences in the series it just feels so by-the-books and samey. Nothing seems to stand out any more, and while after the first few episodes I thought this would turn out to be another one of my favourites now I find it more on par with average series like Gaoranger.

I still love Enter though. Just like Goseiger, its strange how I find all my favourite villains in the weaker shows.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FieryRed

An overall serious tone? Check.

Every time I think that it just gets nulled out by a chicken phobia.

[Galvantula]

To this day I have no idea what went wrong with this series. It had such promise as a spy series but as others have stated there's no heart and soul to the characters and that's sad considering the head writer was the one who did Timeranger,Shinkenger and OOO. I'm willing to give the show the benefit of the doubt, but if things don't pick up when we get the lion bike I'll just follow Wizard until we get the next Sentai team.

[Paladin]

Go-Busters reminds me a lot of Transformers Prime; the designs are mostly great and I have a lot of fun watching it but there's not a lot of quality storytelling or depth in any of it.

[GrimZata]

Honestly, I really like the show, I will agree Hiromu and Yoko are kinda bland characters, I also think Hiromu gets way to much attention for such a bland character, my biggest complaint would have to be Messiah, he's just not a great villain, all we've seen him really do is wine about every little thing Enter does wrong, and then make Enter and Escape do everything for him.

On the other hand, Enter is a really good villain, and the highlight of the show, at least until Jin and J showed up. Jin and J are great characters too, and I think the show really picked up with their appearances. Ryuji isn't the best character, but I can't help but like him, plus I really liked in the last episode that he overheated himself just to fight more efficiently, plus him and Gorisaki are a great pair. I also really enjoy the Mecha designs, both combined, and not, the fights are really well done too.

Cheeda Nick and Escape are okay characters, but the rest of the supporting cast are pretty much just as, if not more, bland than Hiromu and Yoko.

[Kiryu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZeoRangerV

Every time I think that it just gets nulled out by a chicken phobia.

Agreed, that's the only part of the series that makes me die a little...


Speaking as someone who loved Gokaiger to death, I honestly think Gobusters is better.

It addresses my biggest issues with Gokaiger, and we now have a villian who's competent, and can be taken as a legit threat, and mecha battles that I can give a damn about.