[Androzani84]

Yeah, this is early for me, but since I’m guessing Fish will also be early this week, I’m deciding to get ahead of the game for this instalment of

Androzani’s Tsukai Detour

And this time, we’re covering…



Gekisou Sentai Carranger vs Ohranger

“Running wild among many planets, Bowzock, having destroyed the planet Hazard, set their sights on Earth. Dappu, an alien from Hazard, uses the mysterious Kurumagic power to turn five youths into the Carrangers, proceeding to fight Bowzock so Earth doesn't go the way of Hazard.”

Carranger:

Kyousuke Jinnai/Red Racer: A test driver at Pegasus Garage, normally only assigned to odd jobs. Something of a self-centred jerk who would abandon his own friends to joyride his boss’s classic car. Has a crush on Zonette, but she only loves Red Racer.
Naoki Domon/Blue Racer: a car designer for Pegasus, who is talented enough to be sought out by various car manufacturers. Is also an animal lover who tends to get nervous and shy around girls, including his co-workers.
Minoru Uesugi/Green Racer: a bungling salesman from Osaka, who is a fan of the Henshin Tigers. Used to have a fear of lightning, but this was cured after eating electric eel.
Natsumi Shinohara/ Yellow Racer: A genius mechanic at Pegasus Garage, Natsumi is able to fix any machine in minutes. She uses a legendary wrench given to her by her grandfather, who owned a garage. She also has the ability of dismantling things with uncanny speed and accuracy, as she once did to Naoki's bike when LL Onene had him under control by one of her headbands, by simply lying down on the ground and readying her tools as he cycled past her. Youko thinks of her as tomboyish in swimsuits. She tries to have a big sister-little brother relationship with Naoki, even though the idea does not quite appeal to him. Also, Natsumi fights with Kyousuke a lot because he doesn't take his leadership role seriously.
Youko Yagami/Pink Racer: She is the secretary at Pegasus Garage, calculating the expenses and payroll. Youko is very self-conscious about her weight because she loves to eat sweets, and frequently consults magazine fortune-telling articles to predict her future. She dreams of becoming an idol someday and marrying a rich husband, and has a terrible sense of direction.

Allies:

Dappu: An alien child from the planet Hazard, who holds a grudge against the Bowzock for destroying his planet, killing his mother and separating him from his father. Wields the mysterious Kurumagic power that empowers the Carrangers and serves as their mentor (which is important, since they’re all idiots and would likely fall apart without his guidance).
Signalman: An intergalactic officer, dispatched from the planet Police to deal with the Bowzock problem on Earth. He can sometimes be more of a hindrance than a help to the Carrangers. Because of his intense training in the rules of traffic, he never breaks traffic rules in any case, even if it conflicts with his sense of justice.

Biker Gang Bowzock: a band of thieves and whores who basically blow up planets for sh*ts and giggles. They want to destroy Earth (or as they call it, “Earf”) because they think it will make a nice fireworks show.

Reckless Dash Emperor Exhaus: An intergalactic biker lord, who has manipulated the Bowzock into destroying several planets under the alias of “Astrologer Suzugue” (pronounce it backwards, with the ‘e’ as a separate vowel). He intends Tod story the entire u fierce and build a Highway full of traffic violations.
President Gynamo: The leader of Bowzock who intends to destroy Earth, because his crush Zonette thinks destroying it would be beautiful. Among his powers include the ability to make vehicles sentient, which is one of the main means he is able to allow for the Bowzock to conquer many worlds through its mode of transportation.
Deputy Zelmoda: the second in command of the Bowzock and President Gynamo's friend. His main weapon is a sword made up of playing cards. He controls the Wumper minions for the Bowzock, generally releasing them from a jar whenever entering combat or employing them to drive the various vehicles alongside him when in driving combat with the Carranger.
Inventor Grotch: the technical genius (citation needed) of the Bowzock. He is responsible for many of the weapons used by the Bowzock such as the Fattening Spray and Forgetfulness Water-Gun, as well as for picking the imo-youkan, used to make the Bowzock grow. He was the one who discovered the imo-youkan by accident when making an investigation of Earth food alongside Ichitarou Tenma, the son of the owner of Pegasus Garage, and easily handled the Carranger by himself with little problem. Fortunately, the imo-youkan he ate had expired and wore off before either he or the Carrangers could do harm to each other.
Beauty Zonette: the sole female among Bowzock’s top brass. She often uses her feminine wiles and manipulative skills, and Gynamo's crush on her, for her own selfish pleasures. Zonnette instigated the events of the Carranger series by choosing Earth as the next planet to be destroyed by the Bowzock, wishing to see it explode like "a firework in space". This was shortly after the destruction of Planet Hazard, which had also been destroyed by the Bowzock. It was Zonnette's decision that ultimately lead a Hazardian survivor, Dapp, to find the five who would become the Carranger after sneaking onto their spacecraft. She fell madly in love with Red Racer at first sight after seeing him in action on a mission to Earth, but she thinks of Kyosuke (Red Racer's true form and identity) as an "ordinary, monkey-faced civilian", mostly due to how she believes that the Carrangers to whom they transform are their actual forms. Her true identity is that of Vanity Mirror Fanbelt, the elder of the princesses of Planet Fanbelt and big sister to Radietta.

What do I think of Carranger? Eh, I wasn’t that keen on its comedy most of the time. Most of the laughs I got were from some of the more lewder lines “Don’t play dumb. Licking Zonette’s ass is not important right now”) and premises (“This week, I’d like to suggest a clothing removal plan”). Sadly, they weren’t used much compared to the running gags, which got old quickly . And it doesn’t really help that other than Signalman, none of the characters have any memorable traits and are stuck with actors who don’t have much in the way of comedic chops.

As for the credits, this film, in what seems an unusual move in light of later VS movies seems like a bizarre choice, is handled by Carranger’s head writer Yoshio Urasawa (the guy who wrote that Abaranger episode that got dubbed into an episode of Dino Thunder) and producer Shigenori Taketera (who half seems intent on using this and his next two seasons as an audition tape to say “See, only I can successfully revive Kamen Rider.” Which he did, but that’s besides the point) Our director for this is Tarou Sakamoto, aka the only consistent part of the creative team throughout Kamen Rider Hibiki’s shelf life. With all that said, onto the movie.

We open with the usual opening titles. (Aside from some dialogue over the opening shot of the Carrangers running)

https://open.spotify.com/track/5eZYe...XQ&dl_branch=1

When you drive a car
with love in your heart
You can handle that curve,
this curve, or any curve
Da-da-da di-da-da du-da-da
With a roaring engine
Blow away your tears

Boy, don’t give up
And believe in yourself
You who dream and you who shine
Are the heroes of tomorrow

(Let’s go!)
Carranger! Carranger!
Let’s run towards the future
Step on the accelerator with courage! (Go! Go!)
Carranger! Carranger!
When we surpass our dreams
We will become the lights
Gekisou Sentai Carranger!

We open with our racing crew in the middle of another repair job (For all their faults, they’re at least dedicated to their work), while Kyosuke gets genre savvy with the ominous clouds.



We cut to Bowzock’s lair, the Baribarian, where they aren’t planning to do anything at all, surprisingly enough. But Exhaus pops into view to change that.



(Don’t ask why a biker gang uses cars. The show doesn’t explain it)

To rectify the problem, Exhaus provides them with a gasoline that will make anything filled with it run away from home, telling them to use it on ‘Earf’s’ cars. (Yes, it’s that kind of show).



To carry out the task, they call upon Bowzock’s number one gas station attendant (yeah, a lot of their monsters are number one in fields a biker gang doesn’t really require. It’s probably one of the few running gags that sticks), SS Satanzo.



Dapp receives an alert of a Bowzock appearance, dispatching the Carrangers to investigate. As they head off, Satanzo begins making cars run away from home (and gives them anti-physics powers in the process. Yes, it’s that kind of show).



En route to the scene, the Carrangers disturb Signalman’s peace.



Luckily, they get him to focus on the more important matters.



As Satanzo reveals the whole plan and sends the Wumpers to attack, Signalman gets Red Racer to fly him into the air in the latter’s Pegasus Thunder car, whereupon Signalman calls upon his past experience with runaway kids to make the cars return home with his singing (I have no idea if he’s good or not, so I won’t make an obvious joke. But I will say “Yes, it’s that kind of show”). The plan foiled, the Carrangers return to their lives (Satanzo gets away before they can kill him) and as Satanzo receives punishment from Exhaus, Kyosuke returns the truck they were working on to its owner, walking home through a hot spring, where he sees a strange creature.



After jumping to the logical conclusion that he’s not Bowzock because he isn’t setting the signal off, he sees two people (Goro and Yuji) walking through the woods.



The pair’s scanner alerts them to the creature, who turns out to be Baranoia. As the Machine-Beast flees, Kyosuke gets knocked over by Goro and Yuji as they give chase.



The Baranoia gets chased to a beach, where Goro and Yuji corner him.



But before they can defeat Bara Mobile, Kyosuke barges in, shows ignorance of UAOH and Ohranger(How? They weren’t even a secret within the military) and decides to stand up for Bara Mobile because Goro and Yuji stepped on him, which Bara Mobile uses to get Kyosuke on his side, despite Yuji pointing out that he LOOKS evil. The other Carrangers show up to help out, as do Shouhei and Juri (Momo has been ordered to South America). And then Naoki gets a realisation.





An argument soon breaks out between the two Sentai, resulting in both transforming to fight each other.

Carrangers: Gekisou! Accel Changer!

Ohranger: Choriki Henshin!

It’s at this point that Momo enters the movie, apparently breaking record speeds getting back to Japan.



As she transforms to join the battle, the two do the abridged roll calls.

“Choriki Sentai Ohranger!”

“Fighting for Traffic Safety, Gekisou Sentai Caaaaarranger!”

At Baribarian, the Carranger alarm (that they have because… role reversal gag) sounds, which causes Satanzo to go and respond, in revenge for his earlier failed plot.



But he’s not alone.



Back on Earth, the two Sentai are fighting each other, set to Nijiro Crystal Sky, and Ohranger are winning (way to show off your own heroes, guys), which Bara Mobile uses as a chance to escape.



Ohranger call in the Choriki Mobiles to form Ohranger Robo, to which the Carrangers call in the Ranger Vehicles to form RV Robo.

In the ensuing fight, RV Robo gets whooped just as badly as the ground fight was going. And for added hilarity, they’re on the “bad guys” side of the fight (I guess not even the creative team are rooting for the Carrangers right now)



As the two robots’ swords prove evenly matched, the two Reds leave to go after Bara Mobile. During this fight, Bowzock show up, with Bara-Mobile wondering who’s side they’re on, to which Gynamo says this.



Bara Mobile thus retreats behind Kyosuke, with Bowzock teaming up with Ohranger (this is certainly one of the most unique team ups, I’ll say that). And the chase is on.



After getting a good way away, Kyosuke asks why Ohranger were chasing Bara Mobile.



It turns out that Bara Mobile was working on combining cars with humans to create “car-humans” (or as my subs call them, car-sapiens). Why you ask?





Kyosuke makes a call to ask Dapp what he thinks of this.



He then stops the car, citing the moral lesson here.



(That kindly Russian man living next door to you who looks semi-shady? He’s a spy. Turn him in)

He then has a moment of intelligence when Goro and the Bowzock show up.



As Goro calls Kyosuke out on his lack of responsibility, Gynamo is now confused and asks if Bara Mobile is a bad guy or not?



Exhaus thus decrees that “bad guys should help other bad guys”, giving his commands.





The Bowzock thus begin attacking both Reds, much to Goro’s confusion.

Goro: These guys were helping me a while ago. Just who are they?

Kyosuke: They’re space bikers.

As the other Carrangers show up, Grotch tries to savagely grope the two girls (no, really. I’m only partially exaggerating), before Bara Mobile is forcefully dragged back to Baribarian. As Goro tries to give chase, his Red Jetter flies off on its own.



And singing to it won’t work, since it’s too far away (if only one of them had a flying car).



Satanzo shows up to laugh at their misfortune and try to kill them via arson (no, really). Kyosuke remembers that his car can fly, only to use it to defeat Satanzo to the point he retreats. The other members of Ohranger show up, and after being filled in on Goro’s location, Momo is very quick to point fingers (she’s right, but still).



And she then makes it clear this won’t be something that will be forgotten about by next episode, like that time Kyosuke got fired from Pegasus for insulting the boss to his face.



As Goro has become Zonette’s new eye candy, Gynamo and Bara Mobile shake hands to confirm their alliance. As the Carrangers have once more returned to business as usual, Miura shows up, apparently having done in minutes what it took Bowzock 46 episodes to not bother doing, to offer a plea bargain.









As Kyosuke accepts, the others refuse to help out at all (our heroes, ladies and gentlemen). Until Miura insists that ALL must go through special training.



After a montage where Miura teaches them the meanings of teamwork and peace on Earth the hard way, all are cleared (though ironically, Kyosuke is the last to pass the class) and fly into space in Ohranger Robo.





After they reach Baribarian, they split up to find Goro, who is about to become the first car-human. Though Exhaus is planning to turn the Carrangers into more, so he can force them to work as cheap labour on his highway.



As the Carrangers are captured two-by-two, Kyosuke, the last to be captured, saves the others (which only exacerbates how irrelevant the others are. I’ve mentioned any of their names only once so far), as Gynamo is confident they can deal with one person (mwah mwah). The 6 then make their way back to Earth in Ohranger Robo.



They soon meet up with Yuji, Shouhei, Juri and Momo, who are not only already suited (I guess they couldn’t get their actors to film more scene out of suit?), but have apparently decided to forgive and forget, given how amiable they are to the Carrangers.



But then Bara Mobile and SS Satanzo show up, kicking off the big crossover finale with a double team roll call.

Goro: OhRed!

Shouhei: OhGreen!

Yuji: OhBlue!

Juri: OhYellow!

Momo: OhPink!

All: Choriki Sentai Ohranger!

Kyosuke: Red Racer!

Naoki: Blue Racer!

Minoru: Green Racer!

Natsumi: Yellow Racer!

Yoko: Pink Racer!

All: Fighting for traffic safety, Gekisou Sentai Carranger.

After a short fight with the Wumpers, Bara Mobile is blasted with the Ohre Bazooka, while SS Satanzo is finished with the Giga Booster. But neither are out, as Bara Mobile spins his wheel and SS Satanzo eats Imocho imo-yokan, causing both to grow giant. Ohranger boards Ohranger Robo, while Kyosuke summons Victrailer to deploy the VRV Machines and form VRV Robo (It’s too bad Ohranger aren’t piloting OhBlocker in this fight). But in the midst of battle, a new challenger appears out of freaking nowhere.



A fighter Exhaus is keen to identify.



(Yes, it’s that kind of show)

As Noroshiron Special beats the tar out of the Carrangers and Ohranger, Miura and Dapp meet with an annoyed Signalman.



The galactic officer summons his car Sirender, transforming it into its robot mode to join the fight. Sirender defeats Noroshiron Special with the Siren Vulcan, Ohranger Robo defeats Bara Mobile with the Crown Final Crash and VRV Robo uses Victrailer’s cannons to destroy SS Satanzo with the Victory Twiser, ending the battle in victory for our heroes.



The movie ends with the two teams, their mentors and Signalman having fun at the beach, set to Carranger’s ED. (Get used to this kind of ending, because the next few will replicate it)

The big boss puts on a scary look
And yells 'Keep it up, keep going'
We're living beings too
If we don't rest, we'll be all worn out

Let's have fun dancing samba
When battle's over, it's paradise
We dance our miseries from defeat away with the samba
And we forget them right then and there wahhahha

Two pigeons on a power line, make that three, samba
When there is love, this world will be a paradise
Good job guys, samba
Next time, victory will surely be ours
Don't kick so hard, okay?
Sometimes you ought to lose too, okay?

Final thoughts: So this is the first crossover produced with the intent of being a crossover. It’s nothing particularly great, with SS Satanzo and Noroshiron Special in particular feeling tacked on. But I do find it hilarious that a movie made by the Carranger crew made Ohranger look better, given that the Carrangers not only don’t get much time to shine other than Kyosuke, but they’re pretty much the real bad guys here, let’s not kid ourselves. And I do like that Bara Mobile could legitimately fit into both series and not feel out of place in either.

And I’ll close this review by saying “Yes, it IS that kind of show”.

The challenge: Which villain group do you think would cross over with the hero from a different show?