[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

And continuing his theme for this series, the episode focuses on Nakamura, and it helped me remember her name. When you can do a mostly silly episode focused on the help (if it was completely silly, KeshigomeZord would've used his eraser to remove an Enertron tower from existence with a horde of Buglars holding buckets/bowls to scoop up the inside contents) that introduces what is ultimately a one-shot new combo manages to get me more invested than the plot of the show so far.

We even got to see Commander leap into action with a mop! It was a cool episode for all of the base crew!

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Even if I don't remember the exact details of how Ryuji's speech ties in to the plot, I'm pretty sure he sounded cool while saying it and I totally get why Escape finds him the most fun to fight after he showed the strength of his determination.

It's a very cool speech -- it's a riff on the standard I Have To Fight My Way speech that toku heroes give once a series -- but I just wish that there'd more motivating it than Jin gaslighting every other cast member for an entire episode. Ryuji can definitely get distracted by mysteries, but that wasn't really what was happening this time out?

[Fish Sandwich]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 25 - “UNRAVEL THE AVATARS’ SECRETS!”

This is another episode where, more than anything I could say off the top of my head about the story, it's actually just some particular visuals that are lodged in my head for whatever reasons. One is the big Blue Buster/Escape fight, for taking place in another really unusual location and working that into the fight itself well.

The other is the fight scene at the start, for the exact opposite reason that it takes place in a *very* usual location for Rider and Sentai, "under that one bridge." I mostly think of it as the place Kamen Rider Bravo made his debut in Gaim. What makes Go-Busters' use of it particularly amusing though is the idea that the team have a special one of those secret hatches specifically for quickly getting to under this bridge, which makes me imagine that every common filming location Toei uses for fight scenes has a secret Go-Busters hatch somewhere around the place, as if the people who set up that network in-universe knew the kind of show they were in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 26 - “TINY BUT DEADLY! THE COMMAND CENTER’S S.O.S.!”

This one is definitely a standout. First of all, it has a rare appearance from Go-Buster Ace Stag Custom, which is low-key probably my favorite mecha combination in the show? I think it only makes like one more appearance somewhere down the line, which is admittedly probably the right amount of appearances for what it is, but still, it means I've gotta savor every frame of screen-time it got.

Even without that bonus, however, I'd be savoring this episode anyway. In retrospect -- and even though I'm saying this without having rewatched it in a good while -- it's probably like a proto-Ninninger episode in a lot of ways? What made me fall in love with that show was how Shimoyama could just bust out these amazing scripts that were uproariously silly throughout, even by Sentai standards, yet also frequently quite clever, and with thoughtful character writing. The out-there concept of a tiny eraser monster still somehow being a genuine threat that also makes natural room to focus a ton on characters who otherwise don't lend themselves to the spotlight definitely hits all three of those bullet points quite handily.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

The other is the fight scene at the start, for the exact opposite reason that it takes place in a *very* usual location for Rider and Sentai, "under that one bridge." I mostly think of it as the place Kamen Rider Bravo made his debut in Gaim. What makes Go-Busters' use of it particularly amusing though is the idea that the team have a special one of those secret hatches specifically for quickly getting to under this bridge, which makes me imagine that every common filming location Toei uses for fight scenes has a secret Go-Busters hatch somewhere around the place, as if the people who set up that network in-universe knew the kind of show they were in.

This was great, and I love how cheaply they achieved this shot. There's an establishing of the usual Enetron Hatch poster, but since there's no way to actual get a workable tunnel out of a concrete support, they flip the camera around -- putting the top edge of the poster diagonal to the frame, so it's "open" -- and just have the three Busters run away from the camera. It's cheap but ingenious, which is the level I prefer that toku work at.

[Kamen Rider Die]

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 27 - “THE UNCONTROLLABLE DUO ESCAPE THE LABYRINTH!”



Cute episode, but, like, super duper minor.

And I don’t just mean this episode’s 17-year-old guest-star! It’s a mismatched comedy episode for a good middle section, where the well-meaning Ryuji has to wrangle the bratty Misaki during a Vagras trap, and it all feels like it’s going to be more meaningful or entertaining than it ended up being. Once you get past the surprise introduction of the Cageroid’s hostage being a flighty, self-involved teenage girl – and how that character type steamrolls the polite and earnest Ryuji – there’s kind of not a second move on this one? Ryuji eventually blows up at her when she casually mentions how little interest her workaholic scientist father seems to have in her, and it’s an utterly predictable beat that never really clicks with me in toku. Ryuji spent about 14 seconds with her dad, and now he’s yelling at her that all parents care about the wellbeing of their children, and HOW DARE SHE trivialize that. Ryuji doesn’t know either of these two! He’s way out of line! I don’t know that her dad trying to protect her from Enter makes up for him not being around day-to-day when she needs him!

(It’s… I loathe the trope where someone in toku is doing Very Important Work, and it’s everyone else’s job to suck it up and make do without them while also endlessly respecting them for their service -slash- inattention to their loved ones. I have never, ever liked it, and I feel like there’s a story in that vein in just about every series I watch.)

But, again, it’s whatever. It’s where this story was always headed, and I liked the rest of it pretty well. I like the basic problem-solving of the escape (not Escape, she skipped this one) from the maze, and I liked the sequence of Yellow, Stag, and Red slashing through infinite cages to detonate the Cageroid. The rest of the team exists to be in peril while Ryuji and Misaki have their buddy comedy, and said buddy comedy was enjoyably mismatched, right up until Ryuji told the kids at home to stop complaining when their parents don’t come home from work often enough. But before that! Pretty cute!



IT’S TIME FOR Directions!

[Androzani84]

I remember this mostly for the gag where we’re led to believe the professor’s little girl is a child, but… nope! Gyaru.

Anyway, this is a Mouri episode, and there’s plenty of foreshadowing, with the anti-magnetic paintball gear being repurposed as a survival suit for the subdimension. And Messiah almost gets a physical body, but fails utterly…

And all of that foreshadowing won’t be paying off, since like I said last time, the show got retooled after the next episode for a number of reasons. Low toy sales, declining ratings, the fact that a new Kamen Rider was starting next week. So this is a bit of a last dance for the show’s original vision. It’s a shame, since this episode’s plot is… fairly trite.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

So this is a bit of a last dance for the show?s original vision. It?s a shame, since this episode?s plot is? fairly trite.

It's especially a weird plot because they gave the Your Parents Will Do Anything To Protect You speech to Ryuji, who is the one Buster in the main trio who didn't have his parents sacrifice themselves to save him from the Vagras. Like, why not have Yoko or Hiromu be the one to partner with Misaki, since they could speak more personally to the idea of a kid shrugging off the sacrifices their scientist parent is making to keep them safe from the Vagras? Seems like it'd make more sense!

[Kamen Rider Die]

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS VS BEET BUSTER VS J



I don’t want to keep calling these installments of Go-Busters “cute”; it’s lazy, and slightly dismissive. But they are! They’re cute! And that’s about it!

This DVD pack-in story is made on a budget of about 700 yen – the entire command crew is gone for Reasons, the only Buster costumes we get for the heroes are Red and Beet, J’s the only Buddyroid, and a big chunk of the first five minutes is archival footage – and it’s a pretty quick story of an Enter scheme to steal Beet Buster’s power. (There isn’t even a Megazord!) I feel like we’re lucky to even get Jin to show up, instead of having J tell us that he’s stuck in hyperspace or something. Once we get past the background info on the Energy Management Center, which is interesting without quite being entertaining, the remainder of the video is as solid as a one-act Go-Busters story can be, with virtually everyone gone.

It’s maybe one of the better Enter plots? I generally dislike Enter plots that are more about hurting the heroes than stealing Enetron – I like this show best when both the heroes and villains feel like cogs in adversarial machines, and everyone’s just sort of doing their jobs – but I thought this one had some nice moves on it. Enter’s got an established rivalry with Jin, so stealing Beet Buster is a solid scheme for Enter to pursue. Having a multi-part problem that requires subduing J, dodging Enter’s attacks, and then defeating J’s virus in his mindscape… that’s more than I’d normally expect for a 7-minute narrative, which is a pleasant surprise.

I don’t know how much more I can really say about a 13-minute magazine pack-in DVD that spends a third of its time telling you what the switches inside the Buster Machines do. There ain’t a lot of new content here, but I really enjoyed what was here. It was cute!



IT’S TIME FOR Space Sheriff Gavan!

Ha ha, but I did not enjoy this part! I’m glad the file I watched included a commercial at the end for a different pack-in DVD that’s all about the then-upcoming Gavan film, because I could not FOR THE LIFE OF ME figure out why a silent Gavan swooped in to save Jin and then left without a word. Completely inexplicable when viewed from 2024, and I thought I was watching the wrong video for a second. God bless Toei’s obligatory guest appearances of the early 2010s!

[Sunred]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

IT'S TIME FOR Space Sheriff Gavan!

Ha ha, but I did not enjoy this part! I?m glad the file I watched included a commercial at the end for a different pack-in DVD that?s all about the then-upcoming Gavan film, because I could not FOR THE LIFE OF ME figure out why a silent Gavan swooped in to save Jin and then left without a word. Completely inexplicable when viewed from 2024, and I thought I was watching the wrong video for a second. God bless Toei?s obligatory guest appearances of the early 2010s!

I remember this was around the time they had the Gavan 30th anniversary so probably why it was in it, to make good use of the sleeker Type-G Gavan suit while they can before they no longer have use for it and have to shelve the suit away in the warehouse of Toei's props department.

[Androzani84]

So the key difference between Sentai’s Super Battle DVDs and Rider’s Hyoer Battle Videos (besides the names) is that the former has more of a method to the madness. There’s always going to be focus primarily on Red and Six (wih a few exceptions), a kitbashed monster suit, any new variant Sentai suits made on the cheap and a minimum of new SFX. I have to say my favourite in this regard is Shinkenger, where the monster is just a grunt suit with the Rangers’ super mode vest added.

As for the video itself… Not much to say, it’s alright. Can’t complain about it, but can’t praise it to high heaven either.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunred

I remember this was around the time they had the Gavan 30th anniversary so probably why it was in it, to make good use of the sleeker Type-G Gavan suit while they can before they no longer have use for it and have to shelve the suit away in the warehouse of Toei's props department.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

There?s always going to be focus primarily on Red and Six (wih a few exceptions), a kitbashed monster suit, any new variant Sentai suits made on the cheap and a minimum of new SFX.

I'm glad to know that Sentai can still churn out a fun video while being even more frugal than usual!