2011's Kaizoku sentai Gokaiger was a smash hit, a giant celebration of everything from the past 35 years of sentai history that while not fully delving into every season, felt like a ginormous love letter, which when compared to decade's celebration of 10 years of kamen rider. As the series came to end and fans wondering what was coming next, the new images coming out revealed a return to the classic spy/espionage motif, the three team makeup and a major shift in the formula of sentai going forward. In the same way that Kamen Rider W was the beginning of a new era for Kamen Rider, Go-Busters was aiming to be that. As you can tell from how much modern sentai hasn't strayed to far from the standard it didn't go over that well. Go-busters was not the major success Toei thought it was, the sales while not bad were middling to say the least, reception at the time was rather lukewarm and it was the least viewed sentai on tv since Ohranger (Not that it made much of a difference seeing as how ratings for sentai had been going down for years.) With the following years Kyoryuger going for a more back to basics kind of feel.
Despite it's initially middling initial response, the years would prove kind to it, as the years went by reception towards it grew warmer (Ironically for how unique it was) and when it was announced that Hasbro was coming back to this one for adaptation purposes, their was a lot more resurgence into it. Not bad all things considered. SO was this experiment full of bugs, or was their something in all of this program.
SYNOPSIS
In the year 2012, a new form of energy has come to replace many of the old forms of energy, Enertron, it's power having enriched the lives of many and allowed for a cleaner way of life. But with any kind of new energy source a organization by the name of Vaglass has been stealling enertron in hopes of allowing their leader, Messiah to enter the human world and take it over. To combat the organization the energy management center has been preparing a group of youth's to combat their robots. Enhanced with superhuman abilities they are the Go-busters made up of Hiromu Sakurada, their blunt, stoic leader. Ryuji Iwasaki, the eldest of the group who often takes the form of big brother and muscle. And Yoko Usami, the youngest member of the group and rather boisterous and often clashes with Hiromu's blunt personality. Assisting them are their buddyroids, robotic companion's that assist in any way they can, the EMC's special unit divison and not long into their adventures, Jin Masato, a scientist who disappeared alongside others when messiah first appeared in 1999 trying to take over a prototype enertron plant, he shows up alongside his own buddyroid Beet. J Stag and becomes rangers to help fight against Vaglass.
Overall Go-busters plot is, good but it has it's issues in regards to pacing, espcecially near the middle when not much happens in terms of progression but once it get's past that it is gold all the way through out. A thing that doesn't help things is the main cast for a while are very static, their not terrible per se, but have very little in terms of growth until the midway point when we delve more into their backstory.
CHARACTERS
Busters readddy, toss sunglasses
Hiromu's inital introduction gives him off as a standard leader, dedicated to the mission, cold to the point of being blunt in regards to anyone, nd through much of the first half this is his character in that he is blunt. But despite my issue with some of the character development, I can say that the overall team dynamic on display is really solid, everyone plays off one another really well and while the group can be a bit dry early on, the addition of Jin and Beet help to make them more feel like a group of people. And while it is not a big one, you can tell as the season goes on Hiromu does have some growth in how he acts around the group, becoming a cheerier person in the process. Though I really can't leave talking about Hiromu without talking about the weakness's.
So when the Go-busters gained their super human abilities, Hiromu's speed, Ryuji's Superstrength, And Yoko's high jump. They also got some kind of negative side effect, so yoko needs to eat candy or she's completely drained, Ryuji can't overwork himself or he goes berserk and Hiromu freezes up when he panics or more specifically see's chickens, in fact the first we see of Hiromu he's frozen up because he saw a picture of a chicken. This is kind of an issue with the early part of go-busters, its struggle of tone with these weaknesses because both Hiromu's and Yoko's weakness's are played sometimes for laughs in certain instances, but with Ryuji's when it is first shown it is played dead straight in how it traumatizes Yoko since Ryuji's has been a kind step brother through her life, with her in tears. And only a few moments later we have Hiromu freezing up at a chicken. Like I know I keep bringing it up but why chickens, yeah we get backstory behind his fear of them but I can't take this seriously, whenever the chicken thing comes up I am not feeling tension at what may happen, I have the giggles at how ridiculous it is and that is not to say something stupid can be tear-jerking or frightening, One piece made a guy dressed up as a baby a highlight character but when you see the backstory you can understand the pain. Here it's just, Hiromu was in a coop and the chickens freaked out and he has been scarred for life, thankfully this whole tonal issue with the weakness's becomes less of an issue as time goes on and is mostly gone by the end thankfully.
Of the main trio I would say Ryuji was my favorite, he is the big guy/smart man of the team often acting as the mediator between his younger cohorts and gets just as good a camaraderie with Jin once he shows up and while its not the most fleshed out, the rivalry he has with escape does give him sort of a foe in the end of the show.
Unfortunately I can't really say the same for Yoko who takes the award for least favorite character. She get's the least amount of development of the rangers with focus more tied with other characters specifically Ryuji, her personality is just grating, she's whiny, spoiled, and whenever the focus was on her it was never that fun because the plot would be trying to be more normal or she gets other's to do her homework. And yes she is the youngest and has a desire to be normal, but she just feels like that little sibling who you have to make happy... because.
Alongside each ranger is a buddyroid, basically a robotic companion that assists them in many tasks or in combat rarely. They are mostly comic relief but despite for most of the season they are more the support, though I do feel that they do get their own emotional moments one of the best coming from their Strike episode they have after the lion zord is introduced is honestly one of the more heartwarming episodes the season gets.
And in our 6th ranger position (Yes both of them count as the 6th ranger even though they are 4th and 5th, I guess 6th ranger now a day means gold or silver, with the occasional orange thrown in their too.) Jin and Beet do help a lot in terms of the dynamic throwing a more comedic and initially chaotic element with how they initially are stealing enertron for reasons they don't explain, but after they join the group fully the show really starts to pick up in regards to team dynamic, adding probably the best human buddyroid dynamic between two people with astronomically sized egos with one trying to outshine the other but honestly they both work at their best when they are having to play off one another.
Buddy's for equal development
But even when they are playing off other rangers or character's they help to turn a character like Yoko into someone that I find almost passable. But I think the strength that both character's have is in the true tragedy regarding Jin and how both deal with the inevitablity of it, even J who spends most of the series as main source of comedy after introduction with his arrogant, boisterous personality that hides a sad truth by the end in a rather sad episode. They are the standout duo of the group and there introduction turns Go-buster towards a better after a rather shaky opening.
In terms of supporting cast Kuroki was not off to a good start with his personality being rather cold and treating the rangers but gets better when Jin is introduced and is more the comically serious character, being stern and serious but caring underneath. while the two main operators are fine if they don't get much, Miho acts initally acts as the surrogate to the audience when stuff needs to be explained and Morishita... exists for the longest time doesn't really get much, as the show goes along they get a lot better, best exemplified in episode 26 where both get time to shine, especially Miho.
VILLAIN
Messiah... is not a villain, I mean he is the reason the plot starts and is behind the 1999 Christmas event that changed all of our main characters lives. But for about 98% of the season, he spends most of his time, complaining, whining, and throwing tantrums about how long it's taking to get him back to the human world. Just the worst kind of orcus who sits on his throne and does nothing at all.
As deep as his eye's (oh wait he has no eyes, so I guess he's not that deep.)
Instead the real star for Vaglass goes to main enforcer, Enter, Enter is an absolute treat from beginning to end, a villain who plays the long game and a step ahead, with a personality that is just as twisted and enjoyable in it. Whenever he has a scheme up his sleeve, you can tell it may be difficult. However, their is no getting around one of the issues in that... he is essentially just Basco 2.0, a hypercompetent lackey who proves to do a better job than the main villain who enjoys their work. I bring it up because if you are coming in after gokaiger, their is no way you are not noticing this but really it's just a nitpick because hey its making the most out of the previous best thing about the villains from last show.
Escape on the other hand is a character who innately lacks identity. She innately comes off as Enter 2.0 (Which would technically make her Basco 3.0). Though where as Enter was playing the long game, Escape was created by Messiah to please him and get him enertron, she ends up playing more on her loyalty to messiah which she feels conflicted on with Enter becoming the new one and her continued loss of identity with each new version after death. And stated with Ryuji, their rivalry brings both characters combat out in the best way and leads to one of the more twisted ironic ways a character has met their end.
très bien
AESTHETIC'S
Go-busters changes were not just in the way the series was done, their was a lot of emphasis put into the overall design of the show, for the first time since Dynaman, Spandex was not used instead the suit's were made from leather, giving the suits this season for the ranger a much different look and across the board I like most of the design here, the main designs are slick and functional, the design is overall simple, a leather jacket look with black pants, each rangers animal represented via the helmet, with a transmitter to get quick access to whatever they need on a moments notice, the changer is also nice, a wrist mounted sundial kind of affair that is quick and to the point, turn the dial and press the button on the side, really love the way it feels like the visors are sunglasses too, the show runs on a lot of style with aesthetics.
Move over Spandex, we are now friends with Leather.
Also of note here is in the action, while their are a lot of standard thing but their is notable lack of stock footage to get through certain things giving each scene a unique feeling. Also in how the monsters are dealt with, instead of growing after defeat, a giant robot version of it is being transported and their is always a timer until it comes up. Because of that sometimes both the giant mech fight will happen alongside the main fight giving the fight a bit more of a natural feel instead of the mecha fight being the last thing.
It also helps that the mecha design is actually really solid... on their own. the singluar mecha design are really good, representing each animal well and the battle modes for CB-01, BC-04 and LT-06 are well design. But when the zords need to combine it doesn't look good at all, anytime the zords combine it doesn't feel like a combination of all the mech's into one complete one, rather the other zords are slapped onto the main battle form making each one look cluttered and over designed. Thankfully these are never really pulled out to often and used for very specific moments.
On the villain side I can say every single Metaloid design is great, incorporating the corrupted object into the design while also looking menacing and both Enter and escapes battle forms give off rather solid evil ranger designs. Honestly this is one case where I can say there is not a single bad design across the entire series, everything about Go-busters looks great and you can tell everything went in to making it look phenomenal.
The music also has some good tracks, the initial main theme is one of the best opening tracks, giving you a feel for what this season will be (though it also may be me enjoying the visual gag of a lyric about how they won't run away played over a scene of both Jin and J running from explosions.) But it's catchy, its energetic its everything a main theme should be. But if you noticed I said initial, as the show shifted more away from it's espionage initial parts to more standard affair, it premiered a new opening alongside the premiere of wizard, and... I'm not going to say it's bad but it really earns itself no points replacing the first one, I mean the song's fine but it just doesn't have the flow of the original like its aiming for a traditional sentai theme but it does an okay job.
Now that's a really good designed Mecha
Now to ruin it with a bunch of additional parts, look at those feet, sheesh.
EPISODES
Least Favorite: Episode 5, this was probably one of the best examples of just how the tonally death kind of handling of the weakness's as we jump from the seriousness of Ryuji's weakness and traumatizing Yoko and then we have Hiromu being his rather blunt self and oh he got frozen by more chickens on a photo, it's not one better episodes and doesn't do much to make you enjoy this cast.
Favorite: Episode 10, on the opposite end, this episodes is a really good one focused on Hiromu and his relationship with his sister and why he does fight and has one of the best examples of just how good this season looks with a well choreographed fight scene between him and the MOTW.
Least Favorite: Episode 22, Escape's introduction doesn't really do much to differentiate herself from her Enter, she innately just feels like A female Enter who is more loyal to Messiah. While she would become more of a character, she serves to just give another character to bounce off of Enter.
Favorite: Episode 36: The strike episode for the buddyroids is a touching and funny bit as the buddyroids (and an unwilling Nick) for better treatment and gives them arguably one of the most emotional moment in the entire season.
CONCLUSION
Go-busters can be a rather aggravating season initially, due in part to struggling to find a good tone and a cast of characters that is rather bland. But give it time and you will come away from this show as one of the more unique offerings for super sentai. The cast gels well together and I like most of them, the villains memorable sans like one of them, and arguably one of the prettier seasons of the show, if you want something unique for this franchise, their is no better example than Go-busters.
FINAL GRADE: B
Comments