[Kamen Rider Die]

Hi, there. I’m Kamen Rider Die, and this is KAMEN RIDER DIE WATCHES TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS.

…which is so weird!

Not the Watch thread thing; that’s second nature to me by now. I did a rewatch of Double (and a watch of Fuuto PI) at the beginning of the year, and finally sat down to get through the incredibly strange Outsiders series of one-shot disconnected narratives last month. (There’s also an entire archive of older Kamen Rider shows – most of Heisei and the first three Reiwa shows – at my website, if you’re interested.) Coming into August and watching a new show while chatting about with you all on the TokuNation boards… yeah, that’s a nice thing that I’m pretty used to.

But: Sentai.

I’ve never watched an entire Sentai season before. Scattered episodes, sure – the first few DonBros before life got in the way, the occasional Kamen Rider crossover thing, April Fool’s gags, and one-offs with friends. But I’ve never sat down and watched a complete Sentai show from beginning to end. I honestly don’t know if I’m going to like it, or what to expect.

With the conclusion of my first Phase of doing these threads, where I worked through every Heisei and Reiwa Rider to get to the present, I knew I wanted to make the second Phase a mix of rewatching shows that I never wrote-up, and trying to find new toku experiences to share with all of you. And top of that list was finally watching a Sentai series.

When I was getting into Rider more seriously, it was Go-Busters that first got my interest on the Sentai side, so I knew that whenever I finally carved out time to dive into Sentai, it was going to be Go-Busters. A lot of it, honestly, was the show’s pedigree: Kobayashi’s next toku show after OOO, and OOO was my favorite Rider series for a good long while. (It’s Geats, now. Probably forever.) Her deft touch on character development and incredibly addictive long-form plotting made me intensely curious about how she’d level up after OOO. Combine that with what looked to be a reasonable-sized cast of characters (a far cry from Kyurangers’ University of Sentai-sized cast of costumed space heroes) and I thought it’d be a good one for dipping my toe in, considering my historic ambivalence towards Sentai.

I just… I never really got on with the vibes of Sentai. It always felt a little too simple, or too cheerful. Rider shows could be goofy and dumb, but they usually had a strong current of tension running through them that made me feel less like a grown man watching a TV show designed to sell toys to Japanese children. With Sentai, it felt like a show you’d only watch as an adult if you were babysitting a kid.

Which I know is wrong. I know it! There’s very little daylight between Rider and Sentai – this isn’t the difference between Matt Reeves’ The Batman and something like Batwheels. (Although, I didn’t watch Batwheels, so maybe that show’s also an incredibly dark exploration of how a lack of connection between the populace of an urban area allows the worst groups to profit off of that isolation to pursue their own agendas? LMK!) But in isolation, I must’ve been missing the context that would help me find in Sentai what I loved in Rider: great characters, strong messages, compelling drama, tense stakes, and probably at least one goddamn puppet that I’d grow to tolerate.

So that’s why we’re here. I’m going to try and give a Sentai show a fair shake by meeting it where it lives, and being open to its specific approach to toku storytelling. Hopefully I’ll find in it what you all have found before me, but if not? At least I’ll finally feel like I know what I’m talking about when it comes to Sentai.

Since this thread is going to be my first time watching Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters, I thought I’d sketch out a couple three things to keep in mind for anyone participating in this thread:

PLEASE DON’T POST ANY SPOILERS ABOUT THIS SHOW. Like I said, this one’s all new for me, and I’d prefer to experience it episode by episode with as little foreknowledge as possible. Please try and keep any discussion to the current episode, or anything prior. (And don’t use spoiler tags! I see the posts without the tags, and it can absolutely ruin stuff for me.) Thanks!

I DON’T REALLY CARE IF YOU TALK ABOUT OTHER SENTAI SHOWS. I may or may not watch other Sentai shows in the future (probably DonBros, someday), so it won’t really bother me if you want to make comparisons to Ninninger or whatever. Just remember that I a) won’t get the reference, and b) probably won’t care if you try and explain it to me. I’m currently here for Go-Busters and only Go-Busters!

I MAY TALK ABOUT RIDER SHOWS, BUT ALSO MAYBE NOT. I’ve never done a non-Rider thread before, so I have no clue how much I’m going to try and explain things in Rider terms when it comes to deconstructing story beats or characters. Maybe a lot! Maybe never! It’s real uncharted territory. Just letting you know that if you’re worried I might ruin something from Revice for you, there is maybe a small chance of that happening.

TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK. Sentai is all about teamwork, right? I feel like that’s a thing that even a novice dummy like me can say with (unearned) confidence. Well, these threads are the same thing, but with maybe less color-coding to them. I like getting to share my thoughts and opinions on toku here, but I love getting to read your thoughts and opinions on toku. No one has to post if they don’t want to, but my favorite threads are the ones where people experience this show alongside me, or use this thread to reminisce. I’m never more grateful than when you all feel like sharing.

As always, I genuinely can’t remember if that’s all of the important stuff, despite writing some version of this maybe 20 times by now. I think it is? If not, I’ll be sure to mention it in the thread after suffering brief but harsh consequences for my oversight.

If you’re wondering what order this thread is going to go with regard to various off-shoots and follow-ups, please enjoy this By Release Date viewing list that Androzani84 was kind enough to put together -slash- if there’s any problems with this list let me know:

1-9
Super Hero Taisen
10-23
The Movie
24-27
vs Beet Buster vs J
28-46
vs Gokaiger
47-50
Returns
Super Hero Taisen Z
Kyoryuger vs

I’ll be using the NonActionableFansubs version of the main series (based off of Over-Time?), and whatever random subs I could find for the other stuff. (Mostly TV-Nihon?) This thread will get updated with new episodes daily, except for Wednesdays, or if there’s something going on and I just can’t find the time that day. (I’ll always let you know ahead of time!) Hopefully it’ll be a fun late-summer/early-autumn for us to tap into the Sentai zeitgeist of 2012. I look forward to teaming up with you all on this project!

Now let’s watch Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters!

[Kamen Rider Die]

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 1 - “SPECIAL-OPS SENTAI, ASSEMBLE!”



Ha ha, five minutes after saying that Sentai shows just never seem to have serious stakes, and here’s the first 40 seconds of Go-Busters, with an army of giant robots incinerating an entire district. I love it! I love getting this stuff so wrong!

(Genuinely not sure if that scene is Hiromu dreaming of what could happen, or remembering what did happen 13 years ago. I assume it’s meant to be ambiguous? There’s no time stamp beyond the next scene happening in the modern day, so… I figure they’ll nail that down in a future episode!)

I thought this was a fairly solid first episode of a toku show, if not a perfect one. It moves a little quickly, condensing what feels like incredibly important dramatic arcs into a single scene, as well as just powering through the introductions of literally a dozen characters. It’s overstuffed, is my feeling as a Kamen Rider fan.

It helps that the superheroic action is both a focal point and incredibly fun, though. The Blue and Yellow Go-Busters have what amounts to an episode-length fight scene against Enter and the Vagras, across multiple sets and at increasingly complex scales, while the eventual reveal of the Red Buster feels appropriately grandiose and epic. (Not sure I’d like to be in the building that he launches a convenience store-sized car off of, but I guess we all have to make sacrifices for the public good.) There’s a steadily rising tension, complete with an actual onscreen ticking clock before our Megaroid shows up to introduce me to the concept of giant robot fights. It’s just a robust, intense action story, and that’s a fun way to lead an audience in on this thing.

Because the characters are a bit of mixed bag for me in this one, sadly?

Blue and Yellow – Ryuji and Yoko – came off the best, and it’s down almost entirely to their easy camaraderie and unflappable competence. They’re just here to work, and it sort of made this thing click as far as a Spy Kids-esque toku story. They don’t mug or joke, leaving that instead to the Buddyroids; the Go-Busters just excel at their missions, and that’s sort of all you want to know to start with. They’re good at what they do, and they work well together. It’s not a lot to hang your hat on – there’s literally nothing that springs to mind as far as a cool catchphrase or idiosyncratic beat, beyond Yoko eating some candy – but it makes the concept and world feel like the spotlight, and I wonder if that’s a major difference for Sentai? How the premise needs to feel bigger than the characters?

It certainly showed in Hiromu’s arc, at least for me. We’re told via other characters that he lets himself be coddled too much by his sister, who appears to have raised him, and then the first non-flashback scene we see with her he’s saying that he has to protect other families by becoming a Go-Buster and she's going to have to be okay with that. The scene works okay-ish (Hiromu kind of never finds a note for his performance beyond Earnest And Sort Of Awkward, which feels less like a character choice and more like a young actor who is overmatched by the demands of the scene) but it feels like a major motivation for a guy we barely know just got checked off before the beginning of the third act of the first episode. I’m sure we’ll see more of this relationship, but it already feels like this episode squandered a few weeks worth of subplots in about two minutes.

But that’s a minor criticism, even if I’m saying that the emotional core of the Red Buster’s story felt like it was shortchanged. Because I sort of don’t care, for better or worse – this episode was a blast to watch, and as solid a premiere in the field of action as any Rider show I’ve seen. If this show is just watching competent spy heroes going on thrilling adventures against differently-scaled adversaries, I will consider this show a winner.



IT’S TIME FOR BUSTER Blue!

Hey, how about a little space at the end to highlight a single Go-Buster character that popped for me? And we’re starting with: Ryuji!

It’s not a lot that he did in this one specifically that I could call out, but I liked his energy in the few maskless scenes he got. He’s never bossy, and he’s always just this side of flippant. Him and Yoko feel like a team that probably could’ve taken out the Shovelroid eventually, Hiromu just sped up the process. Ryuji’s just a solid dude that doesn’t need to be showy, and that was something that kept catching my eye. I like him!

[Switchblade]

If there was a "Serious to Silly" scale for Sentai, with 1 Jetman or the early 80s shows and 10 being Carranger or Akibaranger, Go-Busters is like a 5. As someone who has a really hard time getting into Sentai because it can be too silly, I found this show pretty enjoyable. It can be very silly, but it's a kind of silly that I enjoy, as opposed to Kyoryuger, which I dropped around ten episodes in because I found it insufferable. If this resembles any of Kobayashi's Rider work, I'd say the closest analogue is probably Den-O, and not just because of a similar use of mascot characters.

I've watched a lot of tokusatsu since I got into the genre back in '09 and there are certain things that I've taken from them and incorporated into other parts of my life. There's probably none that I've embraced as consistently and wholeheartedly, though, as Go-Buster's "Let's Verb-ing."

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

If there was a "Serious to Silly" scale for Sentai, with 1 Jetman or the early 80s shows and 10 being Carranger or Akibaranger, Go-Busters is like a 5. As someone who has a really hard time getting into Sentai because it can be too silly, I found this show pretty enjoyable. It can be very silly, but it's a kind of silly that I enjoy, as opposed to Kyoryuger, which I dropped around ten episodes in because I found it insufferable. If this resembles any of Kobayashi's Rider work, I'd say the closest analogue is probably Den-O, and not just because of a similar use of mascot characters.

Yeah, the Hiromu And His Sister stuff was so Den-O that I almost couldn't believe it. (I mean, they switched the characteristics around, so at least there's that!)

It was sort of interesting to me that all of the Wacky stuff I equate with Sentai... that was pretty much all just the side characters in this one? The Buddyroids are all Star Wars droid types, where they exist to fret and mug and need reassurance, but the Go-Busters are all fairly straight-ahead action heroes. Definitely had me enjoying the Busters more than I'd've thought!

[Sunred]

Die, how does it feel to see Kamen Rider Quiz as a red ranger?
Fun fact time.

Arisa Komiya who played Yoko/Yellow Buster went on to garner success as a voice actress in Love Live.

She also guest-starred in Ghost and Zero-One and had a voice role as one of the baddies in Super Sentai Star Wars, I mean, Kyuranger.

Ryoma Baba who played Ryuji/Blue Buster went on to play a metal hero by the name of Estevan for the direct-to-video Space Sheriff Sharivan movie back in the 2010s.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunred

Die, how does it feel to see Kamen Rider Quiz as a red ranger?

Oh man, I didn't even notice! It's at least fitting that my least favorite Mirai Rider is my current least favorite Buster, though.

And thanks for the trivia!

[Androzani84]

So yeah, Go-Busters. One of the Sentai I saved for the last 10 I watch as part of playing catch-up (started in 2018 with Lupinranger vs Patranger, and then started watching the past 41 seasons as they took my fancy, or as the subs became readily available).

Honestly, I don’t quite see what the hype was. As I mentioned back when I reviewed the VS movie with Gokaiger, its second to last on my full list (only its immediate predecessor is lower, and that’s purely for the reason Go-Busters isn’t aiming for some rather shallow nostalgia, and I find the characters here slightly more likeable*). It probably has something to do with Ryuki being fresh on my mind, and probably something to do with how I didn’t like the show’s aesthetic (it just looks boring. Even Gokaiger’s had character).

And speaking of characters, I found Enter to be the best of the day one characters. By contrast, I didn’t like Yoko or Messiah at all (the former because she came off as too bratty, the latter because of his utter lack of a discernible personality), and everyone else I found bland.

*Another reason is that the show pulls a Hibiki in the second half, which briefly made me more invested.

[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

Honestly, I don?t quite see what the hype was.

My recollection of the hype at the time was that it tried a number of different things uncommon at the time for Super Sentai after the anniversary show that was Gokaiger.
For starters, diorama scenes weren't shot inside a studio but were actually filmed outside, making use of natural lighting. Then there was the whole not using reusable henshin footage as much and going Kamen Rider with it for the majority of the show. The costume department dropped the tights for the year, going with a techwear-ish faux leather combat suit you would expect from a non-sentai show.Overall, the tone, was comparatively grounded than its predecessors, or that seemed to be the intent I think. And let's not forget the little nod to MMPR.
But yeah, the way it was presented was quite different and I guess that was what clicked for those who wanted something experimental for a lack of better words after an anniversary show that went all-out at the time.
Personally, the faux sibling relationship these three had was fun to watch as well looking back.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

It probably has something to do with Ryuki being fresh on my mind, and probably something to do with how I didn?t like the show?s aesthetic (it just looks boring. Even Gokaiger?s had character).

Oh, man, I really like the show's aesthetic. I love the semi-tactical look for the Busters, and I like how the team aspect plays out through different layers of bureaucracy -- it's like the whole Getting Gigantic In A Zord thing, but at an organizational level. The Go-Busters as a concept can enlarge to take on any threat. That's very fun to me!

[Sh Ranger]

Scramble, 4 2 3 1 Let's Go!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS MISSION 1 - ?SPECIAL-OPS SENTAI, ASSEMBLE!?

I thought this was a fairly solid first episode of a toku show, if not a perfect one. It moves a little quickly, condensing what feels like incredibly important dramatic arcs into a single scene, as well as just powering through the introductions of literally a dozen characters. It?s overstuffed, is my feeling as a Kamen Rider fan.

It's Mission 1, but sometimes it feels like Mission 2, right? Nakamura is introduced as the new member, so Gorisaki and Usada can deliver exposition to the viewer through her, without sounding unnecessary. There's so much information dropped here that I would've preferred to get it in smaller doses. When the Megazord signal appears, Nakamura does her job so easily that it doesn't feel like she's a new member at all. Some dialogue is pretty humorous though, like Yoko and Usada mocking Hiromu as a "siscon". Yoko's habit of pouting really sells it!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Because the characters are a bit of mixed bag for me in this one, sadly?

Blue and Yellow ? Ryuji and Yoko ? came off the best, and it?s down almost entirely to their easy camaraderie and unflappable competence. They?re just here to work, and it sort of made this thing click as far as a Spy Kids-esque toku story. They don?t mug or joke, leaving that instead to the Buddyroids; the Go-Busters just excel at their missions, and that?s sort of all you want to know to start with. They?re good at what they do, and they work well together. It?s not a lot to hang your hat on ? there?s literally nothing that springs to mind as far as a cool catchphrase or idiosyncratic beat, beyond Yoko eating some candy ? but it makes the concept and world feel like the spotlight, and I wonder if that?s a major difference for Sentai? How the premise needs to feel bigger than the characters?

It certainly showed in Hiromu?s arc, at least for me. We?re told via other characters that he lets himself be coddled too much by his sister, who appears to have raised him, and then the first non-flashback scene we see with her he?s saying that he has to protect other families by becoming a Go-Buster and she's going to have to be okay with that. The scene works okay-ish (Hiromu kind of never finds a note for his performance beyond Earnest And Sort Of Awkward, which feels less like a character choice and more like a young actor who is overmatched by the demands of the scene) but it feels like a major motivation for a guy we barely know just got checked off before the beginning of the third act of the first episode. I?m sure we?ll see more of this relationship, but it already feels like this episode squandered a few weeks worth of subplots in about two minutes.

Hiromu's been distant for 13 years due to not wanting his sis to worry, so it makes sense that Ryuji and Yoko would have a closer bond at the start with Yoko having the "Ryu-chan" nickname, while feeling that Hiromu doesn't take the job seriously. More on Yoko later, but I think we can totally see that Hiromu is also serious and willing to take responsibility, to the point that he probably overcompensates for his tardiness in formally joining the team. He's in a position where Gobusters needs him to save the world and his sis needs him to not risk his life, so it's pretty difficult for him.

You mentioned that Gobusters' lesser number of members is one of the factors that appealed to you, but I'd argue that the number is similar, except that the rest of the characters are support. A lot of Sentai have convenient ways of summoning their gear and piloting mecha, but Gobusters don't just put their faith in each other, they also have a bond (Kizuna, like in the ED theme) with their Buddyroids and the 3 computer guys. Everybody has an important job to do and I think it's a surprisingly tactical approach to a Sentai show, similar to GoGo V.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

It can be very silly, but it's a kind of silly that I enjoy, as opposed to Kyoryuger, which I dropped around ten episodes in because I found it insufferable. If this resembles any of Kobayashi's Rider work, I'd say the closest analogue is probably Den-O, and not just because of a similar use of mascot characters.

Kyoryuger Episode 10 was around the time of Kyoryu Gold's awesome debut, which renewed my interest since he started as a pretty serious character. But yeah, this show was pretty insufferable. Well, at least I was able to finish it, unlike ToQGer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Oh man, I didn't even notice! It's at least fitting that my least favorite Mirai Rider is my current least favorite Buster, though.

And thanks for the trivia!

I recall you didn't like Mondo's hat. What's your opinion on Hiromu's fashion sense, by comparison?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

So yeah, Go-Busters. One of the Sentai I saved for the last 10 I watch as part of playing catch-up (started in 2018 with Lupinranger vs Patranger, and then started watching the past 41 seasons as they took my fancy, or as the subs became readily available).

Where do you even find all that time though? Over 41 seasons in 6 years is pretty ridiculous. I started in 2008 and I'm still catching up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

It probably has something to do with Ryuki being fresh on my mind, and probably something to do with how I didn?t like the show?s aesthetic (it just looks boring. Even Gokaiger?s had character).

I generally like it, but I don't like the overly monochrome base or the lack of white accents on the suits. The collars should've been white, at least. A Sentai just doesn't pop without white.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunred

My recollection of the hype at the time was that it tried a number of different things uncommon at the time for Super Sentai after the anniversary show that was Gokaiger.
For starters, diorama scenes weren't shot inside a studio but were actually filmed outside, making use of natural lighting. Then there was the whole not using reusable henshin footage as much and going Kamen Rider with it for the majority of the show. The costume department dropped the tights for the year, going with a techwear-ish faux leather combat suit you would expect from a non-sentai show.Overall, the tone, was comparatively grounded than its predecessors, or that seemed to be the intent I think. And let's not forget the little nod to MMPR.
But yeah, the way it was presented was quite different and I guess that was what clicked for those who wanted something experimental for a lack of better words after an anniversary show that went all-out at the time.

I wouldn't know about the hype, since I wasn't on any forums back then, but this totally makes sense to me. Like Androzani, I was also exasperated from Gokaiger's shallow nostalgia. Following that, Gobusters had a strong sense of identity, clear premise and intriguing characters. And yet, it shook up the formula in a way that felt fresh and unpredictable. I'll admit that I didn't get it immediately, but it grew on me and now I'd probably call it the best show Kobayashi has written.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunred

Personally, the faux sibling relationship these three had was fun to watch as well looking back.

Exactly! The unbreakable bond between the Gobusters and the Buddyroids are the heart of this show and I wouldn't care about it half as much without that. While you describe it as a sibling relationship, I personally think the Buddyroids are more like parents, especially to Hiromu and Yoko.