[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

So here we are, at another episode of Shimoyama?s. And like I pointed out last time, he resolutely refuses to focus on the main Busters, or the ?steal Energy? plots, instead having the focus of the episode and the evil plan of the week be Nick. And it?s a pretty fun episode on top of it, if I remember correctly (it?s been a while).

It was a pretty fun episode!

[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 18 - ?A JOINT OPERATION AT 3000 METERS?

Jin shows up with his I?ll Take It From Here energy, kidnapping Hiromu (hilarious)

Honestly, I'm surprised you didn't use a screencap of Beetbuster carrying Redbuster like a mannequin.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

On the other side of the episode, we have a terrific outing for J and Yoko. It?s mostly just Yoko playing the straight woman to J?s baffling lack of clarification and constant indifference to anything happening outside of his own head, which is fantastic, but it resolves itself into a nice lesson of letting people be weird and not judging them. If it never quite reaches the same level of character-driven success as the Jin story, well? I mean, J isn?t as deep a character, and I think ?poignant comic relief? is maybe all we should really ask for from a Super Buddyroid.

J being simple to understand like a beetle is probably part of why Yoko admires him. His confidence and independence are both traits that Yoko wants to improve in herself and he's not noisy like Usada. His dual existence as a Gobuster and Buddyroid kind of limits his interactions with anybody besides his partner and fellow Buddyroids, so I enjoy seeing him and Yoko team up here, two youngest Gobusters accustomed to being bossed around by their partners, given the freedom to execute a mission their own way for once. J's like a cool hip uncle, but at the end, Yoko still loves her father Usada the most. I think the best part about J, other than being humorous as hell, is how he inadvertently brings out the desires of others.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

The one with? a really weird translation choice on OT?s part. Basically, in the first half of the episode, there?s a scene where Yoko tries translating ?Beet J Stag? into Japanese, resulting in ?Kabuto J Kuwagata?. But OT, in all their infinite wisdom, decided that it didn?t make sense for her to speak Japanese (?) and changed it to her translating it into Latin, despite Latin not even being taught in the majority of schools in the west, let along the east. And Yoko is definitely not the type of person who?d go out of her way to learn a dead language.

The implication that Yoko is dumb at everything except Latin is humorous to think about. People were harsh on TV-N, but this is proof that OT have also made some derpy choices.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Anyway, perhaps because I take the writing quality of this series for granted, the thing that sticks the most in my memory about this episode is what's right there in the title. Just seeing Go-Buster Ace in some deep cave instead of the usual city set is such a break from the norm that it left a strong impression on me for the visual variety alone.

Subterranean mecha fight scenes are a novelty for sure. Also reveals some lore about Enertron, that there's a motherlode of them Kryptonite-looking crystals underground waiting to be excavated. How mysterious.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 19 - ?MY COMBINATION! BUSTER HERCULES?

Nick?s crisis gives us an absolutely unforgettable montage of him trying out different specialties ? chef, painter, model? ? before accidentally landing on the thing he?s always been good at: raising kids. Usada?s still in the middle of helping Yoko become an adult, and Gorisaki was way too late to be more than a butler to Ryuji, but Nick?s been a formative influence in Hiromu?s life since he was 7. While Nick looks at himself as surplus to requirements, the only reason the Go-Busters are as effective as they are is because Nick showed Hiromu how to pursue a goal and see it through. Nick?s value is, and always has been, his ability to get people to believe in themselves. (Arguably something he?s too good at, considering how Hiromu turned out!)

While Nick may lack sense of direction, his moral compass is accurate. He's the heart of the Buddyroids, a trait common in some other Red Rangers and Kobayashi's Rider protagonists, using his strong belief to nurture his friends' values while failing to see the value in himself. Of course it's futile to rely on Hiromu for volunteering unprompted praise, but it's clear in his blunt honesty that he appreciates Nick's help, even if that's mostly transportation now that Hiromu is an adult. J probably didn't even mean "bike guy" in a diminishing way, just clearly stating something cool that only Nick can do for the team.

I like Buster Heracles. SJ-05 merely becoming some weapons and a chestpiece for Gobuster Beet is a lot cleaner than Gobuster Oh, although it's a little weird how the name is just Buster Heracles, rather than Gobuster Heracles which would've been consistent. Anyway, the Heracles part is of course referring to the beetle. When the three horns cross, the golden and silver soldier Buster Heracles is born!

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Honestly, I'm surprised you didn't use a screencap of Beetbuster carrying Redbuster like a mannequin.

Thought about it! I think that whole segment is just better as a moving image, though, and a single screencap doesn't sell the obviously fake nature of the mannequin.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

J probably didn't even mean "bike guy" in a diminishing way, just clearly stating something cool that only Nick can do for the team.

Maybe, but also: Nick totally is the Bike Guy on the team, and I say that as someone who enjoys what Nick brings to the team and show. He turns into a bike! It's in the credits! It's something no one else on the team can do! He is the Bike Guy!

[Sunred]

The show that I would think of back in 2012 whenever I saw Jin and J:

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 19 - “MY COMBINATION! BUSTER HERCULES”

...

I don’t want to make a big deal about this episode’s title, because I don’t think it’s some massive problem, but it’s alarming and frustrating that anyone in the production team could look at this stellar, emotional episode about Nick and Hiromu and go The Whole Episode Is About The New Buster Machine Combination In The Final 90 Seconds Actually. I get that these shows exist by the grace of toy companies, but it honestly feels a little insulting to treat a strongly-written episode like this as merely the runway that allows for some new toy design to be promoted to a nation’s children. I don’t like it!

I've always found it a little interesting that Go-Busters episode titles run the gamut all the way from nicely poetic ones to stuff like this where it's just "Exciting New Toy! In Stores This Week!?" Broadly, most of them just kind of describe what the mission part of that week's Mission is, which makes sense, but there's nothing consistent enough about them to really have any particular formula. Although usually, the ones just named after a robot are at least a little more about the robot than I think this one was. Like, no wonder Nick is so self-conscious when even the name of the story about him is actually about J!

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunred

The show that I would think of back in 2012 whenever I saw Jin and J:

Neat! Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Like, no wonder Nick is so self-conscious when even the name of the story about him is actually about J!

J stepped in front of Shimoyama just as he was naming this episode.

[Kamen Rider Die]

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 20 - “5-WAY FUSION! GREAT GO-BUSTER!”



I gotta leave in, like, 30 minutes, so let’s pretend this post has a Megazord countdown attached to it and spring into action!

Much like last time, I mostly didn’t care about the grand debut of a new toy. Great Go-Buster has all the problems of Go-Buster Oh that I’ve grown to tolerate, but now with the added flaws of being far too bulky to actually move its limbs effectively. Regardless of your thoughts on the suit's appearance, I think we can all agree that making a suit more cumbersome on the performer wearing it is probably a negative.

Beyond that, I just thought the main Hiromu story had more on it than the background plot of Jin and the Go-Busters building a new toy? Taking a minute to make the threat of hyperspace more present (*wink*) on Hiromu is a nice way of escalating a tension that previously existed as more of an idea. We knew his parents were trapped in hyperspace, but this is the first episode to really define the physical toll it might be taking on them, in addition to the psychological toll of separation. Making Hiromu grapple with that while trying to be the unflappable hero is a fun story to tell near the midpoint of the series.

And the show deals with it well! It’s another story where Hiromu has to learn to stop trying to take everything on by himself and let others help him – the Buster Machine Combination Story specialty – but the little sequence of Hiromu directly confronting what he’s missing made this one eventually work for me. It’s got that specificity that I think can elevate the more trope-y elements (again, very similar to the Go-Buster Oh lesson!) and create something that feels unique enough for the character.



IT’S TIME FOR a movie!

I assume it’s just a coincidence, but I feel like Enter’s comments about the joy of cinema are at least a little bit shaped by the then-upcoming Go-Busters film…

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 20 - “5-WAY FUSION! GREAT GO-BUSTER!”

This is probably the episode of Go-Busters I think about more than any other.

There are some other strong contenders out there, but in terms of just, the sheer volume of specific scenes and moments and all that, that I can recall as if I watched the episode yesterday, I can't think of any episodes that pull ahead, if there are even any that could tie in that race.

It's a smartly considered story all around, doing all that good work on a series-structure level by digging into hyperspace more and all that, while also telling a really touching and well-executed standalone story in its own right.

And again, on so many levels, it sticks in my head.

There's the more superficial cool stuff like how Great Go-Buster is assembled in the hangar, instead of combining in the field, so you get that great sense of scale seeing the team riding the lift up to board it and all that, selling the imposing scale of the combination. (It's not the kind of suit that needs to move to look like it can mess a monster up!)

There's how Filmroid is voiced by Kenicihi Suzumura, who's always been the Japanese voice actor I'm most happy to see in anything for any reason. Plus, moving out of the superficial stuff, there's how that vocal performance aids that whole court jester vibe he's got that ends up making him really easy to hate when he ends up torturing Hiromu emotionally in a way that's a lot more vile than the typical Metaroid antics.

And then, crucially, there's all that stuff about Hiromu being trapped by that fantasy, and all the other things that go along with it to elevate it. It'd be good drama anyway. But when the episode highlights how easily Ryuuji and Yoko don't fall for it, what that says about Hiromu makes it even better. When it's chiefly Yoko who gets to reach out to Hiromu, what that says about those particular two characters and how far we've come from those first couple episode makes it even better. When you get that perfectly shot moment of the smoke clearing, revealing Red Buster defending his family with his arm dramatically outstretched in the most heroic fashion possible, it's even better. And when this show about imperfection has Red Buster making the choice to give up that vision of his ideal world to return to the flawed reality he'd give anything to protect, well, it's about as Go-Busters as an episode of Go-Busters could ever be.

So yeah, needless to say, this one is a favorite for me. Just to further emphasize how much, back when Kamen Rider Zi-O was airing the Quiz two-parter with Hiromu's actor, and I did the whole obvious joke where the pictures I chose for those episode threads were just Red Buster screencaps, guess what episode I grabbed the one for the back half from? Doesn't matter if it's 2019, 2024, or whenever else; This one will always be on my mind.

[Androzani84]

So fun fact, the Metaloid of the week is literally Ryutaros. He has the same VA and suit actor. This mostly came about because said voice actor is part of the group performing the ED (3 of the other 6 members appeared prior as Tubaloid, Soujikiloid and Parabolaloid).

And aside from that trivia, we have the debut of our Ultimate Formation for the series.

To clarify how progression of Robot combinations works in comparison to Rider form progressions: Sentai robots start off with a main robot, sometimes with a few support Mecha that form weapons or alternate limbs. Then comes the super formation, in which a second robot comes in to combine with the first one. And finally, the ultimate formation, which is a combination of all the important Mecha from the season. In cases where the ultimate debuts in the summer episodes (which happens fairly often, despite what a few people would try to tell you about King-Ohger last year), another robot will show up in the 30s that can take the place of one component in the main or ultimate formations.

[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 20 - ?5-WAY FUSION! GREAT GO-BUSTER!?

Me when I first saw it: THOSE EYES