[Den-O]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Kain

The CarRanger episode to Gokaiger is one of the best.

Isn't it? Red Racer is still a hilariously awesome guy even now. I love that the Grand Power of Carranger is basically nothing

[Locke]

The Grandpower is the admiration of children, I think that is kinda rockin'.

[Locke]

Gobus 46. Isn't it nice when a sentai thinks of the bigger picture?

I openly admit that this is just a nitpick, I've said it before and I will probably say it again, but this episode drew attention to the fact that the Go-Busters are just so damn skinny! You don't want to go full on Henry Cavill? Okay fine, but is it hard to at least get actors who are lean, with a bit of defined muscle? The shots of Hiromu using that weight training gear were laughable because even my muscles are more defined than his are, and I don't fight to save the world on a day to day basis. Hell Ryuuji's MULLET is more defined than his muscles are.

The fighting was still pretty good this week, this wasn't a touch on that time Ryuuji turned the heat lamp on himself to get an edge - seriously that was SO awesome - but overheating Ryuuji is always a great thing to see as the show uses it so sparingly. Meanwhile although I think Enter is majorly overhyped his Messiah form is pretty sweet all the same. Powered Custom may be a largely pretty lame upgrade, but the effect for Hiromu's teleportation is gorgeous. Plus I love it when the suits get messed up and we get to see all the inner workings beneath.

[Locke]

Gobus 47. DAT TWIST.

This third ending has certainly had better build up than the others, although considering the Stag Beetle was a whole new kind of Metaroid, he was fairly uninspiring.

If nothing else, watching this with ToQ in mind, I'm really quite sad that all the progression Go-Busters made to drag the mecha portion out of the 90s has already been completely erased. I mean it's still not "good" but Go-Busters is probably the first time anything truly new had been tried in sentai for about twenty years. Even failed experiments should be recognised, but then Japan seems to enjoy things vanishing into a sea of homogeneity.

[Locke]

Gobus 48.

Do you reckon Enter will sing this to Hiromu?

It's nice to watch a show this late in, that is still playing with its own internal mythology and logic. As a sci-fi nut, I really love Gobus world, especially the earlier episodes which put focus on the giant robots and other such technology of the world.

The action was pretty good this episode until they moved the fight right to the crews reflection. Who does that? It's kinda like when they were in the Messiah Universe (I don't remember the name of it now) and they framed the battle there right in the view of a massive piece of graffiti. It had no in show context, why not just cover it up or not stage the fighting right in front of it? Nitpicks to you, maybe, but as a film student every detail is about suspension of disbelief and creating a world you can believe in and things like that for me are distractions which rip me right back into the real world.

[algo448]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Locke

The action was pretty good this episode until they moved the fight right to the crews reflection. Who does that? It's kinda like when they were in the Messiah Universe (I don't remember the name of it now) and they framed the battle there right in the view of a massive piece of graffiti. It had no in show context, why not just cover it up or not stage the fighting right in front of it? Nitpicks to you, maybe, but as a film student every detail is about suspension of disbelief and creating a world you can believe in and things like that for me are distractions which rip me right back into the real world.

You mean Hyper Space?

[Locke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by algo448

You mean Hyper Space?

Ah yeah that was it. It's been barely mentioned since the shows first ending and the show has shifted so much I entirely forget the name. Hyper Space!

[Locke]

Alright last episode before the last episode, gonna watch this, take a gaming break and then smash out the final episode and a final thoughts wrap up post.

They are no Gokaiger, but the chemistry between this team is gorgeous. This is why it's important to have a dynamic and not just throw a bunch of strangers together. I really liked that Jin got to do something worthwhile to, considering how superfluous Jin and J have basically been so far.

Sadly, I think this ending has so far been the weakest of the three. Escape's ending was frankly pathetic, and Enter went through so much in about ten minutes it kinda almost felt like a meta commentary on this shows messy and unfocussed writing. I mean SIC Red Buster was cool, but he was in that form for like what...ten seconds? I woulda been FURIOUS if I waited a week and that was all I got. Why even bother designing that suit? Then we get all that fucked up imagery of people wired into Enter and how it resonates with what happened to the Buster's parents, but fuck that, that isn't important, MEGAZORDS! Not just any old Megazord, a cheap, flappy and painfully tacked on Megazord. Yay?

[Matrixbeast]

I'm not the biggest Dairanger fan, but if there's one thing I can't take away, it's that theme.
Dairanger's theme is one of my favorites. I can't get enough of it.

[Locke]

IT'S TIME FOR FINAL BUSTER!

For all of its epic action, the nicest thing about this finale was how subdued and most importantly...final it was. I mean there was some pretty melodramatic set up, but the episode knew when enough was enough. And even during the very melodramatic parts, it was strongly acted enough that the melodrama was easy to swallow. I've said it before, but chemistry between casts like this is oddly rare in sentai, despite it being a team focused show and I really wish we had more teams with this tangible a feeling bond.

Also was really surprised to see, in this day and age, that Jin actually died. I would normally complain about a character exit like that, but with the amount of toku that creates EPIC character deaths and then retcons them five minutes later this was really nice.

Out of all the sentai shows I've finished, it probably has the best core cast I've ever seen. Gokaiger will probably take that spot when I finished it, but just for now, what an incredible cast, what an incredible set of characters and what wonderful acting.

Most importantly this is the first, and probably only sentai in the last fifteen or so years, that doesn't feel like it's still trapped in the early 90s - at least for me. This is a high concept show, which adds much needed fixes, crucial updates and modernising across the whole production and it works for great effect.

For whatever reason sentai seems happy to just exist in this permanent bubble where the stories, special effects and characters never really change, they just put them in a new set of clothes - pretty much literally in sentai's case. This a franchise that doesn't seem so much scared of change, but is simply perfectly complacent in a comfort blanket homogeneity, this seems to be a Japanese Culture thing as this is something that seems to permeate through pretty much all typically Japanese mediums, franchises etc Some westerners love it, but me not so much.

With that in mind, I am so so so grateful for Go-Busters existence, this is a season that rejects your homogeneity, refuses your nostalgia and attempts to play on, mix up and experiment with every cliché of the franchise and whether it's ultimately a success or not is up to you, but either way, rock on Go-Busters, you crazy rebel.

So...it's your new favourite show? Eh...not really. There is kinda an elephant I've been waiting to address. The main reason Go-Busters hasn't been immediately propelled into my favourites is that well. The writing kinda sucks. The show gets action, it gets the franchise, it gets characters but we're missing a crucial thing here - story. It easily has worse storytelling than Dairanger and more filler than Kyoryuger, it's that bad. It's messy, it's unfocused and poorly paced. It's a show without a single feeling of urgency, that still somehow manages to find a way to slow itself down all the way, slow itself down to the point of irrelevancy.

This show is almost completely directionless, it has THREE endings and maybe this is because of alleged behind the screen crap but it doesn't make the viewing any better. Go-Busters bumbles its way to each of its three endings, and with two of those endings the show comes back with an entirely different tone and focus that actively makes pretty much everything that comes beforehand feel entirely purposeless.

Overall Go-Busters issues make it more of an average series for me, I mean the series itself isn't "average" but it's not as horrible as Dairanger, not as fun as Kyoryuger and although in many ways much more progressive than Goseiger, I just liked that season more overall. The only real people I'd give this a straight recommendation to, are those who don't like sentai. Because it does attempt to be so unique, and mix up the formula so much, it's pretty much THE sentai for non sentai fans. And I think they could do a lot worse. Take from that, what you will.