Year in Review: Failure of Go-Busters?

(The following is just my theory--not fact to why the series did not perform well with Japanese kids, it has nothing to do with the worth of the series at all. I liked the series, it was a solid show.)

Word is that Bandai president says Go-Busters had low ratings and low toy sales. Initally they thought it was doing great, rumor is probably because of the Ranger Keys sales. Also supposedly they blame the Go-Busters storyline for being too 'Dark.' I personally don't think it was so dark. I think the series just didn't have a lot to go on. I do like Sentai series that concentrate on story, but I just couldn't get into Go-Busters. I don't hate it, I do like it, it just never 'sucked' me in. Go-Busters also served many unconviental concepts such as the monsters not growing but having seperate giant robots fighting the team, no stock footage of transformation, no auxilary robos like most years and also no Sixth member.

The new sentai Kyoryuger has one female and not yellow. I understand the thinking behind one female and 4 males. Because like it or not, it is a boy franchise. And boy toys sell more. And lately, Bandai has only had limited figures of the females so instead of having 3 boy toys to sell, they can sell 4. Most likely they got inspired by Go-Busters' 4 male lineup and decided to do the same with Kyoryuger. I don't see Go-Busters as a failure. But here are some points to review...

No Auxiliary Robos
Most fans would bemoan the use of too many Auxiliary robos or weapons to 'catch them all' (ala Gaoranger), but it has now become a Sentai stable. Not that I don't like the robos of Go-Busters. I did like that they were triple changers: went from animal to vehicle to robo. There was the frog robo from the movie but it wasn't the mass quantity like in Abaranger, Boukenger, Gekiranger, Go-Onger, Goseiger, and Gokaiger. Dekaranger and Magiranger sort of took a break on this concept but Dekaranger had multiple robos and Magiranger had different miscellany. Go-Busters only had one extra mech.


No Collectible Items
 In past years like Go-Onger, Shinkenger, Goseiger and Gokaiger, the teams had a item to collect like the Engine Souls, Hiden Disks, cards and Ranger Keys. Go-Busters did not have this. Mostly because Bandai still had the Ranger Key line going on and released multiple versions of the Go-Busters as keys and continued the remainder of Ranger Keys that were missing. The Ranger Keys were so popular with Gokaiger, they decided to conclude it in Go-Busters. I think the lack of both extra robos and of these items lead to low sales. Could the Ranger Keys have hurt Go-Busters?

Long drawn out Storyline
I might not agree but some might see the downer in the show itself was that since there were no collectible items or auxilary robos, the show didn't have much new to introduce so it was slow moving. Maybe kids do need something new to increase viewership. If they had nothing new to obtain, it just gets boring. I was hoping this was not the case but probably now Toei and Bandai believes that to be the case. Granted that back in the day (1975-2000), there wasn't much of these extra things and the storylines did fine. But maybe since kids are so accostumed to it now, it is hard for them to break free.

Dark, not Happy
I don't think Go-Busters was dark. It indeed was serious and wasn't as lighthearted as Go-Onger or goofy as Carranger but it was just as serious as let's say Boukenger or Shinkenger. But this 'last season was dark, this season will be more light-hearted and fun' sounds a lot like what Saban Brands said when they brought along Samurai, saying Jungle Fury and RPM were too dismal. My suggestion to Toei is that change is good but don't change all at once, if you remove something, then don't remove more elements, keep it balanced. Go-Busters having character development and story is great and should continue for the rest of Sentai, but if you want toys to sell, then sell toys. I see Go-Busters as an empty slate, I am sure that Saban and Bandai will add more gadgets and even another Ranger when it comes stateside around 2015.

Color Combo
When I spoke to one of the Bandai artists (Tsuyoshi Nonaka) at PMC, he said that the color combo of Red-Blue-Yellow-Silver-Gold did great. This was a new because usually Gold and Silver are reserved for the sixth and/or seventh and never for fourth and fifth. They are the first team to have Gold and Silver in the core 5. And that they wouldn't do it a lot because it wouldn't have the same impact. This is probably why Kyoryuger's color scheme is more traditional but also different since it is Red, Black, Green, Blue and Pink. Usually when a team has Black and Green (Liveman and Go-Onger) in the core 5, there is no Pink. But Zyuranger did ultimately have Green, Black and Pink. Also Kyoryuger is the first series since Timeranger to have a single female in pink. Gaoranger, Hurricanger, Abaranger, Gekiranger and Go-Busters all ultimately had one female but none were pink. Also Go-Busters was the first to use leather but Kyoryuger has gone back to Spandex.

 It seems after reviewing all the color combos and designs they did in the past with Gokaiger, Toei wants to try different things now. But it is common after an anniversary season like with Gaoranger (2001), the next two seasons of Hurricanger and Abaranger were experimental. Dekaranger and Magiranger were more traditional. Boukenger (2006) was the anniversary and more traditional and then Gekiranger and Go-Onger were experimental. Shinkenger and Goseiger were more traiditional color combos. Gokaiger (2011) was the anniversary and now Go-Busters and Kyoryuger are more experimental, maybe more radically so than before. I think Gekiranger was pretty radical with Purple and White, but Go-Busters threw us with a curveball with having Gold and Silver as 4th and 5th and now no Yellow with Kyoryuger. What is also curious is that Kakuranger (1994) had 5 members, GoGoV (1999) had 5 members, Abaranger (2003) had 5 members, Gekiranger (2007) had 5 and now Go-Busters (2012) have 5. Each around 4 to 5 years apart.

Update: Judd Lynn of Power Rangers Dino Charge at SDCC 2015 says Saban ultimately decided to skip Go-Busters because they wanted to do Kyoryuger and cash in the Dino theme for Jurassic World, Jurassic Park's anniversary and Mighty Morphin. Because of the year gap and 2-year themes, they were able to pick between Go-Busters and Kyoryuger.