New Year, new mission
It's the New Year's, so what are the plans of our heroes in this time of the year? Aside from cleaning up some Vaglass remnants, Gorisaki setup a date for Ryuji! As for Hiromu, thanks to Nick's panicking, is starting to worry about her sister having a date! Also, episode marks the return of some tiny enemy in a new form.
This episode is the traditional "we did some serious stuff in the previous episode, why not lighten up the mood a bit" kind of episodes. It didn't help that this episode came after the New Year's, the time when most people are hopeful of the New Year. Beginning the year with something serious will ruin the New Year's celebrations and hopes to some people.
Having a couple of Burglars at the start of the episode as the enemies gives us a sign that Vaglass resources are now depleting, it is also a sign that the said faction is now weak and all our heroes need is to clean up the remaining Vaglass. But if there is one thing that bothered me is why the heck a group of Burglars have Escape's tablet? But whatever the reason is, it is quite refreshing to see these guys do something outside from being cannon fodder. Now that the Go-Busters are done cleaning up the cannon fodder, it is time for them to use this time to take their break. Speaking of which, Hiromu meets up with her sister.
Their meeting is quite brief because she is in a hurry to do something really important, much to Nick's disappointment. For some reason, I am starting to notice that Nick is too concerned for Rika every time she appears in an episode. As for Ryuji, Gorisaki forced him to go into a date, to be more specific, a marriage date! Well it is not a surprise that Gorisaki will set this up for him since Ryuji is like married to his job, but at a time like this?! Though Gorisaki's intentions are good and all, but Ryuji is not prepared for this!
Because of the talks about of Ryuji's marriage date, Nick is starting to worry that Rika might be having a marriage date and that they should screen her date! I am not sure if Nick is too concerned about Rika or he likes Rika and doesn't want her to end up with some guy that they don't approve. Ryuji's date is really awkward. He doesn't know what to say to his date and stutters a lot every time he tries to talk to her. In addition, I still find it funny that the girl didn't notice that he is accompanied by a blue gorilla robot and wondered if it has something to do with his job. As for Ryuji's date, she looks average.
While this is all happening, Yoko, J and Jin are watching their date since Yoko is worried about her possible new surrogate sister. It is weird seeing J cross-dress since he is a bulky robot for crying out loud! Speaking of which, Hiromu is also watching his sister's supposed date to some guy! To make it more hilarious, their dates happened in the same restaurant, causing the four Go-Busters to meet at the end! Since we have these four finally meeting up, they agreed that they want Ryuji and Rika's dates to succeed. I just love this kind of concern coming from our heroes. Part of this concern is that Hiromu contacted Morishita just to tell him not to bother Ryuji once there is a Metaroid signal.
Speaking of the said signal, the two Burglars accidentally created a Mochiroid, which is obviously a recycled Eraserroid suit! The signal is detected and the Go-Busters less Ryuji head to the scene! As for Hiromu and Yoko, Ryuji noticed them and thought that they come here for moral support! I just love Ryuji's misconception of the reason on why they are in the restaurant. To help Jin and J, Hiromu makes an excuse that he will go to the bathroom while as for Yoko, she is stuck with Ryuji.
As for Jin and J, they are done with the Burglars and all that is left is to look for the tiny Metaroid. The first thing I notice about this guy aside from the recycled costume is that this is the first time we see a Metaroid, which is created by something organic. Is this a foreshadowing on things to come in the series? Anyway, Yoko got a chance to leave Ryuji and before Yoko can see the Mochiroid, he found a way to hide by clinging on something. And if I will base it on J's reaction, I think I know where this creature clings into.
Hiromu then rushed back to the restaurant and start to play the role of Ryuji's younger brother but because of the screams of the ones inside the restaurant, it is obvious that the Metaroid began its move. Mochiroid's ability to create dough to trap people's feet in the ground is... fine I guess because this problem can easily be resolved by removing a person's shoes. As expected, Hiromu become a victim of this and has no choice but to remove his shoes. He then returns to Ryuji's table only for Ryuji to notice that he is not wearing shoes. Well that is expected, but what Hiromu didn't expect is meeting his sister in the restaurant!
Hiromu immediately leaves her sister to continue for the search of the Metaroid and tell Jin and J that the Megazord battle is making quite some noise. This is when J finally points out the obvious. The Metaroid cling on his back, the same thing that happened to him with the Eraserroid! Speaking of the Megazord fight, since this is the New Year's, the Buster Hercules end up becoming some traditional decorated Japanese sweet! Kuroki sends the Li-Oh to aid them.
Back to Hiromu, his search for the Metaroid continues now being aided with Yoko until finally; they find him in the kitchen. Fighting this tiny Metaroid while transformed in some cramped space is really difficult. If they have more space, like how the EMC had last time when they fought the Eraserroid, they can beat this tiny Metaroid in a jiffy. Thanks to the space, it too only a few minutes for the Metaroid to expand into a larger Mochiroid, making him an easy target in battle... or so I thought.
As for Ryuji, he starts to get worried on what's happening around him and gives Morishita a call. Thankfully, Hiromu tells him that to find a way to get Ryuji out of this mess. Much to my surprise, Morishita did some foreign accent to give Ryuji an impression that a temp is in charge in Morishita's place for some time now... even though Morishita is in the EMC from the very beginning of the episode. Wow, I still can't believe that Ryuji will fall for Morishita's fake foreign accent for some odd reason. Speaking of odd reasons, Rika also noticed that there is something odd with Hiromu.
Before talking about Hiromu and Yoko's fight with the improved Mochiroid, the Buster Hercules is freed from the giant lump of dough thanks to Li-Oh. Since this is the New Year's, the Buster Hercules separates into the Go-Buster Beet and SJ-05 so that the Go-Buster Beet can ride on the Li-Oh! The combination is really interesting as previous toy catalogs never promoted this formation. As for its finisher, it's really cool. Now that we are done with the enemy Megazord, let's go back to the Metaroid.
Much to my surprise, the Metaroid's dough-like body gave the Go-Busters a hard time in defeating it as bladed weapons don't work and energy shots coming from the Ichigan Buster are just absorbed by the Metaroid and bounce it back to the opponent. Thankfully, its own weight caused his end as during his fight with Red Buster Powered Custom caused his downfall. To top it all off, now that Jin and J are done with the Megazord, it's time to use the Lio Blaster to beat the Metaroid once and for all! To sum up what happened, they defeated the enemy Megazord and Metaroid before Ryuji and Rika see it.
Speaking of these two, I just love that unlike most people in the restaurant, they are the ones who noticed that something is odd is happening around them and begins investigating. They found Hiromu's shoes that finally lead them to outside, only to see Hiromu, Nick and Yoko done with the Metaroid. This is when we learned that the important thing that Rika is doing is talking about the terms of contract with her publisher. While as for Ryuji, turns out his date have a boyfriend. Guess it is a good start for Rika with her job as an illustrator and writer and a bad start for Ryuji in terms of love!
