Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters

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Concurrent airing: Hikounin Sentai AkibaRanger

特命戦隊ゴーバスターズ Special Missions Sentai Go-Busters

The 36th Super Sentai series that started February 26th, 2012. Catchphrases are "Busters, ready? Go!" and "It's Time For Buster!"

Aired from: Feb 26, 2012 to ?? (?? total episodes)

Plot

Takes place in N.C. 2012, where NC probably stands for New Century. The Japanese term for NC is Shin-seireki 新西暦 which approximately means New/Neo AD. On Christmas 1999, a virus made the main computer of the Transport Research Center to become sentient. Calling itself Messiah, it plotted to take over the world, but was foiled when the whole center was teleported into Subdimension. Three children were the only survivors of the event, modified with a vaccine to combat the computer virus. Their modifications allow them to withstand teleportation, gives them special powers, but also gave them weak points.

They were enlisted to become the Go-Busters by the Special Missions Department of the Energy Management Center. (Energy Kanri Kyoku エネルギー管理局) They fight an organization called the Vaglass, with Messiah at the helm in Subdimension. Most of the Vaglass schemes are devised by a mysterious figure assisting Messiah named Enter.

The series focuses on a resource called Enetron, which is used as an energy source for both domestic use, and for power of the series mecha (Megazords) by the Energy Management Center (E.M.C.) The Vaglass are constantly going after Enetron as well as technological detail of the E.M.C.

Characters

Note, all the Japanese names use kanji for the family name, but use simplistic katakana for the given name. See the trivia section for more detail.

Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters

The agents in the field for the Special Missions Department of the E.M.C. Since the show's theme is ostensibly spies, they wear Men in Black style glasses when in the field, their logo is based on sunglasses, and the final move of their transformation is to attach the visors from their wrist device to their helmet. This needs to be done any time they take off their helmets.

Normally, they only refer to themselves as Go-Busters. They never use their full title Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters. In the show, the full phrase is only mentioned once by Usada in the first episode.

• Red Buster / Sakurada Hiromu - Suzuki Katsuhiro
• Blue Buster / Iwasaki Ryuuji - Baba Ryouma
• Yellow Buster / Usami Youko - Komiya Arisa
• Beet Buster / Jin Masato - Matsumoto Hiroya
• Stag Buster / Beet J Stag - Suit actor Satou Daisuke

Buddyroids バディロイド

• Chida Nick - Voice actor: Fujiwara Keiji
• Gorisaki Banana - Voice actor: Genda Tesshou
• Usada Lettuce - Voice actor: Suzuki Tatsuhisa
• Beet J Stag - Voice actor: Nakamura Yuuichi

Special Missions Department

• Commander Kuroki Takeshi - Sakaki Hideo
• Operator Morishita Tooru - Takahashi Naoto
• Operator Nakamura Miho - Nishihara Fuuka

Other characters

• Sakurada Yousuke 桜田ヨウスケ - Hiromu and Rika's dad.
• Sakurada Michiko桜田ミチコ - Hiromu and Rika's mom.
• Youko's mom.

The Vaglass ヴァグラス

While Vaglass is the official spelling, this is probably a portmanteau of Bug and Virus for Bugrus/Vaglass. This is supported by the grunts being called Buglars and the computer motif. The one thing that doesn't work is that while B/V are normally interchangeable in Japanese, the katakana combination only tends to be used to form the Va sound. Perhaps the B was changed to a V arbitrarily just to make it look more like a name and less like a portmanteau.

There's speculation that it may actually be a variation on Vagrants.

Enter - Jinnai Syo

List of French words used by Enter

Escape - Misaki Ayame

Messiah - Voiced by Sasaki Seiji

Buglars バクラー

The expendable grunts. Enter creates them by swiping his card on his machine.

Metaroids メタロイド

The monster of the week. Created by Enter placing a chip on an object then swiping a card. The Metaroid created gains the property of the object Enter used, plus it becomes a teleportation marker for the Megazord.

The name comes from Meta Virus and and(roid). Both of which fit into the theme of the hacking and machine themes of the show. For an alternate theory, see below.

Alternate Theory: As seen on episode 21, 12:58 minutes in (skipping ads), it is written in English as Metaloid (all caps) on the tracker screen, the name relates to Metalloids, elements of the Periodic Table that have semiconductor/semimetal properties (used for several parts of machines, most notably processors and memory chips),which fit the energy and machine themes of the show. Curiously, all of the five substances accepted as metalloids can have a glass form (four of them readily forming glass while the fifth tends to turn crystal), thus relating to the name Vaglass.

Giant Robo Megazords 巨大ロボメガゾード

Currently comes in three types: Alpha (Speed type), Beta (Power type), Gamma (Reinforced battle type) which usually are seen having the same appearance traits of the Metaroid that was created beforehand as well as the Metaroid's attributes. The Command Center consistently refer to them as enemy Megazords.

The creators 創造する者たち

Apparently the ones who create the Megazords. Enter has communicated to them directly by text before on his laptop.

Buster Machines

CB-01 Cheetah

Probably stands for Cheetah Bike, since Nick turns into a bike. The actual mecha is a car that transforms into a cheetah in animal mode. Interestingly, the Ace form is considered a Megazord, which means that a Megazord is a term that means humanoid robot, similar to how the Power Rangers Megazords are. 02 and 03 are not considered Megazords in either form.

GT-02 Gorilla

From truck to gorilla.

RH-03 Rabbit

From helicopter mode to rabbit mode.

BC-04 Beetle From crane to kabuto beetle.

SJ-05 Stag Beetle From jet to stag beetle mode.

Megazords

Go-Buster Ace

CB-01's third mode. Can be equipped with Buster Blades which can be replaced with teleportation.

GoBuster-Oh

Ace is temporarily invincible during the Combine Operation. Its finisher move is called the Dimension Crash.

Go-Buster Beet

BC-04's third mode. Its finisher is Beet Catapult Attack, which launches SJ-05 at its enemy using the crane arm segment as tracks.

Buster Hercules

Combination of Go-Buster Beet and SJ-05. It has massive amounts of firepower on it. Its finisher is Hercules Crisis.

Great Go-Buster

It's the combination of 5 Buster Machines and able to operate in the subdimension normally but Hiromu feels the burden of it. Its finisher is Demolition Thrust.

Chronology

Episode	Title	Air date	Episode writer	Director
Go-Busters Mission 01	Tokumei Sentai, Assemble! 特命戦隊、集結せよ!	Feb. 26, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Shibasaki Takayuki
Go-Busters Mission 02	Promise From 13 Years Ago 13年前の約束	March 4, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Shibasaki Takayuki
Go-Busters Mission 03	GT-02 Animal, Deploy! GT-02アニマル、出撃!	March 11, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Shibasaki Takayuki
Go-Busters Mission 04	Specials Go-Busters Missions and Determination 特命と決意	March 18, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Nakazawa Shoujirou
Go-Busters Mission 05	Overheated and Out of Control! キケンな熱暴走!	March 25, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Nakazawa Shoujirou
Go-Busters Mission 06	Gattai! GoBuster-Oh 合体!ゴーバスターオー	April 1, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Watanabe Katsuya
Go-Busters Mission 07	Ace Can't Be Fixed? エース整備不良?	April 8, 2012	Mouri Nobuhiro	Watanabe Katsuya
Go-Busters Mission 08	Protect the Machine's Design! マシン設計図を守れ!	April 15, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Shibasaki Takayuki
Kamen Rider x Super Sentai the Movie	Super Hero Taisen スーパーヒーロー大戦	April 21, 2012	Yonemura Shouji	Kaneda Osamu
Go-Busters Mission 09	Usada Recovery Operation! ウサダ奪還作戦!	April 22, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Shibasaki Takayuki
Go-Busters Mission 10	Reason for Fighting 戦う理由	April 29, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Takemoto Noboru
Go-Busters Mission 11	The Weak Point is being Targeted ねらわれたウイークポイント	May 6, 2012	Shimoyama Kento	Takemoto Noboru
Go-Busters Mission 12	Do you like to dress up? 変装はお好き？	May 13, 2012	Mouri Nobuhiro	Katou Hiroyuki
Go-Busters Mission 13	A Surprising Day Off サプライズな休日	May 20, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Nakazawa Shoujirou
Go-Busters Mission 14	Ça va? Rescue Operation サバ？救出作戦	May 27, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Nakazawa Shoujirou
Go-Busters Mission 15	The Gold Warrior and His Silver Buddy 金の戦士と銀のバディ	June 3, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Kaneda Osamu
Go-Busters Mission 16	The Man From the Subdimension 亜空間から来た男	June 10, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Kaneda Osamu
Go-Busters Mission 17	And the Name is Go-Buster Beet! その名はゴーバスタービート!	June 17, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Takemoto Noboru
Go-Busters Mission 18	Joint Operation 3000 Meters Underground 地底3000メートルの共同作業	June 24, 2012	Mouri Nobuhiro	Takemoto Noboru
Go-Busters Mission 19	My Gestalt! Buster Hercules 俺の合体！バスターヘラクレス	July 1, 2012	Shimoyama Kento	Maihara Kenzo
Go-Busters Mission 20	Five Parts Combine! Great Go-Buster! 5体結集！グレートゴーバスター！	July 8, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Maihara Kenzo
Go-Busters Mission 21	Farewell, Blue Buster さらば ブルーバスター	July 15, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Watanabe Katsuya
Go-Busters Mission 22	The Lovely Avatar Escape 美しきアバター　エスケイプ	July 22, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Watanabe Katsuya
Go-Busters Mission 23	The One To Carry On the Spirit 意志を継ぐ者	July 29, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Katou Hiroyuki
Go-Busters the Movie	Protect the Tokyo Enetower	August 4, 2012	Kobayashi Yasuko	Shibasaki Takayuki
Go-Busters Mission 24		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 25		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 26		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 27		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 28		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 29		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 30		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 31		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 32		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 33		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 34		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 35		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 36		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 37		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 38		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 39		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 40		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 41		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 42		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 43		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 44		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 45		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 46		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 47		, 2012
Go-Busters Mission 48		Extrapolated
Go-Busters Mission 49		Extrapolated
Go-Busters Mission 50		Extrapolated

Music

Opening Theme

"Busters Ready Go!" (バスターズ レディーゴー!)

Artist: Hideyuki Takahashi (Project.R)

Ending Themes

"Kizuna ~ Go-Busters!" / "Bonds ~ Go-Busters~" (キズナ～ゴーバスターズ!)

Artist: Nazo no Shin Unit Starmen (謎の新ユニットSTA☆MEN, The Mysterious New Unit Starmen)

"One Wish, One Day"

Artists: Suzuki Katsuhiro & Fujiwara Keiji

Trivia

• During the opening sequence, the seemingly random gibberish text on screen is from the English wikipedia article for the Super Sentai series.
• Forgoes the practical effect of sparks upon impact for some action scenes. A lot of the time, the sparks are added afterwards with CGI (Some of the sparks that come out are numbers). This creates awkward moments where sometimes enemies will get slashed, but no sparks will come out (One obvious example of this is in the opening).
• The ending theme "One Wish, One Day" is also Hiromu and Nick's Image Song.
• The Morphin tends to be without an apostrophe, which is how it's done in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers spelling. However, in the Morphin Blaster commercial, the words in English say Let's Morphin' with an apostrophe, in contrast to the toy logo in the same commercial which doesn't.
• Unlike other Sentai, the Go-Busters don't announce themselves as Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters in the roll call. Instead, they do their "Busters, ready? Go!" bit.
  • In fact, within the show, the phrase Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters occurs only once so far. In episode one, about 11:55 in, Usada describes the team as Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters.
• The naming in Go-Busters is unusual too. All the family names are written in kanji, but all the given names are written in katakana, the alphabet for foreign names. While this doesn't necessarily mean anything, it does make it seem as if this reality is a bit different from the current reality (since most Japanese people write their names with kanji and hiragana, not katakana). This fits since they're in N.C. 2012 while we're in AD 2012. **This may also make the show seem more western, but this conclusion is a bit of a stretch. In most likelihood, this was a move to make it easier for the writers so they don't have to come up with kanji for names, and it's easier for the kids who watch who may not know many kanji.
  • This is rather ironic since the last Sentai to really use a lot of kanji in names was Shinkenger, a series designed to make kanji appeal to young viewers. However, (perhaps as an unintentional blowback from that) all the character names since then (with the exception of Gai from Gokaiger) have been written in simplistic katakana. The Goseigers and Gokaigers aren't native Japanese, and the Go-Busters are from a slightly different dimension. This probably makes it easier for kids to remember.

References to Power Rangers

Go-Busters contains several references to Power Rangers, which is the American remake of Super Sentai . Usually these references refer to 'firsts' in Sentai history of plot devices already in place in Power Rangers.

• The mecha are called MegaZords. This is for both the heroes and villains. The difference is that individual mecha are also called MegaZords, unlike in Power Rangers where the name refers to a "giant robo", usually a combiner. 'Zord' is used as a suffix for Metaroids' MegaZords, such as ShovelRoid's ShovelZord.
• The term "Zord", which originated in Power Rangers, was also used. The last time this happened in Super Sentai was for the G-Zord in Mirai Sentai Timeranger.
• The Morphin Brace shouts "It's Morphin' Time!" when activated, which was used throughout Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Power Rangers Zeo, the first two Power Rangers adaptations of Super Sentai shows.
• Also the Morphin Brace has a sunglasses theme similar to Power Rangers: Jungle Fury, except the Go-Busters don't actually put them on like the Jungle Fury rangers but the sunglasses form the Visor when the Go-busters shout "Let's Morphin"
• The main villain, Messiah, is very similar to Power Rangers: R.P.M.'s Venjix as they were both computer viruses, not to mention very impatient and angry. Messiah is also a floating head from a different dimension, just like Zordon.

External Links

Asahi site

Movie site