Turboranger Episode 1 & Why I'm a Turbo Lover

The retrospective special thing. It's not bad for what it is, but I ain't going to get into it; I just needed to point out that it's technically "episode 1." If I just started off with Episode 2 -- the real episode 1 of the series -- I was afraid that would be confusing down the line.

Nowadays this wouldn't be called "Episode 1" but "Episode 0" or "Episode SP" or something.

Actually, I would like to complain about how they get the same two voice actors to voice ALL of the previous Sentai teams. It seriously sounds like it's just two dudes, but they're trying to pass it off as 48 people -- men AND women! What a bonehead move. Why not just use old audio?

And I'll say this for the special: I know it only had a short amount of shows to go through, but it's nice to see a clip show that utilizes more footage from the individual shows than just something from a first or final episode, or a stock attack. Clip shows nowadays are so lazy, with the people putting them together not wanting to go through the whole show. Think of Timeranger's clip show or Gaoranger VS Super Sentai -- it's all stuff from early or final episodes! They don't like showing cast members or villains, either. But this episode shows a lot of stuff, spanning big moments of each series, showing cast members, villains, all that stuff.

Damn cool opening credits sequence, though! The first time I heard the OP, I knew it would become a favorite of mine. It's fast-paced and works well with a lot of the action-oriented clips they use for this particular OP. I remember having a WAV rip of these credits, and I'd listen to that. Sometimes, I'll listen to the OP and still expect Nobuo Tanaka to start blabbering towards the end of the first verse. I just took an instant liking to that song...

Much like the show itself. Turboranger's always had a bad reputation in the fandom, even when I got into the online fandom in the late '90s. Megaranger was just wrapping up and Gingaman was starting, and my main objective was to finish Liveman, since my family left Japan and the last one I saw was episode 8 and I thought Liveman rocked. From there, I dabbled into the shows that came afterward, mostly checking out the shows that Power Rangers used. I thought so many of them were weird or goofy, like the Sugimura run. Megaranger seemed OK, I was excited by getting to see the latest show from its beginning, but Gingaman was a sore thumb that took me quite a while to get into. The only thing I saw that came close to the shows I grew up with was Jetman, which I only had the first Hero Club of at first, but was wowed by.

It was kind of disheartening to see the franchise go in what I then considered a sugar-coated or bonkers direction. (I figured the PR influence played a part in it, like the removal of having actor villains.) So, I again placed my focus on completing my Liveman collection as best I could. The direction that show went, I feel the same way then as I do now -- it ended as a letdown. I had only the barest info about Turboranger from Marc Miyake's Super Sentai Manual (where he had even taken the time to point out what little he thought of it) and various people saying how bad or goofy it was. I was kind of hesitant to check it out because I was skeptical about the heroes all being high-schoolers, and so young. But when I saw the first episode preview after Liveman's whimper of a finale, I was like...this looks all right. I liked the look of it, I liked the villains, the music -- it's just a well presented first episode preview. I knew I had liked the OP from downloading the intro to this first episode clipshow, and that was playing during the whole preview, giving it extra kick.

So I bought the first volume from someone -- that's episodes 1 - 4 -- and the quality was faded and horrendous, but I enjoyed it. It didn't have everything in place, the promise of a Flashman or Liveman, but it seemed cool, and it seemed closer to the shows I was familiar with. (I've often wondered how I would have felt about Turboranger if my family had stayed in Japan for it. I think it would have been a case similar to Maskman, a show I found strange as a kid, but grew to love when I became older.)

Frankly, I thought people were insane with their overbearing hatred for it. I thought the cast was all cool and likable -- yes, even weirdo Daichi -- and I liked the action. The villains didn't make an immediate impression, save for Ragon, who I thought was AWESOME. Being a kid who had a semi-interest in fantasy -- I was one of the few weirdos who liked the movie Willow -- I liked that aspect of the show. The more I watched it, the more I just really liked the hero characters, the supporting cast. The more I watched, the more I realized that the Bouma, in the way they're designed, filmed and depicted, is the closest Sentai has had to having truly horror-like villains. Their designs, by Tamotsu Shinohara, are some of my favorite Sentai villain designs, some of my favorite suits in terms of the craftsmanship that brought them to life. So many inventive, mean, gnarly monsters in the show. And then once Yamimaru and Kirika came into the picture? The show really shot up my ranking. When I first saw Yamimaru's original outfit, I thought that was one of the coolest Sentai villain designs ever.

Cool hero characters, fast-paced action, horror-fantasy...it has a humorous touch, but I definitely wouldn't call it a comedic show. I HATE when people lump it in with Carranger or Go-onger. Carranger's satirical, Go-onger's idiotic. Turboranger's a show that has comedy, but there's also a misconception about its tone in the way the villain situations are sometimes portrayed. The Bouma can be weird, and a lot of their plans or gimmicks are rooted in youkai folklore, which I think to Western eyes can seem pretty bizarre, and if you're not familiar with some of that folklore, I think for a lot of people it can come across as goofy or surreal nonsense. There's this misconception that Turboranger begins "comedic" but eventually becomes "serious" after the show is "retooled." I get more into this "retool" misconception in later posts, but I never saw early Turbo as "comedic."

A lot of the early episodes focus on the strangeness of the situation our unprepared teen heroes are thrown into. Some episodes heighten the situation, sometimes our hero will have a humorous reaction of disbelief. One of the main points of having heroes so young is that they're going to be reacting to these tokusatsu situations in a way that's different from the norm, from the older and/or professional heroes. A teen's going to react differently, possibly with humor, to a strange situation. But as the show goes on, certainly by the time Yamimaru enters the picture, things get more personal for the heroes and they change, and the show becomes a worthy successor to Soda's greats. There's a progression to the series and stories it tells. (That's not to say it's serialized or planned out -- Turboranger's obviously not planned out when it shakes up the roster so much throughout the series and improvises around production changes, but more on that stuff in later posts.)

Turboranger was trying out new styles and themes and that meant it needed to find its footing and grow, the way its teen heroes do. Turboranger was trying out a lot of new things, introducing some new elements to the franchise, trying to do things a little differently. And I don't think that it ever gets the credit or respect it should, but more on that in later posts, too. It's hard to imagine fan-favorites like the Sugimura or Takatera runs of Super Sentai without Turboranger. I think Turboranger paved the road for many of its successors, and its influence has gone unacknowledged.

If I have to complain about Turboranger, it will be that it doesn't have more recurring storylines or characters. In Soda's greatest works, there will be a running thread or a repeat character or one of the teammates will have their own tie to another character, usually a villain. But I chalk that up to some of the production issues. (For example, the popularity of Yamimaru and Kirika -- two characters who were intended for short-term arcs -- influencing how much time they get devoted to them.) People have complained that it's the Riki show, but what can you do when Kenta Sato kicks so much ass and was already an established talent? The show deviated from what it set out to do, mostly for reasons beyond its control, but I don't think Turboranger turns out poorly for it. It's still a solid, entertaining, satisfyingly full production.

I remember fondly getting a tape in a trade, of about 18 or so Turboranger episodes. (It was one of the rare people who wasn't a stickler for SP mode; they did a tape on SLP, which meant, yay, more episodes! And, yes, I realize that talk of VHS tape speeds might not make sense to some youngsters reading this.) I think I watched most of that tape in one sitting, sad to say. Like I said, I took a quick liking to this show, it's always a fun and breezy watch. There was a point in the early '00s when I'd be in a funk, and hauling out some Turboranger cheered me up. I think the show's treated unfairly. I think it's time for Turboranger to be given the attention and respect it deserves.