Turboranger Episode 34

Is this the only piece of fiction, in the history of writing, to have fart jokes with a purpose? To successfully weave fart jokes into a dramatic narrative? This is an episode where the word "fart" is thrown into serious lines of dialogue and...it works. This is still meant to be a comedically-tinged episode, but it reveals some backstory about Yamimaru and ties into it successfully.

Yamimaru lures Zuruten to a location with the vague idea that he's reuniting Zuruten with a "friend." The "friend" is really the latest Bouma-Beast, Hazer Bouma, who Zuruten's not very happy to see. And for good reason, as Hazer Bouma soon takes out a whip and begins lashing Zuruten so hard that he...lets one rip. Soon, Zuruten is on a leash, being pulled around the city by the monster, whipping him to get him to unleash some foul farts. Not only is it a nasty smell, but Zuruten's toots cause humans to fall into a deep sleep.

This episode makes me realize that maybe placing the previous episode where it is carries some logic. After that lackluster plan, here we have Yamimaru terrorizing the city with Zuruten's farts. Your first reaction is "No! Why do something so goofy? Why, after Kirika's face-less slave episode, would you have a fart plan? Why are they making the two cool new villains seem dumb?!" And I feel like 33 is there for that purpose, so this episode takes you by surprise, tricks you, and makes more of an impact as we're told the reasoning behind this episode's plan...

Yamimaru's out for revenge. He talks of his persecution from humanity, and we see a scene from ancient times of a wandering, exhausted Yamimaru catching a glimpse of humans at a camp fire. He uses some magic to make their fire grow, scaring them away, then flocks to the camp site and digs into their food. Shortly after, the people return with buddies, throwing rocks at and attacking Yamimaru. He tries to plead with them, he asks for their help. But they don't trust him because they know he's not human, so they attack him, stringing him up in a tree and firing several arrows into him, leaving him for dead.

For Yamimaru, taking over the world and punishing the humans in such a goofy manner is amusing and serves them right. But that's not all. Throughout the episode, Zuruten keeps trying to escape the Bouma-Beast. The Turboranger catch up with him and he's pretty pathetic. He's begging for their help; he knows he's lowly and a slob, but he doesn't want to go down as the Bouma who died farting people to sleep, he'd rather die in a battle. He's weak, exhausted, embarrassed. Yamimaru reveals that he's never forgotten how, after being left for dead by the humans, he sought help from the Bouma. He happened to find Zuruten with some Ura in a cave, and he pleaded for their help. Zuruten spat on him for being a half-breed and ordered the Ura to attack him, Zuruten eventually attacking him at this low point, as well. So the main goal of this whole plan is to humiliate and shame Zuruten for revenge. It kind of says to me that maybe Yamimaru expected such a reaction from humans, but not Bouma, and that he's maybe a little more angry with that side, as well as that side of him.

Riki decides to help Zuruten, despite the other four thinking he's insane. (We get some cool scenes of Riki riding the Speedster Zuruten bike as they're being attacked by Dragras -- Kenta Sato himself riding through some massive fireballs!) This is rewarded when Zuruten, feigning an attack on the Turboranger team, actually gives them something that counteracts with the sleeping gas, something with which Dazai can concoct a cure from.

An episode that mixes slapstick goofery with dramatic elements and the drama doesn't suffer, but still works, is a rare thing. (Especially in a toku show.) But Turboranger succeeds here.

Random note: at the end of the episode, Yamimaru and Kirika are flying on Dragras, with Yamimaru making cryptic threats of taking down Ragon. This is setting the stage for the awesome, awesome 39th episode.

Turboranger Episode 33

A quirky, light episode after the high-stakes 5-parter. The next couple episodes are in a similar vein; they're necessary tension breakers, but I have problems with this one. For this to be the first episode after Yamimaru and Kirika have been accepted by Ragon, and they come up with such a questionable plan just doesn't work. (I have a take on why this episode is the way it is and why the villain plan is so seemingly lame, which makes it more tolerable; it has to do with the next episode, though, so I'll talk about it there.) Add to that an unlikable guest character who gets his way when he's a total schmuck.

The Bouma-Beast in this episode is based on the youkai noppera-bo, the face-less youkai who steals people's faces. This one has an upgrade in that he can switch people's faces, but the features of those faces will eventually vanish just the same. Kirika thinks these face-less people will be so lost and in such a despair that they can easily be made slaves for Bouma, and if they outlive their usefulness, they'll then become food for Dragras. Ragon is giddy, thinking this is such a vicious plan, but maybe Zuruten is more on the money when he complains that it's stupid and crap. (He changes his tune once he hears the part about Dragras, though, calling the plan "cruel.")

This ties into a story of this dorky guy who Youhei knows, Kuwata, who's stalking the girls of the high-school fair. While some of the girls are rude to this guy, pretty much outright calling him ugly, there's something still just skeevy and unlikable about him. (That Kuwata is played by the actor who played the similarly sketchy guy who was obsessed with Ako in that awful ramen episode of Jetman certainly doesn't help.) The girls all go crazy when they spot Youhei, though, and soon after Sayoko/Kirika is enticing the guy to lure Youhei into a trap with promises that he "can be like Youhei." Youhei is brought to the Bouma-Beast, who switches his face with Kuwata's. Youhei's concerned about the situation, but Kuwata is happy, ready to face the world with his...uh, new face.

Kuwata returns to try to hit on high-school girls, now looking like the popular Youhei. (His crusty-ass pick-up lines, which failed when he looked like himself, are now successful when it's coming from Youhei's face.) He ends up sullying Youhei's reputation in this episode, looking pervy and cowardly, as he ditches the girls he's with once the Bouma-Beast shows back up. (The Kuwata-looking Youhei, on the other hand, arrives to save the day.) Kuwata inadvertently solves the face-stealin' dilemma, though, when it's discovered that a home-made zit-cream he has (and applied to a honking zit on one of the high school girls, because he's sweet and a gentleman) interferes with the Bouma-Beast's ability to swap faces. (The Bouma-Beast tried to swap the faces of two of the high school girls, one of them being the girl who has the medicine applied to her zit by Kuwata.) When he figures it out, Youhei takes the zit-cream so he can smear it all over the Bouma-Beast's hands, which act as the face-transplanters. The only semi-amusing thing about this nonsense is that, in the big battle, Blue Turbo finally gives the face-less Bouma-Beast a face by carving henohenomo onto it with his sword.

The episode ends with the high-school girls fawning over Kuwata -- get it, because Youhei looked like Kuwata when he was selfless and diving into the center of danger to save them all, while the Youhei-who-was-Kuwata abandoned them in terror? It's supposed to be funny, but it's just screwing over our hero, man. Kuwata tries to shoot apologetic gestures to Youhei, but you know he's not sincere, you know he's a scumbag. He's going to be taking advantage of those girls and use Youhei's brave accomplishments for his own ends. The "lesson" of the episode, we're told by the narrator -- and the schoolgirls now fawning over Kuwata -- is that the heart matters, not the face. That's...not a lesson this episode is teaching? Kuwata's a scumbag! It's not like he learned a lesson or anything, or that he was some funny looking bullied kid who stood up for the girls and Youhei was being a big-headed idiot trying to look cool or anything. The lesson of this episode is more like "Keep an eye on the weaselly scumbags, because they might take credit for your hard work."

Like...it's not only a weak plan for Kirika and Yamimaru to have, but what does the focus on Youhei accomplish? Fine, she's targeting a former classmate and now adversary, but Youhei panics for, about, one second before he focuses on saving the day, because he's a good hero. And...it shouldn't have effected whether or not Kuwata-Youhei could transform. He never does, so I don't know if that was meant to be part of the "drama," but I don't see why he couldn't have henshin'd? They just swapped faces, not bodies, so it shouldn't have affected the ability to transform.

There are worse episodes of Sentai out there, but this episode just bugs me. Kuwata sucks. Keiya Asakura goes a long way in making Youhei so cool and likable, so why drag him through the mud for the sake of a totally hateable guest character? (It's supposed to be funny, but really isn't. Again: Kuwata's a scumbag.)

Turboranger Episode 32

This episode picks up where the last one left off, with Yamimaru and Kirika storming the Bouma Castle. They cut through Uras and are stopped by Zuruten, who don't want to let stinky, impure half-Bouma amongst their ranks. They reply by clotheslining him with the red thread of fate. They make their way to Ragon, who similarly looks down on Nagare Bouma and thinks they're incapable. Yamimaru promises to do something only the Nagare Bouma can, which is to revive the monstrous giant Bouma Bat Dragras. This impresses Ragon, who says as much -- if they can truly revive that creature, he'll consider making them a part of his forces.

There's a scene where Riki and the others are at Sayoko's (abandoned) home, when Riki fills them in on what happened there. They're in a disbelief and shock and are actually kind of creeped out to be there. (Also: I bet this is the first they're hearing that the two skull monsters they killed yesterday were Sayoko's parents...!) This scene's filmed with a quiet restraint by director Takao Nagaishi, giving it an uneasiness and solemnity. Riki finds a baseball on display in one of the rooms -- a baseball, a game-winning home-run hit he made in their first year of high-school, which Sayoko caught. A delighted Sayoko even had her crush autograph the ball. Riki desperately wants to believe the good in her, but this episode reinforces his doubts...

The majority of the episode is Sayoko capturing people to perform a dance ritual to resurrect the Dragras beast. The Dragras beast sleeps within the Bouma-Beast Mirror Bouma, so all of the victims are pulled into the mirror realm. The Dragras creature feeds on youthful life energy, so it's mostly teens she captures. (One being the volleyball team from school, in an act of revenge.) The Turboranger are also captured, but try to endure the agony of resisting Kirika's command to dance for the Dragras. (Kinohara really goes for it in this scene, making Haruna look as if her brain is going to split from the pain of resisting.) Yamimaru and Kirika lead the dancers, in another scene that I'm sure is mocked.

People who think Basco or Enter is cool like to ridicule characters who are actually cool, like Yamimaru, and would point to this and be like "Meh, it's goofy that he dances!" Well, at least he's not dancing in ending credits with the team! It's a strange choice for Yamimaru, but I buy it here. He's meant to be invigorated by Kirika. He feels confident and that he's coming into his own. He enjoys being with Kirika. So I can actually picture himself just going along with it for her, to help her. And they're both supposed to be young, too. (Once they successfully awaken the Dragras, Ragon comments on this, remarking what a terrifying force youth is, and youth is exactly what he's been looking for -- 20,000 years is still young to the Bouma. Reida, Jarmine, Jinba, they were all older than that. So this arc has literally been out-with-the-old-in-with-the-young. The narrator ends this episode saying something like a new chapter, a battle between youth has begun, a kind of precursor to the way Kakuranger's second half is referred to as the "Fierce Battle of Youth.")

The Dragras is a pretty cool thing for our two new, dangerous villains to get. (In another similarity to Changeman, it's reminiscent of Ahames' two-headed dragon Jangeran.) A giant monstrous bat creature, but it also has a mechanical armament. The teens who were kidnapped collapse after the creature is called, with Kirika commanding it to eat their remains. (Our heroes protect them, helping them to consciousness and safety.) Again, Riki is confronted by how cruel Kirika seems to have become, not able to reconcile the image with the sweet, kind girl who awkwardly asked him for an autograph, which he was embarrassed yet thrilled to do. He kept the ball from when he was at her house and removes it from his jacket. "It's really over, Sayoko Tsukikage. Our youth is over. Take this as a sign we've cut ties," he says, throwing the ball at her as she rides behind Yamimaru on the Dragras. She falls from the creature and it loses its pace, Kirika's errant sword shattering the mirror realm and freeing those it held prisoner.

It's interesting to note that Riki refers to her by her birth name this one last time before "cutting ties." Earlier he had called Kirika by her real name and she showed anger at him, insisting her name is Kirika. But right after that scene where he throws the baseball at her, where he's basically giving up on her, he begins to refer to her as Kirika. I also like that there's a moment in the battle when Yamimaru takes the time to just proudly look on Kirika as she's kicking ass. The episode ends with Riki angrily watching the two Nagare Bouma soar away on the Dragras, the narrator promising a new battle of youth beginning. A good episode for the Riki and Sayoko bits, his letting go of her, any feelings of nicety and friendship thrown along with that pitch.

And I should mention, finally, Masako Morishita as Sayoko/Kirika. She's a great addition to the show, and I like that, even though he's been around a lot longer, she's really equal to Yamimaru. It's Yamimaru and Kirika, Kirika and Yamimaru that's in charge of things, not just one or the other. Morishita -- who, it's funny to note, is one of the only actual teenagers in the show -- gives a good performance, making you feel sympathetic for Sayoko, yet she's still able to go for it and be villainous and cruel as Kirika. You can kind of understand Kirika's motivation, that she's making up for years of being mistreated. Kirika's a good villain, but she still has that sympathetic side to her character that doesn't detract from the danger she poses. And I feel like she's almost more likable than Morishita's other famous Sentai role, Kujaku, who's supposed to be practically holy. Funny that both characters basically learn that, maybe, it's not too late to learn how to love and forget how to hate. (Ozzy Osbourne!)

Turboranger Episode 31

With all three Bouma generals defeated in battle, Yamimaru calls for Ragon's attention in the sky. He goes ignored, vowing to get to the Bouma Castle by his own power.

Meanwhile, back at school, the class is having a vote on who gets the lead in their production of Cinderella. Riki's already won the role of the prince, but the vote for Cinderella is between Haruna and Sayoko Tsukikage. Haruna wins, 15 to 1. I wonder how it even came to be that it was a choice between Haruna and Sayoko; Haruna's meant to be one of the most liked, popular girls at school. Sayoko is a meek, quiet, odd bespectacled outsider. Did Sayoko put her own name out there, or did someone suggest her as a prank, Carrie-style? (There's a lot of Carrie White in Sayoko Tsukikage...)

When she sees Haruna checking the costume on herself in a mirror, amidst the class fawning over her, Tsukikage's thoughts are of harm, that she'd like for a shard of that mirror to cut Haruna's face. She spots a monstrous image in the mirror. Shortly afterward, when Haruna returns to the group, the mirror explodes, with Riki managing to cover Haruna in time. ("Just what you'd expect from the prince!" Youhei teases.) Later, when Sayoko has been given the boot from the volleyball team, she angrily shows them what they're missing out on when she executes her killer spike...literally. Her anger at the team causes the volleyball to explode on contact, but the teammates don't seem to be seriously injured. The ruckus in the gym has caught Riki's attention. (And he manages to glimpse the monstrous apparition that appears before this attack, the same as the one that Sayoko saw in the mirror earlier.)

This causes Riki to approach Sayoko, trying to find out what's happening. She says she doesn't know and that she's scared, and she seems genuine, and his concern for her is genuine. Nearby, Nagareboshi, stalking the school grounds, notices Sayoko and is shocked to recognize her as the woman in red from his dream. Riki ends up walking Sayoko home, which is fine enough for Sayoko; it's strongly hinted at, and confirmed in the next episode, that she has a crush on Riki. Today happens to be her 18th birthday and she asks if Riki wants to celebrate it with her and her family who, as weird as they are, live at the same fancy, awesome place where Kaori Rokumeikan lives that's made many a toku appearances. (The former Ishikawa group Western mansion in Saitama.)

Sayoko's parents aren't happy to see Riki and try to send him off, but their unhappiness doesn't match Sayoko's happiness in having Riki by her side, so she wins out over them. She takes him to the dining room, where a cake and festivities are ready. Our hero's a nice dude who is happy to show attention to this classmate that is too often ignored and shit on, genuinely wishing her a happy birthday. She tells him of this strange story her parents always told her, that she's tied to someone by the red string of fate and she'll meet that person on her 18th birthday. (So, you can imagine she's excited to think of that story and tie her classmate crush into it.)

Her parents bring in some celebratory booze for our underage school kids, pouring Riki a glass. He gives the wine a smell...hey, this ain't his first rodeo! How much experience with drinking alcohol does Riki have at his young age?! Before we even get a chance to fully ask that question, we and Riki see that monstrous apparition appear within the wine he's been served. Not letting anyone know he knows, he drinks it, feigning pain and convulsions. Sayoko's panicked, but her parents are happy, her dad pulling a knife out to finish the job. Riki stops him, spitting the booze he only pretended to swallow in his face. Sayoko's parents reveal themselves to be monsters. (The books refer to them as "skull monsters," but they look kinda bat-like to me, reminiscent of the make-up Gary Oldman wore for the bat-form in Bram Stoker's Dracula.) Just then, a Bouma-Beast emerges from within Sayoko and then Nagareboshi comes crashing through the window -- it's pandemonium!

This particular Bouma-Beast is interesting in its relation to Sayoko; it's named after protective charms (omamori) and it's been tasked with protecting her; it's been part of Sayoko's entire life, and we see examples of when the monster appeared and saved her from certain death from accidents that occurred throughout her life in the human world. Omamori Bouma is also voiced by Rika Matsumoto, and she really lets loose and has a blast, and gives the monster a real anger and energy.

Nagareboshi, the skull parents and Omamori Bouma get Sayoko away from the Turboranger, to a secluded mountain spot and reveal who she really is; a Nagare Bouma who has been raised in the human world for the past 18 years by the skull monsters, while being guarded by the Omamori Bouma until her powers awaken on her 18th birthday. Nagareboshi reveals that they're the only Nagare Bouma in the world, that she gave him a power through a dream and that he's the one she's tied to through destiny. Riki and the others show up to try to keep Sayoko on the good path, telling her not to believe Nagareboshi, that Riki believes she's a good person, proof of that being a time he witnessed Sayoko volunteering to donate blood when there was a car accident near the school. (Which means some kid is wandering Japan with Nagare Bouma blood in their veins.) Nagareboshi whisks Sayoko away as the skull monsters and Bouma Beast hold back the Turboranger.

Nagareboshi takes Sayoko to a mountaintop; a directorial choice symbolizing Nagareboshi's view of humanity, as he gestures out to the city below. "Where are the supposed good humans," he asks her. "Can you think of any? Has anyone ever accepted you?" He approaches her and removes her glasses. "You're beautiful. Even though you're so beautiful, has anyone noticed you? Or have they shown you hate and rejection? Show them. Show them your beauty. Show them your excellence." Everything he's saying to Sayoko resonates with her; it's the truth. And Nagareboshi is speaking from experience, he understands the persecution and judgment and hatred. He's been alone and angry for so long, but he's found someone he can finally relate to. He knows the power she potentially holds and knows that they can together forge a future where they might actually be in power. They harbor so much anger and resentment, though, that they're on a darker path, more motivated by the desire to get back at people.

While Nagareboshi is winning over Sayoko, the Turboranger are victorious in defeating the skull monsters and the Bouma-Beast. Their fight with the Bouma-Beast in the mecha causes tremors to the nearby mountain, which proves perilous for Nagareboshi and Sayoko. She falls, and he reaches for her. The red string of fate literally appears and proves they're tied together as they both end up falling, being wrapped in a light and emerging transformed. (Could THIS be what Yamimaru truly uses the Demonic Aura for?) Sayoko is now Kirika and Yamimaru has a completely new costume (that I sadly don't like as much as his original, but I get they wanted him to match Kirika).

The episode started with Yamimaru shouting at the sky for Ragon to accept him at the Bouma Castle. The episode ends with Yamimaru and Kirika flying themselves directly there on their own terms, with their own power. For what reason, you have to wait for the next episode.

The Nagare Bouma Yamimaru and Kirika are similar to the mutants of X-Men and what they represent and are allegories of. It's interesting to me that sub-writer Toshiki Inoue doesn't bother doing anything with them, when a lot of his work falls in line with that X-Men style. Inoue ends up penning two more episodes of Turboranger, and they're comedically-tinged. The Nagare Bouma are certainly close to what he tries to accomplish with the Orphenoch in Faiz -- you could even say they're Proto-Orphenoch -- so it's weird these two characters don't draw his attention. I think Inoue would have said some interesting things with them.

While there's been some bumpy patches in these last few episodes as the show makes these transitions, I think they still work, and this episode particularly is strong. You get the impression that Kirika wasn't a character that was planned to be in the series, but her inclusion does wonders for the show. It's a stroke of genius to have a character that's tied into the commentary and symbolism of youth and growing up by having her be a classmate. And not only having her be a classmate, but one who was ignored and mistreated and bullied for most of her life.

I'm sure some younger fans look at this show and scoff -- "Heh, the character appeared out of nowhere." Well, that's how TV worked back in the day, peewee. Sure, nowadays, Sayoko would probably have been a regular from the start, but...it would be pretty predictable if she was. Nowadays, shows are over-populated. There are SO many supporting characters, yet you know each and every one of them is going to transform into something at one point or another. Bringing in Sayoko the way they do -- this late into the series and particularly in the way we're introduced to her as she's losing the role in the play -- I think works to the show's advantage in a symbolic way. If Sayoko's a character who's always left out and ignored and mistreated then, hey, who's to say she hasn't been in the class all along? We didn't notice her because she's a person who's not noticed. Maybe we're just one of the assholes who have ignored her all this time.

On a side note, I've always thought the idea of the two skull creatures raising Sayoko as an ordinary human, with her being protected by Omamori Bouma -- that whole history -- is so interesting that it's another thing that I think would make a cool spin-off novel, if Toei did spin-off novels for Super Sentai in the Star Trek kind of vein.

Turboranger Episode 30

The End of Reida! The writing was on the wall for this guy, but he still gets pissed when he's defeated by Red Turbo (in a really cool fight set to the OP theme).

Yamimaru's kidnapping of Dazai doesn't last long; he wants to trade Dazai for the Turbo Rugger. Red alone pilots the Turbo Rugger to deliver to Yamimaru, while the other four plan a sneak attack to get Dazai back. (The plan works. I guess Yamimaru needed to stay in school, fool!) The Turboranger don't get to celebrate this victory for long, because Reida shows up, pulling out all the stops -- magic, illusions, fisticuffs and the latest monster, the giant ChoMaJin Bouma, a guardian of the Bouma Hyaku Zoku. The monster is big and intimidating and I'm surprised they didn't base this entire new mecha arc around it, the way Liveman did with the Giga Volt.

While the ChoMaJin is attacking on a giant scale, Reida is attacking on ground. Dazai makes a decision which goes against a lot of the standard Sentai way of thinking when it comes to new mecha -- he decides he'll pilot the Turbo Rugger as a distraction (taking inspiration from Daichi's play with the Turbo Truck in the previous episode), while the others repair Turbo Truck and get Turbo Robo up and running again. Usually the Sentai way of thinking is the new robot stands the best chance against some new big, bad and tough monster, but here it's saying they really need the Turbo Robo instead. Dazai struggles to pilot the Turbo Rugger -- he's still handcuffed from when Yamimaru had him as a prisoner -- and doesn't really last long before Reida causes the Turbo Rugger to be pulled into a sinkhole.

The best part of this scene, though? Turbo Builder joins the fight, blasting back the ChoMaJin to buy the Turboranger time to flee the scene. Who's operating the Turbo Builder? Shiron! They built this big oversized lever prop for Ohmura to use, which is always great. This isn't the first time -- and not the last -- that Shiron helps the team out. So, again, why do people have a problem with her? I can immediately name ten Sentai commanders and/or robot mentors who are actually sucky or contribute nothing and really deserve the scorn, yet are beloved by the fans.

My problem with Shiron's appearance, as cool and helpful as it is, is that the writers are hoping you forget the past three episodes. It was one thing when she was attacked by Rin, and they didn't follow through on what happened. That was a standalone episode by a sub-writer, so you don't expect that to be immediately followed up, especially in the midst of a big arc by the main writer. But we haven't seen Shiron since the fairy power-draining Demonic Aura harmed her. I guess since she seems fine and the Turboranger have been transforming without any problems, the powers have recovered, energy has replenished? Please have continuity in the way Dazai says he's basing his decoy plan off of Daichi's Turbo Truck plan, but don't address the situation which was presented as absolutely dire in episode 28. Yeah, just brush that one aside. The Demonic Aura is never mentioned again in the series, other than vaguely in Kirika's debut episode. You think the Bouma would have tried seeking out such a power. How did dream Kirika obtain it? How did Yamimaru get it from a dream? Does he still retain any of that power, or was it good for just that one time use? Mysteries, and not in a good "it's up for interpretation" way, but in a frustrating, there-was-an-oversight-in-the-writing kind of way.

The Turboranger succeed in getting Turbo Truck repaired and set out to help as Turbo Robo. They film some new footage of each mecha departing Turbo Builder, which reminds me a lot of when Changerion called his ugly-ass robot pals from the ugly-ass Crystal Station. (Turbo Builder and the Turbo Machines are better than that, but now I just can't help thinking that Dazai, like SAIDOC's Munakata, put a second mortgage on his house for the sake of Turbo Builder.)

So, Turbo Robo's now in the fight, but Turbo Rugger is sinking into the earth, buried to its neck. Dazai's unconscious in the cockpit, running out of air. Reida's a problem that keeps sending attacks, but Red Turbo's got it covered, and jumps down for a showdown. In this episode, Reida reveals for all of you perverts what he's been hiding under that cloak...a body that looks like it's made of SpaghettiOs. His cloak has a power which he can control, like one that sends Red Turbo into a dimension where he has to fight the ghosts of Jinba and Jarmine. (Which, unfortunately, isn't as cool as it sounds.) Things aren't looking good for Red Turbo, but they're also looking bad for Dazai. Turbo Robo, fighting off the ChoMaJin, finally gets close enough to grab Turbo Rugger's hand and a blinding light emits from within each mecha's hands. The light shines through the dimension Red Turbo's trapped in, where he realizes the magic cloak needs to be destroyed in order to free himself...

Once he escapes the dimension, it's time for the sweet final battle with Reida. It's a cool damn fight, made cooler being set to the theme song. It's one of the classic main villain VS Niibori fights. In a way, it's sad that Turboranger gets one of those when Liveman didn't, and Liveman had more memorable villains than Reida, but Masashi Ishibashi deserves a big send-off. He was meant to be a get for the anniversary show, having already played three -- er, I mean TWO -- main villains in Super Sentai. (Because JAKQ doesn't count yet, remember). He was a main villain in the "first" Super Sentai, and here he was as a main villain in its tenth anniversary series. So they send him off with a bang -- literally. After Red performs his GT Crash finisher, turning his back on the dying Reida, they raise Reida on wires as he's setting off sparks and then exploding, giving us this cool aerial explosion, and then setting off explosions all around Red Turbo. It looks awesome, and Niibori's just standing there, chill. The shot gets completely covered by the explosions! It's a Dynaman-worthy explosion, which I guess is appropriate since Ishibashi terrorized that team as General Kar.

Red Turbo returns to the Turbo Robo, not saying a word of this Toku Moment of Awesometicity he just accomplished. Turbo Rugger is pulled free from the sinkhole, with that mysterious light still shining. Something is guiding them and they decide to combine the two mecha, the birth of Super Turbo Robo, which quickly ends the fight. When Dazai regains consciousness, Riki tells him that they combined to make Super Turbo Robo. His reaction is a kind of surprise and puzzlement, the implication being that that wasn't what he had planned for the mechas. They keep referring to the combination as a miracle, the same as that light appearing. Dazai says the strong feelings that he and the other five felt between each other, wanting to save each other, was transferred over to the robots, and created this new power of combining. It's similar to when Riki and the others were powerless, but their commitment, courage, selflessness and care for each other -- showed by them putting themselves in harm's way to protect each other -- helped them power themselves enough to transform again...

I think they needed to dwell on this idea a bit more, not shove this into a quick speech in the episode's last scene. The "miraculous" light that was emitted was similar to the fairy light, so if the show is saying that our five heroes are creating a new power that's similar to the fairy light -- or even just blending with the fairy power and boosting it, becoming an extension of it -- that's interesting, and a new development, but it's brushed off pretty quickly. This talk about miracles and feelings going into the mecha and creating additional power...a lot of Sentai teams have similarly grandiose ways of expressing what a new robot means to them. Here, it's supposed to be much more than purdy words, but something that ties into the backbone of the series and adds to the lore; either that humans might have deep within them a power similar to the fairies or that their values are close enough to that of the fairies' to reinforce the fairy power. It's a new force and power that apparently didn't exist in the past when the humans and fairies teamed up in their previous battle. (Not to mention that it involves Dazai more; as an ordinary person who believed in the fairies, but couldn't see them, as the ordinary man who contributed via his scientific inventions and knowledge, it's interesting that there came a point where he was able to contribute to the magic-side of things.) But it's not treated like that big of a deal at all...

That's the problem with this big Super Turbo Robo three-parter -- it's so focused on ditching the three old Bouma villains and keeping things moving that it doesn't want to slow down and explore some of the ideas it's presenting. It's not only a sense of out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new, but I feel like they're also attempting to conceal and wriggle around some of these questions by covering them up with nonstop action. Because these episodes mainly are just action, action, action. That, of course, isn't necessarily a bad thing --  writing out three main villains and introducing new mechas and powers should feel like a spectacle, and these episodes accomplish that. They're entertaining episodes, especially considering they're mecha-debut episodes that are often tedious. Just follow through when the smoke clears, dammit. There's good and meaningful material there that you're racing past! I understand why they'd place priority on clearing the board and bringing Kirika in, keeping a momentum, but...maybe instead of having a Youhei face-swap episode, that could have been an episode devoted to dealing with the lingering questions of this three-parter.

Turboranger Episode 29

There's a real sense of "let's just get keep these episodes moving, writing out the old guys, bringing in the new mecha as quick as possible" to these final episodes with Jinba, Jarmine and Reida, which introduce the Turbo Builder and Turbo Rugger. (I honestly just accidentally typed "Turdo Rugger.") They're fine enough episodes if you just like action and fast-paced dilemmas just coming at you and the heroes again and again, but they don't follow through on some things that I think need addressing...

Most of all, they never address the Demonic Aura and the whole depletion-of-fairy-power from the previous episode. That's a pretty damn big thing to overlook, don't you think? In fact, Shiron doesn't even appear in this episode. And the Turboranger are again transforming as if nothing ever happened to 'em. Are they still powering themselves? Did the fairy power recover? Is Shiron OK? WHO KNOWS?! What are you, a reporter? We gotta bring in that underwhelming second mecha.

Episodes introducing new mecha are usually a drag and uninteresting, no matter how much they try to raise the stakes or how action-oriented they want to make it. It's all usually done in a similar manner, and the secondary mecha are usually always so much more unimpressive than the ones they're replacing -- Turboranger's only the fourth Sentai to bring in a second mecha, but it's still in the "Boy" phase, those robots that are "junior" to the original ones. Turbo Rugger's very much in the vein of Titan Boy, so...get outta here, those mecha are a joke. And for as much as people get hung up on "What do fairies have to do with cars," well, that all makes sense, I've explained it. You know something that doesn't make sense? That car-nut Dazai is building Rugger Fighter/Turbo Rugger at the same time he's building the Turbo Robo, and is going to be like "Yeah, it's going to be a futuristic type of spaceship. AND it's going to be a rugby player!" Wha?

All of the Turboranger participate in a sport of one kind, but not rugby. Would it have been too much for the show to be like "Yeah, Dazai's been working on the Turbo Rugger for a while, and it's a mecha based on the activities of the Turboranger; it's got a baseball attack, it can run fast, it can fight underwater, it's flexible, it will shove a baton up your ass and turn you into a Popsicle." Where'd Toei/Bandai/Dazai pull rugby from?

OK, enough about that stupid robot. It's Jarmine's turn to be written out. (Why no "Jarmine Dies!" title? What restraint.) First, though, here's something I find a little strange; after Jinba is killed by Turbo Builder, they show the Bouma's reactions at the Bouma Castle. Jarmine whispers a soft little "Farewell, Jinba." It's not as bizarre as Igam crying over Baraba's death, but pretty weird for what we know Jarmine to be like. So I always wondered if maybe that was Soda's hinting at potential plans for those original Bouma characters...

The original Bouma trio never quite took off the way most of Soda's villains immediately did. You can speculate the reasons, and I will in a bit, but the result is the same -- they didn't end up getting much focus, they didn't work so well, so they were written out in favor of bringing in a new character attached to the newer villain who WAS working to the show's advantage and proving popular with viewers and staff on top of it. Sometimes, though, Soda likes to wait until the second half of the show to amp up the villain drama. With Jarmine's seeming to care about Jinba's death, I've wondered if that was a sign that he might have originally planned for Jarmine and Jinba to become romantic -- the cold serpent and the spirit who hates love both finding love, it could have been interesting and a memorable storyline for Sentai villains. But these particular characters weren't used to their full potential, and so Soda put that idea in the drawer, saving it for a new, more worthier character. And it ended up being the better decision, because Yamimaru and Kirika are two popular characters amongst the fans, and often people's favorite part of the entire series.

But what about the original Bouma trio didn't work? Well, for one, Masashi Ishibashi is said to have not liked the Reida costume, complaining that he couldn't move his head in it. Ishibashi has an action past and is a very physical actor, so that would be frustrating, and most likely plays a part in why Reida appears infrequently. Secondly is the casting of Kanako Kishi; plucked from softcore skin flicks, she takes a long while to find her footing, and finally gets the hang of things just about when her character's getting written off. Third is Jinba being a suit. Jinba's a cool character, and my favorite of the original Bouma trio, and he's got a great design and voice-actor, but...Booba he ain't. You get the impression they want him to be one of those cool Yoshinori Okamoto characters. Booba and Oyobu worked because you could see Okamoto's eyes; I don't consider either of those characters masked/suited villains, that's how much of a difference the visibility of the actor's eyes make. Find a way to incorporate that with Jinba and give his role to Okamoto and you might have had a slam dunk.

I like the original Bouma trio, despite them not being fully fleshed out or used to their potential. But there's no question that Yamimaru and Kirika make superior villains and are written more interesting. The original Bouma villains were mostly supposed to pass on their freakiness and creepiness, and that alone doesn't hold up -- you need characterization, you need the writing to be there. And it's all there immediately with Yamimaru, so he made those old characters obsolete as soon as he joined the show.

Jarmine's the latest one to be scolded by Ragon and to pledge her last big gambit against the Turboranger; she reveals that she has a Bouma-Beast actually sealed within her, Kuroko (you remember what those are from Shinkenger, kids) Bouma, who can quickly appear and take damage that's meant for Jarmine. It's a pretty neat idea, with a cool, freaky little reveal scene.

Riki and the rest find Dazai within the Turbo Builder, who's like "Yeah, yeah, this mecha fort is crazy. We'll talk about it later -- we gotta get Rugger Fighter up and running!" While our heroes frantically work on doing that, Daichi takes a chance to go back to where Turbo Truck stalled out and try to get it moving. For being such a quiet, contemplative guy, Daichi is freakily very vocal and passionate about Turbo Truck. He doesn't like it being in the open and, sure enough, it becomes a target for Jarmine. Daichi eventually decides to use Jarmine's focus on Turbo Truck to his advantage, using it as a distraction to give the others time to complete Rugger Fighter. The episode turns into more Turbo monster Truck action Sunday, Sunday, Sunday than you ever thought you'd see in the show.

Daichi stalls her enough and the new mecha is finished, but Turbo Truck takes a beating and Daichi's a bloody, barely-conscious mess. At one point, Jarmine herself is piloting one of the Bouma's Garzoku attack ships and firing at Turbo Truck. Just as she might be swooping in for the kill, and as an exhausted Daichi can barely reach the controls to return fire, Dazai swoops in to push the button, sending Jarmine's ship crashing. (In one nice moment, Fujita Okamoto shows off some impressive acting chops, completely selling you on the idea that his car fanatic Dazai is really touched at the devotion and love Daichi has for his invention, promising Daichi he'll repair it ASAP.) This ship crashing seriously wounds Jarmine, evidently delaying Kuroko Bouma's ability, which leads to Black Turbo being able to successfully separate the two in order to strike a mortal blow to Jarmine, defeating both her and Kuroko Bouma. (She makes Kuroko Bouma giant before she dies, of course.) So, a regular villain, taken down by both Dazai and Black Turbo -- that's weird to think about.

The Turboranger fight the monster with the newly finished Turbo Rugger, with a new-to-tokutunes Shinichi Ishihara theme song. (It barely sounds like Ishihara and is a pretty meh song; listenable enough, but forgettable.) The episode ends with Dazai getting a surprise visitor in the cockpit of Turbo Truck...the now cocky Yamimaru, who kidnaps him, leaving behind his handkerchief with the meteor stitching, to let the Turboranger know just who's behind the crime. Ragon's impressed by Yamimaru's actions these past couple of episodes, which worries Reida. And it should, because the next episode is called "The End of Reida!"

Toei's Turboranger VHS Releases -- and a Minor Correction

As I've mentioned, Toei released Turboranger to VHS back in the day -- the first Sentai since Dynaman to have an official release at the time. (Not counting the theatrical releases, which were all released to VHS. But not a single episode of Bioman, Changeman, Flashman, Maskman, Liveman or Fiveman were ever released to VHS or LD!) However, Toei didn't release the entire series, but only a total of 35 of Turboranger's 51 episodes, in a set of six volumes. Here's the breakdown of what episodes were released and my thoughts on certain selections or omissions.

VOLUME ONE

Featured episodes 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

I'm surprised they skipped the 10th anniversay celebration first episode! Especially in favor of something like the Samurai Town episode or the Bouma Zombies.

VOLUME TWO

Episodes 7, 8, 10, 14, 15

OK, so we have the first episodes giving us some background details on regular villains Jinba and Jarmine, plus Yamimaru's introduction. I think it's ridiculous that they skip the episodes with Blue Swallow or the Ura Highway one, but to choose episode 10 over something like The Bouma-Beast Who Became Stars is just wrong.

VOLUME THREE

Episodes 16, 18, 20, 21, 26

Someone at Toei loved Daichi. But skipping character episodes like the one with Kid-Yamaguchi or Shunsuke helping the Demon Brothers?! SKIPPING "SEISHUN ROAD?!?!?!?" Madness. It's obvious by this volume that Toei went for either action-oriented episodes or comedic ones, and a lot of what they chose -- more importantly, the better quality ones they left out -- probably majorly contributed to the Japanese fanbase's negative view of this series for all of these years. And they needed to make room on this volume for the Rin episode.

VOLUME FOUR

28, 29, 30, 31, 32

Well, this makes sense. And here's where I have to correct myself -- according to the VHS cover for this volume, they DID include episode 28, which I had just said in my most recent post they excluded. Now, here's the thing...I had copies of these tapes. (By copies I mean "I found someone who had the actual tapes and they were nice enough to dupe them onto blank tapes for me" copy-copies, in the actual sense of the word.) I don't remember seeing episode 28 until well after I had that tape, though, and I don't think the person who copied it made a mistake. (I remember each volume starting with that distinct and trippy Toei Video purple haze logo.)

Volume 6 of this release has a wrong title listed for one episode, so I'm wondering if the list of episodes on the back of this volume is an error. I ain't buying this volume to find out, but I really don't remember it being on my tape.

VOLUME FIVE

35, 39, 41, 43, 46

See! Again with Daichi episodes! Who at Toei loves Daichi so much!?! How do you like how it goes from Ragon dying to coming back in just a couple of episodes, with only two standalones breaking those episodes up? Bad move.

There's so many good episodes they passed over: episodes 34, 36, 37, 38, 42...that could have been its own volume, called "The Good Episodes We Stupidly Skipped Volume."

VOLUME SIX

47, 48, 49, 50, 51

Obvious. The curious thing is, on the back of the case, there's a different title for episode 47, but I can't make it out. (All I see is "...reta yousei.") I'm wondering what that title is. (I'm assuming a working title for that episode, mistakenly listed, which is probably a better title than the one we actually got.)

Turboranger Episode 28

As Yamimaru sleeps, he dreams of a mysterious woman in red (spoiler alert: Kirika), who fills his head with the idea that he's destined to surpass the Bouma Hyaku Zoku. She then emits beads of green light that she passes onto him. He awakens feeling invigorated, and that a new era that's in his favor is coming. (A new era for the show, indeed. Spoiler alert: this begins a five-parter in which three of our regular villains are killed off, making room on the game board for new pieces.)

We know we're losing one of the main villains today, because a furious Ragon is pretty much roasting his officers while beating a punishment into them for their failures. It's come time for them to defeat Turboranger or die. Jarmine begins to volunteer, but Jinba cuts her off. Spoiler alert: Jinba don't make it.

This episode is mostly action heavy, with sword fights aplenty, as a dual-sword wielding Jinba takes on the Turboranger. He's energized and really putting the hurt on them, until the even more energized Yamimaru arrives on the scene, wanting to chase Jinba off to fight the Turboranger himself. While this scene and fight look like they're filmed in the parking lot of Toei's production facility, it's a darkly lit night fight, so it still looks cool. When Jinba attempts to strike Yamimaru, that strange green light from his dream protects him, sending Jinba flying, and even hurting the Turboranger, who are knocked back into their white Kuuga Growing Form. (It even effects Shiron back at Dazai's lab!) This leads Nagareboshi to realize that was more than just a dream and lights a fire under his ass.

What was that light? Recuperating back at Dazai's, Dazai tells them it was Demonic Aura, a power so strong it drains fairy power. Shiron lies in pain in her dollhouse, while the five heroes realize it means they won't be able to transform.

And then Jinba's voice is heard; he's on the monitor, shouting a challenge out to the Turboranger. He then manages to send attack blasts THROUGH the monitor, which cause damage at Dazai's. There's been many, many toku shows where the villain will pop up on our heroes' monitor to issue a challenge, but I don't think any of them but Jinba were able to manage to send an attack through the monitor. That's crazy! And did he manage to track down just the Turboranger's, or did he send this attack through every video or audio system through Tokyo, knowing at least one of them would be the Turboranger? (I'm assuming he just found out the Turboranger location since, spoiler alert, Dazai decides to abandon his lab -- their secret hideout -- after this, in favor of a new location.)

When Riki and the others prepare to leave to take on Jinba, Dazai stops them; they're too wounded and power-less. "We've relied on fairy power all this time. It's time to rely on our own power!" Riki tells him. Dazai lets them go, while obviously thinking, "Better have a Plan B!"

They face off with Jinba, who makes Sentai Sausage out of 'em. (Shunsuke tries to transform right off the bat, knowing it won't work, but gives it a shot, anyhow. That's so Shunsuke.) Jinba's performing final-type attacks on them, without power-suits, readying to go in for the kill on Daichi, Youhei, Shunsuke and Haruna. Riki makes his way over to his friends to shield them, desperate to not let them be killed, preparing to take Jinba's attack all by himself by placing himself between his friends and the kill. We hear the weapon strike Riki. We're shown the shocked reaction of the other four. We're zoomed in on a close-up of Jinba, panning down his swords to see that they've struck, all right -- they've struck Red Turbo!

While he's still not in top fighting condition, he beats Jinba back, but still takes some hits. The others return Riki's gesture by putting themselves in harm's way and shielding him, eventually just automatically transforming into Turboranger. Their courage, their selflessness, their willing to sacrifice themselves for each other, is rewarded. For everybody who complains about the Turboranger being fairy-powered, well...here they're POWERING THEMSELVES. Things turn around and the five defeat Jinba, who Yamimaru's only too happy to revive on his own and take control of.

Giant Jinba's still too strong for them, as he kicks Turbo Robo's ass so hard, he ungattais him. Just then, there's a tremor, while a new robot arrives, blasting Jinba and killing him. Everyone -- Turboranger and Bouma alike -- are confused by this new robot, but the giant T written on it don't make it clear for them. Spoiler alert: this thing is the Turbo Builder, a new super-duper immobile mecha, the first mecha of the franchise of its kind. Sadly, it's also the new base of operation for Dazai and the Turboranger. I liked Dazai's lab and its location near the school, so it sucks to lose it, especially in favor of the Turbo Builder, which is just...funny looking. And its location is very, very isolated -- how the hell are the Turboranger going to find the time to shuffle superhero work and schoolwork now?!

Turboranger was one of the rare '80s Sentais to have an official home video release; however, they didn't release the entire series, but only about 35 episodes, mainly focusing on the biggies. And although this episode is the first of a five-parter, featuring the Kirika tease, AND the idea that the Turboranger are able to power themselves, AND the destruction of their base, AND a new mecha, the official VHS release omitted this episode! It's pretty big to overlook, don't you think? The videos went from episode 26, skipping over two to then go to episode 29. So not only did they leave out the great episode with Rin, but they didn't feel it was too important to show you one of the main villains getting killed or not have you confused to jump into an episode in which the Turboranger have a completely new two-in-one mecha/base!

I would like to point out, though, that Hirai's voice performance as Jinba is pretty damn good in this episode. He sounds so pissed. Well, maybe he WAS pissed, like "I thought I had a 50 episode gig, what the hell, guys?!"

Turboranger Episode 27

Mami Watanabe's first of three scripts for Turboranger. Watanabe went on to write a few episodes each for Fiveman and Jetman, but then never worked for any other toku. She did some good work, and I certainly like her Turboranger episodes; she showed promise, so it would have been interesting if she had been given more. This episode's one of my favorites of the series...

Jarmine frees a Bouma-Beast, Suzunari (Bell Ring) Bouma, a princess of her tribe. The rest of her tribe are kept prisoner, sealed within ceramic bells; Jarmine uses these bells to hold over the Bouma-Beast to get her to carry out her plan. Suzunari Bouma has the ability to, once she gains a person's trust, to execute a spell in which she can manipulate them. Jarmine wants to use her to infiltrate the Turboranger and gives her the human-looking guise of Rin. Rin's played by Hiromi Yuhara, who I've talked about before in my Black and Jetman posts. (She popped up in a ton of late '80s and early '90s toku!) She's a good performer who takes small guest roles and dives in with zest. She often gets sad or tragic characters and is easily sympathetic. (She's also good at playing villainous, even at a young age.) Meanwhile, Suzunari-Bouma is voiced by Rika Matsumoto, so we get two great guest actors bringing this character to life and making her really stand out.

Jarmine stages a scene -- conveniently near the Turboranger -- of her and Uras chasing down Rin, accusing her of treason. The Turboranger become involved and chase off the Bouma forces, taking the unconscious Rin back to Dazai to be patched up. When she comes to, and is asked what the brouhaha was all about, she says she's the last fighter of a tribe that rebelled against Ragon. Here's something that bugs me about the episode; they don't make clear if this has any truth, or if it's more of Jarmine's script. Since Rin/Suzunari is obviously being forced into this plan, with the threat to her trapped tribespeople as the motivation -- and since Suzunari begs Ragon to free her people from those bells at the beginning of the episode -- it seems to me like her story holds some truth. They needed to make it a little clearer, though, that her people were opposed to Ragon and that he's the one responsible for imprisoning them.

Youhei takes a liking to Rin and feels sorry for her for two reasons: one, because he's meant to be the one on the team with a weakness for the ladies. Two, because he's kind of mesmerized by the bells she wears. This episode starts off with the others taking notice of a bell Youhei wears on his schoolbag. He doesn't tell the others, but later only reveals to Rin that the bell is from one of his old teachers; when he was a kid, a teacher he had a crush on got married and quit her job, leaving him with this bell as a reminder of her. So, basically, this strange girl he's taken a liking to is kicking up memories of that puppy love on top of it. While the other four are suspicious of Rin -- with Shiron outright saying she's dangerous -- Youhei wants to have faith in Rin.

And while Rin might be coerced into this by Jarmine, and despite the fact that she's played by the likable Yuhara, Rin has no problem attacking Shiron when Shiron catches Rin letting her act slip, and that's very yurusan. Before anyone knows of this attack, though, Youhei whisks Rin away on his motorcycle to get her away from his suspicious pals. They reach the beach and connect, with Rin genuinely puzzled by why Youhei's being so kind to her. Eventually, she realizes that she's earned his trust, with Jarmine appearing and ordering her to manpiulate him with her magic...and she finds she can't, so she runs off. She's eventually captured by Jarmine, who punishes her for her failure to act, while also destroying some of the ceramic bells which hold her people. (Jarmine's COLD.) This causes Rin/Suzunari to not let any feelings for Youhei stop her, so she reappears and takes control of him, giving us a Blue Turbo VS Red Turbo fight, as the others try to locate and stop her.

When she's stopped by the other Turboranger, losing her control over Blue, it pisses Jarmine off so much that she shatters the last remaining bells AND kills Suzunari-Bouma, reviving her as a giant. (Watanabe really picks up on the nastiness of the Jarmine character the way Inoue did.) Blue Turbo gets pissed off and gets one of those awesome dashes-through-enemy-fire shots, making his way to strike Jarmine, but she stops him with a blast, robbing him of vengeance.

The episode ends with Youhei realizing that while Rin deceived them, she did have that moment where she refused to control Youhei, so he chooses to see that as good in her, before throwing one of her surviving bells into the sea.

A really solid episode, reminiscent of a Changeman, with great performances from Asakura, Ohmura, Kishi and guest-star Yuhara.

Turboranger Episode 26

Inoue returns with a home-run. Riki's put through the wringer this time, practically dying three times.

The episode begins with our heroes cleaning the schoolgrounds as punishment for not turning in homework. (They lament the nice day getting away from them, noting that they don't neglect homework because of goofing off, but because they're saving the world! A funny and accurate observation only Inoue would make.) They're interrupted by Nagareboshi making an announcement over the P.A. -- a challenge to a showdown for just Riki.

Riki shows up to the destination. "We settle things today, Nagareboshi," Riki announces. "After I defeat you, I'll raise a toast with a glass of your blood," Nagareboshi replies, which is one of Inoue's greatest villain lines. We get an extended battle of them fighting each other both untransformed and transformed, where Yamimaru debuts a new bunshin move, really beating the crap out of Red Turbo. The duel ends in one of those classic they-just-struck-each-other-a-big-blow-and-wait-to-see-who-falls-first scenarios out of a samurai movie. Red Turbo falls first, a huge tear and wound in his left side. Yamimaru soon falls, as well, as the four others get Red the hell out of there and back to Dazai, who informs them that if the cut had been just a centimeter deeper, Riki would be dead.

Ragon witnesses the duel from the Bouma Castle, knowing how serious Red Turbo's injury is and deciding it's the best time to strike the others. So they send the latest Bouma-Beast, who traps victims within an egg that mutates them into his offspring, to cause mayhem in the city. This is one of the best examples of Daichi actually feeling like the reliable second-in-command he's meant to be: the others are panicking about Riki, they see the Bouma-Beast causing destruction on the monitor and worry, and Daichi's strong and collected, saying like "We just gotta do our best without Riki, so shape up and ship out, guys." The monster's a tough one, though, deflecting or breaking all of their attacks and weapons and then successfully trapping all four within an egg. And so...

It's up to Riki to save the day. Riki, who's a bloody, beaten mess, with that almost-fatal gash in his side. Dazai thinks it's madness that Riki's even thinking of attempting to go and save them, but knows there's really no choice. And the episode doesn't make things easy for Riki...

He tracks down the Bouma-Beast's lair and the eggs containing his pals, but the eggs can only be broken by the crystal blade the Bouma-Beast possesses. When Riki tries to take the monster on, the monster easily beats him, stepping on his wounded abdomen and re-opening the wound. The rest of the episode is pretty much a bleeding, barely-clinging-to-life Riki on the run from the Bouma-Beast, while needing to get close enough to steal his dagger, while needing to beat the clock as his buddies are gradually mutating AND as Nagareboshi is hunting him down to finish their battle. At one point, the Bouma-Beast catches up to him and strangles him with a chain. Riki loses consciousness and would probably have died, but...a hidden Nagareboshi stops the monster by shooting him from afar. When Riki makes a getaway, and hides out in an abandoned shed, he begins to lose consciousness again, before making himself snap to at thoughts of his friends.

Riki's a pathetic, bloody mess throughout this episode. His wound soaks his entire left side, down to his tennis shoes. The villains don't let up, he's constantly being beaten. He's on the run when he can barely move. He's being targeted in multiple directions. He's racing against time. He gets knocked around, into ditches, into lakes. He's a bloody and filthy mess by the end of this episode, and I really can't think of another time a Sentai hero's looked so beat-up and awful. Kenta Sato gives a really good performance, he looks like he's in so much pain and just feels awful. (He's also giving a lot of these crazy Schwarzenegger-level "ARGHYARGHARGHYARGH" yells of pain throughout.) Not only does Riki look like he's going through Hell, but Sato sells the hell out of it. Riki just keeps pressing on, even saying to himself he won't die until he saves his friends.

After Nagareboshi knocks Riki off a cliff, thinking that's finally finished him, Jinba and the Bouma-Beast arrive to then take care of Nagareboshi, which he totally wasn't expecting. When Riki returns and transforms, placing his priority on the Bouma-Beast and obtaining his dagger, Yamimaru's *pissed* to be held back by a little skirmish with Jinba, he's really wanting to go after Red Turbo. So he lets Red Turbo know where the Bouma-Beast is weakest, allowing him to harm the monster enough to grab the dagger and go off and free his friends in the nick of time, where they make the monster pay for the pain he's caused.

Nagareboshi wants to defeat the Turboranger himself, which is why he helps Riki by sneak-attacking the Bouma-Beast and then later revealing its weakness to him. While that's kind of a play out of that cop-out Wolzard School of Villainy I often complain about -- a seemingly arbitrary excuse for our villain to let a hero off the hook when the hero's as good as dead -- I can buy it more from Yamimaru. He's not on the Bouma's side and he's against the Turboranger, so whether Jinba's plan fails or not doesn't affect him, but it certainly doesn't help him in any way. When he was so close to being rid of his enemy, only to have the Bouma jump in and easily finish the job, I think it's believable that this particular character would try to interfere and prevent it. Some people read this as the hints of Nagareboshi's redemption, but the episode doesn't present it that way to me: Nagareboshi acts just as he says; he truly wants to be the one to kill the Turboranger, and his anger and hatred of them never ceases.

If there's a weakness to the episode, I think it might be the Bouma-Beast. He looks more like a Baranoia monster. I think it would have been creepier if he had been more monstrous and beast-like, and the four other Turboranger were mutating into monsters, instead of what looks like robots from a '50s sci-fi B-movie.

Turboranger Episode 25

An episode that's going to work if you're an animal lover, but you'll probably hate and think is lame if you're not. I like animals, so I find this episode to be the cute, whimsical tale it's meant to be.

Haruna saves an injured puppy from being run over. In a Typically Toku Turn of Coinkydink, the Bouma-Beast that Jinba uses this week is based off an evil dog god, who has the ability to change humans to dogs and dogs to humans. When the Bouma-Beast comes across the recovering puppy, he's curious to find out what happened to one of his fellow dogs and gets it to communicate -- the puppy says he wants to become human and get to thank Haruna for helping him. Well, there's only one Haruna that Jinba knows, so he gets the Bouma-Beast to grant the puppy's wish and use him as bait to trap Haruna.

The dog-boy eventually meets up with Haruna and is awkward around her; I like when Shiron is shown to be watching the situation, sensing something is off about the kid, the four guys are kinda doubtful and Dazai is like "You have to trust Shiron's instincts! Get your asses out there and investigate!"

Once the dog-boy unknowingly leads Haruna into Jinba's trap, he's reverted back to being a dog. I don't mean to be mean about this kid actor, because he's FAR from being the worst kid actor in a toku show, but the scene doesn't play as sad as it should because he's wooden and just kinda going through the motions. While Haruna's in the process of being turned into a dog by the Bouma-Beast -- Kinohara again getting to display her Scream Queen screams -- the dog dashes out, looking for help, eventually leading Riki and the rest to the secret lair in time. (It's interesting that Youhei remains the skeptic of the group; he laughs at Haruna earlier when she talks to the dog, and he thinks Riki's nuts when he thinks the dog is trying to lead them to Haruna. Youhei was previously skeptical of things like the folklore of Kintaro. You'd think Daichi would be the skeptic of the group, but he's more open-minded than characters like him usually are.)

Not the most essential episode, but it's meant to be cute and it succeeds at what it's setting out to do. Look at that cute dog, c'mon. This puppy does a lot of the episode's heavy lifting.

Turboranger Episode 24

Like the previous, a fun little summer vacation adventure, lighter, kid-friendly...but it's better than the previous episode. I like it because it's just fun, action-heavy, and Namegawa Island looked like a cool, fun little place. (It's easy to say that this episode is a commercial for Namegawa Island, but they work the resort into the episode well by having the five Turboranger there on break and participating in numerous activities unique to the place. This certainly shows the resort off better than the Flashman episode set there.) Namegawa Island is a now-defunct resort that tried to replicate a tropical island experience. Playing a big part in this episode is the Polynesian dance troupe that often performed there.

Reida discovers that a coconut with a sealed Bouma-Beast has washed up on the shore of the island; the Bouma-Beast is awakened by the rhythm caused by the nearby Polynesian dancers and Reida is able to successfully break the seal. This Bouma-Beast has an entire clan similar to him sealed off in coconuts on a southern island that he and Reida want to revive. To do so, they trap vacationers into totem poles and kidnap the resort's women dancers to perform in a ritual that will awaken his comrades. (The dancing ritual makes me think of that one episode of Maskman.)

Thrown into the mix is a subplot about a kid who's vacationing with his parents, where they're teaching him how to swim; the kid's parents are among those whose essence is absorbed to be ritualistically sacrificed via the totem poles, and he's the one responsible for getting this crucial info to the Turboranger. Most of the episode is a lot of cool fight scenes -- the full Bouma forces are on the island to attack, which I don't think has happened since the premiere episode.

At one point, when the Turboranger are being prevented from reaching the site of the ritual and putting an end to it, they're motivated to keep fighting by the remaining male Polynesian dancers doing a dance which honors heroes. This is something that probably gets laughed at by Turboranger detractors, but I think it's a pretty creative and neat way to work in this dance act, as well as the activities that you yourself could go see at Namegawa Island. By having one set of dancers kidnapped by the Bouma and others showing up to encourage the Turboranger, they're worked into the narrative, so it's more than just an advertisement. Some shows don't bother to make that effort. (Flashman, I'm looking at you!) Even the Bouma-Beast is worked into the locale, by being tropical-oriented, with the strange masks and totem poles and stuff.

A big and entertaining episode that actually manages to feel big thanks to the location choice. I could easily picture this episode passing as one of the Sentai theatrical movies.

One random things I want to point out...

The Bouma-Beast is voiced by the always bizarre Kaoru Shinoda. This is one of the rare cases where his weirdo voice works, though, because Yashinomi-Bouma is a freak. And with Seiichi Hirai voicing Jinba, Turboranger has both Winspector's Bikel and Walter!

Turboranger Episode 23

A Fujii script that is a little disappointing, especially for this to be the one following episode 22. It works well enough for what it is -- which is a light, kid-friendly adventure. It's a throwback to the days when toku regularly did spooky standalone episodes for the summer -- more appropriate here than in a lot of other shows, given Turboranger's supernatural themes -- while also doubling as a change-of-view, "vacation" type of episode.

Haruna accompanies a very late Shunsuke on a train ride to the town holding his gymnastics training camp. A close-knit place, the town policeman's kid daughter is wandering through the forest, looking for flowers, when she picks up something that catches her eye -- she doesn't know it, but it's a fairy wing which was placed atop of the tree where this episode's Bouma-Beast, Ghost Bouma, is sealed. Once the wing is removed, the seal weakens, and Zuruten is able to come along and free Ghost Bouma. Ghost Bouma then goes around, turning everyone in town into ghosts. (Disappointingly, he doesn't, like, remove their spirits, but hits them with a beam and turns them into ghosts, like they're cosplaying or something.) The girl's father falls victim and she escapes multiple times thanks to the powers of the fairy wing she still carries. Lucky for her -- and a good thing they were running late to the gym -- she runs into Shunsuke and Haruna, who get to saving the day by defeating Ghost Bouma and returning the townspeople to normal.

Ghost Bouma has a really awesome design, especially when he's just been freed, and he's leg-less and floating. I like the way Fujii ties the fairies into the episode, letting this fallen fairy's wing be the trump card. And there's a funny scene when Riki and the others are searching the ghost-filled town for Zuruten and Ghost Bouma disguised as ghosts themselves -- reminiscent of Shaun of the Dead, when the gang try to get past all of the zombies by imitating them.

One complaint I have about the episode, though, is that when Haruna, the girl and Shunsuke are surrounded by ghosts, Haruna is legitimately scared, screaming her head off and eventually fainting. Really? After all of the stuff she's been through with the Bouma? It makes her look a little weak. Maybe you can chalk it up to she wasn't expecting the situation AND the environment, as it was happening when the three of them were alone in the forest -- maybe it was all just overwhelming, but...I think if anyone's fainting in that situation, it's Shunsuke. C'mon. But he keeps his cool. Maybe someone on the staff just liked having Haruna spooked, because Kinohara's always gone nuts with her voiceovers -- like when Pink Turbo's being injured, she'll let out crazy, horror-movie-level screams. So that scream's put to use in this episode.

Turboranger Episode 22

A standout episode, one of the show's best. With wonderful, atmospheric, raw direction by Takao Nagaishi, it's one of the most dramatic and serious Sentai episodes ever made. To me it comes close to Liveman's first episode -- all of the focus is on the human drama, human brutality, the bonds of the characters, and the superhero action saved as a strong punctuation to the emotional drama. And it's a serious, timely look at juvenile delinquency, especially amongst Japanese males who join gangs.

Nagareboshi has dropped out and become a biker thug. It makes sense -- he's a wanderer, a guy caught between two worlds, wanting power, hungry for battle. He successfully beats up numerous rider gangs, and soon word is out about Nagareboshi's activities. Riki and the others are determined to stop him, while Yamaguchi-sensei is determined to save him. Yamaguchi shines in this episode -- "Even if they were in my class for just a day, that child is always my student." -- as it's revealed that, when she first started teaching, one of her students died in a bosozoku-related accident, and that she vowed to never let it happen again. (Nagareboshi is cruel, scoffing and dismissing her when she confronts him, telling him the story.)

When Reida observes what Nagareboshi is doing, he decides to free Racer Bouma, who's sealed in a painting of a chariot race. His plan is to have Racer Bouma violently beat up bikers -- possibly kill them, actually, it's kind of unclear -- and leave behind evidence framing Nagareboshi. Riki was already determined to do whatever it takes to stop Nagareboshi, but after the Bouma-Beast's frame job of making much more violent scenes, he gets PISSED, just volatile. All signs point to Riki maybe even wanting to just finally kill Nagareboshi. Riki is wanting to put an end to the violence, but is also coming from a place of violence, and Yamaguchi recognizes that. She's the one that gets him to snap out of it. Of course, they know what she doesn't, which is that Nagareboshi is the half-demon Yamimaru, but she can't stand to see her students so eager to hurt each other. She knows that they're all going through the same thing and should be open to communication, not giving in to bloodshed, and that Nagareboshi can change. Riki sees Yamaguchi in a new light and puts his faith in Yamaguchi's faith, really, before trying to pursue and stop Nagareboshi.

At one point, both Red Turbo and Yamimaru are cornered and attacked by Racer Bouma, both getting massively injured. When Riki takes Yamaguchi's words to heart and decides to track down Nagareboshi, he finds that Nagareboshi plans to hunt down and fight Racer Bouma on his own, but he's still too injured. Riki's just frustrated with Nagareboshi, who just doesn't listen, doesn't care, is difficult to get through to. So he punches Nagareboshi and tells him of Yamaguchi and her hopes for him. "Think of that punch just now as a punch from Yamaguchi-sensei." And he tells him he'll go after Racer Bouma, which he does. We get a cool chase between Red Turbo's Turbo Attacker and Racer Bouma's vehicle that ends up at the rocky quarry; something helping the atmosphere of this episode is the gloomy weather -- the ground's constantly wet, with the fight scenes and the chase scenes kicking up a lot of mud. Red Turbo performs a drive-by GT Crash on the monster!

There's a couple of cool chase scenes in this episode, notably Riki and Nagareboshi's motorcycle chase. The episode makes a lot of use of Eikichi Yazawa's synth-y "Kanashimi no Kanata-e," and it gives a scene in which Riki chases after Nagareboshi on motorcycle a bit of a Miami Vice feel. (I once again have to say: don't you miss when tokus would use mainstream songs in episodes, and not just material created for the show?)

This episode's working on so many levels, it's cramming a lot in, it leaves you asking questions. (COULD Nagareboshi reform?) When people call Turboranger "comedic" or "the worst" it's proof they never watched it, never paid attention or never made it to this episode. It's kinda weird that an episode so heavy takes its title from the feel-good ending theme; it works, but puts a cloud over the ending theme, doesn't it?

Turboranger Episode 21

An episode that most English-speaking fans dismiss as a "goofy/stupid" one, but...it's not? Japanese fans like this episode, because -- duh -- sumo is important to Japan. (There's plenty of people out there who want a sumo-themed Sentai! I think this episode is the closest they'll get to that. Rangers and Robos wearing mawashi!)

This episode has bizarre moments, harkening back to those earlier episodes that wanted to highlight the strange and unusual situations our heroes are facing, as well as humorous moments in Daichi's reactions, but this episode is more genuine and straightfoward in what it's trying to accomplish. This is an episode that looks "stupid" to foreign eyes and eyes of younger, modern viewers. That doesn't make it the requisite wacky episode -- people have lumped this in with the likes of Ramen Jigen and Dryer Jigen and...that's wrong.

Jinba and Zuruten unseal Sumo Bouma, a brutal thug who went around back in ancient times exerting his strength for the hell of it, beating up anyone in his path. When he lost an encounter with Rakia, Rakia tried to set him on the right path by teaching him of sumo and the values associated with it, giving him a keshomawashi to always remind him of those values and keep him in line. Sumo Bouma then spent a long time getting along with people, wrestling with them, living honorably. Jinba's plan is to remove the keshomawashi and have the mindless brute version of Sumo Bouma wreak havoc. But things don't go as planned, and Ragon lets him know what a bad plan it was by roughing him up.

Sumo Bouma DOES wreak havoc, but not the type the Bouma Hyaku-zoku are interested in; he marches around town, trying to take on athletes in sumo matches, only to find out nobody is qualified. He's disheartened to learn how much the times have changed and how nobody is good enough to battle, that nobody is a good sumo. Fortunately for him, Yamaguchi-sensei happens to spot an attack on some young students. A big, big nut for sumo, she becomes obsessed with the idea of getting one of her students to take the monster on, because only sumo can be matched with sumo. (She first tries to recruit Nagareboshi. It does not go well. And it doubly doesn't go well for Daichi, who Nagareboshi volunteers, and then grabs, strips and slaps a mawashi on before going on his merry way. Yamaguchi settles for Daichi.)

With Yamaguchi's coaching and Daichi's determination, Sumo Bouma has found his ideal opponent, and throughout their matches, comes to like and respect Daichi, telling him of his past with Rakia. Jinba eventually has his way and removes Sumo Bouma's keshomawashi, as Zuruten makes him giant and he begins to rampage. Knowing there's no choice but to fight him, Daichi makes a case and wins that they'll fight Sumo Bouma in a sumo style, meaning...a giant robo sumo match! Turbo Robo, complete with mawashi, and sumo-nut Yamaguchi reffing the whole thing. Black Turbo's in the driver's seat, which I think is one of the first times we've seen a member other than Red as lead pilot of the mecha. Turbo Robo wins and Sumo Bouma comes to enough to congratulate them and award them the rope belt of a yokozuna.

The episode ends with an energetic Daichi playfully wrasslin' with the others, until a move by Youhei accidentally pulls Daichi's mawashi off, leaving a VERY embarrassed Daichi to be covered up by Yamaguchi. I kinda think an ordinary teenage guy would transfer schools after being exposed bare-assed naked to not just Haruna, but YAMAGUCHI, but Daichi's a trouper and sticks with his pals.

A fun and unique episode with things you don't see in every toku. It's humorous, but has some commentary on the modern times' losing interest in old ways, an old sport, the values that old sport holds, an elder being disappointed in the younger generation. (So it's a precursor to Kakuranger in that regard.) But it doesn't get too heavy-handed, Sumo Bouma -- as voiced by Takuzo Kamayama -- is likable and has a funky and memorable design. Ganaha's actually pretty lively in this episode, too, he really dives into it with enthusiasm, which helps make it soar.

The episode also just makes sense to me in the context that Turboranger has a very Japanese feel and aesthetic to it, like the uniquely Japanese depiction of school and all of the Buddhist material. So, an episode espousing the values of sumo isn't as goofy or random as people treat it.

Turboranger Episode 20

Inoue returns, in what he'll end up recycling in an early episode of Ohranger. This is meant to be a thrilling, entertaining episode, and it is, and I think it's one of the better attempts at this type of scenario...

When Blue Turbo puts himself in harm's way to take the hit of the latest Bouma-Beast -- a Bouma-Beast whose bite transmits a nasty poison -- for Pink Turbo's sake, Haruna's guilt leads her to hatch a risky plan in order to get the antidote. She has only 24 hours before the poison kills Youhei, but he's suffering as soon as he's bit.

What this episode has over other similar types of episodes -- including the Ohranger one written by the very same writer -- is plausibility. When Haruna rushes to take on Zuruten and the monster on her own, she ends up on the wrong side of an attack and hits her head on a utility pole. When her friends find her, she feigns amnesia. A giddy Zuruten sees this as an advantage, claiming to be her ally before quickly whisking her away. (It's fun to imagine the bullshit Zuruten must have been slinging to win her over off-screen.) She shows up shortly later clad in a black motorcycle outfit, kicking Riki, Daichi and Shunsuke's asses, declaring herself a warrior for the Bouma. (And, man, does she go nuts. Not only physically beating the hell out of and bloodying them -- spot Naoki Oofuji as Riki's stand-in! -- but she goes Chief Ibuki on them and machine guns 'em and throws grenades at 'em, too!) And, man, Kinohara is great at playing this villainous Haruna.

At one point, she, Zuruten, the monster, and the mooks are fighting the three remaining Turboranger guys. The monster corners Red, ready to snap into a Slim Jim, when Haruna conveniently places herself in the way, pretending as if she's readying to strike Red. Bit by the Bouma-Beast, she begs Zuruten for the antidote. Having too much fun, Zuruten gives it to her. She drinks it and races off, ignoring Riki's pleas to hand it over to save Youhei. Moments later, masked rider Haruna returns, attacking the Bouma. Youhei joins. It was all a ruse to get the antidote; I mean...you know, you're familiar with this type of episode, and you've seen this clip in Gaoranger VS Super Sentai.

But I like how it plays out in this episode. She keeps the others truly in the dark, and you can buy they think she's out of sorts because of her head injury. You can buy that Zuruten falls for it all, just looking for ways to mess with people. (The show gradually takes to making Zuruten seem stupider than he used to be, but I think the character is still more malevolent than the usual "fat and funny!" monsters like him -- the Juuohs and Gators and Dongorosses.) If anything, I think it's the time-limit that doesn't work. Haruna accomplishes a crazy amount in such a short period! One cool thing is that Blue and Pink fight the monster together, giving the Super Hachisuka Bros. a rare big battle for just the two of them.

Because it was a Bouma poison, only a Bouma knew the antidote. (I think the fairies would have had SOMEthing to counteract it.) It makes you wonder if Youhei and Haruna are all right after ingesting the antidote, which Zuruten says is made from a lily plucked from the valley of darkness and a golden lizard or something like that. It looks like a spine's in the little bottle, too. Pretty gross.

I like the episode title playing on "boso zoku" with "Bouma Zoku." This episode is a lighter take on that subculture that swept the youths of the '80s, but Soda will bring in a more serious take in a couple of episodes.