I Was Once A Closet Gobusters Fan

Back in 2012, the Gokaiger hype was over and there came Gobusters which had very low ratings. There was still the Gokaiger hype, a lot of Super Sentai fans were still screaming, "Gokaiger! Gokaiger!" and when a hype hits, you should expect that the next show might actually get underrated. I would even think that the Gokaiger hype might be a good reason why Gobusters wasn't so well-received. I don't blame fans for liking Gokaiger for being the biggest anniversary season with the most number of guest stars ever while Gobusters came after a major anniversary season.

I'll admit this isn't really a blockbuster work of Yasuko Kobayashi who while she was responsible for writing Gingaman, Timeranger and Shinkenger - all beloved works. The head producer Naomi Takebe (who is also in charge of Ninninger) was also responsible for some of my other lesser favorites like Kamen Rider Kiva, Kamen Rider OOO and Kamen Rider Gaim. Unlike Shinkenger, Gobusters tends to be viewed as "stiff-faced" characters, there wasn't much personality and while I do like Shinkenger better, I would still have a liking for Gobusters to a certain extent. I'll admit that some of Gobusters flaws made me like it less but there's really no perfect Super Sentai season.


For a time, I actually pretended not to like Gobusters because a lot of fans didn't really like it. I'll admit that I didn't immediately take a liking to it either. But the more I watched it, the more I felt that even if I can't really like it that much but I'll admit I like it nonetheless. The show even had a change of opening theme, had some changes in hopes of trying to get more ratings. The show had a lot of downs and I felt like, "Will this show get cancelled soon?" Worse, the toy sales were even low. I guess only a very few people really enjoyed the show, right? In reality, I was secretly upset with how the show wasn't doing good with the intended target audience (children) and I was secretly liking it. Maybe, just maybe, the whole show would have clicked with older fans instead. Not even the Megazords of the heroes or villains ever had a "mega impact" that year this season was aired.


Neither show really appealed to me for very personal reasons... 

After Gobusters had ended, I always thought that maybe the next series would be better. Kyoryuger for me felt like, "Well good things dinosaurs are too dead to see it!" ToQGer may have won an award for safety rules promotion but I ended up saying that Gobusters is better than ToQGer. When I saw Kyoryuger after Gobusters, I felt like the first few episodes, "Good, this is lively." but after that, I felt like that show makes dinosuars glad that they no longer exist. I also had high hopes with ToQGer since it had Kobayashi and Takaaki Utsunomiya (head producer of Shinkenger and Gokaiger, two beloved seasons) but it just didn't meet expectations. I thought ToQGer would at least have a better charm but it ended up becoming my non-medical sleeping tablet as Kobayashi and Utsunomiya may have just had an, "That's it! I give up!" when it came to how ToQGer was as a show.


At least, I have something to keep me occupied and these guys do a good job...

After I had some personal downs, I think Ninninger still keeps me entertained even if the show has the problems of having too many power-ups and less focus as a downside. Gobusters on the other hand tried to focus more on plot than toy sales, something I enjoyed about older Super Sentai. Sure that the writing quality of Gobusters isn't as good as Shinkenger or old school Super Sentai but it still had some effort to be better. Although I do like Ninninger but I would still say that post-Gobusters seasons made me appreciate Gobusters in spite of some stuff I felt went wrong with it. I may be enjoying some of Ninninger's silly antics but Gobusters has some effort to write a decent story. I know that Takebe doesn't stand out as a producer and Kobayashi was probably burning out during this time but I still appreciate the effort. Ninninger is full of wacky fun that I didn't find in ToQGer though I may still be liking Gobusters more than the seasons that succeeded it.

Gobusters may not do drama as good as a lot of previous Super Sentai series are I've seen like Maskman, Jetman and Dairanger but I still feel it was quite interesting. Even if I fail like the storytelling isn't that good, I really still feel like saying, "At least Yasuko Kobayashi is trying." It's just like as of late, I feel like when it came to Kamen Rider Faiz, I felt like, "At least Toshiki Inoue was trying to write a good story but I can't really like the show as much as I like Kamen Rider Agito which is also his show."  The impact may not be as good as a lot of other series, there's better drama in other Super Sentai series before this but I credit Gobusters' crew and cast for actually trying to do something even if it didn't turn out as good as I wanted it to be. I am willing to say that even if this show really lacks popularity, I can still be a fan of this series in one way or another.


I feel that it's not really all that surprising that Judd Lynn is actually a fan of Gobusters. While he mentioned considering ToQGer or Ninninger as the next Power Rangers season, I still felt like coming out of the closet when he admitted he likes Gobusters. Granted, I felt like that maybe Gobusters may have a cult following for all I know. Once again, "It's Morphin' Time" with Gobusters while I'd actually watch Go-onger over it any day but still, I can still enjoy this season for what I think makes it still enjoyable, right?