Turboranger: The Movie

I happen to really like this movie. I think it the best theatrical Sentai movie. One of the only good ones, really, because so many of them are just forgettable or afterthoughts or made so early in the production, there's nothing unique about them. I enjoy Changeman's two movies, but...c'mon, it's Changeman, so I'm biased. But those movies prioritize action over everything else, so you're not left with much Changeman, or what made Changeman great.

Turboranger's movie is very much Turboranger, focusing on one of the show's main characters and adding to its lore and history. It also wants to impress you with action and great shots, but doesn't seem to have as much money as some of Toei's other big-screen toku adventures at the time, sadly. On the bright side, at least they seemed to put a lot of money into depicting a marathon Musashino High is putting on; it's nice to see the production put the priority on depicting a big school activity like this, when a regular episode probably doesn't have the money or time to stage.

(Thankfully, the Changeman movies and the Turboranger movie are on the same volume of the Super Sentai The Movie set, so I only had to buy one volume. With the early Sentai movies being mostly just recycled episodes and with the '90s ones being unwatchable, Volume Three is the only volume you need. So, I'm glad Toei decided to release the volumes individually after they had only been available together in a box set!)

I love that there's a prologue set in the ancient times, depicting some of the battle between the fairies and human allied forces against the Bouma. That old war is one of the things I think would be perfect for some spin-off novel or comics or something. The scenes focuses on the end of a battle with the Bouma-Beast Wicked God Bouma, a guardian protector of the Bouma. Shiron witnesses a friend of hers, the fairy Flora, sacrificing herself to fight the Bouma Beast. Wicked God Bouma has a deadly move in which he breathes and incinerates things with some hellfire. Flora is burned, turning into a light which ends up binding the monster, with Holy Beast Rakia finishing his sealing.

In the present, Wicked God Bouma's son -- Wicked God Bouma, Jr. That's really his name! -- is on a quest to find where his father is sealed and break him out. Ragon is gunning for this, because he wants to put Wicked God Bouma's hellfire to use, having the Bouma Castle absorb it so they can cause mass destruction and fry all life on Earth. Since Wicked God Bouma was so powerful and dangerous, he has two seals that need broken, with a ritual needing performed to locate the seals. (They don't really explain this two seal thing, but I'm assuming it had to do with both Flora and Rakia's being involved in his sealing.) This buys the Turboranger some time to try to beat him from obtaining his goal, which is good, because...Shiron's in a panic, sensing the great evil of Wicked God Bouma approaching. Shiron soon falls ill, not only due to the worry and the sense of the powerful monster, but probably knowing it was the one that cost Flora her life.

Knowing what a powerful monster he is, Dazai goes over their possibilities if he happened to get loose. Although he doesn't even want to consider it, Dazai tells the others that really the only possibility of beating the monster is to sacrifice Shiron; that she needs to, as we saw with Flora, use her life-force -- the Life Aura, they call it here -- to once again seal him. The Turboranger refuse to let that happen, though, and are determined to stop Junior from springing his dad, or just fight him themselves if they have to.

The Turboranger aren't able to stop Junior from finding and breaking the seals, despite how hard they try. Wicked God Bouma's first order of things is to set Turboranger on fire and knock 'em across town. (If the burning effects had been better, this would have been a pretty cool and shocking scene.) Wicked God Bouma's design is pretty interesting, though. He's a hunched over and massive, requiring obviously more than one suit actor to operate. Wicked God Bouma, also, is yet another great father in a line of great toku fathers, who decides to eat his son for strength after getting his ass kicked by the Turboranger. (It's also a nice contrast to the Turboranger not wanting to sacrifice Shiron.)

What's cool about this movie is that the Turboranger are racing to stop the Bouma plan, but the Bouma regulars keep popping up to intercept them. There's constant obstacles for our heroes. And not only is there the threat of Wicked God Bouma, but the Turboranger know they have to be fast before Shiron resorts to sacrificing herself. By the time Wicked God Bouma begins sending his hellfire to the Bouma Castle, things start to look too bleak and Shiron makes the choice to fly out and take care of it.

Riki and the others stop Shiron in time -- who was intercepted and about to be killed by Reida! -- telling her that maybe in the old days the fairies had to make such a sacrifice, but in this era they have the Turboranger to fight for them. This movie is the Turboranger premise in a nutshell -- the combined forces of young and old, magic and technology, coming together in the modern era the same way the fairies and humans once did in the past. The Turboranger are driven by their friendship with Shiron to succeed, not wanting to lose her the way she lost her own friend fighting the same foe.

Most toku movies are intentionally vague -- since they're usually always double billed, they have to be accessible for casual fans or people who don't know jack about the show. Turboranger's movie is nice in that it strikes a balance. It's accessible and enjoyable enough for the newbs who are just there waiting for the Saint Seiya movie, but actually conveys a lot of what it is that makes the show unique, which also gives those who are ALREADY fans a little something worthwhile to work with. The movie's not generic like Bioman's or a random bag of batshit like Maskman's. It's fun, it's entertaining, it's meaningful.

This movie will work best for you if you're a fan of the early episodes, and if you're not a cynical Shiron hater. I guess that's basically what a lot of the Shiron hate comes down to. Turboranger is very earnest, and I think there's just too many jaded people who scoff, laugh or roll their eyes when something dares seem emotional or whimsical and is genuine about it. (It will be called "cheesy.") And I suppose why Turboranger doesn't get credit for paving the way for fan favorites like Zyuranger, Dairanger, Kakuranger, Carranger, Megaranger, Gingaman, Gaoranger and so on is because most of those shows have an attitude of irreverence about them. They'd try to have emotional moments, but would hide behind something -- weirdness, comedy, a Bandai toy -- out of embarrassment or shame or an unwillingness to take itself too seriously. Turboranger's heart is on its sleeve. If you don't want to believe in this fairy tale, then...your loss, because you're missing out on a good show.