[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Honestly, to this day, especially never having seen any primary source outright confirm anything, I'm still not sure what retooling exactly happened, versus how much of it is simply the usual twists and turns of development on these shows being perceived that way? It's not like a Hibiki situation where there were obvious major staff shakeups, at the very least.

Yeah, I'll be honest, I didn't really feel like the show was different in any perceivable way as far as basic storytelling or whatever goes. As much as it didn't feel like a great episode of Go-Busters, it at least felt like an episode of Go-Busters. There weren't any huge changes to the cast or mission, you know? It's not like they had Enter fighting alongside the Busters all of a sudden or anything.

Wait...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

I guess I could point out that since the Go-Busters' Weak Points are all based on common computer problems, it makes perfect sense the intense fight-or-flight response of a strong phobia would be overwhelming enough to cause Hiromu to freeze up, much like a program using up too much memory?

Neat! I'll accept this explanation! Thanks!

[Kamen Rider Die]

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 29 - “BREAK INTO HYPERSPACE!”



Oh, this is a fun one.

It’s an incredibly action-heavy episode, concerning itself with the liminal space before our Biggest of Bads takes the stage at last as our heroes ready themselves for a pivotal confrontation in service of achieving their ultimate goals, which this show excels at. While I sort of crabbed about last episode being a superhero problem instead of a human problem, this episode worked overtime to not have me care about that distinction – or, more appropriately, it evolved a superhero problem into a human problem.

Like, this one’s great for immediately laying out not just the stakes of the episode – a three-hour window to, uh, break into hyperspace and rescue the people who’ve been trapped there for 13 years – but also the immediate obstacle to those stakes: a full-frontal assault on Go-Busters HQ by Enter, Escape, and a platoon of Bugglars. (Enter shrugs off the lack of a Metaroid by giving his en Francais version of This Time It’s Personal, but it feels more like a smart narrative decision to not lessen the tension with some goofy new Metaroid with a catchphrase. Enter read the room! He knows which episode this is!) This is a war that’s about to move to a new beachhead, and the soldiers are about to square off. There’s no convoluted plot or scheme, for better or worse; there is immediate cause and effect.

I liked it for that? There’s not a ton to dissect – you could argue that the Vagras scheme here is more fitting of Escape’s blunt force and less of Enter’s traditionally surgical approach, and I’d maybe point out how much Enter seems to bristle under a situation that is rapidly slipping through his fingers as a way of causing his decision-making to be less detached and cautious – but the simplicity of the plot makes sure that we never lose track of what’s at stake. The Busters have to delay the Vagras and escape to hyperspace, anything less dooms the survivors enslaved by Messiah. Straightforward and thrilling, which is exactly what you want for a turning point episode.

And the biggest turning point of them all, the debut of Actual Suit Messiah… I like that, too. While on the one hand it sort of works against what I like about the traditional Go-Busters aesthetic of two warring organizations with different levels of management, you are allowed to debut Actual Suit Messiah in an episode about how everyone needs to fight sometimes to save the world. If you put Commander, Nakamura, Morishita, and a half-dozen overalls into action as the last line of defense to ensure that Great Go-Buster makes it to hyperspace, you have earned Messiah not being a screaming CGI head from now on. It’s cool with me.

I thought this one was a bell-to-bell winner, with action that felt like the penultimate episode of the series. (That Enter/Red Buster fight! I can’t believe they did that with 20 episodes left in the tank!) Coherent stakes, a strong grip on tone, and a rousing finale that makes the heroes seem like they just landed in the deepest shit of their lives? Hell of a way to take this show into its next phase.



IT’S TIME FOR Escape not having time for this!

Escape could not have been more jazzed to get into her tactical long-sleeve undershirt and waltz up to Go-Busters HQ for a pitched battle with five superheroes, and I’m overjoyed that the show decided to surprise her with a final confrontation against desk jockeys and mechanics instead. Her little annoyed block of laser blasts by dismissively waving around Gock and Magock was priceless. She’s so disappointed to have to battle the background cast! It was delicious, and I enjoyed it as much as she loathed it.

[Androzani84]

So this episode feels a lot like it was written as a finale to the show, that they had to bring up to the midway point, with a few hints rushed through. Most notably, the whole “you no longer need the paintball gear” thing. Even Messiah’s new look is the sort of thing normally reserved for a character’s endgame. As does the big Great Go-Buster vs an army of Megazords fight.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

So this episode feels a lot like it was written as a finale to the show, that they had to bring up to the midway point, with a few hints rushed through. Most notably, the whole ?you no longer need the paintball gear? thing. Even Messiah?s new look is the sort of thing normally reserved for a character?s endgame. As does the big Great Go-Buster vs an army of Megazords fight.

I guess? It just feels to me like the next phase of the show, not some grand finale, despite (or because of) Enter's theatrical certainty. I think 60% of the way through is a good point to give the main villain a physical presence?

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 29 - "BREAK INTO HYPERSPACE!"

Of all the big all-hands-on-deck moments that help sell the scale and importance of this episode, I think my favorite has always been that Nick gets to come in for the epic action hero save just when Enter seems to have Hiromu right where he wants him. It's a great moment for everyone's favorite Bike Guy that feels more right for that scene than any other character coming to Red Buster's aid could've been.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Of all the big all-hands-on-deck moments that help sell the scale and importance of this episode, I think my favorite has always been that Nick gets to come in for the epic action hero save just when Enter seems to have Hiromu right where he wants him. It's a great moment for everyone's favorite Bike Guy that feels more right for that scene than any other character coming to Red Buster's aid could've been.

Yeah, a worse version of this episode has Jin coming out to save him like a swaggering swashbuckler, but the episode's through-line is that this is what everyone's been working together for over the last 13 years: Nick's the only one that's been with Hiromu all that time! Yoko (for example) could get saved by Hiromu or Ryuji or Usada or a couple other characters, but Hiromu can really only get rescued in this one by Nick.

[Kamen Rider Die]

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 30 - “MESSIAH: SHUTDOWN”



On the one hand, Hiromu was never going to choose the digital ghosts of his parents over the safety of the world, and neither would Yoko. (Ryuji… I mean, his need to protect the feelings of Yoko and Hiromu, to save them from having to make that choice? I think that’s powerful enough that he would’ve fallen back like he suggested.) The Go-Busters aren’t just superheroes, they’re a military organization. This is a war they’re in, and they’ve each had to make sacrifices for the greater good; the defining moment of Hiromu and Yoko’s childhood is when their parents made the tough call, so this stuff is basically in their DNA. While it’s a heartbreaking choice, there was no version of this story where Hiromu would second-guess himself and cause the world to fall to ruin. It’s sort of hilarious that Enter really thought he had the advantage by trying to present Hiromu with a moral dilemma like this.

On the other hand, this episode really isn’t about The Greater Good Vs Your Loved Ones, or whatever story Enter thinks he’s in. This episode is about learning to let go of the past.

The scientists who vanished to hyperspace 13 years ago have been dead all this time. The chance of them all being alive and well has been steadily chipped away at over the last 29 episodes, leaving the eventual reveal that they’re all digital ghosts that are enslaved to Messiah as more of a Yeah That Tracks than anything Earth-shattering or terrifying. It’s the last nail in the coffin, and Hiromu knows it. Pretending that this situation can be fought out of or planned around is just delusional. They’re adults, and their parents are treating them like adults by leveling with them about what needs to be done. All that’s left is to honor their last wishes and put them to rest.

It’s a strong episode for just letting Yoko and Hiromu come to terms with their parents’ deaths, finally. Their parents are gone, but they’ve always been gone, and yet they’ve never been gone. Yoko can feel her mother’s presence as she pilots her Buster Machine, and Hiromu’s survival is a testament to his father’s dedication to saving lives, no matter the personal cost. The change now is only the end of the illusion of possibility, not the static outcome, and that’s something they’ll need to deal with moving forward. And now they can move forward, at long last. It’s a bittersweet moment, but it points to a brighter future.

IT’S TIME FOR Clues!



The idea that Escape and Enter are gestalt entities made up of all the scientists… it’s fine, but it’s not like this show did a ton of work setting up that concept to have any narrative weight, beyond the previous reveal of Hiromu’s mom’s dog statues. This was a reveal that I don’t remember anyone asking about before, and it only really serves to foreshadow the reveal about everyone being consumed by Messiah 13 years ago, and that scene is the next one. It’s very Hey We Never Got Around To This But Here’s The Deal With Enter And Escape, and I don’t know that I found the new information particularly illuminating. Maybe you did, though!

[Androzani84]

So here we are, at the end of the show’s first chapter. And some scattershot thoughts on aspects of this episode.

Messiah: In all honesty, he’s probably among the worst Sentai main villains I’ve seen. Pretty much the only reason he doesn’t take the top spot is that there are others who have quirks, acting issues or story elements that make them annoying. Messiah doenst have any of that. He just felt really pointless as an element of the story. He didn’t trap the parents in Hyperspace (the scientists did that themselves), he didn’t come up with any plans or create any Metaloids (that was all Enter) and the most he did was creating Enter and Escape. We don’t even know where he came from, or what his ultimate goal was. The fact his final fate is to be rendered unable to do anything while the Busters shoot him to death is very fitting. I doubt many people will disagree with this rant, since pretty much every talk about the series never mentions him, which underlines my point in a way. I don’t even think he’s been mentioned in the double digits in this thread.

The parents being dead all along? The episode frames the fact the heroes learn this as an idealistic moment of closure, but given the whole point Hiromu and Yoko became Go-Busters was to save their parents, it essentially renders their life’s purpose all for nothing and feels like one of the most cynical conclusions to a plot-line I’ve ever seen. If they’d still been alive, but only so long as Messiah existed, I might’ve been a bit more forgiving, but it feels like they got us invested purely for the purpose of pulling the rug.

The return of Epsilon? Not that surprising. While Rider barely acknowledges the Summer movies after they happen (Den-O, W, Gaim, Ghost, Zi-O and Gotchard being the exceptions), Sentai is the opposite, with call backs to the summer movie either in-show or in the V-Cinemas being very common (Gaoranger, Gekiranger to an extent, Gokaiger surprisingly enough, Kyuranger and Zenkaiger are the exceptions), mostly in the form of the exclusive mecha returning. What’s surprising is that they’re doing it now. Pretty much every other instance happens when the movie is out on DVD/Blu-ray, rather than the month after the movie came out (which adds a bit of fuel to my “this was intended as the finale” theory, but that’s neither here not there).

So anyway, for bookends, I’ll mention this is the end of the first chapter. The next will take us through the last 18 episodes, and no, that’s not a typo. As for my thoughts on said first chapter? Put simply, if I recommend Go-Busters, it’s because of the second chapter, since the first was really lacking.

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 30 - “MESSIAH: SHUTDOWN”

The beat in this episode that's always killed me the most, right back to the first time I watched it, is when Hiromu specifically turns to Yoko and apologizes for deciding to break that promise. I love that Hiromu, in the middle of thinking about all the heavy emotions of their parents, processing his own feelings, and making that whole speech, still doesn't forget for a second about how hard this has to be for her too, and I love that the show was written with the level of care to remember to get that in there.

I've always been extremely fond of this as the big conclusion to the first half-ish of the series. A lot of the reason I'm so attached to episode 20, that I can finally mention in here now, is specifically to do with how much it feels like that episode was laying out the broad strokes of what happens in this one? It seems like more than a coincidence to me that the debut of Great Go-Buster -- the combination specifically for going into hyperspace -- also had the episode's plot be about Hiromu having to reject an illusion of his parents to protect what he already has.

Again, a large part of this show thematically is about flaws and imperfections and all that, so it's difficult to imagine a more appropriate way for this plot to play out than having the Busters accept that they can't have the ideal victory they've been dreaming of for 13 years, and still find the worth in continuing to fight on anyway.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

Messiah

I never really minded Messiah being less of a presence and/or not being fully fleshed out, because this was a show about organizations at war, and how the troops dealt with their orders -- complaining about Messiah's thinness as a villain feels like complaining that Kuroki isn't more of a three-dimensional hero. Enter and Escape are great, as are the Busters. That's the level this show needed to work at for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

The parents being dead all along? The episode frames the fact the heroes learn this as an idealistic moment of closure, but given the whole point Hiromu and Yoko became Go-Busters was to save their parents, it essentially renders their life?s purpose all for nothing and feels like one of the most cynical conclusions to a plot-line I?ve ever seen.

Boy, hard disagree? While rescuing their parents was an individual motivation, their years of training were about making sure their parents' sacrifice wasn't in vain. (I'm pretty sure that's exactly what Nick tells Rika in her spotlight episode?) The conclusion to this story is the Busters living up to their parents' example, and I think that's a way better conclusion than everyone somehow being alive for the last 13 years despite everything we were told about hyperspace.