Silver Buster Book 1 Review

Watch Analysis

I want to talk about Silver Buster, written by Jordan Allen, who also goes by @MightySkrow.

With the crowdfunding campaign for Silver Buster Volume 2 coming up, and with Volume 3 already in progress, this felt like the right time to finally sit down and talk about the book. I finished it about a week ago, saw Jordan mention it again online, and realized this was a good moment to step back and assess what he is building here.

At its core, Silver Buster is a tokusatsu novel, a henshin hero story, and it delivers exactly that. If you like Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and that whole ecosystem of transformation heroes, this book is very much operating in that space. It is fast, pulpy, light novel adjacent, and unashamed of what it is. Importantly, it does not try to inflate itself into a prestige epic. That restraint is a virtue.

A Grounded, Small Scale Approach

One of the things I appreciated most is how grounded the story feels. Even though the book establishes that other superheroes exist elsewhere in the world, the narrative stays focused on Jeff and the town of Belmont. The events unfold over a relatively short span of time, which helps keep the stakes personal rather than intergalactic.

This is not a story about saving the universe. It is about protecting a place, surviving escalating threats, and dealing with the consequences of power arriving suddenly and imperfectly. The result is a tone that feels human without slipping into slice of life padding. The story keeps moving, but you still get time with the person under the suit.

Jeff Works Because He Is Decent First

Jeff is an effective protagonist because he is decent before he is powerful. His first instinct in a crisis is to run toward danger, even when he does not fully understand what he is facing. When he makes mistakes, and he does, they cost him something.

His bond with Slick, the alien Metatite symbiote, is where the story really clicks. This is a host and entity dynamic that understands why the trope works. Slick is not just equipment. He is not just a serial number. Jeff’s refusal to refer to him as a designation, choosing to name him instead, immediately establishes the emotional core of the story.

That naming moment hits a classic tokusatsu nerve. Identity matters. Relationship matters. Utility alone is not enough.

Power, Progression, and Consequence

The power system in Silver Buster is deliberately messy at first, and that is a strength. Jeff does not instantly receive a fully realized suit or perfectly controlled abilities. Early transformations are incomplete and awkward. The armor develops in stages. New abilities emerge gradually.

This progression fits both the story’s timeline and its tone. The book feels like the opening arc of a season rather than a full heroic saga. Training matters. Preparation matters. Failure hurts.

Jeff gets injured. He struggles. He has to heal. Even with Slick’s assistance, there are limits, and those limits create tension. The mercenary antagonists escalate their tactics to draw him out, and every confrontation pushes Jeff to adapt or risk losing everything, including his life.

Tokusatsu DNA Without Imitation

You can feel the lineage here without the book being traceable to a single franchise. There is Ultraman in the host dynamic, Kamen Rider in the lone hero posture, and Super Sentai in the transformation language and attack callouts. Jeff names his form. He shouts techniques. He adopts the stance of a wandering warrior learning what it means to carry responsibility.

It works because the book is not copying aesthetics. It is using shared grammar.

Villains, Cast, and Season One Energy

The antagonists are effective in a very tokusatsu way. The Gearborg enemies blend organic and mechanical elements in a way that is unsettling without being gratuitous. The mercenary leadership has a clear presence, and the escalation of threat feels purposeful rather than random.

The supporting cast reinforces the sense that this is the beginning of something longer. Friends, rivals, family members are sketched in with enough clarity to matter without being overdeveloped. This feels like the starting lineup of a series, not a complete ensemble yet, and that is appropriate.

Where the Book Loses Me a Bit

That said, there are elements that did not fully work for me.

The alien warrior twins introduce a tonal dissonance I could not ignore. Their design and presentation lean into genre indulgence, alluring villainesses meant to distract and provoke, and that clashes with the otherwise grounded, earnest tone of the book.

I do not object to female villains or powerful women in tokusatsu stories. I object to aesthetic choices that feel indulgent rather than necessary. There is a difference between beauty and deliberate sexualization, and here that line felt crossed in a way that pulled me out of the story.

What made this more noticeable is that the book also includes brief, sincere references to God and destiny. Those moments suggest a moral framework that does not sit comfortably alongside the indulgent presentation of the twins. I do not think this was malicious or cynical, but the dissonance is real.

This does not ruin the book. It does, however, clarify that Silver Buster is not an all ages story. It is better categorized as teen or adult tokusatsu fiction, and readers should approach it with that understanding.

Final Verdict

Despite those caveats, I genuinely enjoyed my time with Silver Buster. It knows what it is, commits to its genre, and delivers a solid season one foundation with room to grow. I am interested in where Volume 2 goes, and I plan to support the crowdfunding campaign when it launches.

If you enjoy tokusatsu, transformation heroes, and stories about learning to carry power responsibly, this book is worth your time. And if you want to help shape where the series goes next, backing the campaign is an easy way to do that.

I will be watching where this one goes.

Drop a comment below or tag me @MJ_Scribe on Twitter.

Let’s have some fun talking about this.

If you enjoy thoughtful stories for kids and families, check out my book Mockwing Mayhem. It is a heartfelt adventure about magical bugs battling monsters and protecting children.

You can find more of my reviews, reflections, and stories with spine at mjmunoz.com, and join the mailing list there for behind the scenes updates and new releases.