What I Believe Went Wrong with Go-Busters!
Go-Busters was certainly a cool concept but it was terribly executed to a certain extent. Yasuko Kobayashi is a great talent to Tokusatsu. Remember she wrote Gingaman (saw 35 episodes),Timeranger (saw most of it raw but it's pretty interesting, hoping to see more subs) and Shinkenger for Super Sentai. For Kamen Rider she wrote Kamen Rider Ryuki (with her worst ending in it), Kamen Rider Den-O and Kaemn Rider OOO (my favorite KR work she did). So what really went wrong with it? Here are some things I believe went wrong with Gobusters:
Characters who tend to be stiff and boring at some point
I dunno which cast was more boring... here or Faiz. Like Toshiki Inoue with Kamen Rider Faiz, Yasuko Kobayashi has ended up burning out and killing powerful potential for me in the series with Gobusters. I thought that the Gobusters had an interesting backstory but they come out very bland and boring. They weren't lively.... though you have to consider it's possible to be lively and obnoxious. In this case, the Gobusters were pretty much hard-faced for me. I just couldn't find them that likable nor interesting. Still this show wins over Kyoryuger for me.
The Energon plot can be very repetitive and lacking creative ideas
The concept was good at first but the Enetron plots get repetitive. Unlike Shinkenger where they are unaware of the fact that Doukoku causes trouble to raise up the Sanzu River or the Zyurangers save kids from Bandora's convoluted schemes in different ways... but most of the time Gobusters' plots imo are overly repetitive. I mean in Sentai, I do expect to see stupid plans to take over the Earth or to achieve certain goals like Bandora does one silly but harmful plan after the other to get rid of children. It's as if Enter enters (pardon the pun), then he creates a monster, distracts Gobusters, steals Enetron and the Gobusters must prevent the Vaglass from getting Enetron. Most of the missions are just save Enetron, save Enetron... and there's hardly an interesting monster plot of the week. The Messiah Cards also felt like running around in circles too. I can compare this boring spin around in circles to how the Kaixa Belt was treated in Faiz or how many times the Rider Belts in Faiz run around. Maybe some Lost Galaxy fans criticize Gingaman for getting too focused on Daitanix -- at least the Balban had several stupid plans to do so that kept audiences entertained!
Forced humor
Hiromu's fear of chickens is one good evidence to that. Gobusters' humor is mostly forced and one of my biggest problems is that, Hiromu did not even overcome his fear of chickens. It was explained to why it happened but having him freeze over it and never getting over it is comparable to Spongebob never getting his boating license even after many seasons! To be honest, I wish Hiromu got over it. Sure, the weakness was explained but
The villains in Gobusters are really not interesting and Enter is an attention whore
I've already said it many times that I wish the show had more villains. My problems are also that Messiah is always angry and then he gets underutilized. I would also think about Enter... I was thinking he did get dangerous but... I do really find him annoying than badass... even Chevalier being a silly villain was amusing. And Escape for me didn't really do too much either. For Messiah, I even felt like he should have returned in Enter's body because HE WAS THE VERY REASON WHY THE GOBUSTERS ARE SUFFERING IN THE FIRST PLACE! Messiah should have been made more menacing and destructive than he already was in the show! I could possibly blame production and executive than Yasuko Kobayashi for the lack of villains.
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So far Gobusters was an interesting concept but like Kamen Rider Faiz, it was a show that IMO that killed its own potential.
Characters who tend to be stiff and boring at some point
I dunno which cast was more boring... here or Faiz. Like Toshiki Inoue with Kamen Rider Faiz, Yasuko Kobayashi has ended up burning out and killing powerful potential for me in the series with Gobusters. I thought that the Gobusters had an interesting backstory but they come out very bland and boring. They weren't lively.... though you have to consider it's possible to be lively and obnoxious. In this case, the Gobusters were pretty much hard-faced for me. I just couldn't find them that likable nor interesting. Still this show wins over Kyoryuger for me.
The Energon plot can be very repetitive and lacking creative ideas
The concept was good at first but the Enetron plots get repetitive. Unlike Shinkenger where they are unaware of the fact that Doukoku causes trouble to raise up the Sanzu River or the Zyurangers save kids from Bandora's convoluted schemes in different ways... but most of the time Gobusters' plots imo are overly repetitive. I mean in Sentai, I do expect to see stupid plans to take over the Earth or to achieve certain goals like Bandora does one silly but harmful plan after the other to get rid of children. It's as if Enter enters (pardon the pun), then he creates a monster, distracts Gobusters, steals Enetron and the Gobusters must prevent the Vaglass from getting Enetron. Most of the missions are just save Enetron, save Enetron... and there's hardly an interesting monster plot of the week. The Messiah Cards also felt like running around in circles too. I can compare this boring spin around in circles to how the Kaixa Belt was treated in Faiz or how many times the Rider Belts in Faiz run around. Maybe some Lost Galaxy fans criticize Gingaman for getting too focused on Daitanix -- at least the Balban had several stupid plans to do so that kept audiences entertained!
Forced humor
Hiromu's fear of chickens is one good evidence to that. Gobusters' humor is mostly forced and one of my biggest problems is that, Hiromu did not even overcome his fear of chickens. It was explained to why it happened but having him freeze over it and never getting over it is comparable to Spongebob never getting his boating license even after many seasons! To be honest, I wish Hiromu got over it. Sure, the weakness was explained but
The villains in Gobusters are really not interesting and Enter is an attention whore
I've already said it many times that I wish the show had more villains. My problems are also that Messiah is always angry and then he gets underutilized. I would also think about Enter... I was thinking he did get dangerous but... I do really find him annoying than badass... even Chevalier being a silly villain was amusing. And Escape for me didn't really do too much either. For Messiah, I even felt like he should have returned in Enter's body because HE WAS THE VERY REASON WHY THE GOBUSTERS ARE SUFFERING IN THE FIRST PLACE! Messiah should have been made more menacing and destructive than he already was in the show! I could possibly blame production and executive than Yasuko Kobayashi for the lack of villains.
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So far Gobusters was an interesting concept but like Kamen Rider Faiz, it was a show that IMO that killed its own potential.
I know Go-Busters was a for Toei to revamp the franchise after Gokaiger but the show did to many changes that it's core audience wouldn't and didn't accept.
ReplyDeleteAs you stated in your post I found the show to be pretty boring and the characters very uninteresting with the exception of Jin and J. Enter was a good villain but I found him to be overrated and the producers and writers missed a good opportunity to use the other names of the keyboard like delete, control, and shift. You had a main producer who's work has primarily been in Kamen Rider and the only experience she had producing (as a sub producer) in sentai was in Megaranger so a lot of elements on the show to some felt Rider-ish.
I don't know if Kobayashi is simply tired or burned out but I'm seeing the same things in ToQger too (boring and a uninteresting cast)
I think she needs to take a break already. She's overused. It's like how Hirohisa Soda wrote a lot of good series but really fell down when Turboranger and Fiveman came.
DeleteI figured after Go-Busters she would have. I wonder if she came back as a favor to Utsunomiya because of the chemistry they had while working on Shinkenger or because she's already written a train theme show like Den-O. Not only is she writing for ToQger but she was also writing around the same time before ToQger started the new JoJo Bizarre Adventure season and the new Garo anime.
DeleteHopefully for next season Toei will give secondary writers who deserve a chance as head writer like Junko Komura or get Naruhisa Arakawa back.
Do you try to watch ToQGer until ep 21? I did not agree Kobayashi Yasuko need the break. Remember the main target of Sentai is kids and teen, not for post-teen and adult like us. So please do not use the post-teen and adult's mind to review the whole series which is make for kid and teen.
DeleteToQGer is better than Goseiger, Go-Onger, Gokaiger and Go-Busters. It need to have twist at the end to surpass the Gekiranger and Shinkenger.
ToQGer have fun character, fun mentor, balance battle and mecha battle, impressive villain around 10 years recently and interesting story with some humor and serious.
In my opinion, ToQGer is one of best Kobayashi Yasuko's work.
I've been watching the show on and off because it simply doesn't hold my interest. The only interesting part of the show for me are the villains. I found the conductor and ticket annoying, Wagon is simply there for fan service, and the only character I like out of the heroes is Tokatti. I just ended up stop watching and moved on to Gaoranger which I'm liking more than ToQger.....heck even Goseiger was better.
DeleteGaoranger is just repeat revive, revive all time I watched.
DeleteGoseiger is terrible Sentai which can compare with Kyoryuger - the worst Sentai ever which can call Daigo Sentai Kingranger. Bad character development, bad story in my mind.
I do not see any problems which ToQGer until now. Audience need time to suitable with character and need to see the character growth with story, rather than fast speed in story such as Kyoryuger or KR Gaim and terrible at the end.
10 first episodes of ToQGer can be see as introduction about team. From ep 11 to 16 is more development in character, and also growth in villain. Ep 17 - 20 introduced 6th member and from ep 21 to 25 is major event about Shadow Line, introducing Shadow Town và reveal secret of what happing in ToQGer town.
ToQGer now is better than any Sentai from Go-Onger to Go-Busters.
Gokaiger is anniversary series and it attract audience because of cameo and character personality look like previous Sentais, and... nothing else. Battle not balance, Mech battle look like stupid (and these things same with Kyoryuger).
If you do not interest, it depend on you, but please do not say Kobayashi Yasuko is burn out or tired. Sanjo Riku, Yokote Michiko group with Goseiger and writer of Gokaiger is terrible than Kobayashi Yasuko, especially Sanjo Riku with worst Kingranger.
If Kobayashi Yasuko is worst at now, Toei will not hide her for ToQGer after only 2 years of Go-Busters. Go-Busters is bad when compere with other previous Sentai, but still better than Fiveman, Go-Onger and Kyoryuger.
One thing to say: if you like Naruhisa Arakawa come back, so you will see another unbalance Sentai look like Gokaiger occur. He also main writer for KR Decade, and many fan of Kamen Rider hate Decade due to the bad character personality, buff Decade too much and weak story. This is the same with Gokaiger, but Gokaiger still better due to Gokaiger is a Sentai / team.
DeleteNaruhisa Arakawa was not the main writer for Decade it was Shō Aikawa for the first 25 episodes and Shōji Yonemura until the end and the only Rider show he was main writer for was Kuuga and a few episodes for W as a secondary writer. If you like Kobayashi Yasuko that's fine but saying that the other sentai writers you mention isn't better than her is uncalled for. They all contributed something to the franchise and they all have their strengths and weaknesses.
DeletePersonally, I think Kobayashi burned out after Den-O IMO (one of my favorite Rider series).
ReplyDeleteHer story telling hasn't been the same since.
Her post Den-O work hasn't been really interesting and impressive; even for a fan favorite series like Shinkenger, I had a major problem with.
At least none of the characters in Go-busters are despising, selfish, and unlikable (like Gokaiger and Kyoryuger) and I did like that it didn't have any collector's merchandise.
Shinkenger for me had the problems of plot stall and it was fun.... but the producer is most likely at fault for the mecha overload.
DeleteI like Faiz :,(
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFor ToQGer, I think the characters can be adjusted to for me... like how I disliked Faiz but liked Kiva. Kobayashi's ToQGer might be just like Inoue's Kiva... a show I can appreciate.
ReplyDeleteIf you want my honest opinion, Hiromu's fear should have been changed to clowns.
ReplyDeletePlus, make Escape go on a school shooting spree.
Speaking of fear of clowns, I had that fear from 4-5 years old though. And yes, I agree Escape should have gone on a school shooting!
Delete