Movie REVIEW: Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters Returns vs. Dōbutsu Sentai Go-Busters

Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters was a rather polarizing series. Some, such as myself, enjoyed the fact that it was a series unafraid to do things differently immensely. However others were extremely critical of how different it was to your standard Super Sentai show, and sadly these were probably the most vocal group as Go-Busters has gone on the be the the most poorly-viewed show in the franchise's history. However regardless of that the 36th Sentai are back for a straight-to-DVD "Returns" movie (just like Shinkenger and Goseiger had) titled Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters Returns vs. Dōbutsu Sentai Go-Busters, which serves to answer a question that had been on a lot of fans' minds:

What if Go-Busters had been more like your typical Super Sentai series?

Demons, Sentai style

Set on New Years' Eve 2012 (curiously setting it during a week Go-Busters didn't air), the Go-Busters are alerted to an attack on the city that isn't of Vagras origin. As they investigate, they discover the Great Demon Lord Azazel, who quickly destroys their Buster Machines before killing them all on his fiery rampage.

Nick awakens in heaven, where he is told by a rather familiar looking God that as the 1,000,000th entrant to heaven that year (Beet J Stag being the 999,999th) he will grant him one wish. Nick wishes to live in world where the the incident that gave birth to Messiah 13 years ago never happened, transporting him and J to world where the Go-Busters live very different lives. Hiromu is starting his first day as a student teacher at the Energy Management Highschool, where Ryuji is already a teacher. The school is run by Kuroki, while Jin is the groundskeeper and Yoko a student.

It's funny because here he's the messiah.

However proving that you can't keep a good Sentai down, their peaceful lives are interrupted by the arrival of the Machine Empire Mechalion, led their Empress Transister (who again looks awfully familiar). Kuroki reveals he knew the day was coming, presenting Hiromu, Ryuji and Yoko with changers to become the Dōbutsu Sentai Go-Busters! What follows is a look into the year-long adventures of the team, including the arrival of new powers, new mecha and new members!

Meet the Dōbutsu Sentai Go-Busters!

The world of the Dōbutsu Sentai Go-Busters is much more than simply giving the Busters new visors and renaming a few things, its a hilarious tribute to all things classic Super Sentai. As soon as the team roll up on the screen they're spouting a brand new rollcall and using classic Sentai fighting techniques right out of the Showa era (see: Go-Buster ball). To see the Go-Busters use these kind of attacks is so bizarre it's fantastic. Plus they even get their own theme song! Next we see segments as if Dōbutsu Sentai Go-Busters was a real show, divided up by episode number/titles that play around with common Sentai tropes. Hiromu and Ryuji have a fist fight before becoming closer friends, mysterious new members appear before dying in a blaze of glory several episodes later and there's even a hinted romance between Hiromu and Yoko. All things considered the film should be wildly predictable, but you never quite know what's going to be parodied next.

Frog him up and he'd have fit in the proper show

As mentioned earlier this alternate universe adds two new Go-Busters into the mix. The first is Green Hippopotamus, whose real identity is complete stranger Atsushi Domyoji (played by Usada Lettuce's voice actor Tatsuhisa Suzuki). He isn't around for very long (both figuratively and literally), but it's pretty cool to see a hippo themed ranger and the appearance of a complete stranger is VERY fitting to both how Super Sentai and Kamen Rider handle their additional members. Fans who were hoping Kuroki (sporting a pretty fancy Hitler 'tache here) would saddle up as an additional Go-Buster get their wish, as he makes a brief appearance as the sassy Black Puma - even piloting Tategami Li-Oh while he's at it!

Of course, as per usual the comedy highlight of the film is non other than Beet J Stag. Tagging along for Nick's adventures in the parallel universe, he simply goes along with everything that happens - so much as perfectly taking on the roll of Silver Stag much to Nick's instant confusion. From his regular hijinks concerning enertron to him running between two roll calls in the film's climax (after all, there is only ONE Beet J Stag), it's just a constant reminder about how much of a funny and endearing character he is. And also how much he's going to be missed.

So great words don't convey it

Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters Returns vs. Dōbutsu Sentai Go-Busters is many things. It's a final send off to the Go-Busters, an extra adventure that slots into the events of the series nicely, a loving tribute/parody of classic Super Sentai tropes and storylines, a massive middle finger to all those who mocked Go-Busters for being so different but also an opportunity for them to sample what might have been had it chosen to be a bit more "generic". "Returns" films are often a mixed bag when it comes to Super Sentai (Shinkenger's is awful and Goseiger's nice but rather forgettable), but Go-Busters has single-handedly turned all of those expectations around. This isn't just the best "Returns" film there's been, it's also one of (if not the) best Super Sentai films ever made.

Not bad at all for the "lowest rated Sentai in the history of the franchise".

Legend Ranger Key Set: Go-Busters 02

This is a ranger key set that's been out for a quite a while now and I've never got around to getting. But thanks to Hobby Link Japan's amazing sale recently, I managed to pick up the second Go-Busters Legend Ranger Key set for as little as £3 (plus shipping)! This second set features the Beet Buster and Stag Buster keys, who were introduced into Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters midway into the show. Rounding the set off to three keys is a Beet J Stag buddyroid key.

The packaging is very similar to that seen with the first Go-Busters key set, only this time swapping the yellow backing card for a cooler blue colour and replacing the "It's Time for Buster" slogan with the more appropriate "Boost Up for Buster".

One thing that's a little disappointing with this set is that the Beet and Stag Buster keys aren't metallic, with the gold and silver colouring more orange and grey. While I don't consider this a necessity (after all, none of the other gold/silver ranger keys are metallic), its only striking here because the Beet J Stag key DOES have a number of gold/silver paint applications and thus kind of puts the other two to shame.

While inserting these keys into the original release Mobirates will just yield the "special ranger key" noises, putting them in the Legends release will activate the Go-Busters sounds and bio (if activated in encylopaedia mode).

Toybox REVIEW: Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters minipla BC-04 Beetle/Go-Buster Beet and SJ-05 Stag (Part 1)

While the Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters series has been walking the line of mediocrity in terms of story and characters recently, it's still mecha fights are still both a big draw and highlight. Focusing far more on the singular mecha than the combined forms, its made for a nice change of pace and a reminder that Sentai robots are made up of individual parts. With each robot also having its own transforming gimmick (whether it be one or two modes), this has also made the toys a lot more interesting. Ace, GT-02 and RH-03 have all been fairly solid even if the combined form of Go-BusterOh was ridiculously lacklustre (both in show and toy form). With the introduction of two rangers in the form of Beet and Stag Buster, this also means two new additions to the mini-pla line. With lots of different modes and combinations on offer with this set, I thought it better to divide the review into two different sections. The first will look at the individual mecha - Beet Buster's BC-04 Beetle (which like Ace has its own robot mode in the form of Go-Buster Beet) and Stag Buster's SJ-05 Stag.

BC-04 is a two-box model kit, while SJ-05 is just the one. Those who are sticklers for accuracy beware that these two are going to look very dull compared to their onscreen counterparts without a decent paintjob. BC-04 is moulded in a sickly dull gold colour while SJ-05 is a flat grey. I took these two as challenge to my paint skills and decided to give them a full overhaul, to which I was pretty pleased with the results. My pictures are of the painted versions, but if you'd like to see what they look like with stickers only then I highly recommend this blog post.

BC-04 Beetle

Following the instructions, the mode you end up with after completing the model kit is Go-Buster Beet (the robot mode), so I'm going to start with that for the review. The first box is the entire top half of the robot, while the second box is just the legs. This may not sound like much for the second box, but the legs have a fair bit of bulk to them. Height-wise the figure stands roughly shoulder to shoulder with Go-Buster Ace, so round about 4.5".

Beet has lots of articulation to show off, including a ball jointed head (although its up-down motion is limited),  swivel and hinge-jointed arms, rotating waist, swivel/hinged legs and finally ball jointed feet. The blades on the legs are removable and able to be folded out and wielded (not pictured: see here). Like the show version the figure has an extendable (right) fist, which extends and retracts by pulling on the fist itself. I'm not a big fan of how the Buster Hercules head simply slots onto the crane, because it makes the crane piece look uneven and simply looks plain weird there. Thankfully its pretty small so does go by unnoticed a lot of the time.

Transforming into animal mode (which as you have probably guessed is a beetle) requires quite a bit of taking the figure apart and reassembling, but then the show itself doesn't skimp upon this so I guess its accurate in that respect. The leg sections are brought up closer to fit properly around the pelvis section, and the head tucked away for the beetle head to fold down. The blade sections fold out and fit on the sides to make the legs, and finally the entire arm frame (from the tip of the left hand to the tip of the right) slots in underneath the body for the horn section. While the robot mode was akin to Ace, BC-04 completely trumps in animal mode in terms of size. The kit looks and feels like a big chunky beetle and motion in the horn and legs gives it just much poseability as Ace's Cheetah mode.

Finally there's crane mode, BC-04's vehicle of choice. Again the legs/blades and arms/horn sections need to be removed, with the arms straightened out and the hook section folded and closed to make a proper crane hook. The side panels swing out to make out the rest of vehicle, with the blades clipping onto the sides and the crane arm slotting onto the top. Much like the beetle's bulk, the overall vehicle is longer than you might expect and the crane arm has a full 360 degree range of motion AND is hinged. However this mode shows off the kit's main flaw, which is a lack of rollable wheels. In fact, its wheels are pretty thin and pathetic in order to accommodate all the other modes.

Despite the colour issues, BC-04/Go-Buster Beet is a stellar figure - on par if not better than Go-Buster Ace, who's been the best of the line so far. Ace may have it beat in things like colour and wheels, but Beet is a sturdier, bulkier figure with much more play value. Even if you aren't a huge fan of Go-Busters but enjoy the Sentai minipla, this is definitely one to consider.

SJ-05 Stag

Where Jin Masato goes, his buddyroid and partner Beet J Stag isn't far behind! Since Stag is a Go-Buster himself, rather than co-pilot BC-04 he has his own Buster Machine - SJ-05 Stag! More akin to the GT-02 and RH-03, SJ-05 only has two modes. The animal is again a beetle (this time in Stag variety!) and the vehicle a jet.

Though much smaller beetle than his gold counterpart, Stag still has quite a bit going for it. The legs rotate where they connect to the body, and the pincers are also fully moveable.

The transformation into jet mode is seamless, involving no parts swapping at all. The front legs and pincers fold in, allowing the wings to swing down and then finally the cockpit section comes down from the middle. Jet mode looks great, but there isn't really a lot to say about it since it doesn't have any additional play value. Sure parts move, but none of them move on a jet itself.

SJ-05 is a good kit, but nothing overly special. While RH-03 had a lot more novelty from having unique modes, Stag's novelty comes more from being able to combine with other kits. Thankfully its unlikely you'd be getting this without BC-04 in tow, so the kit is able to steal a bit more spotlight than it probably deserves.

In the next part we'll be looking at the three combinations these two can create: Buster Hercules (BC-04 and SJ-05), Go-Buster Ace Stag Custom (Ace and SJ-05) and the gigantic five-piece Great Go-Buster...