Why is Go-Busters so good?

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xenoss
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Why is Go-Busters so good?

Post by xenoss »

Lowest ratings ever, and a lot of negativity online... It's all a matter of personal taste, of course. But I loved the series so far. I'm not hoping to change anyone's mind, I just want to express how much I like it, and why.

The designs in this show are beautiful:

The Go-Buster suit design is a departure from tradition, and not as well done as the Gokaiger suits, but that's not saying much since the Gokaiger's are really nicely done. Buster suits are the 2nd best to me. Buster Machines are nice too. Especially Ace, which looks like a proper mech. I never wanted toys of any sentai mechs before, Ace is the first.

But what REALLY got me are the Metaloid and Megazords. Holy shit are those nice. Alpha Beta Gamma are outstanding. If they had model kits, they'd be able to stand next to Gundam kits and hold their own in terms of coolness. If anything, they stole the show from the likes of Buster-oh, which is the traditional sentai bulky throw-everything-on-it "mech". Hell, they even stole the spotlight from Ace, as well design as it is, it still looks like a really nice toy, where Alpha Beta Gamma (and 04, whatever that white one is called) are mechs proper. Also, I love how each Megazord is used as a base platform with elements of the metaloid of the week on them, that's brilliant.

The Metaloids... man. I look forward to seeing those every episode. It feels almost a waste that we'll only see these suits just once or twice. They weren't all good, but most of them are. And when they were good, they were REALLY good. And they have some aesthetic elements that tie them all together as Metaloids. Some of these are so amazing, I want them in figurarts or some other toy form. That's incredible. We aren't talking about big bads like Juuzo here. We're just talking about some monsters-of-the-week, and we are talking more than one (in fact, there were A LOT) that were cool enough looking in my eyes that I'd want to display them in toy form. Too bad they don't make toys of random monsters...

The action is awesome

The fight scenes are nice, feels dynamic. I liked them. The mech fight scenes though really shined. On the most part, the mech scenes are high energy and active, add in the well designed mechs and special effects, and we got some enjoyable battles.

They didn't maintain the level of craft seen in the 1st few episodes, but I didn't expect them to, so I was not disappointed. If anything, I expected the mech action to really fall off later on. But they did better than I expected. (there were a few that were disappointing though).

I love how the metaloid and megazord can exist and the same time, so we get 2 simultaneous fight scenes. I think this added a lot of energy to the show.

The world and plot are great

Weapons that get transported from base instead of camera magic.
Mechs store in the hangar bay, with a crew to look after them.
Reasons why youngsters are tasked with this sort of job.
Enemy that need resources.
Reasons why only 1 monster at a time.
Why do monsters become giants after they died.
How do they get there so fast?

They constructed a world that is more realistic and believable than what I felt is the sentai norm. And I love the series for it. They made an effort to justify some of the silly sentai tropes that we take for granted, and made sense of them. Very well done. I love especially that Megazords aren't enlarged version of the metaloid, but a separate entity that sometimes appear before the metaloid is defeated. The grow bigger after it dies thing always felt silly to me. This transport marker justification is great. All in all, they made a believable world with its own internal consistencies and laws.

The plot, likewise, was well done. I read a lot of negative comments, but I share none of it. I seem to feel the opposite. I think they have a nice set of characters, and the plotting of the story is tight as hell. Even on what seems like filler episodes, some development of character or background plot occurs. And the story moved a long quickly with no sense of dragging. I don't know what other people are looking for, but for me, I get bored sometimes watching Shinkenger for example, but didn't feel that way for any Go-Busters eps.

I don't feel the characters are flat, either. They seem to me more human than the sentai norm. They have quirks added to add more spice to them, but in generally they seem real. They are more like characters in a jdrama show than a tokusatsu show (which I feel are sometimes more like caricatures than believable people). The characters in GB aren't interesting because of their quirks and one liners; they are interesting because of the struggles they are going through, and their growth. It feels like a more mature show.

My opinion differs again when it comes to Jin and J. Where most comments I see seem to be positive, and that they are the only interesting characters. I was entertained by Jin and J. But to me, they are not as good as the core cast. Perhaps they are too similar to the traditional sentai characters that they feel slightly out of place to me. That said, that these guys added some great humor to the show that I really enjoyed. They added more to the show than they took away.

Perhaps what people are looking for in sentai are more caricature types of characters. That's why Jin is interesting and the core cast is boring.


In a way, Go-Busters remind me of the 1st half of Kamen Rider Hibiki.

Hibiki was a more realistic show than the usual KR (except Kuuga). They had a internally consistent world view, explanations for tropes, characters that are more human and less caricature.

All in all, I love this series from Ep1-30

How they concluded Ep30 was very nice. Defeating the enemy yet they failed their person mission.

But then came the Gavan episodes, which to me messes up the tight plotting and pacing of the script. Damn Toei and their marketing.

And I'm not as happy with the 2nd half of GB. We are only 1 episode in, so there's still hope for me. But that episode wasn't as good as 1-30. If anything, it felt rushed (no doubt thanks to Gavan). Hopefully it will pick up and surprise me the same way 1-30 did.
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Re: Why is Go-Busters so good?

Post by Go-On Macaroni »

Metaloid? Wha?
xenoss wrote:We aren't talking about big bads like Juuzo here.
Also, Juuzo wasn't a "big bad"; more just like a recurring lackey of the main villain.
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Re: Why is Go-Busters so good?

Post by Lunagel »

I gotta agree with you xenoss, I don't understand the negativity. Maybe it's the fact that it came after Gokaiger or that the trend in recent years has been "good show, mediocre show, good show, mediocre show" etc. I'll be the first to admit that it took a while to get going and didn't really become excellent until after Jin and J showed up, but even so, before then I still enjoyed watching it every week. And I do appreciate that it's at least trying to do something new and interesting, bringing some freshness into the sentai formula.
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Re: Why is Go-Busters so good?

Post by Sexy_RoboVoice »

I was originally going to give this series a pass... but I became very intrigued by this series after catching a glimpse of the Gobusters during Super Hero Taisen. The outfits are awesome, the fact that they are serious minded professionals despite their youth is a plus, the Red Ranger comes across like a real leader instead of a hyperactive goof screaming at the top of his lungs all the time.

Hopefully this will mark a trend for Super Sentai that will bring things to a more even level with tighter scripting, more well rounded characters, with actors who can actually act, as opposed to bringing in super models in the hopes that they can act *cough Goseiger cough*. j/k

seriously, I'm surprised there's negativity being aimed at this series. Its a shame that people are less inclined to embrace things that are different and just want the same ol' same ol'.

I for one will be checking this series out in time. :)
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Re: Why is Go-Busters so good?

Post by HW-DiEnd »

To be honestly,i wanted to skip go-busters.

A friend showed me the new Beet and Stag Busters,so i decided to give it a try.

I watched the series and became really addicted,in 4 days i went to episode 35.


The best Mechas,best humor,a villain that speaks french,a hot villain,and Masato Jin and Beetle J Stag(The main reason i watch the series)


So,Go-Busters is the best Sentai Ever.Ever.
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Re: Why is Go-Busters so good?

Post by navyninja87 »

Go-Busters caught my attention because of the RPM-esque storyline but the reason it has kept my attention is due mainly to Ryuuji and Jin. Ryuuji is the sort of man that I'd want my older brother to be
Spoiler
without the hysterics he displays in episode 37, to be very honest
if I had one and Jin...well, who doesn't like Hiroya Matsumoto? Jin is the type to always coax a laugh or a smile out of me when I need it. Enter, eh...he reminds me of Long in Geki and I deeply dislike both because their actors are so good at what they do. Escape is a villainess I could respect if she pulled away from "Papa" and Enter completely.

I identify with Hiromu in the fact that I hardly sugarcoat anything and everyone gets upset with me for saying so. I love the balance of humor with the darkness. Overall, great series.
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Re: Why is Go-Busters so good?

Post by Lunchboxx »

Aside from Jin and J, This show caught my eye right away because it deviated from your normal sentai tropes half the time; which is a clever movie if I must say because it keeps me on my toes on what will happen next. Though I do fear that after the shake up that started in episode 32(I think?), We're gonna go back to our usual sentai tropes again to make the ratings appeal to the younger japanese children.

Oh well.



Aside from that reason, I've obligated myself to watch all sentai shows that I've yet to watch yet. Plus it gives me more material for me to continue my slow study of speaking japanese. Every season always has a theme word they use, and it helps me learn some new words. MagiRanger and Wizard is a good example of this, 'cause I've learn the japanese words for courage and hope.

Still trying to figure out what love is in japanese. (I'm trying not to cheat by using google, I prefer to hear it with my own ears. Plus my computer will not show kanji, hiragana and katagana correctly. But I digress.)
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Re: Why is Go-Busters so good?

Post by ReversedSentai »

Love is simple. It's just "ai".

But there are other ways of saying it too. You can say "koi", which can mean romance and love.

Or "daisuki". It means "I love it."
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Re: Why is Go-Busters so good?

Post by Lunchboxx »

Awesome, that solves that my problem. On to the next one for me. :mrgreen:
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