[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurona

Nothing missed!

I wouldn't ~quite~ say that, myself. There were the two Kira Talk specials with all the Machines rambling on over old clips that were more amusing than they had any right to be, but beyond that, yeah, unless you're just desperate to see a few deleted scenes from the first two episodes, or a much less amusing clip show with the bad guys, it's not exactly anything you have to worry about skipping over.

[wentwood]

Update

Completed

Geki - Go Busters

Watching the final 9 this week from a Brazil release.

[Fish Sandwich]

~Fish's Zenkai Tour!~

Episode 13 – Kousoku Sentai Turboranger



Turboranger is far from a show I know a ton about. It's another one with a theme song that totally slaps; the protagonists are all in high school; they drive sweet giant cars around. The bare essential knowledge you need, really. While it's something that plants seeds for later Sentai concepts that are way up my alley, Turboranger itself seems to be a show that isn't regularly touted as an exemplar of the franchise. I've never taken that as a bad sign, because we're talking about what came directly after Liveman, so of course it gets overshadowed, but still, the end result is a series I've only ever been moderately interested in.

Naturally, I went and learned a bit more about it in the process of making this post, and there were certainly some fun pieces of trivia to be found. The way these shows reflect and react to the culture of the times is often quite fascinating, so it was really cute to read that the then-fresh automobile theme was simply trying to ride the wave of massive success Tamiya's Mini 4WD kits were enjoying in the late 80's – a wave they rode all the way to the bank when the giant robot this year ended up selling like hotcakes, exactly as hoped.

I also learned just how weird that first episode really is. It's not exactly strange to want to do a big celebratory special to commemorate an anniversary. The thing is though, they wanted to do it so badly, they didn't care that it was a year late. The original intent was to do something like this between Maskman and Liveman, but that got nixed when Maskman's filming fell behind schedule, so we're celebrating 11 teams since Battle Fever J instead of that perfect, round 10. (This was back when Battle Fever J was considered the starting point for the franchise, which makes it all the more awkward that this is the first team with "ranger" in the name since the Gorangers themselves.)

Again, it's all a bit odd, but as a clip show, it's entirely harmless. There's a certain impact to seeing all these different groups standing together, a sort of forerunner to greater crossovers to come... especially since everyone seemingly showed up this time just so the Turborangers could give their villains a lecture about how cool they are. It's supposed to convince them to back off, but honestly, if I were one of the Bouma, I'd be so humiliated by getting dragged into a history lesson by my foes that I'd probably only be that much more motivated to conquer the planet. Imagine 53 dudes ganging up on you in a rock quarry only for 48 of them to decide to sit the fight out. It's a little patronizing!

Of course, that's not the real first episode, is it? While I'm going over it here because it's counted as such for simplicity's sake, the proper premiere is the second episode, and thanks to that, Turboranger has the unique honor of getting two episodes covered here. But really, this is the one that counts for something. And it's overall... pretty solid, to be sure. While I'm still deeply impressed by Hirohisa Soda's ability to write all these debuts in unique ways, I have to admit that Turboranger's particular take wasn't the most excited I've been so far.

I suppose the big thing to mention about the overall style is the deliberate gap between that visual concept of big fast road vehicles and the actual theming of the story, which has a plot revolving around ancient monsters causing trouble after being freed from their long-held magical seals. Because the fairies maintaining them can't keep it up any longer. ...Because most of them died from pollution.

The seeming disconnect here doesn't actually bother me at all. On the contrary, the mishmash of elements is so extreme it's clearly a conscious decision, and I can dig that. As far as the premiere is concerned, there's even a cute thing going on where our youthful protagonists are recruited because they're the only ones who can hear the pleas of the last surviving fairy – that classic sort of scenario of the kids who still believe in magic – except then the fairy in question was also already working with a scientist who came up with the idea for the whole car superhero thing. That sounds fun, clearly, right? Hard to hate a premise like that. That's the thing to keep in mind. When I say I "wasn't the most excited I've been", it doesn't mean it wasn't exciting at all. I do really like the gentle scene in the middle where the team see the fairy for the first time and save her from being pinned by some rocks; and in the opposite direction, I'm not going to say no to an action climax involving a giant flying sports car shooting down enemy planes with lasers.

That's kind of the bottom line, isn't it? It becomes easy to take these things for granted after so many series, especially when plenty of them have left stronger first impressions for me, but I don't want to downplay how fundamentally awesome Turboranger still is, either. Not a bad time at all with this one!

[TokuKnight89]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

~Fish's Zenkai Tour!~

Episode 13 – Kousoku Sentai Turboranger



Turboranger is far from a show I know a ton about. It's another one with a theme song that totally slaps; the protagonists are all in high school; they drive sweet giant cars around. The bare essential knowledge you need, really. While it's something that plants seeds for later Sentai concepts that are way up my alley, Turboranger itself seems to be a show that isn't regularly touted as an exemplar of the franchise. I've never taken that as a bad sign, because we're talking about what came directly after Liveman, so of course it gets overshadowed, but still, the end result is a series I've only ever been moderately interested in.

Naturally, I went and learned a bit more about it in the process of making this post, and there were certainly some fun pieces of trivia to be found. The way these shows reflect and react to the culture of the times is often quite fascinating, so it was really cute to read that the then-fresh automobile theme was simply trying to ride the wave of massive success Tamiya's Mini 4WD kits were enjoying in the late 80's – a wave they rode all the way to the bank when the giant robot this year ended up selling like hotcakes, exactly as hoped.

I also learned just how weird that first episode really is. It's not exactly strange to want to do a big celebratory special to commemorate an anniversary. The thing is though, they wanted to do it so badly, they didn't care that it was a year late. The original intent was to do something like this between Maskman and Liveman, but that got nixed when Maskman's filming fell behind schedule, so we're celebrating 11 teams since Battle Fever J instead of that perfect, round 10. (This was back when Battle Fever J was considered the starting point for the franchise, which makes it all the more awkward that this is the first team with "ranger" in the name since the Gorangers themselves.)

Again, it's all a bit odd, but as a clip show, it's entirely harmless. There's a certain impact to seeing all these different groups standing together, a sort of forerunner to greater crossovers to come... especially since everyone seemingly showed up this time just so the Turborangers could give their villains a lecture about how cool they are. It's supposed to convince them to back off, but honestly, if I were one of the Bouma, I'd be so humiliated by getting dragged into a history lesson by my foes that I'd probably only be that much more motivated to conquer the planet. Imagine 53 dudes ganging up on you in a rock quarry only for 48 of them to decide to sit the fight out. It's a little patronizing!

Of course, that's not the real first episode, is it? While I'm going over it here because it's counted as such for simplicity's sake, the proper premiere is the second episode, and thanks to that, Turboranger has the unique honor of getting two episodes covered here. But really, this is the one that counts for something. And it's overall... pretty solid, to be sure. While I'm still deeply impressed by Hirohisa Soda's ability to write all these debuts in unique ways, I have to admit that Turboranger's particular take wasn't the most excited I've been so far.

I suppose the big thing to mention about the overall style is the deliberate gap between that visual concept of big fast road vehicles and the actual theming of the story, which has a plot revolving around ancient monsters causing trouble after being freed from their long-held magical seals. Because the fairies maintaining them can't keep it up any longer. ...Because most of them died from pollution.

The seeming disconnect here doesn't actually bother me at all. On the contrary, the mishmash of elements is so extreme it's clearly a conscious decision, and I can dig that. As far as the premiere is concerned, there's even a cute thing going on where our youthful protagonists are recruited because they're the only ones who can hear the pleas of the last surviving fairy – that classic sort of scenario of the kids who still believe in magic – except then the fairy in question was also already working with a scientist who came up with the idea for the whole car superhero thing. That sounds fun, clearly, right? Hard to hate a premise like that. That's the thing to keep in mind. When I say I "wasn't the most excited I've been", it doesn't mean it wasn't exciting at all. I do really like the gentle scene in the middle where the team see the fairy for the first time and save her from being pinned by some rocks; and in the opposite direction, I'm not going to say no to an action climax involving a giant flying sports car shooting down enemy planes with lasers.

That's kind of the bottom line, isn't it? It becomes easy to take these things for granted after so many series, especially when plenty of them have left stronger first impressions for me, but I don't want to downplay how fundamentally awesome Turboranger still is, either. Not a bad time at all with this one!

You do a wonderful job of convincing someone to get involved with a series they probably dropped a couple of episodes in!

[DreamSword]

So Turboranger is about a bunch of teenagers with attitude out to save the world? Sounds like it'll never catch on.

[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

So Turboranger is about a bunch of teenagers with attitude out to save the world? Sounds like it'll never catch on.

This team was the ORIGINAL TEENAGERS WITH ATTITUDE.
Okay maybe not a whole lot of attitude but definitely the first all-teenager team ever. The opening theme sung by Kenta Sato who played Riki Honoh/Red Turbo is still to this day the best Sentai theme song in my opinion with the right amount of energy, and it was Heisei's first sentai team. And it makes sense as a new era begins for Japan they had the core theme being energetic and youthfulness as the big keywords. Also, this was the show that brought back the レンジャー suffix last used by Gorenger. The show also tripled down on the robots with Turboranger being the first team to have a second combination by just having the Super Turbo Robo combine with their base to form a even bigger one in the form of Super Turbo Builder. Two of the cast members went on to appear in future toku shows; Junichiro Katagiri who played the gymnist of the team Shunsuke/Yellow Turbo appeared in Winspector, Solbrain, and Janperson, and Fujita Okamoto who played Dr. Dazai, their mentor and tech support, appeared in Timeranger as Mr. Asami aka Tatsuya/Time Red's father.
So back to Kenta Sato. He really surprised people for a toku theme song concert in 2004 when he appeared to sing the theme song IN THE SAME CIVILIAN OUTFIT HE WORE IN THE SHOW RED JACKET AND ALL.

THAT IS DEDICATION. The jacket, the striped shirt, black pants and shoes, and RACING GLOVES.

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunred

The opening theme sung by Kenta Sato who played Riki Honoh/Red Turbo is still to this day the best Sentai theme song in my opinion with the right amount of energy

*snip*

So back to Kenta Sato. He really surprised people for a toku theme song concert in 2004 when he appeared to sing the theme song IN THE SAME CIVILIAN OUTFIT HE WORE IN THE SHOW RED JACKET AND ALL.

Yeah, one of the other things I read is that singing the opening was something he actively pursued all the way back to literally bringing a demo tape to his audition, and that same enthusiasm certainly shows all those years later. It's not at all hard to see why you always speak so highly of this theme song.

[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Yeah, one of the other things I read is that singing the opening was something he actively pursued all the way back to literally bringing a demo tape to his audition, and that same enthusiasm certainly shows all those years later. It's not at all hard to see why you always speak so highly of this theme song.

And three years later, he gives fans the Zyuranger theme.
But back to Turboranger yeah that 2004 performance is still one of the best things to happen. I put this just above the Ninja Steel Blue reveal at Power Morphicon.

[Androzani84]

Ah yes, another person joins me in the club that is “watching/has watched Turboranger” (as far as I’m aware, it’s only two members at present).

Ironically, as you watched the start, I’m nearing the end of the series (one episode left). I can say that it’s been a fun ride with some genuinely compelling villains throughout (compared to other shows, where how compelling a villain was depended on the episode). And compares to other shows with pollution themed bad guys like Gaoranger and Goseiger, it doesn’t play up the anti-pollution message to the point it takes up time, so it’s got that going for it.

It’s also unique in that unlike later high-school hero Toku shows (Megaranger and KR Fourze), it doesn’t put a lot of focus on the other students. Whenever there’s a school plot, most of the focus is on the main 5’s teacher Ms. Yamaguchi, who does start out at Ohsugi levels of bullying the protagonists because she feels like it, before being derailed for the better into a good teacher. (With some genuinely funny gags on the side)

Overall, I would recommend that if you’re interested in this series, watch it.

[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

Ah yes, another person joins me in the club that is “watching/has watched Turboranger” (as far as I’m aware, it’s only two members at present).

Ironically, as you watched the start, I’m nearing the end of the series (one episode left). I can say that it’s been a fun ride with some genuinely compelling villains throughout (compared to other shows, where how compelling a villain was depended on the episode). And compares to other shows with pollution themed bad guys like Gaoranger and Goseiger, it doesn’t play up the anti-pollution message to the point it takes up time, so it’s got that going for it.

It’s also unique in that unlike later high-school hero Toku shows (Megaranger and KR Fourze), it doesn’t put a lot of focus on the other students. Whenever there’s a school plot, most of the focus is on the main 5’s teacher Ms. Yamaguchi, who does start out at Ohsugi levels of bullying the protagonists because she feels like it, before being derailed for the better into a good teacher. (With some genuinely funny gags on the side)

Overall, I would recommend that if you’re interested in this series, watch it.

Ah yes, Ms. Yamaguchi. She was pretty much their J. Jonah Jameson wasn't she? Good times.
I mean she wasn't antagonistic to the rangers if I recall, but you know what I mean. She was just the perfect nosy teacher type.