In the jungle, the mighty jungle the Li-Oh sleeps tonight~! Sorry, can't help it.
After an attack from a mysterious lion robot, the Go-Busters wondered who created it that is until Jin and Commander Kuroki made a conclusion that only the eccentric Professor Saburo Hazuki is responsible. After their search and learned that Enter also wants it, we meet Hazuki's daughter, Mika who claims that the lion robot called Tategami Li-Oh was made to defeat the Go-Busters! Can our heroes tame this lion robot?
This episode showed us a different side of Jin, a side that we didn't expect him to be at in which he kinda started to act less of good ol' Masato Jin and more like good ol' Tsubasa Ozu as he tried to impress the eccentric Saburo Hazuki back when he was still under his mentorship. Much to my surprise, he kinda acted like one of those guys who seek perfection in their works but he can't seek it since his mentor wants something that can light up someone's heart and give someone this BOOM once you see it. This caused me to conclude that he is one of the reasons why Jin stopped seeking for perfection and started to admire flaws.
Professor Saburo Hazuki is probably, one of the best mentors (?) I saw in the Super Sentai franchise, granted he only appeared for a single episode but he has this lasting impact as a character that it is hard not to ignore the guy. For starters, his blueprints for the Buddyzord later given the name Tategami Li-Oh looks a bit weird with some of the characters of the English alphabet inverted for some reason caused me to believe that his level of eccentricity was something an average human being can't handle! What's more, the higher ups of the Energy Management Center need to supervise him is one good reason not to ignore the guy and it didn't help that at one point, they had no choice but to cut ties with Professor Hazuki!
His daughter, Mika is what you can say, someone who doesn't trust our heroes due to her father's history with the EMC and what happened after his career that caused him to pursue his research independently. Because of it, she doesn't want to just give Li-Oh to the Go-Busters that lead us to the battle between Li-Oh and the Ace. For starters, I can't help but notice how bad the CGI looked like for the Li-Oh and the Ace fights. It's so horrible that the Go-Buster Ace's proportions looked so bad that it felt like the CGI that was used for Gaoranger was not upgraded for over a decade. Heck, the CGI for Gaoranger is more impressive compared to what we saw in this episode!
Because the Ace can't handle the Li-Oh, Hiromu concluded that having this Buddyzord in their arsenal can increase their chances to defeat Vaglass once and for all. As for Ryuji and Jin, they decided to check Professor Hazuki's blueprints to get some clues on how they can tame the Tategami Li-Oh. The next day, the Ace faces the Li-Oh one more time. Unlike before that the Ace first faced the Li-Oh in Animal Mode, it just went with its default Megazord mode and just saw some good fight scenes involving the mix between live-action and CGI. It went a bit downhill after the Ace tried to dock itself on the Li-Oh and suffered the same quality it had earlier in the episode.
While this is all happening, Yellow Buster and Stag Buster are busy fighting Enter and his troops. Yellow and Stag's fight with Enter is really amazing, aside that they don't use any stock footage with the Powered Custom transformation, we saw the true power of the Powered Custom form as it can go on par with Enter. Heck, Yellow Buster's Rabbit Kick even though it was blocked by Enter is so strong that Enter needs to retreat aside that he is cornered by two Go-Busters!
As for Ryuji and Jin, they are with Mika as they witness how the Go-Buster Ace was planned to be related with the Tategami Li-Oh. It's one of those scenes that really get you in a different manner, especially when Jin told Mika that he is a man who can't get the approval he wants coming from his father. Also, how Ryuji interprets the reason why her father was kicked out by the EMC is something that makes sense. Maybe the reason why the EMC kicked Hazuki out is for him to better pursue his passion with his research, to give him a better motivation in making the Tategami Li-Oh that is fit with his ideals... and it did.
After the Ace docked to the Tategami Li-Oh, it activated its transformation sequence and it showed of his Megazord mode. The fight between the Ace and the Li-Oh is really great. What made it a bit impressive is that it went a bit over the top just for a few seconds with the manga effects, something this series is not expected to do since from day 1, they made a point that the series is grounded in reality. The scene reminded me a bit of those classic Super Robot anime TV shows I grew up watching and it is not a bad thing.
What made the fight a tad more impressive is that it went with the classic robot fist fight, something I really missed in these shows since Gekiranger ended. To be honest, most of the robot fights after Gekiranger relied more on weapons and laser beams and this episode proved that they can still do great robot fist fights. Much to my surprise, even though the Ace has at least 10-20% of Enetron left, it defeated the Tategami Li-Oh. Because of this rather impossible scene, I suddenly remembered those Super Robot anime tropes; to be more specific, the trope that states that a human's will to fight is greater than any other new technology or sentient machine.
After the Tategami Li-Oh's defeat, it recognized Ace's strength and allowed Hiromu to pilot it during the time Enter's Epsilon made a surprise attack! Much to my surprise, the Tategami Li-Oh transformed into its Vehicle Mode that has two mounted laser beams attached in its mouth. By the looks of it since we saw its three main modes, the Megazord, Animal and Vehicle Modes, it seems that Bandai is really banking on its triple transformation capability... and it having a control module voiced by good ol' Ichirou Mizuki who plays Saburo Hazuki in this episode.
Speaking of the control module that kinda looks like an attaché case, I seriously love it. Aside from good ol' Ichirou Mizuki's level of ham in speaking the commands of the control module, it has those cool lights, sound and hologram things with the hologram thing not part of the actual toy. Another thing I noticed is that the control module is painted red, a complete opposite of the Tategami Li-Oh's main color, which is blue and yellow. This causes me to easily conclude that it is made to be a replacement of the Ace and is meant to be piloted by Red Buster.
Tategami Li-Oh's giant robot battle against the Epsilon felt a bit boring for some reason since it feels like the Epsilon can't fight back. Even if that is the case, the fight between the two is kinda fun to watch. The finisher called the Li-Oh Impact is just a double light saber finishing move that finished Epsilon with ease and since Enter is an avatar, he can just escape before the explosions begin. The episode ends with Red Buster carrying the attaché case module and revealed a special hologram intended for Mika since it contained a message coming from her father that they can rely the Li-Oh to the Go-Busters. Again, the special Ichirou Mizuki hologram is not available in the actual toy, much to my and everyone's disappointment.
