[Androzani84]

Androzani84 also watched Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters vs Gokaiger

So the TLDR of what I thought is that I liked the movie despite not being keen on either of the two shows (having the best writer from both shows penning the movie will do that to you) and I am a huge history nerd.

To get down to business, I’ll continue my lectures on Sentai formula by talking VS movies. They tend to be set at an earlier chronological point than when they came out (the earliest this can take place is after 40, the latest is before 42), the plot tends to consist of “new villain from the previous show’s villain group teams up with the current villain group, both Sentai respond, get into a conflict of some kind, before putting it aside for a big team-up fight (where traditionally they get paired off based on colours, similar roles or prior interaction within the story, but that doesn’t happen here), they defeat the villains with their finishers, mecha battle begins, villain proves too overwhelming, they come up with a new combination or attack to combine their powers and win”. This messes with the formula by having both a new Gokaiger monster alongside the new villain (he’s here because the VA for another Gokaiger monster that used the same suit also voices J) and a new model of Megazord (dubbed “Megazord Omega” by the concept art) in the giant battle.

Also, this was the period where the new Sentai would make a cameo to finish off a villain that they couldn’t devote time to having the featured Sentai defeating without dragging the film out (the era ended with Kyuranger vs Space Squad, which started the trend of VS movies coming out after the new Sentai had been out for a while, negating the need for such a cameo, though the Final Live Tours continued them). And like Rider’s brand of pre-series cameos, there’s some weirdness since they’re going off an outline for the first episode, namely the role call being done live like Go-Busters’ own (the one in the show is pre-recorded) and the fact that, as KyoryuRed states “this Sentai sucks at gathering together” (which is true for all of 1 episode, before Red realises that the problem is that they don’t know each other in their daily lives and over the next 3 episodes, introduces them to each other to solve the problem).

But now, it’s time for the return of an old favourite…

Ridewatch Playlist: Whaddya mean these are Ranger Keys? They’re basically the same thing! Mix

So Go-Busters is considered by Bandai one of the more disappointing in terms of sales (which is why very few Sentai attempt to ape elements from it), but most of the eventual 9.6M ? profit was because they had a second toyline that was basically Gokaiger 2. Including a new version of their transformation item the Mobilates that removed the sound for Kamen Rider OOO, added a sound for Go-Busters and, for the purposes of this feature, replaces a rather confusing “VS Mode” with an “Encyclopaedia Mode”, which describes the Sentai. So here’s all the Ranger Keys I had when I made the video (I literally got the Gaoranger Keys two days ago)

Denziman… are the warriors fighting with the science of planet Denzi.

I’ll level with you, most of the choices here are the theme songs, and they’re named after the show, so I’ll just be sharing links for most of this.

Sun Vulcan… are the warriors fighting with the power of land, sea and sky.

Goggle Five… are the warriors fighting with gymnastics techniques. (Which is not an accurate description, but it’s all people who’ve never seen the show remember about it)

Dynaman… are young scientists fighting against evil.

Flashman… are the warriors fighting with the power of Prisms.

I didn’t need to include this one, but I really wanted to share this video.

Fiveman… are 5 siblings who are also schoolteachers.

Timeranger… are the warriors fighting enemies from the future.

Gouraiger… are the warriors fighting with Ikazuchi-style Ninja Arts.

This breaks from the theme, since these are a sub group to Hurricaneger, so they get their insert song instead

Shurikenger… is the ultimate ninja using the Hayate and Ikazuchi style Ninja Arts.

And he’s the Sixth Ranger for Hurricaneger, so he gets the same treatment

Magiranger… are siblings who fight together with the power of magic.

Boukenger… are the adventurers fighting to protect what’s precious.

Gekiranger… are the warriors fighting with the Geki-beast Fist.

Go-Onger… are the pure warriors fighting with a full tank and their partners, the Engines.

Shinkenger… are the Samurai using Origami and the power of words.

Gokaiger… are the space pirates fighting against the Space Empire Zangyack.

Go-Busters… are the new heroes fighting with their friends, the Buddyroids.

And I also, courtesy of a second toy from that line that lets you roleplay as past Sentai Robots using the Ranger Keys (though the videos aren’t mine, given that while I do own the toy, I don’t trust myself to film it competently), have a second lineup for the robots in the Mecha battle. This time, it’s the insert songs for said robots.

Flash King is Tank Commando, Jet Seeker and Jet Delta combined into a giant robot. Its finishing move is the Super Cosmo Flash, performed with the Cosmo Sword.

DaiZyuJin is 5 Guardian Beasts transformed into a giant god. Its finishing move is performed with the Dinosword God Horn. Super Legendary Lightning Howl Slash!

DairenOh is the 5 Qi Legend Beasts 5-Star combining into a giant warrior. Its finishing move gathers all of its power into the Great King Sword. Great King Sword: Gale Drop!*

(Note: the Dairanger mecha featured here is RyuseiOh, the red Qi Legend Beast, in its Warrior Transformation. Its finishing move, performed with its staff, is the Great Windmill Slash.)

GaoKing is the giant king of spirits formed from the Hundred Beasts Combination of 5 Power Animals. Its finishing move uses the spirits of the Power Animals to Shake the Earth! Super Animal Heart!

MagiKing is the 5 MagiMajin Magic Combined into the King of Majins. Its finishing moves with the King Caliber are Magic Slash and Phantom Illusion.

DaiBouken is 5 GoGo Vehicles GoGo Combined into a giant robot. Its weapons, the GoPicker and GoScooper, combine into the GoGo Sword.

GekiTouja is the Beast-fist combination of Geki Beasts into a giant fighter. Its finishers performed by spinning its body are The Great Firm Firm Leg and the Great Firm Firm Fist. (There isn’t an insert song for this one. No, I don’t know why)

GokaiOh is the Pirate Combination of 5 Gokai Machines into a giant robot. This amazing robot fights with the Greater Powers of the Historic Super Sentai.

Go-Buster Ace is Buster Machine CB-01 Cheetah, and can transform into a Megazord. GT-02, RH-03, BC-04 and SJ-05 combine with it to form Great Go-Buster.

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS VS KAIZOKU SENTAI GOKAIGER: THE MOVIE

...

(Kyoryuger! No thanks!)

This reminds me a lot of how I felt watching the last episodes of Go-Busters originally. Again, this is back in the days where fansubs had no TTFC or anything like that to get clean raws from, so Over-Time's release of the later episodes of this show included ads for the next show in line, and let me tell you, those commercials did the exact opposite of getting me hyped! Here I am trying to deal with the complicated feelings of reaching the end of a 50 episode show I had been enjoying this much, and suddenly Shigeru Chiba starts screaming at me about dinosaurs at max volume, as if Toei's transparent attempt to boost Sentai's popularity by rehashing an already successful gimmick was really going to work.

Well, not only did it end up working, it ended up working on me, because when I eventually gave Kyoryuger a chance, it actually clicked with me pretty much immediately, and played a much greater role in getting me invested in Super Sentai as a whole than Go-Busters actually did. Really special show, that Kyoryuger.

Anyways, I say all this in part to point out that, despite watching all of Gokaiger before Go-Busters, I probably wasn't too far off from where Die was in my initial reaction to this movie. The other part is that I simply don't have much else to say. Even now, after a lot of experience with these crossovers, it's rare a Sentai VS film leaves any lasting impression on me, and this isn't one of those few standouts. I barely even remember the experience of watching it, honestly. So this isn't a film I can readily pull some hidden depth out of to make an argument in its favor, but I will say, I definitely learned to love all three of the shows it's pulling from, with time.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

Ridewatch Playlist: Whaddya mean these are Ranger Keys? They?re basically the same thing! Mix

Thank you so much for the info!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Well, not only did it end up working, it ended up working on me, because when I eventually gave Kyoryuger a chance, it actually clicked with me pretty much immediately, and played a much greater role in getting me invested in Super Sentai as a whole than Go-Busters actually did. Really special show, that Kyoryuger.

Good to know! I can't say my brief interactions with, uh, King (? Yup, Wiki says it's King) have been especially positive -- mostly him randomly showing up in already overstuffed/incoherent/Gavan films to do a little soft-shoe routine to samba music, and I can't say I welcomed the intrusion. But! That's more a reflection on my habitual disinterest in Sentai (and dance routines) than it is a criticism of the actual TV show, so please take my dismissal in the semi-ridiculous way it was intended. I imagine Kyoryuger has a lot of positive attributes, but it ain't anything I'm aching to discover personally.

[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS VS KAIZOKU SENTAI GOKAIGER: THE MOVIE

(Kyoryuger! No thanks!)

Don't blame ya. When Red introduces himself as a Sentai, that turns out to be surprisingly accurate. However, while I started out being optimistic about their show, I ended up disliking it a lot, so my opinion is basically the opposite of Fish's.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Beyond the Gokaiger of it all, and the Special Preview Sentai, there?s a million GokaiChanges and Megazord GokaiChanges, referencing an additional 34 series of Sentai. It?s all celebratory and nostalgic for most fans, I?m sure, but it was all just noise to me. Didn?t care, beyond the most surface-level bright colors and explosions stuff. It was like watching a trailer for a film I had no interest in. (I swear, if I?ve got to watch that goddamn Wicked trailer in front of one more movie?!) I liked it fine as a rousing conclusion to a big crossover movie, but I didn?t really care which robot was blowing up which other robot.

I didn't like the execution of the Gokai Change gimmick, but I love the Megazord Change gimmick for 3 reasons. Firstly, the Legendary Megazord Keys are created from the Phantom Ranger Keys, so the powers aren't being stolen, only duplicated. Secondly, no need to re-gender assign the suits to the match the suit actors. Thirdly, the fight was awesome! I guess since you admittedly don't care too much for mecha fights, you wouldn't appreciate it, but it totally worked for me!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

(I will confess to really loving the use of Shinkenger to ferry a message across several centuries. That was super clever, and had me rooting for this film for about eight minutes.)

I presume this is your first time seeing Shiba Kaoru, since she hadn't been introduced yet during the time of the Decade crossover. She's a cool character. Honestly, I was more excited about her return than the Gokaigers!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And then there?s the Gokaiger of it all? I don?t like Marvelous? I am unbelievably tired of films having a Marvelous plot that?s all about pretending to be a bad guy so he can defeat different bad guys! (I know this one came first, but I still really hate it as a plot.) It?s a needlessly confusing start to this story, where the entire Gokaiger team gets their Pirates Of The Caribbean makeover before trying to murder the Go-Busters, all for a scheme that? gives the villains exactly what they wanted in the first place, plus murdering Nick, Gorisaki, and Usada for good measure. Your returning Sentai heroes, everybody! It?s aggravating as a premise, and it innately makes me resent the Gokaigers showing up. (Gai continues to be a dog-brained nuisance, but he?s not exactly a focal point of this film.) I don?t know their villains, and I don?t like their main guy, and I don?t get most of their references, and I can?t invest in their half of the narrative.

Yeah, my love for this VS movie doesn't really have anything to do with the VS part at all. I'm not particularly fond of most of the Gokaigers either, especially since Bandai refuse to let their damn merchandise die, but I doubt even their average fans would deny that they're pretty antiheroic. They are pirates after all, whether we like it or not. Anyway, at least these guys have the courtesy to share the focus with their fellow VS Sentai, unlike a certain successor.... (good luck)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

But the Go-Busters stuff is still pretty good, if massively telegraphed. (Like, I?m surprised Nick didn?t just say What Would You Do If We Died Twenty-Five And A Half Minutes From Now during the first Go-Busters scene of the film.) I am a sucker for any story that centers the Buster/Buddyroid relationship, and this one was a pretty fun version of it. It?s as much about the emotional impact that the Buddyroids have on the Busters, as it about the lessons the Busters have learned from the Buddyroids that made them the heroes they are. Convoluted sentence ? apropos for this dumb film ? so lemme take another run at it: I liked that the loss of the Buddyroids wasn?t just about losing friends and/or partners, it was about honoring the people who taught the Busters how to be heroes. They keep fighting to honor the sacrifice of the Buddyroids, and Hiromu?s ability to get on-side with Marvelous is completely down to Nick?s worldview. The idea of earning trust by trusting others? pretty great message for a crossover film between a government Sentai group and a bunch of space pirates who got three of your friends killed for no good reason!

These dramatic heartwrenching Buddyroid scenes though, this is what got me the most invested in the movie! Like I said, nothing to do with VS, it's pure honest Gobusters drama that still punches me in the feelings even on what's probably the fourth time I've watched this now. I mentioned from the start of the show that the Buddyroids are a major part of what makes Gobusters so meaningful, so a movie that sacrifices them in the same way that the heroes' families were sacrificed and seeing them suffer that loss all over again and yet they're determined to keep fighting, to make their partners proud of them.... It's the worst tragedy yet. But what's special about this is how, while they lost their families, they actually manage to get their true happy ending here, using the power of their emotions to will the Buddyroids back to life! Do we even need to talk about the Gokaigers, like, who cares about that when we've got a peak Gobusters story right here!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

IT?S TIME FOR the Toei Edo set!

Man, if there?s a way for a movie to toss in a brief trip back to Japan in the 18th Century, you can bet Toei?s gonna grab it. You could probably do an entire fanfic series of every Rider or Sentai who spent twenty or so minutes in one square block of Japan in 1770-whatever teaming up, but only if you?re okay with a cast in the hundreds. This is the nostalgia I care about, not the Magiranger Zord or whatever. (Cute Beet Buster gag, though.)

And it puts Yoko and J together once more, which is always an enjoyable pair to watch.

In case it wasn't clear enough how much I loved this VS, here's my current Top 10 Heisei VS Ranking:

1) Gobusters VS Gokaiger
2) Dekaranger VS Abaranger
3) Gekiranger VS Boukenger
4) Ryusoulger VS Lupinranger VS Patranger
5) Shinkenger VS Go-Onger
6) Gavan VS Dekaranger
7) Hurricanger VS Gaoranger
8) Gaoranger VS Super Sentai
9) Ohranger VS Kakuranger
10) Kyuranger VS Space Squad

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Do we even need to talk about the Gokaigers, like, who cares about that when we've got a peak Gobusters story right here!

Pretty much! It's especially weird how little the Gokaigers intersect with this story, considering it's basically the emotional core of the film? The Gokaigers losing their ship, being defeated by the villains... that stuff's all in flashback, and the ship just comes back mid-movie without them doing anything to earn it! The actual stakes of the film are 100% borne by the Busters, and they're the only ones who resolve them? Weird!

[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Pretty much! It's especially weird how little the Gokaigers intersect with this story, considering it's basically the emotional core of the film? The Gokaigers losing their ship, being defeated by the villains... that stuff's all in flashback, and the ship just comes back mid-movie without them doing anything to earn it! The actual stakes of the film are 100% borne by the Busters, and they're the only ones who resolve them? Weird!

But it also proves what Hiromu said to Marvelous earlier, that whether they're the official 36th Sentai or not, they will always show up when the world needs to be protected. When the Buddyroids are toasted, the Gokaigers see the distress and they're prepared to handle the rest of the fight on their own, but the Gobusters prove that's not necessary and that determination to fight to protect the world even when they're suffering is ultimately what earns their respect. If the Gokaigers had just bailed them out, it would've diminished the power of their spirit. Marvelous said it himself, they don't intend to protect the world, as it already has a Sentai for that mission, so them entrusting the Gobusters with the important part feels like that's exactly the point.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

But it also proves what Hiromu said to Marvelous earlier, that whether they're the official 36th Sentai or not, they will always show up when the world needs to be protected. When the Buddyroids are toasted, the Gokaigers see the distress and they're prepared to handle the rest of the fight on their own, but the Gobusters prove that's not necessary and that determination to fight to protect the world even when they're suffering is ultimately what earns their respect. If the Gokaigers had just bailed them out, it would've diminished the power of their spirit. Marvelous said it himself, they don't intend to protect the world, as it already has a Sentai for that mission, so them entrusting the Gobusters with the important part feels like that's exactly the point.

No, I just meant, like... what is at risk for the Gokaigers in this film? Beyond "stopping the villains" and "saving the world" -- pretty basic mandates for Sentai -- I'm not sure what skin the Gokaigers have in the game, compared to the established stakes for the Go-Busters. The losses they suffer are both backstory-only and sort of trumped up for their scheme, and they don't suffer any debilitating or thematic setbacks as the film progresses. The Go-Busters are in a heart-rending story of loss and connection, while the Gokaigers are having a fun pirate adventure. I don't feel like the disparity does the Gokaigers part of this movie any favors?

[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

No, I just meant, like... what is at risk for the Gokaigers in this film? Beyond "stopping the villains" and "saving the world" -- pretty basic mandates for Sentai -- I'm not sure what skin the Gokaigers have in the game, compared to the established stakes for the Go-Busters. The losses they suffer are both backstory-only and sort of trumped up for their scheme, and they don't suffer any debilitating or thematic setbacks as the film progresses. The Go-Busters are in a heart-rending story of loss and connection, while the Gokaigers are having a fun pirate adventure. I don't feel like the disparity does the Gokaigers part of this movie any favors?

Oh, well, that's basically something Gokaiger lacked even in their own show. Neither "stopping the villains" nor "saving the world" were high on their to-do list until much later, they just happened to be on bad terms with Zangyack, so saving the world was a side effect of defeating them.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Oh, well, that's basically something Gokaiger lacked even in their own show. Neither "stopping the villains" nor "saving the world" were high on their to-do list until much later, they just happened to be on bad terms with Zangyack, so saving the world was a side effect of defeating them.

Sure, but at least in the (terrible) Super Hero Taisen, where Marvelous runs basically this entire scheme by himself, the Gokaigers have to deal with Marvelous's "betrayal" and the fact that he appeared to have murdered half of their team. There's legitimate stakes for them throughout the film, like it or not. Very weird that this one gives them less to do emotionally, when they're in the title.

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

please take my dismissal in the semi-ridiculous way it was intended.

Of course! I knew you were playing up the bit there. (The self-aware choice of screencap at the start was not lost on me!) I brought up that personal anecdote mostly because it's a vivid memory of watching this show for me, more than to make any particular point. It's just funny for me to think back to a time where I was certain I would definitely never like those dancing dino dudes, in light of how quickly I ended up liking them.

In retrospect, I think it was less that I honestly suspected Kyoryuger wouldn't be fun, and more that it's the rare occasion I felt sort of upset about a new toku show "replacing" the one I was currently having such a great time with. Shows how much I love Go-Busters, I guess.