|
|
Thread Tools |
10-05-2024, 05:27 AM | #331 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,906
|
Quote:
For me, though, I think the thing that ended up most making me like J was the whole aspect to him where he's also -- of all things -- a lover of nature? It actually makes perfect sense given his background of being created in some hellish alternate dimension, which is a nice bit of logic, but even without that, I'm always going to find it cute to see a robot going around excitedly looking at bugs with a magnifying glass, and that feels all the more special when so many way more obvious facets of daily life seem to completely escape J's attention so regularly. This is a very strong episode in terms of moving the big-picture Plot forward, thanks to how it pushes ahead with Jin's storyline and gives Enter at least two new tricks in the process, but maybe the smartest thing it's doing is simply deciding to be about Jin by being about J instead, because while the former has always gotten the greater story focus, the latter's comedic antics, on top of just being so funny, are also rooted in stuff that gels perfectly with a lot of the themes this show is always exploring, so to get an episode after so long that treats J with so much dramatic weight -- while still having him be kind of insane -- is very much appreciated. Quote:
Like Die says, there's a tried-and-true charm to the genre stuff it dips into, and specific to Go-Busters, it lets the show goof around and create situations it wouldn't otherwise get to explore. Mouri being Mouri, he also keeps it from feeling too out-there by making sure a character we know being thrown out of their comfort zone is the whole point of the story, and naturally, it doesn't take much to sell me on the idea of Hiromu's usual prideful professionalism clashing with the unusual mission this one faces him with. Even just the joke of the title is great? Where it almost sounds for a second like some late-series new hero is joining the team if you don't know better? This is actually the last episode of the show Mouri wrote, and I like that he got to do something so knowingly weird and silly for this series before the inevitable dramatic escalation of the final stretch.
__________________
|
10-05-2024, 05:35 AM | #332 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,666
|
To clarify, Loupeloid isn’t a weird translation choice. The Metaloid is based off a loupe (those monocle/telescope hybrids jewellers use to test gems for value)
Anyway, we’re at the last “regular” episode, before the endgame kicks into full force. In Sentai, that’s normally the first or second episode of the 40s, and this isn’t an exception. And it goes for a seldom used plot, in the form of a “wannabe Ranger” (previous notables including Henshin Papa from Goggle Five, a middle-aged dad who stole a strength enhancing suit from the monster of the week, Magne Warrior from Bioman, a local eccentric who the bad guys empowered, AbarePink from Abaranger, the group’s teenage girl ally trying to convince her parents she was too busy to come with them to Thailand and more recently to this series, Shinken Brown from Shinkenger, a middle aged white man who stalked Blue to try and become a samurai). I don’t have much to discuss here though unfortunately, but I’ll have something interesting to note about Pink Cat when you get to the Returns V-CIN. I can say that, given we’re in December, which is their last chance to sell toys before a new Sentai appears in the new year with their own toys, we get the unusual pairing of Buster Heracles with Tategami Lioh, with Loupezord somehow managing to be stealthy enough to steal the former’s cannons, in what is probably my personal funniest scene of the series. Last edited by Androzani84; 10-06-2024 at 06:07 PM.. |
10-05-2024, 09:40 AM | #333 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,410
|
Quote:
__________________
Currently on a break! Back in 2025 for KAMEN RIDER OOO! Archive on KamenRiderDie.com! |
10-05-2024, 09:58 PM | #334 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,410
|
TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 42 - “PLUNGE INTO THE MEGAZORD!”
While this definitely has the feel of a Final Act episode – doubling down on Messiah’s evolution, giving Escape a Papazord to pilot – it’s not at all the part I was into. Once we got into the final few minutes and every cast member had to do the UHH?! sound to the debut of the Papazord, I sort of checked out? It’s fine, but it just wasn’t anywhere near as interesting to me as a basic Go-Busters story about recognizing your flaws without beating yourself up about them. I mostly… I sort of don’t care about Enter’s potential resurrection of Messiah? I don’t think it’s a bad story, but it misses for me the stakes and tension of the earlier hyperspace stories. Messiah’s plots back then were as Gathering oriented as Enter’s are here, switching out Data for Enetron, but they felt like something that required the Go-Busters to learn and improve in order to combat. Here, it just… doesn’t? The first scene of this episode is about how in sync the Busters are, and how easily they defeat the Trainroid (who is back for no established reason). A later incredibly good scene is about how Yoko’s abduction to a pocket dimension is met by the non-Jin parts of the team with both a coherent strategy and a belief in Yoko’s abilities. Messiah got beat by this team before they got cool power-ups, an additional Buster Machine, and tons of earned confidence, so it's hard to muster up much enthusiasm for a rematch. I’m just not seeing a point to Enter’s schemes if this is the team he’s up against? But that’s a minor thing! I really liked the first 18 minutes of this episode, specifically for how it kept the scale human-sized. The threat isn’t really the Megazordroid, it’s human failing and the pressure we put on ourselves when we’re weak. Seeing Yoko ineffectively try to cheer up depressed people by powering through their hesitation and doubt, and then accidentally realizing that her best example is in allowing herself to be weak in order to show the ways we’re all capable of both weakness and strength? That’s the best part of this episode for me. It’s not about some amorphous Gathering Data scheme that percolates in the background as Enter increasingly needs a haircut, it’s about Yoko trying to help four depressed strangers find the strength to forgive themselves for being weak, and allow for the fact that weakness is as much a part of them as strength is. It’s a part of this show I’m going to remember long after I’ve forgotten what the last dozen episodes have been building towards. IT’S TIME FOR Plot Holes! So, Yoko gets abducted to the Megazordroid’s train car, which exits regular space into some pocket dimension. (Hyperspace? It’s never established.) As soon as she gets on the train, she finds out that CALL MODE is blocked, due to her being extradimensional now. She immediately realizes that this also means -- and this is stated on the show -- that she can’t Morph. This holds up, because she doesn’t Morph during the fight with Bugglars, and Ryuji and Hiromu have to be Morphed before they get on board. (Hiromu doesn’t even use Powered Custom until he and Enter fall off of the train back into regular space!) But then, near the end of the episode, back in the pocket dimension… Yoko shouts LET’S MORPHIN’ and she’s the Yellow Buster, like nothing was ever stopping her before. Ryuji also calls for Powered Custom, like nothing’s stopping him. What happened to the block that kept Yoko from being Yellow Buster back in the first half of the episode?
__________________
Currently on a break! Back in 2025 for KAMEN RIDER OOO! Archive on KamenRiderDie.com! |
10-06-2024, 05:15 AM | #335 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,666
|
And people told me ToQger was light-hearted.
Anyway, aside from the still fairly cool idea of a naturally giant Metaloid, and Escape getting the next Megazord in the Greek alphabet, the thing people remember most from this episode is the nursery rhyme Yoko sings, but for weirdly convoluted reasons. Namely, the same song appeared in episodes of Fiveman, Kakuranger and Dekaranger, and fans like to latch onto there being a concrete connection between all those instances. While the first two have one (the actress playing Yellow in Fiveman was one of the regular villains in Kakuranger), the other two go into fan wank (in the case of this episode, the actress playing Yoko was a regular villain in Kyuranger, just like FiveYellow). |
10-06-2024, 05:17 AM | #336 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,906
|
Quote:
At any rate, the whole overall situation of Yoko being stuck on that train with a bunch of civilians is another one of those things from an episode of this show that really sticks in my head for whatever reason. I think it's because it's just kind of a strong scenario for a late-series episode? Isolating the youngest member of the team like that and having her try to take charge of cheering up those people and making them feel safe and all that... it'd literally never be the first episode about Yoko, you know? It's inherently set up to speak to the growth the characters have gone through up to this point, and as you point out, even the way the rest of the team handles everything here is in support of that basic idea.
__________________
|
10-06-2024, 10:52 AM | #337 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,410
|
Quote:
Anyway, aside from the still fairly cool idea of a naturally giant Metaloid, and Escape getting the next Megazord in the Greek alphabet, the thing people remember most from this episode is the nursery rhyme Yoko sings, but for weirdly convoluted reasons. Namely, the same song appeared in episodes of Fiveman, Kakuranger and Dekaranger, and fans like to latch onto there being a concrete connection between all those instances. While the first two have one (the actress playing Yellow in Fiveman was one of the regular villains in Kakuranger), the other two go into fan wank (in the case of this episode, the actress playing Yoko was a regular villain in Kyuranger, just like FiveYellow).
Quote:
Well, I'd imagine if you want to make a Metaroid out of a Megazord, there needs to be a Megazord first, right? In which case the reason Trainroid is there was established like 40 episodes ago. Heck, even the fact that it's Trainroid seems specifically relevant to Enter's plan here?
__________________
Currently on a break! Back in 2025 for KAMEN RIDER OOO! Archive on KamenRiderDie.com! |
10-06-2024, 10:01 PM | #338 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,410
|
TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 43 - “CHRISTMAS RESOLUTIONS”
Always a little surprised when this show has episode titles as straightforward as “Christmas Resolutions” (no exclamation mark, even), rather than “SANTA VERSUS THE GO-BUSTERS!” or “CHRISTMAS GIFT OF ANGER!”, y’know? It’s a little jarring. But this episode was a really good one! Beyond just reminding the audience that Christmastime has very specific connotations for the Go-Busters, this one reiterates how far they’ve grown beyond their defining traumas, and how much they’ve dedicated themselves to finding the joy in their tragedies. It’s fun to base an episode around the fallacy of Enter’s Gathering Data game/scheme, because it shows how little he’s changed in the past year compared to the Go-Busters. Enter continues to learn about humanity, but he himself doesn’t really get any more insightful because of it. Once again, his scheme fails because he has fundamentally misread the motivations and weaknesses of the Go-Busters. He can get them angry one time by dropping buildings on orphans and making fun of the Busters’ dead parents, but that’s just taking them by surprise; the Go-Busters don’t carry their rage around like Enter presumes they do. Enter just assumes that the Busters will give in to anger, and will use that anger to be more powerful, so he can rob them of their power. But that’s not the primary source of their power, it’s a reaction to cheap shots they aren’t expecting. Once they see it coming, they can choose to focus on the other motivations in their lives: altruism, generosity, love, hope, etc. Defeating Enter isn’t about ignoring anger, it’s about choosing something better. And, y’know, easy to applaud that sort of personal growth when it’s wrapped up with a bow by Hiromu absorbing shot after shot from the Swordandshieldroid (perfect) until he learns all of its patterns and can kill it in two shots (also perfect). A rousing speech is well and good, but this is a toku show – you gotta wed that sentiment to superheroics and pyrotechnics! This one totally worked for me, all the way through. The little scenes of the Busters working on their arts and crafts for their yearly Orphan Christmas Pageant was adorable, the cheap shots by the Vagras were almost hilarious in their cruelty, the Go-Busters taking a breath and instantly devising a counter-scheme to save Christmas (!!!) was energizing, and then Hiromu’s little monologue – with Nick playing the music box (!!!) in the background to focus Hiromu – was a stellar end to a very sweet episode. Total win for the good guys! IT’S TIME FOR Papazord! Oh, except for Escape stealing the two Messiah cards, using them to power up the Papazord, and squishing Enter like a bug. I enjoyed the Enter/Escape stuff in this episode, for how it’s their relationship in microcosm – which one will betray the other first? They can collaborate on a specific plot, but any warmth between them is just prelude to betrayal. Escape slowly realizing that Enter’s version of “resurrecting Messiah” isn’t her version of “resurrecting Messiah” is a terrific end to their brief alliance, because they aren’t really in opposition on a scale of morality, just in the specifics of evil’s victory. More a difference of opinion than anything else, right up until Enter is popped like a zit.
__________________
Currently on a break! Back in 2025 for KAMEN RIDER OOO! Archive on KamenRiderDie.com! |
10-07-2024, 04:16 AM | #339 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,666
|
Well I don’t have much to say here compared to the next episode, but I can say these things.
The whole fighting without anger thing… Liveman did it better. Nick singing jingle bells came out of nowhere but is one of hose moments that really works. If I hadn’t seen it in a toy review, I’d assume the Lio Blaster/sword combination was just the producers gluing the two together to try and contrive a new weapon. Also, how the hell is Jon able to pilot Lioh if Hiromu is using the Attache? Telepathy? And finally, I’m not sure who they were trying to fool by making it look like Enter died so anticlimactically. |
10-07-2024, 08:21 AM | #340 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,410
|
It really did! Hiromu's plan could come off too sentimental, or cloying, but Nick being like This Is Boring HERE'S A SONG was the perfect antidote to keep things fun.
__________________
Currently on a break! Back in 2025 for KAMEN RIDER OOO! Archive on KamenRiderDie.com! |
Thread Tools | |
|
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:43 AM.
|